The best role for a dragon in protecting a settlement?

One of the plotlines, I'm currently working on, is about a dragon who is forced to serve a settlement to "pay" for some of his past "crimes".

For clarity's sake, we call the dragon Gyvaris.

Gyvaris is a roughly horse-sized, hexapodal creature with both reptilian and avian features. Intelligence is human level. His primary weapon are the spurs on his wings and his tail (half of the total body length) with an arrowhead-shaped spade at its end. He also has a flexible neck and a jaw that can crush a human skull like it's nothing.

Dragons are fast and nimble, but are actually physically weaker than most horses (except for the wings). They also have enhanced senses (eyesight of a golden eagle, the nose of a canine, etc...) along with echolocation and tetrachromacy.

That being said, on the local powerscale, Gyv is squarely in the middle. I mean, he starts out his story with a punctured lung, sevral broken bones and torn tendons. All of that damage was done by single human, by the way.

So, Gyvaris is now in the service of this town. In paper, he's supposed to be some kind of a protector, but I couldn't figure out what role would exactly suit him.

Since we're talking about a, more or less, standard fantasy setting, there are lots of monsters wandering around. Most pose little threat to a dragon, the upper echelon, however, are much tougher and most likely trigger Gyvaris' fight or flight response. It probably has something to do with their AA ( anti-aliasing anti-aircraft) capabilities. It doesn't help that they tend to show up randomly.

Gyvaris is kept on leash by a spell. Basically if he doesn't do as told, the spell will make him lose consciousness and does it instead of him. However, when in extreme fear (like wanting to run for his life), Gyvaris can overpower the spell and disable it for 12 hours. During that time, he's considered a loose cannon and a threat, regardless if he's just weeping in a corner.

What guard role would make the most of Gyvaris' natural abilities, while minimizing the threat of his leash breaking?

posted about 5 years ago

Mephistopheles‭

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