Dragons and fall damage

You know, dragons like myself are no strangers to falling. It's a natural part of flight and I used to do it a lot when I was a tiny and very adorable wyrmling.

The problem is it hurt, and sure it's gonna hurt now that I'm larger (though not heavier) than your average saddle horse.

My scales are like tenfold shields, but they do little against blunt trauma. So little, I still remember when one of those accursed humans bonked me in the head with a mace. It was painful!

I have to somehow make my deceleration longer when hitting the ground if I don't want my brain to be turned into pudding. Don't worry about my bones and tendons, they should be able to take it.

Let's see. I stand at 2-2.5 meters tall and my total body length is 10 meters. I have two slender forelegs, both plantigrade. I also have wings, both unusable right now because of reasons. Finally, there are the digitigrade back legs and laterally-compressed tail which is roughly half the total body length.

Almost forgot, the center of mass is my chest because of all the flight muscles that are attached to it!

Cats have a special reflex that makes them turn whenever they fall. I thought about doing something similar.

But in what position should I hit the ground to minimalize the chance of life-threatening and fatal injuries?

Note: Dragons are heavily pneumatized, to the point where the air sacs are connected to the dermis under the scaly hide. The tissue closely resembles an open-cell foam.

Okay fine, I'm stupid, but there is a pneumatized region between the muscles and the dermis. Here's the sauce.

posted over 4 years ago

Mephistopheles‭

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