You have probably noticed that I don't follow a certain pattern with these. I admit I didn’t originally intend this, but I reckon it nicely mirrors the diversity of nature. So, let’s get a bit more comparative this time. Cragadiles, which I’ve already mentioned a few times, are quite similar to their crocodile relatives and vastly different at the same time. Here we follow them from egg to death and document all the similarities and differences. More precisely, we will watch them from egg to old age, as I wasn't lucky enough to find a deceased cragadile yet.
Cragadiles
An egg. A stone. Big difference, right? In this case, it is not. Cragadile eggs look like a porous rock about the size of an adult stallion's hoof. The mother lays the eggs on the ground and covers them with piles of rotting wood and foliage, much like crocodiles do. Although, a crocodile lays its eggs into a hole in the ground and then stuffs it with plant scraps. Anyway, you should be careful when wading through piles of leaf in the swamps. The first reason is an angry cragadile mother, second the fact that you'll remember tripping over a rock-hard egg for a long time. Also, you'll most likely kill the little one inside. Because, unlike bird eggs which you can shake nearly to your liking, these eggs lack chalazae--the strings holding the yolk and developing embryo in place. One abrupt movement spells doom to the young one inside. This is similar in almost all reptiles except birds.
So, what's inside the egg? Well, quite everything like in a "normal" egg: the embryo, the yolk sack, lots of membranes, and albumen rich in mineral ions. These ions gradually dissociate from the inner side of the stony eggshell and are later incorporated in the bones of the little one. It hardens the bones, yet it still keeps the structure as porous as the eggshell, so the bones are lighter. Adult cragadiles would be too heavy to move otherwise. Just like their crocodile relatives, cragadiles have bony scales. Now it's easy to guess where all the rocks on a cragadile's body come from, right?
When a Cragadile hatches, it needs to crawl through the compost above it. When the mother sees her young waddling away, she may help them, but usually she has no interest in protecting them anymore. Hungry, the hatchlings start searching for food--insects, worms, amphibians, small fish and mammals, birds, eggs, whatever they happen to stumble upon.
They move away from their maternal swamp to drier parts of the Everfree, usually following smaller streams and rivers. One reason is that older cragadiles may eat them, the second reason is that their squamous armor needs to dry off to fully crystallize, which needs to happen mostly out of water.
Young cragadiles usually end up in territories inhabited by larger groups of cockatrices. There are lots of food and next to none predators able to eat them. And being already part rock makes you immune to further petrification. Ideal, isn't it?
Growing larger and heavier, they slowly abandon the strategy of chasing their prey and instead lurk in or near rivers and brooks, waiting for prey to come over for a drink and... dinner. The prey meets its fate in a typical crocodile way. Since they can't really chew, cragadiles clench the prey in their jaws, rolling with it and swinging it from side to side till they tear it apart. It's not exactly fast nor painless death, and the sight is quite gruesome… and somewhat interesting, if you can stomach it.
When lazing around and digesting, cragadiles usually start to communicate with each other by click-clacking their jaws, similar to our Marese code. Though be warned, only satiated cragadiles are in a communicative mood. The hungry ones may be quietly waiting nearby. That means, the sounds just indicate a cragadile-inhabited location, not all the individuals there. You will never find timberwolves in a place where such sounds can be heard.
Older cragadiles slowly move back to the swampy areas. By now they're big enough to just lie in water and wait for some prey to show up. And they can wait for a really long time, easily a few months. They will eat anything above a certain size level, be it an overfed goose, a zebra, or a timberwolf. Older publications also speculate about them being able to eat gemstones similarly to dragons. This assumption is probably incorrect, as when they were experimentally provided with a pile of gems, the cragadiles didn't seem to show any interest in them. The mineral hardness of their teeth is also slightly below the level of quartz, thus they seem unsuited for this kind of diet.
Upon arriving back to the swamps, they start looking for a mate.You can tell that the mating season started by the smell that can be most easily described as what you smell when you sniff two pebbles that were quickly rubbed against each other. This smell is a mixture of the secretions of their scent glands and lots of jaw clapping with rock teeth rubbing.
Males become more territorial during this period. It is not a good idea to go near them as the swamp is practically boiling with cragadile males fighting, proposing, and copulating. The biggest and usually oldest male mates with the largest amount of females. The pairs, if we can even talk about them, last for just one season.
After a few months, the female lays up to ten eggs and piles up leaves and wood over them, staying nearby to protect the small hill of compost till the hatchlings scramble out.
There is not much that can be done when they attack you. Killing them is practically impossible. The most useful advice is probably gonna be: incapacitate their maw and tail and get away as fast as you can. Alternatively, you can sacrifice someone you don’t like and then run away. The cragadile won’t follow.