Dracopede

One of the species of genus draco within order Draconidae, the Dracopede is a Lesser Draconid that hoards pairs of legs like an ancient Majestic Dragon would hoard wealth. Many Greater Draconids find their plethora of limbs and their habit of climbing up everything unsettling, but they are generally harmless eaters of fruit and small invertebrate pests.    

Anatomy

  As a member of the reptilian order draconidae, dracopedes share many anatomical features with their fellow draconids, with the most obvious difference being the sheer quantity of legs they possess. Their hides consist of hard scales fused together into a carapace of protective scale plates that run down the length of the spinal column and down the legs to the knees. Each carapace section corresponds exactly to one pair of legs.   Unlike most draconids, dracopedes do not shed scales continuously as they grow, instead they periodically undergo a full body molt that coincides with the growth of an additional pair of legs. Dracopedes hatch with the standard four legs and slowly grow on average between forty and sixty pairs of legs over the course of their lives. Long lived and well fed specimens with over two hundred and fifty pairs of legs are sometimes recorded. The record for the highest confirmed number of legs is five hundred and fifteen pairs of legs in additional to the healed over stumps of a further seven pairs. There are legends of dracopedes with over a thousand pairs, or even a million pairs, however the existence of these have never been positively verified.    

Aberrance

  Like all draconids, and most things that exist in the Great Constellation, dracopedes are susceptible to the hostile effects of aberrance. Due to their number of legs, they are sometimes mistaken for aberrant individuals of other members of genus draco.    

Aberrant Haemphagia

 

No longer able to be sated, it searches endlessly for ever more victims.

  A major aberrance where an affected dracopede hatches without the ability to bite into or digest their normal sources of food, instead desiring only the taste of hot, fresh blood. Their mouth contains only a singular pair of elongated fangs, which it uses to latch onto and feed from its larger victims. An afflicted dracopede's thirst is insatiable, driving it to aggressively and mindlessly feast on anything and everything that carries a heartbeat.   Well engorged dracopedes afflicted with Aberrant Haemphagia are sometimes referred to as "blood sausages" due to the shape and hue their bodies obtain.