A new mythical creature, just for fun.
The dragrynix is a mix of dragon, gryphon, and phoenix. They're hatched from eggs, but like the phoenix, they're re-born over and over from the ashes of their firey demise. Because of their dragon genes, they breathe out the flames for this process. The controlled burn is little tidier than spontaneously combusting. They can also direct it to one injured part of the body for a quick fix -- very handy.
They're wild creatures, nesting in caves high in mountains or cliffs. They're mostly solitary except when raising their young, They can't be kept as pets or working animals. However, a few have been known, on rare occasions, to enter into alliances with humans when it suits their purposes.
They not only guard and preserve treasure -- both the shiny kind and the intellectual or cultural kind -- but they restore it when it gets damaged (it's part of their rebirth instinct). After spending centuries with hoards of rare books, some have taught themselves to read.
This one has the head of a phoenix, the wings of an eagle, the tail of a dragon, and the body and paws of a lion. Some have the head and wings of a dragon, the torso of a phoenix, the forefeet and claws of an eagle, and the hindquarters and tail of a lion. Others have the head of an eagle, the wings of a dragon, the coloring of a phoenix, and the body, paws, and tail of a lion. Those are especially cute when they're young and their head feathers are still downy fluff, and they're curled up to sleep with their tail around them.
