Lindwurm

Lindwurms are medium-sized dragons, between the real-world size of horses and elephants. They are most commonly found in the underground caves of the Brune, though they were once a surface-dwelling species. They do not have flight, but are more dexterous, strong, and cunning to make up for it. When writing one, think cat.

Characteristics
Lindwurms have many stunning characteristics, and are considered by some to be the most unique and advanced of the dragon species, due to the wide nature of their adaptations and abilities.

First and foremost among these is the ability to change the tone of their scales. While underground this allows them to be practically invisible for the majority of their lives, above ground this serves as a disruptive-pattern camoflauge, and enables them to be a very valuable stealth unit.

Also interesting is their ability to detect various emotions. Some of this is folklore, hearsay, and legend, but it is true that Lindwurms can detect sweat and tremors in a person. Thus, they are capable of knowing when a person is fearful or anxious for whatever reason. They do this by a combination of feeling vibrations in the earth with their delicate paws, if in near silence, or a barely understood sixth sense called the Zitter Gland.

Finally, they have very piercing and delicate retractable claws, allowing them to pad around silently in the tunnels, or climb lightly on the walls. These claws are not as strong as normal dragon's claws, and are thus less valuable, but nevertheless they are well-adapted for the lindwurms' lifestyle.

=Cave= Often Feral, Cave Lindwurms are dull colored with bland eyes. Because of their cramped lifestyle, their legs tend to be shorter, more bent, and less powerful. This can be gradually reversed by exposure to sunlight.

=Feral= The vast majority of Lindwurms troubling the Brune are feral cave-dwellers. Because of the stand-offish, self-absorbed nature of their society, they have little other than the Watch to deal with the problem. This means that instead of being proactive, as with the Free Knights or the wranglers, they are reactive, and thus allow much greater problems to grow.

Feral Lindwurms are the result of untrained/unslaughtered draca which gain bad habits because of their surroundings. They frequently don't have enough to do, and so terrorize various burgs in order to establish territory.

Story
Lindwurms are the most difficult task for Jeriel in large part because they don't listen to orders that well. Again, imagine cats: training those things is hard. However, if they love you, they will often perform acts for you out of gratitude. Jeriel's task is basically to rehabilitate the Brune with their special dragons.

After joining together, the Lindwurms will become familial, each choosing a clan and making them laugh through their antics. This helps show that there's a balance: the wurms were created to help the more stoic of humans find a way to joy in their lives. This is shown through Lonely, where the stoic and isolated man finds joy and happiness through his dragons.

=Symbolism= Oh the symbolism is rank with this one. It's at about this moment that I realized that dragons are a pretty good equivalent to potential criminals. Gotta be careful not to push that too hard, but some subtle indication that way could help.