Ava's version of Earth is full of more than harpies: multiple other 'mythical' creatures populate the world, some more commonplace than others. All are commonly misunderstood by humans as a whole, and nowhere is this more apparent than with dragons.
Making up the genus Draconis, dragons are not fire-breathing, princess-kidnapping monsters of medieval legend, nor are they the mystical longs of Chinese mythology. They are, in fact, the sole remaining lineage of a group of crocodylomorphs known as sebecids, which otherwise went extinct over 4.5 million years ago and are only distantly related to their crocodilian cousins.
Like other sebecids, dragons are (with a couple exceptions) fully terrestrial, with all four legs situated directly underneath their body. The largest dragon in history was recorded at close to 30 feet in length, but most in the present day rarely exceed twenty. With sturdy bodies covered in osteoderms and thick scales, dragons are exceptionally hardy creatures, and their stocky heads and powerful jaws make them effective ambush predators to boot. On top of all that, dragons are notable for their incredible, human-level intelligence and penchant for philosophy--though, being mostly solitary predatory reptiles, their psychology could charitably be interpreted as rather alien by the standards of modern civilizations.
Being so large, dragons prefer to be left to their own devices in poorly-explored wilderness, forming large territories with ample big prey that they ambush from the cover of foliage and quickly finish off with bone-crushing bites. They only really come together to mate, and while a mother dragon will ferociously protect her eggs until they hatch, and her offspring until they're a couple feet long, she eventually leaves the baby dragons to their own devices as independent predators themselves.
Dragons are also unique in that they are innately and naturally magically gifted, even in the present day (where magic is exceedingly rare to the point of nearly being nonexistent). This may be the source of dragons in myths flying and breathing fire--not natural abilities, but magical spells they utilized.
Unfortunately for dragons, being solitary, generally surly, and slow to reproduce and mature hasn't done their population any favors, especially during medieval times, when humans actively hunted them out of a misguided fear of the danger they pose--while an adult dragon would certainly see a human as a meal, they much prefer larger, meatier prey that provides more calories, and usually only attack other sapients when directly provoked. Regardless, dragons in the modern day are rare and widely dispersed, and most of them tend to be rather cynical and distrustful of others.
