Dragons are an integral facet of Medievia. Knowing dragons isn't knowing half the game - but it's not far from it. They come in two main flavours, good and evil.
Good Dragons
There are two ways of meeting a good dragon. The easiest is under Medievia Castle where the Golden Wyrm hold court - this chap is actually a multitrainer for mages (see multi-classing). The most common is by CALLing one.
CALLing a dragon requires the player to have reached at least seventh level (not difficult) and have a certain amount of money on them - this increases with level drastically. Money in the BANK will not suffice as it would for an auctioned item - this must be carried cash. You must be outdoors to CALL a Dragon.
A called Dragon will take a short time to arrive at your location but when it arrives it will land where you are even if you have moved - and even if you are inside.
A called Dragon may be used as a mount for land movement and is reckoned to have one of the best staminas for movement of any mount. However, to get full use of a Dragon, when mounted, use the FLY command. This will allow you to FLY to a specified location or just in a certain direction. EG
FLY <zone name>
FLY <direction, not up or down
(i.e. east, west, north, south)
The first FLY command will take the dragon into the air, a second is needed to point the dragon in the direction required. Hitting the Enter key twice after typing (for example) FLY MEDIEVIA will do the trick. Flying in a direction is occasionally needed and will keep the Dragon flying in that location for a while until you change direction, LAND or the Dragon runs out of Movement.
Command sequence to take off:
fly
fly <destination>
At almost any point you can type LAND and the Dragon will happily descend to the ground and you will get a quick area view of the landing site. You cannot do this over zones or over water. Keep an eye on your dragon's Movement as it may run out in which case it lands automatically and flies away.
The Dragon is only held to you for a certain amount of time by your cash. If it is on the ground when this time is up then it will fly away (without you even if you are mounted...). Should you be in the air when this occurs you will be carried until you land (at landing site or when you command it to land) at which point it will fly away..
The other main reason for Calling a Dragon is to help against an evil Dragon.
Evil Dragons
There are two main sorts - regular Mob Dragons who appear at certain locations in certain zones and the hunting sort. Mob Dragons are basically fairly tough beasts and are usually spellcasters. Known ones include the Golden Wyrm under Medievia Castle, the Black Dragon in the Obsidian Spire and the White Dragon in the caverns in the Cliffs of Dahknassis.
Hunting dragons are a lot more common, unfortunately. Every so often you will see a Dragon of a recognisably evil type (ruby, blue, black etc) flying in the area and begin to circle looking for prey. At the moment you are safe. In about one minute in Realtime it will land and choose a victim to hunt from all players in the area. The chance of a Dragon arriving in the area to hunt is massively level of player dependant (having a lot of Heroes in on area is well known for creating a load of inbound dragons - kingdom battles were famous for this). When the Dragon lands and begins hunting the hunted player will get a message saying that they feel like they are being hunted. This is not nice.
Avoidance is pretty simple - don't be there. Either vacate the area before the Dragon lands by moving or, often more the popular choice, entering MEDLINK for a while until it must have landed (or given up in disgust). Once the Dragon has landed and is hunting you, then there are only two main courses of action - fighting or running (you can't enter Medlink if a Dragon is hunting you). Running is pretty easy and generally the best course on a Trade Run -Mass Quickness by the highest level character and Invisibility (for other mobs) and don't hang around for anyone...
Fighting requires three things - high levels between form members, courage and the aid of a good Dragon. The most common course of action when a form is being hunted is for the hunted person (the one who can't link - an easy test) to CALL a dragon - when it arrives it will pounce on the hunting Dragon and fight. The best course of action now is to leave them to it and remove yourself from the area as the evil Dragon may win. Some people do like to join in these affairs when the fight seems to be near the end - that's the courage part. A full form of Heroes can happily go chasing Dragons but even they have to be careful.
Additional tips...
If mounted on dragon it acompanies you through portal. A player in the north could fly to 19, portalled to 51, and fly to Riverton all in fraction of the time it would take to fly direct. We're endeavouring to find location of all CTs (in relation to closest ordinary zones), but this will take time as most people don't have a bloody clue... they just portal there. :)
Dragon's hunting you have nothing whatsoever to do with the amount of money you're carrying (as many ppl seem to believe), only your current level. In other words don't empty your pockets before a trade run; instead, carry enough gold to call a number of good dragons if needs be.... Possible that cash counts only if two or more targets of identical level available in area, or selection might just be random. But level is definitely main factor. Groups of high levels tend to attract major Dragon attention.
When flying from location to location (eg. valuing at several trade posts) cast refresh dragon to full at every stop. It won't keep the dragon indefinitely, but it certainly seems to stay with you longer if never allowed to get really knackered. It basically just stops you losing your mount through lack of Movement.
Ranger's Cabin trade post, like several other targets is not a valid dragon destination itself, but it can be easily reached by flying to the Academy, taking off again and flying a few seconds east until main road spotted heading NW-SE. Cabin is at end of dirt road heading south from main road in that area. Survey for campsites if lost... often a trader to the cabin has recently camped & quit there.