[ She nods absently, grabbing up a towel and some cleaning solution to get the dried blood off his jaws while he grumbles audibly, twitching his head out of her hands until she kicks him solidly with an armored boot. ]

They'd just be wild animals, otherwise. Without an AI implanted as hatchlings, they wouldn't be able to speak, or follow complicated commands, and they'd be about as much use on the battlefield as an eight ton cat.

[ dry, because she thinks it's much weirder for worlds to not have dragons, ]

Apparently my universe is somewhat unique. The Covenant use war beasts for their shock troops, and we use Spartans and dragons and anything else we can find to throw at them.