Fearsome in Its Parts

A terrible creature ravaged the lands all around. All who saw it gave this description:
"The beast has the head of a dragon, the body of a wyrm, and the hindquarters of a drake!"
The greatest slayers of monsters converged on the kingdom and assayed to strike down the creature in response to the king's pleas (to say nothing of the rewards he promised). The search demanded skill and the battle unflagging courage, but they killed their quarry and presented it to the king before all his people, who objected.
"That is a fearsome creature, certainly, but it has the body of a drake."
"Does it?" the hunters wondered.
"It does," all agreed.
Confused but moved by kindliness and integrity, the slayers sallied forth again and brought down a beast that had the head of a drake, and one with the hindquarters of a dragon, and one that was a wyrm all the way through.
"I am beginning to question," one among them opined when away from the capital, "whether we are not being deceived."
"I have had the same thought," another concurred. "Looking at him, the king's body is not immune to weaponry, and while I have said nothing about it before now, I . . . What is that?"
They saw in flight far off a creature that was obvious in having the head of a dragon, the body of a wyrm, and the hindquarters of a drake, so much so that they marveled they had ever made any mistake about it. Soon they freed the kingdom from its worry.
Finis