Today, Dratini and its evolutions belong firmly in the realm of fact, not that of myth. With human trainers and intense training, Dragonite are no longer so rare to be thought of as gods, but merely powerful, pseudo-legendary pokemon. And their children, the six-foot long Dratini, are no longer a phantasm to be written off as an oddly colored Ekans or a Vaporeon seen from a distance; today, they are an endangered pokemon of a relatively new (if older than steel or dark) type called dragon, after Dratini's final form.
Their weaknesses have been analyzed, their mystical abilities explained as attacks, and those wishing for a touch of the mysterious in this pokemon must to turn to certain specimens. For instance, Erika of Celadon City is said to have a Dratini (why a grass-type trainer in Celadon City has a Dratini is not explained) with a special resistance to the attacks of unevolved pokemon. There is said to be a Dratini in the Safari Zone which lends a strange power to Magikarp across Kanto, enabling them to evolve into Gyarados; perhaps a farfetched tale but there is an undeniable resemblance. A Dratini in the Dragon's Den is said to have fathered the Dragonair and Dragonite trained by Clair of Blackthorn and Lance of the Elite Four, but refused to evolve so that it could maintain eternal youth.
Most Dratini trainers, however, must content themselves with a pokemon no longer deemed magical. This is a less difficult task than it sounds, for although their aura of mystery has faded, their power, rarity, and majesty have not. Before, they were a spirit who could never be captured: now, they are among the most prized of rare pokemon. Much has changed for this pokemon, but it has not changed for the worse.