Fire Dragons

FIRE DRAGONS

SCIENTIFIC NAME- *Tumultovarinus Ingnisis*

DIET-Carnivorous/Magmatic rocks

HABITAT-Volcanos, calderas, hot deserts.

APPEARANCE

Fire dragons have standard wyvern build, with a thick head, legs, and wings. They can grow to be about 15 feet long from head to tail, with a 17 foot wingspan. They rely on pure muscle power to keep them in the air.

Looking like a stereotypical dragon, they have small dorsal spines going down their back, while also having armored plates all over their body. They have small spikey osteoderms on the head, with two larger horns. Males have larger, thinner horns, while females have smaller thicker ones.

They can be gray, black, red, orange, or a mix of all of these colors. The patterns are fire-like, especially on male's wings. Females are just a solid color for the most part, usually gray or black. Eye color remains gold for all specimens. Fully green fire dragons are incredibly rare, and seem to be some kind of defect or perhaps even mutation. People thought that killing these dragons for their scales would give them good luck, and being a color that doesn't blend in well is a big reason as to why they are so rare.

Underneath each of the four wing fingers is a small opening in the scales. This opening leads to a tube-like organ that connects to the organ below the chest that creates fire. Fire flows through the tubes, and comes shooting out of the opening as small flamethrowers. Another tube coming from this organ leads to the mouth, under the tongue, where it uses this to breathe fire.

These tubes are also spread around the body, just not connected to an opening. These run around the same path that veins do, but flow with a hot, flammable liquid. This helps keep the dragon warm, And if the dragon is getting too cold, you can even begin to see the glowing red lines around the body.

The scales are extremely fireproof, and extremely resistant to hot temperatures. However, if put in a cold climate, a fire dragon will quickly freeze to death. The scales simply are not adapted in any way to cold temperatures.

Fire dragons have an interesting set of teeth. Because their diet, unlike one would expect, mainly consists of fire crystals and magmatic rocks. These rocks are what fuel the tubes that keep them warm. They have more grindy teeth in the back, adapted to grinding up these rocks. But they are carnivores, and still need weapons to chew and kill prey. They have two larger fangs towards the front of the mouth that they usually use to grasp prey before swallowing it whole. They prefer not to use their teeth, rather burn their prey to a crisp and not have to use their teeth to rip it apart to instead swallow it.

BEHAVIOR

Fire dragons live in groups similar to flocks and herds, with several females and few males. Males will often fight for the rights to meet with these females, though most of the time it's just a matter of display. Using those small flamethrowers coming from their wings, they will create light shows for the females in an attempt to impress them. When they do actually fight each other, it's never deadly. The worst injury ever seen from a fight was where a male broke the horn of another. Not deadly.

While the males spend most of the time doing this, The females are usually the ones to take care of the young, and to get food. Because nothing but them usually resides near and around volcanoes, females have to take trips out into other lands to find food. They'll catch and eat anything that they can overpower, usually other dragons. Then bring whatever they catch back swiftly, being away from the volcano cools them very quickly, and they often have to use the heating organ to stay hot away from the volcano.

As for the young, they are extremely fragile. They need constant care and need to be constantly watched over by the mother. The heating organ has not yet been developed fully, and they cannot keep themselves warm without the warmth of another. But once they are a few weeks old, it is developed enough to where they can eat enough rocks to stay warm and no longer need the intense care. And once they are about a year old, both males and females will be driven off to find another group.

COMPETITION

Because Sapphire dragons can be found both in Draelvary and Crukearah, The competition and predators heavily depend on what realm you're speaking of. In Draelvary, they have no natural predators. The only thing the dragons there need to worry about are night dragons, because those dragons are not only the ones that will actively attack them, especially their young at night.

Crukearah is a completely different story. The populations are much lower there than you'd expect, and they are far from the top of the food chain. They have to compete with fire crystal charged crystal dragons, greater phoenixes, And even zlonu for food sources. A big part of a greater phoenix's diet is fire dragons, and zlonu prey upon the same things they do, And even eat the majority of the fire crystals. But since greater phoenixes are getting even lower in numbers, there's a good chance fire dragon populations will shoot back up again.

KNOWN FIRE DRAGONS

-Phoenix (Juvenile)