The fire dragoness update+story. Challenge 2/30 (Patreon)

http://kodar.org/patreon/content/100/fire-dragoness2.png details and polish update, the paws and head were too sketchy.. and her species backstory was missing! Here it goes!

The fire dragons... One of the most rare and elusive species on the planet, they inhabit the distant Fiery Archipelago and can be spotted nearby active volcanoes in other places. They're barbaric and ferocious, and tend to avoid other dragons, this and their peculiar aesthetics lead to many myths surrounding them among the dragonfolk, some of the dragons believe that the Fire Tribe aren't dragons at all and in fact are demons, who live in the earth's core and swim in the magma, only to emerge to hunt for innocent souls and drag them down into a volcanic maw with the black tentacles. Of course this is not true. Fire dragons are made of flesh and blood, they eat, breath and reproduce like any other dragon, and while being extremely heat resistant and even possessing some fire magic, actually stepping into a lava pool would hurt them and there is no "swimming" in this liquid yet rock-heavy substance anyways.

Fire tribe are sleek and muscular flightless medium-sized dragon species, covered with black glossy hide, flexible and warm to the touch, different hues of black may exist, some times even stripes and spots of darker colors if you look close. Anatomy is quite interesting, they've got two long whip-like tentacles on their back, which they use to perform amazing feats of acrobatics while chasing their prey across the rocky volcanic landscape, the prey is mostly the fire lizards, medium-sized and very fast and jumpy bipedal raptors, one hit of the black whip knocks them down during the chase. This is not an easy prey, though. The fire lizards are not intelligent but quite smart, they gather in packs and can surround, attack and kill weakened or injured fire dragons, unless they defend themselves fiercely, and that, those dragons can do! Using the whip tentacles to lash and crush the enemies around, and they can breathe fire and smoke to hurt the attackers or create camouflage, also the claws, teeth and spikes of the fire dragons are obsidian-sharp. When the whip lash hits a target it may be enforced with magic, making a fiery explosion on impact.  This is no doubt one of the most dangerous life forms on the planet. 

On the biggest Fiery Archipelago island, hidden with volcanic fields and fumes, lies the main settlement of the fire dragons, no other dragon has ever been there to tell stories about it, even a fly by air is not possible because of the dense smoke plume above, but some information leaked through rarely happening friendship and relations between the members of fire tribe and other species. Fire dragons build homes of stone using their sharp claws and whip explosions to cut the rock and fire magic to weld stone chunks together. This is needed to protect the young and injured members of the tribe, defensive fortifications are well guarded, especially in the night, when the most dangerous predators roam across the land. There are many life forms on the archipelago exist besides the dragons and raptors, and most of them are nasty and deadly - fire beetles the size of a dog, lava golems animated by evil native magic, cave trolls, gargoyles, and so on. 

Why the fire dragons would not leave this hellish place and move on to some serene part of the world? The answer is simple - they do need a volcanic place to recharge magical energy. Put a fire dragon in some green jungle for example, and they would lose all the magical powers eventually, no fire breathing, no whip explosions and even the claws would lose obsidian sharp layers. The history of dragonfolk tells stories of some fire dragons living on the main land, but you can imagine how it felt for them, some really strong and unique reasons must appear for a dragon to lose that much of their identity and abilities. Besides, by their temper, they don't even think of the Fiery Archipelago as a "nasty place", they love challenge and fierce hunt and fighting monsters for sport.

No known hybrids of a fire dragon and another tribe exist, it is believed that cross-breeding with them is impossible. But not much evidence is recorded to make sure of that completely. There is a story of love between a fire dragoness and a sky domain dragon, with naughty details in some versions of it, but many dragons think this is a made up fiction rather than a real story anyways. Sky domain dragons are also even more mythic and rare than fiery. More about the sky tribe in the next chapter of these notes.