Say hello to my ALMOST finished secret side project that I've had brewing up around in my noggin for.. damn.. a year now? Has it really been that long? Goodness. Well! Better late than never!

He's a new dragon species I made that actually started out a long time ago as a simple thought experiment: "What would a more highly evolved night fury look like?" Well! That question may never go answered, because it's certainly not this! That's how it STARTED, but it took on a life all on its own as I progressed. Now, he bears virtually no resemblance to night furies, and I don't even consider it to be distantly related. Just a new species. I sort of forwent realism as it progressed, too. I think I've kinda been binding myself into a corner by always trying to come up with realistic explanations for night fury biology. This ended up being an exercise in loosening up a little. Focusing on being more creative instead of NEEDING to be realistic in every way. Why NOT go crazy and do something unique? Isn't that what art is for? Expressing yourself! SO! I did JUST that! With a little collaboration from a few friends, I finally settled on this final design. I think it came out pretty awesome. I'm very proud of this one, even if it is a little.. implausible. Heh.

For those interested, here's the descrip:

Rynswift is a Striped Arctic Razormouth. As of yet, it's an undiscovered species by humans due to the fact that it's one of the rarest animals on the planet, as they can only be found living in and on glaciers floating out at sea. Their skin is a brilliant snow white, broken up by stripes of almost perfectly transparent blue that carve through its entire body in randomized patterns for every individual, revealing inner bone structure and internal organs, which are themselves slightly translucent as well, depending on the type of tissue it is. The patterning matches perfectly with the equally rare striped icebergs in which they inhabit. It is thought that, depending on the patterns of the specific iceberg they choose to call home, their patterns will slowly change over time to match, meaning that some individuals may simply be completely white, while still others may be entirely transparent. With suitable icebergs very few and far between, razormouths may just be THE MOST possessive and territorial creatures found on planet earth. Encounters with them, even by others of their species, have a high probability of resulting in death.

Their surprisingly thin form seems counter intuitive given their habitat of choice, and indeed, it is a detriment as far as staying warm goes. To help counter this, they are strictly nocturnal and very active, displaying energetic behavior at night to help generate heat in their bodies, and able to rest during the warmer days in dens carved inside their home glaciers, which are usually accessible from one opening beneath the water that leads to a small sleeping chamber very close to the surface, which then opens up to allow access to the topside of the glacier. Unlike most other creatures to call such extremely cold climates home, arctic razormouths have adopted an energy-intensive, hyperactive strategy to beating the cold and catching prey. Their behavior is most akin to that of weasels; always on the move, searching for their next meal. When they do need to settle down, though, they groom themselves incessantly, coating themselves in saliva that constantly produces a slow burning, long lasting exothermic reaction that prevents them from freezing while in direct contact with pure ice and snow. When up and about, arctic razormouths are leaping, lunging, sprinting, and fast swimming predators. With the aid of microscopically barbed paws, extremely sharp claws, long, springy legs, and flat paddle-like tails, they can out-climb, out-swim, and out-run anything, even on pure, slick ice, save for other top predators like orcas. But for anything stronger or faster than them, razormouths employ their cunning smarts and aptly named "razor mouths"--which are dual sets of fangs surrounded by very sharp teeth to bite and inject highly lethal doses of venom--to bring a swift end to both prey items and any other organisms foolish enough to encroach on their territories. Needless to say, razormouths share the same reputation held by night furies: "No one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale," except these are even more rare than the black dragon species, which has at least been documented.

As far as flame goes, razormouths have largely given up this classic dragon trait. They CAN produce and shoot small streams of a sticky, alcohol-like fuel that burns with an invisible flame in daylight, but its only use now is to create beacons in the dead of night to find mates. It is almost harmless, at least, as far as fire breath in the traditional sense is concerned, and only really does damage if direct contact is made with delicate things like eyes. But on skin, it mostly burns off like an alcohol flame and is really only used as a quick source of light.