Dare, the hero in Dark Fire, is a Dracheon. Dracheons (Drache is German for Dragon – grins) are a species of humanoid known for their dragon-like attributes. They have the ability to appear almost human yet can also switch to dragon-mode, covering their skin with scales, extending claws, and breathing fire. They’re bad ass.
How is this possible?
The claws are simple to explain. Many animals on Earth have retractable claws. Dracheon biology is based on the same science.
Note: The reason I say claws and not talons is because Dracheons don’t have the ability to fly (without a ship). Flying beasts have talons. Beasts restricted to the ground have claws.
There are instances of scaled skin in humans. Ichthyosis vulgaris, for example, is an autosomal dominant inherited disease that gives the afflicted person’s skin the appearance of scales ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyosis_vulgaris ). Healthy humans shed their outer layer of skin (epidermis) constantly. With this disease, dead skin isn’t shed.
When Dracheons evoke their beasts, their human-like outer skin (the equivalent of our epidermis) is shed to reveal the fire-and-projectile-proof scaled inner skin (dermis). After their beasts retreat within them, the human-like outer skin grows back.
Breathing fire is more complex to explain. Dracheons, to put it simply, set the fumes in their stomachs on fire.
These aren’t human burps. Burps are merely swallowed air and have no flammable properties.
Our farts, however, ARE flammable (there are a gazillion videos on YouTube attesting to this). Farts contain methane and hydrogen, which are waste products of the micro-organisms living in our intestines ( https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/m1z7g/how_come_farts_are_flammable_how_are_burps_not/ ). Due to the way our stomachs are designed, this flammable mix exits our bodies through our anuses.
Dracheons can push the methane and hydrogen upward, into their mouths. They then gnash their unique back teeth together. This acts like flint and steel ( https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/traditional-firestarting-part-i-how-to-make-fire-with-flint-and-steel/ ), igniting the fumes. Bam! Fire blasts from their mouths.
Most Dracheons can control the beastly sides of them. Dare, unfortunately, can’t and that puts his mate in possible danger.
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Dark Fire
What the Beast wants, the Beast gets.
Dare’s savage nature has made him an outcast among his kind. The silver-scaled Dracheon warrior can’t control his inner beast. It’s too strong. When his primitive instincts told him his destined mate was on Carinae E, he had no choice. He had to travel to the outlaw planet. There, he hoped to meet a female powerful enough to survive his Drache.
He finds Faylee, a delicate little human.
Faylee is the best thief on the planet. Everyone she encounters mistakes her for a young boy…except for a tall, shiny warrior from off-planet. When she gazes into Dare’s flame-filled eyes, he makes her feel, for the first time, like a desirable female. The fire-breathing male has her yearning for hot kisses, fierce embraces, and a future filled with love. She doesn’t realize mating with him might be the last thing she ever does.
Dare’s beast isn’t the only danger on the planet. An enemy from the past has returned and he’s determined to stop Dare and Faylee…permanently. They’ll need luck and the assistance of every warrior in the Refuge to stay alive.
Dark Fire is a STANDALONE SciFi Romance set in a gritty, dark world.
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