Smolder Drake V2

Ask and you shall receive! I give you the Smoulder Drake 2.0, now with updated design. While I'm not entirely happy with the way the frills and back-plates came out, this is much closer to how I think they should look.
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Smolder Drakes, also sometimes called "Desert Smokers", and are not dragons at all, but instead are large terrestrial reptiles that inhabit Skyrinia's sub-level deserts and savannas. They use their back and neck sails to regulate their body temperature. The membranes are connected by flexible cartilage and can be raised or flattened at will.
Smolder Drakes get their name from their defense weapon of choice: thick, acrid smoke. The smoke is produced by spitting up a liquid compound stored in their throat pouch and tail, which is produced in and then pumped from their various "heat bladders". When threatened, the Drake can vomit up a stream of this red-orange liquid which violently reacts to open air, instantly evaporating and creating scalding-hot smoke. The smoke is hot enough to result in third degree burns at close range and is a painful irritant to mucous membranes like eyes, nose, and mouth.
A Smolder Drake's heating bladders are marked by the various pits on their sides, which expel excess heat. The heat itself helps drive the process of making the volatile liquid, which, in exceptionally hot weather, the drake will expel through the pits in an attempt to cool down, resulting in streams of smoke being pumped out from its sides.
The tail is also a reservoir for the liquid, and will deliver a much wider spray of smoke that the Drake will use to cover its escape when fleeing. Because the heat-pits are not air tight, the heating bladders are rather warm, so this bulbous appendage is also used like a hot water bottle in cold weather, where the Drake will curl itself around it.

Because the liquid takes so much energy to make, it is only used in desperation, and Drakes tend to be very conservative with it giving its large role in maintaining their temperatures. Their main weapons are their teeth, claws, and large snout-horn; the later of which is more prominent on males which use their horns to "joust" for mates in violent, often deadly wrestling matches.
These desert behemoths are slow-moving but are nonetheless highly temperamental. They are opportunistic hunters as well as scavengers and are not afraid to take a bite out of anything.

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Art and Smolder Drakes (c)
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