Oxidox

(NEEDS UPDATE)

Oxidox are ambush predators that reside in rocky outcroppings and dry scrubland, hunting during the midnight activity window when prey is most active and thermal contrast is highest. Their scales are dense with silica deposits, rendering the skin near-transparent; the faint shapes of organs and spine are visible beneath, giving resting individuals a ghostly, disembodied quality in moonlight. Heat-sensing pits run along the lower jaw, allowing precise targeting in complete darkness. When threatened or cornered, a Oxidox exhales a chemical aerosol from a specialized gland in the throat, a concentrated oxidant that dramatically lowers the ignition threshold of organic material in a small radius around it. In Ephron's oxygen-rich air, this makes even damp cloth combustible near an open flame. They are solitary and territorial, rarely encountered in numbers.

Oxidox are avoided rather than hunted. Their flesh is edible but the chemical gland must be removed with extreme care before cooking, as puncturing it near any heat source is catastrophically dangerous. The gland itself, however, is a valued resource, dried and ground, its oxidant compound functions as a fire-starting accelerant. Arkafelari colonies that have learned to harvest it treat the material as a controlled substance, traded carefully and stored away from open flame.

Oxidox skin is entirely non-flammable. They might actively wallow in mineral muds that dry into fire-retardant crusts before the dry seasons hit.