#firebelly

My baby (main character of my sci fi WIP) working on her baby (mechanical dragon toy)

Most environments where snow falls use regular plows to clear walks and roads.  In places where it snows a lot -- like permafrozen regions in which magic ensures a constant low temperature -- snow builds up and tunneling firebelly unicorns are used instead.  Many hundreds of years ago, it was discovered that firebellies heat up significantly in colder environments--especially in ice and snow--and not only do they secrete heat, but natural stabilizing magic as well. That enables them to do things like this:

And because of the natural magic, the walls of the tunnel remain stable and cannot cave in. The count on the sign indicates the next scheduled firebelly passthrough in days, which is necessary to retain the stabilizing magic on the walls of the tunnels. Handlers generally take their animals along assigned paths before the count reaches zero. Passing through a tunnel with negative numbers is something you do at your own peril.  Because of high snowfall in certain pockets on Erit, clearing roads with the aid of firebellies is much more efficient than using machinery. They are domesticated, docile, and have few risks associated with them, except...