Dragon-A-Day, Day 16

In which the author briefly considers the foreclaws of a dragon, and does a study of the overall body shape of the Macejaw dragon:

The top sketch was blown up considerably, it was this tiny thumbnail based on the body structure in the second Macejaw sketch, beefed up a bit, and with a slightly longer neck. Then I started considering the foreclaws. I know that lizards and alligators have handlike foreclaws, but they don’t manipulate objects. Modern folklore , er fantasy, has dragons doing everything from writing prophecies to casting spells, many things which would require humanlike hands.

Hands that are still tipped with swordlike claws. In Elizabeth Kerner’s Song In the Silence, she addresses this problem briefly; her dragons are not capable of many things, fine motor skill primary among them, although her dragons are live-birthing and telepathic, which are explorations of subjects that really ought to be reserved for another time.

For now, at least, until I can decide on something else, my dragons have thumbs. I’m still not sure how this works for a predatory quadruped, but they have thumbs. Then again, they’re big, smart magical predators, so why not give them thumbs too?