Spark

Legends say that long ago there was an axolotl in a cave who found herself swept up in the current of an underground river. As the river let out into a chasm it became a waterfall that flowed directly into lava.

Fearing for her life, the axolotl could do nothing but watch as her death approached her. But all of a sudden, just before she hit the lava, she felt a burst of magic as she rippled with light. When she reached the lava, something miraculous happened- she didn't die! She slid straight into the lava, but it felt as cool as the cave river water she'd grown up in. A moment after realizing she had felt no pain despite being in lava, she looked around. It seemed fortune had smiled on her that day, for an adventurer carrying heavy tomes and a staff had entered the chasm from a tunnel with full view of the axolotl's approaching doom, just in time to recite the words to a spell that would imbue fire resistance to the amphibian.

The axolotl swam to the division between lava and water, and crawled up onto the nearby stone floor. She stepped forward to re-enter the water she called home, but as she did so she noticed two things. First, that her formerly pink feet were a beautiful golden color. Secondly, that the water she had always found cool felt too hot to bear. She flinched backwards and fell back into the lava, finding surprising amounts of comfort from it. It turned out that the mage's spell had never been tested on animals, and the effect it had on the axolotl was far more powerful than expected. Instead of giving her fire resistance, it had shifted her from being a creature of water to one of fire.

She was never able to enter water again, but this did not bother her. She was alive, and she was able to do what no other salamander of any kind had ever done. Her ability to withstand lava made her very popular with the other axolotl who lived in the cave system in water sources near lava flows. When she chose a mate and had a clutch of eggs, she was relieved to find that her offspring were also lava-bound.


And that's the story of how fire salamanders came to be.


[first draft, will edit eventually]