Fantasy book series about two friends with different hair color and fire-breathing salamanders in caves

Question

I read a book series as a child (in the 1990s) that involved two friends, one of the friends had black hair and was the only one they knew with black hair. It is revealed in the book that he has black hair because he eats meat, which is forbidden in their society.

I also remember there is a cave system that is revealed to have fire-breathing salamanders in it. In a second book in the series the cave system is shown to connect to another continent. Also the story does not take place on Earth but is instead set in a different world with two continents that do not know each other exist until the events of the second book.

Answer 1

I believe you are looking for the Singreale Chronicles. There are three books in the series:

1. Guardians of the Singreale
2. Star Riders of Ren
3. War of the Moonrhymes

I remember reading this book in the late 80's. It was quite an interesting series. The characters could craft gliders by laying on a large leaf, and use leaves attached to their arms and legs to fly about.

Salamander biology was interesting... There was an old man in a cave who had salamander eggs in a cauldron above a fire, and had to keep them hot for many, many years. To hatch salamanders, they were sent on a quest to gather the tadpoles which fertilized the eggs before they could hatch. When they carried them in buckets of water they had to swirl the water to calm or confuse the tadpoles, otherwise they would heat up the buckets too much.

In the later books they learned how to make swords from molten glass. These swords remained hot, and would be use to cauterize wounds.

There was a lot going on in these books.