The Dragon Slayer Sketch & Underpainting

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This is the original rough sketch for a piece I'm working on now. It involves characters from bedtime stories I've made up for my kids since they were little. I think this dragon is too cute to kill or be killed (he looks like he wants to play "fetch") so I made some refinements to him and to the Dragon Slayer for the underpainting below.

Now that's a face only a mother could love. This is the underpainting for the piece. I'm using watercolors on Crescent cold pressed illustration board. I'll probably throw in some colored pencil and maybe some pastels by the time I'm done.

I don't always do a full underpainting in this manner. But in this case I think it will help me create the atmosphere I imagine for the scene. The Dragon Slayer and his trusty horse are wrapped in a warm embrace (a VERY warm embrace) by their fire spewing foe who may have just opened his mouth one too many times.
The whole scene is shrouded in fire and poisonous fumes.

Is the Dragon Slayer about to be fried or will he deliver the death blow to his adversary?