Mightyclaws

"Because everything was awful, and you escaped, and it is not fair."

— Mightyclaws' thoughts toward Moonwatcher, Moon Rising

Mightyclaws is a male NightWing dragonet who was introduced in The Dark Secret. He owns a small diamond earring, enchanted by Darkstalker, to transform anything he illustrates into reality. He formerly attended Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Quartz Winglet and currently resides in the NightWing village, helping his tribe renovate their home with his animus gift.

Description

Mightyclaws has black scales and is rather small. According to Moonwatcher, he has a round belly with a lean face, sharp jawbones, and deep hollows under his eyes, like he has not been filled out quite right. He wears a tiny silver diamond stud earring and has a hint of a rasp to his voice.

Personality

When Starflight first met Mightyclaws, he said that he was the nicest of the NightWing dragonets, referring to him as "the friendly dragonet." Mightyclaws seems comfortable sharing NightWing information with outsiders, such as when he told Fatespeaker about the collapsed part of the NightWing Fortress. Like most of his tribe, he was initially opposed to accepting Glory as his queen, but presently seems to be honest and loyal, being among the first to bow to her. He cares deeply for his tribe and currently uses his enchanted earring to help rebuild their home.

Although more mature and friendly than most NightWing dragonets, he judged and resented Moonwatcher for her upbringing in the Rainforest Kingdom. He is highly envious of a life he regards as easy in comparison to his own.

Biography

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Dark Secret

Mightyclaws appeared at the dorm cave with Fierceteeth, Mindreader, and a few other unnamed NightWing dragonets. He seemed to be a bit more outwardly friendly than some of the other dragonets. He interrogated Starflight with the others about the outside world because he was not old enough know the NightWing secrets and keep them a secret, thus he could not leave the NightWing island yet. Fatespeaker said they often chatted and Mightyclaws had told her about the fortress. He was the first to switch loyalties over to Glory while the other NightWings hesitated.

The Brightest Night
Deathbringer suggested that Mightyclaws could go to the new school for dragonets at Jade Mountain in the epilogue.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising

Mightyclaws was mentioned in the prologue by Secretkeeper as being the only NightWing dragonet that had hatched in the last year. Moon visited Mightyclaws in the art cave of Jade Mountain Academy to ask questions about Darkstalker and the NightWings. He asked Moon why she would ask him about such a thing. He was one of the NightWings who thought Darkstalker would come back to the NightWings seeking revenge. He appeared to have some problems with a trauma that he was supposed to solve by using art as a therapy, which was recommended by Starflight; however, Mightyclaws personally could not see how it would help. Moon described him as an outwardly friendly dragon with dark thoughts on the inside. In the art cave when he asked Moonwatcher why she was asking him so many questions and she responded that she thought that it would help her be "more like a NightWing," he threw his painting of the volcano on the floor to show her that it was why she would never be a true NightWing, and he furiously stormed out of the art cave, thinking about how unfair his upbringing was compared to hers.

Winter Turning

Mightyclaws made a brief appearance painting in the epilogue whilst Darkstalker is reading the thoughts of students across the school. He is shown to be thinking about the escaped prisoners planning a rebellion against Glory, wondering whether his mother would align with them or not and what his own choice would be. Darkstalker mentions that the young dragonet will have to make a decision, and only one of them will end with him still being alive.

Talons of Power

Mightyclaws had arrived at an inconvenient time, in which Tsunami, Sunny, Starflight, and Turtle were discussing the return of Darkstalker. He panicked, said he had to warn the others, and bolted out of the room. This annoyed Tsunami, as she said, "Oh, good. School-wide panic. We haven't had any of that in at least two days." He was later given an enchantment on his earring by Darkstalker that gave him the ability to turn whatever he draws to become real. He hurried to the art room to test it out. He was one of the fifty or so NightWings that decided to stay with Queen Glory, along with his mother.

Darkness of Dragons
Mightyclaws was mentioned to have been one of the few NightWings that refused an earring from Qibli and chose to keep the powers Darkstalker gave him. He currently uses those powers to draw up houses for the NightWing village in the rainforest under Queen Glory and Deathbringer's supervision.

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Winglets

Prisoners
Fierceteeth mentioned Mightyclaws as the only other NightWing dragonet she knew who has a sibling.

Relationships

Darkstalker

When he was a dragonet, Mightyclaws's father would use threats of Darkstalker as a method of training him and would tell Mightyclaws stories about how Darkstalker was going to get revenge on the NightWings someday. Thus, Mightyclaws had an intense fear of Darkstalker. In Talons of Power, Mightyclaws accepts a gift from Darkstalker, making him able to draw whatever he wants, then make it real. However despite the gift he received from Darkstalker, he still chose to stay in the rainforest and continued to remain loyal to Glory instead of going with him to the lost city.

Moonwatcher

Mightyclaws seemed resentful to Moon over what he saw as her comparatively easy upbringing. Moon noted that he was a good painter.

Starflight

Starflight referred to Mightyclaws as the 'friendly dragonet' when they first met. Mightyclaws mentioned offhand to Starflight that he also had a bossy, envious older sister. In Moon Rising, Moon overheard in Mightyclaws's mind that Starflight had suggested painting to 'help him,' presumably with his trauma from the island.

Quotes

"That's Fierceteeth, [...] Don't mind her. Older sisters always think they can do whatever you're doing better than you can. I know, I've got one too. I'm Mightyclaws, by the way."

― to Starflight

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"Dragonets aren't allowed to leave the island until we're ten years old, [...] Apparently we can't be trusted to keep all the NightWing secrets until then."

― to Starflight

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"No idea what I'm doing. Why does Starflight think this will help me? Would it be weird to go back to the prey center again tonight? Maybe there'll be some sheep left tonight. Three meals in one day; will anyone notice? Or yell at me? Why is Moon here? Maybe Starflight sent her, too. Although she doesn't have any trauma to work through. With her perfect life in the rainforest, always as much as she wanted to eat, no adult dragons yelling at her, no classes on lying, no death smoldering right over her head all the time ..."

― thinking about painting

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"The looks the other dragons give me here — like I either ate their favorite scroll or I might suddenly burst into flames, and they don't know which."

― thinking

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"No, he's definitely real, and he's definitely coming back to kill us all one day, [...] My father used to tell me about him while he taught me to fly. He'd say, 'Flap harder! Imagine the Darkstalker is chasing you!' or 'If you can't twist into a dive faster than that, the Darkstalker will catch you and rip off your claws and eat your brain!' He told me about how the tribe buried him a long time ago and then ran away to hide, but he's slowly clawing his way out, and one day he'll break free and come to kill us all for revenge."

― to Moonwatcher, about Darkstalker

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"Because everything was awful, and you escaped, and it is not fair."

― thoughts toward Moonwatcher

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"Like, if I draw a sword, then I touch it and it would become a real sword. And if I drew a pond, I could touch it, and then it would become a real pond. Or if I drew a banana, then I could touch it, and, and ... um, I would have a real banana to eat."

― to Darkstalker, about the animus gift

Trivia

• Starflight recommended painting as a method to heal Mightyclaws' trauma from his time spent on the NightWing island. However, this method has proved somewhat unsuccessful so far.

Gallery

• 
  Mightyclaws from Moon Rising (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes
• 
  Reference by Spirit978

• Art by Mike Holmes, from the Wings of Fire Graphic Novels
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References

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