NightWing island

The NightWing island was the secret home of the NightWings after the tribe abandoned the lost city of night in fear of Darkstalker's return. It is connected to the Rainforest Kingdom by an animus-enchanted tunnel, but can also be reached by crossing the sea. It is located north of Pyrrhia, although the exact location is unknown.

After the island's volcano erupted in The Dark Secret, the NightWings fled to the Rainforest Kingdom and accepted Glory as their new queen. This event is known as the NightWing Exodus.

Description

The molten landscape is smaller than Winter had imagined when he thought of the NightWings' secret home. It made him feel instantly claustrophobic, and there is a vast ocean lurking in all directions. The old NightWings' volcano home had dense ripples of black lava flows cover everything, still glowing orange and yellow where liquid fire is spilling through the cracks. The volcano cuts jaggedly into the sky, but it looks as though the top has been smashed in, leaving a smoking hole. Thick gray clouds, heavy with ash and smoke and sizzling with lightning, stretch across the sky, blocking the stars and moons.

The weather is typically grim and sulfurous smoke vents dot the ground, causing the air to smell like sulfur, fire, and death. Fierceteeth described the experience to feel like sucking in particles of ash with every breath, causing the lungs to feel as though they are on fire and the throat to feel scraped.

The island was covered in trees when the NightWings arrived on it, but the volcano erupted several times over the next two millennia, so the forests were almost all destroyed. Wet black sand covered the ground near the tunnels, and there were often small fires posted in the tunnel entrances. The clouds would sometimes pour a dripping mix of rain and sleet.

A black-sand beach rings the island at the base of the volcano. Twisted, leafless trees grew on the volcano's slopes, like bones sticking out of the dirt. Beyond the beach, the ocean roared and churned, gray and unfriendly and speckled with foam. All the water there is either cold gray sludge or full of salt.

Notable features

Adult quarters

The adult quarters were mentioned as a series of caves where NightWings move to once they reach the age of ten. They are communal, and several dragons were once seen playing a game with bones and tiny skulls in one of their entryways. Niches made of rock serve as sleeping spaces.

Council chamber

A place where the NightWings talked with their queen; it also had a lake of lava inside and a small rock spire that someone sits on to be questioned. It can be accessed through several back tunnels that emerge directly below the Queen's Eye. The space contains caves and jagged rock walls, streams of lava, and dark recesses. There is a perch located beside the Queen's Eye that was typically used by Greatness in order to hear Battlewinner's voice.

Dining cave

Battlewinner had a vent looking into the dining cave. It had a low table with leftover prey bones around the floor. Starflight guessed that it was where the council members ate.

Dungeon

Splendor, Deathbringer, Flame, and Ochre were all previously imprisoned here.

Dragonet dormitory

A place where NightWings under ten years old slept. It is also assumable that there was a school nearby, due to Starflight thinking about what his NightWing acquaintances were learning as he and the false dragonets of destiny trained.

Fortress

The NightWing fortress is a destroyed, wrecked structure. When it was still standing, it was built on the side to the main volcano, the NightWing fortress was a series of volcanic tunnels and a half-buried structure built to house the queen and most of the tribe. Part of the fortress was destroyed by an eruption of the volcano. All of the NightWings' treasure was lost until a tunnel was blasted to reach the treasure. A dreamvisitor was the only thing left behind other than the corpses of two NightWing guards. Starflight found the dreamvisitor in The Dark Secret, hidden in one of the dead dragon's talons. The hallways of the fortress are cracked and contain coals within the walls.

Hatchery

The hatchery was noted to be nearly empty.

Library

A place once full of scrolls for school projects and more. Some are labeled 'For NightWing eyes only,' but most appear to be scrolls that the NightWings have published across Pyrrhia.

Mastermind's laboratory

A series of rooms where Mastermind performed experiments, usually on the venom of the captured RainWings. It also contained a desalination system that provided clean water to the tribe as well as a floor for volcanology. Some NightWings were also tested for toxins in their teeth there, though these experiments proved futile. The lab was one of the most well-protected rooms of the fortress. It was a gigantic inner room within the fortress, and was well-protected from the outside air.

Queen's Eye

The screen Battlewinner hid behind and issued orders from. It was described to look like a stone screen with holes jabbed into it, none of them bigger than a dragon's eye.

RainWing prison

The place where the RainWing prisoners were chained and venom-tested.

Throne room

The queen's private chambers. The only way to enter was by a secret entrance behind a detailed map of Pyrrhia with scratched-off scavenger dens. It held a large cauldron of lava, in which Battlewinner lived.

History

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Hidden Kingdom

Glory was kidnapped and brought to the island by Vengeance.

The epilogue featured the island, where the false dragonets of destiny were kept.

The Dark Secret

The NightWing island was the main setting of the book, where Starflight was taken to. He awoke in the dragonet dormitory, where he met other NightWing dragonets. The volcano erupted at the end of the book and Starflight was blinded from the incident. The NightWings swore loyalty to Glory as they left the island for good.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising

The island was mentioned throughout the book.

Winter Turning

Winter and his friends traveled through the NightWing tunnel to come to the island, searching for Icicle. When they found her, she was in horrible condition due to avoiding sleep. After Glory tranquilized her, they left the island.

Escaping Peril

Sunny briefly mentioned the tunnels as connected to the NightWing island.

Talons of Power

The NightWing island was mentioned by the NightWing students several times. Later, Sunny recalls the NightWing island when she points to the stolen dreamvisitor from Flame's pouch.

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Winglets

Prisoners

Fierceteeth recounted multiple memories of her pasts while passing letters with Saguaro. The NightWing island was the main setting for most of these letters.

Assassin

Deathbringer grew up in the NightWing island and left when he was assigned a mission to assassinate Commander Tempest.

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Field Guides

A Guide to the Dragon World

In the RainWing chapter of the guide, the island was briefly mentioned by Kinkajou in her short story about Silver.

The NightWing island was featured several times throughout the NightWing chapter of the guide. The island was mentioned by Moonwatcher in The Truth About NightWing Powers and Mastermind in Studying the Studiers: Interview with a NightWing. Fierceteeth also briefly mentioned the island in Rising from the Ruins.

Trivia

• The NightWing island is inspired by the big island of Hawaii.

Gallery

• 
  The NightWing Island from the cover of The Dark Secret (without Starflight), by Joy Ang
• 
  Battlewinner in her cauldron from A Guide to the Dragon World, by Joy Ang
• 
  The NightWing Island from The Hidden Kingdom, by Mike Holmes
• 
  The NightWing island from A Guide to the Dragon World, by Mike Schley

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

fr:Île des Ailes de Nuit pl:Wyspa Nocoskrzydłych ru:Ночное королевство