Talons of Peace

The Talons of Peace is a secret group of dragons that was founded during the War of SandWing Succession, its objective being to end the war by fulfilling the Dragonet Prophecy. After the war eventually ended, the Talons began working to build relations between the tribe, creating non-tribe-specific cities such as Sanctuary. Riptide, the current leader of the movement, has declared that they are no longer secret. During the war, the organization consisted of SandWings, IceWings, MudWings, SkyWings, and SeaWings (although they were associated with Morrowseer and raised Fatespeaker, the two were not members). Three of their members, Dune, Kestrel, and Webs, raised the Dragonets of Destiny in a hidden cave system under the mountains in order to protect them from the SandWing princesses and their allies.

Some dragons have a positive view of the Talons, while others, such Queen Coral and Ex-Queen Scarlet, hate them. However, many have no significant bias towards their organization; some even appear to not know or believe in the group's existence. The Dragonets of Destiny have mixed feelings about the Talons - Princess Tsunami and Queen Glory dislike them due to the abusive upbringing they received, while Princess Sunny believes that they were doing what they believed was best for the dragon tribes. Starflight and Clay appear to be relatively neutral towards the Talons, but still actively attempted to escape when Glory's life was in danger.

Not all of the members appear to have joined to help the tribes achieve peace. For instance, Crocodile joined in order to infiltrate them and pass on information to her queen. Chameleon was the other known infiltrator, under the form of Cirrus.

Some members are unable to return to their tribes because they have been exiled or are too afraid. Others remained in their tribes as spies, although this practice presumable ended along with the war.

History

It is known that the group was formed under Nautilus's leadership. They later became affiliated with Morrowseer, believing his Dragonet Prophecy to be genuine. The Talons of Peace were very protective of the Dragonets of Destiny, assigning Asha, Kestrel, Webs, Dune, and Hvitur as their guardians.

Hvitur and the SkyWing egg were both killed by Burn, and while returning with Clay's egg, Asha was caught in a battle between Blaze and Blister's armies. She later died of her wounds.

The cave that the dragonets were raised in was located in the mountains near Queen Scarlet's palace. When Morrowseer visited, he ordered the killing of Glory, which resulted in an escape attempt, which was initially successful. However, Queen Scarlet tracked them down mid-escape, which resulted in Dune's murder, Webs fleeing, and Kestrel being taken as prisoner along with the dragonets. Kestrel later escaped from Scarlet's prison with the five, and met with Blister and Morrowseer, who allowed Blister to kill her.

Kestrel, before departing as the dragonets prepared to travel to the Mud Kingdom, mentioned that if they needed to contact her to send a message via "the Dragon of Jade Mountain". This dragon was Stonemover, as revealed in The Brightest Night.

In Moon Rising, when Webs introduced himself to his history students, he said that his son, Riptide "is the new leader of whatever the Talons of Peace are becoming."

List of Known Talons and Allies

• Avalanche - A SkyWing, Flame's mother and a spy for the Talons, who was stationed at Queen Ruby's Palace, now probably stationed elsewhere.

• Fatespeaker (formerly) - The NightWing False Dragonet of Destiny, the replacement for Starflight. She was the only False Dragonet of Destiny who was friendly to the originals, and she now helps them out at Jade Mountain Academy.

• Flame (formerly) - The SkyWing False Dragonet of Destiny and the replacement for Glory. After escaping the volcano, he attended Jade Mountain Academy.

• Nautilus - A SeaWing, Nautilus was the former leader of the Talons of Peace. He tried to kill Webs so that Webs wouldn't ruin the "Backup Plan". Tsunami witnessed him meeting with Riptide just before she met him.

• Ochre - the MudWing False Dragonet of Destiny. He was the replacement for Clay and was constantly hungry like him but in a pushier way.

• Riptide - He joined only to investigate more about his father, Webs, but is currently the leader according to him. The other Talons refused to give him the information, so he acted as a spy, giving information about the SeaWings to the Talons of Peace. In Moon Rising when Webs introduced himself, he said that his son Riptide "is the new leader of whatever the Talons of Peace [are] becoming".

• Stonemover (possibly associated) - He was first/indirectly mentioned as The Dragon of Jade Mountain near the end of the Dragonet prophecy implying that he is an ally of the Talons of Peace. Kestrel said that the dragonets would be able to send a message to her through him.

• Squid - the SeaWing False Dragonet of Destiny. Squid was the replacement for Tsunami and son of Nautilus. Like the other dragonets, he was brought to the NightWing Island, where he was trained. After that, he and the other False Dragonets (along with Starflight) were told to convince the SkyWings to side with Blister instead of Burn. He was forced away by Morrowseer, where he was found by a Talons of Peace and brought home to rejoin. Squid also said Riptide shouldn't be the leader of the Talons of Peace in Winter Turning.
• Viper's Male Relative - Although it is unknown what his relationship is to Viper, he was briefly seen in The Brightest Night.

• Winter - As of the epilogue of Darkness of Dragons, Winter is working with the Talons of Peace. He is helping Riptide and the Talons raise Sanctuary, a new multi-tribe town, much like Possibility. By suggesting the building of a scavenger sanctuary, he coined the name of the town. He was seen studying scavengers for the town.

Former Known Talons and Allies

• Asha - A MudWing, Clay's aunt, and the one who delivered his egg to the Talons. She was chosen as one of the caretakers of the dragonets but died soon after delivering Clay's blood-red egg due to the wounds she sustained after getting caught in the crossfire of Blister and Blaze's forces. Clay was found wondering what his life would have been like if she had survived.
• Princess Blister (associated) - A SandWing and one of the rival sisters for the throne. She was conspiring with Morrowseer and killed Kestrel. She is not a Talon; however, she was associated with them.
• Cirrus - An IceWing known to be working with Nautilus and tried to kill Webs, but was stopped by Crocodile. Later he met with Moonwatcher, Winter, and the others in Winter Turning when they visited the Talons. He was later confirmed in Escaping Peril to be the shape-shifting Chameleon and was spying on the Talons for Queen Scarlet.
• Crocodile - A MudWing, Crocodile was an infiltrator of the Talons of Peace. She was working for the SkyWings and the MudWings. She used her cover to follow Webs and lead Burn's alliance to the Summer Palace, in an attempt to destroy it. She met with Tsunami and the other dragonets, plus Webs and Riptide (whom the dragonets rescued from Queen Coral's prison) as they escaped the Summer Palace. Glory sprayed her with her venom straight into her eyes as they fled which killed her. It was unknown at the time if she survived, but it was confirmed in The Dark Secret that she had perished.
• Dune - A SandWing, Dune was one of the guardians chosen to raise the dragonets. He was missing one leg and couldn't fly, which is why he was chosen for an underground job. He still had a poisonous tail and could be deadly. He was the kindest toward Sunny out of the three guardians, supposedly because she was the only SandWing. He used to be an Outclaw and a trusted friend of Queen Thorn's, but he then stole Sunny's egg and fled the Outclaws while Thorn continued to search for him. He was later killed by Ex-Queen Scarlet after she had tracked Clay and Tsunami to their underground cave.
• Hvitur - The IceWing guardian of the dragonets was murdered the day before the brightest night (while trying to steal the SkyWing egg) by Burn, due to her distrust of the Prophecy.
• Kestrel - A former SkyWing soldier. She conceived an egg that contained twin dragonets. One, Peril, had too much fire, and the other, Sky, had too little. Queen Scarlet made a deal with Kestrel that if she killed one, she'll spare the other and Kestrel, but then broke her deal after Kestrel "killed" the one with too little fire. Kestrel fled from the Sky Kingdom and Queen Scarlet raised Peril to be her champion. Kestrel then joined the Talons and raised the dragonets for six years. When Clay's smoke trail accidentally led the SkyWings to the cave, Kestrel was captured by Scarlet. Later, she escaped, along with the dragonets. She was then killed by Blister, not far from the Summer Palace.
• Morrowseer (associated) - Morrowseer is the NightWing who foretold the dragonet prophecy and became affiliated with the Talons after he delivered the prophecy. He appears to care little for most of the dragonets but takes an interest in Starflight. He ordered for Glory to be killed, citing the fulfillment of the prophecy, but one of his other motivations was that having a RainWing being one of the Dragonets of Destiny would be an obstruction to the plans of the NightWings to take over the rainforest. He conspired with Blister to make her queen, using the dragonets. He later decided to have some of them replaced. He was swallowed by fire in a volcanic eruption on the NightWing Island and died.
• Pyrite (formerly) - A believed SkyWing that was found out to be a dragon mask, created by Chameleon and hiding Prince Hailstorm.
• Viper - the SandWing False Dragonet of Destiny. Viper was Sunny's replacement. Unlike Sunny, she was vicious and cruel. She died in the Night Kingdom during a "Training Session" where she attempted to murder Fatespeaker and fell into lava.
• Webs (formerly) - Webs was a soldier of Queen Coral's army. After he fled, he joined the Talons of Peace. He was chosen to raise the dragonets. He then stole Tsunami's egg from the Royal Hatchery. He escaped before he could be captured by Queen Coral. Webs followed the dragonets to the Bay of a Thousand Scales where he was stabbed by Blister's poisonous barb on the end of her tail. The dragonets then took him to the Rainforest Kingdom and healed him with a Brightsting Cactus they eventually found. Blaze had told them that which was supposed to be SandWing secret.

Gallery

• File:Nap time with old dune by poorolddragon-d8ub1mx.png
• File:Webs by whiteembershard-d5sizbb.jpg
• Cirrus, an icewing
  Cirrus, an icewing
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  Squid, a seawing
• File:Prince winter by poorolddragon-da2f35m.png
• Avalanche
  Avalanche
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  Riptide
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  Talons of Peace