Dune

"I guess minding dragonets runs in the family, […] But I hope I don't have to do it for the rest of my life. Dragonets are so aggravating. I want to be a soldier! I want to fight in battles and do glorious things and be a hero! […] What do you want to do?"

— Younger Dune to Six-Claws, Deserter

Dune was an adult male SandWing who was introduced in The Dragonet Prophecy. He was formerly a member of Burn's army and later the Outclaws, then eventually joined the Talons of Peace. He was one of the guardians of the dragonets, alongside Kestrel and Webs.

He was killed by Scarlet after attempting to shield the dragonets of destiny from her wrath.

Appearance

Dune had scales of a dull, deep tone of rattan, powerful sandy-yellow wings, and flashing black eyes. He had scars on his throat and over both eyes with the scar on the right side of his face stretching to the corner of his jaw. He was large, bigger than Scarlet.

His foreleg and right wing were badly injured in combat against IceWing soldiers, with the formerly frozen parts of his wing having been snapped off, leaving only misshapen, blackened ruin. His wing was further destroyed when Burn sliced through its tendons and membranes, leaving a long scar running through it and causing it to trail crookedly beside Dune.

He also lost his foot, leaving only a foreleg stump, and he wore an oddly shaped stone around his neck that served as a key to unlock the boulder that blocked the cave entrance.

Personality

In Deserter, Dune was shown to be a very enthusiastic dragonet who enjoyed the thought of becoming a soldier. At one point, he convinced his teacher to allow him to come along with Six-Claws to save Blaze from an approaching sandstorm. During the start of the war, when he was on Burn's side and a brother-in-arms of Six-Claws, he began to lose his normal happier personality traits, becoming sarcastic and untrusting due to Burn's mutilation of him. This was done to scare Six-Claws into obedience. By the beginning of The Dragonet Prophecy, Dune was grouchy, tough and didn't show much fondness towards the dragonets, except for Sunny (likely because they were both SandWings). He was also not as outwardly cruel as Kestrel, having spent extra time to ensure that Starflight understood particular topics. He also bravely protected them when they were found by Queen Scarlet, despite his injuries. Despite not showing it much, he did care about them.

Biography

Pre-Series

Along with Kestrel, Webs, Asha, and Hvitur, Dune was ordered to steal an egg to fulfill the Dragonet Prophecy. During this time, he resided in the Scorpion Den, and Thorn trusted him with the location of her egg to help guard it. When Dune learned it was due to hatch on the brightest night, he stole it, destroying Thorn's trust in him. In The Brightest Night, it was revealed to the dragonet stolen, Sunny, that he had been wanted by Thorn for years after.

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The Dragonet Prophecy

The Dragonet Prophecy

After the loss of Hvitur and Asha, only him, Kestrel, and Webs were left to raise Clay, Tsunami, Sunny, Starflight, and Glory. As a guardian, Dune taught the dragonets skills of hunting and survival. He tended to be harsh on Glory, though not more so than Kestrel. He was kind to Sunny and made sure to teach her more due to her "disabilities." After the visit from Morrowseer, he was reluctant to kill Glory, although not as much as Webs, who had been horrified about the idea of having to kill her and was the first to deny participation in her murder due to it being him who had stolen her egg. Scarlet killing Dune Later, Clay and Tsunami escaped the cave and accidentally led Queen Scarlet and her soldiers to the dragonets. During the attack, Dune was pinned down by Scarlet. She sliced open his foreleg, and then violently snapped his neck, killing him. Sunny sobbed over his dead body, telling him to "wake up."

The Lost Heir
Webs mentioned Dune's death when recounting how he and the other guardians failed to prevent the dragonets of destiny from escaping to Nautilus, Cirrus, and Crocodile.

The Hidden Kingdom
Glory noticed several SandWings with permanent injuries at Blaze's fortress and thought of Dune, wondering what side of the war he had been on before joining the Talons of Peace.

The Dark Secret
While Starflight was dreaming about reading a scroll about where the dragonets of destiny could be and ideas of how they can end the war, Dune, along with the other guardians, burst into the study cave to take the scroll away from Starflight.

The Brightest Night

Although he did not appear in this book, Thorn mentioned that Dune had been the one to take Sunny's egg, which had been buried in the sand near the Scorpion Den. Only Thorn and Dune had known where the egg was. Thorn, in the process of finding Dune, put up wanted posters all over the Scorpion Den (before she knew that he had been killed). When Sunny told Thorn that Dune was dead, she violently ripped up his and Morrowseer's wanted posters. Sunny mentioned Dune again in the epilogue as one of the dragons who had never gotten to see the end of the war.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising
More information flying in soon …

Darkness of Dragons
Dune is one of the dragons that Thorn asked Cobra to find. Cobra stated that there wasn't a trace of him anywhere.

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Winglets

Deserter

Dune was first shown as a four-year-old dragonet helping a teacher in the Wingery. He agreed to help Six-Claws find Blaze and was the one to spot her wandering towards an oncoming sandstorm. He helped direct Six-Claws back to the fortress and defended him. Char offered to admit him to the army to train to become a soldier, and he happily agreed. When Queen Oasis was killed, he and Six-Claws stayed to fight under Burn. Soon after, he was injured by frostbreath on his wing and foot. The doctors said that he would recover, but Burn ruined his wing and foot to punish Six-Claws, which was how his injuries became permanent. Soon after, Six-Claws and a nurse named Kindle carried him on blankets to the Scorpion Den.

Relationships

Six-Claws

Dune met Six-Claws in Deserter, and the two were good friends, both working in the army as soldiers in Burn's army. Six-Claws was horrified by Burn's treatment of Dune, and he left the army along with Dune and a doctor named Kindle.

Sunny

Unlike the other guardians, Dune didn't seem to dislike Sunny; it is implied that this is because she's a SandWing like him and he even stuck up for her sometimes. He also thinks that Sunny isn't as big a problem to the prophecy as Glory is, as he tells the other guardians that he "isn't worried about Sunny" and that they "followed the prophecy's instructions." She seemed to like Dune the best out of the guardians and called on him for help in times of need. She was devastated when Scarlet killed Dune.

Thorn

Dune was considered by Thorn to be the only friend she could trust to keep Sunny's egg safe. When he took the egg, she immediately sent up wanted posters for him.

Quotes

"I guess minding dragonets runs in the family, […] But I hope I don't have to do it for the rest of my life. Dragonets are so aggravating. I want to be a soldier! I want to fight in battles and do glorious things and be a hero! […] What do you want to do?"

― to Six-Claws about wanting to be a soldier

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"Whoa, […] Is that the princess? Why would she be out in the dunes by herself? By all the lizards, she is going to get crushed by that sandstorm."

― to Six-Claws about Blaze

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"He didn't take her out there! […] He saw her out there alone and rescued her, that's what he did!"

― to Blister, about Six-Claws saving Blaze

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"She said I have more promise than any officer she's ever seen. […] She said I have extraordinarily strong wings for a SandWing — almost like a SkyWing's! She said I'd be commanding armies of my own in no time."

― to Six-Claws, about Kindle

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"That it's stupid, […] and we were stupid for being loyal in the first place, and now we're paying for it. I'm paying for it. There's no point to any of this."

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"I'm not worried about Sunny. We followed the prophecy instructions. It's not our fault she's the way she is. But the RainWing — He's not going to like that."

― to Kestrel and Webs, about Morrowseer

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"It's not natural, that much loyalty in a dragon … Especially to dragons outside your own tribe."

― about Clay

Trivia

• While Dune's parents were both teachers, Dune expressed to Six-Claws that he had no desire to become a teacher himself in Deserter.
• Despite canonically missing a foreleg, the graphic novel depicts him with all limbs intact.
• In the graphic novel, Dune's damaged wing doesn't appear to be limp or drag across the ground when he walks, but is still shown covered in scars, burns and has holes shown in the membrane.

Gallery

• Reference by Platypus the SeaWing
  Reference by Platypus the SeaWing
• 
  Dune from The Dragonet Prophecy (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes
• 
  by Mike Holmes
• 
  by Mike Holmes