NightWings

9:179 NightWings are a tribe of dragons that live in a secret kingdom which is not on any known map of Pyrrhia. They had portals to the mainland. The name of their queen was Queen Battlewinner, until it became Queen Glory of the RainWings, when they were driven from their home by a volcano and escaped to the rainforest under her permission. In addition, they were secretly allied with Blister, although it was most likely broken when they surrendered to the RainWings. NightWings tend to be arrogant, mysterious, highly intelligent and unpredictable.

History

Template:Spoiler The Dragonet Prophecy was written by Queen Battlewinner and a NightWing prophet named Morrowseer, who had also delivered Starflight's and Fatespeaker's eggs to the Talons of Peace. They consider themselves high above all other tribes and too mysterious and powerful to take part in the war, though they are secretly working with Blister, probably in exchange for something they want.

IceWings and NightWings have had animosity towards each other going way back to a war they once fought against each other. Morrowseer even ordered the death of all of the IceWing prisoners in the rescue of Starflight, showing that NightWings do not care much for the IceWing tribe. This is also shown in the prophecy, which does not include an IceWing.

They had kidnapped several RainWings for their experimentation. They were trying to make venom-proof armour for when they waged war with the RainWings, but all experiments were lost when the NightWings fled their home. Additionally, they seem to have some kind of portal, perhaps a wormhole, possibly created by an animus dragon, which they use to visit their kingdom, the Kingdom of Sand, the Mud Kingdom, and the Rainforest Kingdom. It is possible that there could be other unknown portals.

In The Dark Secret, it is shown that the NightWings are being threatened by the volcano they live in, which is slowly building up to an eruption and also killing off their main source of food. Although Greatness claimed that scientific estimates had placed the eruption at least two years in the future, at the end of the book, the volcano explodes. Shortly before this, the NightWings surrendered to the RainWings in exchange for a safe place to live, and most of them escaped through the rainforest portal unharmed (although Morrowseer is likely dead, and the events in the ending of The Dark Secret and the preview of The Brightest Night indicate that Starflight is critically injured).

Society

NightWings form lifelong partnerships, similar to SeaWings. Their dragonets live in dormitories located in caves on the sides of the volcano. These dragonets are usually named according to their talents; for example, Morrowseer got his name for "seeing" the "morrow." Morrow is short for tomorrow, meaning the future. Deathbringer's name refers to his job as an assassin. Queen Battlewinner presumably got hers for military strategy, or perhaps a future battle which was predicted to be won by her. In the stories about them, that is usually how they are named. Exactly how they know what a dragon's talent will be when it hatches is unknown (they might wait and see for it to appear, or have another NightWing predict it). Glory mentions in The Hidden Kingdom that in scrolls, NightWings always had 'mouthful names'.

Description

NightWings have purplish-black scales, sometimes with dark blue. In The Dragonet Prophecy when Morrowseer dropped off Starflight, it said that the sun picked up glints of purple and deep blue on his body. The underside of their wings are speckled with silver scales, giving it the appearance of a night sky filled with twinkling stars. This allows them to blend into shadows and the night sky. They also have forked black tongues, however, on The Dark Secret's cover, Starflight's tongue is shown to be red. This may be due to the reflection of the lava that surrounds him.

Abilities

They are described as the night sky coming down on you. They slink unseen in shadows and blend into the night, which gives them a fearful reputation.

NightWings possess mystical abilities. They have the ability of mind-reading and telepathy, as well as being able to prognosticate and tell prophecies. In addition, these dragons are also able to breathe fire at any time, like SkyWings and SandWings. However, the wormhole used by the NightWings to spy on other dragons may be what spawned the myth of appearing out of nowhere. It should be known that the NightWing Starflight, is only able to breathe fire, not read minds and use telepathy like most NightWings (yet?).

In addition, they seem to have some kind of bacteria living in their saliva that does not affect them, similar to Komodo dragons. They use this to incapitate their prey, ensuring it can't go anywhere, then come back later for it when its wound has become infected or it has died. Eating decayed food doesn't affect them to a noticeable extent either.