Smolder

"I have heard that before. There was someone who used to tease me about it. She told me she was going to assume everything I said was a joke, since that would simplify things. You can do that too, if you like."

— Smolder to Sunny about his voice, The Brightest Night

Smolder is an adult male SandWing who was introduced in The Dark Secret. He was allied with Burn during the War of SandWing Succession, and currently resides in the SandWing stronghold. He owns a pet scavenger he calls Flower.

Appearance

Smolder has pale yellow scales with black diamond patterns on his scales and wings. He has the same narrow face and lidded dark eyes as Blister, and he is smaller than Burn. He wears a cluster of keys and pouches and bells on chains around his neck that clink and jingle slightly as he walks. Some of them are plain iron, while others have jewels or gold plating on them.

Personality

Smolder appears to be witty, charming, and humorous, although Sunny also notes that she couldn't tell whether he was joking or not sometimes. Smolder also seems to be a good liar, as he deceived both Thorn and Sunny in The Brightest Night and is thought by Sunny to be "maybe even as smart as Blister."

He is also focused on survival, as he behaves his best so that Burn does not kill him. Before the end of the war, he often obeys her order as well as respecting her. He also has a cowardly nature to avoid getting killed as shown in Deserter.

Biography

The Dragonet Prophecy

The Hidden Kingdom
In Blaze's fortress, Blaze said her brother fell in love with a dragon her mother would never agree with, and she broke his heart. A tapestry was shown to be hanging in her fortress, showing two dragons, presumably Palm and Smolder flying in the sunset.

The Dark Secret
In the epilogue of The Dark Secret, he was seen in Burn's stronghold speaking to Burn about the dragonets of destiny. He and Burn plotted to kill all of the dragonets. He also talked about a prisoner that was revealed to be Scarlet. He also stated that he wasn't used to calling Burn "Your Majesty".

The Brightest Night

In The Brightest Night, Smolder was running Burn's stronghold while Burn was away, looking "for a certain quintet of dragonets." He led Sunny to the tower where Burn stores her collection and "special" prisoners, such as Queen Scarlet. He introduced Sunny to his pet scavenger, Flower. He showed Sunny that Flower was trained to come when she heard Smolder ring a bell, among other things. After this, he proceeded to lead her to her cell in the tower. After seeing how miserable Sunny was, he decided that he'd take her out at midday for a walk every day. Sunny began realizing that he was actually a nice dragon. He also explained to Sunny the mystery of the missing SandWing treasure, showing her the doors to the previous treasure holds and revealing to her a clue about the Eye of Onyx, telling her if any of the other SandWing sisters had the treasure, they'd be queen already. He later unchained Sunny and ordered Camel to watch her as he organized troops to defend the stronghold. Thorn and the Outclaws were attacking the stronghold, and Smolder was successfully fending them off. Sunny begged Peril to stop the fight to save her mother, and Peril agreed, but asking to save Queen Scarlet, and both agreed. Smolder then led Thorn, Sunny, and Peril to Burn's collection, on Thorn's orders to see the dead, stuffed NightWing that Burn owned. Later, Smolder led Thorn and Sunny into the library and locked them in there, because Burn would kill him if she found out that he let them escape. Thorn and Sunny escape by burning the wood surrounding the doorknob, and part ways. At the choosing of the SandWing queen, Smolder was present and handed Burn Blister's gift. The gift happened to be two dragonbite vipers, one of which killed Burn, and the other nearly kills Clay. Blister and Blaze fought until Sunny finds the Eye of Onyx and gave it to Thorn. Smolder apologized to Thorn about the library, and Thorn claimed that it would be hard to forgive him.

---

The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising
Sunny thought of Smolder when talking to Winter about Bandit. She was not sure how to refer to him, whether as a friend, a former captor, or a dragon who almost got her killed.

Winter Turning

Although he does not formally appear in Winter Turning, there was a letter from him addressed to Vermilion on the joys of raising and taming a scavenger, which Smolder did himself in the case of Flower. Some of the lines told him what to do, what not to do and some general information about scavengers. The letter came after the book's epilogue and it also appeared in the special edition of The Brightest Night.

Darkness of Dragons

Palm, his lost love, thought of him many times whilst fleeing from Oasis's guards. She gave the earrings he gifted her with to her sister Prickle as payment for her refuge. Later in the book, Qibli walked into Thorn's tent and saw Smolder in the tent discussing the IceWing plague. He was flirting with Thorn, and he seemed astonished that she was letting Qibli have an opinion. When Onyx challenged Thorn, he and Blaze went to watch the fight. Upon Onyx revealing her identity, Smolder jumped into the ring and tried to convince her not to fight. Qibli noted that, while he was facing Onyx, his wings keep brushing affectionately with Thorn's. Onyx refused and goes on with the challenge. During the sandstorm, he took shelter with his daughter in the dungeon. While looking for him, Thorn mentioned that he was terrified of the dungeon. They found him in there with Onyx, who had a badly injured leg. Qibli noted that it was not obvious whether she was injured by the storm or if Smolder did it so she'd be unable to challenge Thorn.

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Legends

Dragonslayer

Smolder is seen by Wren greeting General Sandstorm when he returned to the palace. She notes the way they speak to each other is veiled, both of them barely hiding contempt and annoyance. Smolder says Burn will be back in a few days, and that's when Sandstorm can give her her gift. Sandstorm is happy about this, saying Burn will want him alive for now. Smolder winces and says he's fine. Wren notes that Smolder seems confused about why Sandstorm seems comfortable ordering him around.  Later, he is mentioned by Rose, unnamed, to be her dragon. Even later, once she describes him to Wren, Wren tells her his name. Rose was unaware of this and said that she had been calling him Ember since she met him. Smolder is woken up by a dragon cook in the middle of the night; the cook mistook Stone for Rose, and trapped him in a net bag. Smolder is confused and points to Rose, who is lying in a bunch of green pillows in the corner of his room. The dragon enters his room and they start arguing as Stone and Rose reunite, and she meets Ivy and Leaf. After the dragon leaves, Rose attempts to get Smolder to leave his room for a bit by speaking to him in Dragon, telling him to get her some apricots. He laughs when she does this and saunters out to get what she requested. Rose says her pronunciation is "abominable", and wonders what Smolder will actually bring back.

---

Winglets

Deserter

Smolder approached Six-Claws while he was digging up a shrub to inform him that Blister and Burn were up to something, hoping that Six-Claws would come up with a way to fix it because he didn't want to get involved. When Six-Claws thought that Blaze could be in trouble, Smolder refused to help and fled back toward the palace. Later, he was seen sobbing over Palm's disappearance, unable to be comforted. As he and his brothers discovered the dead Queen Oasis, and he was satisfied knowing that Oasis didn't take her away.

Relationships

Sunny

He was respectful to Sunny as she was presented as a gift for his sister. Smolder was kind to her, having taken her on midday walks when he noticed how miserable she was. He also chose to let her live, but also didn't want her escaping.

Oasis

Smolder most likely despised Oasis due to plotting to take away Palm, as she was highly protective of the throne. He displayed no sadness for her death, happy to see that his lover was not taken away by her at all.

Palm

Smolder loved Palm very much, despite the fact his mother would not like her. He was distraught after her disappearance. His love for her also gave him satisfaction of his mother's death, since he knew she disliked Palm and turned out to not take her away.

Burn

Smolder had a rocky relationship with Burn. He often made her mad, which almost led to him being killed. He resented his sister but often carried out her bidding throughout the war to avoid being killed by her like his brothers before him.

Thorn

At first, he did not have a good association with Thorn due to locking her and Sunny in the library. Thorn found it hard to forgive him after that. However, in Darkness of Dragons, it is shown that Smolder is a very loyal friend towards Thorn.

Vermilion

Smolder seems to be friends with Prince Vermilion, as in a special edition of The Brightest Night and Winter Turning, he gives him advice on how to take care of a scavenger.

Onyx

Smolder was surprised to hear that Onyx was his long-lost daughter. Having a great love for her, he flew down to embrace her, only to be pushed away. It is unconfirmed if Smolder was the one who injured Onyx's leg, but he stayed with her until Thorn came.

Family Tree

Char

Oasis

2 Dragons

Scald

Singe

Burn

Blister

Blaze

Prickle

Palm

Smolder

Onyx

Quotes

"I have heard that before, there was someone who used to tease me about it. She told me she was going to assume everything I said was a joke since that would simplify things. You can do that too if you like."

― to Sunny when she said she couldn't tell whether Smolder was joking

---

"I think I should put you in the weirdling collection. It's as safe as the dungeon but more comfortable. Also more psychologically destabilizing."

― to Sunny, Smolder debating where to imprison her

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"There used to be three of us, but the other two made the wrong dragons mad."

― to Sunny about his brothers

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"You can live for now, but I'd appreciate it if you made your escape attempts as feeble and ineffective as possible."

― to Sunny

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"Losing you and Scarlet in one fell swoop? That has to be worse than anything my brothers ever did."

― to Sunny

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"Oh, right. Very dignified. Hard to argue with that kind of elegant turn of phrase."

― to Thorn

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"An extremely beautiful frog. One we're all still proud to call our queen."

― to Thorn, after she put on a copy of Qibli's enchanted earring

Trivia

• In the prologue of Darkness of Dragons, Palm states that she would give her egg the name that Smolder chose, revealed to be Onyx.

Gallery

• Reference by Platypus the SeaWing
  Reference by Platypus the SeaWing
• 
  Smolder and Flower, by Joy Ang

References

de:Smolder fr:Brasier pl:Żar ru:Искр