RainWings

File:Typical RainWing.png

RainWings are color-shifting, venom-spitting dragons that live in the Rainforest Kingdom, or the 'hind leg' of Pyrrhia. The tribe was originally ruled by the RainWing royal line, but since Queen Grandeur had three 'useless' heirs, she merged her eggs with the rest of the tribes'. Eventually, Queen Grandeur let other RainWings sit on her throne in hopes of finding a queen who was one in spirit, if not in blood. Six dragon queens were then sharing the throne; Queen Grandeur, Queen Dazzling, Queen Fruit Bat, Queen Magnificent, Queen Splendor, and Queen Exquisite, who each took one month turns at being queen (Queen Grandeur being the only one with royal blood). However, they are now led by Queen Glory, who is a distant relative of Queen Grandeur. This was discovered during the challenge for the throne, when Grandeur accidentally spat venom on Kinkajou's wings and Glory did a very quick venom test, which surprisingly showed that Glory was a relative of Grandeur. RainWings tend to be rather peaceful and do not like to rush into fights. Instead of having a palace like most tribes, the queen resides in an ordinary-sized hut which other dragons can visit her in. They will line up and wait for the queen when they wanted to talk to her.

Colored RainWing. Color by Hawky, lineart by Joy Ang

Description

RainWings can change the color of their scales at any time, much like chameleons. They are never left remaining monochromatic. Their scales usually shift between colors, depending on their mood. However, a RainWing can stamp out all emotion before it "splatters out all over their scales", as said by Queen Glory. Any RainWing can change their scales to match the colors of their choosing with a bit of concentration and practice.

The sun is needed to make a RainWing's scales beautiful and vivid, so sometime around noon each day every RainWing takes a nap, or "sun time". In addition to making them better at camouflage and color changing, sun time also makes a RainWing less grumpy and feeds them to a certain extent.

RainWings are long and graceful, with a ruff around their necks and prehensile tails that are used primarily for climbing trees, and hanging in the forest they inhabit. When afraid or insulted, RainWings flare their ruffs, possibly as a defense tactic, to seem bigger or to scare away others.

Dragonets develop their color-shifting scales while still in their eggs, which are pale white in color.

Abilities

RainWings can alter the color of their scales to mimic objects, their surroundings, other dragons, or simply to suit their preference. A RainWing's colors may also change if they feel a particularly strong emotion, such as pale green or white for fear or pain, purple for guilt, yellow for amusement, pink for happiness, etc.

RainWings also have prehensile tails much like chameleons to grip onto trees. They swing from tree to tree, called "tree gliding" to move about over long distances, as vines and branches would make normal flying difficult. RainWing dragonets take tree gliding lessons.

RainWings have an acidic venom, which can be shot from their two longest fangs. Their venom melts away at dragon scales easily, and unless nullified with flame, the venom will kill the victim with alarming speed, even faster if the droplets land in the eyes or bloodstream. However, RainWing venom only affects living things such as leaves or flowers.

As each dragon's heritage is somewhat fuzzy, before mating, two RainWings will spray their venom on leaves or other plant matter to see if they are related. A RainWing's venom will neutralize their relative's venom, whereas an unrelated dragon's venom will cause the target to dissolve faster.

RainWing venom is black. When it hits hard ground, it will, after some time, dry into hard glossy droplets, similar to obsidian. While spitting their venom, RainWings fully open (unhinge) their mouth, much like a snake.

Society

RainWings are seen as lazy and unintelligent due to their tendency to lay around in the sun, although this is

File:Pyrrhia map-1.jpg

because the sun's rays have a positive effect on their bodies, making them prettier, smarter, less grumpy, and even less hungry. They appear to have a carefree society with almost no conflict; there is plenty of food, so they have no reason to fight. The adults don't even bother to watch the eggs, as demonstrated when Webs stole one to become the fifth dragonet of the prophecy. The RainWings all care for the dragonets together and drop by the hatcheries once every few days to pick up any new dragonets.

RainWings have had several different ways of becoming queen over time. In older times, RainWings fought for the throne like any other tribe, and later, they developed a nonviolent competition. Finally, the RainWings decided to take turns being queen— and any female in the Tribe who wished to become queen could for a period of one month. After Glory became queen via the nonviolent competition, this recent tradition appears to have vanished from the RainWing society.

RainWings rarely leave the Rainforest. They have no scrolls, can't read, can barely count, and know very little about the other dragon tribes or of the rest of Pyrrhia until Queen Glory began a dragonet school there.

They have crude blowguns, loaded with darts coated in tree-frog poison. They are used for playing games or when strange dragons wander into the forest. During the attack on the Night Kingdom, Queen Glory had the RainWings use them as weapons for knocking out opponents, as most of the RainWings would have been opposed to using their venom to kill another dragon. They later made an agreement with the NightWings and allowed them to live in the forest.

RainWings also keep and take great care of pet sloths, while the pets from other tribes are usually eaten or lost by mistake. This shows RainWings can be both caring and soft, and further highlighting their peaceful nature. When sloths climb on the back of a sleeping RainWings, that means they have been "chosen" and can then keep that sloth as a loving, loyal pet forever. Even Glory was "chosen" by a sloth which she at first refused to love, but then gave up and named it Silver.

In Winter Turning, it was revealed that NightWing dragonets play with RainWing dragonets in the hatchery. This might prove useful to the future of those kingdoms as also in that book it is shown that older NightWings hate the RainWings, this contrast is probably the result of not being raised among Rainwings.

Names

For names, RainWings tend to name their dragonets after rainforest animals, plants, virtues, and physical descriptions, such as Exquisite and Handsome. It was mentioned before that they go through a list that they had to name dragonets, and when they finished the list they'd start over again, revealing that some dragonets have the same names as each other.

RainWing Royal Challenge

The RainWings have developed a custom of challenging their queen for the throne that does not end in death, unlike the other dragon tribes. This method requires the current queen to pick a contest, or multiple contests, and she and the challenger compete for the throne. The winner becomes the queen.

Known RainWings

Colors

Colors to Moods

Red/Black = Angry/Upset
Orange = Irritated
Emerald = Displeasure/Annoyance
Gold/Yellow = Excited/Amused
Pink/Rose = Joy/Happiness
Pale/Lily Green/Acid Green = Fearful/Terrified
Green = Worried/Displeased/Annoyed
Blue = Calm/Curiosity
Indigo = Pride
Dark Purple = Shame/Guilt
Purple+Orange = Confused
White = Pain/Extreme Fear/Sick
Dark Gray/Blue-Gray = Sorrow/depressed
Pale Blue = Worried
Pale green/White=Can show hunger

Trivia

RainWing venom can be counteracted/canceled out by the venom of a blood relative.
If a dragon is targeted and is hit in the eyes, or the venom enters the bloodstream, the dragon would be killed quickly and painfully. However, if it only hits the scales, the dragon may live, but will be left horribly disfigured, some examples of this being Vengeance and Ex-Queen Scarlet.
RainWing venom only affects living things.
It is unknown if they can change their eye color. A quote from the third book seems to imply that they can, when Glory is disguising herself as an IceWing- "His pale blue scales, the color of sky-filled snow. His darker blue eyes. She felt the changes shimmer across her scales." However, Clay said that Glory had green eyes in The Dragonet Prophecy.
The oldest known RainWing in the series is Tapir, who lived to be one hundred and ten years old before starving himself in captivity of the NightWings.
RainWings that are deprived of sunlight are grumpier, ruder, and have duller scales, as seen with Glory.
A RainWing named Chameleon has a snout deformity, which prevents him from sleeping for more than an hour at a time. Because of this, he can't change the color of his scales, so his scales constantly stay lime-green. It is unknown if any other RainWings have suffered from this.
When Prince Albatross and Queen Lagoon were alive, RainWings were taken seriously, seen when Lagoon says “If we find another animus in the tribe, that would make us twice as powerful, which would be quite useful given how the MudWings and RainWings have been behaving lately," implying that the RainWings were a threat to SeaWings around that time.