Scarlet
Template:Infobox CharacterQueen Scarlet was the queen of the SkyWings and the main antagonist of The Dragonet Prophecy. She is orange with blazing gold eyes, and she often wore gold chain mail armor with rubies and amber drops embedded on her torso, eyebrows, and wings. She was described as smaller then Kestrel, implying that she might be smaller then the average SkyWing, though Kestrel is described as large.
Part of her face has been melted by Glory's venom, leaving a gruesome mess. However, she survived the attack and is plotting future revenge.Part of her face got melted because she was making the dragonets of destiny fight in an arena.
Biography
Queen Scarlet is one of the longest lived SkyWing queens, surviving fourteen challengers. No one had even tried in almost nine years prior to The Dragonet Prophecy due to the war, saving her a lot of trouble. She decided to ally with Burn and the MudWings in the great war, and began to use the war to entertain herself. Scarlet would pit prisoners of war against each other in the SkyWing Arena, claiming if they won a certain number of fights, they would go free.
Years before, Kestrel, a loyal soldier, entered the breeding program and yielded one egg with twin dragonets. Because one was born with too much fire, and the other too little, she ordered her to kill the dragonets and stay out of the program for her entire life. Despite this, Kestrel tried to flee with them, prompting Scarlet to change the order: if Kestrel killed one of the dragonets, she would be allowed to go free with the other. Kestrel killed the one with no fire with her own claws, an act that haunted her for the rest of her life, but Scarlet revealed she had lied and ordered her guards to take Kestrel back for trial. Kestrel tried to flee with the dragonet with too much fire, but was burnt upon contact. She was forced to flee alone, leaving her only daughter with Scarlet.
She named the dragonet Peril, and due to her invulnerability, she trained her as her champion of the arena. To ensure loyalty, she told Peril that she herself had killed her brother and her mother attempted to kill her, but was thwarted by the SkyWing queen. Scarlet also told Peril she needed to eat black rocks to survive, poisoning her food the day she did not eat them.
Seven years later, a scavenger stole treasure from Scarlet and fled. This led her to stumble across Clay and Tsunami, who were escaping from the Talons of Peace. She told them to come with her after Clay tried to explain what they had been doing in SkyWing territory for six years. To escape, Tsunami impaled her tail into the ground with a scavenger claw, infuriating her. This led to her following their signal fire and
capturing the dragonets of destiny and Kestrel, killing Dune while Webs managed to escape.
Scarlet caged Sunny in her hall, imprisoned Kestrel, made Glory an art piece, and put Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight into the arena. She wanted to pit Starflight first, but Clay talked her out of it by denouncing Tsunami as "just another SeaWing." She pitted Clay against Fjord, telling Peril to stay away from him. An unknown black substance (now known to be Glory's venom) killed Fjord, so Scarlet allowed Clay to live. She held a trial the following day where Kestrel was sentenced to death, Osprey killed, and Peril learning who she truly was.
After Burn arrived, she took the three dragonets into a cave for singing. After Peril helped them escape, she told the queen where they were to keep Clay in the Sky Kingdom, thus betraying the dragonets. The next day, which was Scarlet's hatching day, Tsunami was pitted against an insane SeaWing named Gill, later revealed to be her own father. Furthermore, Starflight had to fight against scavengers. However, Tsunami and Starflight defeated two of the scavengers before Queen Scarlet decided to pit Starflight against a group of IceWings, a tribe who loathed NightWings. Before she could do so, Morrowseer came to Starflight's rescue and the other NightWings proceeded to slaughter the IceWing captives.
Queen Scarlet then pitted Peril against Clay, knowing Peril was using the Champion's Shield in an attempt to save her mother, Kestrel. During the battle, she told Clay to use his venom, not knowing it was Glory who possessed that ability. Ironically, upon asking him to do so, Glory reared up, broke her chain and spat venom at Burn, who pushed the SkyWing queen in front of her. She was presumed then to have been killed in the chaos, with her daughter, Ruby, succeeding her.
Scarlet does not formally appear. However, two SeaWing soldiers claimed that they had seen a group of SkyWings arguing while on patrol, some of them claiming that Scarlet was still alive and was the rightful SkyWing queen, while others were shouting, "For Ruby!" It shows that the SkyWing queen maybe changed somehow.
Scarlet used a magical artifact from an animus dragon called a dreamvisitor to talk to Glory via her dreams. It is said that her face has become a "smeared mess". When Glory asks where she is, Scarlet says that she will tell her if the RainWing promised to free her. Glory refused to do so, and this caused the former queen to become angry, because she believed Glory owed her for damaging her formerly good looks with her venom. She also says that she knows where the dragonets are.
Scarlet does not formally appear, but she is mentioned by Burn, who has kidnapped her and is holding her prisoner in her stronghold because she "is in no condition to fight Ruby for the throne." But it is believed that Burn has been lieing and wants to stuff her.
Queen Scarlet was found by Sunny in Burn's Stronghold. She was held in Burn's weirdling collection, and destroyed as much of it as she could in her frustration. She later escaped with assistance from Peril, during an Outclaw siege on Burn's Stronghold. Before her rescue, she appeared in Peril's dreams. After the attack, she vanished again.
Over the course of Moon Rising, Queen Scarlet used a dreamvisitor to appear in the dreams of Icicle, a student at the Jade Mountain Academy and an heiress to the IceWing throne. She revealed that she was keeping Icicle and Winter's brother, Hailstorm prisoner. Scarlet made a bargain with Icicle, telling her that if she killed the Dragonets of Destiny that she would release her brother. At the end of the book, after failing to kill Starflight, Icicle presumably fled to the Rainforest Kingdom to assassinate Queen Glory.
In the epilogue, Scarlet is seen at an unknown location with an unknown companion. She dreamvisits Peril and discovers that Icicle did not succeed in killing the dragonets, and becomes frustrated. Scarlet then contemplates killing the dragonets herself, perhaps from a distance. It is then revealed that her companion is in possession of Darkstalker's ancient scroll.
Personality
Scarlet was never afraid of conflict, which she demonstrated through her brutal arena, making use of Peril's unusual abilities. She was a harsh and cold ruler, someone who was not easily defeated or outsmarted. She also believed that using fear would carry out her orders unquestioned. However, this led to her losing Peril and Glory, both of whom she had lied to and threatened with death more than once.
She also used other dragons' ignorance to her advantage, such as when she lied to Peril about the black rocks and poisoned her food. She also liked showing off her wealth, and wore chain mail studded with rubies and amber drops and encrusted her eyebrows, scales, and wings with gems. Her palace is decorated with veins of gold, which no one dared to steal. She seems to over-react or become extremely excited about certain events, and she often says the word "thrilling." This tendency also proved to be a weakness, distracting her long enough for Glory to attack her. She become more bitter and vicious after being attacked by Glory and imprisoned by Burn, seeing those two as the source of her problems and plotting revenge on them.
Trivia
- The deceased SkyWing dragonet of destiny may have been Scarlet's child, as the egg was stolen from the palace.
- She is the only dragon to disappear this many times.
- Nobody knows where she went when she disappeared.
Gallery
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Queen Scarlet, post-venom, imprisoned in the tower. Art (c) Jeredu.
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after Glory's venom
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Scarlet is on the right. -
By ~FrostBiteCreature -
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A typical SkyWing. -
Queen Scarlet ....
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Scarlet is top middle -
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by Lightningstrike -
Art by Clover Stone
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Queen Scarlet, traditionally drawn by NikkiMcCloud
