The Dragonet Prophecy

“But he wasn’t a natural-hatched hero. He had no legendary qualities at all. He liked sleeping more than studying, and he kept losing chickens in the caves during hunting practice because he was paying attention to his friends instead of watching for feathers.”

In the opening lines of the novel, Clay reflects on what others tell him a hero is, and who he knows he is. This tension between what is expected of him and who he wants to be evolves his character over the course of the novel.

“Clay wished his wings where as vast as the cavern itself so he could hide his friends from Morrowseer. He wished his talons were as huge as the stalagmites and as sharp as the rock shards. He wished he were big enough to be brave and brave enough to be big. He never wanted anything as much as he wanted to protect his friends from this tall, hissing, scornful, immensely dangerous dragon.”

Clay’s desire to defend his friends in the face of terrible danger overwhelms him. The novel explores the tension between who he wants to be, who he is, and what he must become to fulfill his destiny. Meeting Morrowseer thrusts Clay and the other dragonets onto their path in a way they weren’t expecting. Clay’s feelings during this inciting incident foreshadows his character development.

“It’s not natural, that much loyalty in a dragon [...] especially to dragons outside your own tribe.”

The dragonets often stand up for one another to their guardians and any dragon who mistreats one of them. Clay especially stands up for his “sibs,” the dragonets of destiny. Adult dragons think their behavior is strange, but the dragonets’ behavior foreshadows one aspect of their role in the prophecy: to teach dragons how to get along with and support one another.

“‘Lucky I’m not the type to suffer and die in silence,’ Clay said. But he couldn’t help thinking…What would have happened if I hadn’t cried out? What if we had missed each other?”

Clay almost dies on his journey down the river, and Tsunami arrives just in time to save him. Clay feels like a failure in the aftermath, but his questions to himself underscore the dragonets’ dedication to surviving together. Clay doesn’t yet accept that his type of heroism requires working together instead of trying to be a hero alone.

“Clay glanced up at the sky, remembering that they’d popped out into a world at war. It seemed so peaceful here. From the way the big dragons talked, he’d imagined the entire world as a giant battlefield. It was strange to be in a quiet clearing, with no sights or sounds of war or even other dragons anywhere nearby.”

Clay and Tsunami have fun being outside of the cave, so much so that they forget that the world is a serious and dangerous place. Moments of levity and beauty like this one balance out the dark moments. Clay and Tsunami’s time in the mountains is an example of both: They play, run into Queen Scarlet, attack her, and appreciate the colors of each other’s scales in their first sunrise, all in one morning.

“The bigness of everything kept overwhelming Clay. How would they ever find their friends again in all of this? And even if they did, what could five dragonets do to save a world this big?”

On his first foray outside of the cave, Clay is both excited and overwhelmed by the world around them. He vacillates between the two feelings in the same day. The vastness of the open sky represents the vastness of the world, and the enormity of the entire dragon way of life that rests on the shoulders of the not-yet-grown dragonets.

“Clay’s heart ached. They’d come so close to freedom, but now they were far worse off than before. Life under the mountain had felt like prison… but he knew it was nothing compared to being trapped in the claws of the SkyWing queen.”

The end of Part 1 marks a major turning point in the novel’s plot. Clay’s feelings and thoughts are ominous and foreshadow the shock and terror the dragonets will experience in the Sky Kingdom. These sentences build suspense and reflect the chapter structure throughout the novel.

“‘...maybe I was born that way, but does that mean I’m like that forever? I guess I hope I have a choice, is all. I want to be who I want to be not who I have to be. Right? Do you ever—I mean, wouldn’t you want to be different if you could be anyone?’ ‘No’ Peril said, clawing at the rock under her talons. ‘I’ve accepted myself, and I like myself this way. You should do the same thing.’”

Peril’s advice to Clay during this scene will come full circle by the end of the novel. As they both struggle to reconcile their true nature with who they want to be, Peril and Clay have many disagreements that help them understand themselves and one another better. By the end of the novel, Clay will have made his choices about who he wants to be, and Peril will be evaluating hers.

“Her story had a feel of wrongness to it, like scales that didn’t overlap properly. It seemed pretty convenient that the queen just happened to have a way to control the most dangerous dragon in her kingdom. But he was hardly an expert on SkyWings with weird, deadly conditions.”

Adult dragons often tell Clay he’s not very smart. Clay shows that his intelligence is more intuitive than bookish. He can tell when something is wrong, even if he can’t explain it to others, propelling his actions throughout the novel and setting him apart from the older dragons who resist the dragonets.

“‘What about other dragons?’ Clay asked, turning around to face her. He wondered if this was a trick he could use to heal his friends, if they were ever together and free again.”

Peril helps Clay recover from his battle in the arena by bringing him mud, which makes him feel rejuvenated almost instantly. Clay asks Peril if mud does the same for other dragons because he really doesn’t know. Clay’s question is a prime example of the mind-state of his character: He’s always thinking about his friends, his troop, his family, and how to take care of them.

“Haven’t I kept you alive all these years? [...] Finding you the black rocks, feeding you, making you my champion? Don’t you appreciate all the things I’ve done for you? Aren’t I a better mother than her anyway?”

After Peril learns that Queen Scarlet has been lying to her all her life, the queen still tries to manipulate her. To keep Kestrel and Peril apart, Queen Scarlet plays on the dragonet’s desire to have a mother to take care of her. Peril’s relationship with both Queen Scarlet and Kestrel supports the novel’s themes around family, belonging, and kindness.

“So you’ve figured out what MudWings hatched from blood red eggs can do [...] I suppose it was only a matter of time.”

Clay and his friends learn that he’s impervious to fire by accident. When Clay touches Peril, he doesn’t get burned. The contrast between the two dragons plays out in their conversations, their different beliefs about violence, and their physical differences, too.

“The warmth and weight of the other two was just what Clay needed. Despite his fears about the morning, his guilt over trusting Peril, and his sadness at her betrayal, he was asleep within moments. And he didn’t have a single nightmare.”

The joy Clay feels when he’s reunited with the dragonets of destiny highlights his main character motivation: keeping his troop together. The moments of shared laughter and love between the dragonets inject levity into the novel, which keeps it from becoming overwhelmingly dark.

“‘I’ve won,’ Tsunami shouted. ‘You can all see that. We can end this now, without killing anyone. I ask you all to let me let him live!’”

Tsunami addresses the dragons in the arena the same way the queen does. She makes a point to try to continue Gill’s legacy, to stop the fighting in the arena, by asking the crowd for approval. It’s a sneaky way to see if the crowd has really turned in favor of the dragonets and away from Queen Scarlet. Tsunami’s attempt to exert peace is not accepted, but shows the dragonets teaching peace, even when they fail.

“Burn growled low in her throat. ‘This is a frivolous palace,’ she muttered. ‘Careful how you speak of your allies,’ Scarlet said. ‘Remember you need us.’”

Conversations between Queen Scarlet and Burn reveal that their allyship is tenuous at best. The dragons don’t always respect each other, but they bond over their shared passion for violence. Burn killed all the SkyWing eggs, which would have required Queen Scarlet’s permission. With Burn indebted to her, Queen Scarlet manipulates Burn to agree with her way of doing things often, illustrating the dynamics Queen Scarlet maintains in her relationships with the others to hold on to power.

“‘I know I don’t know much about anything’ he said. ‘But I think it doesn’t have to work like this.’ ‘It does,’ Peril said […] ‘Dragons kill each other all the time. In war, in here, anywhere, for no reason at all. That’s how we are. Especially you and me. We’re the same. We’re dangerous.’”

In his fight with Peril, Clay refuses to kill Peril or fight her to the death. He forces her to talk. Other dragons listen and the scene provides clues to how the dragonets might go about fulfilling their destiny. Clay’s refusal to kill Peril demonstrates the very changes that he and the other dragonets are to accomplish.

“We’re going to find our homes [...] And our parents. We’re going to see this war firsthand, instead of reading about it in scrolls. And then we’ll figure out for ourselves if we’re going to do anything about it.”

On the brink of freedom, Tsunami lays out a plan for how the dragonets will continue their education and training on their own terms. The dragonets hope for family and a personal journey to figure out their place in the world and to learn more about themselves based on their tribal homes. Tsunami insists that playing a role in the prophecy is optional, highlighting a theme that will recur throughout the series.

“Listen, MudWing. For all your noble talk, you’re not going to be any use to the others if you can’t fight and kill to defend them. Just think about that.”

Kestrel’s final warning to Clay resonates. Although Clay has resolved many of his internal conflicts, Kestrel insists that the reality of war may require him to kill other dragons to keep his friends safe. Kestrel’s warning is so late in the novel to maintain the tension between peace and violence open for exploration in other novels.

“Wind that smelled of the sea whistled around his ears as they swooped down. Reeds bent and ducked away from the breeze of their landing. Clay felt his claws sink into wet, marshy dirt, and a shiver of joy around along his spine.”

Arriving in the Mud Kingdom and landing in the fresh earth fills Clay with joy. Dragons finding power and joy in their element is a recurring motif in the novel and throughout the series. Clay’s joy in returning to his home kingdom contrasts the joy of his found family in the other dragonets, providing a tone of conflict as he learns more about his family.

“‘Oh that egg,’ Cattail said with a yawn. ‘Asha got all excited about that. Don’t know why; the village has a red egg every few years or so. But I didn’t lose it.’”

Facing his mother, Clay doesn’t receive the warm welcome he read about in the scrolls. His mother is dismissive and hurts Clay’s feelings. In the face of this hurtful disappointment, he can see that his mother isn’t being mean intentionally. He finds the family reunion he was seeking when he meets his siblings. Clay’s disappointment shows that the family someone hopes for isn’t always the best family they can have, but the best family they have is the one that makes them feel love, belonging, and purpose.

“His brothers and sisters couldn’t believe how little he knew about MudWing life, but they were happy to explain it all to him, their words tumbling over one another. The five of them coiled together naturally in the tall grass, tails and talons and wings entwined, with Umber climbing up their backs and standing on heads to make himself heard.”

This image of Clay’s siblings happily piled together mirrors several other images of Clay piling up with the dragonets of destiny the exact same way. When Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight sleep in Peril’s chambers, they sleep in a pile. In the final image of the novel, the dragonets of destiny fall into a pile laughing with one another. This recurring image is used to highlight themes about family, friends, and belonging.

“‘No,’ he said to his brothers and sisters. ‘Reed is your bigwings. You trust him and you need him. I couldn’t replace him, even if I tried.’ [...] ‘Besides,’ Glory said, ‘he can’t stay with you. He’s our bigwings.’”

Clay’s siblings invite him to stay with them, but Clay turns them down. He respects their tight knit family structure, but he knows his return wouldn’t be good for his siblings. Glory reminds Clay of his rightful troop and his role with the dragonets of destiny by calling him their bigwings, cementing the bonds between the dragonets and affirming Clay’s place with the dragonets.

“He didn’t take me to the secret NightWing kingdom, if that’s what you’re wondering. I didn’t even get to meet any of the dragons he brought with him. We just stayed up in the mountain peaks, waiting. I guess he wanted to see what would happen to you guys.”

Starflight describes his time with Morrowseer to the other dragonets. The NightWing prophet’s behavior seems odd and disappointing to Starflight, and in the context of the epilogue, creates a cliffhanger that points the next book in the series.