Character Page

"*I'd like to be something more than alive. I'd like to be the kind of dragon she doesn't think I am — the kind they write prophecies about. That dragon who would save her no matter how awful she is.*"
—Clay to Glory and Tsunami about saving Kestrel, *The Dragonet Prophecy*

## Clay

* Cover
* GN
* Ref

## Affiliations

### Current

Hall monitor, healer, self-defense teacher, prey organizer at Jade Mountain Academy

### Former

Dragonet of destiny,
Captive of Queen Scarlet

## Book Appearances

* A1
* A2
* A3
* GN
* L
* W

### Appeared in

*The Dragonet Prophecy*,
*The Lost Heir*,
*The Hidden Kingdom*,
*The Dark Secret*,
*The Brightest Night*

### Appeared in

*w:c:wingsoffire:Moon Rising*,
*w:c:wingsoffire:Escaping Peril*,
*Talons of Power*,
*Darkness of Dragons*

### Mentioned in

*The Hive Queen*,
*The Poison Jungle*

### Appeared in

*The Dragonet Prophecy*,
*The Lost Heir*,
*The Hidden Kingdom*,
*The Dark Secret*

## *The Lost Heir*

### ISBN

**978-0545349192** (hardcover)
**978-0545349246** (paperback)

## Points of View

### Epilogue

Morrowseer

**Clay** is an adult male MudWing and the main protagonist of *The Dragonet Prophecy*. Formerly a dragonet of destiny, he is partly responsible for the end of the War of SandWing Succession and the founding of Jade Mountain Academy.

## Appearance

Clay is big, and built with a sloping back, a massive, lengthy neck, and a broad, coffee-toned head, as well as glistening white teeth. He is the largest of the dragonets of destiny and has a rumbly, deep, warm voice.

He also has fire-resistant, mud-brown scales. They are warm browns in the shades of rich mahogany and tree bark, along with undertones of glowing amber, and gold glinting between and beneath his scales. His scales are identical to the color of Wren's eyes.

He has enormous feet, and thick, brown claws, as well as mud-colored, massive, strong brown wings and warm brown eyes like his mother, Cattail.

On his right thigh, he has a scar from a dragonbite viper bite. He also has a deep bite wound in one of his forelegs from the battle at Jade Mountain.

## Personality

Clay is a friendly, strong, empathetic, protective, loving, caring, courageous, and extremely hungry dragon. He is committed to helping his friends and family, protecting them and keeping them safe at all costs. He is seen as a bigwings by most of his friends due to his selflessness, protectiveness, and kindness. He is willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, but he will stand up for himself and his loved ones at all costs, even willing to guard them with his own life. He is loyal to a fault, displayed when he refused to leave Glory with Kestrel in *The Dragonet Prophecy*. According to Webs, he would do anything to the other four dragonets of destiny. He is honest, kind, open, a bit daft, and would never intentionally hurt someone's feelings.

Clay also loves feasting and food in general (like most of the MudWings, as seen by Ochre), a fact of which Sunny takes full advantage of and regularly teases him about it, often calling him "adorable." Clay appears to have a liking for larger, more meaty meals. This is shown many times throughout the first arc; cows are one of his favorite meals, as shown in *The Dragonet Prophecy*, and in other instances, it's shown that he likes to eat meat more than vegetables or fruits.

He seems to be skilled in first aid and medical knowledge as shown in *The Lost Heir* and *Moon Rising*, and he teaches healing at Jade Mountain Academy.

## Biography

### The Dragonet Prophecy

Clay grew up with the other dragonets of destiny, Tsunami, Glory, Sunny, and Starflight under a large mountain in the Sky Kingdom. They were raised by Kestrel, Dune, and Webs, members of the Talons of Peace, although they had low opinions of their guardians, calling the first six years of their life an "imprisonment." Clay had trouble in battle training with Kestrel, who periodically attacked him with fire and complained about how he was too gentle, demanding to see more of the "vicious little monster" that she had supposedly seen in him when he hatched, referring to his eggshell-breaking episode. When the dragonets were old enough, they were supposed to leave the cave and fulfill the prophecy. However, they all possessed a desire to escape their confined existence, excluding Sunny. One day, the deliverer of the Dragonet Prophecy, Morrowseer, visited the cave to inspect the dragonets.

 File:ClayRiver.png
He decreed that Clay, Tsunami, and Starflight were worthy of staying, showing special favor toward Starflight, that Sunny was a possible candidate, and that Glory was an unworthy substitute for the deceased SkyWing mentioned in the prophecy. Clay eavesdropped on a talk between the guardians and Morrowseer through a river that ran throughout the entire cave and, overheard that they were planning to have Kestrel kill Glory the next night by snapping her neck. Tsunami was chained as part of this plot, as she was the only one who could stop Kestrel from killing Glory. Knowing that time was running out, Clay escaped through the underground river after a brief conversation about the possible consequences of doing so. Glory showed her friends her RainWing camouflage ability for the first time, changing her scales' colors to match the rocks and stalactites in the cave, buying more time. Risking his life, and relying on his ability to hold his breath for an hour, Clay managed to get reasonably far down the river, but he was then covered with a substance that started to dissolve his scales (likely sulfur or sulfuric acid). He was rescued from this unfortunate fate by Tsunami, who finally succeeded in escaping her chains with the aid of Sunny and Starflight's fire. After catching up to Clay, the two swam through the cave filled with glowworms and toxic sticky white substances until they burst outside, emerging from the waterfall that dropped at the cave entrance. This caused the two dragonets to start flying, or trying to fly, in Tsunami's case. After Clay got over the bout of excitement caused by his first flight, he noticed that Tsunami had rapidly fallen. Upon looking closer, Clay guessed one of her wings was dislocated, and this was the reason she was unable to fly properly. He barreled into a dive and sped towards her as fast as he could. He wasn't strong enough to stop her fall, but he was able to slow her down until they crashed into trees and thudded to the grassy ground.

 File:ClayTsunamiSunrise.png
Clay was unsurprisingly delighted by the mud that was bordering the banks of the river they had landed beside. After convincing Tsunami he could push the dislocated bone back into its socket, a scavenger, most likely Mushroom, appears in the clearing. It was holding a sword and a burlap sack. Upon further investigation, they found the sack contained a variety of jewels, gold, and jewelry. The duo then encountered Scarlet of the SkyWings, who insisted they would return to her kingdom after she had a conversation with Clay and decided they could be useful. Knowing they had to get back to their friends still trapped in the cave, they had no choice but to injure the regal SkyWing by stabbing the scavenger's sword into the vulnerable spot on her tail. They managed to quickly escape before Scarlet found them and find their cave and were able to free their friends shortly afterward, but were captured by the enraged Queen Scarlet, due to the smoke signal the remaining dragonets had set so that Tsunami and Clay could find the cave and free them.

 File:ClayVFjord.png
Queen Scarlet challenged different prisoners against each other in gladiatorial style battles in her dreaded arena for her and her subjects' entertainment. If the prisoner won enough battles, she would put them against her champion, Peril. Peril was invulnerable because of a rare birth defect that caused her to be born with too much fire. This meant that Peril would burn anything she touched, so she couldn't read or write and had to be extremely cautious around other dragons. Clay began to befriend Peril, strangely immune to her heat. Clay volunteered to stand in for Starflight after learning he was next to fight in the arena. Queen Scarlet sent Clay to face off Fjord of the IceWings, who managed to pin him down. Fjord was about to strike the killing blow with his deadly frost breath when Glory secretly shot acidic venom that dissolved his face, and Clay was victorious. Later on, he decided to hide Peril during Kestrel's trial in exchange for the knowledge of Sunny's location.

 File:ClaySong.png
After the trial, Peril did not speak with him. That night Queen Scarlet had her ally, Burn over. To get Peril's attention, he used a wire Peril had accidentally burned through earlier, dragging it across his other wires to create a sound. He started playing The Dragonets Are Coming, and soon the other prisoners joined in. Scarlet and Burn noticed the racket and Clay, Starflight, and Tsunami were taken to Peril's room, where Peril helped them escape. With the help of Peril, Clay and his friends tried to escape, only to be betrayed by Peril herself. During this vain escape, he learned that his scales were impervious to fire.

 File:ClayVPeril.png
The following day was Queen Scarlet's hatching day, so she set up bloody plans for her and Burn's entertainment. The three confused dragonets (Starflight, Tsunami, and Clay) were taken to the balcony of the queens, on which Burn and Scarlet were seated on as well. He watched helplessly as Tsunami was forced to fight a mad SeaWing named Gill, who was later revealed to be her father. After Tsunami killed him, Clay was also forced to watch Starflight and Tsunami fight scavengers and IceWings. After Starflight was rescued by Morrowseer and the other NightWings, Clay was faced against Peril. He surprised her with his ability to fight back, and quickly pinned her, but wouldn't kill her. When Scarlet suggested Clay used what she thought was his venom, Glory shot venom from her front longest fangs at Burn, who shoved Scarlet in the way. The venom hit Scarlet in the side of her face, causing it to melt. They were then able to escape with Peril's help, and succeeded in rescuing Kestrel in the process, the action in which Clay and Sunny were the only supporters.

 File:ClaySibs.png

## Relationships

### Starflight

As with the other dragonets, Clay considers Starflight a brother. He took the dragonbite viper bite meant for Starflight and shielded him when the volcano of the NightWing Fortress exploded. Although Clay gets bored of Starflight's lectures sometimes, he cares about him quite a lot, so much that he would risk his life to keep him safe. Starflight sees Clay as his bigwings, as the rest of the dragonets do. All in all, Starflight and Clay have a good relationship.

### Tsunami

Tsunami is among Clay's closest friends. She found and cured him when Clay was drenched in the white ooze in the underground river and his scales were burning with pain. Also, she stabbed Scarlet's tail with a sword to allow herself and Clay to fly away from the SkyWing queen. Later, she calls Clay a "handsome idiot" and gives him a hint that Peril likes him, though it goes right over his head because Clay is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Throughout the book, Tsunami often interjects when Clay talks about Glory and Sunny in front of Peril because she appears to understand that Peril gets jealous. After she and Clay escape from under the mountain, Clay notices how beautiful and shiny her scales were in full moonlight (he says that they looked like emeralds). In *The Lost Heir*, she states she had feelings for Clay and Starflight but had gotten over her crush when she realized Clay thought of her as a sister and that Starflight was "too annoying."
She was also the second one to hatch, and the first egg Clay tried to help with hatching.

## Family Tree

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## Quotes

"*I'd like to be something more than alive. I'd like to be the kind of dragon she doesn't think I am - the kind they write prophecies about. That dragon would rescue her no matter how awful she is.*"
― to Peril, about saving Kestrel (*The Dragonet Prophecy*, page 241)

"*With a feast![…] There was a feast at the end of the story! When the missing SeaWing princess got home, her parents were so happy they made a feast! I remember the feast. They ate a whole whale. I bet **I** could eat a whole whale. Do you think we'll get a feast?*"
― to the dragonets of destiny about *The Missing Princess* (*The Lost Heir*, page 5)

"*You know what I love? […] Fish. Lots of fish. Big fish I can eat, not these little wriggle-scraps.*"
― to Tsunami (*The Lost Heir*, page 2)

"*I like it, […] Of course, it's much nicer to be this high when your wings are free. But at least the SkyWings gave us a pig sometimes. Do you have pigs? Octopi would be alright if you don't. Or squid. Or manatees. I could go for a manatee right now. Or a whale. I'm not fussy, is what I'm saying. Say, how did you make this big thing? Did it take forever to build?*"
― to Riptide, about the SkyWing pillars and Summer Palace (*The Lost Heir*, page 73)

"*I'm awake, […] I'm just waiting until Glory and Tsunami stop fighting. I was dreaming about sheep and buffalo and bears. They were all on the table in front of me and I had to decide which to eat first. Oh, and they all smelled like melons. That part was kind of weird.*"
― to Sunny (*The Hidden Kingdom*, page 51)

"*I'd die to save you and Starflight over and over if I had to.*"
― to Sunny after saving her, Fatespeaker, and Starflight from the dragonbite viper. (*The Brightest Night*, page 280)

"*Well, I know what I want my destiny to be. I want it to be sleeping and being friends with you guys forever. Oh wait, also feasting! Lots of feasting.*"
― to the dragonets of destiny (*The Brightest Night*, Epilogue, page 308)

"*CHICKENS, GIVE UP! WE'RE GOING TO EAT YOU! THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT! STOP RUNNING AWAY NOW!*"
― to the chickens in the Prey Center (*Moon Rising*, page 36)

"*This is a school, you know. Sunny and I thought perhaps an entire cave full of sharp objects might not be the best idea. We thought, maybe, hey, something that locks instead.*"
― to Qibli, about Jade Mountain Academy's weapons box (*Darkness of Dragons*, page 56)
## Trivia

* Clay sometimes dreams about Starflight giving him lectures.
* As revealed in *The Dark Secret* when Starflight dream visited him, Clay also dreams about food.
* In the annotated version of *The Dragonet Prophecy*, Tui revealed that she had originally wanted him to have a crush on Glory, but decided that it wouldn't work.
* Tui has said that Clay was one of the easiest characters to write just because she adores him, and she says "affable/kindhearted/loyal/hungry is exactly my type of hero."
* In the graphic novel adaptation of *The Dragonet Prophecy*, his eyes are yellow.
* Clay has clearly appeared on a book cover four times which is the second-highest amount in the series (Tsunami has the most, with five appearances). Clay appeared twice on *The Dragonet Prophecy (graphic novel)*, once on *The Lost Heir (graphic novel)*, and once on *The Dragonet Prophecy*.
* Tui revealed in an interview that Clay was the first *Wings of Fire* character she ever came up with.

## Gallery

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## References

#### Books

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#### Events

1. ↑  Stated by Tui, source
2. ↑  Stated by Tui, source  (21:24)