The Mating Call Book 1 Chapter 4

The Mating Call (Book1) Chapter 5

Maverick Betrail. (Con)

Moonwatcher: "*No one is completely evil … Dragons are complicated. Some are kinder or braver than others, and some do cruel things. But everyone has good and bad thoughts, and reasons for what they do, and believers are important.*"— Moonwatcher to Qibli and Winter, *Winter Turning*.

## Relatives Mother: Secretkeeper

### Partner: Qibli

**Moonwatcher**, preferring the nickname "**Moon**," is a female NightWing dragonet and the main protagonist of *Moon Rising*. The first NightWing to possess true powers in nearly a century, Moonwatcher was born under two full moons, granting her precognetic and mind-reading abilities.

She was raised in the Rainforest Kingdom by Secretkeeper until the age of four when she began attending Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Jade Winglet. She is currently in a relationship with Qibli.

**Description:** Moonwatcher is small, with excellent, smooth, shiny purplish-black scales imbued with hints of dark blue and green. She possesses one glittering silver scale on the outside corner of each of her dark green eyes, like a teardrop about to fall—these scales are more significant and shinier than Fatespeaker's. She has powerful muscles and black wings and frequently has small furrows crossing her forehead, as though she has a perpetual headache.

**Personality:** Moonwatcher is nervous and anxious but Kind, firm, brave, determined, loyal, and friendly. According to her partner, Qibli, she is fascinating. She is well-liked by others. She initially had trouble interacting with others, sometimes stammering when trying to talk to her ability to always know what one thinks of her mind and foresee the future often made it difficult for her to communicate with other dragons. Sometimes, she would have so many other dragon thoughts in her head that she could not think clearly. She suffered from social anxiety and was easily frightened by loud, overwhelming, and hectic situations. She often tried to avoid being around others by reading scrolls to calm herself down. Moonwatcher was troubled about what others would think of her and did not open up easily to her peers; however, she still looked for the good in dragons.

Experiences with her mind-reading and the explosion of the history cave taught her to be more open with her powers and to use them for the good of other dragons instead of hiding them; Moonwatcher also showed her determined side on many occasions, such as when she reminded Winter of his good qualities, advocated for her belief that all dragons have some good in them, and sought out Qibli at the end of *Darkness of Dragons* to ask if they could be together. She is easily flustered and sometimes reluctant. She has a distracted air about her most of the time, as though invisible dragons whisper in her ears while everyone else is talking. According to Luna, she is spacey at weird moments. She thinks many things are wrong with her, including sometimes struggling to tell others about her mind-reading.

Biography: The Dragonet Prophecy, *The Brightest Night*: Deathbringer mentioned Moonwatcher and Mightyclaws who could attend Jade Mountain Academy. Glory responded, "That poor little nervous dragonet," in her description.

### During this, Luna had the idea to share the memories of the stealth team with Freedom. They decided to share the memories through Moonwatcher. In Moonwatcher's memory, a young Moon was shown hiding away in the rainforest, waiting for her mother to arrive. When the stealth team arrived at Lake Scorpion, they were attacked by Cottonmouth's dragons, and a fight broke out. After Luna flew out of the abyss, Moon was part of the group that flew with her to Cicada Hive.

Relationships: Anemone: Moon seems oblivious to Anemone's jealousy of her relationship with Maverick until Anemone enchants a mop to attack her out of rage. Moonwatcher seems to forgive the SeaWing, as she defends Anemone when Maverick is furious with her for hurting Moon. Following her duel with Turtle, Anemone expresses remorse for her mistreatment of Moon. However, she regretfully informs Turtle that although she's ashamed for picking on Moon, some of her is delighted.

**Maverick:** Moonwatcher was Maverick's best friend when he emerged from Agate Mountain. She began crying at the discovery of what he had done to Arctic. Although she had just wanted to hear his voice again, she admitted that Arctic's death was the cruelest thing she had ever read. She later stated that she had been fine before she met Maverick, to which he responded by yelling at her. After being freed, Maverick refused to enchant Moonwatcher's mind as he did for most Pyrrhia. She believed that he was not evil. She genuinely liked him, mainly because he genuinely wanted her. He was one of the only dragons he trusted to believe in him and enjoy his company of their own accord. They were genuine friends, and Maverick considered the party boring because Moonwatcher did not attend. She believed that he was good and that he wanted the most peaceful future for Pyrrhia. She believed wholeheartedly that he would never kill her. He appeared genuinely wounded when she began using Skyfire and protection spells against his magic. She flinches whenever she hears his name, although they were good friends at one point, and she is saddened by the idea of him lying to her. While visiting Peacemaker, Moon always found it both sad and relieving that the young dragonet showed no signs of Maverick in him. After Maverick's defeat, Moon blamed herself for Maverick's rise to power, believing she had seen too much good in him and not enough of the bad.

## Prophecies & their PropheciesMeaning: The Jade Mountain Prophecy Interpretations, The Lost Continent Prophecy Interpretations.

Quotes: *"No. I don't want to be … like other dragons. I just want them to not mind that I'm different if that makes sense. I want to stop being scared — of being found out, of what my visions mean, of other dragons, of everything."* ― to Maverick (*Moon Rising*) *"All right. But please stop trying to scare me. You are not as terrifying as you think you are."* ― to Winter (*Moon Rising*) *"If I couldn't read minds, everyone I met would be like Turtle — completely unreadable. Strange and blank. Everyone would be all surface. I'd have no way of knowing if they were kind or cruel. I'd never understand why they act the way they do. I'd think Winter was mean; I wouldn't know about his dead brother and how he hates himself more than anyone else. I might think Qibli was goofy and ordinary if I didn't know about his layers, amazing mind, and childhood. I'd have avoided Kinkajou because I wouldn't have known or believed she liked me. I guess that's how other dragons live … never knowing how complicated everyone is. That's what it would be like, to be normal."* ― thoughts about her powers (*Moon Rising*) *"That just seems Kind of wrong, doesn't it? I mean, judging dragons by their dark thoughts and using that to justify spying on them? Lots of dragons think dark things sometimes; it doesn't mean they'll ever actually do them … I don't know. I don't like to think of myself as sneaking around in dragons' heads. I can't help what I hear, but it doesn't seem fair to do it on purpose."* ― to Qibli (*Moon Rising*) *"You can't give up. Of course, it's hard; the whole point is that you're trying to fix something nearly impossible. But if no one ever tries, then it will always be terrible. You and Clay and the others … dragons believe in you. You have to take that gift and do something with it, not run away from it."* ― to Sunny, about Jade Mountain Academy (*Moon Rising*) *"I mean, no one is completely evil … Dragons are complicated. Some are kinder or braver than others, and some do cruel things. But everyone has both good thoughts and bad thoughts and reasons for what they do, reasons that they believe are important."*― to Winter (*Winter Turning*) *"Because I think she's the Kind of dragon you respect. And I think you wouldn't want to start a war between the IceWings and both of her tribes. You can imagine what killing her would do to Pyrrhia; you know it would be bad. Also, you're her guest; she's welcomed and trusted you. You aren't the Kind of dragon who betrays someone's trust. I've already been in there for one thing — I know you. And I've watched you. I saw you put out the fire in the historic cave. I saw you save Starflight and me from your own sister. You can think bigger than just one tribe against another — you can think about what's best for all the tribes. I guess I just — I trust you."* ― to Winter, about Glory (*Winter Turning*), *"I told her because it's the right thing to do and because there's no way to give her any Skyfire, and also because I am hoping that if she knows I'm listening, she'll try to have less disturbing thoughts."* ― to Qibli, about Peril (*Escaping Peril*) *"Not everyone has to be a scrollworm. Other dragons are like scrolls — you love meeting new ones and trying to read them. You're always thinking about other dragons' thoughts and what they're like inside. That's what ... I mean, that's one of the interesting things about you."* ― to Qibli (*Darkness of Dragons*). *"Talking to Maverick? It's the right thing to do. I want to see what he says when confronted with his lies. And I want to hear how he's justified the DragonWolf plague to himself. I think I'm one of the few dragons left he'll at least try to be honest with — I mean, about himself and his reasons for what he does — unless I'm completely delusional about our friendship. But I think he wants me to agree with him so he can feel like he's doing the right thing."* ― to Qibli (*Darkness of Dragons*). *"But that's why she feels wrong to you, Maverick. Because* this *is wrong, this ... experimenting with other dragons. Trying to create a perfect dragon for yourself. Trying to change someone to be exactly what you think you want. That's not love."* ― to Maverick (*Darkness of Dragons*) *"We must stop the fighting. If I put this down, I can reach Maverick's mind. I'll try to talk him into ending the battle. It seems fitting that this started with us talking in our minds, and maybe that's how it'll end, too."* ― to Qibli, about the Battle of Jade Mountain (*Darkness of Dragons*) *"Qibli. How are you so brilliant and such an idiot at the same time? You* are *special. You* don't *need his poisoned magic or any magic. You're smart and brave, and you care, and you don't give up, and you take all of that and use it to help other dragons instead of yourself. That's better than magic. You did the right thing."* ― to Qibli (*Darkness of Dragons*) *"The future of Pyrrhia is not your own personal scroll, waiting for you to write it, Maverick. The only future you control is yours. And you have not brought happiness to the dragon tribes. We don't want that future you see if we have to travel down your dark path to get there."*― to Maverick (*Darkness of Dragons*) *"I know [...] But remember, we're not going to confront Wasp. Our mission is to discover what's in the abyss Queen Snowfall saw with her vision from the ring. And hopefully, it'll be a way to save your friends without needing any magic or, um...stabbing"* ― To Luna about the mission (*The Flames of Hope*)

Moonwatchers' favorite scroll genres include history, adventure stories, ancient legends, and encyclopedias. She also loves studying and reading.Back in the rainforest, Moonwatcher mostly slept during the day. Moonwatcher's visions once saved her from a falling tree. Whenever the thoughts of the NightWings in the rainforest became unbearable, she would escape by hiding on the tallest tree or farthest waterfall.

Turtle: "*Maybe losing your soul isn't the right way to describe it. Maybe it's more like … the more you use your power for bad things, the more you feel entitled to use it for anything. It makes it harder to return — only forward to more bad things. But ... I think you can go back. I think anyone can choose to do good or be good, no matter what happened before. I think you just have to try really hard. And that means stopping yourself before you do even worse things.*" — Turtle to Anemone about animus magic, *Talons of Power*.

## Relatives: Mother: Coral

### Ancestors: Pearl, Fathom, and more

**Turtle** is a male SeaWing dragonet and the main protagonist of *Talons of Power*. As well as being an animus dragon and a SeaWing prince, he attends Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Jade Winglet. He has romantic feelings for Kinkajou.

**Description:** Turtle has unblemished, jewel-toned, dark emerald-green scales with lighter green underscale and hints of gold in his dark green eyes. He is a bit plump, with an extra curve to his snout and upper arms, and has large talons. He wears a waterproof pouch around his neck and a golden armband studded with Skyfire rocks — initially six but now reduced to three. His bioluminescent scales emit a pale green light, and he has a low, rumbly voice. He has a round, anxious face, and he heavily resembles Fathom. He has spirals and shapes like webbed talon prints along his luminescent and oddly beautiful wings.

**Personality:** Before Turtle failed to find Snapper, he loved writing and often would imagine himself as the hero of a story. However, after he falls to find Snapper, Gill's disappointment crushes him, and he grows to think of himself as the idiot in the story. He believed that he was horrible at fixing things, and he would do it wrong whatever he tried. He wanted to be both a hero and a writer.

According to Winter, it is easy to forget that Turtle is a prince. He seldom behaves like royalty, as though he does not want to be noticed — quiet, mumbly, and sticking to the background. Other dragons do not typically have much faith in their ability to protect others, and he is quite fearful of everything. For most of his life, Turtle believed that staying ordinary and unmemorable would make him a dragon nobody would expect anything from, so nobody could ever be disappointed by him. Winter wondered if he was afraid of something or simply dull, and he assumed he could quickly get rid of Turtle by applying the correct pressure. Turtle is a good dragon at heart, but he is terrible at using his animus magic, and it was hard for Qibli to imagine him coming up with a helpful spell on his own. He does not enjoy exercise and does not usually expend any more energy than necessary for whatever he needs to do.

He has referred to himself as dull, uninteresting, unremarkable, and forgettable, a description that multiple other dragons have agreed with. Qibli once described him as easygoing and "used to being invisible."  Peril told him as puddle-like, and when she nearly ran into him while traversing the tunnels of Jade Mountain Academy, he simply froze and closed his eyes as if the danger would obligingly disappear the moment he was not able to see it. He is shrewd, nervous, outwardly serene, anxious, wry, curious, friendly, thoughtful, quiet, peculiar, peaceful, and does not seem to have any fire. He was described by Qibli as a worrying expert. He is often sleepy and mumbly and tries to be bland and forgettable. He often overshares and tries to think everything over before making any big decisions.

He is insecure, once referring to himself as an idiot, and extremely cautious, as he took great care to avoid the knowledge of his animus powers being discovered by anyone. Upon revealing them to his friends, his voice sounded weird, as if it were being mangled as it came out of his throat, and his expression was one of terror; he then looked as if he wanted a deep ocean chasm to hide in. Sometimes while thinking about using his animus power to hurt other dragons, he looks down and sees his talons covered with blood, and he quickly shakes them to get the vision away. Turtle is insecure about his magic and worries about hurting and killing other dragons. Though Turtle does not act like he wants to be powerful, he still wants to be an animus, as it is the one thing that makes him unique. He has a habit of eavesdropping as his life feels easier knowing what others think, and he has avoided several palace scandals and feuds that way. He has acted bravely to protect his friends. He lacks good communication skills and is often nervous, but he is willing to try his best to be helpful. His soul is almost entirely reasonable, and after the events of *Darkness of Dragons*, Turtle has become less fearful of his animus magic.

Biography: The Dragonet Prophecy,  *The Lost Heir*: Turtle was indirectly mentioned when Anemone told Tsunami that she had many brothers but could not play with them because Coral believed they play too rough.

### *The Dangerous Gift* When the SilkWings and LeafWings are landing in Pyrrhia, Tsunami said that he would come huffing along soon. Turtle was indirectly mentioned by Tsunami when she was telling Sundew that they have four animus dragons. Turtle also briefly appeared in Gaia's vision as Jerboa III when Jerboa III was brought into Darkstalker's throne room. She saw two SeaWings and a NightWing: Anemone, Turtle, and Stonemover.

Relationships: Anemone: Before the Talons of Power ceremony, he had only ever seen his sister from a distance. During the ceremony, he enchanted Anemone to become an animus to draw attention to her and away from his own animus abilities so he could keep his secret hidden and fulfill the biggest hopes of his mother. He ended up regretting this significantly afterward. Upon going to the Academy, they did begin to spend more time together, but she still treated him like another subject to order around. She finally started paying attention to him when he began following her and Maverick, but the engagement was not positive. During their duel on the beach, Turtle refused to hurt Anemone and cast only defense spells, despite Anemone being willing to kill him. After their duel on the beach and Turtle hiding her from Maverick, he seems to regard her more as his younger sister, who he should protect, and she seems to respect him as an older brother. She once referred to him as a doofus, but he is reassuring and kind towards her, and she is willing to listen to and react to how he feels.

## Family Tree: More, Shark, Coral, Gill, Moray, Fin, Cerulean, **Turtle,** Octopus, 28 Dragons, 3 Dragons, Orca, Tsunami, Anemone, Auklet

Known Enchantments: *"Phrasing unknown."* A rock to heal outer wounds, sores, and cramps. *"As long as this stick is near or touching me, I enchant it to hide my existence from Darkstalker. That means he cannot see or hear me; he cannot remember that he's heard of me; he cannot hear about me in other people's minds or conversations; and he cannot see me anywhere in his future. I enchant this stick to completely erase the dragon holding it from Maverick's awareness."* A broken stick to hide the wielder's existence from Maverick.*"Phrasing unknown."* A piece of kelp to make him faster than some of his brothers. *"Phrasing unknown."* A seagull egg to make Turtle's brothers forgive him after failing to find Snapper. *"Phrasing unknown."* Case of Maverick's scroll To bash Chameleon's head and go to Turtle. *"Enchant this earring to make the wearer immune to any spell Maverick has cast or will cast, whether past, present, or future."* Qibli's earring makes the wearer immune to any spell Darkstalker has cast, whether past, present, or future. *"Phrasing unknown."* A bowl to double the number of things put into it when ordered, "twice as much, please!" *"Phrasing unknown."* Complimentary writing slates. Writing on one sends the message to the other. It only works one way. *"Earring, […] get on my ear right now and stay there."* An earring. To get on Turtle's ear. *"I enchant this piece of coral to help me find whatever I'm looking for."* A piece of coral to find things for the wielder. *"Coconut, don't move. No matter what I or anyone else says to you, you are now a completely normal coconut that can never be enchanted."* A coconut is entirely normal. *"I enchant my sister Anemone to become an animus dragon, too. Anemone, become an animus dragon. I enchant you to have talons of power."* Anemone to become an animus dragon. *"Necklace […] Come to me. […] I enchant you to be powerless from now on."* Anemone's necklace to come to Turtle and be powerless. *"Dagger, […] Turn to sand forever."* Anemone's dagger is to be turned to sand forever. *"Disappear!"* A rock to disappear *"Waves! Wash these crabs out of the sea!"* Waves to wash Anemone's enchanted crabs out to sea. *"Shield me!"* A palm tree shields him from a piece of a stone wall. *"Make my scales as hard as diamonds. A shell to make his scales as hard as diamonds. Make my bones unbreakable. Make me impossible to hurt, no matter how hard that thing lands on me." "Get… off… me."* A piece of stone wall to get off Turtle. *"Seaweed, go wrap Anemone's mouth shut so she cannot cast any more spells — neither by voice nor thought, as long as you touch her. But make sure she can still breathe."* Strands of seaweed wrap Anemone's mouth shut and render her unable to cast more spells. *"Enchant this Skyfire to make Kinkajou immune to any spell Darkstalker has ever or will ever cast, and enchant it to make her completely insignificant in his eyes — not worth thinking about, not visible in his futures, not in any way a threat to him […] and enchant it to heal all her injuries as well."* Kinkajou's Skyfire rock makes Kinkajou immune to any spell Maverick has or ever will cast and utterly insignificant to him, not seen as a threat or in any of his futures. It was also enchanted to heal her of all her injuries. *"I enchant you to break every spell Maverick has cast on Anemone the moment you touch her."* A seashell to break all spells Maverick cast on Anenome. *"Protect me from the shells."* Two sand dollars to protect him from Anemone's seashells. *"Seaweed, I want you to wrap around Anemone's arm instead — but still, as long as you're touching her, she cannot use her magic in any way. And stay put until I remove you."* Strands of seaweed wrap around Anemone's arm and stop her magic from working as long as it touches her.

Quotes: *"You're a* mind reader*, […] All you have to do is walk around the school until you hear someone's mind going, 'Well done, me; tiptop explosion I caused today; aren't I a clever arsonist.'"* ― to Moonwatcher (*Moon Rising*) *"Kind of a cool evolutionary thing that makes sense if you're a plant trying to survive on a mountain full of fire-breathing dragons. [...] But, uh, horrible, obviously."* ― to Moon, Tsunami, and Sunny about dragonflame cacti (*Moon Rising*, page 207) *"It's* different*. [...] Swimming is not the same as trying to fly while getting blown about and whacked with little balls of water and the lightning — have we talked about the lightning?"* ― to the Jade Winglet about finding Winter (*Moon Rising*, page 287) *"I do not APPRECIATE your skeptical tone. [...] Just because I don't particularly like danger, uncertainty or … or* exercise*, doesn't mean I couldn't be useful in a fight."* ― to Peril (*Escaping Peril*) *"I, uh ... came to rescue you? [...] Well, to find out what was going on anyway. I heard there was a spell or something? But then I got here, and it was very stormy, and I couldn't find you, and suddenly eight million SkyWings were pouring out of the mountains and a big fight going on, and I thought ... maybe better to stay out of the way until it's over. Right?"* ― to Peril (*Escaping Peril*) *"Why did I ever let anyone notice me? I'd be safe if I'd stayed boring and forgettable. This happens — when someone sees you, everyone will soon see you. And one day, that "everyone" will include a dragon who wants to kill you."* ― thoughts (*Talons of Power*) *"You are … but that's because of me. [...] I'm so sorry, Anemone. I'm the one that made you an animus. Right here, the day of the Talons of Power ceremony. I didn't want anyone to find out about me, so … I distracted them with you. And everything that's happened to you since then is all my fault."* ― to Anemone (*Talons of Power*) *"Losing your soul isn't the right way to describe it. [...] Maybe it's more like … the more you use your power for bad things, the more you feel entitled to use it for anything. It makes it harder to go back — only forward into more bad things. [...] But … I think you can go back. I think anyone can choose to do good or be good, no matter what happened before. I think you just have to try really hard. And that means stopping yourself before you do even worse things."* ― to Anemone (*Talons of Power*) *"It's not too late for your soul. [...] You're here now, with us. You're on the right side, doing the right thing. You're not evil."* ― to Anemone (*Darkness of Dragons*). *"I'm going to work hard to be super awesome, too. [...] I need some idea of what to do. It'll be crazy to end up in one of these stories myself. Save the world, check. Stop being afraid of my magic, check. Figure out a way to protect my soul, check. Become the Kind of dragon I'd want to read about — working on it. I will probably be working on it for the rest of my life. But I think I'm getting there."* ― thoughts (*Darkness of Dragons*)

Turtle fears storm. Turtle hates exercise. After failing to find Snapper, Turtle's brothers refused to talk to him for an entire month as punishment. Before animus magic stopped working, Turtle wrote an animus spell to restore Starflight's eyesight. Turtle believes that following the stars due west in the middle of the ocean can lead to significant land. Turtle was one of the most complex characters to write because Tui purposely made him enigmatic in *Moon Rising* and had not ultimately figured him out by *Talons of Power*. She said he is not a typical hero, but he has the heart of one. Turtle could have a better aim. Turtle fiddles with his armband by tugging it up and down when nervous. Turtle once took an anatomy class. Turtle is a slow swimmer. Turtle's armband is placed close to his wrist. On the cover of ToP, however, it was placed closer to his shoulder.