Dragon Soul

***Dragon Soul*** is the first novel in *FeatherWings*. It proceeds *Dragon Heart*, and the main protagonist is Maple.

## Synopsis

*Nothing lasts forever...*

In the distant future, humanity leaves their homeworld of Earth, travels the stars of their Milky Way galaxy, and colonize all Earth-like planets they can find. R.E.T. is one of these planets, and it is dominated by dragons.

Or dragon-like lifeforms, at least.

*The stars are full of life.*

In the distant future, humanity has achieved spaceflight and has colonized all known planets they can find. The planet designated "R.E.T.", known as "Eukarya" by the native dragons, is one of them.

Maple has grown up with the humans her entire life, one of their settlements being in the forest where the TreeWings reside.

But now the symbiotic relationship forged long ago between the dragons and humans is deteriorating, and the TreeWings can't find out why. And when two non-native dragons suddenly show up in the forest, Maple will be forced to face the truth about her beloved continent.

**One of the original fans of the *Wings of Fire* phenomenon weaves a story about dragons, aliens, the future of humanity, and the truth in the first novel of this astral science-fiction trilogy!**

Two hundred years in the future, humanity has developed the technology to explore the Milky Way and colonize planets they deem habitable.

The dragons of the planet Eukarya, known as R.E.T. to the colonizers, have forged a strong relationship with the humans that benefits both species.

But when that relationship begins to deteriorate, three young dragons now have the burden of finding Eukarya's lost species to restore their continent and the entire planet to its former glory.

## Plot

### *A Guide to the Dragons of Eukarya*

This Guide shows what dragons are native to continent/planet Eukarya, from the dragons' perspective.

### Prologue

The future of humanity is discussed when spaceflight is achieved.

### Part One: Trees of the Forest

#### Chapter 1

Maple, a TreeWing, hunts a Forest Raptor for the Community of Coasts. As she flies back to the Community, she sees that the Ocean of Storms is usually calm and she hears a sound call out in the Forest. Maple does not decide to check out the source of the call.

#### Chapter 2

As Maple drops off her prey in the Community prey-center, she is greeted by Bud, a disabled TreeWing dragonet.

At the Community Feast later that day, after all the dragons have gotten their fill, Maple thinks about what the dragons are speaking about and how they will not be spoken about in the future, since they are like wind. Then, Bud and his fraternal twin, Blossom, run up to Maple about the Forest Raptor she caught, and Blossom exclaims she wants to be a Hunter like her. Beech, one of Maple's coworkers, then walks up to the twins, and Bud and Blossom run to their parents.

Maple notices that the Feast is nearly over, with dragon leaving the prey-center after they finished eating, and is about to head to her house when Beech tells her that Soapberry wants to see her the next day, alone in his house.

#### Chapter 3

Maple cannot sleep and sees that it is a moonless night outside her hut, and that the Community is lit by bioluminescent insects trapped in jars. She decides to find Soapberry, and drags herself half-asleep to Soapberry's hut. She jolts awake upon seeing how bright Soapberry's hut is and knocks on his hut's door. Soapberry allows Maple in and tells her about a scientific paper he wrote about the deterioration between the dragon-human symbiotic relationship, backed up by research. He then tells her that she must warn the Community about the deterioration, if the Community is to survive.

#### Chapter 4

In the hours following Maple's conversation between her and Soapberry, a hurricane begins to brew in the western ocean. After Maple fishes for a freshwater bass, she returns to the Community and sees all the dragons leaving. Maple follows them after a dragon yells at her, and the entire Community heads to the eastern side of the forest as shelter.

The Communities on the western coast of the forest stay on the eastern side for a week as the hurricane blows through. After the remnants of the storm pass, all the dragons return to their respective Communities.

### Epilogue

Danielle, Terence, Isaac, Tamar, and Solomon watch male HeatWings compete for female mates in the eastern desert.

## Trivia

* The plot of the book was inspired by *The Giver*, with elements of *Wings of Fire* mixed in.
* The initial, original name of part three of *Dragon Soul* ("All the Dragons of Eukarya") was a reference to the novel *Dragonriders of Pern: All the Weyrs of Pern (1991)* - Anne McCaffrey, which is one of the inspirations of *FeatherWings*. This name was later scrapped to prevent a copyright strike, since the naming was too similar.
* The scene where Cloud makes his first appearance after washing up on a beach in TreeWing territory was inspired by the epilogue of *Wings of Fire: The Lost Continent (2018)* where Luna, a SilkWing, is flung from Pantala by a storm and washes up on a Pyrrhian beach where she is found by Jerboa III, a SandWing.
	+ This was also the first scene L1quid came up for *FeatherWings*.
* The original cover of *Dragon Soul* had Maple sitting in trees looking out at the ocean at dawn, which is how the author always imagines the cover (although the art style is supposed to be similar to Joy Ang's). Since the drawing came out all wrong, the author fixed the digital version of their cover to be Maple watching Alder fly into the forest during a Eukaryan autumn to reflect the season the trilogy takes place in (autumn).
	+ An alternate version of the cover is Maple walking in a moonlit forest at night during autumn, reflecting chapters 9-11 in the book.
* *Dragon Soul'*s plot is being redone for *These Alien Dragons* for the explicit intent of showing readers of what a socialist society would look like (according to the socialists themselves). This comes after they've been watching Karlyn Borysenko's YouTube streams on socialism as research for *Raging Fires* onward from September 2023 before changing the plot of the series.
	+ The redone book's name is slated to be *Changing Leaves*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Luna's outlines and notes for *FeatherWings*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 J. Pappas' notes and outlines for *These Alien Dragons*