Sundew

Girlfriend: Willow

## Sundew's Backstory

The current HiveWing queen, Queen Wasp, hated the whole LeafWing tribe, and wanted to wipe them out completely. She started by burning down their habitat, which consisted of the tall, redwood forests stretching across Pantala. When the LeafWings fought back, she gathered her army and tried to fight them physically. This, of course, enraged the forest dragons. One LeafWing who was a good friend of the LeafWing queen Sequoia, named Hawthorn, wanted to stop this war, later named the Tree Wars.

There was a plant that grew in some forested areas in Pantala. This plant, known as the breath of evil, had the ability to mind-control dragons. Hawthorn wanted to use the plant to his tribe’s advantage, so he secretly put the plant into one of Wasp’s meals, hoping it would give the LeafWings the ability to control her and stop the Tree Wars. However, this strategy actually made *Wasp* have the ability to control dragons, though only her HiveWing subjects at this time. Because of this, Hawthorn was then executed from the tribe, and he decided to make the Poison Jungle his new home.

In the following events in the war, the LeafWings suffered terrible losses, and were later defeated. However, a few members of the tribe still survived, though the HiveWings didn’t know about these dragons. The bad thing about these LeafWings was, they didn’t get along very well. Some believed that they should wait patiently until Wasp dies before revealing themselves again. Others believed that they should kill Wasp by force, to make things quicker. The ones who were willing to wait were called SapWings, whom, among them, also consisted of the royal family. The ones who were willing to fight were called PoisonWings, which had one of the strongest military leaders.

Eventually, the strong military leader died, but her daughter, named Belladonna, survived. Belladonna also had the ability of leafspeak. Leafspeak is a rare phenomenon that occurs within the LeafWing tribe, and whoever has it has the ability to make plants grow at a faster speed, though they cannot make plants appear out of nowhere. Since they had such a strong dragon with the ability of leafspeak, the PoisonWings decided that one of their strategies to defeat the HiveWings would be to create an ultimate leafspeak.

Belladonna was soon assigned to marry another strong leafspeak PoisonWing, known as Hemlock. Together, they had one dragonet, who was named Sundew. Sundew grew up in the PoisonWing village, and she also grew up believing that HiveWings were evil and they deserve to be wiped off, as they also nearly wiped off the LeafWings themselves. Another plan she had in mind (to wipe off the HiveWings) was to steal the Book of Clearsight. The Book of Clearsight was a valued book by the HiveWings, rumored to have all of the legendary Clearsight’s predictions of the future, each event clear and thorough. Of course, this would mean the PoisonWings wanted the book, too, as they needed to know every decision, every step, and every strategy the HiveWings had.

So, the fiercer group of LeafWings sent Sundew to steal the Book of Clearsight. Along her journey, she meets Blue, a SilkWing, Swordtail another SilkWings, and Cricket, a HiveWing. Originally, she thought that Blue was beautiful, kind, positive, and wonderful; that Swordtail was not very helpful, annoying, and satisfying to yell at; and that Cricket was horrible, annoying, a liar, a stealer, and a cheater. She mostly had these thoughts about Cricket since she was a HiveWing, but soon, they quickly became friends as she (Sundew) realized that she (Cricket) was actually positive, cheerful, happy, smart, intelligent, caring, and compassionate, although sometimes Sundew got irritated that she asked “too many questions.”

Later, when Sundew, Blue (who turned out to be a runaway), Swordtail (who turned out to be another runaway), Bumblebee (who turned out to be an “experiment,” in hopes that she would not be controlled by Wasp), and Cricket (who turned out to be uncontrollable by Wasp) stole the Book of Clearsight, they became quite disappointed as they realized that the book had not much information past the Tree Wars. This, of course, left Belladonna and the other PoisonWings to be frustrated, and they decided to prepare for a HiveWing attack.

Meanwhile, Sundew runs into Willow again, who was her best friend and “future mate.” Willow is from the SapWing village, and she is a good friend of Princess Hazel, the daughter of Queen Sequoia. On their encounter, she explains to Sundew that two “SeaWings,” named Tsunami and Turtle, have swam all the way from the “Distant Kingdoms” to Pantala. Sundew is shocked to hear this, as all the LeafWings believed that Pantala was the only continent, and the Distant Kingdoms didn’t exist. But now, it actually turned out that there were several other tribes from the other continent, Pyrrhia.

Soon, both the PoisonWings and the SapWings finally agreed that it was not the HiveWings who were the enemy, but instead it was the breath of evil. After meeting the SilkWings and the HiveWing, Sequoia then suggested to Sundew, Blue, Swordtail, Cricket, Bumblebee, Nettle, and Mandrake to go to Hawthorn’s residence in “the eye of the Poison Jungle,” since she suspected that Hawthorn might know more about the plant and its antidotes, as he is the dragon who nurtured it “back to life.” So, the group travels across most of the Poison Jungle, but Sundew and Bumblebee get trapped in a sundew in the river. Since insects are a sundew’s favorite meal, Sundew gets out an insect from one of her leaf pouches, and allows the sundew to have it as long as it lets her go. The carnivorous plant reluctantly agrees, and the two (Sundew and Bumblebee) set off in the direction of Hawthorn’s home.

The group soon reaches Hawthorn’s area, but it is filled with dragonbite vipers ready to strike at any moment. Strangely, the vipers stay still, and an unknown dragon—a LeafWing—appears. This LeafWing turns out to be Hawthorn, and he invites them in for tea. In his house, he explains that he was the one who was sent away, and the one who brought the breath of evil back to life. Hawthorn also tells them that the big, egg-like structures they see around his house are his “friends.” There

## Appearance

Sundew is a dark, forest-green LeafWing with slightly circular, oval-shaped scales. She has paler, more emerald-green wings that blend into a darker shade of green on the edges, where there are several, scattered golden-yellow flecks. She also has more golden flecks scattered on her scales, mostly clustering near her back, upper talons, claws, and face. She also has slightly visible, line-shaped markings on her wings, somewhat like the veins of leaves. The scales going nearer and nearer to her tail slowly blend into a darker shade, and the leaf-shaped webbing at the tip is about the same color. Sundew was also mentioned to wear several pouches, mostly made of long grasses and vines, by her mother, Belladonna.

## Relationships

### Willow

Sundew met Willow near a lake in the Poison Jungle. They warily greeted each other at first, though they eventually immersed themselves in a deep conversation and realized that their had always been "another group" of LeafWings in the Poison Jungle. It was to Sundew's surprise that their were LeafWings that survived besides her own PoisonWing subgroup, which she referred to as the SapWings. Later in the conversation, Willow inqures Sundew if she wants to visit the SapWings. Though Sundew initially rejects this offer, she eventually agrees, to Belladonna's dismay. Proceeding further into The Poison Jungle, Willow's love for Sundew grows, and the two refer to each other as "girlfriends." Towards the end of the book, Sundew confirms that she will only marry Willow, not Mandrake.

### Blue

While thinking that SilkWings were beautiful, weak, and useless, Sundew met Blue, or as she considered it, captured him. During her quest to steal the Book of Clearsight, Sundew mentioned that SilkWings were low and humble servants. However, Blue proved her wrong when he came out of the cocoon and was discovered to be a flamesilk, a special gene that makes SilkWings spin silk that catches on fire. Sundew realized that, even if the Book of Clearsight revealed nothing about the future after the Tree Wars, Blue's flamesilk could help the LeafWings defeat Queen Wasp and the breath of evil. After this, Sundew and Blue developed a strong friendship with each other, as shown in Sundew's thoughts when she thought that, while Swordtail was satisfying to yell at, it made her feel guilty to yell at Blue.

### Cricket

Sundew developed a strong loathing for HiveWings as they wiped out all the trees in Pantala, except for the Poison Jungle, as well as most of the LeafWing tribe, which had been scattered and split apart after the Tree Wars. However, throughout the arc, Sundew learned that she should not judge a dragon by the tribe they are in, but rather their actions and plans. Using this new way of thinking and character development, she discovered that Cricket was actually a very intelligent and open-minded dragon who could greatly benefit the LeafWings in their situation. They appear to be good friends, apart from a few arguments and scoldings.

### Mandrake

Mandrake was the dragon that Sundew was arranged to marry, as both had the ability of leafspeak and would make the tribe stronger by doing so. Sundew initially feels uncertain around Mandrake, as she knows that she does not want to marry him, but rather Willow, who she truly loved. When Sundew told Mandrake that she loved Willow and would only marry her, Mandrake replies in agreement as he already knew. The two appear to be good friends, and Sundew refers to Mandrake as one due to the fact that he has treated her better than most other dragons.

### Belladonna and Hemlock

Belladonna and Hemlock are Sundew's parents, and the three share an uneasy relationship. As the leader of the PoisonWing subtribe, Belladonna often orders Hemlock around and shows no romantic or deep emotions towards him, likely due to the fact that they were only married because they were assigned to do so. Meanwhile, Hemlock acts like a typical PoisonWing around Sundew, giving her minor orders though not paying too much attention to her. Belladonna, on the other hand, acts as though she has much authority over Sundew, giving her important orders and specific directions as she has leafspeak abilities.

### Nettle

Nettle is the sister of Mandrake, and she often taunts him, arguing that he is useless as he cannot control his leafspeak abilities. Sundew and Nettle have an uneasy relationship, as shown when they met in The Poison Jungle. Nettle is exasperated at Sundew at the fact that she secretly killed the panther with her leafspeak abilities which Mandrake was supposed to kill instead, and she often snaps and scolds Sundew while they were on the journey to find Hawthorn, who supposedly knew much information about the breath of evil. During the battle near the end of The Poison Jungle, the Othermind took control of Nettle as she was on the front lines and breathed in the gases of its roots, which were burned using Blue's flamesilk.