Peril (Wings of Fire)

**Peril** is an adult female SkyWing and the main protagonist of *Escaping Peril*. She hatched with a dangerous condition known as firescales, and served as Scarlet's royal champion in the SkyWing Arena until the events of *The Dragonet Prophecy*. She currently attends Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Jade Winglet, and she has romantic feelings for Clay.

## Description

Peril has unusually bright, incandescent, glowing, shimmering, copper-colored, fiery, metallic-orange scales that emit smoke and heat, giving her the appearance of burning from the inside. Smoke also seems to be coming from her mouth. She has a long, pointed tail, with veins of gold running through her glimmering copper wings, as well as strange, sinister, sly, startling, eerie, sharp, flame-blue and black eyes, as though someone had bundled up the sky and immersed it in fire until it burned from the inside. Her eyes have also been described to be like two small blue flames blazing through the smoke. She has sharp white teeth that are not yet stained or blunted and horns that are full size. Her scales emit a blistering, burning heat that feels like standing too close to an erupting volcano, and her face conveys quite a few very intense emotions.

## Personality

As a dragonet, Peril was curious and a little delighted when Scarlet gave her an unhatched SkyWing egg, as if no one had ever given her a toy before.

During her time in the Sky Kingdom, she was a brutal killer and did not seem to care that other dragon feared and detested her, striding around as if she knew everyone would clear out of her way. Under Scarlet's rule, she did not feel bad about killing dragons, as she just viewed it to be routine, and she seemed untroubled by how much death she had caused. Due to Scarlet's lies and manipulation, she believed being a monster was her true nature and had accepted her one "true self". However, she often tries to make herself as small as possible and is quiet upon meeting other unfamiliar dragons; she seemed surprised when Clay offered to talk to her. After the battle in which Horizon committed suicide in the arena, Peril seemed confused when asked about it, and her voice wobbled when talking about her brother Sky, of whom she believed to be dead. She has a kind of awkwardness and sadness to her, and Moonwatcher described Peril's mind as almost impossible to read; it is all fire, as if she is burning from the inside out. Moonwatcher believed that Peril is not a happy dragon but was unsure if she is evil. She is not much of a planner and was astonished to discover that most dragons do not plan how to kill others if needed upon first meeting them. Additionally, she is not skilled at remembering faces, as she always forgets to concentrate on storing their features because she is sizing them up as a potential combatant instead. She does not like following anyone and loves the idea of family.

She is also fierce, sensible, unrepentant, strange, matter of fact, proud, bold, loyal, loving, sarcastic, curious, prone to rage, stubborn, and hopeful. She is neither clever nor sideways, and often tackles problems by flying at them directly. She has an astoundingly fierce lack of stealth, either by always making the most noise, picking fights or accidentally blowing something up. She has a strong personality, which is often met with dislike from other dragons; however, she often attempts to be polite, and she feels devastated when her actions negatively affect those she loves. She also felt monstrous upon accidentally injuring Winter and felt a familiar vast emptiness opening up inside her, with freezing winds shrieking through the darkness that she was to blame. She believes that being ordinary sounds wonderful and was delighted when Soar's enchantment took place, and she was able to touch things normally. She also believes that being alone is awful. She laughed and considered herself to be free, with nothing to worry about anymore, now that her firescales were gone. Even under the enchantment, however, Peril was still aware that she did not kill dragons anymore, and doubted what the right thing to do was.

After the War of SandWing Succession, Peril often second-guesses if she has the right to be anywhere, after everything she has done, and she is considered the most dangerous dragon in Pyrrhia. She felt contempt towards her hopeful former self, who she considered idiotic because she had expected her life to change after saving Clay from a dragonbite viper; on the contrary, she has developed ragged holes on the inside that have been caused by other dragons fearing and hating her. She is largely unaware of how friends are supposed to act towards one another, as Clay has to frequently remind her that companions should not threaten one another. In addition, she is unsure of how to reassure others; she has an uncanny ability to say whatever is the opposite of comforting. She is not great at reading the emotions of another dragon. Flying is especially important to Peril because it is the only thing, she can enjoy in such a joyful, uncomplicated way - she does not have to constantly make herself small and watch her perimeter to avoid setting anything on fire whilst in flight. She felt thrilled and grinned at the opportunity to kill dragons who were attacking her, regarding the action as fun, but became genuinely offended and glared at Avalanche when she suggested that Peril might be worse than Scarlet; additionally, Ruby stated that Peril had claimed to be peaceful. She also became fully relieved upon teaching her accidental explosion had not seriously injured anyone within Possibility. She can hurt dragons with her words and stated that she does not care if a dragon wants to think horrible thoughts about her. She hates worrying about things and does not ever have mild emotions. Dragons usually do not let her help with things or tell her secrets before telling anyone else, and Peril once wondered that if her disappearance would really be such a great loss to the world, as she doubted anyone would miss her. Though she does not feel bad about killing other dragons, she believes that hurting a dragonet like Cliff is brutal and unnecessary. Soar was astonished at how strong she was, and at how quickly she overcame his enchantment.

After pledging her loyalty to Ruby and overcoming Soar's enchantment, Peril vowed to stay exactly the way she was, with no magic to help her. She began to realize that she does not want shortcuts to become better, for Clay or for anyone else, and wants to accept the dragon she was, and only then working towards becoming the dragon she wants to be. She does feel just as muddled as to what to do next, and still sometimes has vengeful thoughts, but she feels more and more like herself the farther away she goes from Soar's enchantment. Her mind is now a lot less infernoesque, and for the first time, Peril was able to make a decision with a clear, strong bolt of *That was the right thing to do* upon burning Darkstalker's scroll; she also knew that even if Clay was never aware of her decision, she would still know that she did the right thing, and that was good enough for her.

## Relationships

### Chameleon

Upon first meeting his daughter, Chameleon smiled. After talking with him, Peril realized that he sounded a lot like herself, and they were able to bond over other dragons misunderstanding them. As soon as Chameleon had realized that Peril was his daughter, he rushed to meet her; additionally, he described her as powerful, amazing, and terrifying, stating "Who wouldn't be proud of that?" He acknowledged his absence in Peril's life but stated that he would like to change that by giving Peril a necklace that would take away her firescales. He trusted her with the secret of his animus shapes and stated that his loyalty was to Peril first and to Scarlet second. After Chameleon revealed that he had been the one who had attacked Kinkajou, Peril was appalled at him. Though Peril felt that she should be the one empathizing with her father, she still felt what he did to Kinkajou was brutal and unnecessary.

Despite feeling that something was wrong, Peril tried to convince herself that Chameleon gave her the necklace because he loves her and understands what it is like to be different and the desire to be normal. However, as soon as Peril discovered that he had tricked her with the necklace, he quickly offered other alternatives with magic, to which Peril declined, bristling. After stating that she could not trust him, he wilted a little, but Peril was far from feeling sorry for him. She considers him one of the worst dragons she has ever met, and when he escaped from the Sky Kingdom, he said nothing to Peril, causing her to believe that he maybe had not thought of her at all, despite her deliberately not telling Ruby about his shapes because he loved them so much.

Even after her father's betrayal, Peril believed that Chameleon had a part of him that wanted to accept her as part of a family and could not bear to see him suffering. He believes that Peril betrayed him, and while he is willing to admit that he also betrayed her, he thinks that she does not want to see him again. Peril still wonders if she will ever see her father again, though Clay reassures her that she does not need Chameleon.

### Clay

Upon initially meeting him, Peril was oddly excited to discover that Clay believed he had tried to kill his nestmates during hatching, but after Clay admitted that he hoped he was not the same as Peril, she became hurt. She enjoys talking to Clay and regards him as "blazing"; Peril believed that Clay liked her how she was, and although Clay was hesitant towards her, he found that Peril was not entirely awful, and possessed an awkwardness and sadness that he understood. He is honest with her, and she disobeyed Scarlet's orders in order to talk with him in addition to bringing him mud and food to help him heal from the arena. When talking to her, Clay's guilt about Fjord's death and his friends' capture seemed lighter, and he regards her as kind, outside of the arena. She avoided Clay after Osprey's death because she wanted to keep him out of danger, but she easily became angry and jealous when Clay mentioned how important Glory and Sunny were to him, and later betrayed Clay and his friends to Scarlet because she was afraid of him leaving. Clay felt sadness at her betrayal and guilt over trusting her afterwards, although he felt sympathy for Peril because she had no other friends. After escaping the Sky Kingdom, Clay invited Peril to join him and his friends on the journey to the Diamond Spray Delta, and although Peril refused, she did so on the grounds that until she could become safer and better, she believed she did not deserve to come with them.

Whenever Peril sees Clay in present-day Pyrrhia, she often becomes startled, and then tries to casually brush it off. She becomes violent towards those who hurt him, she often intentionally appears in locations where she knows Clay will be, and her heart gives small bounces when she sees him. She hopes she does not imagine the extra bit of sweetness in his smiles towards her, and he often is physically affectionate towards her, to Peril's delight. Clay is reassuring towards her, and all Peril wants is to be with him. She is willing to obey everything he says and is often held back from violence by thinking about him. His voice feels like wings spreading inside her heart, and although Peril wanted to wrap her wings around him when he was reminded of Sora's betrayal, she knew it would only hurt him more. She thinks of his soul as a torch that will never go out, burning clear and true all night long. Clay says that Peril can be whoever she wants to be, and although all she wants to do is take care of him, she felt jealous over the thought of him mourning Glory's passing. She was worried that he and Sunny shared secrets she might be unaware of, thinking "*Doesn't Clay know he can tell me anything?*", and felt an intense stab of jealousy when he twined his tail with Sunny's. The idea of leaving him is heart-wrenching to her, but she was still willing to separate from him in order to kill Scarlet.

She cares for his safety and bases many of her decisions upon his wellbeing, but she becomes jealous when he acts supportive and reassuring to other dragons besides her. She wants, above all, to take care of him, but often feels jealous of his other relationships; something she is often ashamed of. Clay speaks to her in a soft, warning voice when Peril is apt to hurt others, and gives her sweet, grateful smiles when she restrains herself from violence. His smile lights candle in her heart, and he wants Peril to make her own choices. Peril, however, was completely willing to become a dragon completely changed to Clay's tastes, and she doubted if he would miss her if she disappeared. Ruby, however, was baffled at the effects of Soar's spell, stating "Peril would never just *forget* about Clay." In Peril's own words, Clay is the dragon who changed her, and was the only dragon willing to give her a second chance. Her heart sang when she removed the enchantment and was able to remember him again, but she also worried that without him, she went straight back to being a monster.

Clay sees the good in her and believes that she is more than Scarlet's killer, encouraging her to become better and wanting her to make her own choices. However, he winces when she touches him, and he watches her wings carefully whenever she is near anything flammable; Peril is unsure if he would change her firescales if he could. When thinking about what she wanted most, an image of Clay wrapping his wings around her and never letting go flashed through her mind; however, Peril believes she is a long way off from getting or deserving that and is worried that she might not be able to accept it if Clay did not love her back.

### Cliff

Upon first being under Scarlet's control, Cliff was ordered to stand close to Peril. Because of Cliff's small size and young age, Peril thought that she never would have dared put him in that sort of danger if she still had her firescales. She wanted to hug him and tell him not to be scared but could not be due to her firescales facade. When she spoke to him, she hoped her voice sounded kind, and he sang a song for her before falling asleep. Even while being enchanted with loyalty to Scarlet, Peril had second thoughts about following her potential orders to burn Cliff. She then felt a wild, brief impulse to give Cliff back to Ruby safely. Peril later referred to him as "little friend" and apologized for him not being allowed to hug Ruby. She later defended Cliff against Scarlet and took care to make sure he was not injured by her burning scales. She watched over him during the battle between Scarlet and Ruby and comforted him when Ruby's physical form returned to Tourmaline's. He giggled at one of Peril's jokes.

### Kestrel

After Peril discovered that Kestrel was her mother, she called upon the tradition of the Champion's Shield for Kestrel's release and freed her from the Sky Palace after Glory attacked Scarlet. However, when Kestrel expressed wanting to talk to Peril, she stated that because she believed Kestrel killed Sky and abandoned Peril, she had no desire to know her. She spoke to Kestrel without any warmth in her voice, and when Kestrel offered Peril to come with her after they escaped the Sky Kingdom, she refused, stating that she had never imagined Kestrel as she was, and thought that Kestrel would not be good for her. When she is informed of her mother's death by Sunny, she is devastated.

### Osprey

Osprey was often kind to Peril because she would listen to his stories of his past. Osprey taught Peril about several SkyWing laws, including that of the Champion's Shield, and he was one of her only friends before he died. He also taught her how to read and write. When Osprey died, she felt a vast emptiness open up inside her.

### Ruby

Peril was initially neutral with Ruby, before she became queen. Ruby would stay out of Peril's way and usually stayed quiet around Peril. She never seemed "queenly" at all to Peril. When Ruby became queen, however, her first decree as queen was to banish Peril from the Sky Kingdom. Peril did not understand why until she saw the look on Ruby's face when she realized that Ruby hated her. Ruby immediately reacted with hostility when she saw Peril at Jade Mountain. After Peril came back to the Sky Kingdom, under Chameleon's spell, Ruby blamed her as the reason for everything that's wrong in the Sky Kingdom. She also accuses her of the death of her sister, Tourmaline. When Peril does not seem to remember Clay, Ruby immediately realizes that she is under a spell. She recognizes that Clay was the only dragon that gave Peril a second chance. Right before Peril was about to kill Scarlet, Ruby asked her to stop. Peril stopped, knowing that if she wanted to be trusted again, she had to listen to Ruby and even called Ruby her "new queen". After Ruby (Tourmaline at the time) had won the fight, she asked Peril if she knew any dragon that could change her back to Ruby. While Peril was hesitant to tell her, she ultimately decided to show Chameleon to her, deciding that it was the right thing to do. After Tourmaline became Ruby again, Peril started to apologize for the bad things she's done. Ruby stopped her, saying that she knew Scarlet was Peril's only parental figure and how no one tried to see her as a real dragon. She continued saying that Peril can make up for what she did if they let her try. To make things official, she allowed Peril return back to the Sky Kingdom whenever she pleases.

### Scarlet

Scarlet has always been afraid of Peril, even when she was a young dragonet. Peril worries often that Scarlet might be angry with her, and when Peril questioned her decisions as a tiny dragonet, Scarlet responded coldly: "You are my champion. You do as I tell you to." After following Scarlet's orders to burn several SkyWing eggs, she looked at Scarlet with a hungry look in her eyes - a "do you love me now?" look.

Later in Peril's life, Scarlet's treatment towards her remained similar. She disliked when Peril spoke to other dragons, and often spent her time scolding Peril for whichever new thing she had done wrong. Before the events of *The Dragonet Prophecy,* Peril did whatever Scarlet told her to, and was indignant on Scarlet's behalf when insulted. She was eager to please the queen, and became afraid whenever she disappointed Scarlet, despite the fact that Scarlet rarely had time to talk to her and was typically angry with her. She believed that Scarlet was typically right. She also learned some of Scarlet's mannerisms from watching her. Scarlet was the closest thing to a mother that Peril ever had, thinking that Scarlet saved her egg, but she ordered Peril to kill dragons in horrible ways each day, and she was dismissive towards Peril's distress after Scarlet killed Osprey. Peril believed that if Scarlet discovered that Peril enjoyed Clay's company, she would do something awful to him in order to punish her. Peril later discovered that her obligation to eat black rocks was merely Scarlet trying to keep Peril under her control, as Scarlet poisoned her regular food, fooling her into believing the black rocks were her only dietary options.

When Sunny confronts Peril in the weirdling tower, Peril defends Scarlet, despite all the terrible things she's done to her. After Peril had risked her life to rescue Scarlet from Burn's weirdling tower, Scarlet threw a reindeer hoof at Peril's head before calling her annoying and disobedient, as well as implying that she was not a good daughter. Peril still, however, had felt that Scarlet was somehow her responsibility, causing Peril to free Scarlet from the SandWing stronghold; additionally, Scarlet had slithered through Peril's dreams when she was asleep until she had been rescued. Peril became slightly vindictive towards Scarlet during a conversation in *Escaping Peril and* was consciously aware that she wanted to hurt Scarlet the way that she had been hurt. She told Peril directly that she would not like her anymore unless she followed Scarlet's orders, a statement that made Peril feel suddenly and horribly desperate to be Scarlet's favorite pet again. She tried to beat this care for Scarlet's approval back, and when she refused to kill Ruby for Scarlet, she called Peril useless and disappeared overnight.

When Scarlet became very angry, she refused to speak to Peril for weeks, forcing the young dragon to figure out how to make Scarlet happy again. Upon seeing her later, Scarlet's presence created a bloodbath of fear and awe for Peril. She stated that only Scarlet cared about Peril, nobody would care if Peril had died, and that the only dragon to ever love Peril was Scarlet. She also stated that she thought every part of Peril was perfect, to which she retorted "As long as I do what you want. The minute I have a thought of my own, you hate me." She had set out with the intention to kill Scarlet, but began doubting herself, remembering that Scarlet had kept her alive when everyone else had wanted her dead, and worrying that maybe nobody besides Scarlet really would love her. She stated that nobody besides herself wanted Peril anywhere, and while Peril was aware of the terrible things that Scarlet had done, she was still reminded of the fact that Scarlet liked her firescales and had kept her alive. She spoke acidly to Peril but Peril later thought *"That's me. She does love me!"* when Scarlet referred to her as "darling."

When Cliff stated that Ruby made everything better, Peril felt a vast chasm in her chest. Scarlet kept Peril alive and gave her a purpose, but her days were usually made worse when they interacted. Scarlet fully believed that Peril would do anything once she gave her the order, and she stated that Peril was her most loyal subject. Although Scarlet never hit her, however, she had always heralded scorn, shouting, and severe punishments for Peril, ultimately making her life miserable.

Upon hearing Scarlet threaten Ruby with ways she would control Cliff, Peril realized that Scarlet had manipulated Peril in a very similar way. She declared her loyalty to Queen Ruby, and offered to kill Scarlet in order to maintain her throne. She considers Scarlet to be the worst dragon she has ever met.

### Sunny

Sunny tried to break the news to Peril about Kestrel's death as gently as she could to Peril, and comforted Peril over her mother's death; she also offered to let Peril come with her instead of freeing Scarlet. Sunny is the only one of Clay's friends that has attempted to be nice to Peril, but she still wants to push her off a cliff on a daily basis. Although Peril knows this is bad, she views Sunny's soul as a blaze of warm sunlight, the type that is annoying and induces headaches, and is irritated by how much she smiles. She is intensely jealous of Sunny whenever she is physically affectionate or shares secrets with Clay. Peril soon becomes closer to Sunny, even though she is envious of Sunny at times.

### Tsunami

Tsunami regards Peril as psychotic. Tsunami gave her an unfriendly look when they initially met, and when Peril was speaking to Clay in their cell, she backed away as far from Peril as possible. She vehemently opposed Peril joining her and her friends after they escaped the Sky Kingdom. She believed if given the chance, Tsunami would try to convince Clay to get rid of her. She admitted that Peril was not one of her favorite dragons, but she was still willing to defend her from Queen Ruby's accusations for murdering Carnelian.

### Turtle

Peril initially only wanted to be friends with Turtle because Clay would have wanted her to make friends. Though she was irritated by the way he lounged around in dimly lit caves, as it caused her to almost run into him. She made him laugh, although he considered her strange, but she later snapped at him and stated that he was boring and forgettable, although Turtle did not take offense, simply stating "I know. I try to be". Turtle later insisted on accompanying Peril to kill Scarlet, despite her bantering with him to stay at the academy. She was willing to admit to him that she was not entirely happy under Scarlet in the Sky Kingdom, and he giggled when he accidentally hit her with a fish. He laughed at her intense disgust at tasting raw fish for the first time and was serene when she joked about setting him on fire as payback. She later became worried about his choice to sleep at the bottom of the river, as she thought he might simply want to get away from her and had finally realized that she was a terrible dragon to be friends with. Although Turtle trusted her to remove a dragonflame cactus pod from his scales, she began panicking upon being introduced to Moonwatcher's mind reading, wondering if Turtle had simply meant to test her, and had never trusted her. She begrudgingly told Turtle to go on without her into Possibility to check up on Kinkajou, and Turtle believed that he and Peril were not so different because he harnessed animus magic. He stated that he *thought* Peril's goal was to help him and his friends and became anxious upon discussing her accident with Winter. She became hurt and angry upon Qibli stating "she just showed up with Turtle" and fled into the sky, despite Turtle's protests; she also later thought that Turtle might be happy to never see her again. However, when Scarlet stated that she was the only dragon who cared for Peril, she mentioned Turtle, who laughs at her jokes, even the ones she makes accidentally. She realized that Turtle coming to rescue her from the Sky Kingdom was something only a friend would do, and when she asked if Turtle liked her after all, he stated "You're a loon. Of course I do," despite him being wary of Peril's abilities. She stated that she was lucky to have him as friend, and they banter often. She does not want anything to harm him.

### Winter

Winter was hostile towards Peril and asked harshly if Peril was safe to be around. He refused to show her basic dragon etiquette by staying in flight while shouting at her, and he attacked her as soon as she implied that she might harm his friends. He was accusing towards her and called her a mass murderer and a monster after she accidentally burned him. Despite all of this, Peril still thought she would feel sad if anything bad happened to him. Winter has also sent Peril several letters during his time in Sanctuary.

## References

Information sourced from the Wings of Fire Wiki