Second Arc Protagonists

#### Personality

Qibli is observant, clever, and witty, often using intelligence rather than force to escape certain situations. He always has multiple plans in case something goes wrong, and his deduction skills are extremely advanced. He is very wary, and sometimes has trouble trusting dragons who have done bad deeds in the past. An example of this is in *Darkness of Dragons,* where he shows a hint of distrust towards Smolder for once locking Thorn and Sunny up for Burn. Although funny and charming on the outside, Qibli is internally self-conscious and has a constant longing for approval and popularity, threading this insecurity into his every action; he even desires approval from those he dislikes himself. If he could, he would use the animus magic he dreams of getting to cast a spell to make everyone like him. He is very loyal and kind to his friends, but he can become easily defensive when insulted on a personal level.

#### Relationships

##### Family

Qibli's family consists of Cobra, Qibli's mother, an unknown father, one brother, and one sister. In one of his memories, his brother and sister are threatening him with their venomous tails to steal his talonful of date palms. In one of Moon's visions, he is seen with his brother and sister and an older male SandWing, which later turned out to be his grandfather Vulture. Qibli shouts, "Where is she?", referring to either his mother or Ostrich. His brother and sister, Sirocco and Rattlesnake, are in the vision, and they are wearing golden medallions decorated with large birds, later discovered to be a vulture. Dragons adorned with similar jewelry were seen in *Escaping Peril* in Possibility, arguing over the price of dragonflame cacti, which Tui confirmed were Sirocco and Rattlesnake. This symbol is also seen decorating the dragons in black hoods at the end of *Talons of Power*. Lastly, it is the jewelry seen on Vulture's recruited henchmen, his so-called "Talons of Power", who wear the medallions symbolizing their loyalty to Vulture.

##### Cobra

As his mother, Cobra didn't care about Qibli or his siblings. Qibli tried to be smarter and faster to get his mother to notice him. He would stay up all night, waiting for his mother to look at him with a look of love when he was sleeping: she never did. His siblings realized this a lot sooner than Qibli and pushed him around a lot. They didn't care about Cobra. After being imprisoned by her own father, Vulture, in *Darkness of Dragons*, she helped Qibli in escaping her father's stronghold. She refrained from calling him lizard and showed the first bits of affection towards Qibli. However, this turns out to be a trap to kill Queen Thorn so Onyx could become queen but is stopped by Qibli's memories of her unusual behavior. She warns Qibli that Vulture will get what he wants, and is placed in a SandWing prison under the palace, which was in a forgotten dungeon.

##### Vulture

Vulture had despised Qibli, especially among his siblings. When Qibli came back to Vulture's stronghold to look for Cobra, Vulture tried to persuade him to feed him all of Thorn's secrets. Although Qibli managed to escape, they encountered each other again, as Vulture was working under Darkstalker in order to become king of the SandWings. Darkstalker later used Vulture as an example to show Qibli how he could manipulate dragons' feelings toward him as an animus. Darkstalker then turns Vulture's personality to that of a newborn dragonet's. Qibli is horrified at how unnatural Vulture became, and this was partially the reason Qibli said no to Darkstalker's offer of animus magic.

##### Thorn

Qibli sees Thorn as his leader and mother, having served her and the Outclaws his entire life since he was 3 years old. He is extremely loyal to her, protecting her during battles and even refused to leave her side when Thorn wanted to talk in private with Sunny. It was also mentioned by him that Thorn saved him from his birth mother, who didn't take good care of him. Cobra sold him to Thorn, and she was the first to compliment him. She didn't know it, but she won Qibli's loyalty and respect and love forever at that time. Sunny has asked if Qibli was Thorn's son before, as they share some common features. In Darkness of Dragons*,* after seeing the flashback of his childhood, it mentions that he had a life plan; Prove his loyalty to Queen Thorn and be the best Outclaw possible, this life plan is altered when Thorn sends him to school, where he meets a NightWing named Moon.

##### Moonwatcher

Moon is Qibli's crush, and by the end of Darkness of Dragons, his girlfriend. In Moon Rising, Qibli and Moon are put into the same winglet; he quickly becomes one of her best friends. Qibli is very intelligent and observant, shown by his thoughts that Moon has heard. He is a bit wary of her at first, but however, he thinks she's pretty and constantly wonders what he should do to make Moon like him a little better. Because of his instinct to protect, he frequently defends her. He turns out to also be a bit insecure about her "gift" to read minds, worrying that she'll think he's a cruel dragon or that he'll reveal secrets that he shouldn't. In the end, he puts aside how uncomfortable he is with it and helps her figure out who set off the bomb with the use of her powers. It is stated in Winter Turning that Qibli wants to be more than friends with Moon. In Talons of Power, Qibli is shown to care and worry for Moon, asking Turtle about how she was. Also, he wonders if he behaves around Moon the same way Peril behaves around Clay, one of the first major hints that he likes his NightWing friend. In Darkness of Dragons, he is shown to not just like her but is in love with her, and always thinks about her, worrying about her safety and wishing to follow her to the rainforest. Yet, Qibli wonders if Winter or himself is worthy of her, and doubts himself, wondering if he's more like the "goofy friend" than a romantic partner. He concludes Moon deserves someone like Winter rather than him but ends up being wrong, as in the end of Darkness of Dragons, Moon chooses Qibli over Winter.

##### Winter

Qibli and Winter have a bit of a rivalry - as Qibli (quite often) likes to annoy him - however, he still wants to be Winter's friend. Their rivalry could also be about the fact that they both have strong feelings for Moon, but this is unlikely since even before they were introduced to Moon, Qibli still annoyed him in a deliberate, yet friendly way. Winter has stated that Qibli's constant, clever observations annoy him several times a day. Qibli thinks to himself that Winter is a friend, but doesn't know if the feelings are reciprocated. Qibli sometimes thinks of himself worse compared to Winter because Winter is the heroic, kind, handsome dragon, while Qibli makes really weird faces when he tries to copy Winter. He thinks Moon deserves Winter instead of him because he gave up so much for her. However, in the end, Moon chooses Qibli over Winter.

##### Kinkajou

It was shown in Moon Rising that Qibli tried to get Kinkajou to like him, as he does almost every dragon. They end up being strong friends, and when Kinkajou falls into her coma, he worries about her the way a loyal friend would, but he is not romantically interested in her, as he is romantically interested in Moon.

##### Ostrich

He seems to be friends with Ostrich, and worries about her well-being. Ostrich appears to be very close to Qibli and often greets him enthusiastically. It is possible that they were closer before going to Jade Mountain Academy because Qibli remembers telling her that he would protect her while they were at school. Ostrich seems to look up to Qibli quite a bit, and she seems to value his advice. Qibli also made a special promise to Ostrich's parents, promising them that he would take care of her- similar to how Pike promised Queen Coral that he would look after Anemone.

##### Smolder

When Smolder held Sunny and Thorn as prisoners for Burn in The Brightest Night, Qibli seemed to instantly harbor distrust for him. However, he seemed to begin to trust him when he grew close to Thorn, even though he still had a hint of distrust. After a sandstorm caused by Qibli using the enchanted weather bracelets struck in Darkness of Dragons, he was concerned for Smolder when he wasn't present and sheltering like the other dragons.

##### Peril

At first, he seemed to dislike Peril and have a deep distrust towards her, since she had previously slain countless dragons in the SkyWing Arena. There have been moments of tension between the two, where they were almost ready to fight each other, but at the end of Darkness of Dragons,despite there still being a spark of Qibli not fully trusting her, he seemed to accept her.

### **Moon**

Moonwatcher is born in the rainforest under two full moons, so she can read minds and fortell the future. She has a big, shiny silver teardrop next to her eyes, which symbolizes that she is a mind reader.

### **Peril**

Peril is a SkyWing with dangerous firescales. She has a brother with too little fire. She needed to be dropped of the cliff when she was still an egg, but her mother, Kestrel, did not allow that to happen. She took Peril's egg with her, but dropped the egg after she took hold of it, because it was burning hot. Queen Scarlet took care of that egg, which grows up to be Peril. But when Scarlet's daughter, Queen Ruby is queen, she banished Peril from the Sky Kindom. But Peril saved Ruby in her fight to become queen with Queen Scarlet at the end of Escaping Peril. Queen Ruby then welcomed her with open wings and banished her father Camelion from the Sky Kingdom, and with the help of her friends, Peril burned the animus-touched scroll. And that's where the real trouble began.

### **Kinkajou**

Kinkajou is a RainWing and best friend to Deathbringer's grilfriend Queen Glory. She is very optimistic and warm-hearted. She is yellow and pink, and has venom spots on her wing.

### **Turtle**

Prince Turtle is an animus and animus Princess Anemone's brother. They worked out a spell with Qibli for protecting their soul after giving gifts to the world.

### **Winter**

Prince Winter is very grumpy. He saved his bigger brother Prince Hailstorm from Queen Scarlet and her RainWing ally Chameleon.