Turtle (Wings of Fire)

**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 is currently attending Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Jade Winglet. He has feelings for Kinkajou.

## Description

Turtle has unblemished, jewel-toned, dark emerald-green scales with lighter green underscales and hints of gold in his dark green eyes. He is a little 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 — originally 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 wings that are luminescent and oddly beautiful.

## Personality

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

According to Winter, it is easy to forget that Turtle is a prince. He almost never behaves like royalty, as though he does not want to be noticed at all — quiet, numbly, and sticking to the background. Other dragons do not typically have much faith in his 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 boring, and he assumed he could easily get rid of Turtle by applying the right 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 useful spell on his own. He does not enjoy exercise and does not usually expend any more energy than necessary for whatever he needs to be doing.

He has referred to himself as boring, uninteresting, unremarkable, and forgettable, a description that multiple other dragons have agreed with. Qibli also once described him as easygoing and "used to being invisible." Peril described 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 to him at all. He was described by Qibli as a worrying expert. He is often sleepy and numbly and tries to be boring and forgettable. He often overshares and often tries to think everything over before he made 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 very 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 was the one thing that made him special. He has a habit of eavesdropping as his life felt easier knowing what others thought and has avoided several palace scandals and feuds that way. He has acted bravely in order to protect his friends. He lacks good communication skills, and is often nervous, but is willing to try his best to be helpful. His soul is almost entirely good, and after the events of *Darkness of Dragons*, Turtle has become less fearful of his animus magic.

## 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 to fulfill the biggest hopes of his mother. He ended up regretting this greatly 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 started following her and Darkstalker around, but the attention 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 Darkstalker, 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 upon how he feels.

### Auklet

Auklet got excited when she saw him in *Talons of Power* and hugged him. She might have wanted to go to Jade Mountain Academy too because he, along with Anemone and Tsunami, were attending the school. He also wanted to protect Auklet from Anemone and could not imagine anyone hurting a dragonet so small.

### Coral

Coral is Turtle's mother. Turtle, like his other brothers, had been neglected of Coral's love and attention. He admired her stories, as they were the closest, he could ever get to her. He aspires to become an author, like her. Though Coral had never loved him, he still loved her enough to save her from Anemone. When Coral revealed the truth of the deaths of the SeaWing princesses to him, she expresses pity and sympathy toward her son, even wrapping one of her wings around him to bring him in close. Though she forgets his name immediately afterward, she promises to remember it going forward, and she and Turtle share a tender moment. Afterward, Coral writes regular letters to her son while he is away at Jade Mountain Academy, sending Turtle her newest stories and thanking him for his help dispelling the Albatross Spectre cast by Darkstalker. Each letter Turtle received from his mother makes him feel stronger and braver, more like the hero he hopes to be.

### Gill

Gill is Turtle's father. Before Anemone ever hatched, Gill found Abalone sick. Panicked, Gill rushed out of the Hatchery and called to the first dragons he saw, which happened to be Turtle and two of his brothers. He told Turtle to find Snapper, his co-general, and returned to the Hatchery to watch over his sick friend. However, Turtle could not find Snapper that day, and Gill gave up waiting, knowing that if he waited any longer, his general would surely die. He swam to the Healers, and however fast he may have swum, when the Healers and the king returned to the Hatchery, the two princesses were dead. Gill, furious, tracked his son down and blamed him for the unborn princesses' deaths, telling a distraught Turtle that he was very disappointed in him because Turtle had not gotten to Snapper quicker. This event discouraged Turtle from wanting to be a writer and hero, leading him to believe that his unhatched sisters' deaths were his fault and that his father had died hating him. However, Coral revealed that it was not Turtle's fault, as Snapper was stationed at the Summer Palace instead of the Deep Palace. Gill was captured by the SkyWings before he could tell Turtle about his guilt for being angry at him.

### Kinkajou

His voice hitched slightly when speaking about her in her injured state, and he expends energy when it comes to her; he hopped around as he was wondering what to bring to Kinkajou as a gift. One of the things Turtle liked about Kinkajou was that she was nothing like him. Turtle did not see Kinkajou as just another RainWing, similar to the ones that he had read in Coral's stories, but as her own dragon. He believes Kinkajou is more cut out for heroism than he is. At the end of *Talons of Power*, Kinkajou says that she loves Turtle, unknown she was under a spell. Turtle then sadly replies that it was only a spell, and she did not really love him. At the end of *Darkness of Dragons*, the love spell is removed. Kinkajou returned to her normal feelings of him as one of her best friends. Anemone's spell enchanted Kinkajou to believe that Turtle was handsome, brave, and noble, but Kinkajou was aware that these feelings were a result of the spell and was quite angry towards Anemone and towards herself. Turtle has an enormous crush on her, and after not mentioning the spell for about a month after Anemone released Kinkajou from it, Turtle admitted that he still had feelings for her. Kinkajou likes him too but confessed that it was confusing having to go through enchanted emotions. Kinkajou wants to keep spending time with him in order to sort out her feelings, but she thinks he is adorable. She once twined her tail around Turtle's and glared at Anemone, as though to say that she would be doing so even without the love spell.

### Moonwatcher

After Winter, Qibli, and Kinkajou storm off after Moonwatcher revealed that she has mindreading powers, Turtle asks her to follow him, taking her to an underground lake so that she can wash her shoulder after being hurt from the dragonflame cactus. Moonwatcher was initially wary of Turtle, due to the fact that she could not read his mind, and the vision of Turtle attacking Anemone. Upon meeting Moonwatcher again in Possibility, Turtle grinned as if the moment were the most delightful thing that had ever happened to any of them.

### Peril

Upon first meeting Turtle at Jade Mountain Academy, she was irritated at the way he lounged around in dimly lit caves, as it caused her to backpedal to avoid running 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. In *Talons of Power*, Turtle describes Peril's company as unpredictable and hilarious. He liked the dragon he was when he was with Peril though he had not figured out how their stories fit together. He thought the closest parallel was a scroll about a dragonet who was raised by a pack of orca's. Turtle sometimes felt like that dragon's foster brother.

### Qibli

Upon meeting Qibli again in Possibility, Turtle grinned as if the moment were the most delightful thing that had ever happened to any of them, though Peril noted that Turtle was mainly there for Kinkajou, not Moon and Qibli. He cares about his friend's wellbeing as he did not want to risk anything bad happening to Qibli if he made Qibli an animus. Turtle views Qibli as one of those "naturally heroic" dragons. In *Darkness of Dragons,* Qibli was constantly frustrated that Turtle had magic that he was horrible at using, and Qibli did not.

### Tsunami

Tsunami and Turtle grew quickly to love each other. Whenever Turtle visits his sister at the Jade Mountain Academy, Tsunami is either happy or relieved to see him. In *The Hive Queen*, Tsunami and Turtle swim to Pantala together in the epilogue, indicating that Tsunami trusts her brother enough to take him on a quest.

### Umber

Turtle and Umber used to share a sleeping cave in Jade Mountain Academy before Umber left with Sora. They used to pull their reed mats close to each other and sleep with their backs together. Turtle said this was because they both felt a need to have siblings close to them, as Umber was used to being with his MudWing sibs, and Turtle usually slept with all his brothers. Turtle viewed Umber as a brother. He considered Umber to be kind-hearted and even considered using his magic to go look for Umber once Darkstalker was gone.

### Winter

Winter is one of Turtle's friends. Despite Turtle heavily fearing his animus magic being discovered, he was willing to save Winter and expose his abilities. Upon discovering this, however, Winter exploded on Turtle and shouted that he should have served his tribe with his magic, causing Turtle to shy away from him.

## References

Information sourced from the Wings of Fire Wiki