Sundew (Wings of Fire)

**Sundew** is a female LeafWing dragonet and the main protagonist of *The Poison Jungle*. She was formerly a member of the PoisonWings led by her mother, Belladonna, and is honored and respected within her tribe due to her extremely powerful leafspeak ability. She is currently in a relationship with Willow and resides in the LeafSilk Kingdom. She was formerly betrothed to Mandrake.

## Description

Sundew has a small and wiry shape and a face that is similar to Belladonna's. She has dark forest-green scales that are flecked with gold, and she also has golden scales along the edges of her wings, talons, and across her snout. She wears several small pouches, woven from long grass or fashioned from leaves, which contain venomous insects or useful plants. A pouch that rests over her heart contains a small, smooth jade frog, and there is a pouch under her left wing that is a darker shade of green than the others. There is also a pouch marked with a large A, and it holds a jar for bullet ants inside. She is slightly smaller than Swordtail, and smaller than Tsunami.

## Personality

Cricket thinks of Sundew like a dragon who moves like she has already found all the answers to herself. She is a natural leader who uses her fury to keep her going, and when she becomes tired, she thinks of all the things that make her angry. She is bristly, sharp, quick to anger, persuasive, stubborn, intense, brave, brisk, menacing, furious, defensive, fierce, terrifying, and impatient. Her anger is both a weapon and a safe place for her to go when her emotions become too complicated. Due to her upbringing, she was unfamiliar with healthy and compassionate love and found Willow's love for her unsettling as a result. She believes that her own yelling is hilarious and morale-boosting, and has a strong moral compass, believing that even the HiveWings should not be subjected to poison at a peace summit. Sundew also appears to dislike jewelry and dressing up garishly, and strongly stated that she does not do sparkles. She glares and frowns often, always looking ready for a fight.

## Relationships

### Belladonna

Belladonna is manipulative, and often makes Sundew angry by ruining things. She and her mother are always only moments away from a fight, and Sundew often disobeys her orders. Sundew can vaguely see her mother as a dragon who cares for others, but she knows that Belladonna will never show that side of herself to other dragons. Her mother taught her to summon her anger at a moment's notice, and she often tells Sundew everything that she does wrong, comments on her mistakes, and starts shouting matches when she is the slightest bit aggravated. It is rare for Belladonna to compliment her daughter.

### Blue

Because Blue is so willing to apologize, Sundew finds it impossible and unenjoyable to yell at him. Sundew is often surprised by Blue, from his sister being a flamesilk to him standing up to Queen Wasp. She knows that Blue tries to understand everyone and tried to hide her emotions from him that she believes are weak, like guilt and fear, to show that she is tough. Blue is her friend but tends to side with Cricket on many things, for example, like not setting all the Hives on fire, or painting Jewel Hive with messages of Wasp lying about the Book of Clearsight.

### Bryony

At one year older than her, Bryony and Sundew grew up with each other. When Snowfall told Sundew that she had a vision about Bryony, her eyes narrowed like she was trying not to have some other expression.

### Bumblebee

Sundew was unsure and annoyed that Cricket had brought back a HiveWing egg, but after Sundew gave a dried mango to the newborn dragonet to keep her still, she was mentioned to "give Sundew a worshipful look." She loves Sundew dearly, and while Sundew was visiting the SapWing village, she caught herself hoping that someone would feed Bumblebee while she was away. She was disappointed when Cricket brought Bumblebee to the village and the dragonet was asleep. She was amused when Bumblebee seemed to disagree with Nettle taking charge of their expedition to the Eye of the jungle, and gave her a high-five, much to Bumblebee's delight. Bumblebee seems to completely trust her, and Sundew refers to her as 'little bug.' Sundew thought that fleeing from battle was worth it, if it meant that Bumblebee would be protected.

### Cobra Lily

Cobra Lily is one of Sundew's friends, and one of her favorite dragons. Sundew was close enough to Cobra Lily as a friend to be aware of her silent rage and they are physically affectionate towards one another. Cobra Lily pointed out once that Sundew should be their queen. Although Sundew becomes annoyed with her on the subject and tells her to stop saying such things.

### Cricket

Cricket is one of Sundew's friends, and she is often amused by the HiveWing. She teases Cricket, and although Sundew claims to hate all HiveWings, she seems okay with Cricket and has expressed friendly affection for her at various times. She has mentioned that Cricket is "different" from the other HiveWings, possibly due to her insatiable curiosity and immunity to Queen Wasp's mind control powers, and silently felt anger at Nettle when she spoke to Cricket in such a cold way, though noting she treated Cricket similarly at first. Cricket's company also seems to relax Sundew, as she seems more friendly and open than she did in *The Lost Continent*. Cricket often wants to open up her mind like a book and read it.

### Hemlock

Hemlock frequently makes Sundew angry. He often tells her everything that she does wrong, comments on her mistakes, and starts shouting matches when he is the slightest bit aggravated. Sundew and her father are not close, but she asked Io to search for him before fleeing Pantala.

### Mandrake

Before the events of *The Poison Jungle,* Mandrake was Sundew's fiancé. Sundew refused to let Mandrake be injured by a panther, even though that would have made her life a lot easier. He was accepting when Sundew told him she wanted to marry Willow instead, and Mandrake is one of the few dragons that Sundew likes.

### Nettle

Sundew and Nettle's average conversations are usually hostile and argumentative. She felt joy at Nettle's furious scowl after Bumblebee mocked her tone of voice, and she considers Nettle's behavior to be vicious, unproductive, and out of control. Yelling at Nettle gives Sundew energy and stops her from worrying. She usually considers Nettle to be simply unlikable and irritating but became genuinely angry towards her after Willow intervened during one of their arguments. She was also quietly angry at Nettle for how she addressed Cricket. Nettle sounded unmistakably triumphant when Sundew was trapped by a sundew plant.

### Swordtail

Sundew finds Swordtail amusing, but she is often angry at him without feeling bad about it. She finds yelling at him satisfying, although there are moments where she enjoys his company, and Swordtail considers her to be a leader. Sundew considers Swordtail to be quite rash, yet he started to grow on her. They tend to share the same destructive mindset and are similar in terms of personality. She understands his devotion to Luna, as she also has a lover. In *The Hive Queen*, Sundew is tempted to leave Swordtail on the shore after trying to find Luna, but ultimately brings him to Cricket.

### Willow

Willow is Sundew's long-time girlfriend, and Sundew thinks about her all the time. She makes Sundew feel more like herself, and is often gentle, calm, amused and reassuring towards her. They regard one another as mutually beautiful, and when they initially met, Willow made all of Sundew's words bump around in her mind like disoriented moths. Willow helps Sundew feel calmer and less tense, and Sundew finds it impossible to scoff at her. Willow is the only dragon that Sundew looks forward to seeing, and they often laugh together and are very affectionate towards one another. Sundew is gentle towards Willow, and when Willow smiles at her, she feels a funny shiver in her chest. Due to Willow's calm and rational demeanor contrasting her own fury and bristly attitude, one of Sundew's greatest fears is her temper pushing Willow too far, thus ruining their relationship. Even when Willow believed that Sundew had endangered the LeafWings by stealing the Book of Clearsight, she still loved her. Sundew became jealous after seeing Hazel's behavior towards Willow, but Willow assured her that Hazel was just a friend, and that Sundew was the only dragon for her. When Willow referred to Sundew casually as her girlfriend to a stranger, Sundew felt unexpected joy, and considered that the second-greatest moment of her life, after meeting Willow. Sundew is comforted by Willow and found it impossible to pull away from her when she was in emotional distress, even in Belladonna's presence. Willow is one of the only dragons that Sundew is not typically angry with, and she often longs Willow's company, as she loves Sundew for who she is. Sundew was sad to leave Willow behind, as she had been chosen to fly back to Pantala to stop the othermind. After the othermind's defeat, Sundew and Willow went to live in the new LeafSilk Kingdom together.

## References

Information sourced from the Wings of Fire Wiki