'Smolder' is an adult
male SandWing prince who was introduced in the epilogue of The Dark Secret. He was allied with Burn during the War of
SandWing Succession. He currently resides in the SandWing stronghold and
keeps a pet human he named Rose|Flower.

## Description

Smolder has sharp claws, with pale yellow scales and wings that are
patterned with black diamonds. He has a narrow face and unfathomable,
kind, lidded dark eyes. He is smaller than Burn, and wears a cluster of
keys, pouches, and bells on chains around his neck that clink and jingle
slightly as he walks. Several are plain iron, while others are plated in
jewelry or gold. He is handsome, with a crooked smile, and his face
conveys his emotions quite clearly. To Burn and Sunny, he resembles
Blister.

## Personality

Sunny noted that Smolder's voice sounded normal, similar to one of her
friends. He speaks directly to Sunny rather than over her head as though
she was only a piece of treasure, as this was the case with many other
dragons. He is firm, easily amused, thoughtful, patient, hilarious,
compassionate, odd, kind, and hopeful. Smolder disappreciates surprises
and change. He has a sarcastic, sardonic, odd way of speaking that makes
everything he says humorous. He is clever and cunning, but not cruel or
evil. He is reasonable, funny, and interesting, and easy-to-laugh. He is
also wary, expectant, cowardly, stubborn, and lazy, but he is not
ashamed of it.

## Biography

### The Dragonet Prophecy

left The Hidden Kingdom

In Blaze's fortress, Blaze mentioned her brother and how he
fell in love with a dragon their Oasis|mother would never agree with,
and she broke his heart. A tapestry was shown to be hanging in her
fortress, showing two dragons, presumably Palm and Smolder flying in the
sunset.

left The Dark Secret
In the epilogue, he was at Burn's stronghold speaking to Burn about
the dragonets of destiny. He and Burn plotted to kill all of the
dragonets. He also talked about a prisoner that was revealed to be
Scarlet, and stated that he was not used to calling Burn "Your Majesty."

left The Brightest Night

Smolder was running Burn's stronghold while Burn was away,
looking "for a certain quintet of dragonets." He led Sunny to the tower
where Burn stored her collection and "special" prisoners, such as Queen
Scarlet. He introduced Sunny to his pet scavenger, Flower, and showed
her that Flower was trained to come when she heard her master ring a
bell, among other things. After this, he proceeded to lead her to her
cell in the tower. Seeing how miserable Sunny was, he decided that he
would take her out at midday for a walk every day. Sunny began realizing
that he was actually a nice dragon. When they went walking, he explained
to Sunny the mystery of the missing SandWing treasure, showing her the
doors to the previous treasure holds and revealing to her a clue about
the Eye of Onyx, telling her if any of the other SandWing sisters had
the treasure, they would be queen already.

When Thorn's Outclaws attacked the stronghold, he ordered Camel to watch
Sunny while he organized troops to defend the stronghold. Thorn and the
Outclaws were attacking the stronghold, and Smolder was successfully
fending them off. Sunny begged Peril to stop the fight to save her
mother, and Peril agreed. However, that had to come with the price of
also saving Scarlet.

Smolder then led Thorn, Sunny, and Peril to Burn's collection, on
Thorn's orders to see the dead, stuffed NightWing that Burn owned.

Smolder also mentioned that he had seen a letter to Thorn, in the many
intercepted letter in the stronghold, so he led Thorn and Sunny into the
library and locked them in there, because Burn would kill him if she
found out that he let them escape.

At the choosing of the SandWing queen, Smolder was present and handed
Burn Blister's gift. The gift happened to be two dragonbite vipers, one
of which killed Burn, and the other nearly killed Clay.

Smolder apologized to Thorn about the library, and Thorn claimed that it
would be hard to forgive him.

-----

### The Jade Mountain Prophecy

left Moon Rising
Sunny
thought about Smolder when she was talking to Winter about his pet
human, Bandit. She was not sure how to refer to him, whether as a
friend, a former captor, or a dragon who almost got her killed.

left Winter Turning

Although he does not formally appear, there was a letter from him
addressed to Vermilion on the joys of raising and taming a scavenger,
which Smolder did himself in the case of Flower. Some of the lines told
him what to do, what not to do and some general information about
scavengers. The letter came after the book's epilogue and it also appeared in the special edition of The Brightest Night (book)|The
Brightest Night.

left Escaping Peril

Scarlet mentioned that Peril had not let her kill Smolder.

left
Darkness of Dragons
Palm, his lost
love, thought of him many times whilst fleeing from Oasis's guards. She
gave the earrings he gifted her with to her sister Prickle as payment
for her refuge.

Later in the book, Qibli walked into Thorn's tent and saw Smolder in the
tent discussing the IceWing plague. He was flirting with Thorn, and he
seemed astonished that she was letting Qibli have an opinion.

When Onyx challenged Thorn, he and Blaze went to watch the fight. Upon
Onyx revealing her identity, Smolder jumped into the ring and tried to
convince her not to fight. Qibli noted that, while he was facing Onyx,
his wings keep brushing affectionately with Thorn's. Onyx refused and
goes on with the challenge.

During the sandstorm, he took shelter with his daughter in the SandWing
stronghold#Dungeons|dungeon.

While looking for him, Thorn mentioned that he was terrified of the
dungeon. They found him in there with Onyx, who had a badly injured leg.
Qibli noted that it was not obvious whether she was injured by the storm
or if Smolder did it so she would be unable to challenge Thorn.

-----

### The Lost Continent Prophecy

left
The Dangerous Gift
When Winter first
met Wren and realized that humans had really been a species with
feelings of their own, he was horrified to remember how Smolder had a
pet human for nearly twenty years. Winter wondered about freeing her in
order to fulfill the promise given to Wren that dragons would no longer
eat scavengers or keep them as pets, but was stopped by Wren when she
told him that she had met Rose and known that she is happy as she is.

-----

### Legends

left
Dragonslayer
Smolder was seen by
Wren greeting Sandstorm|General Sandstorm when he returned to the
palace. She noted the way they spoke to each other was veiled, both of
them barely hiding contempt and annoyance. Smolder said Burn would be
back in a few days, and that was when Sandstorm could give her Sky|her
gift. Sandstorm was happy about this, saying Burn would want him alive
for now. Smolder winced and said he was fine. Wren noted that Smolder
seemed confused about why Sandstorm seemed comfortable ordering him
around.

Later, he was mentioned by Rose, unnamed, to be her dragon. Even later,
once she described him to Wren, Wren told her his name. Rose was unaware
of this and said that she had been calling him Ember since she met him.

Smolder is woken up by a dragon cook in the middle of the night; the
cook mistook Stone for Rose, and trapped him in a net bag. Smolder is
confused and points to Rose, who is lying in a bunch of green pillows in
the corner of his room. The dragon enters his room and they start
arguing as Stone and Rose reunite, and she meets Ivy and Leaf. After the
dragon leaves, Rose attempts to get Smolder to leave his room for a bit
by speaking to him in Languages#Dragon|Dragon, telling him to get her
some apricots. He laughs when she does this and saunters out to get what
she requested. Rose says her pronunciation is "abominable," and wonders
what Smolder will actually bring back.

-----

### Winglets

left
Deserter
Smolder approached
Six-Claws while he was digging up a shrub to inform him that Blister and
Burn were up to something, hoping that Six-Claws would come up with a
way to fix it because he did not want to get involved. When Six-Claws
thought that Blaze could be in trouble, Smolder refused to help and fled
back toward the palace. Later, he was seen sobbing over Palm's
disappearance, unable to be comforted. As he and his brothers discovered
the corpse of Queen Oasis, he was satisfied knowing that Oasis had died.
Smolder then first met Flower when he and the other SandWings searched
for traces of Oasis's murderers.

-----

### Field Guides

left
A Guide to the Dragon World
Smolder
was depicted in a portrait with Thorn and Rose at the beginning of the
SandWing chapter of the guide. He was mentioned in Sunny's letter to
Starflight about Burn's SandWing stronghold#Weirdling Tower|Weirdling
Tower. Later in the chapter, his observations on Rose the first week he
kept her as a pet were featured.

In the SkyWing chapter, he was mentioned as one of the dragons that
Scarlet wanted dead.

He was later seen at the end of the book with Rose in Wren's notice to
the dragons to stop eating humans.

## Relationships

### Burn

Smolder had a rocky relationship with Burn. He often made her mad, which
almost led to him being killed. He resented his sister but often carried
out her bidding throughout the war to avoid being killed by her like his
brothers before him. Burn was abusive towards Smolder, once thinking of
injuring him to get a more sincere apology.

### Rose|Flower

Flower is Smolder's pet. She is bold around him, and she and Smolder are
very physically affectionate. When speaking about her, Smolder's voice
seems to lose its sardonic tone, and is instead affectionate. He views
her as very clever, and is proud of her, although Flower is indignant
towards him when he becomes stern. He cares deeply for her well-being,
and is gentle towards her.

### Oasis

Oasis is Smolder's mother. He once briefly mentioned that she made him
unhappy when she was alive. Smolder eyes shone, and he looked happy and
relieved when Oasis died. Thorn suspected that Oasis used to punish
Smolder by locking him in the dungeons.

### Onyx

Smolder is sincere towards his daughter, and wanted to get to know her
before she challenged Thorn. However, Onyx did not seem to want anything
to do with him, and was only focused on the SandWing throne. He refused
to leave her alone when she was injured after a sandstorm.

### Palm

Smolder loved Palm. When she disappeared, Smolder wept and was so
distraught that he stated Oasis should just kill him.

### Sunny

Smolder was respectful toward Sunny as she was presented as a gift for
his sister. Smolder was kind to her and cared about her, having taken
her on midday walks when he noticed how miserable she was. In addition,
he chose to let her live, but also did not want her escaping. She
genuinely likes him, and appreciated how he spoke directly to her.

### Thorn

Thorn and Smolder have a very teasing relationship, but Smolder is
clearly affectionate towards her. His body reacts subconsciously by
leaning closer to her, and Qibli wondered when it was that they had
fallen for one another. She hides her worry for him under exasperation,
and she likes him very much; she cried out in joy when she found him
unharmed after a sandstorm, and he smiled weakly at her despite being
terrified. They worry for one another, but are cautious with public
affection, as if they do not want to become too emotional in front of
witnesses.

### Vermilion

Smolder seems to be friends with Prince Vermilion, as in a special
edition of The Brightest Night and Winter Turning, he gives him advice
on how to take care of a scavenger.

## Quotes

There used to be three of us, but the other two made the wrong
dragons mad.
to Sunny about his brothers
The Brightest Night
94

-----

You can live for now, but I'd appreciate it if you made your
escape attempts as feeble and ineffective as possible.
to
Sunny The Brightest Night
96

-----

I think I should put you in the weirdling collection. It's as
safe as the dungeon but more comfortable. Also more psychologically
destabilizing.
to Sunny, Smolder debating where to imprison
her The Brightest Night
98

-----

I have heard that before. There was someone who used to tease
me about it. She told me she was going to assume everything I said was a
joke, since that would simplify things. You can do that, too, if you
like.
to Sunny about his voice
The Brightest Night
114

-----

This is not Burn's favorite place. I can't guarantee she's ever
been in here, in fact. And our mother wasn't the most organized dragon
in the world either. I tried once to put it all in order. As you can
see, I was wildly successful.
to Sunny and Thorn about the
SandWing messaging room The Brightest Night (book)|The Brightest
Night
155

-----

An extremely beautiful frog. One we're all still proud to call
our queen.
to Thorn, after she put on a copy of Qibli's
enchanted earring
Darkness of Dragons
134

-----

Onyx, I have a suggestion. How about instead of immediately
risking death against our shiny new queen, you take a few days to get to
know us first? Stay here at the palace. Tell me all about your life. See
how incredibly boring the job of queen really is. Eat as much as you
want. Hang out with me. I mean, wouldn't you rather get to know your
father than expire in a ball of ancient crackly magic?
to
Onyx
Darkness of Dragons
167

-----

Flower, I promise I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to
protect you from dragons like Mother, the way I couldn't protect Palm.
Whatever I have to do to stay alive, so you'll be safe, I'll do it.
We're going to be alright, you and me. Goodnight, Flower.
to
Rose in his journal
A Guide to the Dragon World
131

## Trivia

  - Smolder had chosen Onyx's name.
  - Rose called Smolder "Ember" before she knew his real name.
  - Smolder intensely dislikes visiting the dungeons within the SandWing
    stronghold. It is possible that his mother shut him in there as a
    punishment.