'Snowfall' is a female IceWing dragonet
and the main protagonist of The Dangerous Gift. She is the current queen
of the IceWing tribe and resides in the IceWing palace.

## Description

Snowfall is large and regal, with shiny white scales. She has dark blue
eyes and curved white wings. She formerly owned a heavy, metal crown,
described as being too large for her head and weighing as much as a
small polar bear. It was studded with diamonds and metallic spikes that
looked similar to icicles. She wears a pouch around her neck that
contains a copy of Qibli's enchanted earring.

## Personality

According to Winter, Snowfall is "abundantly blessed with mean
smugness." When Winter was raised to first circle in the
IceWings#Circle rankings|Circle rankings, Snowfall was fuming and gave
him a glare that "should have melted all of the ice in the IceWing
palace#Courtyard|palace courtyard." She also smirked at him afterwards,
as if she did not expect his new ranking to last even a week. She was
described to smile outwardly, but her voice was all murderous
stalactites, sugary-sweet and mocking. Luna describes her as "flipping
terrifying" and thought that she could defeat the HiveWings by herself
simply by coldly staring at them.

Despite her rough exterior, Snowfall struggles with a lot of
isolationist worries, anxieties, and fears. She is scared, but in a
powerful, reactive way; she acts out very dramatically whenever she is
upset. She has gone through enormous trauma due to the IceWing plague
and her mother's death, and is heavily driven by anxiety and fear. As a
new queen, Snowfall was terrified of any threat to her Ice
Kingdom|kingdom.

After she became queen, Snowfall was easily annoyed, stressed, rude,
cold, anxious, distrustful, and indecisive. She often felt as though
being queen was similar to living inside a snowstorm that never ended.
She tried her best to start each day with a list and a plan and energy
to solve all of her problems, but was always buried in them before
nightfall. She felt overwhelmed and pinned down by the responsibilities
of being queen. Lynx also noted that Snowfall had not smiled since the
beginning of the IceWing plague|plague. She was panicked by all of the
things that might go horribly wrong, and often woke up feeling more
tired than she had been before. She became heavily insecure about her
ability to rule due to the events of the Battle of Jade Mountain, when
she was exposed to the thoughts of her subjects that were doubtful and
worried about her authority as queen. She often felt a sense of
suffocating dread when reminded of the gift of order, and her everyday
life was full of anxiety. She was insecure and easily bored.

Snowfall's nights were long, and she felt a constant pressure inside her
head, knowing the gift of order was always waiting for her and feeling
as though her every move was being watched. She believed outside dragons
were inherently dangerous, but still felt a twinge of guilt after
sending the Pantalan refugees away from the Ice Kingdom. She felt
begrudgingly sympathetic towards Hazel, and after the gift of vision
transformed her into Atala, she began hoping that the SilkWing's family
would remain safe. She found it difficult to accept that she cared about
the Pantalan dragons or wanted to explore the Hives of Pantala.

After her experiences with the gift of vision, Snowfall is still proud,
imperious, sarcastic, commanding, naturally grumpy, gruff, irritable,
and impatient. However, she has become more empathetic and believes that
other dragons are not as evil as she had once thought. She became less
paranoid and afraid, protecting her tribe with strength and indomitable
ferocity.

## Biography

### The Jade Mountain Prophecy

left Moon Rising

Snowfall was indirectly mentioned when Icicle wondered if Glacier would
appreciate a reason to get rid of Icicle so she would not threaten her
daughters.

left Winter Turning

As Winter scanned the rankings of the IceWings in the First Circle, he
noticed that Snowfall had moved to the top position on the dragonet side
in front of Lynx, who was in second place. When Winter was moved to take
her spot, she shot him a nasty glare. When the IceWing dragonets were
dismissed, Snowfall stayed to congratulate him sarcastically and to
stare at the rankings, along with Hailstorm, "as if she could reshape
them with the sheer force of her eyeballs," clearly meaning that she was
upset about the new rankings.

left
Darkness of Dragons
When Darkstalker
enchanted a scroll to tell the news of the IceWings, it was revealed
that Queen Glacier was dead and Snowfall had become the new queen. The
scroll also said that Snowfall had brought the entire IceWing army to
Jade Mountain to fight the NightWings.

Snowfall, Hailstorm, and Narwhal were later shown demanding the Jade
Mountain staff to tell them Darkstalker's location, while berating them
for Darkstalker's escape in the first place. Winter appeared in front of
them, which shocked Snowfall, who demanded to know how he was still
alive. Winter exclaimed that it is not important and began helping his
friends convince her not to fight the NightWings. Before she could
consider, NightWing scouts with gifts of speed appeared and started
attacking, throwing the discussion away and officially beginning the
battle. Narwhal was killed while blocking the NightWings from her, but
Snowfall kept herself relatively calm throughout the battle while
launching her own attacks. She was later teleported back to the Ice
Kingdom along with the other IceWings, due to Anemone's spell.

In the epilogue, it was mentioned that Snowfall wanted to close the
borders and isolate the Ice Kingdom but reconsidered this after she
received large amounts of letters from her tribe requesting to attend
Jade Mountain Academy.

-----

### The Lost Continent Prophecy

left The Poison Jungle

In the epilogue, Snowfall and Jerboa III had a meeting
outside of the Great Ice Cliff. Queen Snowfall's scouts had reported
back sightings of hundreds of dragons on their way to Pyrrhia. These are
likely the LeafWings, some SilkWings, the two HiveWings, Cricket and
Bumblebee, Turtle and Tsunami. She demanded Jerboa III to extend the
Great Ice Cliff to prevent the "invaders" from taking her kingdom.
Jerboa III told her that animus magic was not currently working for
anyone on the continent. To prove this, Jerboa enchanted a stick to turn
anything it touched green and offered it to Snowfall, who declined it.
Jerboa then tapped herself and a nearby rock; nothing happened, proving
that magic was not working. Snowfall became enraged and stormed off,
calling Jerboa useless.

left
The Dangerous Gift
The book
initiated with Snowfall thinking of the plague that Darkstalker sent to
the IceWings. She was furious about the event and wanted to shut out her
tribe from the rest of Pyrrhia. She mostly did not care about what other
queens had to say and would have isolated the IceWings, but the empathy
spell cast by Anemone convinced most of her subjects to try to reach out
to the other Pyrrhian tribes. While she was thinking, Lynx appeared
behind her to which Snowfall accused Lynx of spying on her. She
conversed with Lynx about her problems, then got frustrated when Lynx
tried to calm her down. Later, Snowfall led Mink into the Forbidden
Treasury, where she took some of the objects in there.

Snowfall had heard about the SilkWings and LeafWings flying towards her
kingdom from a scout. Lynx decided to go with her to see the mysterious
dragons. At first, Snowfall thought that they were SeaWings, RainWings
or NightWings, but when she met them, she found out that they were from
the other continent. She went with five guards, but disguised the
IceWing army with the gift of stealth. When Cricket told Snowfall about
her ancestry with Clearsight, Snowfall became furious and threatened
them with her army before Tsunami suggested that the Pantalans could
stay at Jerboa III's hut. Snowfall agreed to this and decided to travel
with the Pantalan dragons over to the Kingdom of Sand. After they
arrived at Jerboa's hut, Snowfall decided to go to sleep and had a
vision about Atala, although she dismissed it as a strange dream.

When she woke up, Snowfall interrogated a dragon named Lappet about the
SilkWings and LeafWings. She asked Lappet about Atala and he confirmed
her fears of how accurate the vision was. Snowfall later realized that
it was the gift of vision giving her strange dreams. She attempted to
get rid of the ring in several different ways. None of them worked, much
to Snowfall's annoyance. Lynx noticed Snowfall's strange behaviour and
expressed her concerns for the IceWing queen.

Later, Snowfall followed the Pantalans to Sanctuary, where she found her
lost sister Crystal and realized that she had fallen in love with a
MudWing named Gharial. After this encounter, she went to sleep where she
had a vision about Bryony hiding in the SilkWing refugee camp. After
being questioned by Lynx on the contents of her vision, she headed off
to talk to Winter. While Snowfall met up with Winter, she was struck
with visions from Blue and Wasp. Her strange behaviour had attracted a
crowd around her, who asked her question after question about the
contents of her vision. Thorn then ordered everyone to get away from the
IceWing queen and offered Snowfall to fly around with her for a while.

She later had a vision of Io before all the queens were summoned for a
meeting to discuss what to do with the Pantalan dragons. During the
meeting, Snowfall revealed the contents of her visions, which sparked an
uproar within the gathered dragons.

Soon after the meeting, Winter asked Snowfall to mind his scavenger,
Pumpkin. A strange SkyWing (later revealed to be Sky) went up to
Snowfall and rambled on about how much he wanted Pumpkin and tried to
bargain with Snowfall about it. After he seemingly gave up and ran away,
Snowfall noticed that Winter's scavenger had gone missing. Snowfall
chased after Sky and managed to catch him off guard and demanded him to
give Winter's scavenger back. Suddenly, a scavenger named Wren started
to speak to her in Languages#Dragon|Dragon and told her that Daffodil
(Pumpkin) was not a pet. This startled and confused Snowfall, who fell
into yet another vision. This vision was about a scavenger named Raven.
She woke up and decided to introduce Wren to Winter, Qibli, Cricket and
Bumblebee, where she explained the contents of her new vision.

After discussing Moon's The Lost Continent Prophecy|prophecy, the queens
came to an agreement that they should send a dragon from each tribe to
face the othermind. Snowfall promised to Wren that the dragons would
stop eating humans from then on. Snowfall then elected Lynx to be the
IceWing representative on the journey to Pantala.

After Snowfall said her farewells to Winter, Crystal and the other
queens, she returned back to the Ice Kingdom, where she promptly smashed
the Great Ice Cliff while thinking of the bonds she made with dragons
from other tribes. That night, Snowfall had a vision of Jerboa and
Jerboa III and found out the cause behind animus magic's disappearance.

After Snowfall returned to her palace, she noticed that Mink was wearing
her crown and was acting strangely fearful of NightWings. She realized
that there must have been a spell on the crown and ordered for it to be
destroyed. She then proceed to destroy the Gift of Order, while Lynx and
the other IceWings clapped.

Snowfall then had a vision of herself standing in front of the Forbidden
Treasury, where she met Opal and asked her if the ring was made by her.
Opal confirmed this, and told Snowfall that its purpose was to set up
queens who were not quite ready for the throne. Opal then gave Snowfall
one final vision about Glacier, then wished her good luck before
disappearing. Snowfall then reflected on how Lynx had left for Pantala,
and how furious she would be if anything happened to her and the rest of
the team.

left
The Flames of Hope
Snowfall was
mentioned when Sundew was explaining that she could only make dragons
she could see invisible. She was also mentioned later when Luna thought
about how terrifying Snowfall was.

Snowfall was later seen in Lynx's memories when they were younger and
playing a fort game with Winter and Hailstorm.

-----

### Field Guides

left
A Guide to the Dragon World

Snowfall's opening letter to Starflight was featured in the guide. She
was mentioned multiple times by Mink in her Jade Mountain Academy
application. Snowfall gifted a piece of the ranking wall to the Jade
Mountain Academy museum for students to study before providing a scroll
of historical animus gifts that she provided notes on. She introduced
the scroll on courses for Glacier's coronation.

## Relationships

### Crystal

After Crystal's disappearance, Snowfall was constantly paranoid about
Crystal conspiring against her. When she encountered her older sister in
Sanctuary, Crystal was indignant and Snowfall was accusing as well as
disgusted and disapproving towards Crystal's relationship with Gharial.
However, after a dream from the gift of vision, Snowfall later gave
Crystal her word that she would not be harmed upon entering the Ice
Kingdom, and that she approved of her relationship with Gharial, making
Crystal cry with happiness. She spoke to Crystal kindly before returning
to the Ice Kingdom.

### Glacier

Snowfall and Glacier were not often in the same room as one another, but
after Glacier's death, Snowfall struggled not to cry at the mention of
her mother. Glacier trusted in Snowfall's ability to be a great queen,
and watching Snowfall filled her with hope. After the gift of vision
showed Snowfall how much Glacier truly trusted in her daughter, Snowfall
was at peace with her mother's decision. She was also paranoid sometimes
that she would end up dead like her mother.

### Jerboa III

After Snowfall discovered that animus magic was not working, she
considered Jerboa to be useless and was furious when Jerboa seemed only
annoyed rather than guilty or intimidated when Snowfall confronted her
about consorting with Luna, Moonwatcher, and Qibli. She is acid, flat,
and withering towards Snowfall, and she often seems amused when Snowfall
is annoyed. However, after experiencing Jerboa's life through the gift
of vision, she could not imagine being angry at her anymore, and thought
that she might soon visit Jerboa, just to check on her, because it
seemed like she needed a friend.

### Ivory

Ivory is Snowfall's favorite general. She is respectful towards
Snowfall, and during the Battle of Jade Mountain, Ivory was one of the
only IceWings who thought supportively towards Snowfall. Snowfall trusts
her, and is prepared to assign her to tasks that require responsibility.
Snowfall also thought that if it was up to her, Ivory would stay in
First Circle for as long as she lives. Snowfall trusted her enough to
let her destroy the enchanted crown.

### Lynx

Lynx had been Snowfall's biggest competition all throughout school and
training, and Snowfall had wanted to strangle her more than a thousand
times. During The Dangerous Gift, Snowfall even said she would have
liked to "Drop a mountain on her." After becoming queen, Lynx treated
Snowfall the way she always had, challenging Snowfall to races around
the palace or arguing over points of IceWing law during class. In the
beginning of their friendship, Snowfall was often annoyed by how Lynx
lacked the proper IceWing etiquette when addressing a queen. Lynx is
often sympathetic towards and worried for Snowfall, and helps her calm
down. She defends Snowfall against insults from others. When Snowfall
woke from her first dream from the Gift of Vision, her first thought was
to turn to Lynx for company. Snowfall was at first hesitant to consider
Lynx a true friend, but Lynx is able to read her well and wants to
listen to Snowfall's worries. Snowfall and Lynx became argumentative and
angry at one another's differing viewpoints on IceWing traditions, and
Snowfall accusingly thought of Lynx as being judgemental. She was
irritated by Lynx's suggestions and interjections, but Lynx sounded
genuinely full of joy when realizing Snowfall was safe after she
fainted, and covered for Snowfall against Cricket's questions. Snowfall
brought Lynx as her representative during a diplomatic meeting with the
other Pyrrhian queens, and Snowfall was conflicted when it came time to
choose the IceWing representative for the journey back to Pantala. She
wanted Lynx to come back to the Ice Kingdom, to keep Snowfall sane and
join her new council, and she trusts Lynx more than any other IceWing.
She began crying during the farewell ceremony, but assured herself that
Lynx would have to come back. After Lynx admitted that she was only
coming back to the Ice Kingdom before the journey to hang out with
Snowfall for a couple more days, Snowfall nearly beamed or burst into
tears. Lynx protected her from Tundra when Snowfall destroyed the Gift
of Order, and supported her decision fully, clapping immediately after
Snowfall smashed the wall.

### Mink

Since becoming queen, Snowfall had not interacted with her younger
sister that often. Despite Mink's affection, she was typically opposed
to snuggling. However, Snowfall is kind to her and put one of her wings
around Mink after returning to the Ice Kingdom.

### Sky

Upon meeting Sky, Snowfall thought of him as one of the strangest
dragons she had ever met, but had to admit to herself that the mix of
amusement and slight confusion he brought her was strangely comforting
and much preferable to her typical overwhelming anxiety, and that she
would not have minded being distracted by him again. After Snowfall
compared her friends to friendly turtles on the inside, Sky gave her a
gigantic grin. She felt very worried for him before he left for Pantala,
and wanted him to be able to access the Ice Kingdom anytime he needed
her. When she returned to the Ice Kingdom, Snowfall built a snow
sculpture of a snail in his honor, and Lynx teased her for thinking
about him so much. Once Snowfall returned to the Ice Kingdom, she
realized that Sky reminded her a lot of Mink. She often finds herself
enchanted by how odd and funny he is.

### Tundra

Snowfall heavily distrusts and dislikes Tundra. Tundra is often frosty,
disapproving, and skeptical towards Snowfall's decisions, and Snowfall
typically wants to be as far away from her aunt as possible. She often
barks at Tundra and orders her around. Snowfall believed that one of the
key reasons she felt happier away from the Ice Kingdom was because she
had not interacted with Tundra.

### Winter

When they were dragonets, Winter would often argue with Snowfall or run
away from her. She thought that the term "friend" was a bit of a stretch
to describe her and Winter's relationship, but when Snowfall felt the
gift of vision making her faint again, Winter helped her without
argument or question or bewilderment. She described him as being
occasionally quite smart. She also admits that a small part of her wants
Winter to be happy. The two seem to be on good terms now.

### Wren

Snowfall respects Wren and reassures her that every dragon in Sanctuary
will not eat her and Daffodil.

## Quotes

Well, […] That was unexpected.
about Winter's
placement at the top of the rankings
Winter Turning
258

-----

There's not quite enough distance between our numbers for you
to be giving me orders. Besides, I'm sure I won't be the only dragon who
wants to ask Hailstorm about the Diamond Trial. Are you considering it,
Hailstorm dear? With only twelve days until you're seven, I certainly
hope so.
to Hailstorm and Winter
Winter Turning
262

-----

Oh, how funny, I wouldn't have thought you'd want him to, […]
Have you forgotten that the Diamond Trial must also be undertaken by a
defending challenger? That's whoever is currently in first place, of
course. But only one dragon can survive the Trial. Dear me, that means
it'll be brother against brother, won't it? Tsk, tsk. What a conundrum
for poor Hailstorm.
to Winter when he says Hailstorm should
try the Diamond Trial Winter Turning
263

-----

Twenty IceWings died of that plague, including our queen, […]
They started this. They're going to pay for it.
to the
dragonets of destiny
Darkness of Dragons
294

-----

Maybe not, but they might be interested in killing all of us!
I can think of a very big scary awful dragon who was pretty recently
interested in that exact thing! So I want you to expand the Great Ice
Cliff for me. I want it to go all the way around, along the entire
border of the kingdom. Something has happened. But you can't go tell
Queen Thorn.
to Jerboa III
The Poison Jungle
epilogue
298

-----

And guess what one of them saw? DRAGONS! Hundreds of dragons!
Coming this way! Across the ocean! I don't know from where! But
they're coming for my kingdom and I won't let them! Build me more Ice
Cliff RIGHT NOW!
to Jerboa III
The Poison Jungle
epilogue
299

-----

How is that possible? Why is this happening NOW, just when I
found you?! I NEED THAT MAGIC!
to Jerboa III, on the
subject of animus magic not working The Poison Jungle (book)|The
Poison Jungle
epilogue
301

-----

Me. She chose me. I'm the next queen of the IceWings. Not
Crystal. She thinks I'd be the best queen. Is she right? What if she's
wrong? Now I'm the one who has to protect us from the NightWings. And
I'm the one who has to find a cure for this plague before any more
dragons die. Queen Snowfall.
thoughts after Glacier chooses
her as queen
The Dangerous Gift
35

-----

I don't have time to feel better. My sister has gone into
hiding, probably so she can kill me; animus magic is broken so I can't
use it to fix ANYTHING; and there are hundreds of evil mystery dragons
flying DIRECTLY AT OUR BORDER RIGHT THE HECK NOW. They will probably BE
HERE BY TOMORROW. To do something NEFARIOUS, I don't know what, but
PROBABLY INVOLVING MURDER! WHEN AM I SUPPOSED TO FIT A LEISURELY SWIM
INTO ALL OF THAT, LYNX?
to Lynx
The Dangerous Gift

37-38

-----

That moment — in the middle of the battle, when an animus
dragon had connected all the minds of the fighting dragons, IceWings and
NightWings together — that had been one of the worst moments of her
life. Because threaded through the IceWings' fear, in dragon after
dragon, she'd found one particular whisper: What are we going to do
without Queen Glacier? How can Snowfall possibly save us from this?
She's not ready. She's a smug little monster. Our new queen is a spoiled
dragonet who has no idea what to do. Why would Glacier pick her? Up
until then, she'd thought maybe the tribe was proud of her. Maybe they
were glad she was the sister who'd been chosen; maybe they knew how
fiercely she would fight for them. Maybe when Glacier chose her, it had
convinced everyone she was truly a worthy queen.
Snowfall's
thoughts about Anemone's empathy spell
The Dangerous Gift
63-64

-----

Crystal, I have made a decision. If you would like to return to
the Ice Kingdom anytime, for any reason, I give you my word I will not
have you killed. Wait — unless you come with an army to try and steal my
throne. Then I will probably have to kill you. So I guess I mean, if you
would like to return to the Ice Kingdom anytime for any
not-deposing-Snowfall reason, you are welcome, and you'll be safe.

to Crystal
The Dangerous Gift
249-250

-----

For thousands of years, it's kept all other tribes out of the
Ice Kingdom. We always thought it kept us safe. I thought it was so
important, I wanted to extend it all around us, so my tribe could huddle
safely in our igloos and ice palaces and no one would ever be able to
get through our walls of ice. But if we'd all stayed hidden in the Ice
Kingdom, Darkstalker's plague would have killed us. We needed dragons
from other tribes, working together, to recognize his magic and find a
way to save us. We needed hybrids like Typhoon, who could cross the wall
and were spared the plague, to bring us those earrings. We only survived
because of our connections to the other kingdoms. And if the breath of
evil comes here… if it lands in the Ice Kingdom first… we may need those
connections again.
Snowfall's thoughts before destroying the
Great Ice Cliff
The Dangerous Gift
257-258

-----

What I mean is that if you spend all your time worrying about
where you are on the list and who's higher than you and who's below you,
you can't focus on what you do well, or how everybody can do something
important or kind or clever, no matter where they are on the list. And
maybe you start to think the dragons below you aren't as important or
special as you are, which is silly.
to Mink about the gift of
order
The Dangerous Gift
303

-----

I hope they survive. They BETTER survive or I'm going to be SO
FURIOUS at them. I hope they stop Queen Wasp and the breath of evil. I
hope I see Sky and Wren again … and Sundew and Cricket and all the rest
of them. I hope we're doing enough to save the world.

Snowfall's thoughts about the eleven selected representatives

The Dangerous Gift
313

## Trivia

  - Snowfall was at first excited to inherit her crown from Glacier, but
    it became a source of frustration because it was cumbersome and too
    large for her.
  - Out of all of the characters Tui has written, Snowfall is the least
    like her.
  - Mink, Crystal, and Snowfall were the three possible heirs to the
    IceWing throne, but Glacier chose the next heir on her deathbed in
    order to avoid another succession war.
  - Snowfall is the youngest queen in IceWing history.
  - Swimming is one of Snowfall's favorite activities.
  - Snowfall's very first act as queen was making sure that every
    IceWing in her kingdom received one of Qibli's enchanted earrings.
    She was the last IceWing to remove her copy of the earring.
  - Snowfall finds polar bear cubs cute.
  - Snowy is named after her.