Moonwatcher


 * "I mean, no one is completely evil … Dragons are complicated. Some are kinder than others, or braver than others, and some of them do really cruel things. But everyone has both good thoughts and bad thoughts and reasons for what they do, reasons that they believe are important."
 * —Moonwatcher to Qibli and Winter, Winter Turning

Moonwatcher, preferring the nickname Moon, is a female NightWing dragonet and the main protagonist of Moon Rising. She is the first known NightWing in over 2,000 years to possess real prophetic and mind-reading abilities.

Unlike most of her tribe, Moonwatcher was raised in the Rainforest Kingdom by Secretkeeper until the age of four. She is currently attending Jade Mountain Academy as a member of the Jade Winglet and is in a relationship with Qibli.

Appearance Edit
Moonwatcher is said to look a lot like her mother Secretkeeper, but with the silver teardrop scales by her eyes. She has cool, smooth, shiny purplish-black scales with shades of dark blue and green mixed in. She has a silver scale on the outside corner of each of her dark green eyes, like a teardrop about to fall, that are larger and sparklier than Fatespeaker's. She has small furrows crossing her forehead, as though she has a perpetual headache. Secretkeeper described her as having a perfect tail, gleaming scales, and claws like miniature curved crescents.

Personality Edit
Moon is a friendly, but somewhat shy and stubborn dragon. She is also very kind and caring. Due to being by herself for most of her life, she had trouble interacting with others, sometimes stammering when trying to talk, and it didn't help that she could read minds. She suffered from social anxiety and was easily scared by loud and hectic situations, as shown by her anxiety about the prey center at Jade Mountain Academy. She often tried to avoid being around others by going off and reading scrolls, to calm her down. Moon was very anxious about what others would think of her and didn't open up easily to her peers. She always looks for the good in dragons.

She's admitted to herself at one point that she doesn't want anyone to be able to see her subconscious side because then they would never like her. She is even more shy and nervous when she can hear someone's thoughts, though she would rather be able to than not. Her mind-reading and precognition have helped her several times, from listening to Scarlet dream-visiting Icicle, to knowing when the history cave would explode. In Winter Turning, she seemed to become bolder and more confident in herself. This is likely because of not hearing all her friends' thoughts.

As the second arc progresses, Moon is braver and has less trouble with stuttering. She also has multiple conversations with others, particularly with Winter, where she doesn't seem to be as scared as she was in Moon Rising. Moon has also been shown to be stubborn, especially regarding her belief that all dragons have some good inside. As the second series progresses, Moon doesn't let herself get pushed around as much, standing up to Winter when he's yelling at her in multiple books and confronting Darkstalker with her new knowledge of his wrongs in Darkness of Dragons. By the end of the second arc, Moonwatcher makes friends much more easily, and all who meet her seem to immediately like her, and she seems to have lost her shyness and social anxiety.

Moon becomes better at expressing her feelings, controlling her fear, and letting go of her worries as the series progresses. She also handles her visions better, able to control the pain, and keep flying in Darkness of Dragonsinstead of panicking as she did in Moon Rising. Moon also shows her determined side on many occasions, such as when she convinces Winter of his good qualities, advocates for her belief that all dragons have some good in them, or seeks out Qibli at the end of Darkness of Dragons to ask if they can be together. So far, Moonwatcher has become a nice dragon who can sympathize and make friends easily. She has become much more outgoing and she has no problem with stuttering. She can handle her visions perfectly well now, and her life seems to be very happy and content.

Secretkeeper Edit
Secretkeeper is Moonwatcher's mother. During a hunting patrol in the rainforest, Secretkeeper lied about the egg coming out cracked and wanting to bury the eggshells alone. She hid Moonwatcher's egg in the rainforest foliage. Secretkeeper cares about her daughter very much and was willing to risk everything — even her own life — to keep Moonwatcher safe from the volcano. She even refused to tell her partner, Morrowseer, about their dragonet, fearing that he would take Moonwatcher back to the island if he ever found out about her existence. When Moonwatcher hatched, Secretkeeper was in awe and believed her to be the most perfect and healthy dragonet she'd ever seen. After Secretkeeper found out about Moonwatcher's mind-reading powers, she was very worried and warned Moonwatcher that she must always keep her power hidden to appear normal. During Book 6, she called Moon her "Weird little diamond." She sometimes becomes exasperated with Moonwatcher's nervousness and paranoia but loves her nevertheless. In the epilogue of Darkness of Dragons, it was confirmed that Moonwatcher visits Secretkeeper in the rainforest often.

Kinkajou Edit
Kinkajou is Moon's best friend and has been shown to care much about her. Moonwatcher and her were clawmates in the Jade Winglet. Moon was distraught when Kinkajou was injured severely by a mysterious companion of Scarlet's (Chameleon, in his NightWing form, Shapeshifter), showing the strong bond between them. At first, Moon was put off by Kinkajou's energetic thoughts and actions but realized that Kinkajou really did care about her.

Morrowseer Edit
Morrowseer is Moonwatcher's father, but they never knew each other; Morrowseer never knew that Moonwatcher existed, since Secretkeeper hadn't told him about their dragonet for fear that he would demand she be returned to the island. Even after Morrowseer's death, Secretkeeper refused to talk about him; Moonwatcher had only learned of his name by reading from her mother's thoughts. He was killed in the Night Kingdom by the volcanic explosion before she met him. In The Dark Secret, when Moon would have been about three and a half years old, Mastermind asked Morrowseer if he had any dragonets, and the only response was a stony glare. When she went to the island in Winter Turning, she unknowingly passed in front of her father's corpse.

Qibli Edit
Qibli is one of Moonwatcher's closest friends and a confirmed love interest. Moonwatcher respects his intelligence, bravery, and honesty, and loves him for being kind and humble. In Moon Rising, she admired his ability to gain information just by looking and analyzing a dragon, and it was confirmed near Moon Rising'sconclusion that after giving Qibli Skyfire, she would miss listening to his thoughts. Qibli began developing feelings for Moonwatcher very early on, though he was always very subtle and polite with his feelings for her.

The two-act more like best friends than a couple, often joking and rarely being serious with each other. Qibli has proved to be a patient, loyal and respectful partner for Moonwatcher, and it was this that led her to choose him over Winter in the epilogue of Darkness of Dragons. However, Qibli often believed that he could never measure up to Winter, believing Winter to be too handsome and serious for Moonwatcher to choose anyone else — he even reprimanded himself for joking with and "acting like her goofy friend" instead of behaving romantically, as Winter would. In Winter Turning, he was also shown to be protective of not only her but all of his friends, when he instinctively jumped in front of Moonwatcher to save her from a flaming spear.

Winter Edit
Despite his icy exterior, Moon sees him as a friend and is hurt when he yells at her or calls her names. Winter admits many times that he's in love with her. She is very confused about his thoughts and doesn't quite understand what they mean, describing them as "mirrors, reflecting self-hate and guilt." In Winter Turning, Moon was distraught when Winter decided to leave. In Darkness of Dragons, however, Moon chose Qibli over him to be her partner. Winter was heartbroken over this decision but came to realize in the end that it was himself who drove her away and that it would take his heart a long time to heal.

Darkstalker  Edit
Darkstalker was the second dragon to learn about Moonwatcher's powers. Darkstalker appeared to be very upset that Moonwatcher hadn't received any training in how to use her powers without getting overwhelmed. He and Moon became good friends after he taught her to block out other dragons' thoughts, and she becomes the only dragon he truly cared about since Foeslayer, Clearsight, Whiteout, and Fathom. He asked her numerous times if she could retrieve his "talisman" — the scroll that held his animus power — and she tries to bring it to him in Escaping Peril. After Peril accidentally frees him by destroying the scroll and returning Darkstalker's power to him, Moon accuses Darkstalker of lying to her. He defends himself, saying that he was desperate to escape his imprisonment, which may have been true. However, Moonwatcher doesn't seem to fully trust him after that.

Anemone Edit
Princess Anemone appears to show a great deal of jealousy towards Moonwatcher throughout Talons of Power. This is because of Moon's closeness with Darkstalker. Moon seems oblivious to this until Anemone enchants a mop to attack her out of rage. Moonwatcher seems to forgive the SeaWing princess, as she defends Anemone when Darkstalker is furious with her for hurting Moon. Anemone, Princess of the SeaWing Kingdom, gives Darkstalker an enchanted snake-shaped earring to make him like her more than Moon. Darkstalker, enraged, harshly refuses the offer and states that he "doesn't accept gifts from animus dragons."

Peril Edit
When Peril first comes into Jade Mountain Academy, Moonwatcher senses fear among all the dragonets and is confused until she finds out exactly who Peril is. She realizes that she cannot read Peril's mind very well, due to some kind of constant fiery wall that seems to hide her thoughts (likely her self doubt and hate), although a feeling gets through here and there. However, she does not think of Peril much in this book and only really starts to think about her more in Escaping Peril. After Peril accidentally burns Winter, Moon is concerned. She shows suspicion of Peril, which adds on to Peril's insecurities about other dragons not liking her and causes Peril to fly away. However, later when Peril proves herself to have good intentions, she trusts her and views her as a friend.

Tsunami Edit
She is shown to be a little wary of the ferocious SeaWing founder of Jade Mountain Academy. But the two soon get along. Tsunami is always grumbling about how she told Moonwatcher no visions and prophecies anymore. Moon considers Tsunami to be a brave warrior of the Dragonet Prophecy. She allowed herself to smile at the fact that she had not been the one to run from her winglet, but the great Tsunami in Moon Rising while the Jade Winglet is having their first session.

Turtle Edit
Moonwatcher initially didn't trust Turtle as he had his Skyfire, which made his mind a 'quiet fuzz' to her. She described him as having unfathomable green eyes and a 'cozy' mind, which she sometimes uses as a shelter from other dragon's thoughts. Moon thought Turtle might have something sinister in him, as she had a vision of him fighting Anemone when she first saw him. As time passes, she seems to regard him as more and more of a friend and learns to trust him.

After the cave explosion and Moon's reveal of her powers, she visited the underwater lake with Turtle. He removed the dragonflame seedpod from her shoulder, and she wondered if he would let her drown if she fainted. He then told her to, "Go ahead and try." This referred to flying, but Moon wondered if he was offering her an escape as well. She thinks that she doesn't know him at all, and believes he is interesting despite what he says to the contrary.

In Escaping Peril, she defended him against others that how he used his power should be decided by him and him alone. When Turtle used his animus power to get Darkstalker's scroll from Chameleon she was worried about his soul, but he shrugged them off as he said 'tiniest of evil' was in him. In Darkness of Dragons,Darkstalker mentions that Moon was fond of both Turtle and Kinkajou which made him reluctant to kill either of them.

Luna Edit
When Moonwatcher firsts meets Luna with Qibli, she is rather startled and amazed by her appearance. In the epilogue of The Poison Jungle, Moon is shown to be a little uncomfortable around Luna, due to not telling her about her mind-reading, as Luna was very excited about her precognition. Despite this, their relationship seems to be something of a friendship.

Quotes Edit

 * "I know, Stay secret. Stay hidden. Stay safe. So isn't this really dangerous? What if I make a mistake here, with all these different kinds of dragons around?"
 * ― to Secretkeeper, about Jade Mountain Academy (Moon Rising, page 3)


 * "No. I don't want to be … like other dragons. I just want them to not mind that I'm different, if that makes sense. I want to stop being scared—of being found out, of what my visions mean, of other dragons, of everything."
 * ― to Darkstalker (Moon Rising, page 61)


 * "All right. But please stop trying to scare me. You are not as terrifying as you think you are."
 * ― to Winter (Moon Rising, page 92)


 * "If I couldn't read minds, everyone I met would be like Turtle—completely unreadable. Strange and blank. I'd have no way to know if they were kind or cruel. I'd never understand why they act the way they do. Everyone would be all surface. I'd think Winter was just mean; I wouldn't know about his dead brother and how he hates himself more than anyone else. I might think Qibli was just goofy and ordinary, if I didn't know about his layers and his amazing mind and his childhood. I'd have stayed away from Kinkajou, because I wouldn't have known or believed that she really liked me. I guess that's how other dragons live … never knowing how complicated everyone is. That's what it would be like, to be normal."
 * ― thinking about her powers (Moon Rising, page 198)


 * "That just seems kind of wrong, doesn't it? I mean, judging dragons by their dark thoughts, and using that to justify spying on them? Lots of dragons think dark things sometimes; it doesn't mean they'll ever actually do them … I don't know, I guess I don't like to think of myself as sneaking around in dragons' heads. I can't help what I hear, but it doesn't seem fair to do it on purpose."
 * ― to Qibli (Moon Rising, page 233)


 * "You can't give up. Of course it's hard; the whole point is that you're trying to fix something that's nearly impossible to fix. But if no one ever tries, then it will always be terrible. You and Clay and the others … dragons believe in you. You have to take that gift and do something with it, not run away from it."
 * ― to Sunny, about Jade Mountain Academy (Moon Rising, page 281)


 * "I mean, no one is completely evil … Dragons are complicated. Some are kinder than others, or braver than others, and some of them do really cruel things. But everyone has both good thoughts and bad thoughts and reasons for what they do, reasons that they believe are important."
 * ― to Winter (Winter Turning, page 77)


 * "Why would you be a librarian if you don't get excited about scrolls? I will never understand some dragons."
 * ― to Qibli (Darkness of Dragons, page 237)

Trivia Edit

 * Moonwatcher's favorite book genres include history, adventure stories, ancient legends, and encyclopedias.
 * In Moon Rising, when Winter demanded to know her name, one of the names he guessed was Mooncrusher, which is the name of a yeti in another series written by Tui named The Menagerie.
 * So far, Moonwatcher is the youngest PoV character, being only 4 years old.

Gallery Edit
Reference by Platypus the SeaWing

Moonwatcher on the cover of Moon Rising, by Joy Ang

Moonwatcher on the full cover of Moon Rising, by Joy Ang

Moonwatcher on the cover of A Winglets Collection: The First Three Stories, by Joy Ang

Moonwatcher full body render, edited by SpaceshipEarth Add a photo to this gallery

References Edit

 * 1) ↑ Winter Turning, page 45
 * 2) ↑ Winter Turning, page 34
 * 3) ↑ Winter Turning, page 78
 * 4) ↑ The Hive Queen, epilogue
 * 5) ↑ 5.0 5.1 Moon Rising, prologue
 * 6) ↑ Escaping Peril, page 108
 * 7) ↑ Moon Rising, page ? (Chapter 24)
 * 8) ↑ Revealed by Tui T. Sutherland at the launch party for The Lost Continent
 * 9) ↑ Moon Rising, page 19