Moon Rising takes place mainly at Jade Mountain Academy. As you might expect, that’s where it starts. We are introduced to Moonwatcher, a shy NightWing who grew up in the rainforest, away from the rest of her tribe. While she may seem unremarkable on the outside, she secretly possesses the ability to read others’ minds. When she finally builds up the courage to go inside, she finds out about the academy’s winglet system. To encourage peaceful inter-tribe relations, the school founders have grouped everyone into groups of seven, one dragon from each tribe. Moon goes to her assigned cave and meets two members of her winglet, Carnelian, a SkyWing, and Kinkajou, a RainWing. The next day, she meets the other members of her winglet: a SandWing named Qibli, an IceWing named Winter, a MudWing named Umber, and Turtle, the winglet’s SeaWing.
---------
After a couple of days of pretty everyday happenings at Jade Mountain, Moon has a vision of the history cave on fire, with many dragons dying. She tries to make sure no one goes in, but Carnelian doesn’t listen and enters the history cave right before it explodes. Along with Carnelian, a NightWing named Bigtail is killed in the explosion, and a RainWing named Tamarin is injured. The members of Moon’s winglet are suspicious of her and how she knew about the fire before it happened. She is forced to tell them that she can read minds and see the future. While some of her friends are mad at her for not telling them sooner, Turtle helps her treat an injury she got from the explosion. They find out that said explosion was caused by a plant called a dragonflame cactus.
---------
In part three of Moon Rising, Qibli thinks that Moon could use her powers to find out who rigged the history cave to explode. They spend all day looking for the killer, and eventually, it is revealed to be Sora, Umber’s sister, after she tries to kill her clawmate, Icicle, with a trapped stalactite. Icicle killed Sora’s sister during the War of SandWing Succession, and Sora wanted vengeance. Icicle is furious at Sora and begins chasing her down. Moon and Qibli help Sora escape with Umber before Icicle finds them. Once Sora’s gone, Icicle decides to attack Starflight, one of the Dragonets of Destiny and founders of the academy. You see, this whole time, Icicle has secretly been scheming with Scarlet, a long-time enemy of the Dragonets, and wants to kill them. Moon and Qibli attempt to stop Icicle and save Starflight, and Winter comes to help save Moon from his sister. Unfortunately, Icicle gets away, but fortunately, Starflight and Moon’s clawmates are okay, and peace has been restored to Jade Mountain.
---------
Questions to think about:
What do you think about Moon Rising?
Was Moon Rising a good intro to arc two?
Would you have expected Sora to have planted the bomb in the history cave?
Should Moon have ended up with Winter or Qibli?