Moon Rising's Plot
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.
---------
Darkstalker
Throughout Moon Rising, Moonwatcher hears a voice in her head. She doesn’t know whose voice it is, but whoever it is, they help her out of a nightmare and seem to be another mind reader. At the end of part one, the voice is revealed to be Darkstalker, an ancient, legendary NightWing animus. He has been trapped underground for over two thousand years and tells Moon that if she brings him an artifact, he can be free. Since Darkstalker can read minds, he teaches Moon some tricks. For example, if she imagines others’ voices as a repetitive sound (like the rain), she can tune them out and focus without the distraction of everyone’s minds.
---------
The Moon Rising Love Triangle
A love triangle is a storytelling technique where three characters are in some relational dilemma (usually, two characters are fighting over a third). In the case of Moon Rising, those three characters are Moon, Winter, and Qibli. Moon’s first interaction with both Qibil and Winter is in the prey center when she grabs Winter’s fleeing scavenger in an attempt to save it from being eaten. Winter threatens Moon to give it back, but Qibli steps in and asks nicely. In the end, it was just one big understanding; both Moon and Winter wanted the scavenger to be safe, and that brief conflict was resolved. Through the second arc (not just Moon Rising), the readers are wondering who will end up with whom. Spoilers: In the end, Moon and Qibli end up together, and I guess Winter is still a bachelor.
Jade Mountain Happenings:
- Staff members' egos are growing, specialist warns against overinflation over the next few months
- Jade going strong in the last stretch of the winglet competition...cheating? Perhaps /j
- Love is in the air: It seems to be the season of dating and marriage...try to find the topics!
- Check out Councillor Autumn's wonderful world of chaos and paintballs
- End of year party topic coming soon, hosted by yours truly..? Maybe...although the last one ended up in paintballs-
Interesting WoF Facts:
- A RainWing's accent is close to an Australian one
- Qibli is based on one of Tui T. Sutherland's sons
- Wasp keeps dragons that can't be mind controlled in Vinegaroon Hive (riddle answer? :O)
- Most SandWings are claustrophobic
- The word 'animus' means 'soul' in Latin
- The Lost Heir was almost called The Last Heir when trying to name the book
- Tui is named after a bird
Today's blogger:
Ebony Blade
"save meee NO PLEASE TvT" - Rhea Kaede