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" Moonwatcher, preferring the nickname Moon, is an adult female NightWing 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, having a son, Shadowseer.

Appearance
Moonwatcher is said to look a lot like her mother, Secretkeeper, but with 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. She looks like Shadowseer.

Personality
Moonwatcher is friendly but somewhat shy and stubborn, and shown to be very kind and caring. Due to being alone for most of her life, she initially had trouble interacting with others, sometimes stammering when trying to talk. Her ability to read minds and foresee the future was another reason why she found it so difficult to communicate with other dragons. She suffered from social anxiety and was easily scared by loud and hectic situations, as shown by her nervousness about the prey center at Jade Mountain Academy. She often tried to avoid being around others by going off and reading scrolls to calm herself down. Moon was very distressed about what others would think of her and didn't open up easily to her peers. She always looks for the good in dragons.

After becoming a mother, she becomes calmer, and affectionate. She is understanding, as shown when she is sympathetic to Shadowseer.

Anemone
Princess Anemone appears to show a great deal of jealousy towards Moonwatcher. 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.

Darkstalker
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 using 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 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 trust him fully after that.

Kinkajou
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 severely injured 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
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, she unknowingly passed by her father's corpse in the tunnel. She later names her son, Shadowseer, after him.

Peril
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, although a feeling gets through here and there. However, she does not think of Peril much in this book and only starts to think about her more. After Peril accidentally burns Winter, Moon is concerned. She shows suspicion towards Peril, which adds 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.

Qibli
Qibli is one of Moonwatcher's closest friends and 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 by looking and analyzing a dragon. It was confirmed near Moon Rising's conclusion that she would miss listening to his thoughts after giving him skyfire. 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. However, Qibli often believed that he could never measure up to Winter, thinking 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. He was shown to be protective of her and all of his friends when he instinctively jumped in front of Moonwatcher to save her from a flaming spear. They later have a son, Shadowseer.

Secretkeeper
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. She called Moon her "Weird little diamond." She sometimes becomes exasperated with Moonwatcher's nervousness and paranoia but loves her nevertheless. Moonwatcher visits Secretkeeper in the rainforest often.

Shadowseer
Shadowseer is Moonwatcher's son, and she loves him dearly. She wants him to go to Jade Mountain Academy, and they share a loving relationship. Moonwatcher was awed when Shadowseer hatched, and vowed to give him a peaceful life. She thinks that he is the most perfect dragonet, and when he hatched, she thinks of him as beautiful and that he made her heart flutter with joy.

Tsunami
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 while the Jade Winglet has their first session.

Turtle
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 dragons' 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 sees 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 and believes he is interesting despite what he says to the contrary.

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. Darkstalker mentions that Moon was fond of Turtle and Kinkajou, which made him reluctant to kill either of them.

Winter
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 baffled about his thoughts and doesn't quite understand what they mean, describing them as "mirrors, reflecting self-hate and guilt." Moon was distraught when Winter decided to leave. 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.