Firedrake | |
Firedrake | |
Home | Valley (formerly) |
Gender | Male |
Eye colour | Golden yellow |
Skin colour | Silver (scales) |
Race/Species | Silver Dragon |
Weapon | Flames, Claws and Teeth |
Fate | Taking the rest of his kind to the Rim of Heaven alongside Sorrel and the other inhabitants of The Valley |
Appearances | Dragon Rider Dragon Rider: The Griffin's Feather |
Firedrake is a young silver dragon and one of the main characters in Dragon Rider. He sets off with Sorrel after a talk with Slatebeard, to the Rim of Heaven.
History[]
He was born in an unnamed valley in Scotland, and is the youngest dragon in his group. He is described as being brave, but can be impulsive to aiding friends in danger. He also has a good Scottish Brownie friend named Sorrel, mostly because he saved her from an unchained guard dog, but also out of context that brownies and dragons get together well. During the events of the first novel, Firedrake and Sorrel would have their disputes often, but they were sometimes ended when the former shouts at the latter to "stop it".
Physical Appearance[]
Firedrake is a special kind of Silver Dragon. Unlike the she-dragon Maia they found in the Rim Of Heaven, his horns point forward while hers point backwards (or upwards) so that the gender could be identified between both genders if they were judged by another animal or human. And to Slatebeard, the oldest dragon of his kind, Firedrake is rather young. Firedrake doesn't require food to survive, he "feasts" upon moonlight itself.
While Firedrake is a large and strong dragon, he prefers to avoid confrontations as much as possible; the only time he makes an exception is if and when his closest friends and/or family are in danger. When necessary, he can produce a jet of blue fire from his maw to ward off opponents; the effects of his flames vary often, usually depending on the intensity as well as what or who it touches, with effects ranging from healing injuries and breaking curses to melting armored vehicles and even petrifying organic matter. While Firedrake has confirmed his dragonfire can heal wounds and cure illnesses, he never tried it on humans out of respect for their fear of being burned.
According to Sorrel, Firedrake's size is about average among dragons. Burr-Burr-Chan noted that Firedrake was a strong flier. When assessing Firedrake as a potential opponent, Kraa noted that Firedrake was around two or three hundred years ago and appeared to be a physically impressive foe. His voice also had an impressive quality, one noted even by Cadoc Eelstrom when he was trying to hunt Firedrake with Copper.
Abilities and Traits[]
In essence, Firedrake possesses the ability to breath Silver Dragon's Fire: while blue in appearance, it possesses varying effects on different entities with the intensity being a key factor. He often times uses it to make a small campfire of sorts for Sorrel to stay warm, but he can use it in many more ways: he's used it to heal other creatures (excluding humans - they're afraid he'd burn them), cure illnesses, break spells, and other feats that have been shown across the three books. Unlike his ability to fly, his dragonfire is not inhibited by the phases of the moon. In the third novel (Dragon Rider: The Aurelia's Curse), Firedrake had used his dragonfire to undo a petrification curse placed on Ben, Barnabas, and the other Greenblooms; the curse was casted by an unknown creature under Cadoc Eelstrom's control at the time. Despite this, Barnabas suffered the worst of the curse in a way where his illness was something which FIredrake's dragonfire couldn't cure alone, if at all. When enraged after Cadoc turned Sorrel into a shoe, Firedrake's nostrils emitted red fire.
It has been proven in the first novel that Firedrake's strength, stamina, and even his ability to fly is dictated by the phases of the moon: he's at peak strength under the light of a full moon, but is otherwise completely drained during the new moon phase, or a lunar eclipse. While his strength, speed and stamina have not been directly measured in the books, it's possible he's flown as fast as 150 miles per hour (250km/h) with Ben and Sorrel on board during a clear night: he's flown for as long as ten hours straight without the usage of Moon Dew nor Dragon Flowers, and even flew through a tropical storm, despite the microbursts almost throwing him and his riders into the ocean at the time. In terms of strength, he's proclaimed - and even proven - to fly with ten humans on his back with little-to-no effort: it may be possible he can sustain a weight of up to 30 tons, but there has been no known scenarios to canonically test his strength.
In the second novel (Dragon Rider: The Griffin's Feather), Firedrake gives Ben one of his scales; it possesses the ability to send Ben's thoughts and emotions to Firedrake, as well as guide the latter to where the scale is. While the individual scales possess this unique ability once removed willingly, it can only be "assigned" to one dragon rider at a time - at least in theory. However, should the scale be in someone else's possession, it will relay their thoughts and emotions to Firedrake directly, and possibly prompt him to rush to where the scale's location is at - it will not lead Firedrake to Ben nor to whomever last possessed it. Firedrake's scales have been observed to glow in the dark; this is a passive trait that he doesn't control, but because he's so young (compared to the other dragons) his scales glow the brightest; his scales are also said to be immune to even today's conventional weapons, allowing him to withstand basic small arms fire with ease, but anything stronger than an M1 Garand would cause his scales to break off from the shots. The scales are also noted to grow tougher with age. While the enchanted bird-like creatures and squid made by the copperman were able to pierce Firedrake's scales, the scales were noted to resist the beaks to an extent, much as Ben's skin did due to the changes of being a dragon rider. Though the attacks still left bleeding wounds, in under a day, those same wounds were already healing.
Across all three novels, Firedrake also displayed heightened senses of sight, smell, and sound: just being near busy roadway traffic was deafening to his ears, but he can otherwise hear even a rat scurrying across a cavern floor; his eyes can pierce through the darkest nights, even on a cloudy or even rainy night. His sense of smell is often times a blessing and a curse, for he can smell the exhaust from a combustion engine from miles away, but was almost overwhelmed by the foul odor of the Avian Basilisk that almost killed him through eye contact, as well as Nettlebrand's icy breath.
Relationship[]
Sorrel[]
Firedrake and Sorrel care a lot for each other and are nearly never seen apart, barring certain exceptions. The two help each other from time to time (though she gets mad at him for warming up to Ben).