Qibli

Qibli is a young male SandWing and the main protagonist of Darkness of Dragons. When he was three and a half years old, he was rescued from Cobra by Thorn and taken under her wing as a member of the Outclaws. Before the events of Darkness of Dragons, Qibli attended Jade Mountain Academy as part of the Jade Winglet. He is currently located near Jerboa's Hut and is in a relationship with Moonwatcher.

Appearance
Qibli is scrawny, with freckled scales and a raw scar on his nose. He is wiry and narrow-shouldered, with pale, sand-colored scales. He has several light brown freckles that stand out on his snout, an enchanted amber earring hanging in his left ear, and a small, rakish, zigzagging scar across his snout. He has also been described as warmly handsome by multiple dragons, including Moonwatcher, and Umber.

Personality
Qibli is observant, clever, and witty, often using intelligence rather than force to escape certain situations. He always has multiple plans in case something goes wrong, and his deduction skills are extremely advanced. He is very wary, and sometimes has trouble trusting dragons who have done bad deeds in the past. An example of this is in Darkness of Dragons, where he shows a hint of distrust towards Smolder for once locking Thorn and Sunny up for Burn. Although funny and charming on the outside, Qibli is internally self-conscious and has a constant longing for approval and popularity, threading this insecurity into his every action; he even desires approval from those he dislikes himself. If he could, he would use the animus magic he dreams of getting to cast a spell to make everyone like him. He likes to annoy Winter.

He is very loyal and kind to his friends, but he can become easily defensive when insulted on a personal level.

Family
Qibli's family consists of Cobra, Qibli's mother, an unknown father, one brother, and one sister. In one of his memories, his brother and sister are threatening him with their venomous tails to steal his talonful of date palms. In one of Moon's visions, he is seen with his brother and sister and an older male SandWing, which later turned out to be his grandfather Vulture. Qibli shouts, "Where is she?", referring to either his mother or Ostrich. His brother and sister, Sirocco and Rattlesnake, are in the vision, and they are wearing golden medallions decorated with large birds, later discovered to be a vulture. Dragons adorned with similar jewelry were seen in Escaping Peril in Possibility, arguing over the price of dragonflame cacti, which Tui confirmed were Sirocco and Rattlesnake. This symbol is also seen decorating the dragons in black hoods at the end of Talons of Power. Lastly, it is the jewelry seen on Vulture's recruited henchmen, his so-called "Talons of Power", who wear the medallions symbolizing their loyalty to Vulture.

Cobra
As his mother, Cobra didn't care about Qibli or his siblings. Qibli tried to be smarter and faster to get his mother to notice him. He would stay up all night, waiting for his mother to look at him with a look of love when he was sleeping: she never did. His siblings realized this a lot sooner than Qibli and pushed him around a lot. They didn't care about Cobra. After being imprisoned by her own father, Vulture, in Darkness of Dragons, she helped Qibli in escaping her father's stronghold. She refrained from calling him lizard and showed the first bits of affection towards Qibli. However, this turns out to be a trap to kill Queen Thorn so Onyx could become queen but is stopped by Qibli's memories of her unusual behavior. She warns Qibli that Vulture will get what he wants, and is placed in a SandWing prison under the palace, which was in a forgotten dungeon.

Vulture
Vulture had despised Qibli, especially among his siblings. When Qibli came back to Vulture's stronghold to look for Cobra, Vulture tried to persuade him to feed him all of Thorn's secrets. Although Qibli managed to escape, they encountered each other again, as Vulture was working under Darkstalker in order to become king of the SandWings. Darkstalker later used Vulture as an example to show Qibli how he could manipulate dragons' feelings toward him as an animus. Darkstalker then turns Vulture's personality to that of a newborn dragonet's. Qibli is horrified at how unnatural Vulture became, and this was partially the reason Qibli said no to Darkstalker's offer of animus magic.

Thorn
Qibli sees Thorn as his leader and mother, having served her and the Outclaws his entire life since he was 3 years old. He is extremely loyal to her, protecting her during battles and even refused to leave her side when Thorn wanted to talk in private with Sunny. It was also mentioned by him that Thorn saved him from his birth mother, who didn't take good care of him. Cobra sold him to Thorn, and she was the first to compliment him. She didn't know it, but she won Qibli's loyalty and respect and love forever at that time. Sunny has asked if Qibli was Thorn's son before, as they share some common features. In Darkness of Dragons, after seeing the flashback of his childhood, it mentions that he had a life plan; Prove his loyalty to Queen Thorn and be the best Outclaw possible, this life plan is altered when Thorn sends him to school, where he meets a NightWing named Moonwatcher (Moon).

Moonwatcher
Moon is Qibli's crush, and, by the end of Darkness of Dragons, his girlfriend. In Moon Rising, Qibli and Moonwatcher are put into the same winglet; he quickly becomes one of her best friends. Qibli is very intelligent and observant, shown by his thoughts that Moon has heard. He is a bit wary of her at first, but however, he thinks she's pretty and constantly wonders what he should do to make Moon like him a little better. Because of his instinct to protect, he frequently defends her. He turns out to also be a bit insecure about her "gift" to read minds, worrying that she'll think he's a cruel dragon or that he'll reveal secrets that he shouldn't. In the end, he puts aside how uncomfortable he is with it and helps her figure out who set off the bomb with the use of her powers. It is stated in Winter Turning that Qibli wants to be more than friends with Moon. In Talons of Power, Qibli is shown to care and worry for Moon, asking Turtle about how she was. Also, he wonders if he behaves around Moon the same way Peril behaves around Clay, one of the first major hints that he likes his NightWing friend. In Darkness of Dragons, he is shown to not just like her but is in love with her, and always thinks about her, worrying about her safety and wishing to follow her to the rainforest. Yet, Qibli wonders if Winter or himself is worthy of her, and doubts himself, wondering if he's more like the "goofy friend" than a romantic partner. He concludes Moon deserves someone like Winter rather than him but ends up being wrong, as in the end of Darkness of Dragons, Moon chooses Qibli over Winter.

Ex-Prince Winter
Qibli and Winter have a bit of a rivalry - as Qibli (quite often) likes to annoy him - however, he still wants to be Winter's friend. Their rivalry could also be about the fact that they both have strong feelings for Moonwatcher, but this is unlikely since even before they were introduced to Moon, Qibli still annoyed him in a deliberate, yet friendly way. Winter states that Qibli's constant, clever observations annoy him several times a day. Qibli thinks to himself that Winter is a friend, but doesn't know if the feelings are reciprocated. Qibli sometimes thinks of himself worse compared to Winter because Winter is the heroic, kind, handsome dragon, while Qibli makes really weird faces when he tries to copy Winter. He thinks Moon deserves Winter instead of him because he gave up so much for her. However, in the end, Moon chooses Qibli over Winter.

Kinkajou
It was shown in Moon Rising that Qibli tried to get Kinkajou to like him, as he does almost every dragon. They end up being strong friends, and when Kinkajou falls into her coma, he worries about her the way a loyal friend would, but he is not romantically interested in her, as he is romantically interested in Moon.

Ostrich
He seems to be friends with Ostrich, and worries about her well-being. Ostrich appears to be very close to Qibli and often greets him enthusiastically. It is possible that they were closer before going to Jade Mountain Academy because Qibli remembers telling her that he would protect her while they were at school. Ostrich seems to look up to Qibli quite a bit, and she seems to value his advice. Qibli also made a special promise to Ostrich's parents, promising them that he would take care of her- similar to how Pike promised Queen Coral that he would look after Anemone.

Smolder
When Smolder held Sunny and Thorn as prisoners for Burn in The Brightest Night, Qibli seemed to instantly harbor distrust for him. However, he seemed to begin to trust him when he grew close to Thorn, even though he still had a hint of distrust. After a sandstorm caused by Qibli using the enchanted weather bracelets struck in Darkness of Dragons, he was concerned for Smolder when he wasn't present and sheltering like the other dragons.

Peril
At first, he seemed to dislike Peril and have a deep distrust towards her, since she had previously slain countless dragons in the SkyWing Arena. There have been moments of tension between the two, where they were almost ready to fight each other, but at the end of Darkness of Dragons, despite there still being a spark of Qibli not fully trusting her, he seemed to accept her.

Trivia

 * A Qibli is a hot or warm southerly wind. It is also an alternative name for the desert wind sirocco, which happens to be the name of Qibli's brother.
 * Qibli is roughly based on Tui T. Sutherland's son, though Tui said the dragon that resembles her son the most is Cliff.
 * When Thorn complimented Qibli on saving a mouse from a cat, she "won his undying loyalty forever."
 * For the first three years of his life, Qibli was referred to as a "spotted waste of scales" by Cobra, Rattlesnake, and Sirocco.
 * Before being rescued by Thorn, Qibli would lie awake at night and watch Cobra in hopes of her glancing up at him and letting her "true love" for him slip through while no one was watching. However, Cobra never once looked up from her work during those nights.
 * Qibli is currently the second SandWing to have a main book in his point of view, the first being Sunny in The Brightest Night.
 * In Darkness of Dragons, Qibli once stated that whenever he tries to make Winter's heroic, dashing faces in the mirror, he looks like he is trying to suck bits of scorpion out of his teeth.
 * On the cover of Darkness of Dragons, the scar across Qibli's snout is on the side of his lower jaw rather than across the top of his snout. This makes him one of five dragons with book descriptions that don't match the covers, the others being Anemone, Blue, Clay, and Tsunami.
 * Cobra was the one who gave Qibli his scar.
 * Qibli is fond of this scar; according to him, it's part of who he is.


 * Qibli has been stated to have a "terrible fashion sense" by Winter. It has also been suggested that his earring appear to be less-than-glamorous by several other dragons as well, although these comments may have been jokes.
 * Qibli isn't particularly excited about scrolls.
 * Qibli came up with the only phrase to be considered a tongue twister so far in Wings of Fire -- "face full of flames and frostbreath"
 * Tui recently confirmed that Qibli's theme song is "Stand By You" by Rachel Platten.
 * Qibli is the second known dragon in Wings of Fire to have freckle-like markings, the first being Thorn.
 * He is also the second dragon shown to have unique markings for unknown reasons, the first being Fatespeaker.
 * Qibli is the first protagonist confirmed not to have a title or ability. This is due to Clay being fireproof, Tsunami being a princess, Glory being a Queen, Starflight being a Dragonet of Destiny, Sunny being a princess, Moonwatcher having mind reading and prophecy powers, Winter being a prince, Peril having firescales, Turtle being an animus, Blue having flamesilk, Cricket having immunity to Queen Wasp’s mind control, and Sundew having unusual control over plants.
 * In The Brightest Night, Qibli states to never trust a royal. However, he later befriends Winter and Turtle who both happen to have royal blood.
 * Qibli is said in the books to have his earring in his right ear, but on the cover, it's on his left ear.