Burn intercepts an IceWing named Hvitur carrying a prophecy egg, drops the egg off a cliff, and kills him.

Webs proposes stealing a RainWing egg to replace the destroyed SkyWing egg and keep the dragonet count at five.

The four dragonets spy on their guardians and discover that Morrowseer is arriving to inspect them.

The dragonets devise a desperate escape plan to save Glory's life after learning she is marked for death.

Clay swims the underground river alone, gets trapped in a toxic substance, and loses consciousness before reaching the exit.

Clay and Tsunami follow the smoke signal back to the cave and reunite with the remaining dragonets inside.

Queen Scarlet and her soldiers ambush the dragonets at the cave exit, and she kills Dune on the spot.

Clay meets Peril on his first day as a prisoner chained to a sky pillar high above Queen Scarlet's arena.

Clay fights the IceWing prisoner Fjord in Queen Scarlet's arena and nearly dies when Fjord pins him in the sand.

Glory secretly sprays venom from her hiding place on the tree, melting Fjord's face and saving Clay's life.

Kestrel's arena trial reveals she is Peril's mother and that Queen Scarlet forced her to choose which of her children to kill.

Morrowseer and the NightWings drop from the sky into the arena and remove Starflight, abandoning the other dragonets.

Glory rises from the tree and sprays venom across Queen Scarlet's face, causing chaos that allows the dragonets to reunite.

Peril burns through chains and cage bars to free the dragonets and Kestrel, and the group escapes to the waterfall.

Blister kills Kestrel on Morrowseer's island after he reveals the NightWings have secretly chosen Blister as the next SandWing queen.

Burn destroys a prophecy egg and kills the IceWing carrying it in the prologue, establishing how violently the outside world opposes the dragonets' destiny. After learning that Morrowseer plans to have Glory killed, the five dragonets hatch an emergency escape plan and flee the cave they have spent their lives in. Their first taste of freedom is cut short when Queen Scarlet of the SkyWings captures them and forces them to fight to the death in her arena for entertainment. Clay nearly dies fighting an IceWing prisoner, but Glory secretly uses a hidden venom ability to save his life and conceal her own capabilities. The dragonets ultimately escape when Glory wounds Queen Scarlet and Peril burns through their chains, and the group flees toward the Mud Kingdom. In the epilogue, Morrowseer's manipulation of the prophecy is exposed when Blister kills Kestrel on his island, revealing a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the dragonets' knowledge.

The dragonets' escape, capture, and survival in the SkyWing arena.

Kestrel emerges from the cave to find Hvitur's body and fragments of the destroyed prophecy egg in the dark.

Kestrel brutally fights Clay in battle practice, taunting him and calling him a coward for refusing to be vicious.

Tsunami bites a scale off Kestrel's tail to defend Clay during battle practice and tells her to stop picking on him.

The dragonets act out the start of the great war in study hall, each playing a historical figure from the conflict.

Morrowseer arrives and immediately sneers at Glory and Sunny, questioning why Sunny is so small and different-looking.

Kestrel chains Tsunami to the cave wall as punishment for speaking out against Morrowseer in front of the other guardians.

Clay stumbles into mud outside the cave for the first time and feels all his aches and pains instantly vanish.

Clay and Tsunami encounter Queen Scarlet in the forest while she tracks a scavenger that has stolen her treasure.

Tsunami drives a scavenger's weapon through the soft spot in Queen Scarlet's tail so the dragonets can escape into the sky.

Clay watches the SandWing prisoner Horizon embrace Peril in the arena to make himself die faster rather than keep fighting.

Peril invokes the Champion's Shield law to stand in Kestrel's place and fight for her condemned mother's freedom.

Burn arrives at the Sky Kingdom and silently flies over each imprisoned dragonet on their pillars, examining them without a word.

Peril leads the dragonets toward a secret cave, but Queen Scarlet appears at the waterfall and Peril's betrayal is revealed.

Queen Scarlet puts Starflight and Tsunami in the arena together; they immediately hug each other instead of fighting.

Clay visits his mother Cattail in the Mud Kingdom, and she reveals she sold his egg willingly and wants no reunion.

Before the dragonets escape, life under the mountain is defined by brutal training sessions with Kestrel and small acts of rebellion that reveal each dragonet's personality. The first time Clay and Tsunami experience the outside world, they stumble into Queen Scarlet while she is hunting a treasure-stealing scavenger, setting their capture in motion. As prisoners in the Sky Kingdom, Clay witnesses brutal arena fights and must navigate the complicated loyalties of dragons like Peril and the desperate Horizon. Peril's unexpected decision to invoke the Champion's Shield for a mother she has never known shows surprising depth beneath her violent reputation. Burn's silent arrival to examine the imprisoned dragonets raises the stakes considerably and tightens the urgency of escape. When Clay finally reaches the Mud Kingdom, his reunion with his mother Cattail ends in painful rejection and a revelation that reframes his entire understanding of his origins.

Training days, unexpected encounters, and the harsh realities of the outside world.

The four dragonets secretly agree to escape the cave as soon as possible, deliberately leaving Sunny out of the plan.

After inspecting the dragonets, Morrowseer takes Starflight aside for a private conversation that leaves the NightWing dragonet shaken and pressured.

Clay swims alone to eavesdrop and overhears the guardians planning to kill Glory that same night while she sleeps.

Glory reveals she can turn completely invisible by blending with her surroundings, giving the last-minute escape plan a real chance.

Starflight and Sunny burn through a chain link to free Tsunami, who dives into the river and rescues Clay from the toxic substance.

Kestrel saves Webs from Queen Scarlet's soldiers and throws him into the river so he can escape to alert the Talons of Peace.

Peril visits Clay at night, shares the tragic story of her birth and her mother's abandonment, and the two become unexpected friends.

Clay convinces Queen Scarlet to put him in the arena first in order to delay Starflight's entry into the fights.

Peril brings Clay warming mud to heal his arena wounds and reveals that mud is a natural healer for all MudWings.

Queen Scarlet kills Osprey immediately after learning he was the dragon who told Peril about the Champion's Shield law.

Clay discovers a free leg from Horizon's vacant wire and plays the dragonet prophecy song until all prisoners join in singing.

Starflight and Tsunami explain to Clay that he is completely fireproof because he hatched from a blood-red MudWing egg.

Clay pins Peril in the arena and speaks about peace instead of fighting, drawing the quiet interest of watching prisoners nearby.

Clay meets his MudWing siblings in the Mud Kingdom and learns he was born to be their bigwings — a born protector.

Morrowseer tells Blister that the NightWings have chosen her as SandWing queen and reveals he has already given Starflight secret orders.

The dragonets' path to freedom begins with a secret decision to escape and a series of hidden discoveries, from Glory's invisible scales to Clay's immunity to fire. Clay's solo eavesdropping mission reveals the threat against Glory's life, and Tsunami's dramatic escape from her chains forces the dragonets to act before they feel ready. In the Sky Kingdom, unexpected conversations between Clay and Peril reshape both characters and gradually expose how deeply Queen Scarlet has manipulated everyone around her. Clay's discovery that mud heals him, his refusal to kill Peril in the arena, and the truth about his fireproof nature all confirm that his identity as a protector is not a weakness but his greatest gift. His reunion with his MudWing siblings gives him the final piece of self-knowledge he needs, revealing that his instinct to hatch was never violent but protective. By the epilogue, the prophecy itself is destabilized when Morrowseer reveals he has secretly orchestrated events to serve his and Blister's ambitions.

Hidden truths, secret powers, and the discoveries that define the dragonets' destiny.