Chameleon

"Ha. As long as you aren't too different, sure. But I had one problem the tribe couldn't understand: I can't change my scales. You saw my RainWing color. When I'm a RainWing, I'm stuck that way. That same green all the time — no camouflage, no flamboyant emotional outbursts, no self-absorbed displays of clever special effects. I could never play their little RainWing games. Finally the queen banished me, saying I was making everyone uncomfortable, and perhaps there was a better tribe for me outside the rainforest somewhere."

— Chameleon to Peril about his snout deformity, Escaping Peril

Chameleon
Age	Adult
Gender	Male
Tribe	RainWings
Status
Status	Alive (as of Darkness of Dragons)
Affiliations
Former	Ally of Queen Scarlet, Member of the Talons of Peace, Member of the Talons of Power
Relatives
Partner	Kestrel (formerly, as Soar)
Daughter	Peril (as Soar)
Son	Sky (as Soar)
Book Appearances
Appeared in	The Lost Heir
Appeared in	Moon Rising, Winter Turning, Escaping Peril, Darkness of Dragons
Mentioned in	Talons of Power
Appeared in	Moon Rising, Winter Turning
Featured in	A Guide to the Dragon World

Chameleon is an adult male RainWing who was formally introduced in Escaping Peril. He hatched with an incurable snout deformity that disallowed him to sleep for more than an hour at a time, inhibiting the RainWing ability to change scale colors. He is the father of Peril and Sky, and was formerly the partner of Kestrel, in his SkyWing form, Soar.

After being banished from the Rainforest Kingdom, Chameleon found Darkstalker's scroll. Using its magic, Chameleon created new physical forms: Bog the MudWing, Cirrus the IceWing, Shapeshifter the NightWing, and Soar the SkyWing. He said that he possessed a different shape for every dragon tribe of Pyrrhia, but only five have been introduced.

After the events of Escaping Peril and Darkness of Dragons, Chameleon no longer owns Darkstalker's scroll or the scraps of parchment that allowed him to transform into his other forms. His current whereabouts and status are unknown.

Description

• Chameleon
• Bog
• Cirrus
• Shapeshifter
• Soar

Chameleon has scales that are the colors of limes and jungle parakeets, and were described to be a yellowish-green. He is skinny, with narrow shoulders, dull teeth, a deformed snout, and several rings around his claws. He is much scrawnier and less intimidating in comparison to his other shapes.

Bog has mud-brown scales and is almost completely covered in different kinds of jewelry: gold chains around his neck that dangle from an elaborate ruby-encrusted headpiece clashing with the rows of silver, emerald, and topaz earrings in each ear; silver chain mail studded with sapphires on his chest; golden silk veils wreathing his wings; giant bejeweled rings on his talons; and a gold tail band shaped to look like dragon claws clutching every inch of his tail, each claw tipped with a sapphire. He also wears a pouch tied firmly under one of his wings where he kept his pieces of Darkstalker's scroll.

Cirrus is severe-looking, with silvery-white scales and wings and pale purple underscales. His eyes are glittering, cold, and snakelike, and he has a voice like icicles dripping. He is larger than Winter and fiercely thin, with claws that look even sharper than normal IceWing claws.

Shapeshifter has black scales, narrow black eyes, and was described to be angry-looking, ominous, eerie, and still. He is quite large, described as hulking and enormous, with sharp talons like wicked fishhooks. He wears a mess of dark jewelry and compact iron boxes on chains, including a case that held Darkstalker's talisman around his chest, as well as three bracelets, a ring, and a couple of necklaces. He has extra strength, extraordinarily hot fire, and invulnerable scales.

Soar has warm golden-orange scales, large orange wings, and hooded amber eyes. He has no visible scars, long horns with faint golden markings on them, and a deeper, stronger voice than that of Chameleon. He also looks wealthier than the average SkyWing: he wears gold rings on three of his claws, a black leather necklace with gold spikes circling his throat, and an armband weaving like a snake all the way up one of his forelegs, with tiny rubies glittering like eyes at one end. He has a black metal sheath fitted tightly across his chest with a padlock on the outside, containing a small pouch full of coins or jewelry, and formerly a piece of Darkstalker's scroll wrapped in black leather binding. He is large and strong-looking.

Personality

Chameleon was a lot grumpier than other RainWings, and several RainWing healers stated that he was horrible; they would wake up from suntime to find Chameleon just staring at them. Scarlet described him as strange and unreliable. He has an old, fierce anger in his eyes, and is aggressively protective towards his animus-touched shapes. He is often angry and avaricious, unable to resist the lure of any treasure. He is arrogant, self-important, conciliatory, pleased with himself, sly, irritable, evasive, bitter, brooding impatient, defensive, dry, unsympathetic, cowardly, untrustworthy, and is not much of a fighter. He is hard to read, and Peril thought it difficult to tell whether he is being sly or desperate. He hates RainWings to the extent that he severely injured the innocent Kinkajou with no provocation, an action that Peril considered to be brutal and unnecessary. He is dangerous and power-hungry, once looked at Peril scornfully, like he highly doubted anyone could possibly be a match for him.

While in his Cirrus form, Chameleon is cold, calculating, and not much of a talker.

Biography

Pre-Series

At an unknown point in time before the series, the RainWing queen at the time banished Chameleon from the Rainforest Kingdom because of his inability to change the color of his scales, which made the other RainWings "uncomfortable." This came from a snout deformity that stopped him from sleeping for more than an hour. The lack of sleep made it so that he could not change his scales' color, which had also affected his personality. This led to many of the RainWings thinking he was creepy, different, and weird, especially since he would sometimes be seen staring at them while they slept. Sometime afterwards, he found Darkstalker's Scroll and got someone to teach him to read. By reading some of what was written on the scroll, Chameleon figured out what it could do and learned how to write. Using the scroll, Chameleon created many shapes for himself. He moved into the Sky Kingdom and helped Queen Scarlet spy on the Talons of Peace as Cirrus. While he served Scarlet, he made a Pyrite mask to hide Hailstorm for Scarlet. In his SkyWing form, he fathered Peril and Sky with Kestrel in the breeding program, however Scarlet told him that both of his dragonets were dead, and so Chameleon did not know that Peril was his daughter until Escaping Peril.

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The Dragonet Prophecy

The Lost Heir

Chameleon, disguised as Cirrus, was part of Nautilus' group that found Webs after the SkyWings abducted the dragonets of destiny. He demanded Webs to tell them how the SkyWings found them, and Webs explained the dragonets' plans to escape and how it was played out. Cirrus asks why they had anything to do with the SkyWings, and Webs simply said that they followed Tsunami and Clay back to the opening of the cave. Cirrus was enraged because he knew they would not be able to survive ex-Queen Scarlet's arena. When Webs suggested that the Talons attack the SkyWings, Cirrus hinted that there were only about forty members of the Talons of Peace, while there were countless SkyWings. Nautilus mentioned his backup plan and said that Webs would be a problem, in which Cirrus pinned him down, stating that Webs had failed them. He was instructed to kill Webs because of the SeaWing's lack of knowledge of the Talons of Peace's backup plan and allowing the dragonets to escape. He also seemed to take morbid pleasure in the idea of killing the confused SeaWing, stating that he would feed Webs' heart to the fish. However, both he and Nautilus were thwarted and knocked out when Crocodile tackled them, which allowed Webs to escape the execution attempt.

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The Jade Mountain Prophecy

Moon Rising
As the NightWing known as Shapeshifter, Chameleon spoke with Ex-Queen Scarlet in the epilogue, holding and tapping Darkstalker's scroll.

Winter Turning

Chameleon was indirectly mentioned as a lime green RainWing who could not sleep because of a snout deformity or change their scale color by Bullfrog, a RainWing healer when Winter was visiting Glory. He was also said to have watched other RainWings in their sleep. This was the description of Chameleon. Winter, Qibli, Kinkajou, and Moonwatcher later went to the Talons of Peace to find a SkyWing that could help them locate the mountain that Moon saw in Icicle's dream when Scarlet visited her. Upon their arrival, they found a dragon named Pyrite, and Chameleon, disguised as Cirrus, did not want them to take her. Winter thought maybe Pyrite was an animus and Cirrus wanted to reintroduce the magic back into the IceWing bloodline, but forgot the idea when he noted that he showed no sign of returning to the Ice Kingdom. Winter also noted that he and Cirrus should have recognized one another, as he was royalty. Winter asked if Cirrus knew his parents, Narwhal and Tundra, and Cirrus said he might. Later, on the way to Winter and Hailstorm's Diamond Trial, Queen Glacier said to Winter, "We haven't had a Cirrus in many years," and said she would look into the matter, claiming that he may have been on the outside of the kingdom and therefore did not have a rank on the IceWing wall. Wearing his NightWing mask Shapeshifter, Chameleon was overheard by Moonwatcher, Winter, and Qibli talking to Scarlet. He later went to the dragonets' camp to retrieve Pyrite and attacked Kinkajou, smashing her into a tree and leaving her in a coma. It is mentioned in Escaping Peril that he did this because of his grudge against the RainWings. He failed to capture Pyrite and left with his eyes burnt by Moon and frozen by Winter, although his injuries healed when he changed shape.

Escaping Peril

As Cirrus, Chameleon stopped Peril and Turtle on their adventure with the Talons of Peace. When Avalanche mentioned Kestrel in a speech she gave about how she wanted to kill Peril when she was a dragonet, Cirrus asked questions about Kestrel and found out that Peril was Kestrel's daughter. Later, Turtle saw a dragon, most likely Chameleon, diving into the forest behind him and Peril. The next morning, Turtle found talonprints that did not belong to him or Peril beside their sleeping spot. They likely belonged to Chameleon. When Peril and Turtle flew away, Peril spotted Chameleon in his NightWing form staring at her. As Peril perched on the sandstone formation outside of Possibility, a large SkyWing came flying towards her but was distracted by Winter and Foeslayer's arrival. After Winter and Peril's fight, Peril flew away from the scene, and the SkyWing started flying with her. He told her his name was Soar and then revealed that he was her father. Ex-Queen Scarlet joined them, and Soar informed Peril that he was a RainWing named Chameleon. He offered her a gift of a strange necklace that he claimed would cancel the effects of her firescales. Peril accepted the gift, but unknown to her, it was also rigged with a loyalty enchantment to Scarlet, and it made her forget Clay. When Ruby/Tourmaline retook the throne, a guard came running, saying that a NightWing had appeared inside the throne room. This was Chameleon in his NightWing form. Peril and the Jade Winglet confronted Chameleon, but found he was too powerful for them to take on. Turtle used his magic to steal his scroll, smashing it onto Chameleon's face, injuring him severely. Peril cried out for the dragonets to stop, believing that Chameleon did not deserve his punishment no matter what he have done. The dragonets then ran away, leaving Chameleon with his shapes.

Talons of Power
Turtle had memories about beating up Chameleon, worrying that he had damaged his soul.

Darkness of Dragons

Chameleon, disguised as a MudWing named Bog, appeared as a false hostage in Vulture's lair. He told Qibli and Winter that the MudWings were causing the explosions in the Kingdom of Sand and preparing to start a war, though Qibli could tell that he was lying. Later, when Qibli, Winter, Cobra, and Ostrich were trying to escape Vulture's compound, they ran into Bog as Winter was attempting to free Vulture's scavenger prisoners. He asked what they were doing and recognized them from his time as Shapeshifter. Qibli and Winter tried to fight him, but he threatened to kill the scavenger if they did not let him go. Winter did not continue fighting after that. Qibli and Winter then managed to get back to Cobra and Ostrich. Bog later appeared in the Night Kingdom, and Kinkajou, who was investigating the area, started to "stealthily" follow him. Bog walked into a room and closed the door, later coming out as Chameleon's superpowered NightWing form, Shapeshifter. Kinkajou relayed this information to Qibli, who quickly realized that the two dragons were Chameleon, and most likely arrived with Vulture. Qibli and Kinkajou devised a plan to steal Chameleon's pieces of Darkstalker's Talisman. Qibli walked up and acted as a distraction, while Kinkajou grabbed Chameleon's earring, which had the pieces of talisman in it. Qibli quickly told off Chameleon, then knocked out by Kinkajou. The pieces of the scroll were later used to give Darkstalker a new life as Peacemaker.

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Field Guides

A Guide to the Dragon World
Chameleon was mentioned as one of the dragons Scarlet wanted dead.

Relationships

Kestrel

Upon hearing Kestrel's name, Chameleon flared his wings and asked for more information. He was fully a SkyWing upon meeting her, and she did not know that he was originally a RainWing. She did not know who he was and thought that he was assigned to partner with her in the breeding program, but he stated "but I knew her. I am unquestionably your father."

Peril

Upon first meeting his daughter, Chameleon smiled. After talking with him, Peril realized that he sounded a lot like herself, and they were able to bond over other dragons misunderstanding them. As soon as Chameleon had realized that Peril was his daughter, he rushed to meet her; additionally, he described her as powerful, amazing, and terrifying, stating "Who wouldn't be proud of that?" He acknowledged his absence in Peril's life, but stated that he would like to change that by giving Peril a necklace that would take away her firescales. He trusted her with the secret of his animus shapes and stated that his loyalty was to Peril first and to Scarlet second.

Despite feeling that something was wrong, Peril tried to convince herself that Chameleon gave her the necklace because he loves her and understands what it is like to be different and the desire to be normal. However, as soon as Peril discovered that he had tricked her with the necklace, he quickly offered other alternatives with magic, to which Peril declined, bristling. After stating that she could not trust him, he wilted a little, but Peril was far from feeling sorry for him. She considers him one of the worst dragons she has ever met, and when he escaped from the Sky Kingdom, he said nothing to Peril, causing her to believe that he maybe had not thought of her at all, despite her deliberately not telling Ruby about his shapes because he loved them so much.

Even after her father's betrayal, Peril believed that Chameleon had a part of him that wanted to accept her as part of a family. He believes that Peril betrayed him, and while he is willing to admit that he also betrayed her, he thinks that she does not want to see him again.

Scarlet

Scarlet first met Chameleon as he was changing forms, and gave him the options of coming to work for her or explaining how he did it. Scarlet later stated that nobody but her wanted Chameleon anywhere, and although he worked with her to scare Peril's friends, he lied to Scarlet about the limitations of his power and does not want her to know about the scroll. He believes that she would take it away from him and kill him afterwards if she knew the extent of his abilities, and he does not trust Scarlet at all.

Family tree

Kestrel

Soar

Peril

Sky

Quotes

"Wait. No, no, no. Not SORE. SOAR, S-O-A-R, like flying high over the kingdom. Oh, good grief. Have other dragons been thinking my name is Sore all these years?"

― to Peril about his name when they first met

---

"I know what you mean. You can do and say everything exactly the same as everyone else, but if there's one thing different about you, that's all that they care about."

― to Peril

---

"My daughter is powerful and amazing and terrifying. Who wouldn't be proud of that?"

― to Scarlet, about Peril

---

"It's not just a necklace. Peril, don't you understand what I can do? I can turn you into anyone you want. I could make you a SeaWing or an IceWing or even a scavenger, if you particularly wanted to get eaten for some reason. I could make you a MudWing. I could take away your firescales. Don't you see? You could be normal. You could be a dragon who can touch other dragons. You don't have to be this monster everyone is afraid of. I can change you."

― to Peril

---

"This is a special case. […] I'd do anything to help my dragonet."

― to Scarlet about Peril

---

"Don't listen to those SkyWings. You're the second in command of this place. I wish I had that much power in my tribe. I'd have made everybody regret every moment of disrespect, every mocking laugh and disgusted whisper."

― to Peril

---

"Ha. As long as you aren't too different, sure. But I had one problem the tribe couldn't understand: I can't change my scales. You saw my RainWing color. When I'm a RainWing, I'm stuck that way. That same green all the time — no camouflage, no flamboyant emotional outbursts, no self-absorbed displays of clever special effects. I could never play their little RainWing games. The healers guessed that it was because of my sleep problem — as myself, I can never sleep for longer than a few minutes at a time, an hour at most. They thought it affected my scale-shifting abilities. But knowing that didn't help. Everyone still teased me … and then whispered about me … and then avoided me. Finally the queen banished me, saying I was making everyone uncomfortable, and perhaps there was a better tribe for me outside the rainforest somewhere."

― to Peril about his snout deformity

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"It's the strongest magic in the world. I've never read the whole thing … But then, I only had to read the beginning to realize what it could do."

― to Peril about Darkstalker's Scroll

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"If Scarlet knew I had unlimited power, she'd make me do much more terrible things than anything I've done so far. I'm not an evil dragon, Peril … I'm not going to give anyone all this power, especially not Queen Scarlet."

― to Peril about Darkstalker's scroll

---

"I have a very nice life, though. And so can you, once this kingdom is all sorted out. We'll be her right-claw dragons, and we'll be together. Maybe you can help me come up with clever uses for the scroll. It'll be nice to have family at last."

― to Peril

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"But it's mine. I found it, I get to keep it. Why should you have it? What makes you all any better than me?"

― to Moonwatcher, Peril, Qibli, and Winter, about Darkstalker's scroll

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"You can't do this to me! I'm nothing without my shapes! You can't leave me as a useless RainWing! Where am I supposed to go?"

― to Kinkajou and Qibli

Trivia

• Whenever he changes into a different form, it "resets;" (i.e., when he puts on the Soar mask, all traces of previous battles or other activities from when he was previously Soar would disappear).
• Chameleon is not a fan of caterpillars, and considers them nasty and crawly.
• There is a wall of humming between Moon and his shape as Shapeshifter, so she cannot read his mind.
• Chameleon has scratched, crooked handwriting.

Gallery

Reference by SpaceshipEarth

Reference by Spirit978

Reference by Your smol local fren

Cirrus from Winter Turning (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes

Reference by Platypus the SeaWing

Shapeshifter from Winter Turning (graphic novel), by Mike Holmes

Reference by SpaceshipEarth

Art by Mike Holmes, from the Wings of Fire Graphic Novels