Scavengers are Pyrrhia's humans. They are regarded to be somewhat more dangerous than average prey, as they have weapons and intelligence, although most dragons do not seem to acknowledge the latter. They are seen as a nuisance and/or prey to most dragons, although some, such as Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Sunny, Winter, Moonwatcher, Vermilion, Listener, Clearsight, Ex-Prince Smolder, and Peril have shown sympathy for them. Smolder, in fact, has been known to keep a scavenger that he named Flower as a pet who could draw. Winter also had one, his exotic pet named Bandit. Winter later went on to establish a scavenger sanctuary at the end of Darkness of Dragons. It was also shown in a letter at the end of Winter Turning that Vermilion was interested in getting a scavenger of his own.
Flower, Smolder's pet scavenger.
Society
Scavengers were once the dominant life form of Pyrrhia, easily killing off the dragons. According to Webs, some of the things scavengers supposedly did before The Scorching are too absurd to be true in the dragons' eyes. Eventually, the dragons came together as one and arranged separate tribes, and overthrew the scavengers, almost wiping them out completely. This was known, by the dragons, as the Scorching. The Scavengers have dens, or villages all over the continent, which are frequently destroyed by dragons. They are seemingly obsessed with treasure, doing anything they can to steal it from dragons.
They have been shown to live and hunt in groups, proving that they are very social creatures.
In a Q&A, Tui confirms scavengers do not see dragons as intelligent life forms, more as just "giant flying sharks",[citation needed] although they do have more clues than the dragons to the contrary, as it is hard to miss the giant castles and structures inhabited by dragons. Tui stated that it's a very debated topic among scavengers.
History
Darkstalker
There were several scavengers kept in the NightWing school, and Listener the mind reader could sense what she described as in-depth emotion from them. They rescue the captive scavengers in their school, but one of them got eaten by an IceWing upon release at the North Beach in the old Night Kingdom.
Pre-Series
Three scavengers robbed Queen Oasis, when Flower impaled her in the eye with a sword. Two of the other scavengers took the treasure, along with the queen's cut off tail barb, and left, leaving Flower behind. Since none of her daughters had defeated Oasis, they argued over who should be queen, thus starting the War of The SandWing Succession.
Assassin
Deathbringer and Quickstrike flew over a scavenger den on Deathbringer's first assassin mission. Deathbringer seemed vaguely interested in them at the time, although later in The Hidden Kingdom he was terrified of them, most likely because they reminded him of his mother's death.
The Dragonet Prophecy
After Clay and Tsunami escaped from Under the Mountain, they encountered a scavenger and marveled at it. Tsunami mentioned she had thought they would be more ferocious. It had stolen Queen Scarlet's treasure, carrying it on a bag over its shoulder. Queen Scarlet then flew down and bit off its head.
During their captivity in the Sky Kingdom, four scavengers were released to interrupt the fight between Starflight and Tsunami. They apparently had a battle strategy and surrounded them quickly. However, both male scavengers were eventually killed, and the two remaining females were wheeled away in a cage. As the dragonets were escaping the SkyWing palace, Clay rescued a small scavenger that was climbing a cliff, trying to escape.
The Lost Heir
Tsunami saved two scavengers drifting in a boat in a storm.
The Hidden Kingdom
Glory saved two scavengers with Jambu when they went into Blaze's fortress.
The Dark Secret
Starflight and Fatespeaker discover NightWings were keeping track of scavenger dens for an unknown reason. It's later discovered they were trying to locate the SandWing treasure stolen when Queen Oasis was killed in order to find the Eye of Onyx.
The Brightest Night
Sunny met two scavengers (possibly the pair Glory and Jambu saved) in the ruins of an old scavenger den, who she named Fluffy and Holler. She also met one that Smolder, Burn's brother, was keeping as a pet (Flower).
Moon Rising
Winter kept a pet scavenger named Bandit.
Winter Turning
Winter releases Bandit in the rainforest. It is currently unknown what happened to Bandit, although some speculate he reappeared in the desert scene with the group of scavengers Peril finds in Escaping Peril. Then Winter saves Qibli from being impaled by a projectile fired from a ballista by the scavengers of a well fortified den nearby. In addition, Winter is shown to have a scientific interest in studying scavengers, planting the seeds for him to later open up his sanctuary.
Escaping Peril
Peril was hunting when she found a few scavengers. She considered killing them, but decided not to.
Talons of Power
When hundreds of various NightWings, Prince Turtle, and Kinkajou flew over what seemed to be an abandoned scavenger den, Turtle idly thought about what he would think if he were a scavenger and saw hundreds of dragons flying overhead.
Darkness of Dragons
We see a few scavengers held in captivity by Vulture, who are later freed by Winter. In the epilogue, Winter is shown hunting scavengers so he can catch them to observe them more closely in Sanctuary, a new town similar to Possibility that is a work in progress.
The Lost Continent
Blue and his friends found what they described as a reading monkey, and commented that it had a very small book. This suggests that the few Scavengers that live in Pantala are in fact underground or hidden away. The book also seems to suggest they have rudimentary technology.
Defenses
Throughout the series, scavengers have been known to use weapons in defense against dragons. They do not have any natural defenses. Weapons they are known to use are spears, swords, knives, and a version of a ballista to launch flaming spikes.
List of Known Scavenger Names
Trivia
- Some scavengers appeared to have battle training, as they were able to outwit Tsunami.
- Scavengers have been known to keep animals as pets or livestock. Flower is mentioned to have kept a desert mouse as a pet once.
- Scavengers are quite small compared to full grown dragons, as Tsunami was able to pick up one of their boats while flying and Clay was also able to scoop one up in his talon. Anemone is described as being no taller than a scavenger, so it can be presumed that dragons are large, even as one-year-old dragonets. When Kinkajou fed Bandit a blueberry, it was said to be about as big as his hand, because dragon food is larger than food on Earth, being proportional to dragons.
- Scavengers seem to be different sizes compared to dragons each time they are mentioned. This may be because few dragons have ever seen them or because of dragons' varying heights. However, those that have seen them say they are about the size of a large dragon's head. It is not known if this is standing or lying down.
- Smolder and Winter have been shown to keep scavengers as pets.
- Some scavengers are seen as more advanced than others. In Winter Turning, there was a scavenger den surrounded by a wall. They also shot spears at surrounding dragons. This shows that some scavengers may live in cities with an organized government.
- Scavengers are actually humans. This was confirmed by Tui T. Sutherland.
- In the prologue of The Brightest Night, Blister described scavengers as being too "bulky and squishy" for her taste. Additionally, when Clay and Tsunami escaped the cave and met Queen Scarlet, the queen described the scavenger she had just eaten to be "stringy and tasting like fish", making it clear that she dislikes the taste.
- Scavengers may possibly be named after plants and flowers, as the only true names of scavengers we know of are Rose and Ivy, both plants. Names like Holler, Fluffy, and Bandit are merely nicknames given to them by the dragons and are not their real names. Smolder named Rose 'Flower' because she pointed to a flower, likely a rose, in reference to her name.
- In The Dragonet Prophecy (Graphic Novel), Queen Scarlet describes some of the oddities that are kept in Princess Burn's Stronghold, including "stuffed scavengers with pale white skin", suggesting most scavengers do not have pale colored skin.
- The Dark Secret and Talons of Power or the only books where scavengers are only mentioned, and not seen.
- At the end of Darkness of Dragons, Winter opens up a sanctuary for scavengers, which Tui confirmed we will see more of. It is stated in Winter Turning that Winter had wanted to build a safe sanctuary for scavengers so he could study them, and it is highly possible it will come true in Sanctuary, the town similar to Possibility that is being built as of the Darkness of Dragons epilogue.
- In The Lost Continent Blue, Swordtail, and Cricket find a scavenger in a cave carrying a book (who they dub Reading Monkey). However, none of them had ever seen a creature like that before on Pantala. This shows that scavengers on Pantala, and possibly Pyrrhia, can read.
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