Appearance:
Crimson is large and muscular, with dark red scales the color of crimson, and darker red overscales. Her underbelly is pinkish red, similar to the color of salmon, and her wings are dark red with interlacing dark and light streaks in them. Crimson's horns, claws, and spikes along her back are dark gray, and her eyes are a bright, lively yellow. She has a thin, long scar running down the left side of her neck, which was caused during a battle she had been fighting in.
Personality:
Crimson was loyal to her tribe, believing that Queen Scarlet was the greatest queen of the SkyWings, and that the SkyWings were the greatest tribe in Pyrrhia. Her loyalty faltered when she was ordered to fight enemy SandWings and IceWings, which she couldn't, in her way of thinking, do. While Crimson was loyal to the SkyWing tribe, she was also a pacifist, and hated fighting. She still killed several dragons, hated doing so. Now, Crimson is unfailingly loyal to the Talons of Peace, and is happy that they took her under their wings after she fled the battlefield.
Backstory:
Pre-series:
Crimson hatched to Sunrise and Tailwhip of the SkyWings. Growing up, her parents were strict, and raised her to be an extraordinary soldier from Day One. By the time she was two, Crimson was already training with the other adult SkyWing soldiers, and by the time she was five, she was leading her own small garrison of troops, all thanks to her parent's strict training regimen and schedule, which she had followed vigorously, practically from the day she hatched. When Crimson wasn't training, she was sleeping; when she wasn't sleeping; she was eating, and then going back for more training.
One day, five-year-old Crimson, now Captain Crimson, was ordered to join with the rest of the SkyWing army under General Krypton's command, in order to fight with Blaze's forces. While fighting, Crimson realized that she didn't want to kill dragons, and that she couldn't bring herself to. Crimson forced herself to do so, because she wanted to still be loyal to her tribe, and if it meant killing dragons, then that's what it meant. While fighting an IceWing, a SandWing suddenly flew up and slashed his venomous barb through the air, trying to hit her in the heart. Crimson dodged, however, and was hit on the left side of her neck instead. With a snarl, the IceWing seized Crimson in his talons and breathed frostbreath all over the gash, probably hoping to kill her quicker.
Crimson bit down hard on the IceWing's arm, and he roared, let go, and flew off to find his next kill, leaving Crimson shaking slightly in fear. She flew down toward the SkyWing healers, knowing that if she didn't get help for the wound on her neck soon, she would die. Crimson stumbled into the entrance, panting, and collapsed, unable to stand up anymore. As she passed out, she managed a weak salute, before everything faded. Several months later, Crimson was back to the Sky Kingdom, but was unable to shake the feeling that she would have to resign, because even watching the arena fights was making her sick. Several weeks later, she was ordered to take her troops and fight a faction of SandWings that supported Blaze, who were making havoc on the border between the Sky and Ice Kingdoms. Before the battle began, Crimson asked the biggest and strongest SkyWing in the group, a SkyWing affectionately nicknamed "Fireclaws", due to his strange ability to breathe fire, somehow make the fire into a fireball using his claws and then throw it at his opponents, to lead the troop of SkyWings into battle. She gave him her title of Captain, and told him to tell his superiors that she had perished in battle. She also told him that she was joining the Talons of Peace, because she couldn't fight in the war anymore. Fireclaws agreed, and led the SkyWings into battle.
Crimson packed up her things and flew away from the battle, and found a rogue faction of the Talons in a mountain cave, which was where she made her home. The group already consisted of a RainWing named Tanager, a SeaWing named Maritime, a MudWing named Earthquake, and a NightWing named Allseer. At the time, Allseer was the "leader" of the group. Together, the five dragons taught Crimson about the group, and told her a little about themselves.
Allseer was hatched under two full moons and was found by a male SandWing and a male IceWing, who adopted him as their own. The IceWing gave him his name after the SandWing joked about an advertisement for a fortune teller that said something about how the dragon could see all, past, present, and future, hence why his IceWing father named him Allseer. After Allseer grew up, his fathers joined the war on Blaze's side, and Allseer joined the Talons of Peace.
Earthquake was the bigwings, or oldest, of his sibling troop. He and his sibs were extremely close to each other. In order of hatching, his sibling's names were Slug, Mushroom, Lichen, Coarse, Kudzu, and Ivy. While fighting, Earthquake lost all of his siblings, and instead of staying in the Mud Kingdom and forming a new troop with a few unsibs, he decided to join the Talons of Peace, one of the few MudWings to do so as of yet.
Maritime had come to the Talons under completely different circumstances. His parents were part of a group of dragons that worshipped an ancient deity by the name of Helgrar, and the group was known as the WarClaws. According to the WarClaws, Helgrar was the god of war, and his eternal enemy was Kelskla, the goddess of peace. The WarClaws had decided to offer Maritime as a sacrifice to Helgrar, but an anonymous member suddenly told them that Helgrar had told that member that Maritime was destined to be great, but that he couldn't be that if he was sacrificed now. Maritime escaped and fled to the Talons of Peace, who he liked a lot better than the WarClaws because they didn't try to mindlessly murder dragons as sacrifices, and they cared about ending the war.
Tanager, meanwhile, had simply joined the Talons to get away from the constant stupidity of his tribemates. When Crimson told the group how she had joined, they stared at her, then smiled, and welcomed her to the Talons. Fifteen years later, when Crimson was twenty, and Maritime was dead and gone, with Allseer about to, Crimson had her first dragonet, a firescales dragonet named Firestorm. A few months before Firestorm was hatched, a SeaWing named Grouper joined, replacing Maritime, as well as an IceWing named Timberline. Tanager returned from his monthly visit to the Rainforest with a mute, and badly scarred NightWing named Complexity, who Tanager introduced to the group since she couldn't talk.
Allseer died soon after, and on the same day that the NightWing died, one of Crimson's former soldiers, named Ascent, appeared on the doorstep of her cave with a sodden, fireless SkyWing dragonet, whose name was Ember. Crimson adopted Ember, and treated him the same way she treated Firestorm.
Wings of Fire: A Pebble in the Desert
Crimson is first introduced when she throws a metal disc at Pebble, which misses her and smacks into the wall behind the SandWing, nicking her ear as it goes past. Pebble and her friend Vargr were looking for the Talons of Peace, and were caught in a storm that had blown up in the Sky Kingdom while searching. Crimson tries to be intimidating, but her facade melts when Pebble tells her that she and Vargr are looking for the Talons. She is surprised when she first sees Vargr, because she hadn't expected him to be an IceWing NightWing hybrid. After allowing Pebble and Vargr to sleep with her, Firestorm and Ember, Crimson leads them to the Talon's secret base the next morning.
They arrived, and Crimson scolds Earthquake for breathing fire down Grouper's throat in an attempt to teach him to stomach it, and she scolds Timberline for laughing. Tanager introduces Pebble to each of the dragons in the room, and Crimson suggests that they go hunting. The Talons go hunting, and Tanager suggests playing a game in which the prey is let go, and the Talons have to find them. The others agreed, and they all, with the exception of Pebble, since she couldn't fly, flew off in separate directions. Several times, Crimson smacked into Pebble, too focused on getting her prey to apologize. After they all meet back at the cave, Crimson realizes that Pebble is missing, and Timberline goes out to find her, while the others head back into the cave. Several hours later, Timberline returns with an extremely wet Pebble on his back. All the Talons dug into their prey, and afterwards, Crimson told them all it was bedtime. The Talons all curled up in various places in the room, soon asleep.
A few days later, Tanager wakes Crimson up with the news that he got a mission for them. Despite being a rougue faction, the group still answered to the main force of the Talons. Crimson wakes everyone up, and tells them that they're heading out to SeaWing territory, after which Grouper gets excited. After they're all ready to go, Crimson takes the lead and they get into formation, flying silently toward the Kingdom of the Sea. They stop on an island, and Crimson discusses where they're going; Archive Island. Grouper knew the island, and led them to it. Grouper decides to take Earthquake with him, and when he refuses to take Pebble, the SandWing jumps off of Vargr's back and plunges into the sea.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting, Crimson and the rest of the Talons are able to get into Archive Island after it splits open like a box. Unfortunately, while burning the rest of the scrolls, Crimson and the rest of the Talons are overtaken by SeaWing reinforcements, who chain them all to the floor of the island, and muzzle them all. The reinforcements left, with the exception of the dragon who called them to the island. Crimson watched as Pebble killed the SeaWing and ran over to unlock her chains, which she did. Crimson flared her wings, rubbed her wrists, and flew off, having clawed the muzzle off while still chained. She waited while the others came. First Earthquake came, carrying an unconscious Timberline on his back. Tanager appeared after several minutes, worry in his eyes. Grouper found them hovering over the island, and when neither Pebble nor Vargr appeared, Crimson gave orders to fly off. As they were flying off, Grouper suddenly spotted a familiar, sand colored dragon swimming beneath the waves, trying to make it to the surface. The SeaWing dove, catching Pebble as she started to drown, and flying back up to the formation, Pebble unconcious.
After they got back to the island they had stopped on before, Earthquake started doing CPR on Pebble to try and get all the water out of the SandWing's system. Tanager started pouring water on Timberline, and Grouper and Crimson sat on the sand, waiting for the two unconscious members of the group to wake up. After several minutes, Pebble woke up, coughing out the rest of the water, and asking if everyone was alright. Grouper complained that he had dislocated his wing while carrying Pebble across the ocean. Earthquake told him to brace himself, and rammed into the SeaWing, shoving his wing back into place, after which Grouper roared and bit Earthquake. Several minutes later, Timberline woke up. Pebble started crying about Vargr, after which every dragon in the group came over and did a group hug, all missing Vargr.
Wings of Fire: Lone Wolf
Crimson does not formally appear in Lone Wolf, until Vargr arrives back at the Talons' base. She appears in the doorway of Tanager's workshop with the RainWing, but does not notice Vargr until Complexity gives a tiny shriek and points at the hybrid. Crimson is the first dragon to approach him, and hugs him. She tells him how she missed him, Tanager coming behind her and telling her the same. Timberline and Grouper both greet him, and Earthquake simply nods at him, as he waved to Vargr when he first came in. Complexity starts signing rapidly, and Tanager translates, telling Vargr Complexity's message. Pebble comes in, and Crimson asks her if she should see who it was, as the last time a dragon had come and it wasn't Vargr, Pebble broke down and cried for a week. Pebble got angry, and pushed through, seeing Vargr and having mixed reactions to his return.
In the epilogue, Crimson is mentioned to dream about being ordered to kill Firestorm and Ember, doing so, and being sentenced to die at Peril's talons.