darkling
Darklings are evil, antidragon templetes, created from dark fire. They exist solely to combat natural dragons. In The Fire Eternal, Lucy Pennykettle created a Darkling but didn't include the heart. They also apear in Dark Fire as the main villains of the book.
The Fire Eternal[]
In The Fire Eternal, David(as Ingavar ) tells Gwilanna and Avrel that the Ix plan to make dark fire, and use it to create darklings. Avrel ask the meaning of it, and Gwilanna spits the answer back with venom, calling Avrel an idiot and screeching what would happen if the Ix did create a darkling.
Later in the book, Lucy Pennykettle is taken captive by the Ix. They command her to create a darkling out of obsidian, which Lucy eventually does but fools the Ix by not including the heart. The Ix then use the heart to create an obsidian blade. After creating the blade, they send Lucy back to Wayward Crescent possesed by an Ix:risor, to ensure that the family does not interupt their plans. Though the Ix:risor heavily wounds Liz, it is eventually killed by Bonnington. The Ix later aboandon the darkling when they realize it is not a whole.
Dark Fire []
In the book Dark Fire, four true darklings are born with one mini darkling that has the appearance of a mutated raven, called a semi-darkling. The semi-darklings were formed when an echo of the darkling that Lucy created probed the ravens on Farlowe Island, turning them into eleven semi-darklings. They were eventually all hunted down and killed except for one, the alpha male, by Grockle. That one last semi-darkling steals Glade from Melaine and Rachel, and brutaly injures Rachel in the process. Glade later sheds her fire tear and dies, but manages to beam a distress call to Gwillan(Joseph Henry illuminated to Gwillan). The tear then suffers an inversion, which turns it into dark fire. The semi-darkling then drinks the tear and as a result, grows into a full darkling, and makes contact with the Ix, who quickly deluminate it. It then uses the Ivy of Glade to tap into the Pennykettle ability to self replicate, which it does until their are four darklings.
They then reveal themselves to Gawaine and Grockle, and prepare to attack them. Gawaine sends a bolt of fire that kills one of the darklings, but the other three retaliate by knocking her into a spin. David, seeing this, iluminates whith Grockle and flies toward the battle to help Gawaine. One of them brakes of frrom the group to attak Lucy, who uses the narwhale tusk to teleport to home just before the dakling could swallow her. The tusk, however, takes her to anther, elevated point on Scuffenbury Hill . It then shape shifts into Gwillan/Joseph Henry and flies toward the battle.Gwendolen, as ordered by Lucy, sends a message to Gadzooks, calling himto help them. High above them, the darklings fight G'lant(Grockle and David iluminated) and Gawaine. G'lant steadies Gawaine, but she is attaked and knocked into a spin yet again. They then attempt to attak G'lant, but he instead helps Gawaine, steadying her. Two darklings break off to attak Gawaine, while one attaks G'lant. One of the darklings is thrown off by Gawine. However, the other one severly damages Gawaine, poisons her blood, and blasts her with dark fire, knocking her to the ground and defeating her, although it near fatally wounds itself in the process, and falls to the ground. It attempts to attak Lucy Pennykettle, and Bella, but Tam Farrell emerges from the ground after being buried in an avalance, and kills it.
Meanwhile, another darkling aggresivly attempts to kill Gwillan/Joseph Henry,who was hovering above the battle. However, Gwillan/Joseph Henry transforms itself to the size of a natural dragon and purifies the darklings auma, turning it into a natural black colored dragon, which is no longer a threat. At the sight of this, all the Ix pour into the last darkling, lending all of their power to it. That darkling overpowers G'lant easily, and prepares to kill him. However, before it can land a death blow, it is swallowed by Gawaine, who falls into The Fire Eternal and dies, sacrificing herself to kill the last darkling. However the Ix inside the darkling manage to escape.
Physical Traits []
Darklings are described as being dark versions of natrual Dragons. However, they are far smaller then normal dragons, as in Dark Fire, Gawaine was able to swallow one whole, and they are far less gracerful. However, they are extremly musculur and robust, and still quite agile, and are thicker set from dragons. They are described to have a apearence so terrible, that it would petrify even the most hideous gargoyles. There scales are a dark black color, which, unlike dragons, don't change color, but they glint in moonlight, as if they ae taunting its light. Apart from there pulsing bile colored eyes, gray claws, and a forked green tongue, there whole body is all deep dark black.
Powers and Abiilities []
Darklings, similar to how natural dragons breath fire, can breath blasts of extremely deadly and damaging dark fire. The blasts are much more devastating then normal dragon fire, and are used by darklings as a weapon, rather then tool. They can also produce venom in their mouth, which allows them to poison dragons. Deluminated darklings can also use the Ix in them to fuel heir power, so the more Ix pour into them, the more powerful and deadly they are. Acording to David, deluminated dragons are a 1,000 times more deadly then non-deluminated darklings. Brute strength is another ability they can use to overwhelm their oponents. It is unknown if darklings posses the powers that they had when they were semi-darklings.
A drawing of a Darkling