While the bonds between them solidify, starvation, flashfloods, and predators will imperil them all. But is Kelsingra real or merely a fragment of a glorified past buried deep in the dragons' shared memories? No map exists to guide them, and the noble creatures find their ancient recollections of little use in a land changed by generations of flooding and seismic chaos.Īs the dragons, the humans-including the strong and defiant Rain Wild girl Thymara the wealthy dragon scholar and Trader's wife, Alise and her companion, the urbane Sedric-and their magical supply barge, captained by the gruff Leftrin, forge their way ever deeper into uncharted wilderness, human and beast alike discover they are changing in mysterious and dangerous ways. They, too, yearn to find Kelsingra and create a home of their own, one in which they may make their own rules and decide their own fate. Thymara is a Rain Wilder who was heavily marked at birth. The dragons are accompanied by a disparate group of human keepers, rejects from Rain Wild society. Hobb primarily tells her story through the viewpoint of several key characters: Sintara, a stunted but arrogant queen dragon who cannot fly Thymara, a young and somewhat mutated Rain Wilder who faces the pangs of growing up, and Alise Kincarron, a homely Bingtown trader’s daughter obsessed with studying the dragons and their attendant Elderings. Thymara, an 11-year-old girl with claws and scaling, consistent with Rain Wilds. At first he thinks to sell it for an immense profit, but then decides to use it for his ship to protect it against the acidic river. With their survival at stake, fifteen dragons-among them the wise golden Mercor, the haughty and dazzling silver-blue queen Sintara, and the delicate copper beauty Relpda-have set off on a dangerous trek into the unknown, up the Rain Wild River, in hopes of rediscovering the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra, the lost haven for dragons and Elderlings alike. The captain of the Tarman, Leftrin, comes across a piece of wizardwood, an encased dragon that has been washed away by the river. For years now they have been trapped on a swampy riverbank between forest and river, hungry and barely alive, reliant on humans to provide for them. But their arduous journey exacted a heavy toll, and the proud serpents emerged as sickly, half-formed beasts, unable to fly or hunt. But her father saved her and her mother has never forgiven him. Born with black claws and other aberrations, she should have been exposed at birth. People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. But as peace once again settled upon the land, a lost generation of sea serpents-ancient, half-starved, and weary-returned to cocoon, certain that they would be reborn as the beautiful and powerful dragons of legend. With its acid waters and impenetrable forest, it is a hard place for any to survive. Centuries had passed since dragons last roamed the war-torn world of the Rain Wild River.

Thymara dragon keeper