Rain & Fire (4 page)

“Regarding the first cover, I was closely art-directed and given a fairly detailed brief to produce a close-up of a pottery dragon's eye. This was before I had the luxury of the Internet to do any referencing, so I went hunting in old bric-a-brac shops and found some green
china figurines. I then took some inspiration from Chinese dragons and worked up a pencil drawing, which went through a few minor corrections regarding the shape of the eye and the teardrop. And then it was on to artwork, which is oil painted on canvas board to give the cover a distinctive textured look. The main challenge with the first set of covers in the series was making the dragon look like it was made of pottery, and alive! Of course by the time I came to do the later ones, I had the Internet at my disposal for referencing. For example,
The Fire Eternal
benefited from some great reference of a Chinese golden dragon. The last piece of artwork for
Rain and Fire
was a departure from the series style, in that it was more illustrative and less design-led. I did several pencil sketches for this cover; in some the dragon looked more reptilian, in others too human, but I think we reached the right balance in the final piece.”

A breakthrough idea at last

An unused rough for
Dark Fire

Over the rewrite period it also became obvious that a change of title was required.
Snigger and the Nutbeast
was hardly the right title for a dragon book. A total
rethink was called for. Although several titles were passed around for consideration, it was always Chris's intention to have the “new” book called
The Fire Within
. For him, “the fire within” represents the creative spark and, with the creation of Gadzooks as an externalized version of that, clearly that was what the book was all about.

Chris was doing a school visit one day, and was explaining that
The Fire Within
was a metaphor. Having established that the children knew what a metaphor was, he brightly asked if anyone would like to have a guess at “A metaphor for what?” There was a pause. Silence. Then one brave lad put his hand up and said, rather hesitantly, “Is it heartburn?” Chris no longer asks that question in his talks.

The Fire Within
was finally published in the United Kingdom in 2000. It did very well (and still does — it's past its twenty-fifth reprint), and was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal. It was then published in the United States in 2005. Reader response was very positive and Chris felt that he could write more on the subject — but even he had no idea that there would be so much story
to tell, and that it would eventually take seven books — the Last Dragon Chronicles — to do it.

By this time, Chris was getting fan mail from all over the world via his Web site. Over a hundred e-mails a week were arriving, from adults and children alike, all greatly enthusiastic about the Pennykettle dragons, but many also wanting to know if (a) there was going to be another book, and (b) if so, could it have “real” (i.e. large, fire-breathing) dragons in it, as well, please. Interesting. “As well,” not “instead of.”

Happy to oblige, off Chris went to do some research about big dragons. At the library, he was ushered over to a bookshelf crammed to the ceiling with book upon book about dragons.

“All these?” Chris whimpered.

“And these. And those. And the ones over there,” responded the librarian. Chris collapsed in a small heap (quite difficult when you're six foot two). Having
been assisted back to his feet, he shambled out of the library and wandered off down the street, practically gibbering.

After that experience, he decided to simply make it all up. Thus a lady at one of his book-signing events, upon asking him how much research he did (“It must have taken you
years
….”), was rather taken aback when Chris said, “None,” and then promptly ran away to hide in the bathroom. It all seems to have worked out for the best, though — check out chapter 7 on “Myths and Legends” to see if you agree.

The second book in the series,
Icefire
, was published in the UK two years later (in 2006 in the US), and yes, the series does contain big dragons from there onward. Following the dragon-eye cover concept, Angelo Rinaldi this time painted an ice blue illustration, with an Arctic landscape reflected within the pupil of the dragon's eye. By the time the third book,
Fire Star
, came out (red, with a fire star within the eye), Chris's books were becoming a definite “brand,” being called the Fire series or Dragon series by the fans, and even sometimes by the
publishers. The fourth book,
The Fire Eternal
, was published next (gold cover, the Earth in the eye), followed by
Dark Fire
, which has a very dark blue, almost black, cover, and a darkling (or “antidragon”) in the eye.

It was at this point that the publishers wanted a “proper” title for the series, and it officially became the Last Dragon Chronicles. And in fact,
Dark Fire
has the series title mentioned within its pages as part of the story line. Book six,
Fire World
, has an orange cover. The eye contains an image of a firebird, a brand-new creature featured in the story. It's somewhere between a bird and a dragon. The final book, called
The Fire Ascending
, is a brilliant blue-purple color and features a young girl with wings within the eye.

Initially, it seemed to be quite a task to find a definitive title for the series. It wasn't until Chris stopped and thought,
Whose story is this, really?
that it became apparent that it was not actually David Rain's, but Gawain's — the last known “big” dragon in the world. Once that was established, it was simple.

T
here are over a hundred and fifty named characters in the Last Dragon Chronicles. Human beings, squirrels, and the little clay dragons made by Elizabeth Pennykettle dominate the first book in the series,
The Fire Within
. From there on the character base broadens out substantially and we meet polar bears, “natural” dragons, firebirds, unicorns, alien life-forms (both “good” and “evil”), and even Mother Earth. The following list focuses on those characters who play major roles in the series, even though some of them may appear only briefly, or in a single book.

David Rain:
The hero of the books. He first appears as a young college student, when he becomes a tenant of the Pennykettle family. His curiosity about the clay dragons that Elizabeth (Liz) Pennykettle makes drives the whole series and fuels his increasingly dangerous investigations into the existence, history, and mythology of dragons. As his journey progresses, we learn that there is a lot more to David than the innocent young man he first appears to be. In
Dark Fire
it is revealed that his connection to dragons runs very deep, and that his mission of discovery has been preplanned by a greater intelligence called the Fain in an effort to prepare the Earth, and the human race, for a new era of dragon colonization. This brings him into conflict with many enemies, principally the sibyl, Gwilanna. By the final book of the series, he even has to travel through time in his attempts to defeat her and to fulfill his destiny.

 

Elizabeth (Liz) Pennykettle:
The mother of Lucy Pennykettle, Liz lives at 42 Wayward Crescent in Scrubbley. Liz is a potter with a difference. She has the ability to make clay dragons that she can bring to life. Among the many dragons she makes in the series, the most important is probably Gadzooks, whom she makes as a housewarming gift for David. Liz is a distant but direct descendant of Guinevere, a woman who was with Gawain, the last known natural dragon in the world, when he died. Naturally, Liz has inherited her own “dragon-ness” from Guinevere.

 

Lucy Pennykettle:
The feisty daughter of Liz Pennykettle. Lucy is just short of her eleventh birthday when David first comes into her life. She is sixteen by the time of the events of
The Fire Ascending
. She regards David as something of the “big brother” that she never had. Her initial insistence that he help her save an injured squirrel leads to the discovery of David's ability to write stories (with the aid of Gadzooks). The books
that David writes for Lucy (particularly a polar bear saga called
White Fire
) help to establish David as a cult author and indirectly draw Lucy into an edgy friendship with journalist Tam Farrell.

 

Suzanna (Zanna) Martindale:
The long-term girlfriend of David and later the mother of his daughter, Alexa. Zanna and David meet in
Icefire
when she is a sparky Goth student. Her knowledge of all things New Age aids his investigations into dragon lore. Ultimately, it is revealed that Zanna is a sibyl, able to perform certain kinds of magicks. Although she loves David deeply, their relationship is often rocky and they clash frequently over Alexa's upbringing. After many twists and turns, they resolve their differences and have a happy life together.

 

Arthur Merriman:
A brilliant physicist who is continually wrangling with the mysteries of the Universe and the power of human consciousness and creativity. He first meets Liz when he is a postgraduate student
living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and falls in love with her. Their relationship is temporarily broken off when the sibyl Gwilanna tricks him into believing that Liz's love for him is not genuine. Distraught, Arthur joins a monastery and adopts the name Brother Vincent. At the monastery, he finds a claw of Gawain and is empowered to write about David, little knowing that he is manipulating the so-called dark matter of the Universe to create David's character. In
Fire Star
, he is reunited with Liz and thereafter lives with the family at Wayward Crescent.

 

Gwilanna:
More of a nuisance than an out-and-out villain, Gwilanna is a sibyl and a kind of specialized midwife who, like Guinevere, was around when the dragon Gawain died. Unlike Guinevere, Gwilanna has survived for thousands of years, keeping herself alive by the clever use of elixirs brewed from one of Gawain's scales. Arrogantly regarding herself as superior to any human, she constantly clashes with David. What saves her from his wrath on more than one occasion is her
ancient knowledge of dragons and her role in the development of the descendants of Guinevere, e.g., Liz and Lucy Pennykettle.

 

Anders Bergstrom:
A mysterious and extremely influential character who first appears in
Icefire
as David's college tutor. He guides David in his investigations, teaching him about the connection between dragons and polar bears. Over the course of the series it transpires that Bergstrom was a polar scientist who vanished, in mysterious circumstances, on an Arctic exploration to the remote Hella glacier. Thought to have been killed by a polar bear, Bergstrom has actually harmonized his life force with Thoran, the first polar bear ever to walk the Arctic ice. Bergstrom, in his role as an ambassador for raising awareness about the Arctic (particularly the dangers of global warming), was responsible for giving the young Liz Pennykettle (as a child) a snowball containing dragon auma, which she, now an adult, uses to animate her clay dragons.

 

Henry Bacon:
A librarian who lives at 41 Wayward Crescent and a longtime, well-meaning but grumpy next-door neighbor to the Pennykettles. Although always on the periphery of the stories, Henry's significance grows when it is discovered that his grandfather was in the same party of explorers as Anders Bergstrom. In
Dark Fire
, Henry's collection of memorabilia connected with his grandfather's explorations provides direct evidence of the ancient existence of dragons.

 

Tam Farrell:
A journalist who first comes to prominence in
The Fire Eternal
when he tries to uncover the truth about David's background. His attempts to use Zanna to get information on David almost results in her killing him with magicks. He makes amends when he twice rescues Lucy from the malevolent thought-beings, the Ix (an offshoot of the Fain), and thereafter becomes an ally of the family.

 

Alexa Martindale:
See also
Agawin
. Arguably the most important character in the whole series. Alexa
is the charming daughter of David and Zanna. Her abilities, which include telepathy with David and an apparent ability to predict the future, are largely ignored as a kind of advanced (but slightly expected) precociousness. Her importance starts to come to the forefront when she is five years old, in
Dark Fire
. In
The Fire Eternal
, to Zanna's amazement, she begins to grow wings, and as a result, is sometimes known as Angel. The literal meaning of the name “Alexa” is “protector of mankind” and she more than lives up to this role in
The Fire Ascending
.

 

Sophie Prentice:
David's first girlfriend. She appears toward the end of the first book, collecting donations for a local wildlife hospital. She helps Lucy Pennykettle and David look after Snigger and Conker, two squirrels who feature heavily in
The Fire Within
. Conker has an eye injury caused by a crow named Caractacus.

 

Guinevere:
A young woman from the mists of time who held a passionate desire to see dragons survive.
Although she is mostly mentioned as a character of legend, Guinevere's role in the story is hugely important, for she was present when the last-known natural dragon, Gawain, died. She caught Gawain's fire tear, setting off a chain of events that is still continuing to the present day, through her descendants Liz and Lucy Pennykettle.

 

Agawin:
Begins life as a simple goatherd on early Earth, but becomes involved in an epic journey to save one of the final twelve dragons, Galen, from the clutches of the Ix-controlled Voss. Although Galen perishes, Agawin catches a spark of his fire. This has many remarkable benefits, one of which is to be physically transformed on the point of his own death and reborn as Alexa Martindale, David and Zanna's daughter. From there on in, he/she aids David in a battle to prevent Gwilanna altering the Earth's timeline and destroying everything they know and love. Agawin narrates the major part of
The Fire Ascending
and even features as a grown-up Alexa at the end of the book.

 

Voss:
Appears in
The Fire Ascending
as a common man who becomes infected by the Ix and is used by them to capture a unicorn and break his horn. This gives him power over men and other creatures. The Ix intend to use Voss to capture the dying dragon, Galen, so that they might invert his fire to create a darkling. This ambition is initially thwarted by Agawin, but Voss returns and raises a darkling army when his daughter, Gwilanna, attempts to change the timeline.

 

Grella:
A young woman who takes care of Gwilanna as a baby, even though she is not her mother. Grella comes from the district of Taan, a region in the far north on early Earth. The Taan are well known for making tapestries, at which Grella excels. Her family befriends Agawin and they encourage him to try making a tapestry of his own. Although not skilled at drawing, Agawin produces a faithful representation of the Pennykettle dragon, Gadzooks, whom he has seen in a vision. After this, the picture seems to gain a life
of its own. It grows and changes to become what is known as the
Tapestry of Isenfier
, which first appears in the librarium building in
Fire World
.

 

Joseph Henry:
The unborn son of Arthur and Liz whose spirit leaves his mother's body when the family is threatened by a spark of dark fire. Joseph enters the form of the Pennykettle dragon Gwillan and becomes heavily involved in David's quest to prevent Gwilanna malevolently altering the Earth's timeline. Toward the end of the series, it becomes apparent that Joseph has been the guiding force behind all those on the side of good.

David Merriman:
David Rain in one of his other guises.

 

Eliza Merriman:
An alternative Elizabeth Pennykettle. “Mother” of David.

 

Penny Merriman:
A different version of Lucy Pennykettle. “Sister” of David.

 

Rosa:
Looks after the librarium (a museum of books) for Mr. Henry. She is the Co:pern:ican version of Zanna.

 

Harlan Merriman:
Arthur Merriman in another probable life. “Father” of David.

 

Aunt Gwyneth:
Known as Gwilanna, in the earlier books — but still up to her old tricks.

 

Counselor Strømberg:
Another version of Anders Bergstrom. He investigates the young David's disturbing dreams.

 

Mr. Charles Henry:
Henry Bacon's alternative self. Curator of the librarium in Bushley, Co:pern:ica's version of Scrubbley.

 

Mathew Lefarr:
Tam Farrell in this world. Like Lucy with Tam on Earth, Penny has strong feelings for Mathew.

 

Angel:
See
Alexa Martindale
(on Earth). Angel is capable of “Traveling” across the time nexus between worlds, in much the same way as her father, David, can.