| The Fire Within | |
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Picture of the cover of The Fire Within |
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| Author(s) | Chris D'Lacey |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Last Dragon Chronicles |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Orchard Books |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback), (Hardback) |
| Pages | 340 pp |
| ISBN | 0-439-67244-9 |
| OCLC Number | 56592628 |
| Followed by | Icefire |
The Fire Within is a 2001 children's fantasy novel written by Chris d'Lacey. It has a sequel named Icefire, which is followed by Fire Star, The Fire Eternal, Dark Fire and Fire World.
Contents |
The Fire Within is about a man named David Rain, who goes to college and needs a place to stay. He finds a house on Wayward Crescent and moves in as a tenant, but little does he know that one step into the house would change his life forever.
The owner of the house, Elizabeth Penykettle (Liz for short), gladly lets David stay with her and Lucy, her daughter. Liz earns her living by making clay dragons. The dragons are revealed to be more than meets the eye when Liz crafts David his own dragon, Gadzooks. David immediately takes a liking to his story-writing dragon, but is shocked when he begins to receive visions, almost telepathic, in his head, depicting the dragon writing words on his notebook. One day, David overhears Liz telling Lucy the story of Gawain's Fire Tear (the story of the last dragon on Earth) which gives David and the reader a greater understanding of the dragons. After hearing this story, David ties many clues together and comes up with a theory that Liz and Lucy are descendants of Guinevere, a woman in the story who comforted Gawain as he died. As time passes, David finds his relationship with his dragon slowly declining. David must give his dragon love in order to save Zookie(Gadzooks) and prevent his fire within from diminishing forever.
Lucy, an eleven year-old girl, loves squirrels. For Lucy's birthday, David writes a book about the squirrels that Lucy has named, and creates a made-up story about them. Some parts of the story that David writes have a funny coincidence with what happens in real life. Lucy brings it on David to help her catch a half-blind grey squirrel she named Conker. The two eventually catch Conker along with another squirrel named Snigger, and bring them to an animal shelter for help. Conker's eye eventually heals, but it is revealed that Conker has kidney failure and could very well die soon. David and Lucy, along with a girl from the animal shelter named Sophie, let Conker free in the library gardens. Later, Conker dies a happy death, and David finishes the story, earning him Sophie's heart.
Elizabeth Pennykettle (Liz) Liz is a potter who makes and sells clay dragons at Scrubbley market. She is the mother of Lucy Pennykettle. She also is the descendant of a woman who catches the last fire tear of the last dragon on earth.
Lucy Pennykettle Lucy is an 11-year-old girl that strongly believes in dragons but can be very mischievous. She also loves squirrels and tries to find them. She can also make dragons. Her special dragon is Gwendolen.she also believes she can comunicate with squirrels.
David Rain David is a 20 year-old student who goes to Scrubbley College. He is lodging at the Pennykettles' because he needs a place to stay. He likes to read a lot and has a writing dragon named Gadzooks.adding on a hobby of writing.
Henry Bacon Henry Bacon is the next-door neighbour to the Pennykettles. He hates pests and had the oak cut down leaving the squirrels homeless. He also dislikes David Rain.
Sophie Sophie works for an animal hospital, as she loves animals. She has a crush on David and later, becomes his girlfriend. She also helps David and Lucy save Conker and his forever faithful friend.
George George works in the library garden in Scrubbley. He has worked there since the library has first opened.
Gawain He is the last real dragon of the world. The Pennykettles have a model of him, showing him in a ferocious pose.
Guinevere Guinevere is Liz’s special dragon and she is found out to be in a pose of 'making fire', according to Lucy.
Gwendolen She is the daughter of Guinevere and Gawain, and also Lucy’s special dragon.
Gadzooks He is David's special writing dragon and is sometimes called 'Zookie'. He is shown to have a pencil and pad, and writes things down when David thinks of him.
Gruffen He is the guard dragon for the Dragon's Den, but not a very good one. Liz makes a special book for him containing special procedures.
Grace She is Sophie’s special dragon, which she chooses and names. She is a listening dragon.
Conker Lucy is searching for him at the start of the book, and is seen with Snigger when David writes his book, and as events transfer into real life. He is hurt in one eye and therefore cannot run properly. Unfortunately, Conker dies due to kidney failure and Lucy, David, Liz and Sophie bury him in Scrubbley Library Gardens.He also dies a painful death.
Snigger Snigger is found by David in the library gardens. He is named so because he 'smiles' at David. He saves Conker by climbing Liz's clothes line, distracting a crow David names Caractacus. He is also a main character in David’s book (Snigger and the Nutbeast). and also is the savior of conker for as long as he lived
Cherrylea Cherrylea was one of five squirrels found by Lucy, who has red fur, and was named after a brand of rice pudding!
Shooter Shooter was another one of five squirrels found by Lucy and is names so because he was barely visible when running about.
Ringtail Ringtail was another of the five squirrels. He was named so because of the rings around his tail.
Birchwood Birchwood is a 'bully' to other squirrels and is made to be the father of Conker in David's book.
Caractacus Caractacus is a crow who lives in Mr. Bacon's back garden. He is the villain in David’s story, and is considered to have hurt Conker's eye.
Bonnington Bonnington is the Pennykettles’ cat. who makes mischief himself including trying to "eat" caractacus while it was caught on a sweater.