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Special dragons in books
| Special dragons in books |
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Meet Alfred in "The Deathgate Cycle" by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmann, Ranessa in "The Sovereign Stone Trilogy", also by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmann and Scarlet in "The Swords of Truth" serie by Terry Goodkind
Important notice: If you have not yet read The Deathgate Cycle yourself and intend to read it, please skip the part on Alfred, it would spoil so much fun and surprise. If you already have read the cycle, I'm sure you'll understand my admiration.
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Alfred |
Ranessa |
Scarlet |
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Alfred in The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmann
My first favourite dragon is the powerful but also clumsy dragon Alfred in the "Deathgate Cycle", written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmann, my most favourite fantasy writers, I've swallowed every book they wrote with the utmost joy. Why? The writers always create a complete and fantastic New World and in The Death Gate Cycle, not only with its own creatures but also even with its own values and money and with the wonderful Alfred.
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Alfred
"Dragon Wing" is the first of the seven novels from the Death Gate Cycle. It is the start of Haplo's journey through the four worlds created by the Sartans after they split the Old World into four new worlds: the world of Air, of Fire, of Stone and of Water.
The Sartans split the world because of fear, fear that the Patryns might become the world rulers.
The Patryns were send to an ever-living Labyrinth. They lived, fought and died there for ages but one of them was able to escape. That one was called the Lord of the Nexus, for the land he arrived after his escape was called the Nexus.
The Lord of the Nexus returned many times to the Labyrinth to save others. Once, while the Lord of the Nexus wanted to enter the Labyrinth again, he saw an other man stumble out of the Labyrinth. That man was Haplo.
Years later the Lord of the Nexus sends Haplo to the world of Air. The Lord has found out that it has to be possible to enter the other worlds through the Death Gate and that is what Haplo has to do. Haplo has to discover that world, see what is happening to the creatures living there and he has to create chaos. Besides of that he has to return with one of the living creatures from each of the worlds.
Haplo stumbles into Alfred, a clumsy Sartan, one of the last living and Haplo detests Alfred at first. However, their lives seem to be tangled and the hate turns into friendship.
Now there are many dragons in the "Death Gate Cycle", for instance the wonderful golden dragon of Pryan but there is one special dragon, a green one and that dragon is the clumsy Alfred, who only discovers such in a state of true need for helping others.
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Ranessa in The Sovereign Stone Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmann
The Sovereing Syone Trilogy, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickmann, contains three volumes: "Well of Darkness", "Guardians of the Lost" and "Journey into the Void" and lively describes the adventures of two pecwae, some elves, a dwarf, humans and an orc, while trying to prevent the pieces of the Sovereign Stone into falling in the hands of the Lord of the Void, Dagnarius. The dragon Ranessa playes a courageous role in their adventures.
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RanessaThe Trevinici (human warriors) girl Ranessa in Weis and Kickman's "Sovereign Stone Trilogy, is of no use to her tribe and always causes mischief.
She is agressive, grumpy and direct in a blunt way.
She herself feels lost and unhappy with her life, until one day, Wolfram, dwarf, and part of a group of adventurers trying to protect the pieces of the Sovereign Stone from the Dark Lord Dagnarius, enters her life. Wolfram, working for the Monks of Dragons Mountain, has to deliver a box to the monks and it is then that Ranessa decides that she has to go with him. She forces Wolfram to guide her to the mountain and the first weeks of their journey is trouble for the both of them. But once, Ranessa, the no-good gril, saves Wolfram from the deadly grip of a Vrykyl.
Wolfram gives Ranessa a special place in his hearth from that moment on.
Now you could wonder why I write about this stuburn girl Ranessa. I'm even going to quote some parts of the Sovereign Stone Trilogy below.
The first quote is from the second volume "Guardians of the Lost".
It is where Ranessa finally reaches Dragon Mountain, for the first time in her life feeling uterly affraid, because she is hearing a strange voice, calling to her.
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[Quote from "Guardians of the Lost"]
"Ranessa roamed the mountaintop in the darkness. The voice dinned in her ears, still speaking that inexplicable language, a language that was sweet to her ears as a lullaby, or would have been, had she been able to make any sense of it. Unable to see, she stumbled over the uneven ground, blundered into boulders. She fell several times, scraped the skin of her knees and hands. (...) At last she collapsed onto the rocky ground and wept, painful, gulping sobs.
"I have disappointed you", she said, when the tears were dry an dher sobbing had deteriorated into hiccups. "I'm sorry. I don't know what you want of me. I never have".
The sun rose from behind the mountain. (...) A figure came into view, walking along the edge on the precipice.
Ranessa could not see clearly, for her eyes where blurred, but the figure was short and had the appearance of a dwarf, for its shoulders were broad and it was wide about the middle. The dwarf wore orange robes (...) The dwarf spread her arms.
The arms were not arms but wings - wings of fire.
Slowly, Ranessa rose to her feet.
The voice spoke and this time, Ranessa understood.
"My child", said the voice, patient, kind and loving. "You are home."
Tears, soft tears, tears of the hearth, flowed down Ranessa's cheeks. These tears did not blind her. These tears revealed to her the truth.
With a wild glad cry, Ranessa spread her arms and leapt off the top of the mountain into the sunrise.
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| Wolfram, while looking for Ranessa, only saw her jump of the edge of the cliff. He paniced and cried her to stop but it was too late. She had already fallen of the mountain. The orange robed dwarf expained to Wolfram, that Ranessa finally found her home, the dragons home and that she did not fall off the cliff. He had only had to look into the sky to see in the eyes of the young other orange dragon to see where Ranessa went. As he did he looked ito the eyes of a dragon, Ranessa's eyes.
The older orange robed dwarf, who seems to be in real a orange dragon named Fire and Ranessa's mother explained to Wolfram, that dragons of Loeren did not hatch from eggs as do birds and other reptiles but were born out of humans, dward, elves or orks, because that is where the dragon mother places her egg. Once born out of one of those races, the young dragon does not know that he is in fact a dragon. Only the very unhappy ones, the ones who need to find their true roots, find their way home, the way of the dragon. Ranessa was one of those dragons.
That is where her part in the second volume of the Sovereign Stone Trilogy ends. But.....only to continue in the third part, "Journey into the Void", and not only to learn to fly (the landings are the biggest problem for Ranessa, causing her to hurt hernew dragon body all over) but also to finally do brave and courageous deeds to help the adventurers in protecting the parts of the Sovereign stone. The descriptions of Ranessa's actions are not only filled with humor but also are touching and realistic. She at last, is a proud dragon, brought to live in a wonderful way by Weis and Hickman.
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Scarlet in The Swords of Truth serie by Terry Goodkind
I would like to share some lines with you from "Wizard's First Rule" by Terry Goodkind, a fantasy writer who created Richard Cyphers (or Rahl) as the Seeker, and Kahlan Amnell's amazing world of the Westlands, the Midlands, D'Hara and the Old World in a serie of eight books (up untill now, I assume more will follow). Terry Goodkind brings Scarlet into the world of dragons.
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Scarlet
Wizards First Rule is the first of the serie, which is called the Swords of Truth serie and in that first book Richard meets the dragon Scarlet because he needs the help of a dragon. I would like to quote some parts of that book now, because they show both the arrogance and the kindness of the dragon Scarlet. She's a lady of my hearth (though I must admit Richard is not to bad either).
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[Quote from "Wizards First Rule"]
"What have we here?" came a decidedly female voice. "A tasty treat?"
"I need your help".
"Only to glad to help you, little man. But not untill after I eat you".
"I'm warning you, stay back! This sword has magic."
"Magic!" the dragon gasped in mock fright. It put a claw to its breast. "Oh, please brave man, don't slay me with your magic sword!" Ot made a smoky rumble that Richard took for laughter.
Richard kept the sword out, but felt suddenly foolish. "You intend to eat me than?"
"Well, I must admit, more for the amusement than the taste."
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| Both continu to argue some more but I should tell you that Richard has a way with words, he can be very convincing so at the end he succeeds in Scarlet helping him. He, for instance tells Scarlet that he has never seen a dragon before in his life and that she is the most stunningly beautiful creature he has ever seen.
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[Quote from "Wizards First Rule"]
"It was the truth. Despite the deadly nature of it, it was strikingly beautiful. The neck of the dragon made itself into an S shape as it pulled its head back, blinking in surprise. The eyes frowned a little, doubting.
"It is true," Richard said. I'm to be eaten. I have no reason to lie."
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Now Richard needs the dragons help badly, he wants her to fly him arround for several days so he can find and help his friends. The dragon refuses at first telling him that is humiliating to fly men arround but Richard has a good offer in return for her, he thinks he can return her egg. It's been stolen by a dark ruler.
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[Quote from "Wizards First Rule"]
"All Right. Tell me where my egg is. and I will let you go. Let you live."
"How would you know I was telling the truth? I could just invent a place, to save myself."
"Like dragons, real Seekers have honor. That much I know. So if you really know, tell me and I will free you."
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| Now those could just have been just words without meaning, but they where spoken by a dragon. So the dragons kept her promise and let Richard live (after he retrieved her most important possesion, her egg). Though, she did not stop telling him, she would eat him........
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