The Fire Within series

"The Fire Within" series by Chris D'Lacey, includes "The Fire Within", "Icefire", "Fire Star", and "The Fire Eternal". It is also said that a fifth book would be written, and is supposed to be called "Dark Fire". These stories follow David Rain on his quest to find the tear of Gawain and further more.

In "The Fire Within", David is a tenant of Elizabeth Pennykettle and her daughter, Lucy. David wants to help Lucy with her friend Conker, who is a squirrel. David writes a story for Lucy about Snigger, another squirrel, Conker and many others with the aid of his special writing dragon Gadzooks.

In "Icefire", life isn't exactly normal lodging at the Pennykettles - not when you're surrounded by hundreds of clay pottery dragons. Fate seems to be dictating an unusual course for David when his university tutor sets him a writing project on the existence - or not - of dragons. The tantalizing prize - a fully-funded research trip to the Arctic - seems just within his grasp.David starts to research the subject and soon discovers a connection between dragons and the Arctic just as it begins to snow. Is it only a coincidence? Or could deeper forces be at work? As David starts to uncover more about the dragons, he finds himself drawn down a path from which there is no going back to a time when dragons really did exist, and their secrets were guarded by the polar bears of the Arctic.If David is going to have any chance of winning the research trip, he has to open his mind to the legend of dragons and the mysterious secret of Icefire... He starts receiving messages from Lorel ( a polar bear with amazing knowledge, and also the teller of ways who seems to have a connection with the mysterious Dr.Bergstrom). While David is alone in his room, he gets a message from a girl named Zanna from his college. When she calls him 'handsome', he starts talking to her, and they eventually fall in love [his original girlfriend,Sophie, is gone on a job in an African game reserve] . She (Zanna) is invited over to Liz's house when Liz and Lucy are away at a fair selling dragons. David takes her to the dragons den without permission and she touches an egg, quickening(fertilizing) it. It becomes a real egg, with a real dragon (Grockle) in it!

In "Fire Star", Gwilanna, the evil sibyl that first starred in Icefire, returns and this time, she kidnaps Lucy, in the hopes of appeasing Gawain, who she hopes to revive. Zanna, whilst on her field-trip to the Arctic, goes missing in a strange phenomenon in which she was taken by a group of polar bears. David is in the middle of a new story, entitled White Fire, inspired by the white bears. The talent seen in The Fire Within, which enables David to create situations through writing, is seen again. One of the bears who took Zanna is revealed as one of David's characters, Ingavar.Zanna is later found and reveals her powers as a strong sibyl. David later is killed in a fight with the evil Fain as Tootega, when the Fain throws a spear at his chest, because he spoke of the fire tear in the presence of the Tooth of Ragnar. It is hinted the books are written by Liz's ex-boyfriend, Arthur, who used one of Grockle's (now brought back to life following one of Gollygosh Golightly's plans) claws to change events. In the end, we find out that Zanna is pregnant with David's child. Arthur returns to live with Liz, and Snigger is released back to the wild.

In "The Fire Eternal" it has been 5 years since David, now a cult author, mysteriously disappeared in the Arctic. Life in Wayward Crescent has settled to relative normality. But as the weather grows wild and the ice caps melt, all eyes turn north, where bears and the souls of the Inuit dead are combining to produce a spectacular solution... ...a solution with its focus on David and Zanna's child, Alexa. David makes a remarkable reapearance in the ending.