David Rain

David rain, or "The David", as he is labeled by the Pennykettle Dragons, is the main protagonist in the series.

The Fire Within
David moves in with the Pennykettles at 42 Wayward Crescent after seeing their "Lodgings Available" ad. He begins a Geography course at Scrubbley College whilst helping Lucy search for a one-eyed squirrel called Conker in their garden. He is given his first special dragon by Liz and names him Gadzooks.

There used to be lots of squirrels in the Crescent, and Lucy named five of them: Ringtail, Birchwood, Cherrylea, Shooter and Conker. But then Henry Bacon - their next door neighbor - had the oak tree cut down and the squirrels left, migrating to the library gardens. However, Conker was left behind, because he couldn't travel with his reduced vision, and he was getting weaker because he was unable to find food. David and Lucy set a friendly trap for Conker, using acorns that David "the nutbeast" stole from the library gardens. This trap was set to rival Mr Bacon's, who was determined to find and remove the "pest". David also met another squirrel in the library gardens - a squirrel that smiled, and was aptly named Snigger by Gadzooks.

Meanwhile, Lucy's 11th birthday was approaching and David didn't have the money to buy her a present. So he did as she often begged him to, and began to write a story, which he called Snigger and the Nutbeast and it charted the tale of Conker and the library gardens squirrels. David was given lots of help for this story by Gadzooks, who is a writing dragon. David discovered that if he closed his eyes he could picture Gadzooks in his head and the dragon would write helpful words on his pad.

David began to write a scene in which Snigger brought Conker to the Pennykettles garden. But as he wrote it, the scene took place outside, with a very small time gap. This was the first real indication of David and Gadzooks' ability to alter dark matter through writing.

Once they had Conker and Snigger safe, they took the squirrels to a wildlife hospital, where Sophie worked. Conker's eye was soon healed, but the vet discovered that Coker had a terminal kidney problem. And they also learnt that grey squirrels were classed as pests so couldn't be released back into the wild. However, Sophie secreted he squirrels away, and she, David and the Pennykettles released them in the library gardens.

A while later, the group returned to the gardens, but David was in a strange mood. He was very confused about what was going on with Gadzooks and the other dragons, and he had a feeling that somthing was wrong. Indeed it was - they came upon the body of Conker, who had died from his kidney problem. They buried him below an oak tree, where he could give something back to the earth. Mention was made of Gadzooks and David snapped, saying that Gadzooks wasn't real. He stormed away, and when he returned to the house that night, Liz sat him down and told him some more about legend of Gawain and Guinevere, some of which he had overheard on Lucy's birthday. She sang him to sleep in dragontongue, and when he awoke Liz was gone. Feeling very surreal, David went upstairs to the Dragon's Den, where the dragons had all come to ie and were watching over Gadzooks, who was about to cry his fire tear, feeling that David didn't love him. David was shown an instruction manual by the guard dragon, Gruffen, and using this he caught Zookie's fire tear and successfully restored it to his special dragon.

After this, David was unsure about whether or not it was real. He tried to tell Sophie about it but she laughed him off. David could no longer see the dragons move and by Icefire had come to the conclusion that it had just been a very vivid dream. But he continued to rely on Gadzooks and was able to more easily accept him.

Icefire
In Icefire, David learns a lot more about dragon lore and the involvement of polar bears, and he comes to accept both 'big' dragons and the Pennykettle dragons as real. He is also given a second special dragon; G'reth, a wishing dragon created by Lucy.

At the beginning of the book, Sophie moves away to study animals in Africa for three months. Meanwhile, David is set an essay by a guest tutor, Dr. Bergstrom, who shows a lot of interest in the dragons. The essay is to prove whether or not dragons could ever have existed, and there is a prize of a free research trip to the Artic for the best essay. David ended up having an online conversation with Zanna, who he was wary of because she was a Goth, about his essay topic. Zanna showed a lot of interest in the dragons and visited no 42 where David told her some more. Over the course of the book, David and Zanna (later revealed to have been in love with David for a while before the events of the book) get closer, eventually kissing, just as Sophie returned to tell David that she had been offered a three-year contract in Africa and she regretfully broke up with him.

Meanwhile, the sibyl Gwilanna arrived, calling herself "Aunty Gwyneth". David had to move to Henry Bacon's whilst Gwilanna stayed in his room. Mr Bacon introduced David to the large collection of books and photographs he had about the Artic, and lodger and landlord formed quite a bond (which developed further in Fire Star). Gwilanna had been drawn to Wayward Crescent because David had made a wish to know the secret of Gawain's fire tear. She was also around because an egg containing Liz's auma had been quickened, and she was to act as midwife. However, she found that David got in the way, thanks to his curiosity and confusion, and she had her dragon, Gretel, cast a spell on him that allowed him to see and speak to dragons, and accept this as commonplace.

David also had a meeting with a publisher, Dilys Whutton, about Snigger, which she doesn't think is suitable for her "list" but she would like David to write something else. However, Gwilanna sends Gretel who influences Dilys into agreeing to publish both Snigger and David's proposed saga about polar bears.

Gwilanna was attempting to turn Liz's son into a real dragon, but the others would not allow this to happen. As the crucial moment arrived, many attempts were made to stop her, including a rugby tackle from David that saw him thrown beneath the floorboards, where rubble crashed on top of him. It is quite possible that David died at this point, but G'reth pushed the tooth of Ragnar down to David, and it landed in his hand, flooding David with the fighting bear's strength. Gwilanna was defeated, but the dragon had been born - but without fire. David, Zanna, David's dragons and the newly named Grockle went to Dr Bergstrom and he revealed the secret of the fire tear to David: Guinevere caught the tear and dropped it into a bone. She refused to give it to Gwilanna as promised, but tried to still take Gwendolen, the daughter Gwilanna had created for her. They fled, carried across the ocean by a brown bear called Thoran. But Gwilanna caught Gwendolen and caused a tidal wave that washed Guinevere and Thoran away. When they hit land, Guinevere released the tear, which fell into the ocean, and the ocean became ice - the polar ice cap. And when he touched the ice, Thoran's pelt turned cream, as he became the first polar bear.

Later, after Grockle turned to stone and they had begun to redecorate David's room, David shared his kiss with Zanna. Sophie's return saw Zanna flee, furious with David. David was left melancholy and love lorn, singing tunelessly, and using Zanna's paintbrush to compete the decorations. But all worked out - on the day David was due to leave for the Artic (paid for by his novels), Liz and Lucy arranged for Zanna, who had won the competition, to pick him up and the couple were reunited.