The Library Dragon
The Library Dragon, also known as Ladon, is a mountain dragon living in the Mother's City during the Age of Harmony. He is the founder of the Library, which is where he lives with his companion Freckles.
Appearance
The Library Dragon is average size for a mountain dragon. His scales are dull blue. His horns are straight and pointed, and a dull brown in color. His eyes and and inner ears are light blue. He is nearsighted, so he wears round glasses on the base of his snout. Unlike most mountain dragons, he has no wings. He is able to breathe fire, but he has done it only once, to light the magical candle in the Library.
When he was younger, his scales were more vivid blue, but they have faded with age, becoming almost fully grey by the end of his life. As a hatchling, his half-formed wing stubs were visible, but they did not grow as he did, so once he got older they became hidden.
Personality
The Library Dragon is quiet, and tends to prefer keeping to himself. He loves reading and organizing his books, and wandering the halls of the Library. He has a hard time reading others' body language or facial expressions, and often avoids interaction with others at all, with the exception of his closest friend Freckles. He thinks creatures are difficult and too complex, while books and stories are far easier to understand. He feels uncomfortable in wide open spaces, and has a fear of fire and heights, but he loves the dark. He is extremely content in his life at the Library, and rarely leaves the building - he feels no need to. He holds no resentment to those who have been unkind to him, and is often unaware when others are outright rude; he does not experience romantic attraction.
History
Ladon hatched from his egg on Spring 4, y2263, in a small mountain dragon tribe in the territory of Petraga. He spent the first few days of his life in a cave with only his mother Nevith and his father Akor, neither of whom seemed particularly attentive towards him. Eight days after his hatching, his four siblings all hatched at once. His parents were immediately swept into caring for the four of them, and Ladon found himself mainly forgotten and ignored in the back of the cave, left behind when his siblings were introduced to the rest of the tribe. He picked up a strong grasp of language very early on, almost immediately after hatching, though he did not speak for the first several tenths of his life, long after his siblings were having full conversations.
When he was a half-season old, once again spending the day alone in the cave, a young Hyacinth flew in. She cheerily introduced herself and, excitedly but innocently, asked him a few dozen questions about who he was and who his family was and why didn't he have any wings. She was soon followed by her mother and Nevith. Hyacinth's mother showed surprise and awkward avoidance at the sight of Ladon, which was the first time he realized he was different than the rest of his tribe. The two mothers had a hushed conversation about him, with Nevith mentioning that Ladon could not understand them, and so he chimed in to tell them that was incorrect, which was the first time he had spoken aloud.
After this encounter, the news of his existence spread throughout the tribe, and so his parents allowed him to leave the cave. He found himself frequently the target of stares and whispers, and understood that his lack of wings meant there was something fundamentally wrong with him, at least in the opinion of the rest of the tribe. Though his father tried halfheartedly to include him in the family, his mother and siblings were cold and distant to him, with his brother Marduk being actively hostile. Ladon did not mind the solitude, having found a budding companionship with Hyacinth, who grew fiercely loyal to and protective of him. He left his parents' den and created a nest for himself in a small craggy outcropping, not far from Hyacinth's family's cave.
He remained in the small tribe camp for his entire adolescence, quickly memorizing every path and every pebble. He struggled with remembering details about the other dragons in the tribe, and had particular trouble differentiating individuals with similar scale colors or markings, as the subtle differences in faces were often lost on him. Leaving the camp would have been too hazardous without the ability of flight, and though Hyacinth would often offer to carry him to other locations across Petraga, Ladon always declined, feeling no desire for exploration.
When he was just under a year old, he and Hyacinth met Alba, the tribe's official scribe and message-carrier. While the endlessly curious Hyacinth quizzed Alba on the other tribes in the mountains, and how far beyond them he had traveled, Ladon found himself fascinated by the mechanism of writing itself, and the caches of scrolls and parchment strewn about Alba's den. He found an unexpected kinship with the elderly dragon, who was a bit of an outcast himself, as the only literate member of a tribe that largely eschewed anything deemed non-essential. When Ladon expressed interest in learning to read and write, Alba was delighted to oblige, and Ladon spent the next several years under Alba's tutelage, eventually becoming his official apprentice. When Alba deemed that Ladon had achieved full literacy, he gifted the young dragon with a copy of A Dragon's Tail, which was Ladon's first experience with both a work of fiction, and with a physical book rather than a scroll. Ladon was enthralled immediately.
When the elderly dragon's eyes and talons became too frail to complete delicate tasks, Ladon took over the bulk of the letter-writing duties, transcribing messages to other tribes and even to other territories or kingdoms from Alba's dictation. He recruited Hyacinth to physically deliver the scrolls, knowing she would be delighted at the chance to explore the greater world, and to bring him back other written books when she could obtain them. Steadily his little library grew, outgrowing his tiny den, and Alba let him move the collection into a corner of his own den. Ladon spent all of his free time reading and re-reading his books, ignoring the world around him in favor of the worlds in his stories.
In y2270, when Ladon was seven years old, Alba's weakness worsened and he spent more and more time resting, until eventually passing away on Summer 84, leaving Ladon the official scribe of Petraga. He buried himself in his work, moving the remainder of his meager belongings into Alba's den and reorganizing everything, continuing to add to his collection wherever he could. He began to dream about having a sprawling library open to the public, despite the fact that he was the only one in the tribe who could read, and no one else seemed interested in learning.
[leaving mountains, finding city, establishing library, adding magic]
On the stormy night of Spring 51, y2601, the Library Dragon heard a strange noise from deep in the Library's shelves. It seemed like the cry of a young animal, which seemed impossible, as he knew that nobody but him had been in the Library for decades. Still, he followed the noise. The Library led him to the front door, which the Dragon opened to find a tiny kitten on the doorstep, soaked through with rain and trembling violently. It couldn't have been more than a quarter-season old. The Dragon looked around for anyone else nearby, assuming someone must have left the kitten here, but he saw no one. Sensing the warmth from inside the building, the kitten squirmed towards the doorstep, and it was then that the Dragon noticed something peculiar that he hadn't seen before – the kitten had wings. It stumbled forward on stubby legs, and the Library Dragon was shocked when the kitten was able to cross the threshold and step onto the Library's floors.
Understanding that the Library had purposefully alerted him to the kitten's presence, brought him to the doors, and allowed the kitten to step inside, the Library Dragon decided to care for the kitten until someone came to get it, or until it was old enough to leave on its own. But as the tenths passed, the Library Dragon grew attached to the kitten, which he nicknamed Freckles because of the speckled markings on his muzzle and wings.
[freckles lifespan linked, re-meeting hyacinth & kids, old age, death, soul remaining in the library, aware of briar + rebuilding library]
Relationships
Freckles is the Library Dragon's truest and closest companion.
Alba was Ladon's mentor for many years, and was much more of a parental figure to him than his own biological parents had been. He was the one who encouraged Ladon's interest in books and reading, and never pressured him to be anything other than what he was.
Ladon did not get along well with his siblings growing up. Like the rest of the tribe, they looked down on him for having been born wingless. Marduk in particular was openly hostile, and threatened him on multiple occasions. Ladon mainly paid them no mind, however. As he grew older, they left him alone more, and once he left Petraga he never saw them again.
