Character Development #1: Tales of Toast and Tea

Backstory:
Pyralis the Dragon was the most fearsome dragon of his age. They say he stood taller than any king, fire rumbling behind every word as he made his demands on the kingdom. Knights would travel lands far and wide to duel with him. He defeated many a brave soldier, but the few who brought him to his knees would be given any piece of his treasure as a trophy. But the truly worthy opponents would get something more precious than gold or jewels. Pyralis would grant the mightiest of conquerors a luminescent purple scale off his very back. Each scale was worth twice their weight in gold, and was the ultimate way for Pyralis to pay his respects.

But this past is now far behind him. In his old age, Pyralis will often use his aged scales for bartering in order to maintain a comfortable lifestyle now that he’s retired from the medieval business. He moved from his ominous home within the volcano, to a reasonably sized cave close to the market, but not too close so he can maintain his privacy.

While he may have looked forward to a rousing joust, Pyralis now loves nothing more than a good breakfast. Every day he prepares his toast and tea, and as he sits in his kitchen-cave he will often polish the silverware or read the latest news that arrives every day by Pigeon Courier. Should a knight come to his door, he will disregard their knocks. He is over 286 years old now – he has no time for petty squabbles!

When Pyralis looks in the mirror, he sees what was once a strong young man now hunched over in time. The eyes, once as red as the fire in his lungs, have grown cloudy with time. His purple scales have aged, and now show their cracks and fissures, after year of heavy-handed combat. He leans on his cane, made out of strong pine – a gift from his friend Sir Baldwin, a knight who he fought side bye side in the Great War against the Dark Trolls. Baldwin carved this pine cane for Pyralis as a token of friendship, and ever since Baldwin's death, Pyralis always keeps the cane close to his heart.

Any knight that would come disturb Pyralis now would be foolish to do so. Besides his weekly visits to the market to procure his favorite fish and tea, Pyralis is no longer connected to the human world ever since Sir Baldwin died decades prior. He’s worn weary of the machismo and hubris that usually accompanies the humans who dare challenge him.

Attributes:

- experienced

- wise

- strong

- aged 

- clever

- brave

- cheap
- scheming

- impatient

- private

- introspective

- antisocial

- abrasive

- caring

- fair

Tollbooth Exercise:
On a warm midsummer’s afternoon, Pyralis drove in his jalopy down to the village. It was market day and he had his eye on some new sardines, as well as some glue to fix his teapot. He had knocked it off the table, breaking the handle mid-sneeze and he was already cranky that he had not had his morning cup.

As he drove down the hill, he was shocked to see a modern contraption obstructing the road. It was a tollbooth! His car sputtered to a stop and he squinted, his vision blurring as he tried to check if any guardsman was manning the station. He put the car into park, and started scratching the base of his tail. Once he had procured a dragon scale, he set it on the counter of the tollbooth as payment and returned to the seat of his car.

But no guardsman appeared to take his fare, or to turn the cogs to lift the wooden gate. Pyralis grumbled to himself, steam starting to exit his nostril. Again exiting his car, he hobbled to the gate as menacingly as he could. Solidly placing both feet in the ground, he prepared his fire to burn the gate down. But when he roared, the fire caught in his throat and he started to hack and cough and the flames emitted were faint and weak. Sadly the dragon that could once burn an entire pasture only had enough fire in him now to keep the kettle warm.

Exasperated, Pyralis began to pace. He couldn’t just fly over the gate like his air-kin. He was a cave-dragon, as much planted in the ground as the gems that grew on his kitchen floor. When suddenly he heard a bugle call. He turned and saw the silhouette of a knight on his noble steed! This was chance! He started roaring, if you can call it roaring as he still had a bit of a cough from earlier but it was enough to catch the knight’s attention.

The knight furrowed his brow, aware of the dragon’s challenge. Lowering his lance he began to charge. Pyralis placed himself firmly in front of the gate as the knight gained momentum. But before the knight could strike, Pyralis threw himself sideways onto the grass, and the knight’s steed galloped straight into gate! With a whopping CRACK both lance and gate snapped on impact and the knight was thrown from his horse, landing in the heather opposite Pyralis.

Though Pyralis knocked the air out of his lungs when he fell, he couldn’t help but chuckle as he gathered rose from the ground and hurried back to his car. Before the baffled knight could fathom what had just occurred, Pyralis was in his jalopy and off to market.