The Book of Mortals

Blix

Blix was born in a clutch consisting of 3 brothers and 2 sisters, a relatively large number as dragon families go. As early as his 300th birthday, it was obvious that Blix wasn't the type to fit in with most dragons. He liked to read more than flying around hunting cattle, terrorizing villages, boiling knights in their own armor, etc. Instead, he would embarass his family by raiding great libraries and instead of burning all the books, carefully cradling them back to the family mountain. Books on the arcane arts interested him the most, and soon he was experimenting with various magiks. One day, he lost control of a magikal experiment and turned his father's collection of gold artifacts into lead. Needless to say, his father was quite upset. His siblings had long since left the nest in order to start their own collections, and his father decided it was time he did too. "If you're going to turn gold into lead, do it to your own trove, you twit," he said, chasing him from the cave with bursts of flame.

After setting up shop in several caves in the mountains, Blix was annoyed to find that after only 50 years or so, his books were covered with mold and mildew from the damp. He was also spending much more time in human-like form as it allowed him to read much more easily and with less damage to the books from a careless page turn with his sharp claws. One day, from a passing hobbit thief (who was dismayed to find no gold, only books) he heard of a city where creatures of many types were welcome... even other dragon-like beings.

So, gathering up his extensive yet moldy book collection, Blix headed out for the city the hobbit called Arinock, flying high above the mountains with a huge bag clutched in his talons. Arriving in Arinock, he was amazed at the greeting he received from its citizens. First, he was attacked by some people calling themselves Inferno. They informed him that someone had taken out a contract on his life! Then he was informed that another group of people called Covenance who hunted werewolves and other lycanthropes were also hunting him! Blix had read books on such creatures but had never heard of pure-bred dragons being called lycanthropes simply because they could assume human shape. Well, Arinock was a strange place indeed, but at least it was dry. In order not to frighten the citizenry, Blix spends most of his time in a human-like form while in the city. Once in a while, he can be seen venturing forth in the surrounding area in his natural form in search of items to trade for books (and the occassional cow). He wishes people would just leave him alone instead of throwing themselves at him like raging maniacs, but you can't always get what you want.