Peppin

Peppin has always been a curious dragon, and perhaps that is his downfall.

He’s been getting into places he shouldn’t since he was a hatchling. His mother would have to pick him up by the scruff and haul him away from whatever corner he’d managed to climb into, scolding him and telling him he’d get no dessert that night. It didn’t deter him - he always managed to find his way back, and the next time he was always more careful not to get caught.

Peppin’s obsession with the places he was not allowed to be, the forbidden, continued well into his adult years. He landed an apprenticeship with an archaeologist, learning the secrets of the past that no one else was privy to, helping uncover them from the dirt, fuelling that obsession. And when his master mentioned only in passing a cave system that had only been ventured into once before being declared far too dangerous for even the most experienced, the desire to be the one to tame those pockets of darkness beneath the ground nearly consumed him.

He set out with two other dragons, a team arranged in secret away from his master’s knowledge. He didn’t know much about them other than that they were just as enthusiastic as he was about learning what the caves had to tell them.

He would never learn much more than that.

A month later, Peppin crawled out of the mouth of the caves - the beast, he had taken to calling it - without knowing their fate. They had stepped into the shadow and been swallowed whole by it. He had nearly followed the same way. It was by sheer luck that he was able to stumble until he saw a spot of daylight that led him the rest of the way out.

But the things he knew… the things that had appeared to him in the dark — the past had called to him, and it wanted to be revealed. It wanted to be known. He must make it known.

His research nowadays is regarded by many as controversial, which is code for “no one can understand what he’s talking about”. In his professional opinion, the world is simply not ready for the truths he’s been able to uncover. He carries on regardless, investigating the forbidden corners of Sornieth that no one else is willing to, ignoring the constant warnings and insistence that he’s mad.

One of these days, that ignorance may bring its consequences - but until then, Peppin is determined to drag the things hiding in shadow out into the light of the day.