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Biography[]

Elizabeth "Liz" Pennykettle is the mother of Lucy Pennykettle, the owner of the cat, Bonnington and the friend of Suzanna "Zanna" Martindale. She has a neighbor Henry Bacon.

She lives at 42 Wayward Crescent, Scrubbley. In the Rain and Fire guide book she is described as having "piercing green eyes and a mass of red hair, plucked from at least three lions." She is kind and friendly, looked upon by her neighbours with respect, even if she is thought to be a little bit eccentric...

Liz is a potter, specializing in making clay dragons that are scattered about the house. She sells the dragons to make a living, and goes to the market every week or so to sell them with Lucy's assistance.

The Books[]

The Fire Within[]

Liz shows David around her house, and introduces Bonnington and Lucy to him. Lucy wants to talk David's head off about squirrels but Liz interrupts her and has Lucy help her with dinner. After a dinner of shepherd's pie, cheesecake and ginger beer the group moves to the living room. Lucy quickly changes the conversation to animals, but before she could talk David's head off Liz sends her to bed. Liz apologies to David about Lucy.

The next morning, David's things arrive. His things arrives in one of Brian Donnelly's vans, which has the words Donnelly's Pest Control Services on the side. Henry thinks that she might have fleas, and tells her that Bonnington probably has flees. David scares him away saying that he thought he say a rat running around Henry's yard. After Henry walks away, Liz asks if he really saw a rat, but David tells her that he saw a squirrel. While Lucy is at school, Liz works on Gadzooks, a writing dragon she intends on giving to David. She interrupts David and Lucy's conversation about squirrels to send Lucy to clean up.


Liz eventually tells him she is the descendent of Guinevere (a human girl who caught a dragon's firetear) and a daughter of Gawain. Liz was given part of Gawain's firetear by Bergstrom, who was at the time in the form of a polar bear. It held the guise of a snowball, and Bergstrom told her it would never melt in her hands.

Over the course of the Fire Eternal, Liz is fed up with Lucy, who believes David isn't dead, and has turned into a rebellious teenager. Liz is exasperated with her daughter's behavior, often saying things like 'Somebody tell me I was never like that, please'. Lucy is then teleported to Farlowe Island through a time suspension rift after trying to find out the origins of David, who disappeared five years ago in the Arctic.She is then told to create a Darkling, but instead she doesn't give it a heart at all dark fire or no dark fire in it, so it can't move. An Ix then controls her to stab her mother with the poisoned rock containing Gwillan's firetear.

We find out late in The Fire Eternal that Liz and Arthur are married and want to have children, this comes true when Gwilanna saves Liz's life and discovers that she is pregnant with a boy, although he may not survive. 

In Dark Fire, Liz reunites with David a bit more. But when David is trying to get Dark Fire back to a fire tear Joseph (Liz's unborn baby) attracts the Dark Fire and puts it into Liz. Liz is asleep  through out most of the book and near the end she is about to have her baby. The Dark Fire exits her and kills Gwilanna. Her fate is unknown until the fire ascending. when the time shift happens she has short red hair and one eye violet and one eye green. She is David's mother and Agawin's grandmother. The time shifts again and because Joseph Henry leaves her body too early she dies.

Family[]

Lucy Pennykettle[]

Liz has a daughter, Lucy Pennykettle, who appears as a bubbly, energetic ten year-old at the beginning of the series. Mother and daughter are shown to live a happy life, and Liz often tells her bedtime stories about dragons (repeating the legend of Gawain time after time). Later, in The Fire Eternal, she and Lucy frequently fight with each other. This is mainly due to the disappearance of David Rain - though Liz has seemingly accepted his 'death', Lucy is adamant and fights any conflicting opinion to her own viciously. At the end of the Fire Eternal, the two have finally made peace and seem to be working in cooperation. In Fire World she said she always wanted a daughter and later she has Lucy Pennykettle.

Arthur Merriman[]

In Fire Star it is revealed that Liz had fallen in love with a college lecturer whom she'd met by her flat at Cambridge. He introduced himself as Arthur Merriman. During their first meeting he replaced a burst tire for her, as she's parked her car upon a broken glass bottle. This sparked a friendship that quickly blossomed into something more. He talked to her about physics and he impressed her with his in depth knowledge of dragons.

Later, when Gwilanna arrives at Liz's home and tells her she's going to have a child, Arthur is horrified when he comes to the flat with ideas of proposal, finding her nursing a newborn baby girl. He drops the wedding ring he'd been planning to give to her (Liz still keeps it in her room, as shown in Fire Star), and the two do not reunite until later in the series. When they do meet again, he has been rendered sightless by the attack of the Ix. After the havoc and mayhem throughout the book, Lucy says to her mother that Arthur should live with them. Liz, though initially flustered, carries through with the plan.

In the Fire Eternal it is revealed the two are to be married and are living a happy, relaxed life together. Towards the end of the book, Gwilanna announces that Liz is pregnant with Arthur's son, but due to complications at the fault of the Ix, her son does not progress as a human baby should. The consequences are to be revealed in the Fire Ascending.

David Rain[]

David Merriman, in the alternate reality of Co:per:nica, is the son of Elizabeth Pennykettle (Eliza Merriman) and Arthur (Harlan) Merriman.

In the early books, Liz and David become close after he becomes her lodger, though she never doted upon him as Eliza does in Fire World. On Earth, she is supportive and protective, encouraging him to contact an editor when he writes Snigger and the Nutbeast and stepping in quickly to offer Zanna her help after David disappears in the Arctic. After she was cut by the obsidian knife she was thought to be immune to the dark fire. She was the first one to see David after his disappearance although she never mentions it. In the reset world of earth David is devastated by Liz's death showing they had a strong relationship.

The Books[]

The Fire Within[]

Liz shows David around her house, and introduces Bonnington and Lucy to him. Lucy wants to talk David's head off about squirrels but Liz interrupts her and has Lucy help her with dinner.

Liz is a potter, specializing in making clay dragons that are scattered about the house. She sells the dragons to make a living, and goes to the market every week or so to sell them with Lucy's assistance. Liz and Lucy have a cat, Bonnington, and a pestering neighbor Henry Bacon, a librarian. In Fire world he is also known as Mr. Henry, the curator of the Bushly librarium on the fain planet Co:pern:ica.

Liz eventually tells him she is the descendent of Guinevere (a human girl who caught a dragon's firetear) and a daughter of Gawain. Liz was given part of Gawain's firetear by Bergstrom, who was at the time in the form of a polar bear. It held the guise of a snowball, and Bergstrom told her it would never melt in her hands.

Over the course of the Fire Eternal, Liz is fed up with Lucy, who believes David isn't dead, and has turned into a rebellious teenager. Liz is exasperated with her daughter's behavior, often saying things like 'Somebody tell me I was never like that, please'. Lucy is then teleported to Farlowe Island through a time suspension rift after trying to find out the origins of David, who disappeared five years ago in the Arctic.She is then told to create a Darkling, but instead she doesn't give it a heart at all dark fire or no dark fire in it, so it can't move. An Ix then controls her to stab her mother with the poisoned rock containing Gwillan's firetear.

We find out late in The Fire Eternal that Liz and Arthur are married and want to have children, this comes true when Gwilanna saves Liz's life and discovers that she is pregnant with a boy, although he may not survive. 

In Dark Fire, Liz reunites with David a bit more. But when David is trying to get Dark Fire back to a fire tear Joseph (Liz's unborn baby) attracts the Dark Fire and puts it into Liz. Liz is asleep  through out most of the book and near the end she is about to have her baby. The Dark Fire exits her and kills Gwilanna. Her fate is unknown until the fire ascending. when the time shift happens she has short red hair and one eye violet and one eye green. She is David's mother and Agawin's grandmother. The time shifts again and because Joseph Henry leaves her body too early she dies.

Powers, Abilities and Skills[]

  • Through accessing Gawain's auma, Liz can bring her dragon sculptures to life.
  • She can change her green eyes violet at will and has the ability to hypnotise humans (as shown several times when Henry and David stumble upon a sensitive issue - dragons, witches, et cetera).
  • Like other Pennykettles, she is able to kindle an egg, and through accessing Gawain's auma is able to reproduce asexually.
  • She is an experienced potter.
  • She is seen by neighbours to be an outstanding mother (as mentioned in the Fire Eternal).
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