In the spirit of you always sharing such wonderful characters with me, Dino, I have one I'd like to share with you! One from the How To Train Your Dragon books, my favorite series I've ever read, and one who was influential in the creation of both versions of Shriek.
I present to you Camicazi of the Bog Burglars.
See, there's multiple different Viking tribes in the barbaric archipelago of the book series and one of them is an all-female tribe of warrior women who are excellent burglars. Camicazi is the heir to the tribe, always described as quite small with eternally tangly hair.
The author Cressida Cowel actually created Camicazi at the behest of her young daughter who was disappointed that there weren't any notable girls in the books.
And boy did Cressida deliver because Camicazi is an unhinged little ball of barbarian bravery, mischief, and cunning. Completely fearless, always ready for adventure, and true to her tribe roots, a master thief who can burgle the helmet and right off a wide-awake viking or break into a a maximum-security library to steal a rare book or make off with the most murderous viking tribe's invisible Stealth Dragon which she takes for joyrides.
She spends her freetime pouring the dragon equivalent of fire ants down people's trousers, sword fights grown men while insulting them all the while, has steered a ship through an icy gorge as her friends are being chased by polar serpents, and plays a crucial part in saving the world from a dragon apocalypse.
Speaking of dragons, hers is Stormfly, a color-changing Mood Dragon who's a compulsive liar and one of the few dragons in the books who can speak human language as well as Dragon's.
Toothless(a much tinier dragon in the books) notably has a big crush on Stormfly and they actually get drunk together off Dragon Nip in Book 7.
If Stormfly's name sounds familiar, that's because her name was used for Astrid's Deadly Nadder in the film series.
But other than Astrid's Stormfly also having a fondness for preening herself like a bird, the two dragons have very little in common.
I can see…ALL of the Shriek inspiration in this character. She’s really just a gremlin child who takes whatever she wants at any given point, huh?
So Camicazi is the heir to the entire tribe of warrior/thief Viking women? Good for her, you gotta love small children who are destined for greatness and actually WANT that greatness.
Stormfly from the movies was probably one of my favorite dragons but Book!Stormfly is also really interesting. Does her color change depending on if she’s lying? Or does she purposefully change her color to make her lies seem like a truth (turning green to appear good).
I can see Camicazi and Stormfly are gonna have a great time in the future and right now? They’re gonna get rich.
