Reilin

Reilin had never expected to do anything important in her life. She grew up in a clan of several hundred Skydancers along the Reedcleft Ascent. Although her life was peaceful, it was also rather sheltered. She knew nothing of the world outside the Windswept Plateau. Although she occasionally heard stories about deities other than the great Windsinger, and about the dragons who flew through the sky in their image, she had never met one. Even her cousin Spirals often seemed like foreign entities to her. She could not understand their erratic behavior, and preferred to keep to her own kind. When the Spiral messengers who brought news of the world came by, she would wait inside her lair until they left, so as to avoid having to converse with them. Her life was a simple one, but she had never wanted anything else.

Until one night, when she had a most unusual dream. A sweeping golden plain, where the plants swayed in the gentle breeze, the water sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow, and all around her were dragons, dancing and playing. They came in all colors and shapes and sizes; she didn't recognize many of the dragon species, or much of the land she saw, but she knew this was a world at peace; war and conflict had finally ended, and every dragon could soar in the sky together, unhindered by godly rivalries.

When she awoke the next morning, she found herself discontent with her life for the very first time. She had always felt her life was a calm one. Living high in the Reedcleft Ascent, there was no reason she couldn't live out her life ignoring the battles that rage in the world around her. But she realized now that she didn't want to. What was her life worth if she spent it hiding among the bamboo, because she was too frightened to try and make a change in the world?

Knowing she could never live with herself if she chose such a path, she determined that very day that she needed to leave her home. The prospect was certainly a frightening one, especially for a naive young Skydancer who knew nothing of the world, but she could remain here no longer.