Ciella

If there was one thing Ciella had always been good at, it was dealing with colossal amounts of BS.

She'd pulled apart some of Clan AXQU's bull ridgebacks during breeding season, when all of them were too massively messed up on hormones to stop fighting on their own. She'd calmed down hysterical patients while interning with Millie, clan AXQU's medic. She had the feeling it was because nobody wanted to mess with the clan leaders' daughter. Ciella's sharp tongue belied a naturally sweet nature; she genuinely wanted to help people. She just wanted to do it in a form that made sense to her.

Ciella wanted more from life than constantly being thought of as just "Columbine's daughter." She studied under Millie to learn the healing arts, both magical and mundane. Knitting a body back together was intensely interesting for her, but more importantly, it would allow her to get out from under her parents' shadow and move up in the ranks. She learned battle magic from her mother. Ciella would never have the small size and darting ground capability of a mirror, but her sheer size and instinctive awareness of her surroundings seemed to make up for it.

The only Imperial daughter of Clan AXQU's leaders was an absolute holy terror on the battlefield, just like her parents.

She learned to work the ley lines and how to read runes. How to temper her mind to unleash hell on the battlefield, but how to focus her mind to patch up her clanmates at the same time. She naturally rose to a leadership role both in her practice and in her fighting, but if you ask her... well, she denies any desire for leadership. Ciella doesn't want to be like her parents, she says. She just wants to be a simple healer.

Her friends know she's full of beans, even if she doesn't yet.

Tensions rose between Ciella and her parents. She was ambitious in a way her brother Ajax never was, demanding responsibilities that would never fall to her as long as her parents still governed and Millie remained the practicing head medic. Enchant tried to console her, but he had never been terribly empathetic, and anything he said seemed to make things worse.

Daily, there would be shouting matches between Ciella and Columbine, as one aggressive, high strung, dominant female faced off against the other. Weekly, Ciella's magic wasn't as strong as her mother's, and she returned to her quarters to patch herself up, resentment growing by the day. She resented that Ashes had been chosen as Columbine's successor; why should the mate of Ciella's unambitious brother take the leadership when her parents retired, and not Ciella herself? Oh, it wasn't for any desire to do it, but it should go to a blood daughter, just saying. Ciella's magic grew by the day,and the more pressure she put on herself, the less her clanmates saw of her gentle, nurturing side.

No dragon of Columbine's line handled frustration well, and Enchant's line handled it even worse. Something had to be done, or Ciella would lose her desire to help in an ocean of frustrated anger. Columbine grew more and more worried by the day; she saw a lot of her ambitious, driven young self in Ciella, but also a lot of Enchant's cockiness and insecurity, and she had the natural terrifying magical power of both of them. It was a horrid combination for a smart young dragon in a clan where she couldn't work her way up and there was relatively little for her to do.

Fortunately, Ivanna, Clan AXQU's chief advisor and third in command, came up with a solution. A small clan out in the middle of nowhere needed a skilled healer and battlemage. By small, Ivanna meant small; less than ten dragons, and barely having carved out any living space. Ivanna pitched it to her as being able to get in on the ground floor of potential greatness; to craft her own legacy independent of both Columbine's and Enchant's. After hours and hours of circular debate, Ciella finally, finally agreed to go.

There was a farewell party. Her mother sent her off with a practical gift: a set of bags to hold all her healing and runecraft equipment. Her father's gift was far less practical: a cloak imbued with magic, enchanted to reflect the stars, even in daylight. Even though Ciella was more like her mother in many ways, Enchant knew she took pride in her appearance like he did, and he had had the cloak commissioned to reflect the majesty that befit the only child of his to share his breed. While she loves the bags, the cloak is still Ciella's most prized possession.

Ciella HATED the change of scenery at first. She was used to the advanced technology and rigid structure of Clan AXQU; the shift to a more free flowing and relaxed clan structure did a number on her worldview for a little while. Ultimately, though, the change was phenomenally good for Ciella. Not only did she get away from her parents and gain the ability to grow into her own person, she was also able to develop her magecraft in new and interesting ways, unfettered by the rigidity of her birth clan.

Ciella immediately settled into the role of head medic and battlemage, although she'll tell you that she doesn't want leadership, really she doesn't. She just wants complete control over her medical bay, and to direct her clanmates in battle. Because she's more experienced, you see, and stronger, and trained in strategy by a very militaristic and powerful Lightning clan. Lightning dragons are more methodical and meticulous. More suited to commanding a battle party. But oh no, Ciella doesn't want leadership... according to her. Her new friends know she's full of beans, but they love her anyway. Even though she acts grumpy about patching them up, they know she can't even remotely stand to see anyone under her care hurt.

Her relationship with her parents has gotten orders of magnitude better since she left Clan AXQU. She tells them all about her exploits healing and tending to all the members of her new clan, and all the new friends she's made. She spends most of her time healing in both magical and mundane ways, and bossing her clanmates around within the confines of the little healing area she's carved out for herself.

She also occasionally flies into battle, her wings wreathed in thunderclouds and lightning on her breath, her arc attacks vaporizing her enemies like the vicious fury of an angry god.

Ciella is, after all, her mother's daughter.