Brightvigil is not the dragon she once was.

By all accounts that's a very good thing.

She was a wanderer once, a lost Guardian with no home and precious little hope. A chance meeting with Redsky provided the latter; the founding of his brainchild, the Raven Ridge clan, gave her the former. As the clan grew so did Brightvigil, maturing into a hard-headed and decisive dragon who ruled the clan's warriors with an iron talon. Under her command the clan's soldiers flourished. Their every victory swelled the clan's coffers, and in turn fed Brightvigil's burgeoning ego.

But Raven Ridge was never meant to be defined by violence. Brightvigil's eagerness to exert the clan's military might proved wildly unpopular with Raven Ridge's civilian population. What assurance did they have that those hardened soldiers would not turn against their supposed charges? What guarantee did they have that Brightvigil, proud, temperamental, fearsome Brightvigil, would not bring the sky down upon them for some imagined slight? None whatsoever, they accused, and Redsky himself was forced to agree. Raven Ridge's militarization had gone too far. The time had come to scale back the armed forces, and with it their leader's power.

Brightvigil raged against the very concept of 'demilitarization'. It invited attack, courted disaster, and on this topic she would not budge. She issued an ultimatum, one the likes of which the clan had never seen before: reinstate Raven Ridge's armed forces, or lose the warrior queen and her most devoted followers.

In the end Redsky chose the clan over his one-time mate. Brightvigil left in disgrace, cursing Raven Ridge and everyone in it every step of the way.

Brightvigil does not speak of the events that followed her departure. She says only that she was 'shown the error of her ways' by the gods. Whatever happened, she did not return for many years. When she did she was a dragon changed in every way. Gone was her arrogance, her bloodthirstiness, even her trademark ivory hide. Instead she returned to her once-clan a crimson ridgeback humbled by all she'd seen.

The clan had changed in her absence, and grown, and the sight of it brought tears to Brightvigil's eyes. Here at last was Redsky's dream brought to breathtaking reality. Old faces and new lived in peace, guarded and guided by a hierarchy that blended warriors and pacifists in equal measure. Somehow, some way, the tundra healer had done the impossible.

And he did the equally impossible by welcoming her back into the clan with open arms.

Today's Brightvigil is a reticent dragon, one keen to avoid repeating the mistakes of her past. While she still serves among the clan's warriors, she does so in an advisory capacity, rarely joining combat herself. After all, there's a great deal of blood still on her talons. Best not to add any more unless the need is pressing.

Wingbanner by the wonderful Drytil!