Morning Star (The Dragon Prince X Reader)

Chapter 3 - Beam

"You're awesome, Clauds, but you're really weird sometimes," Soren decides. He doesn't know what else to make of the situation - it's not every day your sister hops onto her horse without a word and rides for miles, only to stop at the base of a cliff and start rooting through the bushes. "What are we doing here, exactly?"

"I just need one more thing for the tracking spell." She stands up and walks away from him, running her hand along the cliff face.

He can only guess as to what she needs this time. "Hm. Special rocks? Magic twig?"

After a few seconds, she parts some bushes and finds what she's looking for. "Ah! Here it is. This way."

Finally! Soren nods and runs after her, but comes to a sudden halt. "You're kidding, right?"

The crack in the cliff is just wide enough for Claudia to fit through. Unfortunately, not only is Soren a lot brawnier than she is, he's also wearing armour. She doesn't respond, so he resigns himself to his fate.

"If only... I weren't... so muscular!" he laments as his armour scrapes against the rock.

Claudia leads the way through the damp, narrow tunnel. She's small enough that none of the dust and slime from the walls can touch her outfit. Soren never thought he'd regret his daily workouts, but as he clangs against the side of the cave yet again, he's beginning to have second thoughts. At least nothing has gotten into his hair... yet.

"This is why I hate magic," he mutters as he struggles through the tight passage. "It always involves something creepy." His hand lands in some sort of glowing goo, and he shudders. "Euck, gross."

His sister is still ignoring him. The tunnel finally opens up into a slightly larger tunnel, and she swings her hand-beam around, revealing... even more tunnels. Great.

"Where is it?" she murmurs. "Wait. I know how to find it." She looks at the palm of her hand, then closes it. The light fades, and before Soren can stop her, the pair is plunged into darkness.

"What are you doing? I can't see a thing!" he exclaims.

"Shh."

"Oh, can you see better if I'm quiet?"

"Give it a moment," she replies. "Let your eyes adju-"

"Claudia!"

"What is it now, Sor- Oh!"

In the darkness, the two siblings can see a glow. Just not the glow Claudia was expecting. There's a soft light coming from her belt. No, from an object on her belt... the hand mirror.

Her hand lights up again, but when the beam hits the mirror it stops glowing. Claudia hums and closes her hand. The mirror continues to glow. Interesting.

"Um, what's going on?" Soren asks. She ignores him again. Explanations can come later, but there's no telling how long the elf will stick around for. She re-lights her hand and casts it around until she finds a specific passageway.

On the day her mother first showed her this place, they made a wrong turn and ended up in a room-sized cavern. Claudia still remembers the luminous blue mushrooms and the fluffy moss that coats the walls. With some blankets, it always made the perfect napping spot. But today it will serve another purpose. Not a single ray of sunlight can pierce this far into the caves, and there's plenty of space - perfect for any magic that might be necessary.

After a few seconds of hand-beam searching, Claudia finds a tiny outcropping in the rock and sets the hand mirror down at about chest height. Then she steps back, narrowly avoids bumping into Soren, and looks into the dim room on the other side of the looking glass. More specifically, its occupant: the mysterious elf.