Dawn's Light

Chapter 14

Darkness. When Celia opened her eyes, that was all she could see. She thought maybe that she had simply forgotten to open her eyes, but even blinking did not cure the surrounds of their ink. "Verbena?" Her voice longingly echoed back, "Verbena?" To her in the seemingly empty expanse. Celia could feel that the dragon was close, yet the black veil prohibited the human from seeing the dragonet.

'Celia?' Verbena's worried tone entered Celia's panicked mind, 'Celia, what's wrong? What is it?" 

Celia froze as something nearby moved with small splashing footsteps. 'What was that?' Celia breathed and switched to using the mind link over her actual voice in fear of attracting the creature to her location. 'I think there's something in here,' she emitted a whimper, 'maybe the monster found us and is here to kill us.' Her mind raced with fear as her senses tried to make sense of the back expanse around her.

'I'll protect you,' Verbena replied in a determined tone as a soft warning growl echoed through the cave, 'where's the monster?'

Ceia struggled to contain her breath so it could not be used to find her. 'I have no idea,' she mentally whimpered, 'but I can't see it.'

'I'll try to breathe some fire again,' Verbena said, but no light appeared. Instead, there was a soft hiss-like sound. 'Let me try again. I did it earlier, so I can do it now,' Verbena spoke again in a determined tone. After a deep, breathy inhalation, a blast of illuminating flame briefly burst into the room.

Though the flame did not last long, it was enough for Celia to notice that she and Verbena were the only two living creatures in the crevice. Luckily for the dragon and rider duo, the brief flame relit the small bottle of ryume so they once again had a constant source of light.

Celia looked down to the flame, "I guess the wick got wet while we were sleeping. Your wet feathers probably dripped on it, and then what I heard was just you moving in the darkness. I can't believe that I succumbed to paranoia," She laughed nervously, "I guess I'm so used to being attacked while out here, I expect it now." She sighed, "I do miss the safety of home."

Celia thought back to the darkness, then noted how uncomfortable she had felt in the pure darkness. If there had even been a tiny speck of light, even Celia's human eyes would have been able to use it to see in the empty expanse. The human had grown up in a tunnel system with light everywhere, and even the sky had the stars. Even on the cloudiest nights, Celia could still manage to see thanks to the light coming from the celestial objects behind the cloudy obstruction.

However, the dead, opaque inky darkness she had just experienced felt more like suffocating hopelessness than the living naturalness of the cave systems she had lived in. It seemed as if no life could live in the dark landscape.

'I'm sorry that I dripped on the candle,' Verbena whimpered in guilt, 'and I'm sorry for scaring you.'

Celia stroked Verbena's still-damp muzzle, "Don't worry about it," she gently smiled in assurance, "it was an accident. You did not mean it. I just hope that I never lose sight of light again. That was terrifying." She gently reached down and picked up the lamp. "We should probably get going again."

Verbena nodded, then stood up as well. 'Since we can't go get this Ray of Light right now, where should we begin our search?'

Celia paused, then set the lamp down on a semi-dry rock ledge and pulled out the old map she had taken with her when she started on this journey. She unfolded it and placed it on the dry ground the human had previously been asleep. After a moment to read the map, she pointed to Rien. "Here is where we started," she paused, then took a bit of muddy grime on her finger and circled the town, "and here," she traced a circle around where she thought the town with the light sat, "is where the second ray is."