Dawn's Light

Chapter 17

Celia bolted awake when someone slipped a rope under her shoulders. She quickly sat up, but the motion only earned a tightened rope instead of a loosened one. When she looked to her attacker, she saw the grey eyes of the attacker staring down at her with an angry glint in his eyes.

"Let me go!" Celia struggled against the blanket the rope was also wrapped around but to no avail. Since the strange the man held the ropes, he simply tightened them when Celia struggled. She had a sneaking suspicion the woven cord was her own, and it was being used against her.

'Verbena! Help!' She frantically called out to her dragonet as she continued to mentally panic and race to figure out a plan to possibly escape. However, her alarmed state prevented such critical thinking abilities.

Thankfully, the dragonet immediately woke to the sound of her call.

Verbena exploded to her feet in a scattering of water droplets and used her teeth to break the rope holding Celia in her hide wrapping. 'Back away,' she snarled menacingly and barred her fangs, 'if you hurt my rider, I will hurt you.' She stepped around Celia and forced the male humanoid back onto his rear. With the man forced away, Verbena took his place and acted as an immovable wall between him and his dragon.

The other dragon released a growl as he stepped forward in response to the threat on his rider. He held his head high in an attempt to intimidate the younger dragon, but Verbena simply continued to glare and growl.

Once freed, cane female rider threw off the blanket and stood to her feet and glared at the other humanoid as he stood from being knocked off of his feet by Verbena up. "Who are you? What do you want?" She clenched her fists as her wavering voice echoed slightly in the tight space. "How about this time we talk first and fight later," she suggested as she wished she had slept closer to the saddlebags. If she could reach the bags, then she could use the magic sleep pellets as a form of defense.

"I want to free this dragon that you're using as a slave with some sort of mind control magic," he stated as he glared through his protective goggles, "because you obviously must have used some spell in order to have a dragon that is so loyal, you siglya," he spit out the last word like a curse.

Verbena roared in frustration and barred her fangs, 'Celia does not control me! I can do anything I want! I chose Celia and she is my rider!' She glared and refused to willingly back out of the standoff.

The other dragon snorted at Verbena and snarled in obvious disbelief.

"I don't know magic!" Celia exclaimed in a desperate vocal tone, "and I would never control Verbena's mind for my own gain! She's my friend! I would never even think of using her like that!"

He scoffed, "Yeah right. If you can't use magic, how do you explain the fire magic you have in a bottle over there?" He pointed to the rock shelf where Celia had stored the item in question so it stayed safe.

"I traded for it in a town called Snouw," Celia answered as she attempted to return to some semblance of calm in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "I don't know any magic, I can't even use magic."

"Is that where you got those dragon hide blankets?" He glared and his voice raised slightly in tone as if his scarf hid a smirk, "or did your family kill and skin a dragon to get them for you so you could survive while you were out here using mind control on a dragon to get close to it?"

Celia glanced back to the hide blankets in shock before she refocused on the standoff, "I—I didn't know that they were, I didn't—" she stuttered as she failed to complete her sentence. Her heart raced as she realized why the blankets had felt so familiar but had been unable to place why exactly at the time. Celia tried to remain calm and hold her tears back, but she quickly discovered the task was very difficult as she trembled slightly.