Dawn's Light

Chapter 26

Xan hung on to Verbena's harness for dear life as he rode behind Celia on Verbena as she sprinted through the branching tunnels in a seemingly random path. "Do either of you have any idea where we are going?" He spoke over the Verbena's breathing and the gentle thuds of her furred paw pads against the ground in her run.

'I'm following my nose to fresh air,' Verbena huffed as if her answer was obvious as she confined her run, 'and also heading upslope.'

After a pause where no one replied to him, Xan spoke up again, "will either one of you answer me?" His voice cracked with a squawk on the second syllable of "answer," but Xan worried more about their escape then potential embarrassment.

Celia blinked, then remembered Xan could not hear Verbena through a mindlink as she could. "She's using her nose to find the cold outside air," she repeated for Xan, "that's how she knows where the nearest exit it."

"Thank you," Xan replied, then looked over Celia's shoulder to peer ahead to the tunnel system before them. "I hope we get out soon before we're noticed by the guards. I do not think our escape will go over well if we get caught."

"Then we will not be caught," Celia replied, though she recognized an itchy feeling in her heart on Xan's correctness and recognized the high probability of extreme punishment. Though she willed Verbena to run faster, she also recognized the fact this was Verbena's her top speed.

After they passed a branch in the tunnel yells of anger and exclamation began to echo behind them. Shortly after, a long, trumpeting note rang at intervals through the tunnels like an alarm.

Celia clenched her teeth and gripped Verbena's harness in her gloved hands as the noise repeated itself at regular intervals along with angered shouting from behind them. 'Are we close?' She mentally asked in the desire to be free from the caves, despite her usual comfort underground.

'Not far,' Verbena panted as she continued to run, then huffed when she noted the sudden appearance of more Ulven guards in front of her, 'hang on.' She roared angrily ahead of her as she leaped into the air to avoid an object the guards in front of her flung at her feet, which she thankfully completely avoided.

As she leaped into the air, Xan yelled out in a bit of panic and wrapped his arms around Celia's waist without thinking, as it was the only place for his hands behind Celia. When Verbena landed, the rough movement briefly knocked him off of the dragonet's back. However, thanks to the panicked hug he had given Celia, he fell back into place behind the human female.

After the realization that he could easily fall off again, Xan glanced down to his feet and wrapped them around the straps of Verbena's harness closest to his feet. Though he was used to riding bareback on a dragon, he normally rode on Irin's collarbone, in front of his wings, rather than where he was situated behind the wings, just in front of Verbena's hind limbs.

Xan's action surprised Celia, but she focused and kept her grip as something noisily slid across the ground behind them and Verbena ran through two Ulven guards. She glanced behind them and saw weighted glowing chains spiraling across the ground that the Ulven had slung at Verbena, probably in an attempt to chain her legs together and inhibit her movement.

The obstructive Ulven guards exclaimed out in pain as the dragonet barreled through them without slowing her sprint for the exit. Before they recovered, Verbena rounded a corner and disappeared out of their sight.

As the trio continued to speed through the tunnels, more guards appeared occasionally, but they were disorganized and in pairs at the most. Strangely, none of the Ulven attempted to harm Verbena. Even the few that had swords and spears hesitated to even use them, instead favoring impediment practices. Glowing chains were flung at Verbena's feet multiple times, and one guard even tried to lasso the dragnet's muzzle with a magical rope while another group created a wall with two spears held by guards on both sides of the tunnel.