Dawn's Light

Chapter 35

Celia scanned the white land below her for any sign of movement or settlement over Verbena's shoulders, but after two nights, they had not found an inhabited site. "I remember why this place is called the wasteland," she frowned at the endless empty expanse.

'There are a few nomadic tribes that live on the ice in the north,' Irin warned. 'The humans in the tribes tend to eat any creature they find. We should avoid them. If we get hungry and cannot find anything in the snow, there are also fish underneath the ice if we have the energy to get to them, so we will not go hungry.'

Xan suddenly exclaimed in surprise and waved to Celia. Once he had her and everyone else's attention, he pointed to the northeastern horizon. Though Celia could not hear the words over the wind, when she saw the mounds on the horizon, she knew the meaning behind his words.

Near the northern horizon, a group of strange hills in the shadow of a massive snow dune. The smaller mounds seemed to be organized in an unnatural circular formation. Through the haze, a few small wisps of smoke seemed to drift from the top of the small mounds.

'That is definitely a camp,' Irin noted, 'let's carefully scout it out to see if the woman's cart is there before we attempt to descend. Stay high and hopefully, we will be out of range of their weapons if they spot us.' He adjusted his course and flapped hi sings a few times.

Verbena swiftly followed him as she kept an eye on the settlement. 'It is still hard to believe that humans live out here.' She glanced around to the white wasteland below her, 'dragons can fly long distances and go a long time without food when they need to, but humans can't travel all that far and need to eat more often. How can they live out here? It seems almost impossible.'

'Humans are resourceful,' Irin replied, 'but I do admit they often surprise me.' He looked down and studied the town as the four of them approached it.

Smoke slowly rose from small holes atop the mounds, and small holes on the sides at the end of short tunnels acted as entrances to the dwellings. Snow covered the exterior and disguised the constructions as small dunes, but a careful watch easily spotted them among the larger mounds of snow and flat stretches of land.

'I do not see any carts,' Verbena noted, 'I guess the magic person is not here. We will have to keep looking.'

'Correct,' Irin nodded and scanned the horizon, 'for now, let's just keep flying north.' He shifted his path again, and Verbena followed. 'Eventually,' he stated, 'we will find what we are looking for. Then we will be one step closer to completing this quest.' He purred a bit in pleasure in the thought of the return of the sun.

The four traveled for another half a night before they spotted a second possible settlement. The near-identical arrangement of structures sat in a wide pit of flat land between the snow dunes. However, unlike the last place they checked, no smoke rose from the ice structures of this encampment.

"I think this one is empty," Celia frowned slightly.

'Wait! Is that the cart? It is made out of ice!' Verbena roared as a display of her excitement. 'I think we found it!'

'You may be right,' Irin swiftly spotted the object in question. 'based on the lack of signs of other people, I think it is safe to land in the camp, but we should do a lower fly-by first.'

Verbena nodded, then took the lead as she dove in a slight downslope. Celia gripped the dragonet's harness as they decreased in altitude. They could feel each other's excitement at the accomplishment of finally making progress.

Since Irin did not have a harness, he had to be a bit more careful with his decent. His nostrils flared as he took in the scents of the mounds of snow. 'Be careful, I am sensing other people. The scents may or may not be old, I cannot tell. We should be cautious for now.' Verbena silently nodded at his point and decreased her speed and leveled off a bit as she flew in a circle around the town.