Dawn's Light

Chapter 38

Celia looked at Verbena as the human took a deep breath of the normal clear air of the oncoming storm. "How are you holding up? Are you tired? If you are, we can ask Ahsa to stop. I do not think she will mind."

Verbena looked down to Ahsa and her continuous restless steed. The dragon was tired and needed sleep, but she refused to admit it. Not only was the next piece of their goal at the end of the journey, but she did not want to delay when they would arrive. The faster they reached Ahsa's home, the sooner Irin could also be healed, 'No,' she decided and flapped her wings a few times.

Celia leaned back a bit in surprise, "Are you sure? I do not think they will mind." Celia hesitated. "I do not want you to hurt yourself. We have been awake for a long time," she glanced at the silver lining of the moon peeking from behind the clouds. "We have also been traveling for a while as well."

'I can keep going, and to use a phrase I learned from Irin, the winds are favorable, for now at least.' She took a deep breath, then exhaled a plume of condensation. 'I am sure that Irin would do the same for me.'

Celia gently patted Verbena's neck with her hand, "Don't overwork yourself. It's okay if you need a break."

Verbena emitted a weak purr in return of Celia's sign of affection, 'Thank you for worrying about me, but I want to keep going.' As she continued to glide on the tailwind, she glanced back down to cart.

Far below, Ahsa pulled the cart to a stop. After she dismounted from her ice construct, she stretched a bit. "Home, sweet home," She yawned a bit, then looked to her two passengers, "We have arrived, so can you signal Celia and Verbena to come down here? There is no need for them to stay up there any longer."

Irin nodded to the female magic user, then looked up to Celia and Verbena. With a bob of his head, he released a deep resonating call into the air.

Verbena heard the call as it resonated up to her through the air. "Irin says we are here," she began a swift descent. After a few moments, they finally reached the ground. However, the green dragonet did not land smoothly onto the snow. Instead, she lost control when she attempted to slow down in order to safely land and careened onto the snow-covered surface.

When she slammed into the snow on her stomach, an explosion of snowflakes rose into the air in her wake. The sparkling flakes slowly drifted the cold air like glitter as they slowly returned to the ground. Thankfully, the pillow-like snowdrift prevented her from injuring herself and kept Celia from harm as well. 

"Are you all right!?" Xan leaped off of the back of the cart and stumbled through the deep white powder over to the downed dragon and her rider. "Verbena? Celia?" He called to them as soft groans rose from the impact site.

Celia rolled off of Verbena's side, then used the dragonet to shakily stand. "I am ok," her muscles screamed in soreness after they remained folded in the same position for a long while. "Sore from spending so long in the same position, but I will recover." Celia looked to Verbena's head. "Verbena?"

'I am just going to lay here for a little while,' Verbena emitted a verbal groan and moved her head a bit to look back to Celia. 'I am exhausted from flying so far. I just want to rest and not move for a bit.'

Celia frowned a bit and stroked the green dragonet's side. "You definitely deserve the rest." After a pause, the human kneeled down and wrapped her arms around Verbena's neck in a hug.

Something heavy landed in the snow and Irin limped over to the tired dragonet and her rider. 'Verbena, you should have told us to stop before you became this tired. I'm sure Ahsa would have been willing to stop,' he gingerly nudged her head.