Dawn's Light

Chapter 49

Celia woke from her slumber with a yawn. As she sat up, she rubbed her eyes, then opened them to the dim light from her bottle of fire magic. The human female reached out to the bottle and held the warm object in her gloved hands. Xan's magic had faded shortly after he went to bed, so the only light came from the sealed container of magical fire.

"Tonight is the night," Celia whispered as she rose to her feet. "This night will end with the dawn." She inhaled, then slowly released her breath.

A sudden splashing sound to her right practically spooked Celia's spirit out of her body as she jumped in a panic. With her hand hovering over the hilt of the small dagger attached to her belt, Celia faced the source of the sound and held the light out towards the mystery invader

A small creature stared at her with cloudy blue eyes and a pale cavern salamander flapping around in its jaws. Long whiskers sprouted from around its jaws like a halo and moved as the being twitched its nose. The animal's dark brown fur with a slightly lighter speckling made it difficult to distinguish from the rest of the cave in the dim light. As it gazed at Celia, the creature kept its head-sized ears trained on Celia

For a moment, the two stood frozen and waited for the other to move. A soft groan from behind Celia made both of them tense, and a soft growl from the same place made the animal flee with a flick of its long white-tipped tail.

Celia slowly turned around and practically expected a larger predator to be directly behind her and ready to eat her. Thankfully, all she found was a now-awake Irin as the blue dragon rose to his feet and shook to free himself from the remains of his half-melted ice armor.

'Cave cat,' he stated as he walked over to the edge of the stream and drank some of the flowing water. 'They are mostly blind and will attack anything they hear that sounds small enough to kill.' He raised his head from the water but was careful not to hit the ceiling. "Make yourself sound big or growl at them and they skitter away. Or you can catch and eat it yourself. They do not taste bad at all, even if they are hard to catch,' Irin briefly paused as he licked his lips. 'They aren't all that common, but they do like underground caves with food and water.'

"Thanks, Irin," Celia patted his head, then turned to the stream and knelt down. Once she removed her gloves, the human scooped up some of the cold liquid into her hands, then drank as much as she could before the water escaped through the gaps between her hands. When she was done, she shook her hands, then wiped the remaining water onto her coat.

'I think it's time we wake Xan and Verbena and head out," Irin glances to the two still-sleeping beings, then focused on Celia. 'I am a bit anxious for the long-awaited return of the sun.'

Celia blinked, then quickly nodded as she pulled her gloves back over her dry hands. "I am a bit anxious too, so let's get going. We have a plan, so let's get to Urre and return light to the world."

"You wake Xan and I will wake Verbena up," Celia nodded to Irin. After he nodded back, the human female walked over to Verbena and gently pressed against her side in an effort to wake her. "Time to wake up."

Verbena yawned a bit, then tucked her head under her wing. 'I wanna sleep,' she groaned and curled up into a ball.

"It's time to go to Urre," Celia pressed against her dragon's shoulder again, but the dragon outweighed and outsized the small human. "It's time to retrieve the last ray of light and return the sun to Roahla."

Verbena quickly raised her head, 'it is?!'

"Yes, it is," Celia nodded as the dragoness rose to her feet, this time mindful of the low ceiling.

'Then let's go back out there and fly!' Verbena shuffled her wings and offered her neck to her human.

Celia shifted the bottle of fire magic to her left hand, then hugged the base of the green dragonet's neck with her now-free right hand. "I am ready," the human promised with a nod to the dragonet.

Verbena bobbed her head and nuzzled Celia, then began to walk up the sloped tunnel with her human in tow.

Irin's ear twitched as he heard them leave. 'Xan,' he huffs, 'Celia and Verbena are leaving. We need to follow them. It is time to fly to Urre and return light to Roahla. We can't do that unless you wake up.' He nudged the boy for what must have been at least the tenth time.

"Fine...," Xan groaned and slowly sat up. As the male human stood, he stretched and spoke in a yawn, "I am awake now."

'Good,' Irin moved his neck under Xan's arm as the boy continued to stretch his sleepy muscles.

"Woah! Hey!" Xan exclaimed and grabbed Irin's neck before the male human fell over as a result of the blue dragon's actions. "Fine!" Xan huffed as he grabbed his bag from where he had been using it as a pillow. As he slung the pack onto his shoulder, he stumbled after his draconic companion.

Verbena caught Celia as the female human slipped on the hard ice as they amended to the surface. "Thank you, Verbena." Celia briefly turned her grip on Celia into a one-armed hug.

Verbena purred a bit in return. She wanted to nuzzle her chosen, but the narrow tunnel prevented her from easily moving her head without scraping her nose on the walls and hitting her head on the ceiling.

Soon, they emerge into the white expanse of the aboveground world. Celia took a deep breath of the evening air, then glanced to the footprints from the morning before. The disturbed piles of snowflakes still marked Celia's fall into the cave.

Once Verbena stepped out of the way of the entrance, Celia vaulted onto the young dragoness's back and settled into the harness. With her rider secure, the dragonet spread her green wings and kept off the side of the mountain and rose into the air. 'Time to return light to Roahla!' Verbena bellowed into the cold night air.

Irin shortly followed her, 'let's fly around the south side of Urre since we are already headed in that direction. I think if we loop around to the mountains behind Urre we can get closer to the city than anywhere else. Xan and I have never seen the black beast cross the mountain ridge.'

'Sounds good,' Verbena briefly barked and took the lead with a flap of her now-frosted wings. 'I'll lead, and give that place a wide berth.'

Irin released a low rumble of approval from deep in his throat as he intently watched the stars for any dark shapes above them. 'You lead, I will watch for the black dragon. It prefers to attack from above, so all of us need to stay vigilant. I think we are far enough from the city, but I'd rather be overly cautious.'

Both Xan and Celia nodded in response to the statement and scanned the skies for stars ominously blocked out, though thankfully they did not notice any clues to the whereabouts of the black dragon.

At first, Celia watched the stars for signs of the invisible dragon. However, as they flew, Celia turned her head northward and gazed toward the glowing light in the horizon. Because of the light, much of the distant city remained hidden by the glare, but the human female could make out a few of the tall structures. However, she could definitely see the tall mountains as they loomed behind the city.

"Soon," Celia whispered to herself.

Author Notes!

Soon indeed! I am so excited I have no words!

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and the book so far!