Dawn's Light

Chapter 8

The two girls simply stood in place for several moments, unsure of what to do first. Persephone glanced at Celia as if she had an idea where to find their dragons in the vast tunnel system under the mountain, but neither human had an inkling of an idea of where to start.

The two remained there until the third person in the room got tired of their inefficient method of not starting. "Well, get moving!" He shooed and forced them out of the room. "You know your assignment, now go do it."

Celia blinked and recovered from her paralyzing shock and confusion as their teacher ushered them out of the room. After pondering what to do for a moment, she mentally reached out to Verbena since her only other option was to wander around the mountain aimlessly.

Verbena's presence felt far and fuzzy as if she was much farther away than under the same mountain as her. In order to better focus, Celia closed her eyes in an attempt to block out more of the distractions. Celia strained her mind towards her dragonet, and slowly she began to better feel Verbena's presence. Though it was still unclear, Celia could feel the presence somewhere above her.

Despite the fuzziness of their connection, Celia was pretty confident that her connection to her dragon would get stronger as they became closer together. With that belief, she began to walk through the tunnels that lead upwards, half aimlessly and half with a purpose.

Persephone blinked and looked at Celia, then followed her since she had no idea where to begin the search.

As Celia walked, she realized how lost she felt without Verbena now that she could barely feel the dragonet's presence. Despite only being linked for a few days, the human felt as if the dragonhead filled a hole in her heart, but now, she realized, something was missing. She thought it was strange how one does not realize what they have until its no longer there. Celia felt alone without the optimistic and constantly excited green dragonet. Even though they had been separate before when Celia was forced to run the obstacle course alone, she had felt Verbena's presence despite the fact she couldn't see her through the walls of the tunnel.

Though her eyes were open so she could navigate the tunnels, Celia kept her thoughts on one thing: Verbena. With every passing step, Celia could feel their mindlink becoming stronger and stronger.

"Verbena?" She called out with her mind, then her eyes widened as something strange happened. Instead of the mindlink being like a small thread, it suddenly strengthened even beyond that of a mighty rope. It was as if their bond was reinforced by something... magically strong.

Celia froze mid-stride as some sort of floodgates released a well of energy over her. She felt as if she had dove into a pool of cold water, yet at the same time warmth tingled her senses. The sensation was strange, yet familiar and pleasant. She closed her eyes and let the energy wash over her for a few more moments, then focused once again on Verbena's presence.

Celia ignored the strange and new feelings that permeated her body without any hints that it would one day disappear. With a bit of focus, she forcefully shoved aside the mental veil that had been previously obscuring Verbena's location from her rider with minimal difficulty.

Now that she had a better connection to her dragon, Celia noticed that she longer felt like Verbena was a beast or a creature, but was far more human-like though she had ever thought.

Dragons were so much more complex and intelligent than she had ever realized. They were social, emotional, and empathetic. Celia now knew they had emotions that she had previously only associated with humans, and Celia felt as if she had been blind for not recognizing the dragons for what they were sooner. Dragons were far more like animalistic humans than just fiery mounts.