Frigid wind rushed past Celia's hooded face. This was her first time on a dragon's back while in the air, and she was exhilarated. The she adored the sight of everything from above and the nearness of the sky along with the frozen air that rushed past her face. The experience was exactly like how she dreamed it to be.
The frozen, snow-covered ground passed under them like a flow of water and the clouds felt as if she could reach out and touch their snow-laden fluffy existence. Other than the clouds, the sky was empty, but Celia could see along the ground for miles. The small rarely used traveler's outpost on the north side of the mountain glowed with light from its entrance and a small amount of steam rose from the various entrances to the underground town of Rien.
Celia saw her home in a new angle as it began to disappear: the vast network of tunnels was hidden under the lone mountain in the middle of a line of smaller hills. The hills and the mountain were the only breaks from the otherwise flat land surrounded by the haze of the endlessly flat horizon.
Eventually, even The Lone Mountain disappeared behind the horizon, and Celia began to feel the chill of uncertainty once again.
There was not a single creature ahead of them in the west that they could see, and the thin layer of fresh snow was undisturbed and hid all tracks that were once there. Celia had heard that there were food sources in the tundra, but if the was true, either they were under the snow or invisible, as Celia could not see any hints of life out in the seemingly endless expanse of snow.
Celia was felt the doubt in her mind. They had already set out after gathering limited supplies from her room and a small knife along with a few food and water rations from the questing supply room. Though Celia knew going on a quest was wrong to do with her low level and the lack of permission, Celia thought it felt wrong not to go. There was something pulling at her heart to go and find the other rays of light.
Verbena looked back to Celia as she continued to fly. 'Are you alright?' The oil coating each strand of her overcoat was freezing in a white layer, which not only further insulated her body, but also gave her excellent camouflage against a cloudy sky and the snow-covered ground.
Celia blinked back into reality. "Sorry." She apologized. "I was just having a few doubts." She adjusted her grip on the dragonet's harness. "Can we do this? Neither one of us are exactly special or anything."
'We can do this!' Verbena cheered. 'We found the first ray of light, so we can find the others!' She paused. "Though I'm getting tired," she began to glide, 'I've been traveling forever and my wings hurt!'
Celia glanced up to the moon, based upon her perception of the movement of the moon, not much time had passed. "It hasn't been that long," she assured the dragonet, then paused as she felt Verbena sending the human how she felt as she continued to glide through the air.
Celia suddenly felt the soreness of outstretched imaginary wings attached to her back. At first, the rider thought the feeling was of flying was exhilarating. The wind rushed around her and the calm snowy expanse passed below them. Celia felt as if the world was no longer off limits and she could go anywhere.
Suddenly, Celia's nonexistent muscles begged for relief against the air pushing against them and begged to finally be relaxed. "If you feel this sore," Celia's voice strained slightly from the perceived soreness. After a few more moments the experience, she frowned and shook away the feeling as it faded, "maybe we should take a break. I probably need to stretch my legs a bit anyway." She gently pressed against the harness and willed her dragonet to descend faster. Verbena's soreness reminded the human of her own tiredness, though it was nowhere near as bad as what Verbena felt in the same moment .
Verbena paused and glanced back to the human with a draconic smirk, then replied, "I am glad you see things my way." She adjusted her wings to further increase her decent, then landed roughly on her hind paws before her forelimbs hit the ground. The rough touchdown nearly threw Celia off of Verbena's back and onto the snow since the dragonet bucked slightly when her front limbs hit the ground.
Celia let her feet touch the ground and slid the rest of the way to the ground. "Maybe we should work on landing a bit more," she groaned slightly as she stretched out her limbs, "that was a bit of a hard landing, but it was a great first try with weight on your back." She stroked the dragonet's head in affirmation of the praise. "You just need more practice, and then you will be a master of landing. Then you will become the best lander in the guild, I know it!"
'I did tried!' Verbena cheered, 'I will get better! You will see!' She purred as she also pranced around in a circle of happiness, then nudged Celia's hand before nuzzling the human through her warm clothing. The frost and ice accumulating on her fur made it a bit more uncomfortable on Celia's side to be nuzzled, but the rider did not mind too much as long as the dragonet were happy.
Celia smiled, then surveyed the area, only to flinch slightly as a sudden breeze caught her off guard. Though her clothing was made for the wind, the cold air still surprised Celia since her only experience in the outside world was when she was not riding a dragon. Also, the wind would make it hard for Celia to hold the stolen, or as she preferred, borrowed, map in her gloved hands.
Typically the cold air was stagnant, but occasionally the atmosphere stirred like an aerial earthquake. Celia looked to a large hole in the ground. "Can you lower me into there? It should protect us from the wind."
Vebena looked at the shadowed space, then nodded as she spread her wings and launched back into the sky with a singe flap of her wings and scattered the lightweight flakes of snow from where they had been previously settled. The swarm of loose snowflakes briefly blinded Celia, but she managed to see Verbena as she hovered above the human.
When Verbena was in position, Celia reached up and grabbed the dragonet's frosted forelimbs as Verbena also reached down to grab her rider. Once Verbena had a secure grasp, she lifted the human a few feet off of the ground and gently flew towards the sinkhole.
Now that Celia's feet were no longer on the ground, she became nervous and panicked slightly as waves of regret washed over her. "Maybe we shouldn't have done this!" She yelled.
Verbena sensed the rider's nervousness heard her cry and became worried and nervous as well, then cautiously placed her human down on the untouched snow at the bottom of the pit. The dragonet landed beside the human and worriedly looked at her. 'Celia?' Verbena nuzzled Celia's cloth-covered face in concern.
"I'm fine." Celia assured. "I just was not exactly prepared. I had no idea what that was going to feel like until I was already off of the ground." She reached up and stroked Verbea's head in order to further assure the dragon, "I'll be better prepared next time and I do not think I will panic as much next time."
Verbena nuzzled Celia one last time for good measure, 'I'm glad you are alright now.' She purred slightly. 'I was worried about you for a moment there.' She looked up and down Celia as if double-checking the human's word on her health. 'I care about you, you my friend.'
Celia smiled a bit and placed a hand on Verbena's head, "thank you for caring so much about me," she said, then focused her attention on the deep pit surrounding the duo while stroking the monochromatic dragonet's head.
The walls of the pit were steep and rough with piles of rocks at the base piled around the edges and probably covered the bottom of the pit under the layers of frozen water beneath the duo's feet. As with everything in Roahla, the pit and everything in it was covered in densely packed layers of snow and ice that had been there for many cycles. After spending so much time with air rushing past her form, Celia was thankful to be shielded from the strange light breeze.
"Maybe we should camp here," she said as she looked around. "Look, there's even a cave that we may be able to find some warmth in." She approached the cave and felt a gentle warmer breeze coming from deeper inside. "This tunnel is deep enough that it has some warmth," she looked to Verbena, "we won't go deep, but it will should be better than being out here in the cold."
Verbena looked to the cave and sniffed the dry draft emanating from the cave, but did not seem to smell anything strange and alarming. Once she was done checking the dense air for scents and felt the area was saft, she nodded and looked to Celia. 'A nap does sounds nice.'
Celia smiled and entered the cave. "Once we finish this break, we will continue our journey." Her promise echoed against the walls and resinated deeper in the strange silence of the tunnel.
At first, Verbena was happy to follow the human, but once she entered she froze as her nose caught a whiff of the air trapped by the unfrozen moisture deeper in the cave. Once she smelled the new scents, she immediately became wary. 'Celia?' She paused and raised one of her forelimbs as if she would turn and dash away at any moment. She remained alert and wary.
Celia blinked and glanced back to her friend, but did not stop until she noticed Verbena's lack of movement a few steps back, "is something wrong?" She turned her back to the cave and faced Verbena.
"There's a scent here I do not like," her nostrils flared as she continued to smell the underground air and the new fragrances offered to her. 'The scent was faint and old when we were outside, but it is much fresher deeper in. There is a scent of old blood along with some other smell that I don't recognize, but it is alive. We should go back. Something is deeper in here.' Verbena fidgeted slightly and the fur on her back raised slightly, but it was too long to fully stand on end.
Celia glanced back to the tempting warmth of the cave, then looked back to Verbena. "I trust you."
As she turned, a dark mass erupted out of the darkness and leaped towards Celia. Its gaping mouth was a vortex of teeth and its defining roar seemed to stun her. Celia fell frozen and could not move as the dangerous beast rushed towards her.
Luckily for Celia, Verbena did not experience the same amount of pure fear as her human companion. The dragonet spit out a warm glob of a chemical cocktail right into the creature's gaping mouth.
Distracted by the foul taste, the beast closed its vortex of a mouth and shook its head in an attempt to eliminate the foul taste from its mouth of the chemical taste and allowed more time for Verbena to react and retreat.
Before the creature recovered, Verbena used her mouth to grab Celia's collar and pulled her out of the cave. The dragonet spread her wings as soon as she had the space to extend them and leaped into the sky.
Despite the dragonet's hopes, shortly after she had escaped the pit with Celia, the creature burst out of the cave and disrupted the snow that had previously been peacefully collected at the base of the pit.
The snakelike creature that emerged hissed and snapped at the two and narrowly missed the pair as it snapped its jaws shut in the now-empty air. Though it hissed angrily at the pair, the creature otherwise refused to further expose its scaled hide to the cold of the outside air.
Despite the fact that Verbena stayed far out of its reach, the continually hissing creature eyed them as if there was still a chance to claim the escaped meal. Ultimately it decided that the swift and maneuverable dragon and rider would be too difficult to catch at the moment. It's mood did not improve, the monster retreated most of the way back into the cave, but kept its colossal black head exposed in case something was dropped into its hungry maw.
"Just grab the harness and get back on Verbena's back." Celia whispered to herself as Verbena curved her neck to allow Celia to be closer to the awaiting harness. "You have done this plenty of times, just on the ground. It will be just like doing this back in the training arena, just in the air." Celia's voice wavered as she reached out and grabbed the nearest strap of the harness.
Once she had both hands gripped on random places on the harness, she reached over with her left foot and hooked it to the strap of their supply bags. After those three limbs were secure, she swung her remaining foot over to the right side of Verbena's body. After she first put her hands in the correct places, she moved her feet and hooked them into the proper places and breathed a sigh of relief. "See?" She spoke to herself in a breathy voice, "that wasn't so hard."
Verbena released her grip from Celia's coat. 'I am just glad we got out of there.' She shivered and caused the loose strands of ice coated fur to tinkle as the crystals hit against each other. 'We will find a place to rest farther along our quest. I do not feel all that tired anymore.'
"I do not blame you for saying that." Celia breathed. "The fear and surprise gave me an energy boost. I don't think I could stop now either. Maybe in a little while when our hearts slowed back down. Let's be more cautious from now on."
Author Notes:
Welcome back to Dawn's Light and happy Thanksgiving!