Celia bolted awake when someone slipped a rope under her shoulders. She quickly sat up, but the motion only earned a tightened rope instead of a loosened one. When she looked to her attacker, she saw the grey eyes of the attacker staring down at her with an angry glint in his eyes.

"Let me go!" Celia struggled against the blanket the rope was also wrapped around but to no avail. Since the strange the man held the ropes, he simply tightened them when Celia struggled. She had a sneaking suspicion the woven cord was her own, and it was being used against her.

'Verbena! Help!' She frantically called out to her dragonet as she continued to mentally panic and race to figure out a plan to possibly escape. However, her alarmed state prevented such critical thinking abilities.

Thankfully, the dragonet immediately woke to the sound of her call.

Verbena exploded to her feet in a scattering of water droplets and used her teeth to break the rope holding Celia in her hide wrapping. 'Back away,' she snarled menacingly and barred her fangs, 'if you hurt my rider, I will hurt you.' She stepped around Celia and forced the male humanoid back onto his rear. With the man forced away, Verbena took his place and acted as an immovable wall between him and his dragon.

The other dragon released a growl as he stepped forward in response to the threat on his rider. He held his head high in an attempt to intimidate the younger dragon, but Verbena simply continued to glare and growl.

Once freed, cane female rider threw off the blanket and stood to her feet and glared at the other humanoid as he stood from being knocked off of his feet by Verbena up. "Who are you? What do you want?" She clenched her fists as her wavering voice echoed slightly in the tight space. "How about this time we talk first and fight later," she suggested as she wished she had slept closer to the saddlebags. If she could reach the bags, then she could use the magic sleep pellets as a form of defense.

"I want to free this dragon that you're using as a slave with some sort of mind control magic," he stated as he glared through his protective goggles, "because you obviously must have used some spell in order to have a dragon that is so loyal, you siglya," he spit out the last word like a curse.

Verbena roared in frustration and barred her fangs, 'Celia does not control me! I can do anything I want! I chose Celia and she is my rider!' She glared and refused to willingly back out of the standoff.

The other dragon snorted at Verbena and snarled in obvious disbelief.

"I don't know magic!" Celia exclaimed in a desperate vocal tone, "and I would never control Verbena's mind for my own gain! She's my friend! I would never even think of using her like that!"

He scoffed, "Yeah right. If you can't use magic, how do you explain the fire magic you have in a bottle over there?" He pointed to the rock shelf where Celia had stored the item in question so it stayed safe.

"I traded for it in a town called Snouw," Celia answered as she attempted to return to some semblance of calm in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "I don't know any magic, I can't even use magic."

"Is that where you got those dragon hide blankets?" He glared and his voice raised slightly in tone as if his scarf hid a smirk, "or did your family kill and skin a dragon to get them for you so you could survive while you were out here using mind control on a dragon to get close to it?"

Celia glanced back to the hide blankets in shock before she refocused on the standoff, "I—I didn't know that they were, I didn't—" she stuttered as she failed to complete her sentence. Her heart raced as she realized why the blankets had felt so familiar but had been unable to place why exactly at the time. Celia tried to remain calm and hold her tears back, but she quickly discovered the task was very difficult as she trembled slightly.

"Besides," he said in a matter-of-the-fact tone, "I'm the only person to have honestly befriended a willing dragon in history," he stood upright and probably held a large egotistical grin under his cloth-covered face. Even his dragon rolled his eyes at the giant ego of his rider, and Celia was equally as unimpressed by the man's antics.

While he stood there in his own glory, Celia allowed herself time to regain focus and come up with a plan. After secretly taking a deep, calming breath and cleared her mind. After a few moments, she allowed her thoughts to flow, then gathered her thoughts, 'maybe we can convince him to believe us. If that doesn't work, I need to at least attempt to get the sleep pellets from my bag. Then, we can knock them out without entering another battle and escape while they sleep.'

"I don't believe you've heard of the dragon riding guild in the town of Rien," Celia said. "It's far to the east under the Lone Mountain, and it had a guild where people can learn to care for and ride dragons."

"There's nothing out there but icy tundra and wastelands," the man scoffed. "I know, we've flown out there and spent days flying, but we found nothing but flat land covered in snow and more snow."

'It is true!' Verbena barked and flared her wings as far as the close proximity of the walls would allow and punctuated her point, 'we flew for days to get here, but Celia is not lying!' She looked desperate to end the fighting but held strong in her determination to protect her rider.

"What will it take to prove to you that I did not use magic to control Verbena?" Celia looked to him as she removed her goggles and layers of protective cloth and uncovered her face.

"You're just a girl," he blinked in surprise as he stared blankly at Celia's face and seemed rather embarrassed, "heh, I—I thought you were a short boy with a high-pitched voice. A girl like you could never get close enough to a dragon to use mind controlling magic in the first place. Why don't we just start over and forget about what happened earlier?" He released a nervous laugh, then shed his facial protection as well and revealed his blushing and embarrassed countenance.

If his comments and actions had not caused Celia so annoyed with him, perhaps her previous attacker would have appeared as handsome. Despite his surprisingly deep voice, he was not much older than the human girl at about eighteen compared to Celia's sixteen. He brushed his gloved hands through his reddish-brown poorly cut hair that became scruffy when he had removed the cloth covering his face. He gazed down to Celia as a small, almost flirtatious grin spread across his pale-skinned unblemished face and a glint appeared in his pale grey eyes. Though Celia did not recognize his clothing's simple style and old cloth, she did notice his slightly muscular body type under the warm layers of cloth.

"I'm Xan Zyrai," he flashed a grin as he introduced himself, "and the dragon, my amazing companion, is Irin."

"Why did you discredit me because I am a girl?" Celia raised an eyebrow, "I was chosen by a dragon just like everyone else who is a rider."

"Sorry," he apologized, "where I'm from girls rarely left home and never did any heavy work." He seems even more embarrassed by his assumptions, "I guess you come from a culture where everyone is valued, regardless of gender. I can see why that is nice and benificial."

"I know I'm not exactly special or anything," she shakes her head, "but I am bonded with a dragon just like all the other riders. There are other talents and skills other than being strong."

"I guess that is true," he slowly agreed with a nod. "I am really sorry about chasing you and attacking you. Now that I've actually met you, you don't seem as evil as I thought you were." He laughs nervously, then continues, "it's kinda amazing to hear about other people that live with dragons rather than viewing them only as pests or monsters," he flashed Celia a small smile. "So, if you're from the east half of our dark world, what are you doing all the way out here?"

Celia looked up to his face and hesitated on whether or not she should trust Xan, especially since he had just attacked her. However, he and Irin did have far more knowledge of the western half of Roahla than Celia and Verbena could ever hope to know in any short amount of time. In order to get a second opinion, she turned her thoughts to Verbena and asked the question, 'what do you think?'

After a pause, Verbena answered, 'maybe we should give him a trial, then ditch him if we don't trust him.'

Celia looked to Xan and answered honestly, "I am going to find the rays of light and return the sun."

When she finished, Xan burst into loud mocking laughter. After a short moment, he stopped laughing and looked to Celia's unimpressed countenance, "oh, you're serious..., wait, you're serious?!" He takes a step back in surprise, "are you crazy? You'll never achieve that goal!"

"And why not?" Celia huffed.

"Because it's impossible! The sun will never return! No one knows where all of the rays of light are, and the one in Urre is impossible to get to. You'll never get past the city's guardian, and you might even be killed in the process!"

"I know it will be hard, but I want to do it, I believe Verbena and I can do it," Celia stated and pulled every ounce of her inner confidence to ignore the doubts running through her head.

"Do you think you're some sort of chosen one guided by a spirit or a force from beyond understanding to restore the glory of light and the sun to the world or something?" Xan raised a skeptical eyebrow as he set his gaze down to Celia, "in all honesty, to me you seem crazier than anything else."

"I'm not crazy, and I don't think I'm the chosen one," she paused, "I don't know anything about spirits guiding me, but I found one ray of light already and I chose to come out here to attempt to find the others." She paused and internally searched herself and her reasons. "It may have been Verbena's idea, but one told me to do this, and I could have easily told her it was a fool's errand."

In response to the human female's resolve, Irin released a soft verbal noise from deep inside his throat, "ruuurh."

Xan froze in surprise, then looked back to the drake with a confused and slightly crazed expression on his face, "What? Do you actually want to help her? She just admitted that she's on a wild, unfinishable quest."

'I believe we can do it,' Verbena snorted at Xan's lack of faith.

After listening to a mental message from his dragon, the teenage boy sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he mumbled, "I understand that the return of light would be a good thing, I just do not see how it is possible to do it." After another moment, he sighed I defeat and glanced to Celia, "fine, we'll help you find the last three rays of light and somehow retrieve all four of them."

"I already have one back home. I only need three, and why would I accept your help? You were literally attacking me earlier." Celia allowed her expression to change from one that was calm to a countenance of insecurity.

'But we need them to guide us around the mountains,' Verbena wrinkled her nose to display her displeasure and colossal confusion, 'we are mostly lost without a guide in this part of the world.'

'I know, but I am unsure on whether or not on if we should trust him,' Celia telepathically admitted through their mindlink, 'and I do not think Xan really wants to help us. From what I can understand, only Irin really wants to help us.'

"I said I was sorry, and it was all a misunderstanding. When I saw you on Verbena's back, I thought you were forcing her to be your slave because that is what was more likely in my mind," Xan showed Celia a guilty face. "The beings around here typically view dragons as menaces since they're more known for their hunger and size than their intelligence and personalities." He allowed himself to smile a bit and fondly reached up to stroke the melting snow armor of his blue dragon, "so if he wants to help you, then I will help too," After taking his eyes off of his friend, he flashed Celia a confident smile along with a determined nod.

Celia noticed the real care and companionship Xan showed for Irin and paused as she briefly contemplated her options, then answered when she finished. "All right, we will accept your help, and in trade, I will tell you more about the dragon guild," she offered a hand for Xan to shake and seal the deal.

"Deal," Xan swiftly and excitedly snagged her hand and sealed the future for all four of the mammals in the cave. 

Author Notes!

Hello again, and welcome back to your regularly scheduled update. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, so please leave a vote or comment.
Thank you for reading!