Verbena turned down a seemingly random path with a huge grin on her muzzle as they ventured deeper into the cavern. 'How deep does this go?' She chirped in curiosity as she sniffed the air for hints of what was hidden deeper within.

"I don't know. I've never been down to the bottom." Celia admitted. The metal label on the tunnel called it "River Way," and arrows pointed downward with "The River" carved into the arrow. She had heard that there was a river underneath the mountain but had never seen it herself. The curious part of her wanted to see the river. "It may be fun." She smiled a bit, nervous but excited.

'Then let's go!' Verbena renewed her pace with increased vigor, 'I wanna find the river and swim in it!'

Celia smiled more as they passed tunnel after tunnel and the moss covered ground was less and less worn down. As they descended, bugs began to buzz around their heads in the near-constant warm temperatures, and the moss-covered walls became wetter and thicker. Celia began to feel like she needed to take off her coat in order to be comfortable in the warmer temperature.

After several moments of running, Verbena slowed and began to pant, hot and slightly exhausted from the heat and the exercise.

Celia frowned and patted Verbena's neck. "Are you all right?"

'I'm fine.' Verbena's thought speech went uninterrupted by her panting. After she paused to lick a dripping stalactite, she looked back to Celia. 'I'm gonna find more water.' Her nose flared as she sniffed for hints of larger bodies of water, then began to travel deeper into the cave.

Celia continued to hang onto her dragonet. "Would you like me to walk so you don't have to carry me?" Her brow creased as concern crossed her face.

'I strong. I can carry you.' Verbena held her head high in confidence. She paused, then turned her head towards the wall to their left. To Celia, it looked like more of the moss-covered wall, but to the human's surprise, Verbena moved the moss aside. 'The nearest large water source is down here.' She retracted her head.

Celia slid off of Verbena's back, then frantically grabbed the dragonet's neck as her shoes slipped on the slick stone ground. "I don't know about this." She said as she put her feet under her body again. She looked back down the main path with its partially worn moss path, then glanced back to the path Verbena was suggesting. "There doesn't seem to be a worn path down that way." She said, noting the complete lack of wear or markings in the tunnel.

Verbena looks to Celia. 'Please? I wanna go swim and not be thirsty anymore.' She begged with the cutest face she could manage; the lip quiver, the big eyes, the flattened large fluffy ears, the head tilt, everything. 'Please please please please pleeeeeaaaaasssseeee?'

Celia hesitated. She could easily say no and convince the dragonet that there was another source of water at the end of the path, but curiosity was also growing inside of her. She wondered hat could be down there if no one had been down the path no one had been down in who knows how long. With those thoughts, she decided to give in to her own curiosity and Verbena's begging.

"All right," she caved and climbed back onto her back, "let's go." Verbena gave her rider a draconic grin, then slipped through the wet moss. Celia shivered as the slimy substance slid like a swift snail across the exposed skin on her face and hands. The tunnel's ceiling was so low that there was barely enough space for Celia to lay flat on Verbena's back as she crawled back out through the tunnel.

"This place is so cool. I can't smell any dragons. Not even super old scents.' Verbena kept her head low so it wouldn't hit the ceiling. 'This place is amazing.' Her tail waved as she barely contained her excitement. She continued to carry Celia down the tunnel for a while but paused shortly after she rounded a corner. 'What's that yellow light?' She squinted slightly and leaned forward.

"Everything in this spooky, unnerving tunnel emits light," Celia said as she peeled a sliver of fluorescent moss off of her shoulder. "The moss, the mushrooms, the bugs." She listed to prove her point to Verbena. "I think the fluorescent stuff was planted here so there would be some sort of light in the tunnels. Otherwise it would be too dark for anyone to live here." 

'No, this is something different and strange. It looks like fire, but it doesn't flicker.'  She attempted to blow a bit of flame to demonstrate the difference, but to the relief of the bugs in front of her muzzle, all that came out was her breath. After pouted a bit at the lack of development in her fire sacks, she glanced back to Celia in hope that the human understood the analogy.

Celia attempted to look around Verbena to see the light but failed to see what the dragonet was talking about. "I don't see the light you're talking about, but I trust you." She assured Verbena. "Let's keep going down the tunnel to see where it goes." She wasn't going to have the dragonet turn back after coming this far, as the water Verbena desired was closer going forward than turning around.

Verbena was happy with that answer as she continued down the strange, new path. Although tunnel got a bit smaller as they traveled, the ceiling never got close enough that the dragonet could no longer ferry Celia on her back.

Eventually, strange sounds reminiscent of flowing water reached the two's ears. After several more moments of walking that seemed like forever for Celia, she finally began to notice the light that the dragonet had noticed long ago. It had more of a golden hue in contrast to the green and blue glow of the mosses and mushrooms. "Is that whiteish yellow thing what you're seeing?" Celia asked.

'Yes.' Verbena nodded in response to the question, then glanced around as the air became thick with a warm fog. Not only was the warmth of the moisture was strange, but as was the way it held and reflected light. 'It's getting hot.' The cold-loving dragonet complained. 'The ground and the air smells warm.'

"Nah-uh. We're not turning around now." Celia stated, then peered around Verbena's neck into the glowing mist. "It can't be much farther to the end."

Before she could argue, Verbena's lead paw slipped off an edge which caused her to panic. Luckily, her low center of gravity from her crouch allowed her to stay on her feet and back away from the ledge.

"Everything all right?" Celia called ahead as she gripped Verbena's fur in case the dragonet made even more jerky movements.

'I nearly slipped off the edge!' Verbena barked in a bit of panic. 'The fog stuff kept me from seeing!' She sniffed the air, then exhaled and disturbed the water vapor in front of her nose.

'I'm gonna try feel my way out of the tunnel.' After Verbena carefully found the edge again, she reached a paw down in an attempt to her way to the floor beneath the tunnel. She slowly descended until she found a large enough space to stand. Frustrated by the still-glowing mist surrounding them, she opened her wings and created a mass movement of air by flapping them.

Since she had never seen so much water in one place before, Celia thought cave was rather stunning and beautiful once she could see it. The warm mass of water at the base was the source of the steam. The water vapor was slowly released from the surface of the underground lake, and a gentle waterfall fed the lake with cool water that flowed from the upper layers of the mountain.

Blue glowing worms spotted the ceiling like cerulean stars while other insects fluttered around them. Pale salamander-like fish swam through the warm water and fed on the nutrients and minerals from upstream and the insects that landed too close to the edge of the water.

Plants thrived in the damp and bright conditions, relying on the mysterious light instead of the fluorescence of mushrooms. Small animals, such as bats, salamanders, and rodents populated the cave as well, and most likely fed on the plants and insects that also thrived in the cave. The animals were in such an abundance it was as if no dragons had been in the cave before.

"Where is the white light coming from?" Celia wondered aloud as Verbena once again defogged the room by flapping her wings. "The glow worms aren't bright enough for it to look like this." She cast her focus into the glowing warm water that cast mesmerizing light patterns on the ceiling. "Maybe it's coming from down there?" The shimmering water gave no immediate answers, so Celia slipped off of Verbena's back and approached the water's edge.

Fish fled from her as she accidentally stirred the long moss tendrils at the edge of the pool and disturbed the water. The plant tendrils competed with each other to grow farther into the water from the edge, but the farthest they managed to reach was a bit less than half an arm into the depths. 

Celia glanced at the shadows of the fish on the ceiling and deduced that the glow must be from beneath the waves, then leaned a bit forward in order to get a better look into the depths of the water.

Verbena approached her. 'Whatcha looking at?' She asked curiously.

"There's something glowing in the bottom of the lake." Celia walked around the edge of the water in an attempt to get a better look, but no matter where she stood, she still couldn't see down through the glowing depths. "I'm trying to figure out what it is, but I can't see through the water."

Verbena set her gaze down to the bottom of the lake and narrowed her eyes to focus more. After a moment, she telepathically spoke again. 'There's a glowy thing at the bottom.' She replied. 'The water is murkier near the bottom.'

Celia sighed and was about to sarcastically remark about how she could already see that, then looked towards the white glowing water. She continued to calmly watch the tranquil scene, then panicked as it began to fade. "I'll never discover what it is if it disappears!" She dove into the warm water.

It was at that moment Celia remembered that she had never learned to swim, but her internal drive to solve the new mystery was gnawing at her. She followed her instincts and squirmed as she flailed her arms and kicked her legs. Despite the difficulties, she swam down in near blindness. The water stung her eyes and the pressure from the water hurt her ears.

Her hand reached the bottom before her eyes realized its proximity in the nutrient-dense water. Her hands dug into the pebbles in search of the source of the glowing as the light changed from white to gold and lost its intensity.

Her hand suddenly covered the light, so she immediately plunged her hands into the riverbed and grabbed the mass of pebbles beneath her and lifted it out. To her surprise, a solid ball of light the size of her fist. She slowly drifted upwards as she watched the light slowly shift into a beautiful orange. She was so stunned and fascinated by the event that she forgot the one thing she needed most to survive: air.

She panicked once again as she was cast into darkness and her lungs begged for air. She screamed for Verbena, but the water muffled the sounds to a muddled scream. Her mind raced in her continued stress.

'I'm coming!' Verbena barked into her mind as a large splash disturbed the water. Though Verbena didn't know how to swim either, she was much more capable in the water with her stronger instincts, and air-trapping fur, webbed paws, and powerful muscles. Her eyes were protected from the water by a third eyelid that prevented the liquid from stinging her eyes as it did to Celia's eyes. The dragonet reached down her neck and snagged the human girl's coat collar with her teeth.

Once Celia was safely secured, Verbena turned and paddled back up to the surface to get both of their heads above water. As the green dragonet paddled to the shore, Celia coughed weakly and put fresh air into her lungs.

'Celia?' Verbena set her down on the wet mossy ground. 'Celia?' She licked Celia's cheek in worry.

To Celia, Verbena's telepathic words were even more echoey than normal as she slowly drifted into unconsciousness. Her thoughts became increasingly more sluggish as her vision blurred and darkened. The human did know one thing: in her hands was the previously glowing sphere.

~~~

Verbena was flustered and unsure of what to do as her rider laid on the ground, unconscious, in front of her. Out of curiosity, the young dragonet sniffed the clear object in Celia's hand. Based upon her thoughts before her fit of unconsciousness, Verbena inferred that at least Celia thought the orb in her grasp was important.

Now, Verbena had to figure out her main problem: getting her rider out and back through the tight tunnel. After clearing the mist again, she turned towards the tunnel which barely stood out against the wall in the dimly lit room.

'Okay, maybe I can call someone to my aid.' She emitted a few bursts of a low-frequency sound from the depths of her throat. The sound was below a human's hearing ability, but she could hear the deep call perfectly. Typically it was a call for help that was to be responded with another call announcing help was coming, but as the sound echoed in Verbena's ears, she heard no response. She looked saddened for a moment, then came to the decision that she was on her own for now.

Verbena sighed and looked to her rider again. She didn't know about the human, but she was hot. 'Why is it so hot?' She whined and longed for the coolness of snow and ice coating her fur and feathers. Her tongue hung out as she panted like any other animal. 'I guess I have to carry her, somehow.' She sized the human up, then gently picked her up again and pulled her onto her back. In order to prevent the human from slipping, the dragonet placed Celia at the base of her neck in front of her wings. This way, Verbena's wings could be used to help hold Celia in place.

Just as Verbena was content with how Celia was positioned, the human groaned and dropped her prize with a gentle groan. The orb landed with a clink and threatened to roll back into the water. Verbena quickly dove and grabbed the sphere with her teeth. 'Okay, I'll hold this so you won't drop it.' Her tongue was forced to hang outside the side of her mouth to make room for the strange object now residing in her mouth.

Her pupils were wide take in every bit of light they could as she climbed back into the tunnel. As she walked down the long tunnel, she mentally ran through the directions to get there in her head in order to remember the path to return to the secret grotto. If she had been hungrier, she would have dined on the plentiful fish, insects, and small rodents that inhabited the bright cave.

Every so often, Verbena paused and checked on the still-unconscious human, who was sleeping peacefully and was no longer coughing, much to the dragonet's relief. Despite her frequent checks, Celia's condition never seemed to change or improve.

Eventually, Verbena emerged through the moss curtain that covered the secret entrance to the tunnel. Once out, the dragonet sized in relief. Now her job was to take Celia to a safe place where she could recover from her sudden sleepiness. According to Verbena's thinking, the best place would be the room they slept in the day before.

Since she didn't know a better place to go, Verbena returned to the room that she and Celia had been assigned only a night ago. She missed the comfort of her mother's blanket-like wing, but Celia's presence was enough for her.  

After carefully putting the human on the comfortable sack that the dragonet had previously slept on and placed the sphere into Celia's hand, Verbena sat down next to it in vigil as her companion recovered.

Author Notes!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you did, feel free to vote and tell me what you liked about it in the comments! 

Also, feel free to ask questions!