After the two had flown for quite a distance over the source of several nights, Verbena noted a collection of strange structures at the base of a horizon-spanning mountain far in the distance. 'There's something strange out there,' she paused, 'maybe it is somewhere we can stop and rest protected by stone rather than out in the open.' She shivered slightly and added, 'I miss the protection of the caves.'

Celia blinked as she mentally examined what Verbena could see, but did not recognize the strange formations. As far as either of them could see, the dark colored squares peeked out of scattered mounds of snow across the landscape. "Let's fly over and check it out first. What if there's another creature that wants to attack us? I do not wish to be attacked again."

Verbena nodded in understanding as she flapped her wings to increase her speed slightly. 'I hope its a safe place!' To that, Celia agreed with a nod.

She increased her altitude slightly with a few more flaps of her wings to give her more space to glide. As they neared the structures, small upright moving shapes came into view. 'I think I see humans.'

"People?" Celia blinked, then tried to see for herself, but her human eyes were just beginning to see the raised hills of snow that seemed to convey the structures Verbena had already seen. Thankfully, Verbena gifted her better sight to the rider and she could also see the upright figures. "People!" She cheered and could not wait to land. "Maybe they have a place where we can rest in safety instead of being out in the open. Make we can even get a good day's rest for once."

'I hope so too.' Verbena purred, then looked back to the people as she neared the town, who had not noticed the pair yet.

After they became relatively close, one of the humanoids below noticed the soaring ice-covered dragon above like a swift white cloud. In response to the sight of Celia and the dragon, the figure shouted in alarm and many of the figures reacted by fleeing towards their structures.

'They... are scared.' Verbena whimpered as she glided over the civilization. 'These humans are scared of dragons?' She flapped her wings and headed towards the long mountain as fast as her wings could manage.

Before she could get too far, however, some of the figures had pulled out weapons and fired sharpened tube-like rocks at the dragon.

Despite the half dozen or so projectiles aimed at her, Verbena managed to dodge three of the four that were thrown high enough to reach her, but one managed to graze her right flank and caused the dragonet to roar in panic. 'Hit!' She immediately rapidly flapped her wings to flee faster. 'I hit! I hit!'

'Why?' She questioned as she flew over the mountain in a panic. 'I have never hurt a human.' She whimpered and landed just on the opposite side of the mountain's peak. Her panic-induced landing was even rougher than the one she had managed earlier, as it was more of a dive into the snow than anything else.

She released warm plumes of breath as she panted, 'Celia?' She whimpered, 'I a good dragon right?' The nervous look on her face made the small dragon look weak and vulnerable. Celia immediately noticed the experience had shaken the dragon to the point she had no idea how to react. 'Please tell me I'm a good dragon!' She whimpered and staggered to her feet after the rough handing.

Celia frowned in worry as she slid off of Verbena's back, "of course you are," she promised, then went to look over Verbena's body to make sure the dragonet was not hurt. "Did you get hit by those weapons?" The human asked since she was unable to locate any wounds on her companion and friend.

'One grazed my flank.' She looked back to her flank and feared what she might see as Celia moved to examine the dragonet's flank. 'It's not too bad, right?' She whimpered and looked to the slightly ruffled frozen fur.

The rider sighed in relief when she only saw the pure white of Verbena's ice-coated hide. After Celia dug through the frosted strands of fur to check Verbena's dense soft undercoat for blood, she decided that the projectile had missed after all. "You're fine, it missed." Both of them looked relieved.

'Why did they attack?' Verbena looked to Celia for answers.

"I...I don't know..." Celia replied. "I'll go into town and find out, you stay here." The human reached into the large bags attached to Verbena's harness and pulled out a smaller bag, then filled it with a few jewels and other items she could potentially use to trade along with a small danger she did not know how to use for defense and a compass and guidance. "I will be back soon, I promise."

'Are you sure?' Verbena whimpered and trembled slightly.

"I am," Celia assured. "And I will be just on the other side of the ridge, and you can always keep track of me with my thoughts." She stroked the dragonet's now white fur with her gloved hand. "If I get into trouble, I will call you and you can come to rescue me." She smiled and looked into Verbena's eyes.

'Okay,' Verbena agreed, 'but I am coming to save you the second I think there is trouble.' She raised her head to assert the sureness of her statement.

"All right then, I will see you soon." Celia smiled to her friend, then turned and trudged through the snow and away from Verbena.

Even though Celia's legs were mostly submerged in the snow, she eventually made it to the top and looked down to the village below. "This mountain is a lot shorter than the one back home," she noticed aloud, then wished she had some way to slide on top of the snow or easily walk on top of the powder like how Verbena could with her large paws. "Just walk down there and see what's going on." She took a few steps through the snow, then panicked a bit as her lead foot slipped down the slope, "Ah!" She exhaled as she slipped and flailed her arms, but luckily managed to remain upright.

'Are you all right?' Verbena poked her head over the ridge to check on her rider. 'You screamed," he voice wavered in worry.

'I'm fine I just slipped,' Celia mentally assured, 'nothing is hurt except for my pride. I am going to be a bit more careful now.' Celia took a deep inhale to calm her rapid heartbeat from the rush of energy caused by the slip.

After Celia regained her balance, she returned to her trek through the snow. To her relief, the rest of the trip down the mountain went uneventfully, though she still had a bit of trouble walking through the deep snow on the side of the mountain. Luckily, the snow among the entrances to the underground town was packed down to an almost ice-like density, so to the rider's relief, it far easier to walk on than the fluffy powder that she had previously walked through.

One of the men who had watched her climb down the side of the mountain pointed one of the ice rods at her when she approached the town, then blinked and lowered his weapon. "You are just a young woman," he suddenly became suspicious, "and why is a human traveling all alone?" His unfamiliar accent stressed the sound of the letter l. "Are you a thief or outcast?" He brandished his spear again.

"I'm just a traveler," Celia assured and uncovered her face to show that she was not afraid to show it to others, "I heard the commotion from the other side of the ridge and thought I would come to investigate. I did not come here to steal anything.." She eyed the unfamiliar weapon nervously, as home only had metal weapons rather than carved ice tools.

He lowered his stone tool again, but the distrustful glint in his eyes did not fade. "Very well traveler." He huffed. "Welcome to Snouw, follow me to the visitor's part of the town." He turned and walked towards one of the entrances.

Each entrance had a stone door and a blocked archway constructed over the natural entrance of the cave, as well as stone stairs that lead down into the darkness. The cave itself was cold in comparison to the warmer caves of Celia's home cave. Instead of mosses and fungi as sources of light, floating flames contained in jars placed into holes in the wall illuminated the cave.

Celia had never seen such strange glowing flames, especially ones that floated half a hand above the base of the jar. They were warm, but not quite enough to increase the temperature to that of what she was more used to. Despite their lack of visible fuel, they burned continuously and flickered infrequently.

The man noticed Celia's fascination with the flames. "You look like you've never seen fire magic before." He raised an eyebrow. "If you don't have magic, how do you even survive out there in the cold?"

"My clothing is enough to keep me warm. It's made from ejon." Celia glanced down to her heavy clothing.

"Ejon?" The man gave Celia a rather confused look. "What is that? Some sort of wild animal not from these parts?"

Celia momentarily paused, unsure how truthfully she should answer since this man had previously attacked her dragon. After some deliberation, she decided to lie, "it comes from the fur of Snowtails."

He studied the green coat with a critical eye, "dyed with mosses I presume? It looks extremely well dyed, though some of the strands seem to be slightly different shades of green."

Celia nodded in response, though she knew the green color was natural.

"Well then, this is the area for visitors." He motioned to the small cavern with four branching paths. "Inn, Market, Exit." He pointed to each of the paths Celia was permitted to go down, including the one they had walked through. "You are allowed to be in these parts of Snouw, but no farther." He turned and left Celia standing in the middle of the room without any further explanations.

Celia frowned and glanced at the three marked tunnels, then noticed that she could understand what they said, the spellings and characters used to write the words were slightly different from that of home.

'Celia?' Verbena piped up into the human's mind. 'I just want to make sure you are all right... it feels like it has been a while since I saw you.'

'I am fine, and I think I will be out soon.' Celia mentally assured the dragonet, then walked towards the market to see what she could trade for. 'Though they do have an inn where I can rest in... no, I'm not going to let you stay out there on your own.' Her telepathic thoughts sent through her mind link paused before she continued again, 'especially not here. I do not want you to get attacked again.'

'I will be fine out here if you stay,' Verbena assured, 'It is not too cold for me. I strong enough to handle any cold.' Celia could feel the green dragonet hold her head high in confidence. 'You stay if you want. If anything happens, I will flee and call you. Then you can escape and come to find me!'

'All right, if you say so, but definitely call me if anything happens. I will run as fast as I can to meet you in a safe place.' Celia said as she continued to walk down the tunnel, then finally entered the market.

The town's market was small and only consisted of a few small booths for each of the guilds lit with the light of the same lanterns that were in the other parts of the cave. There were a few villagers in the market, but Celia felt like this town was smaller than her hometown of Rien. Though, she noted, Snouw obviously got a few visitors every so often where Rien had never gotten any as far back as Celia could remember. Perhaps Rein was too far from any other towns to receive many visitors.

There were a blacksmith and stoneworker, a cloth shop, a food stall, a strange shop with more fire magic and what Celia guessed what was other types of magic, as well as a stand for traveling materials and other basic supplies. To Celia, the options seemed extremely limited, as there were more guilds than what was represented by five stalls in her hometown. Though the town under the lone mountain did not have a magic guild as Snouw did.

"This will be easy," Celia muttered to herself, "all I have to do is get a few more supplies, then leave and continue on my way." She took a deep breath and looked at the stands again.

After a moment of scouring the stalls to see what she wanted to buy she made a decision, "I guess the magic stall would be good to check out," she glanced at the stall in question, then looked to the stand that sold equipment, "but I should prioritize and make sure they have things I need that I may have forgotten to grab." With her decision made, Celia approached the stall with the traveler's items.

The shopkeeper looked up to her and blinked, then placed a smile on his face. "Hello, how may I help you, stranger?" She gestured to the wares displayed on the sides of the table and on the wall behind her. There were water skins, blankets, rope, a few different bags, and a few clothing items.

Celia pulled out her stash of small crystals and pulled out a few without revealing exactly how many she had. "Will you accept these crystals in trade?" In her home of Rein, the semi-translucent stones such as the one in her hand were relatively common, so only the large ones were worth much in the bartering community. Although Celia had only procured a few small ones, but she hoped they would be worth something in this trade community.

"Hmmm...," the man said and leaned forward to study them closer. "May I hold one?" He held out a hand. Celia blinked, then took the best one she could determine with a glance and dropped it into the merchant's waiting hand. After a moment where he intensely studied the crystal, he returned to his original position and nodded, "Yes, I can accept them in trade. What do you desire?" He placed the jewel on Celia's side of the middle of the table.

"I would like rope and two blankets, suitable for outside use," Celia said as she looked to the stack of folded cloth.

"Outside eh?" He huffed, "All right, how about you give me ten of your little gemstones?" He grabbed two blankets from behind him without looking and placed them between Celia's crystal and him, then placed a coil of rope on top.

Celia personally thought ten was outrageous and thought about just taking the offer, but then decided that she was not going to be walked over. "Six." She stated in an attempt to haggle the price.

At first, the man was a bit surprised but quickly regained his focus. "Nine." He attempted to stare her down, but Celia thought Guild Master Orthos could be much more intimidating than this stranger.

"Seven." Celia attempted to take on some of the guild master's stoic countenance and calm but serious tone, but her mind panicked. Celia managed to keep her cool by mentally reciting her instructions over and over.

After a moment, the shopkeeper spoke, "eight, final offer."

"Deal," she placed seven more crystals onto the table and picked up there and the folded brown animal skins after she placed the remaining crystals back into her pouch. "Thank you," she smiled, then walked away with her prize.

The merchant counted the crystals into hand and nodded in approval of the colorful gemstones in his hands.

"That wasn't too bad." Celia breathed in a whisper, then looked down to the blankets. "Looks like these are some sort of animal hide," she felt the leathery hide, then the soft side. "Rein does not have the knowledge on how to make animal furs into blankets though. That would be useful with how many animals are consumed, though the dragons do eat the skin and fur for us." She paused, then shook her head as she stuffed her purchases into her pack. "I need to refocus," the dragon rider looked to the magic stall, "and that is my next stop."

As Celia approached the stand, she looked at the various tickets and bottles decorating the stand. They covered the walls, the stone table, and even hung from the ropes holding up the sign. "Welcome!" A woman in loose-fitting clothes with drooping sleeve cuffs smiled to her. "How may I help you?"

"Hmmm...." Celia paused and glanced at the different bottles filled with liquids and magic fires, charms, and stone rods of various lengths. "I would like a small bottle of fire magic," Celia spoke as she thought the bottle would help keep her warm like how the larger bottles of mystic flame kept the shallow caves warmer than the temperature outside.

The strangely dressed woman took a bottle the size of her fist from where it was tied to a rope for display, then set it down on the stone counter. "Anything else?" She smiled and gestured to the rest of her wares. "I promise that anything you purchase will be magical," she laughed at her own joke, then stopped the she noticed Celia's blank stare, "sorry, I couldn't help myself."

Celia blinked, then set her gaze on the rest of the multitude of items on display. After a moment of thought, she looked to the seller again. "Do you have anything I could use to incapacitate attackers? Like, put them to sleep?"

The woman paused, then glanced around to her stock. "We do, but what I give you depends if you need something strong enough to knock out a human or something even stronger." She mentally went through all of the options.

"Is there something for both?" Celia asked, hopeful. She did have the invisible dragon to worry about, and if the town was any precedent for what was to come, then Verbena may be attacked by other humans as well.

She paused, then took a grey box from under the table. "These should be what you are after," she said as she untied the string holding it tightly closed and opened the box. When Celia looked inside the box, she saw a multitude of small grey pellets about the size of her thumbnail.

"These are Sleep Smoke Pellets, if you throw them at your opponent, they will explode into a small puff of smoke that can knock out a creature when it is inhaled. One should be enough to knock out most humans or creatures that are about human size. The bigger your opponents are, the more pellets you will have to use."

Celia nodded in understanding as the woman closed the box and tied it back up. "So what can you offer to trade?"

Celia pulled out the pouch of gemstones, then pulled out a pair of random carved gemstones and showed the black and clear stones to her. Since she did not know the value of the magical items, she decided to aim low, "Two jewels."

The woman blinked and looked at the stones. "May I see them?" She held out her hand, so Celia dropped them into her hand. Once they were firmly in her hand, She studied them and a light formed in her hand as she used magic to test the stones. After a few moments, her eyes lit up in realization and joy before she coughed slightly to regain her composure. "Excuse me," she apologized, then continued, "these will be just fine." She seemed to realize that since she lost her composure, Celia would not give her any more of the stones in trade, so she pushed the rider's requested supplies across the table to her. "Would you like anything else?"

Celia paused and thought about what she could buy, since several of the magical items could be potentially useful during her and Verbena's journey.

"I have magic wands, amulets that keep the wearer warm outside, a ribbon that if a piece of it is tied onto an item it will always return to you if lost, a bag that lets you put anything in it, a summoning stone, a pitcher that never runs out of water, spell books, stones that let you talk to others no matter how far away you are, magical shields, you name it!" She seemed desperate for more stones.

Celia paused and thought that some of those seemed interesting and could be useful, but she still needed to use her stones wisely, as she had no idea when she would need to buy items again. "I will have the ribbon you mentioned and the amulet." She pulled out two more stones, this time a red and a blue jewel, and placed them onto the table. "And that will be all that I buy today."

"Deal!" She smiled and retrieved the two requested items, then placed them on the table and took the stones. "Are you sure that is all?" She still wanted more glassy crystals, but unluckily for her, Celia had already bought everything she felt like would be useful and now really wanted to go to the inn to get some rest.

The Amulet of Warmth, as Celia decided to call it, consisted of stone beads strung on a thin metal wire with a small red stone pendant set as the centerpiece. When Celia touched it with her ungloved hands, she no longer felt the slight chill she had been feeling on her exposed skin since she entered the town. Because of the magical warmth it provided, Celia thought it would help her withstand the frigid air she experienced high in the sky when on dragon back.

The Returning Ribbon was a simple bundle of narrow white cloth that was tied around itself. It came with instructions on how to properly operate the magical effect, which Celia was grateful for since she had no previous experience with any kind of magic besides the magic of dragons, at least to her knowledge.

Celia nodded, "I'm sure." With that, she stashed her new purchases into her bag as she walked towards her last destination, the food stall.

The meat and plant-based foods were unfamiliar to Celia, but she still bought several days' worth of dried plants she assumed had at least been partially made or grown with the use of the magic that was prevalent I the town.

After she was done picking out and purchasing the food, Celia walked to the exit of the market, down the long tunnel, and back to the room with the four halls. She looked at the third, unlabeled hall with curiosity, but then decided to stay in the safer territory and went straight to the inn.

The inn was a simple structure built into a cavern wall. The bottom level was simply carved into the wall, while the love above it was made out of stone blocks constructed into a few rooms.

Celia was glad to find a place away from the cold of the snow and ice outside as she entered the main part of the inn.

"Welcome!" A man beside the counter smiled. "Are you here for a room?" When Celia nodded, the woman standing next to him grabbed a small metal trinket from the wall behind them and tapped a strange device with a black stick pointing upwards, but did not speak. The man spoke again, "My wife here will take you to your room, and you will be charged based upon how long you stay."

"I understand," Celia stated, then followed the woman as she beckoned. The innkeeper's wife led her to a room, then placed the trinket into the hole on the stone door. Once the innkeeper's wife heard a strange click resonating from inside the room. With a smile on her face, pushed the door open and bowed as she offered them to Celia by holding it in her outstretched palm.

"Thank you." Celia nodded, gently took the key, entered the room, then closed the door. "A safe, warm place to sleep." Celia sighed in relief, "It's been a while since I have slept in real room instead of a cave." She paused as she felt guilt build up in her heart, as Verbena was still outside in the cold. "Though, I wish Verbena could be in here with me instead of sleeping in the snow again."

In order to distract herself from the guilt, she glanced around the room to see how different it was from the rooms of her hometown. There was a bed-sack, a stone table, and a pot on top of the table. Unlike the rooms of Rein, he small room was surprisingly dry and lacked stalagmites or stalactites or stalagmites. The brownstone cavern was lit with the same bottled magic fires, but Celia was more focused on the tempting sack she could sleep on. She hesitated for a brief movement, then gave in to her tiredness as she crawled into the sack and fell asleep.

~~~

Celia glanced around, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. "Where?" She breathed and glanced around the dark room. "Where am I?" The veil of ink that surrounded offered no answers. Celia felt lonely once more, as even despite their bond, the rider could not feel even a hint of her dragon's presence.

"Why did you come all the way out here?" Orthos stepped into view, "I specifically told you that you are not to try to find the remaining rays of light! You can not do it! You're not special enough to do anything!"

Celia's mom, Sabrina, also stepped into view. "You could never be anything more than a simple messenger. You'll never reach master class."

"Turn back now, and your punishment will be minimal, but if you continue, you can forget about keeping your bond with your dragon." Orthos's voice turned ominous. "Or you could die out there and never return anyway."

"What made you think you, a mere girl, could do anything even on the level of what I did?" Master Guild Master Levi, the original rider, appeared. "I showed the world that dragons could be befriended and saved their entire species from extinction. What have you done? You accidentally stumbled upon a ray of light. What if I had put it there to protect it, and you disturbed my work." He scornfully looked down to Celia with a gaze as powerful and deadly as dragon fire.

Celia was frozen in the darkness as the three figures she looked up to the most looked down onto her with disdain. "I—I..." Celia was at a loss for words. "I...." With nothing to say, Celia looked down and accepted the fact that she could not recover the light. "I'm not special or important." She admitted.

"And do not forget that," the master guild master stated.

Author Notes!

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you did, please leave a vote or a comment!

Also, feel free to leave constructive criticism on how I can improve this story!

Have an amazing day!