Celia stumbled along the tunnels she was being led down. Though the angles at which her feet landed on the ground told her she was walking up a slight incline, but otherwise, she was left with barely any sense of direction and could not see where she was going. She heard the footsteps of the guards around her, but the bag over her head snuffed the rest of her senses. Blind, she continued to allow the guards to force her to go wherever they were leading her.

Since she did not feel like she had any better options, he decided it was in her best interest to follow willingly, just like Xan had suggested. Secretly, she hoped she would not receive the same treatment as Xan. Based on what Celia put together from the sounds she had heard from the other cell, the Ulven guards had unceremoniously tossed the egotistical human boy back into his containment cell. Because he had not even made a peep from the of the rough handling, Celia theorized that Xan had been unconscious, and she was fearful of receiving the same fate.

After they traveled for what felt like a considerable distance to Celia, someone forced the human being into a seated position on a flattened stone. Once she was seated, Celia felt new chains appear on her feet.

"Remove the bag," Celia once again pieced together the words from the muffled sounds she heard from under the sack over her head.

In accordance with the order, the bag was immediately torn off of her head and a rush of sound filled Celia's ears. In the process, however, her ears were brushed a bit by the bag and burned slightly. So far, Celia remained unscathed and hoped she would remain that way.

Celia blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light as it filled her eyes again. "Huh," she squeaked in surprise and blinked again. Once her eyesight recovered, she looked around the room and noted the features of the new room.

A glowing black metal lantern hung over her head and acted as the major source of light in the polished white-walled room. Celia suspected the walls also released small amounts of light like what she suspected the walls of her cell. She glanced down to the white and grey stone the guards placed her on, then looked to the smooth, polished stone table in front of her.

Many of the guards left the room through the door behind Celia, but five of them remained to actively guard the room. Three guards blocked the door, and the other two stood near the wall on either side of Celia.

"Ahem," an Ulven man from across the table snapped Celia's attention to him. Like all of the Ulven she had seen, he wore armor, but his armor was gold compared to other guards. "Now, down to business at hand."

Celia blinked in confusion and remained silent as she waited for the Ulven to say something that she felt the need to respond, unsure of what to say to the man she thought was irritated, despite how calm he seemed.

For a few moments, Celia simply sat in the seat the Ulven had placed her in, fearfully staring into his dark grey eyes. She may not have wanted to admit it to herself, but she trembled slightly under the Ulven's powerful gaze. Also, she hoped the guards were blind to her fearful shaking.

"Now, how well will your telling of the story match your friend's version of the story? Answer honestly, or there will be consequences." He never removed his gaze away from the human girl in front of him as he sat up straight and leaned forward slightly. After a rather long pause, he folded his fingers together on top of the table before he spoke again in his slightly rough tenor-toned voice. "Let us start with why are you traveling with a companion."

Celia paused in fear, then took a deep breath, 'calm,' she mentally instructed herself. 'calm down Celia. If I answer truthfully and refrain from resisting, maybe I will not get hurt. I also need to try to not anger them too much. That may get me in trouble as well and I could end up like Xan.' She took another deep, calming breath, then looked up to the guard across the table from her.

"Xan is my guide for the western side of Roahla," Celia replied in a soft tone as she to clear her mind of her fear. Though she attempted to quell the monstrous head of terror, not all of it fell into the depths of her mind. However, the fear remained mostly contained as she continued.

"I am from the lone mountain on the east side of the wasteland and the mountain range. Because I have no previous experience with this region, I needed him to help me so I could limit my chances of being lost in the multitude of mountain ranges in the region."

"Why you were at the border?" The Ulven guard spoke the question swiftly as soon as he recognized Celia was done speaking. Celia noticed how surprisingly polite the Ulven were to her.

Celia hesitated before she answered, her mind a mix of fear and nervousness, "I was hoping to have a peaceful conversation with some of the Ulven traders." Though her tone wavered, she told the truth.

The Ulven paused and evaluated her words before he continued with the next question, "what were you going to talk to us about?" He raised an eyebrow beneath his golden mask as he continued to stare at her through the eye slit. "What is your purpose for being here?"

Celia was still intimidated by the man and did not want to know what would happen if she told a lie. With that thought, she took a deep breath, "I was hoping to talk about the lost rays of sunlight." Her voice rang with even more nervousness than how she answered the first question.

The man loudly slammed his hands on the table as he stood and glanced back and forth between the guards on the opposite side of the room as if daring them to move or intimidating them to stay in their proper positions.

Neither the guards nor Celia took the dare to move and remained frozen in place as an unsettling atmosphere settled into the room. Celia swiftly noticed the golden Ulven intimidated everyone in the room, including the other guards. 'Perhaps,' Celia thought, 'the gold-armored Ulven is the guard's guild master. The guards must hold the same amount of respect for him as I do for Guild Master Orthos.'

After she recovered from her shock, Celia looked up to the gold-armored Ulven but decided to wait until she was spoken to speak herself in fear that her speech may anger the being before her.

The Guard Guild Master paced the length of the table for a few moments with an angered gleam in his eyes and muttered to himself at such a low volume Celia could not catch a single syllable, much less a complete sentence. Other than the muttering, the head Ulven remained as silent as a frozen lake.

The unnerving lack of speech combined with the man's anger meant one thing in Celia's mind; the Ulven at least knew of the beams of the sun's light. Perhaps, they even knew exactly where the glowing sphere resided. Celia resisted the urge to smile in her hope and realization that Xan's guess leads to a potential lead. Maybe, just maybe, the quest she and Verbena had set on so many weeks ago was not as suicidal as the human girl originally thought.

After several more moments of chilling silence, the inquisitor returned to his seated position and returned his focus to Celia, "why do you wish to speak of the sun? What do you know of the rays of light?" He seemed a bit angry at Celia as if the sun was a touchy subject for the Ulven to speak of.

"They glow with a golden light that fades and comes back later. There is one in the town of Urre, and one back home." Celia replied. "As for why I wish to speak to you about them, based on information Xan gave me, I suspect that there is one in your lands as well, but I only have speculation to back that up.

"If you did not have one of the pieces of the sun, I was hoping you could help us find them." Her mouth formed a weak, nervous smile.

The Ulven man spoke again after another pause, "So you were coming to steal the ray of light if we had one? Why do you want the rays of light so badly?" His voice became tinged with anger and he seemed to resist the urge to glare at the human before him, "what are you planning?"

"I do not want to steal anything. I was hoping for a peaceful exchange. I am on a quest to find the lost rays of light and return the sun to the sky, just as my ancestor, Levi the Dragon Tamer, wished to do and started a guild of dragon riders to train new people to help him in his quest." Celia said in the hope that the Ulven would not react violently if she backed up her claim with her ancestry, as if that gave her some sort of right or destiny to finish what her ancestor could not.

An uneasy pause settled in the room as the golden guard glanced up to the still-glowing lantern hanging above the table. He hesitated before he looked down to Celia, "is the dragin that appeared in your cell your mount then? How did you get it in your cell past the magic inhibiting field?"

"Verbena is not just my mount, she's my friend. As for how she suddenly got in here, that was an accident," Celia laughed nervously, "Xan was worried she would be attacked if she came down here, so we left her in the mountains. However, when one of the straps on her harness broke, I used a magical ribbon to repair it without thinking. It was the only thing in my supplies that could work to fix it. That is how she returned to me. I think it was triggered by me imagining her in the cell with me, but I did not read the instructions so I really have no idea if that is actually how the ribbon works."

The golden guard hesitated again, then once again frantically glanced up to the lantern as if it was a miracle it still illuminated the room in a golden glow. "If you are after the rays of light, then I cannot help you," he stated in a low tone of voice as he stood up from his seat on the other side of the table. "Take her back to the cell while I consult the king with the knowledge I have gained."

Celia once again found herself in the darkness created by the presence of a rough fabric bag over her head, and the raging monster of terror once again reared its ugly head in Celia's mind. This time, the monster would not be so easily surpassed and reigned supreme in the uncertainty.

Author Notes!

Welcome back To Dawn's Light!

I am going to post again tomorrow, so I will see you all then!