Verbena allowed her sore legs to dangle as she rode the updraft on outstretched wings. The wind whistled angrily against her ears. What had once been a helpful tailwind was now an active hindrance to her escape.

"Fly north!" Xan fearfully glanced back to the guards emerging from the cave, "It's our best chance to get out of here!" He continued to hug Celia's waist and his feet remained securely wrapped around the rear straps of Verbena's harness. "Irin will get the saddlebags for us. We need to focus on getting away from here!"

Despite the whistle of the headwind, Verbena still heard Xan's screaming and continued to fight her way forward. At the same time, she was thankful for the updraft that allowed her to focus solely on her forward momentum.

Celia craned her neck to look up to the gently swirling clouds as they grow from the constant release of rising steam from below. Celia blinked as she observed the movement of the white fluffy clouds as they gently moved away from the Ulven lands. Perhaps if Verbena could rise high enough, the winds should shift to something better than a headwind, 'Verbena, there looks like there are more favorable winds in the clouds if you can fly high enough.'

Verbena wordlessly shifted her wings and increased the rate of assent. Though her wings currently felt fine, the other four limbs she used to be mobile were limp. Her breathing had calmed, but the fatigue had not quite passed.

Celia watched the ground recede and become an expansive black sea of snowless land. After a moment, she closed her eyes and exhaled in relief again, then noticed how accustomed she was high in the air above ground, and how tense she became when she returned to the underground world.

Previously, the human girl believed the warm underground remained safer and far more welcoming than the cold. Now, however, with her expanded horizons and new experiences, she came to a new conclusion: outside of the familiar, the lands around her felt hostile and strange.

The vast differences between the underground worlds starkly contrasted the belief the old Celia who believed the underground world was the same dark stone. Each new realm differed from her own in both appearance and culture, and Celia doubted she would ever view her homeland the same.

The group suddenly entered the grey river of the cloud layer. The warm soup of dense water droplets clung to the human's clothes and fogged their protective eyewear. Thankfully, their outerwear resisted the attack by the moisture which slowly began to freeze as they rose higher and left strange warmth of the Ulven lands.

Though the humans could not see because of the white film of microscopic droplets that covered their eyes, the density of the white clouds inhibited Verbena's sharp sense of sight for more than a few hands beyond her nose. Her protective third eyelids, the nictitating membrane, kept her eyes clear of debris in the mass of moisture, but the cloud's thickness was too great.

Though she had no idea the height of the clouds, she decided to try and rise above the clouds in the hope to at least be able to see farther ahead, even if she could not see the ground as long as the layer of clouds blocked her view.

As they rode the updraft deeper into the cloud level, Verbena lurched slightly as a tailwind caught her wings and caused her to suddenly accelerate. In the volatile movement, Celia strengthened her grip on the harness, but relaxed once Verbena steadied and leveled out once more.

'A tailwind,' Verbena released a sigh as she released the tension in her muscles and slowed her wingbeats, though with the fading updraft she occasionally stirred the clouds flapped her wings to retain her altitude, 'I thought I would never find one.' A soft purr released from her throat.

'When we are far enough away, we will stop and let you have a nice, long rest before we continue. You definitely deserve it.' Celia blindly reached up and rubbed the side of Verbena's neck.

"We are going north, right?" Xan's voice rang being Celia through the inky expanse of clouds, "because I can't see much of anything! I can't tell if I cannot see because of the clouds or because my goggles have fogged over!"

'Yes,' Verbena released a snort as she continued to increase their altitude, 'I no need sight to know direction.' She flapped her wings again, then finally broke through the upper cap of the clouds.

The tailwind was not as strong outside the cloud layer, so Verbena positioned herself low enough where her wings skimmed the surface of the clouds. Much of her body remained inside the clouds, but Verbena's head and her riders remained above the dense mass of floating water.

As the fog on her goggles cleared, Celia began to notice how stars glimmered brighter than she had ever seen in a dazzling celestial dance. Stars of all sizes and brightnesses dotted the vast heavenly tapestry of rich purples and blues in a beautiful display of the majesty of nature.

Verbena's calm glide, though at a rather brisk speed, seemed slow in the pocket of semi-still air just above the clouds to Celia's perspective. Verbena's breath calmed to a normal tempo as her glide skimmed the surface of the clouds like a meandering sled across loose fresh powder.

The silver moon gleamed above them like an ivory fishhook inviting the trio to join the stars. The darkness of the new moon had remained hidden behind the light dampening clouds, but above the opaque weather, the sliver of the silver moon shone in its waxing glory.

Soon, a full moon would blanket the world in its monthly brightness, but it also signified the approaching moon anniversary of Celia's departure from her homeland. She and Verbena departed over half a moon ago, and now, they had made one more step towards the goal to return light to the world.

After a while, Verbena's wings began to tire, so she decided to allow herself to glide down to the ground. She carried her passengers back into the clouds, then descended back into the normal atmosphere where thankfully, the headwind had lessened in strength.

This time, the clouds consisted of tiny ice droplets that tinkled against the human's visors without sticking and left all three of them with a frozen layer of ice on their previously dampened exteriors.

The frozen water made their movements harder and overall caused them to be a bit heavier to the already tired dragonet. Even though she usually could handle Celia's extra weight along with her icy armor, Xan made a difference. Verbena could still fly, but two riders tired the young dragon far faster than one rider, even if she no longer had to carry her the saddlebags.

The adrenaline had worn off on all three of them, and now they needed a place to rest in safety. Both Xan and Celia felt the lure and pull of sleep on their bodies, while Verbena simply desired to rest her weary muscles.

Celia glanced to the icy expanse below them through the snowfall. The land was mostly flat, yet blanketed with jagged fragments of shattered plates of the ice sheet frozen at odd angles. A few of the spots would at least offer protection against the wind and snow for all four of them, but they were less than ideal.

When he noticed Celia's gaze downward, Xan glanced down to the field of ice as well, "this is the ocean We need to find land to rest on. Earthquakes occasionally break the ice and cause it to splinter. Irin and I were caught out here once during an earthquake, and I do not want to repeat that experience."

Celia glanced around the horizon, but her limited sight distance inhibited her ability to distinguish the beginning of the distant land from the jagged ice field. After a pause, the female human attempted to use Verbena's enhanced vision, but even the dragonet's vision struggled to see the distant land.

"Irin says there is an island near here that he found. He's coming to find us and lead us there," Xan spoke over the wind in a loud voice.

After an exhalation in an attempt to warm a bit of the air in front of her nose, Verbena's nose twitched as she searched for Irin's scent in the headwind, 'I smell him farther ahead in the storm."

A small flash of warm light appeared ahead, which drew her attention to a blurry blue speck in the distance among the white flecks of snow. 'I see him,' Verbena managed to find the energy to flap her wings hard and burst forward, 'I do not have enough fire left to return his flare, so I hope he sees us.'

Celia nodded in understanding, yet did not see the flare Verbena mentioned. She trusted Verbena, so she did not ask questions.

"Can either of you see Irin? He sent out a flare!" Xan tensed slightly as his wide grey eyes glanced all around them from behind his goggles, "Maybe Verbena should send out a plume to fire to see if he can see us."

"Verbena is out of ryume," Celia glanced back to Xan, "she used it to break the ice wall so we should escape, but she did see him."

"Oh," Xan's voice dropped a few notes as he glanced down to the ground, then shook his head and focused on the flurry ahead of them. "As long as we can see him, we should be able to find each other."

'I'll try a blast of flame,' Verbena lifted her head back in an attempt to build up every spark that remained in her system. She threw her head down and ejected a small wisp of flame along with a plume of smoke. The acton left her momentarily breathless, but she had the assurance that she at least tried to return the fiery beacon.

Another burst of flame appeared, and Xan's eyes immediately spotted the burst, as his human sight could now see the flame. He caught an excited gasp but struggled to further contain his excitement.

After a few more moments, Irin and Verbena met in the sky with Irin looping around so they flew side by side, though Irin was just above and behind Verbena so he could check on the health of his rider.

A grin spread across Xan's face as Irin nuzzled his cheek. After he released a laugh, Xan freed one of his hands and reached out to his Irin's head. After the brief hug, he panicked a bit and returned his arm to its previous place around Celia's waist with his other arm. "We'll meet better when we are on the ground," his voice wavered slightly as Irin repositioned himself to break the headwind for Verbena as he guided her to the piece of land he previously found.

As they approached, Celia large, snow-covered rock outcropping of an island appeared in the distance as the two dragons descended. Jagged ice rose from the sea like ice around the steep cliffs of the northern edge of the island-like spikes, while one the sloped southern half's shore had long ago been invaded by the advancing army of fractured sheets of sea ice. From their higher vantage point, Celia could also see a multitude of snowy mounds that blanketed the flattened area.

Irin gracefully set down in a wide valley with ample space for the two dragons to land with a small flurry of loose snowflakes. On the northern half of the island, the valley sat at the base of the tallest peak.

As Irin folded his wings, Verbena more collapsed into the snow rather than her typical graceful landing. She released a "ruh," as she collapsed into the snow. 'I think I'm going to lay here for a little while.' Her limbs buckled and she collapsed into the shallow dip she created in her landing.

The second Verbena landed, Xan vaulted from her back and ran through the deep, untouched snow faster than his boots could sink. He wrapped his arms around Irin as a wide grin spread across his face, "I'm so glad to see you again," he breathed, then blinked and glanced back to Celia, then feigned coughing as he stepped away from the male dragon.

Celia remained focused on Verbena and dismounted. "You made it, you were amazing." The human praised as she trudged through the snow towards Verbena's head. Once she could reach the dragonet's head, Celia kneeled down and gently cradled Verbena's limp head in her arms and stroked it, "You definitely deserve a nice, long rest. Thank you for not giving up."

Celia looked up to Irin as he approached, then smiled a bit as she noticed the brown bags in his mouth, though they were a pit spotted with ice and snow, it was otherwise perfectly fine. "Thank you, Irin." Celia smiled to him as he set the bags on the snow at her feet.

The dragon nodded, then looked to the largest mound in the clearing, "ruum," he snorted, then walked over to the mound and shoveled away some of the snow. To Celia's surprise, a passageway appeared underneath the snow.

"Verbena," Celia looked back to her partner and friend with a worried but hopeful gaze, "do you think you have enough energy to get inside? At least you will get out of the storm." She gave a small smile, "maybe it will be warmer down there."

'I'll try,' Verbena groaned as she unsteadily stood on her feet and began the short walk to the cave entrance. After she found her bearings, she began to slowly walk to the entrance Irin had uncovered.

Celia walked with her friend and gently placed an arm on her shoulder, "You're almost there." Celia desperately wished she could lend the dragonet some strength as continued to trudge through the deep snow.

As Celia lifted her feet above the knee-deep snow, her energy began to drain faster than she believed was possible, but was simply glad that Verbena was making progress through the snow. Her wide, furred paws allowed her to walk on top of the snow, whereas Celia simply sank.

After a few more paces, they entered the safety of the cave.