Celia woke in a dry cubical cavern with a blanket thrown over her shoulders. Her muscled cried out in minor soreness as she sat up and looked around. Her memories felt blurry, and she struggled to remember how exactly she got to her current position and subconsciously moved to remove her bag from her back.

"The sunlight!" With wide, frightened eyes, she felt her pack-less shoulders as if tapping them would make her backpack magically appear. "Where is it?" She frantically glanced around her, then found the small pack where her head had been using it as a pillow. She slowly released her breath, then pulled the bag closer to her and opened it, revealing the glowing spherical object of her panic.

"We actually did it," she released a joyous laugh as the bright ray of sunlight illuminated the room in its whiteish glow, "we did it! Verbena! We actually did it! We retrieved one of the rays of light! We can do this!" Her heartbeat fluttered in excitement. As a colossal grin spread across her face, Celia turned to locate the dragonet, then noticed her still-sleeping white form on the other side of the room.

"Oh, right," her voice softened to a saddened whisper as she rewrapped the ray of light in cloth and gently slipped the precious object back into her pack and retrieved the small bottle of fire magic to use as a gentler light source in case the brighter sphere of light woke Verbena. "You definitely deserve as much rest as you need." A small, grateful smile formed on her face.

Since Verbena was still asleep, Celia silently stood up and surveyed her surroundings in the rectangular room as she adjusted the pack on her shoulders. As she studied the walls, she noticed the uneven smoothened stone seemed to be chiseled completely by hand and then sanded down either over time or also by hand. The floor had been patched to be smooth with a strange sort of grey gravel that clung to the floor and together instead of remaining loose.

Celia turned to face the doorless exit of the room, then blinked as she spotted the saddlebags near the doorway. "I guess I need to find Xan and Irin now and thank them for helping us," her voice remained a soft whisper as she slowly walked out of the room and into the tunnel system.

Under the soft glow of the bottle of fire magic, Celia began to walk down the level chiseled passageway. The grey walls seemed featureless in the low lighting, and the floor also seemed to lack a noticeable slope.

Though she originally thought navigating to the exit would be simple, she found herself lost in the manmade tunnels. Though the unnaturally straight tunnel seemed simplistic at first, many large dead-end rooms branched off of the main path.

When she finally reached the first true intersection, the human female exhaled a large plume of her warm breath into the cold air through the cloth that covered and protected the lower half of her face from the cold. Then, she held her breath and watched the swirling miniature cloud for any kind of disturbance or movement that would indicate a draft from a nearby exit.

Sadly, the vapor offered no answers as it dispersed into the ambient air. Celia swallowed, then glanced around at her four options. She could either go back the way she came or go down one of the other two branching paths.

"Xan?" Her voice rang out into the empty expanse, and echoes acted as the only immediate reply to her cry.

"Xan?... Xan?... Xan?..." Celia's voice echoed back from all three directions. Celia remained petrified in place until after the volume of the echoes descended into a soft whisper. Though the actual echoes faded to nothing, Celia's ears rang with the whispers of Xan's name.

Celia took deep breaths and shielded the mindlink from her fear in case they reached Verbena and woke her. "I—I can do this," Celia whispered so softly not even echoes picked up the sound.

She froze as a sound came from deep down one of the other tunnels. For a brief moment she believed the sound to be of her imagination, but then the sound repeated at consistent intervals.

Celia held her breath and desperately tried to locate the breathy noises, but like her own voice, the sound echoed from all directions.

A bit of light appeared at the end of the tunnel of what would have been straight forward from the direction she had originally come from. At first, Celia was attracted to the light like fish to a lure, but then she snapped into a wary state of mind as the bubble of light approached.

"Celia?" A voice spoke, then was swiftly accompanied by an acoustic chorus of "Celia? Celia? Celia?"

Celia released her breath as her mind processed and recognized the voice as Xan's. After Celia's breathing recovered, she approached the sphere of light, then smiled as she spotted Irin's hulking form among the glare from the light. She quickly noticed an unfamiliar frozen animal dangling from his jaws.

Xan rode at his usual spot on top of Irin's shoulders but slid to the ground as Celia entered into sight. "I was worried that light belonged to an intruder." In his left hand, a ball of golden light hovered above his right hand stayed on Iran's side. "Did you sleep well?" He attempted to start a bit of small talk.

In response, Celia nodded, "what happened? I remember helping Verbena towards through the snow, but I don't remember much after that."

After a moment of hesitation, Xan answered her inquiry, "you blacked out after you and Verbena reached the dry room Irin found for you. We made sure you were warm and dry, but we couldn't wake either of you."

"Huuuhff," Irin added softly.

"Irin thinks both of you overextended. Verbena by using all of her energy, and you by giving all of your energy to Verbena," Xan explained in a calm tone. "The good news is, you both got out of the storm before it got worse. Which it did. And Irin and I went out into it anyway, because someone insisted." The male human's gaze shifted to one of slight annoyance as he looked up to the snow-coated dragon in question, who was attempting to appear innocent.

After a brief hesitation to digest his words, Celia spoke once again, "I actually gave my energy to Verbena? I can do that?"

Xan blinked and refocused on Celia with an incredulous countenance, "I thought you were the one from the dragon riding guild. How can you not know these things? I didn't exactly have anyone to teach me, while you did."

No one spoke as the echoes dominated the conversation for a few moments, and the silence continued to reign even after the chorus of Xan's voice faded. For several more seconds, no words rang into space.

Drip drip drip. Drip drip drip. Drip drip drip. A previously ignored distant dribble of water now occupied the three's sense of hearing.

Eventually, Celia conceded, "I actually left to go on this quest before completing my training." Her pitch raised a bit, "I grew up riding dragons with my mom, but—but I left after the first day of official training..."

Xan clenched his fists, "WHAT!" The echo amplified his outburst into a roar comparable to a roar from the white dragon Valiant. Celia flinched as Xan continued, "I FOLLOWED YOU AND RISKED MY LIFE FOR SOMEONE THAT IS BASICALLY USELESS! And for what—," he emitted an almost delusional-sounding laugh, "I—I believed in you! And all for what? NOTHING!"

Xan glared before he stormed back the way he and Irin came from, taking his brighter light source with him. Each of his stomped footsteps echoed, and the sound of a stampede of angry herd animals.

Celia's eyes filled with unsuccessfully suppressed tears. She tried to scramble together an answer, but Xan's harsh words stung. She struggled to form the few words she managed to put together. "Wait!" She coughed, but Xan paid her no heed in his right to be mad.

Irin paused and watched Xan storm off as he emitted a soft, nasally sigh, then looked to Celia with the frozen animal still in his jaws. Unsure of what else to do, the dragon slowly placed a frosted wing over the human girl's shoulders and gently led her down the passageway.

As she stumbled along, Celia only thought of how stupid and idiotic she felt. In her distress, she couldn't shield her distress from Verbena. When she admitted her inexperience, the floodgates of doubt opened and widened the cracks of insecurity in her mind. Xan was right to point out her uselessness, as she only knew the bare bones of dragon riding. Her mother had hidden a lot of secrets from her, and since she had left so soon, she didn't have much formal training either.

"Maybe I should have waited," She sniffled as they approached the room Verbena still resides in, "waited at least one year. Then I would be useful and knowledgeable rather than how I am now. I know nothing."

Irin kindly led Celia into the room, where Verbena still resided. Once inside, he retracted his wing and approached the female dragon. While Celia stumbled to Verbena's side, the male dragon placed the frozen meal near Verbena, then blasted it with a stream of fire. Soon, the smell of cooked meat filled the room, and Verbena's nostrils flared as she lifted her head.

Celia slumped against Verbena's shoulder and released the pent up sobs into the dragonet's damp neck. The human wrapped her arms around Verbena's slender neck and buried her head into the ice-coated fur.

Verbena tore her mind away from her hunger and released a coo-like sound and used her wing to surround the distressed human with her presence. 'Celia, what's wrong?' She whimpered slightly in worry but obeyed her gentle, motherly instincts in an attempt to calm the human in her anguish.

"Why are we out here? Why are we doing this! We are not trained or anything! We are not masters! We are normal initiates!" Celia pulled her goggles down off her face and let them dangle around her neck, then wiped her tears in Verbena's coat.

Verbena was taken aback by Celia's words, 'normal initiated would not be out here,' she snorted a bit, 'We better than normal initiates. Better too. We save the world, they hide in caves.'

Celia shook her head, "there's no way we can save the world, it's impossible for people who are useless. I only know the basics. I don't know the lay of the land, I barely know how to survive outside," she sighed in defeat and sniffed.

Verbena crinkled her nose and snorted, 'that never mattered before, why matter now?' She touched her nose to Celia's cheek, then gently nuzzled her. 'We found three, one left to find. Why give up now?'

Celia looked to Verbena and slid her backpack off of her shoulders. Her gloved fingers numbly undid the clasps and slipped into the sack. After a bit of digging, Celia grasped the object of her search and pulled out the glowing sphere.

Immediately, bright light flooded the room and cast dark shadows on the walls behind each figure as if the darkest parts of themselves had been cast aside to make room for the light.

With the light, Celia remembered why she had braved the dangers. She was not solely out to prove anything, she wanted to restore the gift of sunlight to the world. In the light, everything shimmered and seemed to glow.

As the sphere continued to grace the world with its glow, Celia took a deep breath. Even though she didn't have proper training, she had still retrieved the ray of light. She had achieved something. As a small smile crept along her face, Celia mentally noted that normal people did not recover lost rays of light. Even if Xan hated her and only saw her flaws, Celia's strengths shone in the light.

'You, you have it,' an unfamiliar male voice spoke into Celia's head.

Author Notes:

Who is the owner of the voice?

Is it some magical being or spirit from another realm, or is the origin of the voice much closer than one might think?

I cannot wait to hear your theories in the comments, and please do not forget to vote!