Celia stared at the wall of snow slightly illuminated from the moonlight from the waning celestial object on the other side of the icy barrier.

"Hopefully," Celia calmed her breathing as she spoke to herself, "that will hide us well enough that those two will be unable to find us, or at least stall them long enough that we can rest and try to find another way out."

The frozen flakes of water that curtained the entrance appeared as both a savior and an evil force to the pair. It was a savior in how it impeded the two malevolent beings from following Celia and Verbena, but at the same time, it made their entrance too unstable to be used as an exit. If they tried digging through the snow, there was no telling if more snow would simply slide down the mountain and recover all of their hard work if it did not encase the duo in snow as well.

After she evaluated their frozen surroundings, Celia turned toward Verbena, "Let's descend deeper where it is hopefully warmer."

'Good idea,' Verbena agreed with an exhalation.

After the dragonet looked to her rider and agreed to the suggestion, Celia reached into Verbena's saddlebags for the bottle of ryume to use as a source of light but paused when her gloved hands grasped a different bottle.

Celia hesitated, then retrieved the bottled fire magic and watched as the room became illuminated with a warm glow. "This is even better light," she smiled slightly to herself as she gazed into the flickering orange plasma, "Since it is contained, it can't be put out and we don't need to worry about it as much. I need to be smarter and learn instead of working harder and only relying on what I already know," she reminded herself as she held the warm glass bottle.

Verbena's nostrils flared as she curiously sniffed the bottle, 'Did you also get this from the town?' It smells kinda funny.'

Celia nodded, "I did," she stated, then looked deeper into the cave. "Let's get moving to the warmer depths of the cave. Once we are farther in I will see what I can do about fixing the harness." She glanced back to the now-blocked entrance, "at least now it will be much harder for those two to follow us now, even if they even find the entrance. I think we are safe for now though."

The dragonet nodded, then turned and used the fire magic as a light source to ferry her rider as they traversed the caves. 'I hope we never run into those meanies ever again,' she huffed and raised her nose into the air. 'That dragon attacked me! No dragon from home ever did that."'

"I quickly learned that this place is nothing like home," Celia shivered as a droplet of water from a dripping stalactite above them splashed onto the back of her now-unprotected neck, "nothing here works as it does back home. Everything is different out here." Her hands clenched the glowing bottle of flames.

Verbena nodded as she trotted deeper into the cave, 'I do miss home and being in an aaven with many other dragons,' she sighed softly, then blinked and looked back to Celia as the human frowned slightly, 'but I'm still glad to be with you! As long as we are together, I know that we can do anything!' She looked at Celia and flashed a draconic smile, then nuzzled her as well.

Celia laughed a but as Verbena's snow-coated muzzle rubbed her face through the cloth that protected from the cold. "I'm glad to have you along as company as well," she reached out and stroked Verbena's head, "I couldn't do this without you? So what is an aaven?" She looked to the dragonet for answers.

'That's what dragons call a group of dragons,' Verbena explained as she refocused on where she was walking so she would not trip or slip on the wet and icy ground, 'and different dragons have different titled positions of power in the aaven. For example, a gretist, like Gretist Valiant, is the leader of all of the dragons in the aaven, while those under him are called gretors. I am the near the lowest rank possible at ireless, but now that I can breathe fire, I should be promoted to ometa!' She seemed proud of herself as she continued, 'it's the highest rank a dragonet can be!

"Though it sounds a bit more complicated, the dragon hierarchy is kinda like how the guilds are set up with different ranks," Celia smiled a bit as she looked ahead of them. "I find it interesting that dragons have a similar group structure as us humans. Maybe that is how we live together so well."

The ice structures were beginning to be smaller in comparison to the mass of ice closer to the entrance of the system of tunnels, and at the same time, the cave became wetter as they descended into the warmer subterranean environment. Thankfully, the cave was mostly silent except for sounds made by Celia and Verbena and the symphony of water dripping down from above. The lack of living sounds meant the pair's perusers has yet to discover them and follow them into the cave.

Once they had traveled deep enough where ice could not form, the two found a semi-dry place to rest. Though the rocks and softly glowing mosses were slightly damp, the rider and dragon duo were willing to deal with a moist temporary environment since dry rock shelves seemed few and far between.

"Okay, I need to survey the damage done to your harness," she jumped off of Verbena's back and removed the saddlebags to have unobscured acres to the harness as long as Verbena held her wings up.

Thankfully, only one of the straps had been sliced. However, it had been sliced in such a way that severely limited Celia's options. Though Celia could take the extra length of the strap and tie the ends into a knot, the human was worried about the knot chaffing the dragon. The straps were flat for a reason, and twisting them to knot them together may be problematic farther down the journey.

"Hmm...," Celia ruminated as she further surveyed the damage, "I have no idea how I am going to salvage this. I wish I had brought something to sew with, otherwise, this would not be as much of a problem and I could sew it together instead of tying it together. If we ever stop at another town I will try to buy some sewing supplies, but for now, we need to come up with a new plan."

'Is there anything you can replace the strap with?' Verbena asked in a worried tone. 'I do not want you to fall off when we are in the air.'

Celia paused, then turned and dug through the saddlebags for more supplies. First, she pulled up the bundle of rope and paused, "I have this rope, but I think this may rub and irritate you just as much as a knot in your current harness would."

"If you don't think this will work, do you have anything else that could work?" Verbena asked as she curiously sniffed the rope.

Celia paused, then turned her attention back to the harness and began to once again shift through its contents again. "I guess I could use the Returning Ribbon," she retrieved the desired magic object and studied the white ribbon. Though it was not as wide or as elastic as the harness's straps, it was flat and flexible, "maybe this could serve as a temporary replacement." She unwrapped the bundle and looked to Verbena. "Let's see if it is long enough."

Sure enough, there was just enough of narrow fabric was more than enough to completely wrap around Verbena's chest with plenty of length in excess. "I think I can loop this through the straps that run down your side since they are not sewn to the main strap. To finish, I can carefully tie this to the harness handles."

Verbena is rather excited, 'then we can fly without fear!' She bounded up and down in excitement, and in the process, she scattered a few droplets of the snow melting off of her furred and feathered form.

Celia laughed a but as she shielded her face from the flying liquid. "That's right Verbena," she agreed as she began to remove the old strap. When she reached the part that had been sown to the rest of the harness, she reached for her knife.

When her hand grasped the empty sheath, she sighed and remembered she had left the kitchen blade's broken remains in the snow. "Can I borrow one of your claws so I can cut the thread?" She asked Verbena as she began to undo the clasps and completely remove the harness.

'I can do that,' Verbena nodded as she lifted a paw and extended her serrated claws. After Celia completely removed the harness, the dragonet sighed in relief as she lowered her wings and relaxed the muscles in them, 'That feels so much better,' she rolled her shoulders a bit, then rested her wings on the ground.

Celia frowns a bit and stroked her dragonet's wet head, "you really deserve a nice break from flying." After stroking Verbena for a few moments, the human turned her attention back to the task at hand and began to carefully cut the threads holding the two straps together.

"Once I get this harness back on you, we can have a nice, long break,"  she smiled to the dragon as she fully separated the two pieces of the harness. Unable to think of what to do with the broken strip of the harness, Celia decided to simply put the severed strap into one of the pockets of the saddlebag for safekeeping.

Afterward, she put the remains of the harness back onto the dragon and sighed softly to herself, "We both need time to slow down for a little while after being chased by everything all the way to this point in our quest."

Verbena nodded as Celia began to loop the ribbon around Verbena's chest and through the proper straps, 'since we're briefly trapped here, we might as well stop and rest.' The dragonet loved the idea.

Celia nodded as she tied the ends of the ribbon to the harness, then tied the loose ends together so they would not be as much in the way than if they were simply left loose. "Why don't we just call it a day and get some sleep," she said, then retrieved the two blankets she had bought from Snouw; one used for bedding with the waterproof side down and the other for a blanket with the soft side down.

"Good day," she said to her dragonet with a yawn. She laid down on the stone floor, then allowed herself to drift asleep. She was completely unaware of what the next day had in store for her and her draconic companion.

Author Notes:

Hello again and thank you for reading Dawn's Light! I appreciate you taking the time to read this far! Please, if you liked the chapter, feel free to show your support by leaving a vote or a comment that tells me what you thought of the chapter or any questions you may have.

Thank you again!

~Psychic Nature