Despite accidentally making a wrong turn, Celia and Verbena made it to their first day of training, though they were still late.

"Celia, Verbena, you're late." The instructor stated and stood straight with his hands behind his back in a mimicry of Guild Master Orthos that paled in comparison to the real version. "I hope you have a good reason." Celia also noticed that his voice was smoother in comparison to Guild Master Orthos's rougher voice.

"Sorry Master Peteah." Celia unhooked her feet and slid off of Verbena's back. Once she was on her feet, she bowed a bit. "But I was summoned by Faction Master Jak Leei for Verbena's harness fitting. Because of her petite dimensions, he had to create a new harness from scratch."

'Petite? Does that mean small? Not small, strong.' Verbena snorted in annoyance.

Master Peteah, the instructor, huffed slightly. "And why didn't you get your harness yesternight like everyone else in your class?"

Celia blinked and swallowed nervously as she frantically searched for a way to phrase what she and Verbena had done without sounding lazy or idiotic. "Verbena and I were traversing the lower tunnels to see the underground lake."

He paused and pondered her response. "Though it is beneficial for your dragonet to learn places where it can hunt, the fish population will still be there another day. Because you were late, you've earned four laps around the obstacle course!"

"All right," Celia moved to climb onto her dragonet.

"On your own feet." He stated and froze Celia in her tracks before she could hook her foot into Verbena's harness. "It was your fault that you two are late, so you run."

Celia blinked, then looked to the obstacle course that ran through the tunnel branching away from the entrance. Typically, the obstacle course was for dragons, but she had to face the consequences for being late. Once she gathered her thoughts, Celia ran towards the course.

Thankfully, the hurdles were low for the young dragons to get used to jumping with riders on their backs, so Celia, with a bit of effort, could jump over them herself. She went over a hurdle, then jumped another hurdle, then knocked down another hurdle, then ducked under a bar marked with down arrows, then jumped over a small gap, then fell onto her butt when she slipped, then stood to her feet, then dove through a large ring, then weaved through agility bars, then ducked through a tube, then slipped into a hurdle and fell over it.

After she stood back up, she jumped onto a balancing beam and followed it to where it ended at the end of the tunnel. All was left was to sprint across the room where everyone was waiting and back to the beginning, at which point it became too monotonous to think about more than once.

Celia breathed in ragged breathes as she finished, then walked back over to the group, thankful that neither Persephone nor Han was laughing at her fate. Because of their lack of action, they were kind in Celia's mind.

Once she was back to the group, Master Peteah nodded in approval. "Good, you have a strong spirit that won't give up."

He turned his focus to the entire group. "All right, Initiates, today we make sure you know the basics. We will start with properly harnessing yourself." He calls over his dragon from where it had been watching from where he was laying on the other side of the room. "I will demonstrate for you with my dragon, Fen, so pay close attention. I'm not going to mount my dragon over and over for you."

The circle-spotted tawny drake stood and padded over to his companion. The large dragon was calm as he stood alongside his rider with his wings particularly raised to better display his harness.

"First we have to mount," Peteah stated. "Your footholds are back here." He gently gripped and pulled on a loop on Fen's back between his wings and his forelimbs. "This is your mounting loop and is used as a way to quickly climb onto a standing dragon.

Always use the foot that is on the opposite side of your body as the loop, otherwise, you will end up innocently seated on your dragon's back." To demonstrate, he used his right foot to pull himself onto the left side of his dragon, but his left foot was on the wrong side to be helpful in climbing on.

"Now, if I mount correctly," he steps down, then uses his left foot to pull himself up and draws his right leg up and onto the dragons back. "You can also use the handholds to help with balance and to pull yourself up." He motions where his left hand is holding the loop above his dragon's shoulder blades usually reserved for simply holding on when riding a dragon.

As Fen lowers his wings, Master Peteah shows off the loops previously hidden by Fen's wings. "These are for your feet," he hooks his feet into the larger loops, and these are for your knees." He places his knees into the loops made for them. He sat up in a crouched position.

"If done correctly, your legs should not hinder your dragon's wings, and though it may take some time to be completely comfortable, you can either lean forward inactive position or sit back on your feet in relaxed position. Now you try."

While Han and Persephone were relatively new to riding dragons, Celia had grown up learning from her mom. Though she wasn't a master, Celia hooked herself into the harness much faster than her classmates.

Master Peteah helped Hans position his feet into the proper places, then looked to Persephone, "good, good," he nodded, then looked to Celia. "Looks correct," he said without giving much attention to the late-arriving student.

Just before he was about to deliver more instructions, another rider of the Master Rank rushed in on a golden dragon with minimal markings. "Peteah, Orthos requires the assistance of all masters by the Lower Southern Entrance immediately." Her voice was so urgent that she forgot the customary titles when speaking to or about those of Master Rank or Guild Master Rank.

Master Peteah nodded in agreement as Fen approached. In contrast to the slow way he had been teaching the lesson, the master seamlessly leaped onto his dragon, who barely paused to allow him to do so. Before he left, Master Peteah looked over to the three Initiates. "Practice your balance by riding your dragonet at a walk, and if I'm not back by the second chime you're dismissed." With those parting words, he urged his dragon forward, and both dragons galloped out of the room at top speed.

Han, Persephone, and Celia looked to each other while the dragons focused on the exit with perked ears and confused expressions.

"What do you think that was about?" Persephone asked.

"I don't know," Celia admitted, then glanced at the exit, "maybe we should follow and find out."

"No," Han stated, "Master Peteah said we weren't dismissed until the second chime, so we can't just leave now." He focused back on his bronze dragonet, Achilles. "We need to practice keeping our balance while riding a dragon."

"He never said we had to practice in here." Persephone smiled a bit. "So under that philosophy, we can practice in the tunnels."

"It was implied," Han crossed his arms, then panicked and flailed his arms as he lost his balance. After a moment of waving his arms around, he leaned forward and frantically gripped the harness on his dragonet, Achilles.

The male dragonet panicked a bit at the sudden moment. "Sorry Achilles," he focused on his dragonet and carefully stroked the bronze's neck, then retracted his hand to return it to the harness. He turned to his fellow Initiates, "I—I definitely think we should stay here."

"I say we go!" Celia says, "we'll never find out what's going on if we don't."

"We'll find out eventually through the ejon curtain." Han counters.

Persephone and Celia paused at the true statement before Persephone spoke up with a counter. "Secondhand information isn't always reliable."

Celia nodded in agreement to Persephone's point. "We'll only get a peek," she smiled, "then be back in here before we're caught, or just listen from a few corners away. You know how sound travels in these caves. Even though the moss muffles the sound, you can still hear relatively nearby voices clearly and won't become part of the constant background noise that constantly fills the tunnel."

Persephone nodded in agreement. "See Han? It will be fine. We'll even ride our dragons over there, so we'll be technically practicing, and since their paws make less noise than our boots, our chances of being caught are lessened even more."

He looked nervous and unsure of their plan but slowly nodded. "O—okay." He croaked with fear and uncertainty reflected in his eyes.

Persephone grinned. "Then let's go. Onward Nova." The blue dragonet nodded, then walked towards the exit.

Celia smiled in a fit of excitement. "Let's go Verbena."

"Yay!" The green dragonet cheered and joyfully padded off to follow the blue dragonet Nova.

Han anxiously looked to his bronze dragonet, but before he could say any words to urge him forward, Achilles looked back to him with a worried expression mixed with a quizzical gaze. In response, Han's nervous countenance relaxed and he managed to smile. "You're right Achilles," he stroked the bronze's head, then grabbed him in a hug, "you know me so well."

Persephone glanced back and called out to Han just before she walked out the exit, "Han? You coming?"

Han looked up to Persephone and shook his head no. "I'm going to stay here and practice, you guys have fun, I'm going to stay here where I won't get in trouble for sneaking around."

"That's fine," Celia assured, then followed Persephone out into the corridor. "Han, you can stay here since that makes you feel more comfortable".

They traversed the tunnels and descended towards the Lower Southern Entrance by following the signs. As they neared the outside, the temperature of the air began to drop and the fluorescent moss became more and more sparse. The tunnels became dimmer and darker until the pair were solely relying on their dragons and their feeling of touch to read the signs in order to traverse the path.

Soon, they began to hear the distorted echoes of voices, and Celia began to become nervous. "All right Celia, we're just going to sneak down there, listen to what we can, then get back before we're caught." She whispered softly and took a deep breath.

Persephone cast a questioning glance at Celia. "What are you doing?" Her voice was almost accusatory. "Are you trying to get us caught?"

"Telling myself instructions and plans when I'm nervous helps me calm down," Celia admitted in slight embarrassment. "It helps keep me focused on the task rather than my nervousness. Or at least that's how I think it helps."

Persephone blinked, then shook her head. "All right, but let's try to be quieter. If we can hear them they can hear us."

Soon, the voices became clear enough to mostly understand, and that is where the pair and their dragons stopped to listen to the audible and understandable voices of the Masters and the Guild Master.

"Geode, are you sure you saw what you think you saw?" Guild Master Orthos's slightly distorted voice echoed around the corners and curves of the passageway.

"The old records were correct. Far in the west, I saw a light brighter than the moon shining from a tower in the middle of a town of tall structures, but before we could approach within a day's walk of the town, some sort of invisible dragon violently repelled us and prevented us from reaching the town." The speaker, presumably Geode, paused with a sharp inhale of pain.

"I know it hurts, and I am sorry that it does." A feminine voice gently spoke. "But it will feel better sooner if I treat it now. If left alone, it may become infected and cause even more problems in the future."

"I— under—stand. I— I can take it." He strained, then continued on what he had been saying earlier. "No amount—of fire or glowing—plants could create that amount of— solid, unwavering light."

Guild Master Orthos hummed. "This is good news, but this 'invisible dragon' worries me, as perhaps it is the reason that no further searches were sent for it. We should look into this from a safe distance until we can form a plan."

"But this means that after centuries of cycles we finally found one of the lost rays of the sun!" One of the other masters cheered in excitement. "We are one step closer to returning sunlight to the world!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Guild Master Orthos calmly chastised.

Persephone looked to Celia and whispered softly in excitement. "They found a ray of the sun!" A huge grin spread across her face.

Celia nodded, but she was lost in thought thinking about the ray of light. Her little sphere fit the description Geode had just muttered, but then the unwavering light faded. She began to think there was a possibility of a connection, then tossed it to a corner of her mind with the belief that sunlight would never fade like that. Sunlight would never die outside of a magical force forcing it to vanish.

"Let's get the six of you to the Medic Guild," Guild Master Orthos stated as gravel around the corner shifted underneath someone's boots, "Then we can discuss this after everyone recovers properly and you have had plenty of rest."

Celia looked at Persephone. "Time to go." She whispered. "Come on Verbena." Celia urged her dragonet.

Verbena silently understood the need for urgency and turned around, then moved to turn around in to return to the training arena, but froze as a snort of disapproval suddenly rang around the corner. 'Uh-oh......'

Celia and Persephone both looked to a large white dragon as he rounded the corner with a disapproving gaze on his face.

Alerted by his dragon, Guild Master Orthos swiftly appeared and looked to the four of them with a strict and piercing countenance. "You four, Walk with me to my office." He stated and passed by them, leaving Valiant to make sure the riders and their dragons followed the Guild Master.

"Yes, Guild Master Orthos." The two young riders said, dismounted, then followed the guild master alongside their dragons.

Author Notes!

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