Celia glanced between the disappointed stares of Master Peteah and Guild Master Orthos, feeling sick to her stomach with guilt that she probably would not have felt if she and Persephone had not been caught.

Master Peteah crossed his arms in disdain and it seemed to Celia that by crossing his arms, he was limiting the raw disappointment coming out of him to only his eyes instead of his entire body. "I expected more obedience out of two Chosen," he stated and looked between the two of them, "it was not your place as rankless to be snooping around in Masters's business. I told both of you to stay in the training area. Why exactly did you explicitly disobey my instructions and leave?"

Celia glanced towards Guild Master Orthos as if he was a pocket of calm amongst the rough winds of Master Peteah's tone, but the guild master seemed hard and unforgiving. After formulating her answer and deciding the raw, simple truth was the best option, Celia spoke up before Persephone had decided to. "We were curious, sirs," she started, "and wanted to know what was happening."

"We did practice riding our dragons at a walk." Persephone piped in, but Celia did not think it helped their case all that much. "So we at least followed part of your instructions." She smiled weakly in nervousness.

"You still disobeyed Master Peeta," Guild Master Orthos stated, "for that, you will face punishment and receive a strike on your record."

Celia was rather fine with being punished, but the prospect of receiving a strike worried her. Strikes were received when a rider did something beyond a simple mistake, miscalculation, or forgot something mostly unimportant. Such things strikes were given out for were disobedience, purposeful violence, or repeated minor misdemeanors. Once six strikes were received, then the person was kicked out of the guild they were previously in and sent to do the raw labor requirements of the town. After that, they could even be banished from the town itself.

Celia hoped that she would manage to refrain from receiving more strikes and losing her status as a dragon rider. Though Celia suspected she and Verbena probably wouldn't be separated, Celia had heard that the separation of rider and dragon had happened before.

"You will also receive extra training from me, and don't expect it to be easy." Master Peteah stated.

The two young riders nodded in acceptance of their punishment.

"First, you're going to help groom dragons." Master Peteah stated.

While Persephone looked dumbfounded on how that was part of training, Celia accepted it, as she and her mother had spent time brushing the two dragons that lived with them. Grooming was not only important to the dragons, but it was also important in bonding with dragons. Another perk was that the brushed off ejon was sent to the cloth makers to be spun into thread and woven into fabric.

"Both of you, come with me." He led them out to where the dragons were waiting outside of Orthos's office.

Verbena looked to Celia with a condemned expression, 'I'm sorry...,' she whimpered. 'Gretor Fen was very disappointed in me,' she pressed her head against Celia's side for comfort.

Celia masked her confusion for what a 'Gretor' was and instead focused on following Master Peteah as he led them to their destination: the washing area in the lower levels of the mountain where the water didn't run into drinking sources for the mountain. The water above was mostly just used for drinking purposes, so the water used for bathing was still relatively clean.

Once they arrived, Master Peteah turned and looked to them. "You two will brush the dragons for the riders as they arrive, starting with your dragons. Once they are clean to my satisfaction, then they will be taken to their special training away from you. Is that clear?" He asked, then proceeded to not give them time to answer the apparently rhetorical question.

"Good, now get to work." He directed them each of the fledgling riders towards a small pool of fresh water fed by a waterfall, then watched them as the two riders and their dragons moved into position.

Celia walked over to the pool, removed her shoes, rolled up her pant legs, took her cloak off and set it on a dry spot, then picked up a dragon brush from the basket of supplies next to the edge of the pool. "All right Verbena, time to be cleaned." She stroked the Verbena's side to encourage her to move into the pool.

The dragonet looked confused for a moment. 'Why do I have to go in there instead of washing and preening myself like I normally do since mom stopped giving me baths with her tongue?' She looked to Celia with a small draconic grin as if the human knew all the answers to the questions of the universe, or at least Verbena's questions. Or, perhaps, the dragonet was trying to avoid a bath.

Though Celia did not have the answer to everything, she could at least answer the dragonet's question to the best of her ability: "because I have to give you a bath every so often, and Master Peteah said so." Celia told Verbena. "Dragons typically don't need one, but you'll like it, I promise. I think you will even enjoy it. You can trust me." She gave the dragonet a soft, reassuring smile.

Verbena paused for a moment, then entered the shallow bathing pool as Celia took off her coat and shoes and also rolled up the legs of her pants. 'I like this cold water,' the dragonet purred and placed her head under the waterfall, 'it is so much better than that hot water from our adventure That was yucky.' She purposefully placed her head under the cascading stream from the small waterfall and purred as it ran over her face and down her neck and back.

Celia smiled a bit as she waded into the water, and thought of the trip down the secret tunnel as both fun and terrifying. Despite her initial fear, Celia did gain a memento: the clear sphere. Though she wasn't sure of why it does or why it was there, she was still content with the find.

Once the dragonet was wet, Celia dipped the brush into the water and began to brush it through Verbena's silky fur. Although the undercoat was harder to get to, the dragonet was mostly free of tangles because of the thin layer oil that coated their fur. The oil froze in cold enough temperatures without completely stiffening the fur and attracts flakes of ice to coat the surface of each hair.

Once the layer of ice is complete, then the dragons not only have excellent camouflage, but the flakes of snow and ice somehow improve on their already well-insulated fur. When combined with the dragon's dense undercoat, the ice layer even allowed dragons to survive in the cold temperatures of the sunless world.

True to Celia's word, Verbena loved the brushing and even encouraged and led her human to the itchiest spots, especially those down her back and near her wings. The old layer of oil and dirt came off with the water, but the thin layer of oil would be completely renewed in only a few short chimes.

By the end, Celia was glad that Verbena was relatively small, though she would never tell the dragonet that, as Verbena was full of more energy than even the largest dragons her age. Her boundless spirit well made up for what she lacked in size. After checking Verbena over a few more times and smoothing down some strands of her fur, Celia took Verbena over to Master Peteah for approval.

The master rank looked over Verbena with critical eyes, then hummed to himself. "Excellent work," He whispered himself and nodded in approval to Celia, then looked to Persephone as she brought Nova over for his approval. "Good enough," he nodded to her.

"Put the fur pulled off of the brushes into the correct color fur bucket and wait for the next dragonet to come here and meet their needs," Master Peteah ordered, then glanced between the four of them.

"I'll take your dragons while you stay here, and if I learn that either one of you has been shirking, then you'll receive extra punishment." After saying that to the two girls, he motioned to his dragon, who stood and herded the two other dragons out of the room and ignored the fact they disliked the thought of leaving.

Celia frowned as she watched them leave, then looked back to Master Peteah. "After the second chime from now, then you will meet me back in the training arena. With that, he turned and left the room, probably to resume training the student that was not relieving punishment.

Celia and Persephone went over to the buckets as the instructor left the room. Once Master Peteah was gone to the point the two young riders could no longer hear the master's echoed footsteps, Persephone crossed her arms, a bit infuriated. "Why must we do this?" She whined.

Celia blinked and frowned as she combed out the brush with her fingers, then drooped the bundle of Verbena's ejon into the large container for green fur, "because we got in trouble?"

Persephone looked to Celia after placing Nova's blue fur into the place for blue fur. "Do you just accept everything?" She said it in an accusatory tone. "I mean, you could be frustrated with our punishment or something? Have you just accepted that the sun will never come back?"

"Wha—" Celia looked dumbfounded, "of course I want the sun to return? Doesn't everyone? Why would you say that?"

Persephone blinked, then frowned. "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out why we deserve this as our punishment. Why couldn't we have just gotten a simpler punishment?" She released a sigh.

"I'm sure Master Peteah has his reasons," Celia assured, "maybe there is a lesson in this," she paused, "somehow. I do not see how yet but I'm sure there is some kind of lesson in this."

Persephone did not seem convinced, but before she could reply, a dark brown dragon walked into the cave, and per Master Peteah's instructions, they brushed and bathed the dragons for their riders.

At the second chime, the two of them finished the large dragon they were brushing, put their shoes and then tiredly returned to the training area, where Peteah was waking for them. Han and Achilles had already been dismissed to do whatever he wanted, while Celia and Persephone still had some training to do.

Master Peteah looked between the two tired students as they approached and stood before him. "I see you are a bit exaused, but both of you need to work on your bond with your dragonet. So now you must find your dragons from where they are being kept somewhere in the mountain." He shifted his gaze between the two shocked students. "You are not allowed to receive any help from another rider, and if you try to ask, I will be told about it. Once you find your dragons, you are released from training for the night. Ready? Go." 

Author Notes:
I don't have much to say this week, but I hope you still enjoyed the chapter!
If you did, feel free to click the star, leave a comment, or add the story to your library!