Celia looked to Verbena as the two walked back to their room in the Sapphire tunnel. "Did you notice how surprised Guild Master Orthos looked?" She asked the dragonet. "It was like he wasn't expecting us to do that well."

Verbena nodded in response. 'And Ralfa Valiant wasn't expecting us to breakthrough his interference.'

"So he was the one that was keeping us from sensing teach other," Celia blinked, "but how exactly did we break free? Valiant is the strongest dragon in Roahla." She paused and thought about possibilities for a moment, but her mind was at a blank when it came to possible explanations.

'Nothing can stop true friendship!' Verbena cheered and roared for extra emphasis. 'We are unstoppable together!'

Celia chuckled, then moved the curtain aside. She jumped back in surprise as a light filled her eyes, a light as bright as a fire but without the flickering. "What?" She squeaked as her eyes adjusted. "The orb is glowing again...." She blinked as she and Verbena entered the room.

Celia suddenly remembered how the rider from when they had eavesdropped on the Masters. "An unwavering light brighter than the moon...:" Celia awed, "a ray of light from the sun." She wrestled her eyes away from the glowing sphere sitting on her sack. "There was one under the mountain the entire time! We need to take it to Guild Master Orthos." Her voice became faster in her excitement as she pulled a spare shirt from her chest and wrapped it around the warm orb to muffle and hide its light. "Come on Verbena! Let's go!" She cradled the bundle in one arm to keep it safe as she climbed onto the dragonet's back.

Verbena nodded in understanding, then ran back out of the room as soon as her rider was ready.

Celia held on to the dragonet's harness and the orb as Verbena ferried Celia back to Guild Master Orthos's office. As they approached, the two heard voices from behind the curtain. Celia thought that it was odd thatchy could actually hear the Guild Master and whomever he was speaking. Typically the guild master held meetings in the privacy of an inner room of his office that was hidden behind a soundproof stone door, but this time he did not. Since Verbena could hear the guild master's meeting, she decided to wait until they were done before she entered.

"Guild master," the feminine voice sounded slightly familiar to Celia, "I assure you that I did not give my daughter any special training. Though I disagree with the tradition of total silence, I kept everything secret and only taught her how to keep her balance on the back of a walking dragon since that is a skill useful to members of all guilds and she would have eventually figured how anyway since we had two dragons living with us. And she loved to play with them and often climbed onto their backs. She was always so cute and happy when she played with Nami and Chrome." Sabrina sighed in a way that implied happiness. 

Celia blinked in surprise and froze at the realization that Guild Master Orthos was speaking with her mom.

'Mom Sabrina?' Verbena blinked and seemed confused.

Now thoroughly curious, Celia focused on eavesdropping on the discussion. Though it was probably wrong of her to do so, she felt like this discussion was about her, and she needed to talk to the guild master anyway.

"I believe you, Sabrina," the guild master sighed, "though it's unusual that her mindlink suddenly became strong enough to break Valiant's interference."

"They broke through The Valiant?" Sabrina sounded extremely surprised. "But...but that's impossible for a rankless. She's too young and inexperienced to be able to do that. Are you sure that's what happened?"

"I am positive," he replied, "Valiant was sure there was no interference from the outside. Somehow, they connected at a level riders usually ease into starting after their third year." He paused. "Though there is the possibility of her lineage coming into play. Perhaps both of you are descendants of the first rider, which is why even you bonded with your dragon earlier than expected."

"I never bonded with Nami this quickly, and I have never been able to pass the rigorous Master Test, and I do not believe she will ever become a master either. Her dragonet is thinner and lighter than most of the other dragons in the guild. Most likely they will be messengers between guilds and other parts of the mountain rather than do anything rigorous." Sabrina replied. "Celia has always been normal and has never shown any hidden talents like this before, so maybe this was just an accident, a fluke, or just plain luck. I knew she had a strange knack for understanding dragons, but she never mentioned to me that they talk to her. Celia's always acted as if dragons were more like pets than intelligent beings."

"Could the choosing have enhanced her ability to connect with dragons?" Orthos hummed. "It's rare, but there have been riders with special dragon-related talents in the past that did not know of their abilities until after the Choosing. I believe the many of them were chosen on the first Choosing they attended as well."

"Celia grew up believing she was just a normal human, and except for her ability to semi-understand dragons she is completely normal." Sabrina paused. "She did have difficulty making human friends, but I never noticed anything worrying." She paused again, then hesitantly spoke again. "So what does it mean?"

"Not as much as one would expect," Orthos stated.

There was a long pause before Sabrina spoke again in a confused tone, "What do you mean by that?"

"Some riders with abilities do end up excelling, while others fail to do much of anything." Orthos replied calmly, "It's more about the rider's drive and ability to improve and succeed. Thank you for answering my questions"

"Natural ability is important." Sabrina agreed, then sighed softly as the sound came from the room the implied she stood up. After a few moments, she exited the room but froze with her arms still holding the curtain to the side. "Celia." She blinked and looked down to her daughter and her dragon.

'Hi, Mom Sabrina.' Verbena seemed happy to see the red-cloaked rider, despite the conversation the higher ranked rider had just had with the guild master. 'Will you pet me?' Her tail wagged in excitement.

"Hi, Mom." Celia smiled but felt nervous and unsure of herself. "I was hoping to speak to Guild Master Orthos." She held the cloth bundle close to her body as Verbena shifted in her inability to stay still any longer.

"All right." Sabrina blinked and stroked Verbena's head before she held the curtain back so the two could pass. "I'll let you talk to the guild master." She seemed slightly worried, perhaps because of the possibility that Celia had heard her entire conversation with Guild Master Orthos.

"Thank you," Celia muttered and nodded to her mom, then gently pressed on Verbena's back to urge her through the curtain. The dragonet understood what Celia desired and trotted into Orthos's office. Celia heard the curtain drop back into place, and when she glanced back, she saw that her mom had indeed released the curtain.

Once the curtain stopped moving, Celia returned her focus on the highest ranked person under the mountain, Orthos and entered into his real office beyond the open stone door.  "Hello Guild Master Orthos," she greeted with a slight nod.

"Celia," Orthos said calmly as the young girl carefully slid off the side of her mount. "How can I help you?"

Unable to think of anything to say, Celia simply untapped the article of clothing from around the sphere she had retrieved from the warm lake at the bottom of the mountain. As she removed the cloth, a light began to seep out and brightened the room. "I found this." She managed to speak.

Orthos blinked in surprise and stood from behind his desk as warm light flooded the room. "What?" He breathed in shock. "How did you find that? Where did you find a Ray of the Sun?" He stood up from behind his desk and approached the rider and dragon pair, nearly reduced to speechlessness.

"It was in under the mountain," Celia began, "Verbena found a hidden passageway with a warm lake on the bottom, and this was on the bottom of the lake." She paused, "at first I didn't know what it was because it faded randomly, but now it's glowing again. So it is a Ray of Sunlight?" She offered the radiant sphere to Orthos, who picked it up and held it as if it would shatter in his hands.

"It fades?" Orthos blinked, then shook his head. "I had no idea that there was one under the mountain." Celia perceived his voice to be awed and confused, but he managed to keep himself otherwise calm and composed. He held the sphere in his hands and studied it for a moment. "This is excellent. News of one ray and the acquisition of another. After a hundred cycles, some progress has finally been made." He looked relieved and grateful to Celia. "Thank you," Orthos looked straight into Celia's eyes, "Thank you, Celia and Verbena."

Celia smiled a bit and felt a bit of pride.

"Now," Orthos looked to the rider and her dragonet, "Though you will be rewarded, do not get a big head. Just because you found one Ray of the Sun does not mean that you are special or are capable of finding the others."

If she was honest, Celia was not exactly paying attention to the last part and had spaced out slightly, thinking about how great it felt that she actually achieved something extraordinary rather than simply extra ordinary. "Thank you Guild Master Orthos." She bowed slightly, then left the room with her dragonet.

Once they were far enough away that the guild master could no longer hear their voices, Celia grinned and looked to her dragon. "Can you believe it?" She smiled and rubbed her hand down Verbena's spinal ridge of long, mane-like fur. "We achieved something that greatly helped everyone."

Verbena bounced a few times in her excitement. 'We know where one other is! We should go get it!' She turned her neck around to look Celia in the face with wild excitement in her eyes. 'We can do it because we are great! We can do anything we set our minds too!'

Celia blinked and looked to the dragonet. "I don't know about that...," she trailed off and remembered what Persephone and her mother had said. Persephone accused her of not wanting the sun to return, while her mother said that she would never make a real difference and be stuck with simply being a messenger. "I mean, we did find one, but what about the others we do not know about? No dragon riders have ever found them before, how are we suppose to find them?"

'That's because they were not us! We found the first one! So it must be our destiny to find the lost rays of sunlight and return the Sun!' Verbena trumpeted in joy. 'We can find the sunlight and return it to the sky! I know we can!' She flapped her wings and roared joyously as if proclaiming her statement to the world.

Celia could not help being sucked into Verbena's joyous attitude and her inner desire to prove that she and her dragon could do anything. They could bring back the sun and be remembered as something more than a normal human and a small dragon. They would be remembered as something even greater: The Returners of Light. "All right, we will see what we can do." She agreed as a grin filled with her own excitement spread across her face. "Let's return light to Roahla."

Author Notes:
This chapter is 1999 words, and I have no idea how I managed to do that.