Dawn's Light

Chapter 59

"Please," Celia whispered a desperate plea to the universe.

Still, nothing happened. No light appeared on the horizon, and no light appeared in the spheres either.

In fact, the world was darkening as the moon set and its last rays vanished from the world, just like Celia's hopes.

"All right. Let's go." Xan sighed and turned back towards his dragon, then stepped into the harness. "See, I told you this was a bad idea." He sighed.

"Ah!" Celia screamed as the spheres suddenly rocketed out of her hands. Thanks to a stumble caused by the surprise, Celia's but hit the snow. After she overcame the paralyzing shock, she quickly rose to her feet. "Wha—?" She panted slightly as she watched the magical event unfold.

The spheres stretched out into spears with tails of orange light like comets as they hurtled towards the western horizon. At first, the rays separated, then spiraled together and joined into one ray of light.

Width a bright greenish flash in the distance, the sunlight was gone.

Even the stars seemed to dim.

Celia had never seen the land or the sky so dark before, but her focus remained transfixed on the spot where the beams of light had dived beneath the distant mountains and vanished without a trace of their light remaining.

Then, streaks of light erupted from the eastern horizon as if someone had set the sky ablaze.

"Dawn," Xan breathed the foreign word as he gazed out to the slow eruption of light from beyond the limit of their sight. In his daze, he unthinkingly slid off of Irin's back and landed on his feet as he stared at the strengthening light that appeared on the eastern horizon behind Celia

Celia quickly rose to her feet and spun one hundred and eighty degrees and faced the east. Though she slipped in the snow, she quickly scrambled to her feet so she could watch the sun slowly return to her homeland.

The black tendrils of darkness that had covered Roahla slowly rolled back like a blanket removed from a bed. Under the new light, the haze that coated the surrounding lands slowly disappeared except for a few lingering wisps.

Celia had no idea how many hours she stood in place, watching the sun slowly rise. In her defense, Verbena, Irin, and Xan all stood frozen with her. The streaks of light slowly danced and brightened as they banished the stars and lit the sky on fire with its red, orange, yellow, and purplish colors.

Soon, a sliver of fire-like light appeared between to mountains, and a reddish-gold hue began to descend onto the world. The light first appeared on Irin's ears and feather crest, then fell like a golden curtain.

Soon, the hue reached Celia's eyes. Her eyes burned, so she looked away and blinked the tears out of her eyes. The full power of the sun was brighter than anything else she had ever seen. The light also came with a sense of warmth. It burned like the warmth from a fire, but somehow it was much more comforting.

Celia held out her hand and watched as the golden tinge slowly spread downwards and away from her fingertips. "We did it," Celia breathed as tears welled in her eyes. "We actually did it. We brought light back to Roahla." She squeezed her eyes shut as an excited laugh bubbled from deep within her.

Verbena roared to the air in triumph, her mind unable to construct cohesive words that properly matched her feelings. So, she bundled all of her joyous emotions into one draconic roar.

Irin joined in her trumpet as he raised is wings, but did not take off. 'THE SUN HAS RETURNED!'

Xan released a whooping cheer and laughed in pure joy. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Celia!" The human boy laughed. "We did it!"

Celia laughed happily as well and gave one last teary-eyed glance to the rising sun before she was forced to look away.   

Celia wanted to continue to watch, but her eyes could not adjust to the brightness and forced her to look away. "It's brighter than I ever imagined. It's even brighter than Urre was." She shielded her eyes as she continued to grin, but she still struggled to acclimate to the sunlight that now shone on the frozen land of Roahla.

Less than half the sun had emerged over the mountainous horizon, and the brightness was overwhelming but beautiful.

The snow sparkled and shimmered as the light finally touched the top of the snow mounds and began to engulf the land itself.

Sunlight finally graced Roahla.

Author Note.

It's hard to believe something I have been writing for a year is almost over.

But, here we are.

We have literally reached the light at the end of the tunnel.