They decided the library wasn't going to be the best place to teach so instead they went to the garden, which was more than OK with Umber. Libraries were stuffy and everyone had to be quiet. Not to mention you weren't allowed food so, really, what was the point?
The gardens were vast and serene. They helped calm Umber's nerves. Particularly his anxiety about this whole Flame teaching Umber to read situation. Of course, Umber was ECSTATIC that Flame had wanted to be his friend...but the SkyWing wasn't all that patient...or gentle...and he yelled a lot.
Either way, this would be a learning experience for both of them.
Ibis was with them of course, but she stayed at a respectable distance. Luckily she wasn't required to shadow Flame, rather, she really just had to be able to see him at all times. And so, when Umber and Flame reached their destination, the SandWing sat a few meters away and took out a scroll to read.
Their destination turned out to be Flame's favourite reading spot nestled between the herb garden and the lilac bushes. As they walked by Umber leaned upwards to smell the sweet purple flowers before rushing after the red dragon.
Flame was already getting the graphicolls out when Umber sidled up beside him.
"So what's the plan?" Umber asked as he looked over Flame's shoulder. Flame shrugged and Umber stifled a sigh.
"How hard can it be to learn how to read?" Flame asked more to himself than to Umber. "I'll just...point to the words, you try to read them, and if you can't then I'll tell you what they are."
Wow. This is going to go SO well, Umber sniped silently. Flame scanned the scrolls laid out in front of him and chose the one on the far left.
"OK. So this is issue one of the Rise of Lord Evil, the story I was telling you about. We'll start here." Flame passed Umber the graphicoll and pointed to a box of text at the beginning. "That's the opening paragraph," he explained and then clasped his talons together. "You may start whenever you're ready," the SkyWing said in a mock Web's voice.
Umber stifled a laugh. He had not been at Jade Academy long but EVERYONE knew Webs and his infamous history lectures. He cleared his throat to get rid of the giggles and looked to the text. Luckily the first word was one he knew.
"'The'." Umber read expertly and beamed at Flame. The SkyWing furrowed his brow.
"Uh, good job? But there are more words there so...you know...whenever you're ready just go ahead." Flame tapped the text impatiently but surprisingly didn't say anything insulting.
Umber was a little impressed. This is probably a record breaking moment for him: The Longest Amount of Time Spent Without Swearing.
"Hurry up already!" Flame snapped and tore Umber from his thoughts.
"Sorry!" Umber yelped and began to scan the text again. "So...MOST of these words I don't know, but I recognize 'and' as well as 'it' and 'at'...but that's all."
Umber looked to Flame who was resting his chin on his talons, wearing a perplexed and annoyed expression. "That's it?" he asked in disbelief. "Those are the only words you know?"
Umber nodded. Flame looked to Umber, then to the graphicoll, then to Umber again, and then finally out into the gardens. "Maybe this approach wasn't the best."
"Ya, you think?" Umber quipped which earned him a sour scowl from Flame.
"Fuck you! It's my first go at this teaching thing so cut me some slack!" He snorted and stood up. "You stay here. I need to go get some stuff."
Flame began to make his way through the gardens but he didn't get very far before Ibis stopped him. "And where do you think you're going?" she asked and lowered the scroll in her talons.
"Piss off. I'll just be gone for a few minutes..."
The SandWing shook her head. "That's not how it words, Flame. I go where you go."
A cloud of smoke shot out of Flame's nose. "Fine," he growled. "Just try to keep up." And before Ibis was even standing Flame ran off.
Umber watched as Flame bound across the garden, his lithe body leaping over flower beds and the way his muscles rippled with each step. Umber cleared his throat and looked back to the graphicoll and tried to ignore the way his heart quickened.
To pass the time until Flame returned Umber went through the pictures of the graphicoll, admiring the art and trying to figure out what was happening. Several minutes passed by until Umber saw Flame return with a frustrated Ibis not far behind. He was carrying a folded wooden easel, a large booklet of blank parchment, and several bottles of ink.
Umber shot up and ran over to help but before he could Flame had dumped the supplies unceremoniously onto the ground with a huff.
"What IS all this stuff? Where did you get it?" Umber demanded and inspected the materials. He unfolded the easel and tried to find a flat enough area to set it on.
"I stole it from the art center," Flame responded and grabbed the booklet of parchment paper to set on the easel. Umber made a choking sound and fixed Flame with a stern look.
"STOLE?" he repeated.
Flame rolled his eyes. "Would it shut you up if I said I 'borrowed' them instead?"
Umber considered this. "Perhaps."
"Well too bad because I stole them!" Flame threw his head back and gave a hearty laugh at his own joke. When Flame was finished he was met with Umber's unimpressed expression.
"Oh relax, MudWing. I'll return it when I'm finished with it. I hate art anyway." The SkyWing flipped opened the booklet to the first page and opened a bottle of black ink.
"So I was thinking I could teach you letters first. That's the first thing I was taught when I learned to read." Flame explained while he wrote down the letters of the alphabet on the paper. The SkyWing explained that for each letter there was an upper and lower case version. Umber stared intently at the squiggles on the paper. He recognized a lot of the lower case letters but he had no idea there were TWO versions of one letter.
However, this plan did seem more promising.
For the next hour Umber practiced naming and identifying the different letters as well as learning the sounds they made. When they were finished Flame tossed an ink bottle to Umber.
"Alright MudWing, let's see how much you remember." He flipped to another blank page of parchment and motioned for Umber to step up. "Pop quiz! List as many letters you can remember, and they HAVE to be in the right order!" Flame gave a large grin. He was having way to much fun bossing Umber around.
Taking a deep breath Umber approached the easel and dipped his talons in the ink. He began writing the letters out...well, writing would be a generous words for the blobby, messy shapes that Umber was creating.
After each letter was written Umber would turn to Flame to see if he had done it right or not. He could tell Flame was getting impatient from the gradual increase in swear words that were coming from him, but he made sure Umber went through every letter.
Surprisingly Umber didn't mind the prickly teaching style. Flame was annoyed by everything Umber did, so he didn't really feel bad for asking hundreds of questions or doing something wrong. On the bright side, Umber was getting a lot more things right than wrong and after a grueling twenty minutes he was finished.
"Wow." Flame studied Umber's work. "That looks terrible."
Umber fluttered his wings in offense. "You know, this is the point where the teacher says something encouraging."
The red dragon thought for a moment. "Well at least you finished it before I died of boredom," he complimented.
I guess I'll take it. Umber accepted the praise with a long exhale. They had been practicing for a few hours and Umber was beginning to feel his focus slip. Also he was getting hungry again. He should have brought snacks with him!
"Maybe we should call it a day?" Umber asked as he wiped the ink off his talons with a cloth. "I'm getting kind of tired."
"Fine." Flame shrugged. "But you better help me take all this shit back."
With a groan Umber agreed. Flame took his bag of graphicolls and the awkward easel while Umber took the rest of the supplies along with his smaller bag. As it turned out, the art center was located in Flame's building. The lounge furniture had been partly removed and a section was opened to accommodate the art supplies. There were easels of various sizes spread out, a wall full of paints to use, both oil and water-colour, and there was also a section dedicating to sculpting.
"How come I never noticed his place?" Umber wondered aloud.
"Oh they just opened it," Flame responded and tossed the easel to the ground. Umber cringed as it hit the floor.
"Would you please be more careful?" Umber swiftly reached for the fallen easel and set it upright. Just as he was about to place the booklet back Flame stopped him.
"You should hold on to that and practice with it," he advised and Umber agreed. He certainly needed to practice but still felt slightly guilty. He rolled it up and tucked it away cautiously. I hope no one minds me taking it.
"So, uh." Flame rubbed his neck. "Was it a good class?"
The adorably nervous face on the SkyWing made Umber smile. "Yes! Thanks for offering to teach me." Umber flicked his gaze away. "I know it's probably not how you wanted to spend your afternoon."
The scarred dragon let out a bored huff. "Well I was just planning on sleeping anyway so it's not a big deal."
The two dragons sat in silence for several heartbeats.
"Ah, well," Umber broke the quietness. "I should go check on Sora. She's probably wondering where I went off to."
"Yeah. OK." Flame nodded and looked around the room. "But Umber, before you go..."the SkyWing paused and gazed around the room to make sure no one was listening in. Satisfied that whatever he had to say would remain between the two of them he continued. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the things I said to you in the garden the other day. I didn't mean them." He shuffled his talons on the ground and waited for Umber to answer.
"Oh," Umber managed to say. He had NOT been expecting that. He almost forgot to answer except Flame was now giving him a fierce and expectant look. Gathering his thoughts Umber finally sputtered something out. "Uh...it's alright, Flame. I could tell you were upset about something that day...I should have just let you be. So...I am sorry as well." Umber ducked his head in an apology.
Flame snorted in annoyance but Umber noticed the SkyWing's face grow red. "Would you stop being so fucking nice?" Flame demanded. "Why did you have to turn my apology into YOUR apology? Why couldn't you just accept it and move on, but NOOOO you had to be super extra nice and apologize back to me for no reason. Well guess what? That ends now. I'm apologizing, you're shutting up, and that's that." Flame finished with a firm nod of his head.
The two dragons stared at each other.
And then burst out laughing.
Umber's quiet giggles racked his frame while Flame tried to stifle his louder roars of laughter. After several minutes of gasping for air they finally settled down.
"OK. I accept you're apology and I am not sorry about anything. Happy now?" Umber chuckled and Flame actually cracked a smile.
"Yeah. That's more like it."
It was a timid smile. It made the corner of Flame's eyes wrinkle in an adorable way and emitted a gentle warmth. Umber then decided that Flame looked VERY handsome when he smiled.
As quickly as it came, Flame's smile vanished as he looked over Umber's head to something behind him. Umber swiveled around to see what the problem was but a wave of delight passed through him as Sora came bounding up to him with Jet close by.
"Umber!" Sora cried and nearly tumbled into him. The sibs laughed and hugged.
"And where have you BEEN, young dragon!" Jet scolded as she approached. "You've made you sister sick with worry!"
Oh no! Umber turned to his sister and began to frantically apologize. "Sora, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to - I didn't think I would be so long - I hope you're not too upset I had no idea-"
"Umber," Sora interrupted and placed her tail tip over his mouth to quiet him. "Stop fretting! I'm not sick with worry, but I was super confused when you didn't come back to the room within twenty minutes. I thought you had just gone to pick up some scrolls."
"Yeah," Jet agreed. "We thought Flame had murdered you or something." The two SkyWings exchanged hostile glares and Sora nudged Jet.
"SHE thought that. I didn't," his sister clarified and gave Flame a small smile. Flame nodded and cleared his throat awkwardly.
Umber gave Flame a sympathetic shrug and then turned back to his sister. "Sorry 'bout that. I WAS going to come back but..." Umber's gaze flicked onto Flame. "...we got sidetracked. But look!" Umber took out the booklet he had tucked away in his knapsack and showed Sora the contents inside. "Flame is teaching me to read and write. Look what I did today!"
Sora let out an excited squeak and clasped his talons. "I am so proud of you!"
"Thanks." Umber blushed under his sister's praise and then turned to Flame with a coy expression. "You see? THAT'S how you properly encourage someone."
"See, that's how you encourage someone," Flame mocked him with a stupid sounding voice and then returned to his normal, husky speech. "You're lucky I even decided to help you out."
"You're right." Umber realized and dipped his head. "Thanks!"
The sincerity seemed to make Flame flustered. "Whatever. Just give me the ink bottles and I'll put them away." Umber offered up the bottles and Flame snatched them from his talons and headed towards a table in the art center full of different coloured inks.
Once Flame was out of ear-shot Sora frantically grabbed Umber's talons again. "Umber," she whispered and her sparkling eyes darted around the room before continuing. "I want to tell you a secret."
"Shhh! Don't tell him!" Jet hushed and peered around warily.
Umber's nostrils flared. UH, EXCUSE ME! Don't you dare leave me out of this!
Sora pouted. "Please, Jet? He's my sib! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-"
"OK!" Jet relented as she tried, and failed, to keep a smile from spreading over her stern face.
With a triumphant glint in her eyes Sora spoke in a loud, exited whisper. "We're sneaking out and going GHOST hunting in the palace tonight."
Umber blinked in surprise and have them a quizzical look. "Ghost hunting?" he repeated, his gaze shifting between Jet and Sora.
"Don't tell me you idiots are ACTUALLY going to try and catch a ghost," Flame's sudden jeer jolted the group as he silently returned from the art center.
"How about you stop eavesdropping and go away," Jet articulated with a tense face.
The scarred dragon huffed out a plume of smoke. "I don't need to eavesdrop. MudWings are the WORST at whispering."
Umber tried to be offended, but...Flame did have a point. Sora seemed to also ignore this comment.
"But Jet says she knows where to find one! We can go and see it! Right, Jet?" Sora eyes were wild with excitement. Umber had never considered her to be a thrill seeker but then again, was ghost hunting even all that dangerous?
Flame gave a condescending scoffed. "That's impossible since there is no such thing as ghosts."
"Just because YOU don't believe in them doesn't mean they're not real," the pink and orange SkyWing pointed out. "Besides, you're not invited to come. It's just me and Sora going."
"Umber can come too, can't he?" Umber's sister quickly asked while leaning against him. "I could never imagine chasing after ghosts without my sib!" Sora smiled at Umber and he grinned back. "You do want to come, don't you?" She asked him.
The only time Umber had been exposed to ghosts was through scary stories and in those stories ghosts were never good, so he was apprehensive to say the least. But the pleading look on his sister's face won him over.
"Of course!" he said with fake confidence. Sora fluttered her wings with joy and it was decided. He was going on this ghost hunting adventure whether he wanted to or not.
"Well if Umber is going than so am I," Flame announced with a defiant glint in his eyes. "And when the ghost doesn't show up I will mock all of you for the rest of your lives."
Umber was surprised that Flame was willing to go, especially since he would be giving up a night of sleep to run around Queen Ruby's palace with a group of dragons he wasn't particularly fond of. That's when Umber thought of something.
"Flame...is Ibis going to be OK with you running around in the middle of the night?"
All the confidence in the SkyWing's face drained as his eyes looked at the SandWing that was, luckily, not paying attention to their conversation and was busy inspecting a strange, half-finished sculpture.
"Yeah. No babysitters allowed," Jet jeered. She probably thought that Flame would surrender at this point. She was wrong.
Flame paused and Umber noticed his tail-tip twitch as he thought. Finally he spoke grimly. "Don't worry about Ibis. I'll handle it. So where are we meeting tonight?"
Umber's eyes widened and he fluttered his wings in alarm. "Flame!" he hissed. "What are you thinking? You'll get in trouble!"
The SkyWing fixed Umber with cold eyes. "I said don't worry about it. Now are we doing this or not?"