Flame wiped the sweat off of his scales while taking the chicken out of the oven. He looked down at it and the skin was brown and crispy and could be easily peeled off. He cut a piece off with his talons and threw it down his throat. The white meat was juicy and tender and its flavor was extremely potent. This was the third chicken that was cooked and thankfully the last.
He put on an oven mitt and grabbed the scorching hot baking sheet. He set it down on the stovetop, grabbed a few large forks, and stabbed each side of the chicken with them. Carefully, he carried it from the stove to the table and plopped it down on a metal plate, and covered it with a rounded metal top that could snap in place. The metal plate had a bar on the bottom of it that connected to a rod. There were at least ten other of these metal plates connected to the rod. There were two layers to it and each layer had 5 of the plates attached to it. The metal was a special type of metal that could keep warm food warm and colder food like a cake, cold. At the top of the rod, there was a handle that could easily be gripped.
"FINALLY!" Flame yelled, practically falling into Umber with exhaustion.
Umber's scales were slippery with sweat so he had to catch Flame so he didn't fall over instead of resting on him. His necklace was resting on one of the clean, untouched countertops so that it didn't get dirty since he had been working on making the different spices and sauces for the meat. Flame had his own barbecue sauce recipe that he had to reluctantly tell Umber beforehand so that he could make it.
"Careful!" Umber said, stumbling over a little bit from his weight. "You're gonna knock me over!"
"Calm down, mu-" Flame cut himself off after seeing Umber's face as the word began to leave his mouth.
Umber glared at him with his brow furrowed and his snout wrinkled. His eyes felt as if they were shooting daggers at Flame, piercing through each of his scales and out through his back like flaming arrows. As scary as his gaze was, he knew it was harmless. He rarely made this face and Flame knew it meant "stop before I get mad at you and ignore you for the next ten minutes". He could never stay mad at him and Flame knew it, but he still didn't want to make Umber mad.
"That's what I thought," Umber warned. "Say it again and I'll come up with a name for you too."
Flame knew he wasn't lying so he just threw his talons up in the air and backed up in submission.
"Fine," Flame reluctantly agreed.
This wasn't over though; Flame would eventually catch him when he was off guard. He couldn't just drop the name forever that easily, and he was suspicious that Umber knew that too.
Maybe on our anniversary, I can catch him, he thought. Whatever he decides to do for that.
His mind began racing through the thousands of different possibilities for what they'll do. Maybe he'll keep it simple and go to a restaurant, or maybe he will go completely overboard and find a reservation for a fancy waterproof hotel underwater in the middle of the ocean that only served raw salmon and trout. As unlikely as that seemed, he had no clue what Umber was planning but the excitement ran through his entire body like a jolt of lightning at the thought of it.
"We still have a while before we have to leave," Flame said. "Wanna grab a bite to eat? I know a market that I know you'll like."
"YES!" Umber exclaimed. "I'm starving!"
Flame began looking around at the kitchen, realizing that it was a mess. There were empty spice bottles, sauce on the countertops, and many, many, dirty bowls and cooking utensils everywhere. Not only that, but they were a mess as well. They were both covered head to talon in food and sweat. Flame was definitely hungry after cooking for so long; it had taken them at least 4 hours to finish making the food. Once Flame caught Umber's eyes, he could tell that he noticed the same thing.
"River first, then food," Flame said.
He looked up at Umber and could see the disappointment spread across his face when he realized that he had to actually wait for his food this time.
Quickly, Flame grabbed his talon without a second thought and started dragging him through the kitchen, the living room, and to the back door. The back door had a window at the top of it and had a perfect view of the river from it. The sun was coming up and the dragonets were slowly coming outside to play as usual. Flame could hear their screams already.
"Hey! Quit!" Umber demanded.
"You want food, don't you?" Flame asked. "Stop acting like a baby and get in the river then."
Umber shot him a scowl and Flame could tell that it was obviously fake.
By this point, they were already out the door and halfway to the river. Flame looked down the roaring stream and didn't see any dragonets in it this time, which surprised him. He lightly threw Umber towards the river, signaling for him to get in.
After a few seconds, Umber started towards the river and jumped in once he got there. Flame could hear quick, shallow breaths come from him once his scales met the water.
"The water is so much warmer today!" Umber yelled. "You should cannonball in with me!"
Flame could tell that this was an obvious lie, but he also suspected that it wasn't very convincing on purpose. Regardless, he decided to entertain the idea by running towards the river and doing a fake jump right in front of it.
"You thought I would fall for that, didn't you?" Flame asked. "Well, think again! This SkyWing is too smart for your tri-"
Flame was cut off when Umber leaped halfway out of the water and grabbed his talons, yanking him into the ice-cold river with him. As soon as Flame's scales met the water, it felt like they had been replaced with ice; very cold, IceWing chilled ice with a serving of frost breath. Immediately, Flame started breathing quick, shallow breaths just like Umber was. His arms and legs went numb and he quickly realized why there weren't any dragonets in the water today.
"HOLY FUCK THAT'S COLD!" Flame screamed. "WHY IS IT SO COLD?!"
"Flame! There are dragonets around!" Umber warned, peering over at the path, and was hit by a wave of relief when he saw the dragonets still playing as if they heard nothing. "And you promised to stop cussing!"
A few months earlier, he had promised to stop swearing. Umber had urged him many times before, so he finally gave in. It was hard for him at first but it got easier as he slowly got out of the habit. Sure, there were a few times when he slipped up, but it hadn't been around Umber.
"Uhm, well…I didn't entirely stop," he admitted. "I just don't do it around you."
"You liar!" Umber laughed, lightly hitting Flame on the shoulder playfully.
"Calm down, MudWing. I don't do it often." Flame assured. "And I don't do it around the dragonets either, so I don't see what the problem is."
"The problem is that it's a bad habit!" Umber argued. "I hate it when you cuss." His smile quickly faded when his next words came to mind. "It reminds me of…of how you used to be…when we first met. I just don't like thinking about it…"
The iciness of the water quickly faded and all Flame could feel was a stab of guilt that hit him in the chest as if he was getting tackled by Pheasant all over again; except this time, Umber was the one who was getting hurt. All he ever tried to do was make Umber happy, but he was overlooking a huge part of that by doing something he had been unconsciously doing for years. He wished he had thought about it more. He wished he put in more effort to make him happy. He wished he'd kept his promise.
"I-I'm sorry. I…I didn't know," Flame stammered, now looking down through the water at his talons. The wave of guilt was flowing through his entire body now, reaching from the tip of his tail to the points on his horns. "Why didn't you say anything? I mean, you've acted like it's no big deal this whole time…"
Both of them were shivering at this point and Flame instinctively got closer to him. Their scales were touching now but Flame didn't get the usual warmth he was used to.
"I didn't want to remind you of how you used to be…" Umber admitted. "I know how much you hate the old you, so I didn't want to remind you of that version of yourself. I'm sorry."
No. I'm the bad guy here, Umber, Flame thought. I promised to stop and I didn't! This is my fault!
"No! Don't be sorry!" Flame exclaimed. "I'm the one who should be sorry! I didn't even think about how you felt! I never even thought about it like that before so I'm to blame! I broke my promise… I'm sor-"
Flame was cut off by Umber's soft lips meeting his. All of his thoughts, all of the things he was going to say, were immediately whisked away by a strange, unknown force. Flame's heart felt like it had been kickstarted back to life by the shock that ran through Umber's mouth and into his. After a few seconds, Umber pulled away and gazed affectionately into his eyes.
"It's okay…I forgive you," Umber said softly.
Flame hadn't expected such swift forgiveness, but then again, it was Umber. Umber could never stay mad at him and he often thought about what he would have to do for him to get mad at him for more than a few minutes. He didn't want to find out the answer to this question, but it didn't stop him from thinking about it in times like this.
They both leaned back in and started kissing again, slowly making their way up and out of the water and onto the warm grass. Red scales met brown as they both lay on the grass with their tails intertwined. Flame could feel the hot sun beaming against his scales, warming them up as he got lost in the paradise that Umber brought him into.
Apparently, one of the dragonets from the crowd on the path had seen them and they all quietly made their way over, trampling their talons against the grass. They weren't very quiet though, but neither Umber nor Flame noticed the many thumps and snickers. They were so lost in each other that everything around them seemed to vanish into a white void. It was as if they thought they were the only dragons in the world and nothing else mattered. That was until Flame pushed him away with eyes full of panic.
"What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?" Umber questioned.
Without needing a response, he followed Flame's gaze, immediately flipping his head around to the sight of at least 5 dragonets staring at them. He instantly shot up and stared back, wide-eyed. His face turned red hot as the embarrassment of the situation set in. He looked over at Flame who was already standing up with the same expression.
"O-Oh! Hey t-there…" Umber stammered. He wasn't sure if he could build up the courage to say anything else, but his jaw moved before he had time to think about it. "M-Me and Flame were just play fighting," his voice shook nervously.
"No you weren't!" yelled one of the dragonets in the crowd. "You were totally just making out with him!"
Umber got even more flustered after hearing those words. He was tempted to run back inside and never come back out again. That was only if Flame agreed to come with him, of course.
"H-How long have you all been standing there?" Umber asked.
"Long enough to know that you two are crazy for each other," one of the dragonets said.
"Uh-, why don't you run along now and go back to…whatever it was you were doing before," Flame insisted.
"We will," a different dragonet piped up. He was in the front of the crowd so Umber could see that he was a SkyWing. His horns were a little more rounded and curved inward a bit. "so you can get back to whatever it was you two were doing before too," he said.
As soon as the dragonet finished, they all walked away without looking back. Umber could see the many footprints that led to them now that he was looking. He was so grateful that the conversation ended when it did or else he might have acted on his temptation.
Oh moons, Umber thought.
They both looked at each other for a second, trying to process what had happened before breaking out into uncontrolled laughter at the same time. Umber caught a glimpse of Flame's face while he was laughing and couldn't help but feel his heart begin to warm. Looking at Flame laugh was like looking at the sun lowering, reflecting its orange-yellow light off of many different colored scales as it dove below the horizon; it was just so beautiful to him. The way he smiled, the way the light would bounce off of his light orange eyes, the way his laughter filled the air like a perfect symphony. He wishes he could play these moments over and over on repeat for hours. To Umber, nothing in Pyrrhia was more beautiful than that.
"So…food time?" Umber asked.
Flame shot him a quick smile and a nod which Umber translated to mean yes. In a split second, Umber shot in the air, blowing thousands of blades of grass in different directions as he took off. Not long after, Flame did the same except he caught up with Umber only a few seconds later and slowed down to fly beside him.
"You don't even know where we're going!" Flame reminded.
"Don't need to. All I know is that the food's this way!" Umber said. He looked over at Flame's face and could see the disappointment spread across it. "But- uh, we can go to whatever place you wanted to show me too!" he immediately added. Flame was obviously satisfied with this response when he gave Umber a little peck on the cheek.
After a while of flying, they landed on the gravel path, kicking up rocks as their talons made contact with the ground. Umber could smell the different mixes of meats, stews, pasta, noodles, and cooked vegetables while he followed Flame to whatever market he planned on taking Umber to. Every now and again, he would look over at the markets and see different dragons getting their food and handing the salesdragon many reflective gold coins. He couldn't help but get even more hungry when looking at them.
Finally, Umber's laid his eyes on a big sign that had different oranges and reds in different spirals and swirls that was connected to a market that had dark logs on each corner, holding up a roof that protected him from the sunlight. He had a distinct feeling that this was the market Flame was taking him to, so he began to read the sign.
E-X-O-T-I-C F-R-U-I-T-S, Umber sounded out in his head.
Flame hadn't taught him the word "exotic" yet, so he decided to challenge himself to figure it out before they got there. He quickly remembered the tricks that Flame taught him.
EX-O-TIC…, Umber paused, repeating each of the sounds in his head a few times before he realized. EXOTIC! Exotic fruits! Ooooh, I haven't had many types of fruit before! They probably got them from the rainforest. There are so many different fruits there!
They were at the market now and Umber could see the many different fruits stored in baskets in the front. One container was full of an orange-yellow fruit, each being different shapes and sizes, another was full of a spherical yellow-lime fruit, and there was another basket that was almost empty that had fruit that looked round and had dark red skin that looked almost brown. Umber guessed it was an apple at first but as he got closer, he could tell that it was certainly not an apple. The skin was far too rigid for it to be an apple.
"5 passion fruits, please," Flame said to the salesdragon.
Instantly, the dragon reached his talons towards the basket that was nearly empty, pulling out 5 passion fruits and dropping them in a bag before handing them to Flame, who dropped him a few coins in return. Umber had never heard of passion fruit before, but he was excited to try it.
"Passion fruit?" Umber looked over at Flame. "What's passion fruit?"
"You've never had passion fruit before?" Flame asked. "You used to live by the rainforest, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but we never went over there because of the ghost that was there," Umber explained.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that," Flame remembered. "Let's go find someplace to eat these."
Flame looked around and spotted an open bench. He started walking towards it and Umber swiftly followed behind him, excited to try the weird fruit that Flame had. They both sat down and Flame took two of them out of the bag and handed one to Umber. Umber opened his maw and was about to take a big bite of it before Flame stopped him.
"Umber, that's not how you eat it. The outside isn't edible. Here, let me show you," Flame said.
Flame took his talon and sliced it down the middle, exposing a bunch of weird yellow beans with green seeds in the middle that gleamed in the sunlight. As soon as Umber saw this, his mouth started watering. He quickly noticed and wiped the spit that was already drooling down his face. He looked around, trying to see if anyone noticed and thankfully nobody did.
Flame scooped out a big chunk of it with his tongue and looked over at Umber who was already cutting his down the middle. His talons slipped and he ended up spilling the goopy yellow seeds all over himself.
"Oops," Umber said while scooping the insides of the passion fruit off of his chest and into his mouth without even thinking.
Immediately, his eyes widened. The fruit tasted sweet and citrusy and it felt like each seed was exploding with flavor like fireworks in his mouth, reaching every corner of his tongue. Instantly, he looked at what was left of the passion fruit inside of its hard shell and stuck his tongue in one of the halves, scooping as much as he could into his mouth.
"I told you you'd like it," Flame said.
"I love it!" Umber said. "You have to find out how to make me something with this!"
"I can try, but no promises," Flame laughed under his breath with a smile forming on his face.
By now, Umber had finished the whole fruit and already had taken another one out of the bag, slicing it in half and scooping out the insides into his mouth.
They both finished their fruit and were on their way home now. They could see their house in the distance, but something was off. There was a strange SkyWing sitting at their door, waiting for them to get home. Umber and Flame both traded expressions of concern while wondering what they wanted.
Once they were closer, they could tell that the SkyWing was female. Her scales were extremely shiny and she had a few gems embedded in them as well. She had many bracelets and rings that had many different colored gems in each of them. Her horns were more rounded at the top and curved inward, and Umber immediately knew who her dragonet was.
They both landed on the path, a few meters away from their doorstep before both shooting her a look of confusion. As they walked towards her, she noticed them and quickly turned to them with a scoff.
"Can…we help you?" Umber questioned.
"Yes actually, you can!" she said with anger in her voice. "My dragonet told me that you two were…uhm…making out in your backyard! Did lying about one of the Dragonets of Destiny being your brother not bring you enough attention? Did you have to bring the dragonets into your little scheme to be the most popular dragons in the neighborhood?"
I knew I shouldn't have said anything! Umber scolded himself.
"We…um…we didn-" Umber was cut off.
"I think what he was trying to say is that what we do is none of your business!" Flame shot her a look that Umber could only recognize as one thing: anger.
Uh oh.
"And for the Dragonet of Destiny thing, he doesn't talk about it for a reason!" Flame yelled. "So how about you go back to your perfect house with your whitey-tidy counters and perfectly sorted scale polishers and leave us alone, you useless lizard!"
Both the SkyWing and Umber stood there with their jaws on the ground and shock written all over their faces. Umber hadn't expected for Flame to get so angry over something so small, but he was grateful that he said something because one thing's for sure: Umber wouldn't have been able to bring himself to say something like that.
"How dare you!" the SkyWing started as if she was about to go off on a never-ending rant. Her face burned with anger and her eyes looked as if they were as fiery as the sun, threatening to scorch everything that crossed her gaze.
"Yep-, time to go inside Flame." Umber panicked and started pushing Flame through the door before he could react. "H-Have a nice day," Umber stuttered out before slamming it behind them as if they were running from someone dangerous. For all they know, that SkyWing could've been about to kill them so Umber thought that was an appropriate reaction. She definitely seemed like she did with the anger in her eyes.
"Did you really have to be that mean about it?" Umber questioned.
"She was yelling at us for no reason!" Flame reminded.
"I mean, she kinda did have a reason," Umber admitted. "We did make out in front of her dragonet for who knows how long."
"But the thing about you lying about Clay being your brother! Why would anyone lie about that?" Flame said. "Besides, the look on her face when I called her a useless lizard was priceless!"
"Heh, I guess it was pretty funny," Umber smiled, looking down at his talons. "Hopefully we don't have to worry about her anymore now."
That's when Umber's eyes gazed across the kitchen, recognizing the mess that they had left behind. It was the same as it was when Flame pulled him out the door.
"You just gonna stand there and look at it or are you gonna help me, MudWing," Flame said playfully.
Umber shot him a smile and they both walked into the kitchen. He quickly grabbed his necklace off of the one clean counter and put it back on. They began washing the dishes, cleaning the countertops, and making sure that everything was still warm and ready to be flown to the beach. There was one dish that Flame didn't want him to see which he thought was weird, but didn't think too much of it.
An hour later, the kitchen was finally clean. Every surface was perfectly shiny as if Turtle himself came over and cast a spell to make everything look brand new. There wasn't even a spec of food on any of the counters. Flame knew that out of any dragon he knew, Umber would be the most qualified to figure that out. Flame sometimes thought that he could sense where food is just by stepping into the room at times.
Flame gripped his talons around the handle of the shiny metal tower of plates that had all of the food inside and started to the door, signaling for Umber to follow him. The plates were heavy; too heavy for Umber to fly with but not for him to carry. Regardless he didn't say anything to Umber who was already at the door next to him.
Maybe he's more excited about this than I am, Flame joked to himself.
"You ready?" Flame said while opening the door.
"R-Ready as ever," Umber said.
Flame looked over at Umber and saw his face. He recognized the look that he was met with; he was nervous about something, but Flame couldn't tell what he was nervous about.
Chromis's hatching day? He thought. No, definitely not. Maybe it's the dragonets? Then it hit him like a boulder that had just gotten launched from a trebuchet. It's that SkyWings mother… How could I have forgotten about that?!
"Umber," Flame said, catching his attention immediately. "don't worry about that SkyWing from before. If she tries anything, I'll shove a rock up her nose and force her to dance!" Flame joked. Obviously, this worked because Umber giggled a little after he said this.
"Are you actually ready to leave now?" Flame asked. "Or are there any other dragons you want me to take care of?"
"You always make me feel better." Umber gave him a peck on the cheek
"I'll take that as a yes," Flame said. "Now let's get going, this thing is heavy!"
Flame opened the door and walked out into the warm sunlight. There was a slight breeze that countered the heat from the sun. The combination of the two made him feel more relaxed than he did all day. Now that everything was going smoothly, he could stop worrying about anything going wrong. That was until, he saw the SkyWing from before standing around 50 feet from their house, staring at them. She shot them a scowl and Flame gave Umber a kiss on the cheek while looking at her as a response, indirectly saying "go away because I'm not in the mood to have my day ruined again". Thankfully, Umber didn't see her and they took off in the direction of the beach.
After an exhausting 20-minute flight for Flame, they finally reached the beach for hopefully the last time. There were a few things set up, but Flame could see the rest of the decorations scattered all over the sand. Avalanche and Shrimp were busy setting up a few other decorations from what Flame could see.
They landed on the sand with a thump, leaving their talon prints embedded in the sand where they landed. The sand was warm and Flame could hear the waves crashing in the distance as if they were bolts of lightning crashing down during a thunderstorm. The wind was blowing in his face, slowly cooling him down from the flight there.
They began walking towards Avalanche and Shrimp before they were spotted by the SeaWing, who was now standing on a chair, struggling to get a sign connected between the two poles from before.
"Flame! Umber! You're right on time!" Shrimp said. "Umber, can you hold the other side of this while I try to get this side on?"
"Of course!" Umber said, running over to him and leaving Flame with the plates still in his talons. His arms were burning at this point and all he wanted to do was set it down.
"Gee, thanks Umber," Flame said as he scurried his way over to the table and set the massive metal tower down on the table.
"Oops, sorry Flame," Umber said, already standing on one of the chairs with one side of the sign in his talons.
"Nah, it's fine," Flame said. "Besides, I deserve it for what I said earlier."
Flame still felt a little residual guilt from earlier. He wished he could hug Umber and wrap his wings all around him and tell him how sorry he was, but words couldn't describe how sorry he really was. The only thing he could do now is hope that Umber knew how bad he felt about it.
Think more next time! Flame thought to himself. Don't let Umber carry your burden! He doesn't deserve it!
Flame looked over at the sign and his brain had finally recognized what it said. It read "HAPPY FIRST HATCHING PARTY!" in many different colored letters. They were all randomized but the colors consisted of red, yellow, blue, green, pink, and orange. Flame thought it was all too colorful, but as long as Chromis liked it, he liked it.
Umber and Shrimp finally got the sign up and it began waving in the wind, making the two poles wiggle in the sand. Flame assumed that the sign must be acting like some sort of artificial wing, pushing and pulling on the poles.
"You two will have to take over for a little while we go get Chromis and Simoom," Avalanche said. "There aren't many decorations left to put up, so you should get done by the time we all get back. His friends should be coming later, so don't worry about making everything perfect."
"Simoom is coming?" Umber asked.
"Of course she's coming!" Avalanche said. "She wouldn't miss his first hatching party for anything!"
"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense," Umber said.
"Alright, we gotta go," she said, signaling for Shrimp to follow her to which he quickly jumped off of the chair and ran over to her. "WE'LL BE BACK SOON," she yelled, now in the air.
There only a few decorations left to set up and Flame guessed that it wouldn't take long. He looked over at Umber who shot him a competitive look with his talons dug into the sand. Flame shot him the same expression, knowing what was about to unfold.
Oh, it's on, Flame thought.
Immediately, Flame scrambled around, grabbing at any decoration he could and looking around for their place. He grabbed a colorful napkin holder and quickly placed it on the table next to the massive metallic tower of plates and quickly ran back to the pile of decorations, kicking up sand as he ran.
That's 1! He thought.
He grabbed at another decoration, which was the napkins that belonged to the napkin holder that he just placed down. The napkins had many splotches of colorful paint on them which had the same colors as the sign. Quickly, he ran over to the table, shaking off any sand that could've gotten on them, and placed them down inside the napkin holder.
That's 2!
He raced back once again, and he and Umber both grabbed onto the same item at the same time. They both stared each other in the eyes for a couple of moments before Flame quickly let go and grabbed onto another decoration, running and setting it down in its respective place before Umber could react.
3!
He ran over, grabbed another decoration and set it down, and kept doing it until the pile was completely gone. The sand was barren and all that could be seen were imprints of talons all over and many piles of kicked-up sand from running.
That's 11! There's no way Umber could've beaten that! He thought.
"So, how many less did you get than me, Umber?" Flame said with a smug look on his face.
"I think the question is, how many less did you get than me?" Umber retorted.
"Well, I got 11! Let's see you beat that!" Flame said.
"Oh, those are just rookie numbers," Umber said. "I got 14!"
"Wha- how! You must've cheated!" Flame said.
"Stop being a poor sport and just admit that I'm the faster…uh…decoration setter-upper than you!" Umber said. There was silence for a couple of moments before Umber reminded Flame of what he said. "Say it!"
"UGH! Fine!" Flame said. "You're the better decoration setter-whatever you said than me," he finished with a grunt.
There was a pause, where they both paused and Flame gave him a light smile.
They were alone, on a beach for at least the next couple of minutes, only a week away from their anniversary, and Flame could do everything but control his emotions at this point.
Obviously, Umber had the same idea as they both inched their faces closer together at almost the exact same time, their eyes dancing as they glimmered in the sunlight.
Flame's turned his head to the side and closed his eyes, meeting a familiar set of lips that he never got tired of meeting. They both slowly fell to their side, intertwining their tails as they slowly kissed on the soft bed of warm sand while the sunlight reflected off of their scales. Every time they kissed, it ignited a spark in Flame that refused to go out until one of them dared to pull away. This time, he really was in paradise while kissing Umber; grains of sand getting in between his scales while the soft ocean waves crashed in the background.
They gripped each other tightly, pushing their snouts together as Flame thought of the many futures they could have together. He thought of how they could adopt a dragonet together as if it was their own. Or how they could get married and lay together on a beach like this one, gazing up at the moons every night for an eternity or two. Or, how they could travel all of Pyrrhia together and observe nature at its finest. Sometimes, he wished he could see the many different futures like Clearsight and Darkstalker could and ponder on the best ones for hours, trying his best to shape them into reality with just the thought of them.
Flame lay there for a few minutes, cherishing every moment with him as if they were his last. His mind picked up on wings beating in the background and he quickly poked his head up and out of the love-driven trance that he was in, but it was too late; Simoom, Chromis, Avalanche, and Shrimp were already staring at them while hovering in the air.
"Not in front of the dragonet!" Simoom shouted, trying to cover Chromis's eyes by flying in front of him. She couldn't exactly cover his eyes though, or she would probably accidentally knock him out of the sky; or worse, pierce him with her tail barb.
There wasn't a cactus in sight and certainly not any for miles, so it was probably for the best.
Both Umber and Flame quickly scrambled to their talons, trying to ignore the fact that that had been the second time they had been caught that day by dragonets.
"Oh…uh- sorry. We just finished setting up everything and got a little…" Umber looked over at Flame. "...preoccupied."
"Yes…we can tell," Simoom said, obviously getting uncomfortable at the thought of what she saw.
Avalanche and Shrimp were used to it though. They had caught Umber and Flame doing this many, many times before so at this point, it wasn't unordinary to either of them. One time, Avalanche had reluctantly agreed to come visit Flame and Umber. Chromis hadn't liked the flight there, so imagine how he felt when he opened the door to see his brother making out with Umber on the couch.
"Anyways," Simoom said, hoping to change the subject. "let's get this party started!"
Authors note: MY HEART COULD HARDLY TAKE FLAME AND UMBER IN THIS CHAPTER! It was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions for me, but I'm glad I got through it in one piece. I stayed up super late finishing the last part of this because I couldn't go to sleep knowing how close I was to finishing my favorite chapter yet (around 6am haha). This definitely tells me how hard things are going to get later in this story because things…they get really emotional, I'll just say that. Also, semicolons and figurative language! Yay! I'm super proud of how I did with some of the things in this chapter, especially the beginning part.
