They all landed in the sand with a thump, furdling their wings back in. Umber thought that Chromis looked especially small now that there were so many other adult dragons around him. He was definitely bigger than he was a year ago, but Umber couldn't tell because of how gradual the change was.

Quickly, Simoom trotted her way over to them and shot them a stone-cold gaze. Her eyes threatened to turn Umber to stone if he so much as moved the wrong way. He unconsciously tried making himself seem smaller and backed up a bit behind Flame.

Umber and Simoom had met a few times before and from what he could tell, Simoom was not one you wanted to make angry. Her gaze was even scarier than Umber's and she was insanely protective over Chromis, yelling at any dragon who even looked at him the wrong way. He could only imagine the scolding they were about to get from her. He bit his tongue as she got closer, wishing that she would just stop short and back off, but she didn't; she kept walking until she was only a few feet away from them both. Her gaze was even more apparent now, and Umber pulled his wings even closer to him than before.

"You two better behave for this," Simoom said through her teeth. "because if I figure out that Chromis sees you two do that again, you're gonna wish you were never hatched."

Umber looked over at Flame who had the same terrified expression that he did. This caught even Umber off guard because normally, Flame would be yelling at her at this point, probably saying many profanities and insults. Looking at even Flame scared made Umber shiver all the way from his head, through his wings, down his spine, and all the way to the tip of his tail. This was the only dragon he had ever seen Flame be scared of. The only dragon except for Stonemover, of course.

The only thing that Umber managed to do was do a quick, nervous nod at her. The type of nod you would expect to see from a dragon whose life was on the line.

"SO!" Simoom yelled. "Why don't we all play a game of hide and seek while we wait for your friends to get here, Chromis." Simoom shot a friendly smile at Chromis, who was standing beside Avalanche and Shrimp still.

She-, she just switched up that fast? Umber thought.

He looked up at her face and couldn't even see a twitch of anger on it anymore. It was like it was a curse and Chromis was the cure. Umber hadn't seen many other dragons who could just switch up their mood like that, especially after seeing the fire in her eyes.

"Yay! I love hide and seek," Chromis said, jumping in the air and kicking up sand as it got blown in the wind.

"I know you do." Simoom chuckled a little under her breath. "Are you two playing?" Simoom said, shooting her death glare at Flame and Umber. It made Umber feel cornered like he didn't have a choice, so he just frantically nodded his head.

"A-Are you playing, Flame?" Umber said, looking over at Flame.

"Uh-." Flame looked at Simoom. "Y-Yeah! Of course I am!" Flame said with a nervous laugh.

"I wanna go first! I wanna go first!" Chromis said.

Simoom started taking a step closer to Chromis, to which he immediately backed up.

"No! I want to try and hide alone this time," Chromis said.

"Are you sure? I mean, I don't want you getting lost or anything-," Simoom said.

"Pleassseee!" Chromis begged. "I'll be safe, I promise!"

Simoom shot a look at Avalanche and Shrimp to which they gave her a nod of approval.

"Alright, but you have to be super extra quiet this time," Simoom said. "and not tell me exactly where you're hiding."

Chromis just chuckled at this, shooting a smile at Flame and Umber. Umber would have probably said yes anyways, but Simoom probably did that as a precaution. He could tell that she really cared for Chromis and wanted to make this party as good for him as she possibly could, no matter how many times she had to put them both in their place.

Simoom then went on to cover her eyes and start counting, which Flame and Umber immediately mimicked.

"ONE!" Simoom counted, signaling to Chromis to start hiding. "TWO! THREE!"

"NINETEEN! TWENTY!" Simoom finished counting and uncovered her eyes. "READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME!"

Umber opened his eyes, immediately scanning for places he could be hiding. The first thing that caught his eye was a little patch of forest down the beach, so Umber thought it would probably be a good idea to check there first. The trees were surprisingly green, the grass was waving in the wind, and the trees looked to be some sort of oak. There were bushes and overgrowth all over the place and it obviously hadn't been maintained. He started walking towards it, and Flame quickly caught up to him. That was until they heard Simoom yell behind them, stopping them dead in their tracks.

"WAIT!" Simoom said. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To the forest? Why do you care?" Flame said.

"Because I'm going with you!" Simoom said. "I'm not going to have you two do something like that again in front of Chromis!"

"Oh, please. If we wanted to go and do that again, we'd just go home," Flame said. "and I'm not missing Chromis's first hatching party for something we have a lifetime to do."

"That's not what it looked like before," Simoom said.

"That was different!" Flame said. "Umber set up more decorations than me, so I had to give him his pr-"

"I'll stop you right there, I don't care anymore," Simoom said.

Umber saw a smirk go across Flame's face as he said this, but that wasn't what he was feeling. His face was getting flustered and all he wanted to do was get on with whatever Simoom wanted to do with them and not talk about anything anymore. He wished that he was home right now, cuddling with Flame on the couch and falling asleep on his shoulder. Even the thought of this brought Umber a warm, excited feeling in his chest. The kind that you feel whenever it's a cold, winter day outside and you're wrapped up in a nice cozy blanket, playing board games and eating food; lots and lots of food.

Why can't today just be normal? Umber thought. Why can't we just play hide and seek and pretend like nothing ever happened?!

As much as he wanted to regret the kiss, he couldn't. He would trade the world just to feel Flame's warm breath against his face as they got lost in each other one more time. Even though they had been together for so long and kissed so many times, he couldn't get enough of it. It was like an addiction that would never subside, no matter how long you went without it.

"WE are going to search the forest as a group. If we split up, we all split up, not just me splitting up from you two," Simoom said.

"Yeah, blah blah blah," Flame said. "we get it, you don't trust us. Can we just get on with this already?" Simoom shot Flame a glare after he said this that terrified Umber to the core.

They were up to the forest at this point and Umber could already tell that this was going to be a long day. Just at a first glance, he could already see thousands of different hiding spots. Some were in bushes, some in overhang from the trees, and there were even some spots where he could just cover himself in leaves and never be found again. Umber started pushing leaves and branches aside, kicking up leaves and even flew up to a few branches that didn't crack under his weight to survey the area. Nothing.

Did he get lost? Are we looking for a dragon that isn't even around here? Maybe if we just keep looking we'll surely find-

"FOUND HIM!" Flame yelled, kicking up leaves in many directions.

Quickly, Umber raced over to where Flame was, and lying underneath all of the leaves, was a rotted wooden log on its side. It had different beige mushrooms growing out of the sides, pointing up at the sun. Just an average, uninteresting log, and certainly not a dragonet.

"Oh…nevermind," Flame said. Umber shot him an unimpressed look.

Umber quickly shot up into the branches of the nearest tree, looking around one more time. This patch of forest wasn't big, so it shouldn't take them too much longer to find Chromis if he was here. He could just imagine Chromis's face right now, probably looking at them and holding back laughs and snickers in some random brush that they haven't checked yet. Then, an image of Chromis flashed through his head — terrified and lost, frantically looking for some other dragon that could lead him back to the beach.

Umber started getting worried again, scared that Chromis might actually be lost. As the seconds ticked by of Chromis still being in hiding, that situation started seeming more and more likely to Umber. He opened his ears, discerning each individual sound from the last listening for even a laugh coming from anywhere nearby. He could hear the caws of the birds, the rustling of leaves, the crickets, and the waves crashing against the sand on the beach, but no laughing, no snickering, no nothing.

Umber was panicking now, scared that his worst fear at this moment was coming true.

"CHROMIS!" Umber yelled. His voice echoed through the trees, bouncing off of the many logs and coming straight back to him. "Should we go back and tell Avalanche and Shrimp?" Umber yelled down to Simoom. "I mean, I can't hear anything and we can't find him! He could be lost…or-"

"Of course you're not going to hear him!" Simoom said. "The entire point of hide and seek is to hide and try to not be found. Besides, Chromis would never get lost. He would just fly up and find his way back at even the thought of getting lost," she assured.

Umber wasn't so sure about this, but he trusted Simoom's judgment. She was his babysitter after all. Regardless, he was still nervous about Chromis.

Maybe I'm overreacting, he thought. He might not be here, but he might be hiding somewhere else.

"I don't think he's here," Umber said. "Maybe we should look somewhere else?"

"Yeah, we've been looking here for at least fifteen minutes," Flame said. "Can we ju-" he paused. "Wait, why am I asking you for permission? I'm looking somewhere else. You can either come and look with me, or you can stay here and keep looking for a needle in a haystack. C'mon Umber."

He's right. Why are we listening to her? Umber thought. Why is she acting like OUR babysitter? We're adults!

Without hesitation, Umber jumped off of the tree and started gliding towards Flame, smacking into multiple different branches and leaves on the way. At this moment, he stopped caring about what Simoom was telling them to do. He was here to have fun with Chromis, and his overprotective babysitter wasn't going to stop him from doing that.

He looked back and could see Simoom's face; she was not happy.

"I swear by the moons! If you two-" she was cut off.

"Make out in front of Chromis we'll wish we were never hatched," Flame mocked. "We get it." Simoom growled at this.

Umber followed flame through the forest, knocking branches away while they made their way out. Umber didn't dare to look back and see the stone-cold look on Simoom's face; he was scared that looking back would mean certain death.

"She's a mood kill," Flame commented once they were out of earshot. "It's my brother's birthday, so why should I listen to her?

"I think she's just being protective, Flame," Umber said. "I mean, you heard how much she likes Chromis."

Up ahead, they could see the sand through the trees. The light was gleaming through the transparent leaves like a thousand tiny suns spilling their light across the dirt with a golden hue. Now that he could feel the warmth coming from the sunlight, he realized that it was a lot cooler in the tiny forest with all of the canopies dimming out the sun's heat.

Umber pushed his way through the leaves and stepped into the warm sand. He could see Avalanche and Shrimp in the distance, laying in the sand and enjoying the sun's warmth with their tails over their talons.

Maybe they know where Chromis went! Then I can be sure that he isn't missing! Umber thought.

As he made his way to them, he could smell the different foods that Flame made; they were definitely still warm, he could tell from the smell. Umber couldn't wait to eat all of the food that they both made. He imagined all of them making jokes, laughing, and having a good time at the table. Maybe even Simoom would loosen her grip on them both and realize that they didn't need constant supervision.

He started scanning the area of all the different places Chromis could be. There were so many places he could be hiding from what he saw. He could be hiding in the sand, he could be in the water, or he could even be down the shore more, hiding behind a small dune of sand.

Avalanche and Shrimp both shot them a confused look. Umber knew exactly why and could already see Simoom's eyes glaring at him as if it was red-light green-light and she was looking for any excuse to call him out of the game in his head. They were now only a few steps away from Avalanche and Shrimp now.

"Where's Simoom?" Shrimp asked. "Didn't she go with you?"

"She's a total mood kill!" Flame said. "She was treating us like we were the ones being babysat, so we left her behind!"

"She probably has a good reason," Avalanche scoffed. "Besides, you two need to be put under control sometimes so that's probably a good thing." Umber looked over at Flame who was clearly unamused by this.

"By the way," Umber asked. "Do you know where Chromis hid?" There was a moment of suspense between them all. Umber's heart dropped to the silence until Shrimp spoke up.

"Of course we know where he is!" he said. "We're the ones who gave him the idea to hide-" he stopped himself. "Uh- somewhere around here."

Umber felt a wave of relief pass through him. The sun seemed to feel a lot cooler now and he could feel his heart begin to slow. He could tell that he was sweating now, probably from the stress that was put on him.

OH THANK THE MOONS! Umber thought.

"Alright, get going now!" Avalanche said. "Chromis can't wait all day! And his friends will be here soon!"

Umber began looking around the area, checking off places that Chromis could be hiding in his head. The sand dunes were definitely places he would be checking, along with surveying the sand the whole time, making sure that he didn't accidentally step on Chromis because that would definitely hurt a lot; maybe even break a few bones. He looked over at the ocean, but then remembered that Shrimp and Avalanche told him where to hide.

It wouldn't even be fair, Umber thought. None of us here are SeaWings, so how could we possibly find him in the water?

"Alright, Flame," Umber said, immediately grabbing his attention. "We're checking the sand dunes. Make sure to watch where you're stepping because Chromis could be anywhere around here."

He began walking over to one of the sand dunes in the distance, looking down at his talons and scanning the sand in front of him. Every now and again, he would see a crab or two under the sand whenever he stepped too close. He thought of grabbing a few of them to eat, but then imagined crunching down on their hard shells.

Not happening, he thought.

He made it to one of the sand dunes and started looking all around it, digging at the sand to make sure that Chromis wasn't hiding inside. Once he was sure that he wasn't in there, he made his way to the next one, then the next one, then the next one until he and Flame had checked every single dune in the area. They had checked everywhere at this point and surely Simoom would've found him by now if she was still looking. It had been at least another fifteen minutes at this point and Umber wondered how a dragonet could hide so long without making any noise.

"Where could he be?!" Umber said. He was getting a bit frustrated at this point, but then looked over to the sea and realized that it was the only place they hadn't checked yet. "What if he…" he trailed off.

No way, Umber thought.

Flame could tell that Umber had realized something from the familiar look on his face.

"What? Do you know where he is?" Flame said.

"I might have an idea," Umber said.

He began walking over to the water and dipped his talons in. The water was warmer than it was at the stream behind their house, so Umber didn't mind getting in this time. He walked into the water, treading deeper and deeper until it was up to his shoulders, then he ducked his head under the water and began swimming out more.

He began swimming up and down the shoreline underwater, observing many different fish that swam away whenever he tried to catch one. Once he finally caught one, he immediately let go of it when he saw the outline of a young, blue-purple-red dragonet sleeping on the ocean floor. He started swimming over to the dragonet as fast as he could knowing full well who it was.

He tapped Chromis on the shoulder, waking him up from his slumber. He took one look at Umber and instinctively flashed different scales; Umber assumed he was probably speaking aquatic out of habit. Shrimp has been teaching him aquatic ever since he first hatched, and he was definitely getting good at it.

He shot Chromis a confused look before signaling him to go to the surface by pointing his talon up.


As Flame lay in the sand waiting for Umber's head to pop up out of the water, he began looking around at all of the different wildlife. He tried to name each bird by how they looked, tried to observe each crab he saw, and sometimes a fish would even jump out of the water further down the shoreline. It had been at least ten minutes since Umber went underwater and he couldn't help but start to worry.

Maybe he got stuck? Maybe MudWings can only hold their breath for an hour while standing still? Maybe-

All of his worries were quickly whisked away when he saw a bright glow underwater up the shoreline, like a thousand glow worms all lighting up at the same time. A few seconds later, he saw a familiar brown and blue-purple-red face pop up out of the water. Flame looked over at Avalanche and Shrimp who both fell asleep in the sand. He thought of going over there and kicking sand in their face for telling Chromis to hide in the ocean but then realized that that's something the old Flame would be doing right now.

Another wave of guilt began singeing his entire body, refusing to let go as he remembered everything that happened earlier. Everything kept reminding him of how he made Umber feel, and that made him feel even worse knowing that he put him through that for years. He just wanted to bang his head against a wall until all of the horrible things he could do or say were knocked out of it, but there weren't any walls around. He was so stressed out by shame and guilt that he felt like crying.

Umber and Chromis both started swimming over to him while he stood there, deep in thought, and hardly even recognized that Umber was calling his name.

"FLAME!" Umber called out in the distance. "I FOUND HIM!"

Flame stood there, still too lost in thought to even begin to hear him for a few minutes before Umber got to shore with Chromis next to him. Chromis ran back over to Avalanche and Shrimp, waking them up by jumping on them with his wings open.

"Flame…?" Umber said, tapping him on the shoulder, bringing Flame back to reality with a jump as if he was just brought back to life after being dead for an eternity. "You OK?" Umber said softly.

"Oh- yeah," Flame said. "j-just…thinking," he said with a shaky voice.

He looked up at Umber and could see his face. All he could see was a dripping wet frown with a concerned look. He realized that he was hurting Umber just by keeping his feelings to himself and even more guilt mixed with sadness washed over him. At this, he got even closer to crying; crying and letting all of his feelings spill out.

"Flame, I know somethings wrong," Umber said. "Why won't you just tell me what happe-"

Hearing this made Flame uncontrollably fall into Umber with a hug, soaking his scales as they met. Tears started streaming down his face in fat globs and all he wanted to do was pour all of his feelings out on a slate so that Umber could see how sorry he was, and that's exactly what he did. His talons gripped against Umber's back and after a few seconds of whimpering, he could feel Umber grip back and that made him begin to cry even harder. More tears began to pour down his face and his heart began beating faster, feeling like it might explode any second now.

"I-I'm sorry!" Flame apologized. His chest began to get tight as he choked on his words.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" Umber asked.

"For…for everything," Flame said. "I want to tell you how sorry I am about earlier, but I-I just don't know how, then I saw the look on your face and I realized that I was hurting you by not telling you a-and…I'm sorry."

"You're…you're still upset about that?" Umber said, pulling away so that he could look at Flame and started wiping the tears off of his face.

Flame gave a quick nod because he didn't feel like he would be able to say anything else without choking on his own spit, but alas, he couldn't stop himself.

"I feel like the worst boyfriend in the world right now!" Flame said. "You deserve so much more than me! You deserve someone who will actually listen to you and not some SkyWing who's trying to be someone he'll never be!" Even more, tears began rolling down his face and dripped onto the already-soaked sand.

"F-Flame…I-I didn't…" Umber stuttered out. He stood there in shock for a few seconds, trying to collect himself and formulate a sentence. "I meant what I said, Flame," he said. "I forgive you and I forgave you for all of the mistakes you've made in the past. I love you, and nothing is going to change that. I would never leave you for a better dragon, because there's not a dragon in Pyrrhia that I would ever love more than I do you. And, you have changed! You've changed so much since we first met! You probably wouldn't have even given this a second thought if you hadn't!" he reminded, pulling him back into a hug that was even tighter than before.

They hugged for a few minutes before Umber pulled away and stared into his eyes. His gaze made Flame's soul feel whole again. It made him feel like all the life that was sucked out of him before was getting pumped right back in.

"How about we go back and tell Simoom that we found Chromis?" Umber said.

Flame gave Umber a nod and they turned around and started to walk back. Flame looked over at the table and saw Simoom sitting there already staring at them. Flame ignored her gaze as they walked back, before shooting her a scowl. Once they got back, Chromis leaped in the air with joy.

"I want Flame and Umber to hide next!" Chromis said. He assumed that Chromis hadn't seen what happened when he left, or just didn't understand it. Flame was calm at this point and was excited to get on with the game. He could feel the dried tears against his eyes.

"Are you sure?" Simoom asked. "Why don't I hide with Umber and you and Flame can find us?" Simoom suggested.

Flame knew that she liked Umber more, so this didn't come to much of a surprise to him. He was definitely offended that she still wouldn't let them hide together even after Chromis said he wanted them to, but he didn't want to say anything. He was already emotionally exhausted after spilling his heart out to Umber. He just wanted to cuddle him and fall asleep on his shoulder at this moment.

"I want Flame and Umber to hide though!" Chromis said. "It's my hatching day, so why can't they hide together?"

"It's complicated," Simoom said. "You'll understand one day."

"I don't even want to play this stupid game anymore then!" Chromis pouted.

Simoom looked at him hesitantly for a moment, probably assessing everything that could happen between Flame and Umber if they hid together.

"Fine!" she reluctantly agreed. "Flame, Umber, go hide. You have twenty seconds to find a spot so I can find you two before anything happens," she said while covering her eyes. "ONE!" she warned. Immediately, Umber started running as fast as he could toward the forest and Flame quickly followed.

Once they reached the forest, Flame saw Umber disappear into the many leaves and branches. He was roughly able to track Umber from the sound of his footsteps. All of a sudden, Umber's footsteps stopped. Flame immediately halted and looked around, confused about where he could have gone so suddenly. It was as if he had just disappeared into thin air, ceasing to exist.

"Umber?" Flame called out. "Where are yo-"

He was cut off when he felt talons grab his ankle, tripping him and beginning to pull him. It all happened so fast that Flame hardly had time to react. He was pulled into a hole that was hidden by a bush, just big enough for two dragons. It was dark and the bushes were thick and spiky, but he wasn't pricked thanks to his scales. He was about to reflexively blow fire at whatever had dragged him until he saw the outline of a dragon's face that looked extremely similar to Umber's.

"HEY!" Flame yelled. "Don't make me-...Umber?"

"It's me, Flame," Umber whispered. "Be quiet!"

"O-Okay!" Flame whispered back.

Flame could feel the warmth of Umber's scales. They had to cuddle up tight in order for both of them to be able to fit in this hole, but Flame didn't mind. This is where he wanted to be: alone with Umber for just a few minutes so that they could cuddle and Flame could recover his strength from before.

Flame began to rest his head on Umber's shoulder after a few minutes, realizing that he could just lay here like this until they inevitably found them. When Flame did this, Umber rested his head on top of his. They lay there, listening to the many birds chirping, squirrels climbing up trees, and other kinds of life scurrying around above them.

After a couple more minutes, he began to hear the footsteps of something larger than the occasional squirrel; actually, it was a few somethings. He guessed that it was Simoom and Chromis looking around, probably about to find them both any moment now. This was confirmed when Flame heard a few voices begin to talk.

"Chromis, go check that patch of bushes over there, and I'll go check the trees for them," Simoom said. "It won't take long to find them, trust me. YOU HEAR THAT FLAME AND UMBER? WE'RE GOING TO FIND YOU IN A MINUTE SO MAKE SURE TO BE PREPARED!"

Does she really think all we do is make out? Flame thought. Has she ever even been in love?

"What exactly does she think we're doing?" Umber whispered.

"Who cares," Flame whispered back. "I just want to lay here and relax while it lasts."

They have had such a long day and Flame was already exhausted. They only got a few hours of sleep, stayed up most of the night making food, had to carry all of the food to the party, and now were expected to play hide and seek on a large beach with so many places to hide. Not to mention that he had just been crying his eyes out to Umber fifteen minutes ago and felt weak.

As he listened to the footsteps of Simoom, Chromis, and the many different animals above them, he felt a strange sense of calm fall over him. It was as if every worry he ever had was erased from his mind at that moment. His scales were absorbing the warmth of Umber's and all he could think about was how much he was dreading Simoom or Chromis finding them. He really needed this break; he had been working so hard to make everything perfect all day.

His eyes began to feel heavy as his head rested against Umber's shoulder. He was fading in and out of sleep, desperately trying to stay awake in case Simoom and Chromis didn't find them and they ended up sleeping there all night. After a while, he finally gave in to sleep and drifted off into peaceful darkness.

Flame opened his eyes with Umber's head still resting on his. After being confused for a moment, he quickly shot his head up, throwing Umber's up and against the dirt and instantly waking him up. He looked around and saw the sun was getting lower in the sky.

He popped his head up and out of the bush to confirm what he was looking at, and the sun was a little lower than before; this meant that they had been sleeping for at least an hour now. Before, the sun was around 45 degrees to the West which meant it was around three hours past noon. Now it was around 10 degrees lower than before.

"UMBER!" Flame yelled. "WAKE UP!"

"Geez, Flame," Umber said. "I was already awake once you slammed my head against the…" he trailed off. "How long have we been asleep?!"

"At least an hour?" Flame said.

"AN HOUR?!" Umber yelled. "WE NEED TO GET BACK!"

"Well no sh-" Flame stopped himself. "I mean obviously!" Umber didn't seem to notice this though, which Flame was relieved to realize.

Umber jumped out of the hole, pushing the thorny bush out of the way, and quickly began sprinting back the way they came from and Flame quickly followed. He did get pricked a couple of times while coming out, but he didn't say anything. In fact, he hardly felt it from the adrenaline that was pumping through his veins.

They stepped on many different twigs that made a snap under their talons and tripped on many different roots that were strutting out of the ground. They were punching and pushing and jumping through the forest as fast as they could, hoping that they weren't being looked for the whole time. While running, Flame accidentally kicked a crab. He thought it was pretty funny but quickly forgot about it when he remembered why they were running.

He could see the light through the trees now; they were close. As they neared the exit of the thick forest, they could see everyone except Avalanche sitting around the table, joking and laughing. He looked over at the platter of food and from what he could see, it was untouched. He was especially scared that Chromis might eat the pie before he could show it to Umber.

As they broke through the trees, they continued to sprint over to everyone. They all looked at them both as they got closer and Flame was expecting them to be happy that they were safe, but that didn't happen. They all almost looked unsurprised that they were back.

"Oh, hey!" Shrimp yelled. "We were waiting for you to uh…get done with whatever you were doing." Flame and Umber were both standing in front of the table now.

"Oh, yeah sorry," Umber said. "We kinda fell asleep while hiding," he panted.

"Mhmm," Simoom hummed.

"What did you tell them we were doing, Simoom?!" Flame demanded with a huff.

"Well, I-" Simoom was cut off.

"Look, it doesn't matter," Shrimp said. "We're just glad you got back on time. Avalanche should be back any minute now."

"Where did she go?" Umber questioned.

"She went to pick up Atlantic and Endwatcher," Shrimp said. "and a few other things," he winked.

She's getting that cake I bet, Flame thought. Gross.

Flame hated buttercream cakes because they were far too sweet for him. He hated the flavor, he hated how hard it got when chilled, and he hated the amount of sugar they added to it; he liked nothing about it and certainly wasn't going to act like he did.

More for Chromis… Flame thought. And probably Umber, too.

He went to sit down and put his head down and Umber sat next to him and cuddled beside him. He was still tired from before and was surprised that his sleepiness hadn't been fully taken away by the adrenaline he got when he woke up. He was going to try and get as much sleep as he could now while he had time. The moments right before he fell asleep had been the calmest moments he had all day. Maybe even all week.

After a few minutes, he could hear multiple pairs of wings beating in the background. He knew exactly who it was without needing to even look up: Avalanche, Atlantic, and Endwatcher. He poked his head up to see them all flying toward them just as he expected. He noticed that Avalanche was holding a giant metal platter, much like the one Flame had, except it was only one plate instead of many.

He heard another pair of wings shoot up beside him, blowing air into his face and sending the many napkins that he had set up earlier flying. Chromis had flung himself into the air and collided with Atlantic and Endwatcher in the air. They began flying around and wrestling each other in the air.

Without a second thought, Flame started to stand up to grab the many napkins that he had sent flying all over the sand before Shrimp put his talons on his shoulder.

"Sit back down, Flame," Shrimp said. "I can pick them up. You've done enough today and I can tell you're clearly tired."

Flame didn't hesitate to sit down. He watched as Shrimp picked up each of the napkins. Flame held his talons out so that Shrimp could hand them over to him. He couldn't just sit there and watch him pick up each napkin when he could be helping. Reluctantly, Shrimp handed him the napkin and he put them back in the holder.

That's when Avalanche thumped down onto the sand with the metal platter in her talons. The rounded outside had been a little chilled, so he knew that it had to be pretty cold. Flame wanted to grab it for her, but he knew that she wouldn't let him either, so he didn't even try.

She set down the platter on the table, next to the food that Flame had made, and called for Chromis and his friends to come down.

"Chromis! Atlantic! Endwatcher!" she yelled. "Come down! We're all going to sing to Chromis soon!"

Without hesitation, they all barreled down toward the ground and came to a stop right before it, and thumped down on the sand. They ran over to the table and swiftly sat down while giggling and laughing together.

Thank the moons that Chromis has had a better dragonethood than me, Flame thought. He began smiling to himself about this and leaned against Umber and rested his head against his shoulder while looking around the table. Everyone was smiling and laughing, even Simoom.


Author's note: Okay, I had to add another emotional part because I'm a sucker for the parts like this haha. This chapter is out a little sooner than usual because I got pretty sick and all I had to do that day was write. Anyways, I hope I did everything right and made this chapter enjoyable. Once again, my pms are always open for you to message me and I check them regularly. Alternatively, you can message me on discord. My username is Amisgal#8679. I always love talking to people about Healed 2 and I'm really proud of how it's turned out so far!