Umber opened his eyes to the bright, morning light. His scales were warm against Flame's as they touched and their tails were wrapped around each other. They weren't intertwined exactly, even though that's how he remembered them falling asleep, but one was on top of the other. As feeling finally came through his body, a moment of Flame losing it flashed through his head. He thought that he had done a pretty decent job of calming him down, or it was the fact that Flame saw his tears from the fear of losing him over something so pointless. He didn't care though as long as he calmed him down and diverted him away from doing something so pointless.
After Flame had woken up from Umber's shoulder last night, Flame had gone and made himself something else to eat while Umber ran how he wanted the anniversary to go through his head a few times, picking and choosing the places he wanted to bring Flame before they went and ate. He ultimately decided on this beautiful mountaintop that had a perfect view of a lot of the Sky Kingdom in all of its glory. You could see the many different dragons walking the path, the red, brown, and beige houses lining the streets, and the center of the town where all of the markets were bustling with activity as dragons ate and shopped.
As he tried to sit up, he was quickly pushed back down by something. He took under the blanket and could clearly see Flame's bright red wing covering him. He had been doing this a lot more recently and Umber assumed it was either because of their anniversary coming up, or he wanted to keep Umber close because he was going out alone more often.
"Flame, wake up." Umber tapped Flame on his shoulder. "You have your wing around me again."
"What'd you say?" Flame said drowsily. He took a couple of seconds to look around before realizing what was happening. "Oh, sorry." He tucked his wing back in.
Umber finally sat up and looked around the room. The morning light was shining through the windows, reflecting off of his and Flame's necklaces. He was grateful that Avalanche had given it to Flame as a gift so that they could match. It wasn't much compared to many other dragons in the Sky Kingdom, but that's not what he cared about; he cared that there were dragons out there that were kind enough to give the expensive jewelry to them.
Then a jolt of excitement hit him when he realized what today was; it was their anniversary. One year ago today, Umber had agreed to take the next step in their relationship and officially start dating Flame. He looked over at Flame and by the massive smile and glint in his eyes, he had this sudden realization too.
After a few seconds of staring, he leaped up and gave Umber a great big bear hug, pinning his arms to the sides of his body as Flame's arms and wings wrapped their full length around Umber.
"You're…kind of squishing me," Umber said.
"Oops," Flame said as he furdled his wings back in and released his grip from Umber. "It's our anniversary though!"
"I know!" Umber said excitedly. "I just…don't want to mess this up."
"Oh, calm down MudWing," Flame said. "I'm sure it'll be fine." He shot Umber a smile that instantly swept all of his worries away as if they were being dragged down a river and Umber gave him a light smile back. "I'll make us some breakfast, alright?"
Hearing the word "breakfast" instantly made Umber's stomach growl. As much as he didn't like Flame making him breakfast in the morning, he hadn't eaten anything last night because he was too focused on keeping Flame calm.
"Oh, sure!" Umber said.
"What do you want?" Flame asked.
"I'll have…uh." Umber thought for a moment. "...eggs are fine I guess."
He got up out of bed and rubbed the side of his face against the blankets while he was getting up. Then he felt something fall on the side of his face so he rubbed his talons against it and could feel the weird rough texture of the surface of whatever was stuck there. He quickly figured out what it was once he peeled it off of his face. It was his bandage that they bought yesterday and the cotton was stained with blood.
Gross, he thought.
He obviously caught the attention of Flame with this and could see the same look of disgust on his face as he stood up.
"We need to change that," Flame said. "I found some more bandages that we had stuffed under the sink last night."
Umber watched as Flame stood up and walked toward the door. He was walking strangely which is something Umber found weird, so he took another look at where he was stepping and could tell that he was intentionally stepping over certain floorboards, making no noise with each step he took. Their floorboards were incredibly creaky and Umber quickly realized that this is how he made him breakfast without waking him up.
"Flame," Umber called out. "why are you walking like that?" He already knew the answer to this but wanted to see if Flame would tell the truth.
"I…uh- I should go get those bandages," Flame hurriedly said. "Y'know, before it gets infected." He began walking faster and before he knew it, he was out the door and in the kitchen.
What a little snake, Umber thought.
Umber began walking toward the door and into the living room where he could see one of their candles was completely burned down. It was a white candle that was considerably long and thick and was advertised to last at least thirty hours. The white wax was all over the candle holder and the wick was completely burned.
Last night, Umber remembered that Flame had lit that candle once they woke up and they forgot to blow it out before they went to sleep. That candle had at least four to five hours of use left, but not anymore.
Darn it! Umber thought. That candle was expensive!
He looked over into the kitchen and could see Flame rummaging through the cabinets under the sink, taking out many different cleaners, garbage bags, and even candles they didn't know they had and setting them on the floor before he stopped and reached all the way in the back, pulling out a bandage. The bandage packaging looked similar to the one he had on before, but it was a little bigger and the packaging didn't indicate it had any alcohol on it already.
"Alright, I found it!" Flame yelled from the kitchen. "It doesn't have any alcohol on it though."
"Do we have any?" Umber walked into the kitchen.
"I don't think so," Flame said as he put everything back in the cupboard that he took out.
Umber walked over to the garbage and threw the dirty bandage in it. He looked down at the bandage as it sat in the garbage, then an image of the SkyWing popped in his head right before he struck him. His eyes were full of hate and confidence and his posture radiated the same energy as he stood tall and kept his arms straight, with no sign of any hesitation or regret in what he was doing. It was as if he didn't think what he was doing was wrong. Just like Icicle.
He gave a visual wince to this and Flame obviously noticed this by the way he shot him a concerned look.
"Umber? Are you okay?" Flame asked.
"O-Oh…uhm, yeah." Umber stuttered. "of course." He quickly turned away from Flame because he didn't want to see the worry in his eyes at this obvious lie.
"Umber," Flame called out. "I know something's wrong. Ever since that dream on the beach, you've been acting strange and I'm getting worried. Can you please just tell me what happened?"
I can't keep lying to him, Umber thought.
"I-...I'll tell you once we get home," Umber said with his back still turned toward him. "I just…don't want to talk about it right now. Not before our anniversary."
"Alright, take your time." There was a moment of silence. "Let's get this bandage on you now."
Umber cautiously turned back around to look at Flame, scared to see the worry in his eyes once again. To his surprise, there was none though. Umber assumed that he didn't seem worried anymore because he agreed to talk to him about it and all he did was stand there with the bandage in his talons waiting for Umber to come over so that he could put it on.
Umber walked over to him while staring at the bandage so that he could see what was going to be on his face for the rest of the day. The main thing he was looking for was how well the bandage blended in with his scales. It was brown, but not quite brown enough for it to be invisible on his scales. Sure, it would be harder to see but you could definitely still see it.
Right as Flame was about to put the bandage on, he pulled his talons back.
"Wait!" Flame exclaimed. "We have to go in the river first."
"Since when are you one to remember to bathe?" Umber asked jokingly.
"Well, today is special," Flame said. "so I'd rather be as clean as possible."
Umber began walking through the kitchen, living room, and toward the back door when he realized that he couldn't hear the footsteps of Flame behind him. He turned around and could see Flame in the kitchen, struggling to get the bandage off of his talons.
"Hurry up Flame," Umber called.
"Just a sec," Flame said. "This bandage won't come off!"
Umber stood there for a few seconds, watching Flame struggle to get the bandage off. Whenever he would pull it off with one of his talons, it got stuck on that one. Then he would try and pull it off with his other talons and then it would get stuck on those too. This went on for a few more seconds before he was finally able to get it off before he threw it in the garbage because the bandage was effectively ruined now.
"There we go," Flame said.
"Quickly! Before we have to leave," Umber said. "I'm not going to swim alone!"
"Calm down, MudWing," Flame said. "I'm coming right now." He began walking over to Umber.
After a few seconds of standing there, Flame finally joined his side and he opened the door.
The bright morning sunlight immediately began beaming into his eyes so he reflexively took a step back and started covering them. His eyes hadn't adjusted to the outside light yet but instead were used to the dim lighting in their house. Most of their windows were covered, except for one in the living room, and their bedroom. Flame didn't seem to be phased though, so he just began walking toward the river.
Umber quickly rushed through the door to catch up with him, his eyes squinting the whole time. He was basically walking blind and the only reason he could find his way was because of Flame talking.
"You okay back there?" Flame asked.
"Yeah, fine. My eyes just haven't adjusted yet," Umber said.
After a few more seconds, his eyes finally adjusted enough to the point where he could at least see where he was going without stumbling all over the place and looking like a dragon that had one too many smokeberries. He could see the winding river with a few dragonets playing in it downstream more, ensuring that they would be left alone while bathing.
Finally, he and Flame got to the river. Umber assumed that the river must be warm enough to swim in if dragonets were swimming in it, but he still wasn't sure because dragonets would swim in anything as long as they were having fun doing it.
One time, Umber came outside on a rainy day to go to the store and watched as a SkyWing was jumping in a muddy puddle. They were sending splashes of mud everywhere and as tempted as Umber was to join them, he remembered that he had to go and get eggs for Flame before the entire thing went bad.
"You coming, Umber?" Flame asked.
"Yeah," Umber said. "just waiting for my eyes to adjust a bit more."
As he stood there waiting for the light to stop hurting his eyes, he felt a set of talons grab his tail and begin to pull. He dug his talons into the dirt as hard as he could to keep his ground, but a second pair of talons latched onto his tail and began pulling even harder. He looked back and could see Flame was already in the river and was pulling him toward it.
"Stop acting like a dragonet and get in here!" Flame said.
He looked around and could see the dragonets were staring at them at this point and whatever game they had been playing before was paused. The group consisted of two SeaWings, a SkyWing, and a MudWing and they looked like they had been splashing around. Not wanting them to see him getting forcefully dragged into the river anymore, he relaxed his talons and let Flame drag him in.
He was yanked into the water with a splash and instinctively began holding his breath right before he went under. The water was surprisingly warm today; much warmer than it had been recently. He opened his eyes and could see the many different shaped rocks being pushed down the stream right beside Flame's legs.
Instantly, he popped his head back up above the water. His eyes were fully adjusted to the bright sunlight at this point and he could see Flame standing there with a smirk on his face.
"What was that for?!" Umber exclaimed once he could catch his breath.
"We have an anniversary to attend!" Flame said playfully. "We can't waste time adjusting our eyes."
"That's in an hour!" Umber said.
"All the more reason to hurry up and get washed off so we can read," Flame said.
"Whatever Flame," Umber said with a laugh.
Umber was looking at the water, thinking of all of the things they would do today. He wanted to make this the best day of Flame's life, so he kept going over everything in his head. His plan was for them to go up to a hill and lay there for a while, then go and get something to eat if he was feeling up to it, then get some tea, and if they had any time left they would go and fly around for a while before going to the restaurant, and then go home.
And then I have to tell him about Crane… Umber thought. Why did I promise to tell him?! No, I have to tell him, even if I don't want to. I mean, we're dating! We're supposed to tell each other everyth-
Umber's thought was interrupted by a splash of water hitting him in the face. At first, he thought that Flame had accidentally splashed him, but then another splash came and he quickly realized that Flame was intentionally splashing him in the face.
"Stop it! I'm warning you!" Umber said. He covered his face with his talons but Flame just kept on splashing him. "Okay, that's it! You asked for it!"
Umber unfurled his wings and stuck them in front of him, blocking the incoming splashes of water and setting him up for something he learned to do back in the Mud Kingdom. He dug his wings as far down into the water as he could, to the point where he could feel the rocks at the bottom, and quickly pushed them forward as hard as he could, sending a giant wave of water into Flame.
The wave knocked Flame back into the water with a splash and he swore he could see him swallow a mouthful of river water as he went under and Umber could already feel himself begin to laugh hysterically at this. Just the sight of seeing Flame getting beaten at his own shenanigans made him want to roll over on the ground and laugh until his lungs gave out.
"What the hell was that?!" Flame yelled once he was able to get up.
Standing up in the river wasn't exactly easy since there were many sharp and slippery rocks in the river. Most of them were covered with moss and the sharp ones stabbed you in the bottom of your foot hard enough to make you wince.
"I warne-" Umber was interrupted by another round of laughs. "I warned you!"
"Since when did you become a SeaWing?" Flame asked jokingly.
"I became a SeaWing when you wouldn't stop splashing me!" Umber said.
"Fair," Flame agreed.
"Anyways, I think we're probably clean enough by now," Umber rushed.
They had been in the river for at least fifteen minutes at this point and Umber was starting to get worried that they wouldn't have enough time to do everything that he had planned.
"What's the rush?" Flame asked. "You usually try to find any excuse to stay in the river, not leave."
"I just don't want to be late," Umber admitted. "I have so much planned for today and don't want to miss any of it."
"Oh calm down MudWing," Flame said. "We still have like forty minutes until we have to leave. Relax."
"Still, the water's getting a little cold for me anyways," Umber said.
Umber began pushing his way through the water over to the grass. On his way, he stepped on a few sharp rocks that made him wince a few times and he was tempted to slow down, but he didn't want to waste any more time in the river when he could be inside going over the plan another hundred times in his head.
After a few seconds of treading through the water, he finally made it to the grass and stepped up onto the grass. His scales were soaking wet — something he forgot he had to take care of before going inside which only made his anxiety spike even more.
Flame watched as Umber pushed his way through the water. Normally, Umber would always try to stay in the river as long as he could and Flame would usually stay in the water with him the whole time, but sometimes the water was too cold for him and he would have to get out early. Umber would usually follow a few minutes after, probably because it was boring to lay in the water alone.
Flame began walking through the river behind him, also stepping on some of the sharp rocks in the river that made him slow down a bit, but it only took him a few seconds to get to the grass where Umber was laying down at this point.
He was staring up at the sky and Flame could see the look of anxiety on his face and could tell that he was probably going through all the ways today could be messed up — whether that be from unpredictable weather, something going wrong, or not having enough time were all possibilities of what he could be worried about, so he laid down next to him in hopes to calm him down.
He's so anxious about this, Flame thought.
"Umber…stop worrying about this so much," Flame said. "I'll be happy no matter what happens today."
"It's not that simple," Umber said. "I've been planning it for weeks and don't want it to go to waste at the last second. I've already gotten your hopes up about everything."
"Well, there's nothing you can do about it now," Flame said. "just hope for the best like I did."
Umber then rested his head on Flame's talons, so Flame rested his head on top of Umber's after a few seconds, in hopes to make him feel better. He looked over at the dragonets that were swimming and caught a few of them staring, and they quickly looked away once they caught his gaze.
"You make everything seem so simple," Umber said.
Flame kept his head resting there for a few minutes before remembering that the whole reason Umber was so nervous was because of spending too much time in the river. On top of that, he still needed to have his bandage put on before his cut got infected.
"Alright, time to put your bandage on," Flame said as he lifted his head. "Don't want it getting infected now do we?"
"Oh! I completely forgot about that." Umber gave a little laugh as he popped his head up as well. Flame stood up alongside Umber and they began walking toward the back door.
Flame walked ahead of Umber and swiftly opened the door for him, hoping that it would do something that would subconsciously make Umber calm down about their anniversary.
Something he quickly noticed is that the inside of their house seemed extremely dim compared to outside: probably because the light outside was far brighter than inside, there were only a few candles lighting the room. As he walked in, he immediately bumped into the couch, unable to see it since his eyes hadn't fully adjusted yet.
"Oops," Flame habitually said. Umber bumped into his tail right after.
He continued walking through the house, back into the kitchen where he previously took everything out and left it on the floor. He bent down and started looking through the cupboard again and quickly found the bandages from before, stuffed in the back.
He quickly took one and turned toward Umber who was already standing in the kitchen behind him, probably waiting for him to find it.
"Alright, c'mere," Flame said as he began unwrapping the bandage from its packaging.
Umber took a few steps forward and tilted his head, allowing Flame to put the bandage on more easily. At this angle, he could see his wound in all of its glory. The SkyWing managed to claw right in between his scales and pierce his skin, and the cut had jagged edges and dried blood and pus, almost looking like his skin had been torn like a sheet of paper and more guilt washed over him.
As he put the bandage on, Umber winced a little at his touch and Flame could already feel anger bubbling inside of him as he felt Umber flinch at just his touch. He kept his anger under control though; he didn't want to have another freak out like yesterday, so he just let out a huff instead.
Umber coming into the house with blood dripping down his face and staining his scales was all too much for him to handle. He tried to keep his anger under control but the more he tried to tame it, the more angry he got until it boiled over and the only thing he could think to do was find that SkyWing and beat the living shit out of him.
Screw that SkyWing, Flame thought.
After a couple of pushes and swipes against his cheek, the bandage was finally on and it definitely didn't look like it was falling off any time soon.
"Alright, done," Flame said. There was a pause. "Does…it still hurt?" he asked hesitantly — he wasn't sure he'd be able to hear the answer without getting angry.
"It's a little sore around the edges but only hurts when you touch it," Umber said.
Flame could already feel his face begin to turn red with anger and in a desperate attempt to calm down, he remembered something Starf taught him during one of their sessions; it was to control your breathing and count down from ten.
Obviously Umber had seen the look on his face when he said this though because before he could start, Umber quickly added something to what he had said before.
"But it doesn't hurt that much though!" he quickly blurted. "It's nothing!"
"No, it's fine," Flame said softly as he took deep, calming breaths. "I'm calm," he reassured himself.
Flame could see Umber's brow raise in surprise and that gave him a feeling in his chest that he could only describe as a mix of happiness and pride.
This technique is something he usually ignored whenever he was told to do this in the past, but the desperation he was in to not lose control opened up every option to anything he could do to not go on another rampage.
"How about we go read now?" Flame said. "We still have a while before we have to leave."
"A-Alright," Umber said.
Flame turned around and began picking up the different types of cleaners and disinfectants that he still had laying on the floor and swiftly picked each one of them up, setting them back in the cupboard.
He turned around and could see that Umber already had the box out and was sifting through the scrolls, opening each one of them up until he found the one that they had been reading yesterday. Flame remembered which one they were reading yesterday, the scroll was called "The Guardians of Pyrrhia: The Lost Scroll". It had only been the second scroll in the thirty-five scroll series and they were just getting into it.
As he was walking over, he saw Umber pull out one of the scrolls, take a few seconds to read the title, and then spread it out on the table. He looked at the top of the scroll where the title was and sure enough, the title read "The Guardians of Pyrrhia: The Lost Scroll".
He then took the box and slid it back under the table and sat on the couch waiting for Flame to sit next to him.
Flame finally got over to the couch and sat beside him and then gazed back down at the scroll, trying to remember where they left off last, and after a couple of seconds, he finally found the part they were on. It was a picture of one of the superhero dragons standing in front of their leader, getting orders to go and find the scroll somewhere out in the scorching hot deserts that were somewhere in between the Sand Kingdom and Jade Mountain.
"Here's where we left off," Flame said as he tapped the strip they were on with his talons, trying to indicate to Umber that it was where they had stopped reading yesterday.
"U-Understood," Umber read. "I will try to get the a-assignment completed on time."
This time, Umber didn't struggle nearly as much as he did last time except for a few stutters on some of the longer words, and Flame hoped that it meant he was getting better because it usually took a few times of reading it for him to be able to do what he had just done.
Maybe these scrolls are working after all, Flame thought. I wish I would've gotten these sooner.
Flame listened as Umber read through each speech bubble of each of the strips of pictures. Once again, he zoned out while listening to Umber read as he daydreamed about everything they were going to do today. Millions of things kept racing through his head at once but there was one idea that he knew Umber was going to take him to a fancy restaurant.
He knew Umber all too well to know what he was doing whenever he was going out for hours at a time — though he wasn't entirely sure but was pretty certain of — was going out and looking for different restaurants for them to eat at. He wanted to tell him to go to Jet for it, but he bit his tongue, not wanting him to know that he already knew one of his big plans. He may have even gone to Jet for help already and he just didn't know it.
That restaurant better not be expensive! Flame thought.
As much as Flame enjoyed fancy restaurants, they didn't have the money for it at the time since neither of them had a job at the moment and they were completely relying on the money they had saved. Luckily everything at the Sky Kingdom was extremely cheap because of the many riches that Queen Ruby had and would often overpay for things whenever she would buy from different residents.
Even though he already knew what one of his plans was, he was still excited to see what else Umber had in store for him. He had been planning this for weeks so Flame's hopes were high. He didn't want to admit this to Umber though because he thought that it would only make him more anxious about everything.
As his mind was racing through everything, he realized that Umber was still reading and unaware that he hadn't been listening for any mistakes or errors in his reading, so he quickly diverted his attention to Umber who had only read about two strips in that time.
About thirty minutes had passed at this point, but to Umber it felt like mere seconds. The new graphicolls that Flame got drew his attention like a moth drawn to a flame. Except the flame was a coiled-up tree with ink on it that just so happened to be a language that most dragons could read. He enjoyed the fact that these had been much easier to read with the big letters and simpler words.
He was so caught up in fact, that he completely forgot that they had an anniversary to celebrate today. Thankfully, Flame didn't seem too focused on the graphicoll he was reading and had warned him that they had to leave in a couple of minutes.
"Umber, time to stop reading," Flame said. "We have an anniversary to attend."
"It's already been that long?" Umber said, confused. "We were only reading for a few minutes though."
"Try thirty," Flame said as he pointed at the sun, and sure enough, Umber could tell that it was definitely a little lower than it had been before.
He quickly coiled the graphicoll back in and put it back in the box, making sure to leave it near the top so that he didn't have to go through each and every scroll to find it again because one thing was for sure: it was annoying to have to do that every time you want to read.
He slid the box back under the table and hurried over to the door, leaving Flame behind on the couch. After realizing that Flame wasn't with him at the door, he turned around and shot him a glare that he hoped would give him the message to hurry up.
Flame then stood up and began fast-walking toward him and was at the door in only a few seconds, so Umber opened the door in advance so that they could leave as soon as possible. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing making for the perfect temperature for being outside all day; not too hot and not too cold.
He stepped out into the warm summer air and the warmth of the sun was beaming against his scales. The weather felt absolutely perfect to him today and he considered falling asleep outside tonight instead of coming back to the house, but he couldn't and he knew it; he promised to tell Flame about his dreams once they got home. As much as that thought scared him, he knew he had to, however, he pushed that thought aside for now because all that mattered now was the joy that followed it being their anniversary and he would be able to spend all day with Flame today. No interruptions and no distractions.
He jumped into the air and could hear Flame's wingbeats follow close behind him as he soared high above the ground. Once again, he found himself admiring the scenery as he flew through the air since there wasn't much to do while you were flying.
Soon enough, he could see the hill he wanted to lie on with Flame for a while, but he didn't want to just land on the hill and lay there though. He wanted to walk up the hill with Flame so that they were doing as much as they could today that wasn't laying around and doing nothing, so he steered toward the closest path instead.
He began descending down toward it and soon landed in a clearing of the path with a thump, leaving the rocks to stick to the bottom of his talons. A few seconds later, Flame landed beside him and he could feel a jolt of excitement run through his body as he, once again, thought of the many different things they would do today.
Author's note: This chapter is a little shorter mainly because I did the math and realized that this will be around 190k-220k words if I keep up these 6k word chapters haha. I'll try to tone it down a little from here and try to start ranging my chapters from 4.5k-5.5k from now on unless people tell me that they like the 6k chapters.
