Flame flapped his wings as hard as he could, wishing that the cool breeze could be a distraction from what was happening; wishing the feeling of it smacking him in the face could fix all of his problems right now; wishing that it could make Umber wake up and run to him without any trace of a burn or scar on him.
But that wasn't going to happen, and he knew it. So all he could do right now was fly as fast as his wing could take him so that he could get back to Umber soon.
He had already visited Sora and gave her the horrible news. She thought he was lying at first. but when she noticed the many bandages wrapped around his talons and the way he limped on his front two legs, she realized that Flame hadn't been joking at all. Sora, Jet, and Zephyr all flew to the hospital faster than Flame had the chance to tell them to be careful with him.
As he flew, he couldn't stop thinking about the last words that Umber had said to him.
"I'm done having my life saved over and over again! It's my turn to save someone this time."
Those words had been echoing through his mind as if he's been screaming them as loud as he could in a cave ever since he left. He knew they meant something, but he didn't know exactly what that something was
Does it have something to do with Crane? Flame wondered. It wasn't exactly the most important thing to think about right now though, so he tried to focus on what he would say to Clay once he got to Jade Mountain.
'Clay! Umber's dying'? No, that's too much. Maybe something like 'Umber's in a coma'? No, that's even worse! What about 'Clay! Umber's in the hospital right now with severe burns that the healers said are so bad that he might live all because I wasn't fast enough to save him, and then an animus prince — no — a prince who has a weird animus touched gem that allows him to create literal fucking blasts with his mind saved us'? Yeah, that sounds about right.
He eventually gave up on thinking about what he was going to say though, and his mind went to thinking about Umber. He — once again — thought back to their first kiss, wishing he could go back to that time, take him in his wings, and pull him as close as he possibly could, and never let go, similar to what he wanted to do right now.
He never knew how much he really needed Umber until he lost him, and that feeling was almost unbearable. How had he gone his whole life without him? Maybe he had always been like this, and Umber was the glue that held him together. So without Umber, he would go back to his old self, hating the world and everyone in it. Not because his mother never gave him any attention though, but because the only dragon he had ever truly loved had just sacrificed himself to save him — and probably the only one ever willing to love him back, too.
He knew he had to just keep flying though because if there was any chance he would wake up, he wanted it to be around his family and friends…or his passing.
Shut the fuck up! Flame screamed at himself, refusing to delve deeper into that topic; he didn't want to explore that option even more than he already had. Umber isn't going to die, so I don't have to think about that! He's going to live and I know that for a fact!
That's when he finally saw that Jade Mountain was only twenty-ish miles ahead. It had been an excruciating two hour long flight, every minute making him worry more and more about Umber.
With a newfound strength, he pounded his wings harder and harder until they felt like they would fall off, and it only took him a few more minutes to reach it now that he was really flying.
He stomped down against the cold stone in front of the cave, stumbling from the unbalanced landing from his talons. He could see inside of it a bit and could tell that everyone was either in between classes, or they ended for the day.
Truthfully, Flame couldn't remember his schedule in the slightest, nor could he remember what time classes were let out.
Hopefully, they were over for today though, because one thing's for sure: he definitely didn't want to tell Clay about Umber's condition in front of a whole class of dragons and dragonets who looked at him like he was trash; that's definitely what he felt like right now anyways.
Umber, just hold on a little longer! I'm almost done! Flame thought.
Without even giving himself a second to rest, he began running through the dimly lit cave, shoving through dragons while trying to remember where Clay might be. Really though, he had no idea where he could be right now so he tried to remember his way to the library where he knew Starflight would be, because where else would he be? Outside?
There were a lot of new dragons here that he hadn't seen before — but also a lot of familiar faces that looked at him with pure disgust, even after two years.
Maybe if they figured out I was dating Umber, they'd change their minds about me, Flame thought. Though, he didn't really care because Jade Mountain Academy days were long gone and he'd likely never have to see them again after this.
Finally, though, he made it to the library where he saw a few dragons reading in some of the seats. Sunny was reorganizing some of the scrolls on the bookshelf in the harder to reach places. She was standing on her tippy talons on the stepladder and it looked like it would fall over any minute now.
And of course, Starflight was sitting behind his desk, listening for any dragons' footsteps while sliding his talons against a scroll, which had these weird dots on it in seemingly random order.
"Akebi?" Starflight called out. "Is that you?"
"Oh, hey Akebi!" Sunny said without turning around. "I just found those scrolls you asked for yester-" She turned around, finally realizing that he wasn't anyone named Akebi — or even a RainWing for that matter. "Flame?" She nearly stumbled off of the stepladder at the sight of him. "It's so good to see you! Did Umber-"
"Where's Clay?" Flame frantically interrupted, panting all the while. "It's an emergency!"
"Wait, what happened?" Starflight asked. He showed genuine concern on his face, similar to how Umber looked whenever he was trying to be comforting
A memory flashed in his head of Umber; not just any normal everyday memory though. It was one of him holding Flame's talons in his and looking him dead in the eyes with the same look he saw on Starflight's face.
What had happened that day was Flame had another freakout in public when a SkyWing pointed at the two of them while they were walking, muttered something to his little dragonet and they both laughed. He remembered being so angry at him, swearing at him with no regard that a dragonet was listening to him say all of those horrible things.
That memory left his heart in pieces, knowing that he may not ever get Umber's support like that ever again. He felt like crying right now — crying and letting all of his emotions spill out in front of all of these dragons.
So that's exactly what he did. He crumpled to the ground and began sobbing. Tears immediately began pouring from his eyes like a thunderstorm tearing down the walls he had built up for everyone except for Umber. He knew that this would make it easier though, so he didn't really care.
"Flame?" Sunny jumped off of the stool and ran over to him, resting her talons on his back. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"What's going on?" Starflight asked, hunching over his desk. "Is Flame crying? Why is Flame crying?"
"I-I don't know! Flame, are you okay?" Sunny continued stroking her talons along his back, similar to what he did with Umber whenever they cuddled.
He instead lay there for a few minutes, bawling his eyes out and burying his head in Sunny's stomach as she rubbed her talons against his back. He couldn't lie though, this did sort of comfort him. But it wasn't Umber, and it would never be the same as Umber. The way he was able to do all of the right things to help him calm down was something that no other dragon in Pyrrhia could do; not even Sunny: one of the sweetest dragons in this school.
The few times he opened his eyes, he could see the other dragons' eyes had popped up from their scrolls and were instead staring at him.
"U-Umber's in the hospital," was all he could mutter before his sobs pulled him right back in.
"What?!" Starflight and Sunny both exclaimed at the same time.
"Is he okay? What happened?" Sunny frantically asked. She snapped her head toward one of the MudWings. "Terra, where's Tsunami?! Tell her to get Clay!"
"Uhm, I think she's in one of the study rooms?" she said. "I'll go find her!" She threw the scroll she was reading down and ran through the library entrance, sensing the urgency of the situation.
They lay in silence for a few minutes with Sunny gently holding Flame as he sobbed. It was already hard enough telling Sora — he had to focus all of his strength on not crying like he was right now. He wanted to create a façade that he was strong in this situation, but he knew no amount of strength could stop him from crying right now.
"It's okay, Flame," Sunny said softly. "Let it all out, we're here for you."
He didn't know why, but these words made him cry even harder. He buried his head even deeper into Sunny, his wails echoing throughout the cave.
As time passed, his sobs turned into deep, quick, ragged breaths. Each breath was accompanied by a sharp intake of air as if his throat was being constricted by talons squeezing around them. Each inhale made his stomach hurt because of the almost constant contracting and expanding that it has done today. He could feel his headache coming back now and felt his tears begin to run dry.
That's when he heard a few pairs of talons clacking against the cave entrance, but he didn't lift his head from Sunny's comforting warmth. Shivers ran down his spine, making him feel as if an IceWing was blowing cold air against his scales.
"Flame? What happened to Umber? Why's he in the hospital?" he heard a familiar deep voice ask, who was definitely panicked from the sounds of it.
He came over and felt a pair of massive talons against his back as he gestured for Sunny to get up. The MudWing kneeled down and gently took Flame's talons in his and Flame lifted his head to meet Clay's. His eyes were full of sympathy and worry, making Flame feel better just from his gaze. Flame started in his eyes for a few moments, trying to gather his words and form a sentence.
"M-Me and U-Umber were at a r-restaurant for our an-anniversary, and a fire b-broke out, and I DON'T KN-KNOW WHAT TO D-DO BECAUSE HE ISN'T WAKING UP!" He choked on every other word as if they were being shoved down his throat.
Clay's face turned from sympathetic and worried, to panicked and shocked. He turned and looked over at Tsunami whose face had the same shocked expression as Clay's — actually, everyone in the room was shocked now that he was looking around. She gave him an approving nod as if Clay had telepathically asked her a question.
"Who else knows?" Clay asked. He looked inches away from tears but kept a brave face on.
"Uh- S-Sora, Jet, and Zephyr," Flame answered. "I-I think th-they're with him now."
"Okay, here's what we're going to do," Clay said. "We're going to get Turtle and bring him back to the hospital, alright?"
Turtle? What about the others? Flame thought.
"Wh-Why Turtle?" Flame questioned. "Why him? W-What about everyone e-else?"
"Oh- them too," Clay corrected himself. "That's what I meant…yeah." He said it as if he almost said something he shouldn't have, but Flame had no idea what that was.
What's so special about Turtle? Flame wondered. Why does Clay want him specifically? Though he didn't care all that much because he obviously had a plan, but he hoped it involved healing Umber in some way.
Then Clay took off out of the library and into the twisting halls of the academy, where most of the dragons from before had gone back to their sleeping caves. Once again, he had no idea where they were going and he was only relying on Clay running through the seemingly endless twists of the halls so that he could follow loosely behind.
Not only was he tired from running, but he was also extremely hungry and thirsty as he was too busy mourning, crying, and flying all day to even begin to think to do either of those things. He thought about asking where the Prey Center was when they found everyone but decided against it once a reminding image of Umber laying in the hospital bed flashed in his mind; he knew he didn't have time for that.
After what felt like an eternity, Clay finally slowed and turned into one of the caves, disappearing behind the curtains. He followed inside and realized that this must be Qibli and Winter's cave — or technically just Qibli's now — when he saw familiar pale yellow and black scales in the middle of the room.
Moon was sitting upright while staring at the door as if she had been expecting them, and so was Qibli. Their tails were intertwined and Moon looked like she had just been crying for some reason. There were a couple of opened scrolls on the floor that they must've been reading before, along with a few pencils scattered along them.
They both had a look of worry plastered on their faces, almost as if they knew what Clay was about to tell them.
"Where's Turtle?" Clay asked hurriedly.
"We don't know!" Moon said, matching the same energy as Clay. "We sent Kinkajou to go and look for him as soon as I heard…" she trailed off, peering over at Flame. "Realized that we need him for this math problem, of course!"
Why the fuck is everyone acting so weird? Flame wondered. First, it was Clay wanting Turtle specifically, and now Moon's acting all weird.
Moon seemed like she was trying to focus on something, and there was a weirdly awkward silence between them for a few moments.
"...Anyways, they should be back any minute now and we can get ready to leave then," Qibli said, breaking the silence.
"Wh- hold on!" Flame abrupted. "You don't even know why I'm here! You don't even seem surprised to see me! What the fuck is going on with you all?"
There was another moment of silence where everyone looked around at each other nervously. Flame could feel the anger bubbling inside of him. He didn't want to have another outburst, especially not in front of his friends, but they hardly even knew what was going on, yet acted like they knew everything!
"Since we have time before Turtle gets here, I'll tell you what the fucking issue is!" Flame said angrily. "Umber is in the hospital right now, and I left his side to come tell you all!" He began raising his voice louder. "The LEAST you can do is give me a 'thank you' instead of acting like you know everything when frankly, I don't think I've even said a fucking word to you since I walked in this cave!"
"Flame, calm down-"
"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I'M ALLOWED TO BE ANYTHING BUT CALM! TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH YOU BEFORE I WALK OUT OF THIS DAMN CAVE AND FLY BACK TO THE HOSPITAL, WHERE I SHOULD BE RIGHT NOW!"
"We…uh," Qibli stuttered, trying a glance over at Moon.
The tension in the air was high as he waited for Moon to finally tell him how they already seemed like they knew everything, and why Clay wanted Turtle so badly. That tension was finally broken though when Moon spoke up.
"Flame, please don't take this the wrong way but," she paused. "I…I can-"
"Qibli, were you listening to anything Sahara said?" Moon scolded. "A decimal is smaller than a whole number!"
Qibli threw his head back and sighed. "When will I ever actually use this? I'll never need to count decimals whenever I'm taking down animus dragons!"
"Well, if Turtle or Anemone ever go rogue, you'll be the first one to know," Moon joked with a laugh under her breath.
"You mean I'll be the first one to know," Kinkajou interjected. "You might need one of my super-strawberry spells again!"
"Kinkajou the Great, taking down animus dragons one strawberry at a time," Qibli mocked. They all had a bit of a laugh out of this, but in the midst of all of the giggling, she picked up something that was the opposite of happy. Terror? Anxiety? Fear? A mix of all three? She couldn't tell.
But as the seconds went on, the feeling only got stronger and she could clearly tell that it was a mix of guilt, fear, and anxiety mixed around and jumbled into one emotion. She tried to block it out, but it was so strong that she couldn't help but start to feel these emotions as if they were her own.
"Guys, stop for a second," Moon said quietly, raising her talons at them and closing her eyes.
She could feel her talons begin to shake, and her anxiety rise. It felt as if she was trying to get somewhere as fast as possible, but she didn't know why or what that somewhere was.
But as she tried to focus on these emotions, a flash of an image popped into her head that sent her stumbling back with a gasp: it was Umber. Not just Umber though, he was in a hospital bed with bandages all over him. He looked like he was just sleeping, but something inside her knew that was far from the case.
"Moon? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Qibli asked, gripping one of her talons.
Umber, just hold on a little longer! I'm almost done! This echoed through her head for a few seconds before fading away.
Then, an extremely sudden wave of emotions crashed over her and she could feel her trembling talons grip the stone. Her breaths quickened and she began feeling lightheaded like she could float up to the roof any minute now and stay there. Her vision began to get blurry as well as tears poured down her scales uncontrollably.
"Moon?! What's happening?! What's wrong?!" Qibli panicked, tightening his grip on her talons.
Even though her body was basically completely paralyzed with anxiety at this point, she spoke up, knowing that they didn't have any more time to waste.
"Ki-Kinkajou! G-Get Tu-Turtle!" Moon stammered. Her vision began to go black and her eyelids began to feel heavier and heavier as the lack of oxygen finally began getting to her. She desperately tried to get a full breath of air, but it was like a reflex that she couldn't overcome, no matter how hard she tried.
But then, the emotions suddenly disappeared. They left no trace of ever being there except for her quickened heart rate and shaky talons. She finally got a full breath of air and shot up as she regained her senses.
She looked over at Qibli and saw that his necklace wasn't around his neck anymore, so she unconsciously started looking for it around the room before realizing that it was around her neck now.
"Moon! Are you okay? What did you see?!" Kinkajou asked. Her scales were completely white.
"Go get Turtle! Hurry!" Moon rushed.
"Why-"
"Don't ask questions, just get him!"
Without any further questions, Kinkajou bolted out of the room. Moon looked over and could see the concern spread across Qibli's face, looking for some sort of answer to what just happened.
"What was that?" Qibli asked. "What the hell happened?"
"Flame's here, and Umber's hurt!" she said worriedly. "Hurt badly, like, really, really badly!"
"What do you mean 'hurt badly'? What happened to him?"
"I don't know! All I saw was a flash of him, but I don't remember too much except that he was in a hospital bed. He must be in bad shape if Flame's this terrified." She could still remember the feeling of dread and panic flooding through him, which made her shift her scales uncomfortably.
They sat there for the next few minutes while they waited for Kinkajou to come back with Turtle. She held the pouch close to her neck so that she didn't fall into another panic attack, she didn't think she'd be able to handle another one. She would've gone out to help find him, except she didn't even feel like she could stand after what had happened, and Qibli wanted to stay close to her in case anything else happened.
Moon had her head resting against Qibli's, and their tails had intertwined without her even realizing. Qibli kept a close grasp on her, pulling her close. As the shakiness in her talons finally disappeared, she heard loud thumps against the stone and they both shot their heads up.
A few seconds later, a massive dragon pushed through the curtains that was unmistakably Clay, followed by a familiar SkyWing that looked like an ant compared to him.
The conversation that followed was tense though. As Flame got angrier and angrier, she was tempted to take the pouch off from around her neck so that she could figure out what to say to calm him down. She ultimately realized that would only make her angry, and possibly give her a headache.
"Flame, calm down-" Moon tried saying before getting interrupted by another outburst.
"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I'M ALLOWED TO BE ANYTHING BUT CALM! TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH YOU BEFORE I WALK OUT OF THIS DAMN CAVE AND FLY BACK TO THE HOSPITAL, WHERE I SHOULD BE RIGHT NOW!" Flame screamed. His yelling shook her to the core from the raw anger running through him.
She hadn't remembered the last time she saw him this angry, but it was probably when Darkstalker bound him to the cave floor next to Stonemover for days.
"We…uh," Qibli hesitated, taking a look over at Moon
Moon could feel her heart start beating through her chest. They stood there for a couple of seconds before she realized that he needed to know. She knew she couldn't keep this from him forever — they were friends after all.
"Flame, please don't take this the wrong way but," she paused. "I…I can-"
"I FOUND HIM!" Kinkajou interrupted as she barreled through the curtains. "And I found Peril, but she's outside because…" she trailed off. "Flame? What are you doing here?" After a few seconds of awkward silence, she finally realized what was happening. "Ohhh."
She took a glance over at Turtle and could see all kinds of confusion spread across it. He tucked his wings in uncomfortably as all of the eyes were on him at this point, especially Flame's menacing glare.
"Wait, wait, what's going on?" Turtle asked confusedly.
"I'll tell you what's going on," Flame said nastily. "I just flew here from the fucking hospital because Umber was in a fire! But guess what? None of you seem to give a shit! You all just seem to know everything that's happening without me needing to tell you!" Flame paused. His face looked inches away from breaking out into tears. "It's just…I'm so confused and Umber's hurt, and I…I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
Moon saw tears begin to pour down his face as he crumpled to the cave floor and wrapped his wings fully around his head. His cries bounced through the dimly lit cave, ricocheting into each of Moon's ears. Right now, she didn't know what to do or how to help Flame because of the skyfire, but what would happen if she took it off? Would Flame's emotions be too much for her right now? Or could she handle it and be able to help him?
She didn't put much thought into this before she found herself taking off Qibli's necklace, almost like instinct. It's not like she wanted to go digging through Flame's mind right now — for his sake. But she knew that it was the only way she would be able to understand him right now.
Within an instant, everything came chirping back to her: the other dragons' thoughts that she had naturally learned to ignore, the images crammed into the back of her mind that she could hardly see unless she focused, but more importantly, she could see everything that Flame was so scared of.
"Moon-" Qibli started.
"No, no, it's okay," she interrupted. "Just let me do my thing."
She closed her eyes and as she focused more on some of Flame's deeper thoughts, she could see things that she couldn't see before. There were light flashes of burning wood, the loud cracks of beams falling, the scorching hot fire against his talons as he desperately tried to lift a beam off of Umber, and the constant, lingering terrifying thought about losing him. As she tried to dig deeper into his subconscious, it was almost like she had experienced these thoughts firsthand — almost like the time when Flame had visited Stonemover with Umber.
She snapped back to reality with a jolt to see that Clay was already sitting down beside Flame with his talons resting on his back. He was giving them a stare, which she interpreted as him not knowing what to do.
"I'm sorry!" Flame sobbed, his voice being muffled through his wings. "I-I just can't s-stand looking at Umber r-right now!"
Moon didn't have to read his mind or see his face to know that tears were probably streaming down his face in fat globs right now. Everyone was mostly standing around in shock, hardly being able to process what was happening.
FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! Flame's mind screamed, almost like a broken record, over and over.
Finally, though, Moon broke the silence.
"Flame, it's going to be OK," she said hopefully. "Once we get to the hospital, everything will be alright, alright?"
"No Moon, it's not going to be alright!" Flame yelled from under his wings. She could hear his sobs still. "I could've saved him, but I wasn't fast enough! This is my fault!"
She began picking up guilt. It was radiating off of him like light on a candle, almost overwhelming her ability to push it to the back of her mind with all of the other dragons' thoughts and emotions.
She walked over to him and gently lifted one of his wings that were covering his head and could clearly see many, many tears pouring down his face and dripping on the cave floor. This made her wonder though: how much has he been crying today?
It must be really rough right now, so probably a lot, she thought.
"Flame," Moon said gently, almost sounding like a whisper. "This isn't your fault, alright? Once we get back to the hospital, everything will be OK, trust me." She shot a begging stare at Turtle, to which he gave an agreeing nod.
"But…I still have to go to the Mud Kingdom to tell his sibs," Flame said with a sniffle.
"Sunny will go," Clay interjected. "She'll be more than happy to, you should be with Umber right now."
Moon shot a look at Clay, and accidentally let a few of his thoughts slip through. He was worried for Umber, but he hoped that if he was brave, Flame would be too — which was honorable, but he shouldn't be bottling up his emotions like that and she knew it.
She pointed her talons at her head while keeping her gaze and mouthed "Sorry".
Moon, we agreed you wouldn't get in my head! Clay thought at her. Quit it! So, as soon as she could, she shoved his thoughts into the back of her mind again and kept them there.
She looked back down at Flame, who thankfully was looking at the floor when she did that; she had almost completely forgotten that he had no idea about her mind reading yet.
"Please?" Moon tried, reaching out one of her talons. "I'll go tell Sunny right now if you want."
She could feel the struggle going on inside Flame's head. On one talon, he could go back to the hospital to see Umber and put his trust into another dragon to tell his sibs. But on the other talon, he could go and tell them himself and make sure that they get the message, but he'll have to wait longer to see Umber.
"Alright, fine," Flame said, grabbing Moon's talons and lifting himself off of the floor. "I swear if Sunny doesn't…" he trailed off, remembering the way she held him in her talons. He couldn't get mad at her and he knew it; she was too kind. "Nevermind."
"Alright, let's hurry though, it's going to get dark soon, and I don't want to fly in the dark; it's scary at night," Turtle said. Moon thought this was odd though, because can't SeaWings literally see in the dark?
Author's note: A bit of a shorter one this time, mainly because I'm extremely burnt out after the last chapter. I want to take a break, but I also don't want to leave everyone in the dark for a week haha. Also, there should be a new thumbnail for this being uploaded soon (sorry AO3 readers) that's currently being drawn by my friend haha.
