TW: Gore
He looked around, the same fake sky, ground, warmth, everything. Except, something was different this time; something marginally different: he was fully aware of what was happening, right now, right here, in the same dream he's been having ever since Chromis's hatching day party.
He was holding a spear this time, no armor or anything, and was even already subconsciously flapping his wings as he hovered in the air, huddled close to Crane.
No no no no, not this dream! he thought. I can't watch Crane die again!
As he looked around at the surrounding IceWings, every single one of them was expressionless — emotionless. This gave him an eerie feeling, it was creepy. He felt like they'd all lunge at him at the same time and kill him right then and there.
But as he gazed around the crowd more, he noticed that there was one dragon who seemed different from the rest. Her unmistakable shiny white scales shone in the sun, and she was staring him down with a massive smile spread evenly across her face. Her gaze was unsettling, as her smile seemed wider than he could ever do.
Why is this happening to me?! he thought as the sheer amount of stress and fear made him want to break down into tears and fall into the pool of blood he knew was below him. But he knew for sure his mind would punish him for that in some way so he restrained himself.
Maybe Crane would die, regardless of what he did, and scream at him again like the last time when Flame visited.
Flame… He felt his heart ache at the thought of him. Was he really dreamvisiting me, or was my mind just giving me a break? If he was real, then why hasn't he come back yet? Why has he been away for so long? He promised me he'd come back, so where is he? Maybe he's here right now, watching me while I battle another nightmare, waiting for the right time to pull me out.
Though he didn't have much of a sense of time in a dream, he knew it had been well over a couple of days since he had visited last. If it really was him, and it really had been that long since the last time, he knew there had to be something wrong. Maybe he got hurt, or maybe something came up. Maybe the dreamvisitor got lost or stolen somehow.
But couldn't Turtle magic up another dreamvisitor? No, then Flame would surely figure out he's animus.
There were a million different explanations as to why he hadn't dreamvisited yet, and he knew it had to only be a matter of time.
He just needed to get through this dream though. Just this one dream, and surely things would get better from there. But watching Crane in front of his eyes again wasn't an option, and he knew he had to do something about it.
So as Icicle stared at them with her menacing eyes, and pointed spear, he fidgeted with his own spear a bit, nervous that he'd be forced to witness his own sister die again, and again, and again.
But as he was deep in fear, an idea hatched in his head; one that surely couldn't fail. I can't be killed in my own dreams, right? I know what's going to happen, and I can stop it! I can save her!
So over the next couple minutes, he planned out what he'd do, from start to finish. He never saw exactly what Crane did to fight Icicle, as he was never lucid for this part of it. But he did see the first parts of her lunge, and she always stuck out her right talon to grab at him and held the spear in her left talon.
I'll lunge first, and push Crane out of the way, he thought. Then I can work on overpowering her from there, and I can move on to whatever dream I have next… Right? That's how he hoped it would work anyways.
So there he waited, staring at them all as they surrounded him. And even though their gazes were blank, it still felt like scalding daggers were being shot through his scales, burning them to a crisp and leaving a wound through the back.
That must be what I look like in the real world right now… Umber thought. I can only imagine how much it hurts him to look at me the way I am.
He was really beginning to regret his decision of staying back — of feeling that saving Flame was the only way to redeem himself of Crane. But he didn't feel redeemed right now. Instead, he was being tortured even more than before by his own mind.
He knew they would have both made it out if he had only decided to put more power into his lunge. But it felt like Crane was grabbing his back legs and pulling him, stopping him from saving them both. I should've told him at the beach, then maybe things would be different right now.
And though he was definitely scared of dying, that wasn't what he was most worried about — no — what he was most worried about was leaving Flame alone without him. He was scared he might go back to how he used to be if he hadn't already.
That's how he coped with his mother, so surely the way he coped with this would be much similar, if not worse.
Oh, Flame. I'm really missing you right-
His thoughts were cut off by Icicle lunging at him, catching him completely off guard. As much as he wanted to think about Flame right now, he couldn't. He had to save Crane, end of story.
If this were any normal fight, he would be on high alert. But this was far from any normal situation. Out of the corner of his eye, he could already see Crane beginning to lunge. Almost like a reflex, he shot himself forward, intercepting Crane and throwing her to the side before Icicle could get to her.
And that's when he felt the iciness of Icicle's talons grip his shoulders, making him gasp from the cold
Shock. But a little chilliness wouldn't phase a soldier like him, especially not now.
The first thing he knew he had to do was get the spear away from her, and since she had it in her non-dominant talon — or at least that's what he was betting on — he would have a much easier time getting it away from her.
He grabbed at her spear with his talons, and Icicle gripped the spear with both of hers and they struggled with it for a few seconds. A few kicks and light scratches were traded, but neither could do anything more than that without giving up the weapon.
They were stuck at a stalemate; neither of them were able to take the spear from one another and Umber knew that they couldn't sit like this forever, otherwise one of the other IceWings might join in, and then things would really be bad.
As he tried to take the spear away from her, he headbutt her as hard as he could and she went staggering back, trying to regain her balance in the air.
He threw the spear away and watched as it fell through the air just to make sure none of the other IceWings magically caught it somehow.
He turned back to look at Icicle and immediately lunged at her. He gripped his talons around her shoulders, making sure to dig in his claws as much as he could in an attempt to stagger her a bit, but was met with a stinging pain in his abdomen in return, as if he had been struck by her tail, except it was laced with SandWing venom instead.
The IceWings, the sky, the sun, the grass, and even his sibs all disappeared at that moment. Everything turned black as if he was in the abyss he knew was below him, a lingering pool of blood calling his name.
He quickly looked down to see what had stabbed him, and he caught his eye on a sight that made him panic internally a bit, but he made sure his face didn't reflect that; as if he'd ever show fear to someone like Icicle, real or not.
There was a dagger comfortably buried in his side, blood already gushing down his scales. She hadn't been holding a dagger before, and there was no way she could've been able to get one in the couple of seconds he was looking away, so that left him to wonder: where did she get it from?
"Umber!" Crane yelled frantically, reaching her talon out as if she expected him to grab it.
"N-No, stay out of this-." Icicle dug the dagger deeper into his side, causing the tip of the blade to puncture through his back.
He screamed out in pain, coughing up dark red blood all over Icicle's chest and slamming his left talon against her shoulder to try and loosen her grip a bit, but that did little to nothing.
"Shut the fuck up," Icicle demanded.
This caught him off guard a bit, as this was the first time Icicle had ever spoken in one of his dreams before, so he thought that it had to mean something. Maybe he was somehow getting closer to finally getting her out of his dreams? Or maybe he was just getting further, and her newfound aggression was a sign that it would never get better.
But that thought was cut short when Icicle ripped the dagger out from his side, and pain hit him like a shockwave throughout his entire body.
Lowly tears dripped down his face, as the pain was becoming almost too much for him to handle. Why does it hurt so much?! Umber thought. I've been stabbed before, it never hurts like this!
"Stop it! You're hurting him!" Crane screamed.
"I don't really give a shit!" Icicle retorted.
His talon immediately rushed down to cover the wound, both putting pressure and helping with the pain. The small knife was stained with red, and Icicle had that same smile on her face from when she ruthlessly murdered Crane.
He would never forget it; it was permanently burned into his memory, forever plaguing his mind like a disease.
Her ice cold grip helped with the pain, but it only served as a minor distraction from everything else — something he could try and focus on instead of the unbearable pain in his side.
Icicle raised her talons to his throat as they locked eyes, her stare cold and merciless just like her grasp. He tried to struggle, but his bones felt as if they were welded together. It was as if a million IceWings blew their frostbreath on him all at the same time, freezing him into a cube.
He was trapped; there was nothing he could do except sit there and watch as he succumbed to the same fate as Crane.
She's going to kill me… Umber thought. But I can't let her. Real or not, I'll never let her hurt any of us again!
"Is that so?" Icicle responded to his thoughts. Her talons rested carefully at his throat, ready to slide across any moment. "What are you gonna do about it? You're going to die here, and then I'll make you watch as I kill your beloved Crane."
No, I'll never let you lay another talon on her! he thought out in anger. He knew he may never get a chance like this ever again to save Crane, so he had to work with what he had, regardless of the circumstances.
With a renewed vigor, he tried as hard as he could to move any part of his body. He tried his talons, but only managed to get a single twitch out of them before giving up on that idea — if he couldn't even move a claw, how would he manage to fight her?
The air from his wings blew relentlessly as he flapped, blowing him in the face and making his eyes tear up even more than before.
Wait, that's it! he realized.
He knew Icicle couldn't hold his weight, not even in a dream — not like he had any other choice though. If he closed his wings, he hoped that there was no way she would be able to keep her grip on him while also keeping herself in the air.
Here goes nothing. He prayed to the moons that this would work.
In one swift motion, he relaxed his wings and talons, leaving Icicle's grip to falter and let him go. He felt relief flood his body, desperately trying to thank whatever higher power let him escape that situation.
"NO!" Crane yelled.
As he was falling, he looked up to see not only Icicle staring at him as he fell but also Crane turning into a dive to chase after him, her right talon reaching out to try and catch him as he fell.
Her expression seemed to be pure fear, probably because she'd end up losing him. No, she's not real. Umber told himself. But even knowing that still hardly took away how much it hurt each time he watched her die; each time he looked at the way she stared at him as Icicle slit her throat, pleading for help.
He tried to flap his wings but only managed to slow himself down a tiny bit before going back into a freefall — he was too weak to fly right now.
He looked down at his side which was still gushing blood and had yet to clot.
I've lost too much blood, he realized. He could already feel the exhaustion and fatigue setting in. It felt weird being tired while sleeping, but that wasn't at the top of his worry list right then. Right now, he had to focus on what came next because one thing was for certain, and that was that Crane would most definitely follow him all the way down to the blood pool he knew was below them.
"Crane, leave me!" he tried with little hope that it'd actually do anything.
"No! I won't let you die!" she replied. "Take my talon!"
Completely out of options, he complied and reached his talons out. Crane was clearly getting closer, though not very fast — not fast enough.
Even though he knew that they'd land in the reeking pool flooding with blood before she was able to catch him, he still had the tiniest bit of hope still smoldering in him that maybe she could catch him in time.
He thought that maybe if Crane caught him and they never landed, this dream would end and he'd move onto another nightmare that would no doubt be better than this — anything would be better than this.
She was close, their talons just inches apart, when he looked up at her face. She looked like she was hopeful that they'd get out of this together, but also terrified at this single moment.
But almost as if he was calculating the seconds in his head, he knew they were hardly a split second from landing in the pool below.
You're too late…
And with that, they both splashed down into the pool of blood, massive waves rippling through. Iron immediately filled his nose, the stench making him sick to his stomach just from the few seconds he was close enough.
His talons instinctually gripped his side again to stop most of the pain. But that also meant he'd be alive in this dream longer, though he suspected that it probably wouldn't matter regardless and he'd just be putting himself through more pain than he had to go through. Maybe I already did enough, and Crane is safe now.
He's gone through this enough to know what was going to happen as soon as Crane gathered her bearings.
He popped his head up from under the pool, clutching his side with his talon as he laid on his back. "Umber?" Crane called out. "Umber, where are you?"
"I'm here," he responded. The sooner she does whatever she needs to do, the sooner I can move on from this and not see her die.
"Oh my gosh, Umber!" She splashed her way over, little droplets hitting him in the face the whole time. "Are you okay?! Where did she stab you?" She was frantic, almost as frantic as he was the day he watched her die to Icicle's talons.
"I'm fine," he quickly said. "just get out of here, please! I don't want to watch you die again!"
"I'm not leaving you to die here! Not like you did to me!" She began searching around the area where she saw Icicle stab him until she felt his talons gripping his side and replaced his with hers.
He felt a pain in his chest listening to her say that, even if she wasn't real it still hurt the same. He wasn't going to say anything about it though; he was scared of what she might say in return.
Would she lash out at him again like last time? Or would she say that she doesn't blame him? He didn't know, but he definitely wasn't going to take the risk and find out.
"C-Can you stand?" she asked, panicked. Through her blood-stained face, he could see tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"No, I don't think so." Though he hadn't tried yet, he knew that if he couldn't even fly, there was probably little chance he could stand. Just the thought of standing up sent a shiver of pain down his spine.
"I'll just have to drag you then. I can carry your weight, right? You don't weigh that much, right Umber? I-I could carry you perfectly fine!"
He could feel her begin to panic even more as the stress of the situation set in. This is how I felt the first time I had this dream, he thought. We've switched places, all because I felt like saving her. Now I have to watch her suffer as she watches me die…
He clenched his fists as sadness fell over him, angry at his mind for putting him through this, except even worse this time. I can't win. No matter what I do, I can't win. I don't save her, I watch her die. I do save her, she watches me die, and I watch her suffer still.
"Crane, just leave me! I'll catch up with you, alright? Go find the others and get them back to the Mud Kingdom, I'll be right behind you."
"N-No you won't!" she sobbed, her voice a mixture of tears and anguish as she choked on her own words. "You can't even stand up, let alone fly! I'm not leaving you here alone while you die!"
"Crane-"
"S-SHUT THE FUCK UP!" her voice faltered. She was completely sobbing at this point and he could see tears violently pouring down her face, even through the blood. "You're going to have a p-proper funeral, and not end up as one of t-those washed up, decaying bodies like some of the others! And I-I'm sure as hell not leaving you alone in your last m-moments!"
The day after the catastrophe with Crane, they all went out searching for her body to give her a proper funeral and bury her under her favorite tree to sit under and relax, but they never did find her body.
Which was probably a good thing, because her body would've likely been a mangled corpse after falling from so high in the sky. Maybe that's where this is coming from, he wondered. Since we never had a proper burial for her, maybe I'm trying to compensate in some way.
Crane fell atop of him, holding him close and wrapping her wing around him as she sobbed, just like Flame would…
The way she held him felt similar to Flame; maybe because that's the only dragon he's cuddled with in the last two years.
So he imagined her as Flame instead, knowing that'd probably bring him the strange calmness that he needed right now, and take away from the thought that Crane was hugging him until he passed.
So he closed his eyes and imagined his bright red scales, the warmth of his touch as he slowly caressed his back, the slow rises and falls of his chest as he breathed, the way he'd wrap him up in his wings like a blanket on a cold winter morning, and most importantly, the soothing rumble of his voice as he spoke; the way he talked always seemed to calm him down.
And then everything felt less, all of the pain and trauma he's gone through fading away behind the scenes like it was the end of a performance, like nothing else mattered except his gracious touch, and he was finally calm for the first time in what felt like forever.
But he's not really here, and I might never really see him again, not some fake imagination of him, the real him, he thought. Oh, Flame, I wish you were here with me right now, you make everything feel better.
He cuddled Flame — no — Crane even tighter than before, wrapping his wings around her as tight as he could. Except, something felt different now like his talons and arms and wings were sinking in more than before, as if he was gripping onto the thick blood itself.
"Crane?"
He opened his eyes to see that there was nobody above him anymore, nobody hugging him close, no sobs splitting through the air, nothing. It was as if she had disappeared into thin air.
He poked his head up and looked around, but saw nothing except the endless pool of blood that stretched into the distance endlessly. "Crane? Where'd you go?" he called out.
He tried to sit up but was forced back down by a stinging pain with an 'Ack!', too weak to fight through it.
He gripped his side as the wound that had just begun to start clotting had opened up again, which brought him a stinging pain in his side. "Crane?" he tried again.
Where'd she go? he wondered. She was just here! Why'd she disappear like that? He was hoping that Crane disappeared because he would move on from this nightmare and onto the next, but a part of him knew that this was far from the case, and his mind was about to torture him in some other way.
Then, almost like another stab to his side, he heard a bloodcurdling scream off in the distance somewhere, followed by "UMBER! HELP!"
This sent a shiver down his spine, and a jolt of dread went flying through his entire body. Her voice echoed throughout the void, each wave of screams scaring him even more than before. "Crane?!"
"NO! NO! GET OFF OF ME PLEASE!" she cried. "UMBER!"
"Crane, I'm coming! Hold on!"
With pure panic and adrenaline running through his veins, he forced himself to his feet, fighting through the excruciating pain in his side as his motivation was saving Crane from whatever got ahold of her. He was prepared to go through this pain all over again, twenty times over if it meant saving her — even the fake her — from dying as he was forced to watch.
As he stood, he gripped his side painfully and started walking slowly, each step making him want to fall down and lay there and die, but he wasn't going to lay there and listen to Crane's ear ringing screams as whatever had her, killed her.
Even just that thought sent more fear rushing through him than before, further increasing the speed at which he moved. From a slow walk to a walk, to a light jog, he kept moving as he splashed through the endless pool.
Though the faster he moved meant the pain was significantly more, letting whatever had her keep her didn't seem like a realistic option right now.
After a few minutes of listening to Crane's screams, his jog turned into a light sprint. He realized he was hardly getting closer, exhaustion slowly wearing him down bit by bit. Whatever this pit was that his mind created, it was endless; unforgivingly endless, and it reeked.
The further he went out, the pool seemed to get deeper and deeper, until it was up to his neck. Running was nearly impossible at this point, but he had already come this far, and he wasn't going to let Crane die. Not again.
But only a few seconds later, the ground seemingly disappeared and he couldn't feel the bottom anymore. In his exhausted state, he could hardly swim either and his whole body was dunked under
He desperately tried to swim to the top, but he could hardly move himself. Both the pain and exhaustion were setting in now that he had a sort of break and he felt like he was drowning, now more than ever.
And though MudWings could hold their breath for over an hour, it was different this time. Every time he had this dream not only did he not have that ability anymore, but he also could hardly swim.
I won't be able to save her, Umber thought with an ache of sadness. I had another chance to save her and I couldn't. I failed again.
And there he sank, deeper and deeper into his pit of guilt, knowingly letting Crane die again. Although the thought of his lungs slowly filling with blood as he suffocated sounded like one of the most horrible ways to go, he at least could move on to the next dream and forget about all of this. Hopefully.
And finally, he touched the bottom and closed his eyes. But as he laid there, waiting to finally succumb to suffocation, he had a flashback. Perhaps it was by chance, or maybe it was his mind reminding him of what he was giving up on, but it gave him the strength he needed.
"Go win this war for me, alright?"
That's when a realization struck him. As her words resonated in his head, echoing over and over and over again, he had a realization. She wasn't talking about the SandWing Succession war… Umber thought. She was talking about me; me winning this war between me and myself… And the only way he knew he could start was by saving her here and now.
His eyes jolted open, and now he knew what he had to do.
With a new motivation, he pushed himself up and off of the blood ocean floor, kicking and pushing himself as hard as he could, the only thing in his mind being to save Crane. Each kick made his side feel like it was getting stabbed over and over again, but that hardly bothered him anymore.
He kept swimming for what felt like forever, and just when he felt like he was about to pass out from the lack of oxygen, he finally reached the top and began gulping down air; sweet, sweet air.
But as he wiped his eyes and prepared himself to keep swimming in an endless, dark abyss only home to an entire ocean of blood, he realized that he wasn't in that ocean of blood anymore, but was instead somewhere different.
He looked down at what he expected to be blood, only to realize that he was swimming in a tiny pond of — normal — water now, and surrounding it was stone, endless amounts of stone.
The edges of the pond had sharp edges, as if a sinkhole had happened right where he was swimming and rain filled the land's place. He could see that there were many of these scattered around in seemingly random places, but they all were similar in size and shape.
The air itself was filled with ash, smoke, and debris, making him feel like he needed to cough almost immediately.
As he took a closer look at the area around him, there seemed to be endless spires around him, all different sizes. Some narrow and pointy, some large with the tips being dull. But they all had one thing in common: they all gave him an unnerving feeling that this place might be even worse than the blood pit (which is what he called it now).
Not only were there these strange spires, but many, many mountains surrounded him, making the landscape ridged and seemingly hard to navigate, especially in his condition.
Normally his first thought would be to fly, but he knew he couldn't; not now; not with his fatigued state. He knew he couldn't fly for more than a few seconds before having to rest again.
Most of the blood that was on him before dissipated into the water as it mixed around before quickly disappearing. Slowly, he pushed himself through the water, before quickly getting to the edge where he slowly pulled himself out, his only restriction being the wound in his side as it was still bleeding.
The added pressure from pulling himself up didn't help, of course. But that thought was quickly cut off when he heard another bloodcurdling scream from Crane.
"LET GO OF ME!" she yelled, her voice echoing in the distance. "NO! STOP!" Another scream was heard from her in the distance, except this time it sounded like a scream of pain instead of one in fear.
"Crane! Where are you?!" he yelled back. Though he couldn't tell north from south here, his mental compass still worked all the same as long as he made up directions.
Her screams are coming from the north, he thought. He already began painfully taking each step, going into a light jog almost immediately while trying to hold his side, which definitely wasn't easy because of how far down it was.
The terrain was certainly hard to navigate through, especially when going up and down hills. But he pushed on because leaving Crane wasn't an option; besides, he's already made it this far, and he certainly wasn't going to waste his second chance.
I'd rather die than watch her die again.
At one point, he got to a tall mountain where at least three or four spires spiked out of the mountain around him and could see the full scope of what this place looked like.
He could see miles in the distance, where lightning and thunder boomed constantly even though there was no rain; or even clouds for that matter. The lightning was just coming from somewhere miles in the sky, past how far he could see through the smoke.
He didn't dwell on that too much though, and kept moving in the direction he last heard Crane scream.
Minutes passed without any calls for help, and he began getting worried for her. Am I too late? Did whatever that took her away kill her already? Hold on a little longer, Crane, I'm coming.
But he could slowly feel himself getting weaker and weaker as the seconds ticked by. As he looked behind him, he could see a long blood trail that followed him the whole way there. Constantly opening up the wound as soon as it began to clot probably didn't help the most either. I don't have much time left!
But right when he felt about ready to give up and fall over, his head poked over a hill and saw a horrific sight he promised he'd never let happen again: Icicle was standing atop a hill, and locked in her talons was Crane.
She had her claws comfortably raised to her throat, ready to slash at any second. Her gaze was unnerving, just like before.
"Please let go of me! I don't want to die!" Crane cried desperately as tears pelted down her face. "I'll give you anything, just let us go!
"Let go of her!" Umber tried desperately, breaking into a near sprint. His wound hurt more than ever, but Crane was right in front of him, hardly a hundred feet away.
But his cries were ignored and Icicle only stared at him. Her ice cold glare made it feel like a million different icicles were stabbing their way through his scales and coming out the back, pinning him to a wall so he couldn't move.
"No matter how hard you try, you'll never be able to save her," was all Icicle said with a big smile before slashing her talons across Crane's throat. Blood immediately began spilling everywhere, all down her next and across her chest.
Icicle let go of her, leaving her to grip her talons around her throat, before her eyes fell closed and she began rag dolling down the hill.
"NO!" His yell swept across the landscape, before echoing back to him and reminding him of his failure a few times before fading back into oblivion.
He felt tears begin to fall down his face. His legs almost felt like they were moving for him when he sprinted over to her and fell down next to her; he was too weak to stand any longer. This was it.
Blood continued gushing from her throat, spilling all over the stone and staining it red. Icicle just stood atop the small hill with a massive grin spread across her face as if she thought this was funny.
"Crane…" He cuddled her corpse close. Though she was already gone, he could still see the hint of terror on her face as she begged for her life. His wound especially hurt now, and he could see that it was bleeding more than ever as it stained his talons.
Their blood mixed as it slowly flowed down the hill. He sobbed, hoping that it would miraculously bring her back to life, even if he was in a dream. I failed again, he thought. I had another chance to come back here and save you, and I blew it.
His head fell next to hers and he wrapped his wing around her, their tails intertwined all the while. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.
But as the seconds passed, he felt his eyes get heavier and heavier, and his muscles becoming even more fatigued than before. But he didn't fight it anymore, he already did what he came here to do, and he failed miserably.
His eyes sealed shut as he took his final breath, officially marking the end of his latest failure.
And then everything went black. No next dream, no feeling like another dose of tranquilizer was being pumped into him, nothing. It was all just silent, a black abyss where he didn't feel fear, pain, or sadness. It was just nothing.
Am I dead? he thought. Is this what the afterlife is like? Will I be stuck here forever?
But the next thing he knew, there was a blinding light shining in his face. It was as if he was seeing the light of day for the first time in years, and his eyes opened to a boring white ceiling.
Where am I? he thought.
All around his body, he felt something wrapped around him tightly, and a pain as if he was just recovering from spilling boiling water all over himself. Or a fire…
He felt a pressure on his chest, like someone was laying on him. He hoped — prayed it would be Flame, laying there waiting to greet him as he awoke fully for the first time in forever before probably being put back under.
But as he tilted his head down, he was only half disappointed to see Clay's head resting on his chest. He almost looked like he was falling asleep.
"Clay?"
Author's note: Whew! That was a heavy chapter, what a way to finally end off on Umber waking up. I could've added more chapters before this, but I really did find it mentally taxing to continue writing Flame in his state, and probably for you to read it as well.
PS: I don't know if you caught it, but I'm really proud of Umber sinking to the bottom of the blood pool being a metaphor of his guilt taking over as he was giving up.
