So, between here and chapters 21 or 22, my writing is definitely not at its best. But I eventually do start taking some inspiration from books, and my writing does improve over time. One of the main reasons I won't do a redo is (at least without making it a separate story) is because I want to preserve my writing here and immortalize my journey of writing. So, when I become a better writer, people can look back on this and see where I, myself, started from. I absolutely love writing, and Healed has been a blast to write.

"So," Avalanche said. "We need to get party streamers, confetti, a big sign that says "Happy Hatching Day" or something of the sort, a candle, and anything else we can find that would look good."

"You and Shrimp can go find all of that," Flame said. "I need to find Starf something for his birthday. I mean, our annivers-" he trailed off.

He thought about how much time had passed. It felt like it was yesterday when he had finally thrown his anxiety, insecurities, and worries to the side and make his and Umber's relationship official.

He also remembered that Umber had agreed to be the one setting up their anniversary since he had done it last time. Flame knew he wanted to make it special but couldn't help but worry. Thousands of scenarios always raced through his head about what could go wrong.

"Flame?" Avalanche said. "What's wrong?

Flame looked over at her, still keeping his nervous expression on. They had talked about talking to each other about their issues before, and that's something that Flame needed to start practicing.

"I-I'm just nervous," Flame said. "I mean, Umber is wandering the streets alone and I can't protect him if anything happens."

"Flame," Shrimp interrupted. "wasn't Umber in the war for most of his life? If he survived that, I'm sure he can survive out on the streets of the Sky Kingdom."

Flame realized that Shrimp was right. Umber survived his whole life, constantly getting into fights with other tribes. After that many years of war, why should he worry?

"You're probably right," Flame said. "I mean, he probably knows how to fight. Besides, he can read now. I don't have to read him everything on the menu, the names of places, or even graphicolls…sometimes," he reassured himself

He and Umber were doing more and more reading sessions than ever since they moved in together and Umber was finally able to read. Flame taught him how to sound words out, but he still needed to learn more, and Flame couldn't help but think about how much he was going to miss listening to Umber read. He did get annoyed at times when Umber asked him to repeat a word 5 times over, but then he heard his soft voice start to read and it always faded instantly.

They got to the store and Avalanche opened the door for Shrimp and Flame. "What happened to the ladies first rule?" Shrimp joked.

"I think we both know who acts more like the lady here," Avalanche said in a half-joking tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shrimp demanded.

"Oh please. You get scared at even the thought of a spider crawling up your tail," she retorted.

Flame immediately thought back to the time that Shrimp screamed like a girl when Chromis snuck up on him once. He thought that it was probably an accident, but he thought that maybe Chromis did have some of Flame's personality in him.

Maybe that's not a good thing? Flame thought. Or maybe it is and I'm just overreacting.

"Okay," Flame jumped in. "While you two go back and forth, I'm going to go in and find Starf a present."

"I will never get how you can like that SeaWing so much." Avalanche said.

Shrimp looked up at her with offense written all over his face, but right before he could say anything, Avalanche shot him an unamused look.

"Oh please, Shrimp," Avalanche said. "You know that you're too much of a sweetheart for me to hate." Based on Shrimp's face, Flame could tell that that wasn't much better,

"Oh, ha, ha," Shrimp laughed in a sarcastic tone before kissing her on the cheek. Avalanche kissed back this time, except on the tip of his snout.

"Gross," Flame said and then quickly wandered off, hoping to leave whatever was about to happen behind.

They did this often and every time they did, he quickly hurried away so that they could do whatever they were about to do without him. Something about watching his mother kiss his technically stepfather made his stomach churn.

While Flame was walking through the store, he couldn't help but remember what's happened in the last year. Chromis was almost a year old, his official relationship with Umber was also almost a year old, and Starfs birthday was also coming up. Flame felt like it was only yesterday that he had watched Chromis break his way out of his egg. Of course, it hadn't been yesterday and if it was, he wouldn't be even nearly as close to Umber as he had grown to be in the past year.

He made his way over to the toy aisle to find Starf a present. He thought that his office looked pretty dead and bland. His walls were a mellow beige, his desk was nothing special either. Just a dark brown wooden desk that sat in the far left corner of the room. He also had a massive wooden shelf across one of the walls where he stored all of his patients' files. From the times he was in Zephyr's office, he noticed that there were many things that dragons could fidget with while sitting down but Starfs office had none of that. He thought something colorful could work to bring back some life there.

Eventually, he made his way over to the toy aisle. Looking down, he could see many different tiny wooden figures, toy instruments, and even some stacking blocks. He thought it looked like a rainbow threw up on everything in this aisle five times over.

He looked around the shelves, brushing his talons against multiple different wooden toys until his eyes landed on a cube. The cube was about the size of his palm with different colors on each side. Each side of the cube had 9 different smaller cubes on each side and he thought that it might be a puzzle of some kind. It looked like just the thing that Starf's office needed.

He took it to the front counter and gave him several gold coins that he was carrying the whole time before the cashier stuffed the cardboard box in a bag. He thought this was a little unnecessary, but he didn't say anything.

That's what the old me would've done, he thought.

He was about to leave the store when he remembered that Avalanche and Shrimp were still in there. While he waited, he decided that he would see what the strange cube was. He took it out of the box and began messing with it. He accidentally twisted one of the sides and thought that he broke it at first but soon realized that every side could turn like that freely. Within seconds, all of the different colored squares were scrambled all over the cube like all of the pieces were put on at random. He soon realized that he messed up the cube and started turning each side to try and get it back to its original colors. Whenever he got one side to match up, all the progress he made on the other side vanished.

He began to get frustrated at it when Shrimp and Avalanche started walking toward Flame and he quickly tucked the cube in his wing. They were both holding multiple bags that seemed to have many different colored decorations in each one of them.

"How are you going to hide those from Chromis?" Flame asked.

"Oh, we're not," Avalanche said. "You are."

"We don't really have much space," Flame said.

He instantly began rummaging through his brain about the numerous places he could hide the bags. After a few seconds, he remembered that there was a panel in their living room that could be clicked on and off just by pulling on it. The hole inside was a cube shape with wood along each wall big enough to fit Umber.

Who would we even be hiding these from? Flame realized.

"Just hide them in your house somewhere," Avalanche said. "I don't know, figure it out. All I know is that we can't keep them at our house. It's too small and he will find them eventually. He finds everything eventually."

"I'll see what I can do." Flame reluctantly agreed after a moment of thinking.

He realized that his mother's house was far too small to hide anything in so that Chromis wouldn't find it. He thought of all the places he was going to hide them and finally remembered a spot they found when moving in. There was a small panel that could be taken off in the wall that led to a small hold that was just big enough for a dragon to fit in. Of course, Umber and Flame never needed to hide anything in their house so they never had to use it.


Umber was walking the perfect paths of one of the towns in the Sky Kingdom. The sun was up high in the sky and was reflecting off of the many red and black scales that were walking the paths. Many of the SkyWings had gems embedded in their scales.

The sun was high in the sky so Umber guessed that it was probably nearing noon.

He could smell all of the delicious food in the air. His mouth began watering and he was tempted to spend all the money he had on him on food.

No! He thought to himself. This money is for both of you, Umber. You can't spend it on such silly things like…delicious, mouth-watering food.

He smacked himself in the face so that he would snap out of the food-drive trance he was in. He looked around and noticed that he definitely got some looks after doing that.

This was the same town that Flame had brought him to on their first date. Jet had given him a paper that had the names of all of the best places to eat, just like she had done for Flame. Most of the restaurants were far too expensive for Umber, so he started narrowing them down.

"This one's fancy," he muttered to himself while he looked through the window of one of the restaurants.

The inside had sparkly wooden tables, and the cleanest red carpet Umber had ever seen in his life. There were many wooden beams beside each table. The tables were fitted so that they were in rows and not scattered all over the place.

He was trying to make their anniversary as good as he possibly could so he spent most of the days asking around about what was on their menu. Most of the restaurants needed reservations so he couldn't exactly walk in and ask what they served. Most of the dragons he asked didn't know what the restaurants cooked, but there was the off chance that he was told a few of the options.

"Are you looking for someone?" a voice said from behind him. Umber quickly turned around and almost hit them in the face with his snout.

"Oh, uh…no actually. I'm just looking inside," he said.

He observed the SkyWing and noticed that he had a golden bracelet on. There were indents all around it with shiny red rocks inside each of them. Umber guessed that there were probably around 8-9. It looked extremely expensive, more expensive than Umber or Flame could ever afford. Umber assumed that this dragon was probably rich and would know a few items on some of the restaurants on his list.

"Hmm. What's the occasion?" The SkyWing said, looking Umber up and down.

Umber was hesitant to tell him at first. He felt a little uncomfortable telling other dragons about him and Flame.

Oh, what's the worst that could happen?

"Me and my uhh…boyfriend's one-year anniversary is coming up soon," Umber said. "And I want to make it as nice as I can."

"Your…boyfriend…?" the SkyWing tilted his head in confusion. "You mean you and another…" he trailed off. "You and another male…".

Umber could feel the embarrassment begin to flood his scales. He was thankful that he wasn't a RainWing at this moment or his scales would probably start to turn bright pink.

"Uhm…yes?" Umber muttered with caution.

Umber's mind began thinking of the endless ways this conversation could end. His heart was pumping so fast that he could feel the blood rush through each of his veins.

"That's absolutely disgusting!" the SkyWing exclaimed. "Know that you and your boyfriend are not welcome here."

Umber took a step back in shock and his jaw dropped not knowing what to say. All he could think of was how many other SkyWings had overheard the encounter and might be thinking the same thing.

He ran off not knowing what to say since he had never had anything like that happen to him before, though he hadn't told very many dragons. He only said something when he couldn't make up an excuse fast enough.

He looked behind him a couple of times to make sure that the SkyWing wasn't following him as he flew off. He could feel tears in the back of his eyes as he replayed the words "You and your boyfriend are not welcome here" over and over in his head like a broken record.

He got home and swung the door open as fast as he could and ran into his and Flame's room and began crying.

Their house wasn't anything special. There was one medium-sized bedroom, a rather small living room, and a kitchen. The floors were made of wooden planks that looked slightly rotted underneath the polish coating and their kitchen counters were made of old wood.

Is it true? Are we not welcome there? Are we welcome anywhere? What if that's what everyone thinks about us but just doesn't say anything? He thought. No. Sora and Jet are dating. They can't possibly be that hypocritical. I mean, they even live together just like me and Flame. Though they don't have their own house, Sora just lives with Zephyr and Jet. What about everyone else though? The endless different thoughts kept racing through his head like an incurable plague.

He sat in their bed and played the scene over and over again in his head for at least 10 minutes. He was so caught up in the thought that he hadn't even noticed that Flame had gotten home and was standing in the doorway of their bedroom.

"Umber…? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Flame asked with concern in his voice.

Umber couldn't hear him, his sobs were drowning out all of the noise around him. He ran over to Umber and set down the cube that he bought from the store for Starf and sat beside Umber, rubbing his talons along his back trying to comfort him. Umber looked up at Flame and finally noticed him.

"F-Flame?" he said in a sob "I-I didn't think you'd b-be back so early." Umber said with the scene still replaying in his head on repeat. Flame could tell that he was trying to avoid his question.

"Nevermind that, Umber. What's wrong?" Flame said. "I haven't seen you this upset since Sora went missing."

When this happened, he didn't believe Jet at first and half expected Sora to jump out from a bush when they ran to go look for her. He remembered being so upset and then so relieved when they found her.

"I-I was out looking for places for us to eat for our anniversary. A SkyWing stopped me and t-told me that I wasn't welcome there."

Umber didn't tell the full story on purpose, hoping that Flame wouldn't press any further, but Umber's fear came true and he did.

"Why? Is it because you're a MudWing? Is it because you don't look expensive enough? Is it because you're…" he trailed off and realized what had happened. The look on Umber's face confirmed this. "Umber…you can't listen to dragons like that." He wrapped his wings and arms around him. Umber started feeling better with the warmth of Flame all around him.

Flame was the only dragon whose touch could make him feel so much better. Except for Turtle of course, whose touch could probably make anyone feel better.

Flame wanted to ask who the SkyWing was and where it happened so that he could go over there and set him on fire. He remembered all the times he had wanted to do that in the past year but stopped himself before he could ask. He was trying to be better.

They both sat there for a couple of minutes and Umber was feeling a lot better now that Flames wings were wrapped around him like a cocoon.

"You feeling better now, Umber?" Flame said after a few minutes. "I mean I've had my wings wrapped around you for at least 30 minutes now," he joked.

"It's only been 20," Umber joked back with a muffled laugh. "You're the only dragon in the Pyrrhia that can be so nice and so mean at the same time," Umber said.

"I might just keep you like this forever because of that." Flame said with a laugh.

"Oh no you won't," Umber responded.

"Oh yes I will," Flame retorted.

They both started playfully fighting. Flame struggled to keep his wings around Umber when he started trying to shove his way out. Umber eventually was able to break free from Flame's wings, took a step back, and then tackled him to the floor. Flame's back bumped the floor and made their whole bedroom shake.

Flame and Umber's eyes locked with Umber's. He gave him a quick kiss and then let him get up. These were the moments that Umber was grateful for Flame being in his life. These were the moments where he felt like he and Flame were the only dragons in the world. The only dragons that mattered.

"Clay should be here to visit you soon." Flame reminded him.

"OH I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT!" Umber exclaimed. "We need to clean up the place before he gets here!"

"Agreed," Flame smiled.


Sora and Jet were both sleeping together in the same bed, snuggled up close. Zephyr was able to take the day off today because all of her patients were either out somewhere, sick, or straight-up refused to come.

They lived in a very nice house since Zephyr got paid very well because of how important her job was. It was a 2 story house with 2 bedrooms, a massive living room, and a very nice dining room. Their kitchen was no exception. The countertops were black and white colored marble and the floors were made up of black ceramic tiles. Zephyr's room was on the first floor while Jet and Sora's room was on the second floor.

Jet also had the day off today from working at the front desk. Since there were so many dragons and so much work, there were two receptionists now that worked for half the week. The other dragon was an IceWing. He and Jet almost never saw each other since they didn't work at the same time.

Zephyr had gotten home from work and went to check on Jet and Sora. She walked past the room and saw that they were still sleeping, cuddled up close with the blanket over them. The light was beaming through their window, reflecting off of each of their red and brown scales.

Zephyr walked into their room and ripped the blanket off from over the two of them. They both shot up and started complaining about it while Zephyr stood there with a grin on her face.

"You two should have been awake hours ago. Look at the sun! It's AT LEAST noon!" Zephyr complained.

They both shot up out of bed and bolted to the window.

"Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize how late we slept in!" Jet said. "We were up all night working on the mountains of paperwork you gave me yesterday." She scoffed.

"Well, there was a lot of last minute stuff that I needed you to do!" Zephyr argued. "Regardless, you still can't stay up so late! Your scales are going to get as dull as a NightWings!"

It was a common myth that many SkyWings told their dragonets, trying to encourage them to sleep at night. NightWings were rarely seen when Jet was growing up but one distinct feature that everyone noticed though, was how dull their scales were.

"Mom, that's just a myth. That's never actually happened to any dragons before," Jet responded.

"That's because not a single dragon in the world sleeps in as late as you do," Zephyr said.

Jet did have some trouble falling asleep while growing up, but she thought that she couldn't be the only dragon in the world like this. She met plenty of dragons growing up that would stay up late and be tired whenever they had to wake up early.

A few minutes later, Sora and Jet both went downstairs and saw that Zephyr was already cooking them breakfast. Well, technically it was lunch for them and they both could immediately tell what she was making from the smell.

"Are you making us pancakes again?" Sora asked.

Pancakes were Sora's favorite thing to have in the morning. She tried them for the first time at the Healing Center and hasn't been able to stay away from them since. She especially liked the way Flame made them.

"You know, you don't have to make us breakfast, mom," Jet said.

Zephyr made them breakfast often. Sora liked the idea, but Jet saw it as her still babying her. Sora could never understand how someone couldn't enjoy someone else making them breakfast in the morning.

"But I want to! It gives me something to do in the morning if you two are awake. Besides, Sora loves pancakes!" Zephyr responded.

When Sora moved in, Zephyr already knew that Sora loved pancakes from all of their sessions together and she would try to make them for her as much as she could. Zephyr asked Flame to give her his recipe but she had to promise not to share it with anyone else. The only other dragon who knew his recipe was Umber.

"I guess so." Jet gave up on the argument since she was tired.

"Anyways, what do you want to do today, Jet?" Sora said. Sora knew Jet too well and could guess what she was about to say next.

"Sleep," they both said at the same time.

Sora looked at Jet and they both ended up laughing hysterically at this. It was especially funny to Sora.

"You know I hate it when you do that Sora!" Jet laughed.

"I know but you're just SO predictable!" Sora responded.

She did this often with Jet. Sora knew that she hated it and that's what made it so funny to her.

Kind of like Umber and Flame with that mud muffin stuff, she thought.

"Why don't we go and hang out with Flame and Umber today? They are both so cute together!" Jet said. Sora shot her an unamused look.

"Well A, Clay is coming over to their house today to visit Umber, not to mention that they're both probably still out anyways setting things up," Sora explained. "And B, that's my brother you're talking about!" she finished.

"How is Flame and Clay by the way? Are they on good terms? I actually haven't seen them in the same room with each other since Umber introduced Flame to him," Jet questioned.

"Oh, they're great! Just last week Flame and Clay were talking about their anniversary," she responded.

"At least that's one dragon Flame hasn't managed to piss off yet," Jet said. "Besides, Clay is probably the last dragon you would want mad, especially when you're dating his brother. He probably wouldn't have time to deal with Flame anyways since he's helping at the Jade Academy."

They were both sitting at the table now, throwing pancakes into their mouths. Sora loved the way Zephyr made them and would always look forward to eating them. Probably not as much as Umber would enjoy eating them though. Umber would eat anything at any time. One thing that she didn't understand though, was how she was able to make them taste so much like Flames.

After they ate, they both decided that they would stay inside today and enjoy the little time left that Jet had off by relaxing since this was Jet's last day off.


Author's Note: I had a lot of fun writing this. I have so many plans for the future of this story (Note that this is NOT an official continuation of the original and is only my continuation). I can tell that I'm going to have a lot of fun developing some of the characters that were talked about at the end of the original Healed. This is my first time writing about…well…basically anything that I actually care for and I already have the plot and everything written out. Also, this wouldn't have been possible without the original author of the first story's help. Check out their story before reading this one, the link is in my bio.