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His talons dragged the little plastic SeaWing across the board, landing on a little cardboard square that said "Move three spaces forward". So once again, he dragged his tiny figurine across the board, smacking it against the board after each move. One clack, two clacks, three clacks, until the little SeaWing was at its final destination.
"Aaaand, game!" Sora exclaimed, moving her SkyWing forward one space onto a little square that said "Winner!" Flame looked at all of the final moves on the board.
Umber's NightWing was in last, Flame's SeaWing was barely ahead of his, Nigthunter's MudWing was marginally ahead of both of theirs — as they were both basically at the beginning —, and Clay's SandWing was hardly a few spaces behind Sora's.
"Looks like another loss, MudWing!" Flame joked, flicking the little NightWing off of the board. He turned towards Umber, smiling and happy even though he had just miserably lost his first game of Scales and Tails in months.
"You lost too!" Umber retorted, a light chuckle escaping under his breath. "Your piece was hardly ten spaces ahead!" Sora picked up the cardboard sheet and put it back in its box. It was decorated with different colored dragons — at least one from each tribe. His favorite part of the board, especially, was the SkyWing chasing a scavenger down, breathing fire where his little paws had been mere seconds before.
"Hey, we can't all be choosers," he shrugged mockingly.
Flame looked over at Nighthunter as she awkwardly stood there, waiting for something new to happen — like a timer she was waiting to go off before making a move. In a way, Flame couldn't blame her; standing around a bunch of dragons she hardly knew, being treated as if she was a part of their family after just meeting them for the first time.
She put her fake smile on — the same smile he'd seen a thousand times before from different healers. The this-is-my-job-and-I-have-to-stay-professional-and-not-just-stare-at-you smile.
As Sora finished putting away every little piece of the game Flame had lost many times before growing up, she shot a stare at Umber. "Alright, Umber, now what?" she asked.
Umber looked over at her, a confused expression sitting comfortably on his face. One of the leaves from the above garden trees landed on his wing, and with one twitch of his spine, it fell right off. "Me? I thought you two would be picking the games."
Flame cracked a smile when hit against his dull brown scales. They tried to answer back to the sunlight they should be answering back to with a shine, but couldn't. They just sat there, unmoving and unphased. When death called for Umber, he never responded. No matter how loud death screamed and pushed and fought, Umber never gave it a glance.
But Crane on the other talon…
"Let's play hide-and-seek. Y'know, the tag one," were the words that interrupted his thoughts before he could go further.
A sudden rush of overprotective fear shot through him. "Umber, you can't play tag!" he blurted, his mouth moving faster than his mind. "I mean, you just healed from third-degree burns, and your wing is still broken! What if you fall and hurt yourself?"
Umber snorted. "Is that the excuse you'll use for the next month whenever I want to do something slightly physically demanding?" he questioned, tilting his head slightly. "My wing is broken, not my legs, you silly dragon." At that moment, a little speck of pale brown glimmered in the sunlight, making the handsomeness Flame had first fallen in love with that much more.
His heart jumped, and he turned his head away to hide his flushed expression. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "Just be careful." He turned and started walking away towards the Healing Center, both giving him an excuse to wipe his expression away, and get them some food — MudWings would definitely be hungry after a game of tag, Flame knew that especially well.
"Where are you going?" Umber asked as he walked off. "Don't you want to play with us?" Flame looked back at them. Sora was setting the game aside a tree, out of the way, Clay was talking to Nighthunter about something he was too far away to hear, and Umber was standing where he had been sitting before.
"I'm going to get you food, of course! Three MudWings are going to get hungry eventually!"
"But we just ate!" he yelled as Flame walked into the distance.
"I'll be back in twenty minutes!" he yelled over his shoulder. He was getting out of reach for any more noise to reach him at that point, so he whipped his head forward instead of looking back at Umber as he entered through the doorway of the central building.
The moment he walked in, it became obvious just how hot it was outside compared to inside the Healing Center. The cold air felt good against his scales compared to outside — it reminded him of flying, something he hadn't done in weeks.
Besides, when would he get the time? With constant work, Fennec never forgets to tell him what he has to do, and the little time he's able to spend with Umber daily, there is none. He thought back to the moment he yelled at Fennec. Had he been too harsh? Maybe he wouldn't have gotten so much more work than before if he hadn't.
No! he spat to himself. Fennec deserved to hear each and every one of those words! Just a little longer and I can get out of this place, he told himself — that's what he had been telling himself ever since he had worked so hard he fell asleep listening to Umber read a graphicoll that night.
He made his way to the kitchen, shaking those thoughts out of his head — he would need a clear mind to think of all of the things a MudWing and his sibs would want, let alone carry them all back.
He peered inside; Aquatic, Sienna, Massif, Alpine, and Gila were still cooking away, as they should, and as Flame had been having to do at nearly twice their rate to meet his quota. If he was being honest, facing them again after just walking out just to get snacks a few minutes later made him a little nervous, but he was supposed to be the one in the kitchen who took nothing from anyone. So that's what he did.
Putting on the mask of a hardened chef with a high temper and low patience — something that wasn't very difficult for him to mimic — he stepped inside. It was as if a bomb had just gone off when everyone's eyes suddenly snapped away from what they were doing and focused on Flame instead.
It was as if their eyes were breathing fire at him when he felt warm embarrassment flood his cheeks.
He acted as if he was ignoring their gazes and scoffed, giving them a disregarding glance as he turned to their pantry; Aquatic knew that act especially well and rolled his eyes.
Massif and Alpine, on the other talon, both looked livid. Because oh how dare the head chef who hadn't had a break in weeks take a break. They acted as if both of them never slacked off, constantly making jokes and even playing with the food sometimes.
If he had a sun every time Fennec yelled at them for messing around instead of doing their job, he would have about two, because Fennec's constant attention was on him instead. Acting as if he was ignoring the way they glared at him, he flicked his tail, feeling the warm presence of their eyes trickle along his back.
The pantry was in a separate room, locked away from the eyes of the Healing Center's cafeteria. And more importantly, locked away from the eyes of the kitchen. There he could calmly pick and choose which snacks to get for Umber and his sibs, and if he was anywhere near as good as he thought he was, it would be easy.
He lit a candle, engulfing the darkness with light. Thankfully, the room hadn't been trashed at that point — everything was categorized neatly as he had it when he left.
White shelves lined each and every space on the walls, different foods sat atop each one. He grabbed one of the bags stashed aside, deciding he'd just give it back later, and looked at all of the options.
Why the pantry had so many snacks? He didn't know. But one thing he did know is that it was meant for anyone who didn't bring their own lunch, and the only one who did that was Flame himself.
It was the one place Fennec hardly monitored, as it would be near impossible to keep track of everyone's lunch and how much they ate at the same time, counting the pantry on top of ingredients each day. Which, in turn, meant he had free roam of the whole place.
Chips and salsa, chocolate strawberries, different sweets, fruit snacks and bars, chocolate chip cookies, and anything else that can be considered unhealthy.
One bag of chips and a jar of salsa and cheese, a bag of cookies, some biscuits, and a bit of jelly, just in case they really wanted to eat unhealthy. Realistically, he didn't expect everything to be gone by the end of the day, especially since they had just eaten less than twenty minutes before, so he would have some stuff for lunch the next day.
All of a sudden, he heard the familiar high-pitched voice of a certain SandWing who treated him with nothing but respect.
"Alpine, stop!" Gila begged, running into the pantry, her scales glistening bright yellow against the candlelight. She was close behind the SkyWing, along with basically the entire kitchen behind her.
She clung onto his back and even tried pulling his tail, but nothing phased him and he knocked her away. His face was full of rage, and his tail angrily flicked back and forth whenever Gila wasn't clinging onto it as if her life depended on it — as if his life depended on it.
Massif pushed past Gila, standing slightly behind Alpine. His expression wasn't as angry as Massif's, and he swore he saw a bit of fear or uneasiness mixed in. Already, it felt like Massif was just a pawn, and Alpine was the king. "Flame!" he yelled furiously.
Flame dropped the bag of snacks, sensing the tension in the room, and put on his most annoyed face. "What the fuck do you want?" he spat.
He shifted closer. "You think you can just come in here and take food whenever you feel like it while the rest of us work?" He dropped his voice low and got even closer, to the point he could feel his breath against his face. "Think again, because the next time I see you do this, I swear by the moons you'll regret it."
Flame hardly flinched, keeping a straight, unwavering face the whole time. It's not like he needed to anyway — Alpine already knew he was tough in situations like those, standing his ground, not scared for even a moment. And if he was being honest, neither Alpine nor Massif scared him. He could take them two-on-one if he needed and hardly get a scratch.
"Alpine!" Sienna scolded in her usual bossy voice. She was usually the one to keep him in line whenever he went off track or got angry at someone. She was like his healer, but only if all that healer did was temporarily stop behaviors instead of teach them to stop themselves.
Alpine turned back at Sienna with a scowl, a low growl escaped his mouth, a warning to back off.
"So what's it gonna be? Are you going to put that food back or are we going to make you?" He kept getting closer and closer with each word, backing Flame into the furthest wall from the door. "Your burn victim of a boyfriend should lay off the calories for a bit anyways."
Based on Aquatic's horrified expression, Sienna's audible gasp, Gila's wide eyes, and even Massif's preemptive step back, they all knew someone was about to get hurt. Flame even thought that himself when he first heard the words.
He felt a surge of anger flood his veins. He wanted to chokeslam him; to slam his head against a wall a few times, hoping the wood would whisper a few wise words into his ear. Something along the lines of 'don't fuck with Umber' possibly.
But then he remembered his sessions with Starf and, more importantly, his promise to Umber that he would get better. What would beating up two essentially defenseless dragons prove? That he was only getting worse instead of better?
To everyone's surprise, and even his, instead of giving him what he deserved, he picked up the bag and pushed past him, sucking up his anger and trapping it deep inside. A reaction is what he wanted, and he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
"Oh, so you're ignoring me now? Is that whole bag just for him? Or maybe a snack instead?" Alpine mocked, once again trying to make him angry. It wouldn't work, not anymore — not now that he had already muffled the anger with his own promise to Umber.
But not even Umber's soothing voice or gentle touch could've prepared him for what happened next. Nothing could've prepared him for it. "Is that why he killed his sister? Maybe so he could eat her corpse because he felt his tummy rumble?"
Flame stopped in his tracks. He didn't need to look behind him to know that everyone was leaving the room, shoving past him knowing something was about to happen. That was, everyone except for Massif, staying by Alpine's side.
He wanted to gag at even the thought of Umber doing such a thing. Umber loved her, to the point where he almost committed suicide to prove himself to her, looking down at him — to have the chance to see her again.
Umber was the nicest dragon in all of Pyrrhia. What had he done to deserve such comments? Fight a war he didn't want to fight? Eat a little more than he should? Save Flame's life possibly multiple times? No, he wants you to be mad, he told himself, hoping that would make the near-unbearable anger fade. It did nothing.
The bag of snacks dropped to the floor yet again, the jar of jelly shattering that time. Little shards of glass fell on the floor as it tipped. The little pot of water inside of him began boiling, melting the ice he had added to it before to calm it down.
With the temperature turned to max, he turned around. One massive grin on Alpine's face, amused by what he had said. Massif's expression was a mix of disgust and a little bit of fear. "What the fuck did you just say?" Massif flinched as he took a step closer, but Alpine stood his ground.
Just like Alpine, he got up close to his face, if not closer. "I've had two of the four animus dragons in Pyrrhia terrified of me at some point over the last three years," he growled in his most threatening voice. "Do you really want to fuck with me?"
Realistically, he had no idea how neither of them were on the floor begging for air as he choked them out. Maybe it was Starf's sessions, or maybe it was that Umber was already going through enough and didn't need him imprisoned for murder.
Alpine stared back at him with a scowl. Massif had taken a few steps away, preparing for the fight that could break out. "That's what I-"
His words were interrupted by Alpine's talons raising, and cutting through the air at a reasonably slow speed. It was as if he had never been in a fight before, and once Flame thought about it, he realized that he probably hadn't.
It wasn't hard for him to duck under, leaving his talons to slash at nothing. He raised his own talons up and reflexively gave him one slash across his face that left him to stagger back into Massif. Blood the color of his scales immediately started to drip from the cut, almost blending in.
He felt the pot of water inside of him start to boil over, dripping on the stove and floor, waiting for any unfortunate dragon to step on it. And that dragon just so happened to be Alpine himself.
He let the pent-up anger in him ebb freely throughout his body. One slash at Alpine's shoulder, another slash at him he caught until Flame had him pinned against the floor. He positioned his talons around his throat. They sat comfortably, almost as if that's what they were meant to do.
One hard slam of his head against the floor, chipping one of the ends of his horns. His grip tightened, and the rage took control of his body. Like a puppet, his anger was pulling the strings. Every action he did was fueled by pure, unfiltered anger. An unstoppable force meeting a poor defenseless dragon.
Alpine was surely disorientated. He hadn't slammed him hard — at least, not nearly hard enough to knock him out. No, he wanted him to feel every moment, to go through all the pain he had just tried to inflict on him and Umber. To make him pay with blood for the awful things he had just said.
Alpine clawed at his wrists to no avail — Flame's anger was too much to be disregarded by an already-weakened, dying dragon. Flame knew he was dying, the look of helplessness on his face only further proved it.
In a strange, demented way, he liked that look on his face — he wished it would permanently stay there, stitched like a broken doll.
He looked at where Massif had been before. He expected to see a scared dragon, cowering in the corner, but he was gone. One glance around the room is all it took for him to immediately realize why he wasn't there. That reason was because he was charging at him with a piece of broken glass, sharp enough to stab directly through his scales. He wasn't scared though — he knew it wouldn't take much to scare him away.
He opened his mouth, allowing the fire in the back of his throat to build up. With his talons still gripped around Alpine's throat, he let the hissing sound cause Massif to stagger back, running out of the room and dropping the shard of glass to shatter into more bits against the floor.
What was once a calm, cool pantry turned into a two-on-one battlefield. One dragon against two squirrels is what it felt like; two squirrels whose ages were affecting their speed, both mentally and physically. If they had even half the brain Flame did, they would've stopped at the 'two of the four animus dragons in Pyrrhia terrified of me' part.
Seeing red, not only in anger but also from the blood drooling down Alpine's face, he slammed his head against the floor again. He saw his eyes flicker as he fought for consciousness, so he let him and continued to choke him out. He was giving him false hope he might make it out at that very moment while giving him some time to collect himself before Flame did it again.
He wanted to do it again — again and again and again and again until Alpine would be physically unable to ever step foot into a kitchen again; until he turned into Stonemover when he first got rid of his magic.
But as he went to slam his head against the floor again, the finishing blow before Alpine would suffer permanent injuries, talons got ahold of his wrists, desperately trying to pull him off. Yellow scales pulling his right arm, red scales pulling his left arm, and talons digging into his shoulders, eventually pulling him off, pinning him down on his back.
"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" Flame yelled, kicking and pushing, trying to get everyone away. He looked around. Aquatic, Massif, and Sienna were all pinning him, while Gila helped Alpine to his feet in her usual gentle, caring way.
He raised his talons to the back of his head, no blood surprisingly. But the headache Flame probably gave him was more painful than anything else anyway.
Cuts on his cheek, shoulder, underbelly, and even legs. Most of them weren't deep enough to drip blood, but he managed to get him pretty good on his cheek especially, where blood was dripping down his chin. He tried to struggle some more, to give Alpine what he deserved, but not even his adrenaline-fueled strength could fight off three dragons pinning him at once.
Once Alpine stood up, he grabbed his throat and began coughing, and Gila began escorting him out of the room, her talons on his back.
As the adrenaline from the situation wore off, he began feeling the aftermath of what Alpine had done to him. One tiny scratch on his cheek seemed like the work of a dragonet that had just worked its way out of its egg a mere few weeks prior.
"F-Flame! Calm down!" Aquatic nervously said.
"LET GO!" Flame demanded as he continued to struggle, kick, and claw more. "LET GO OF ME RIGHT FUCKING NOW! LET ME GIVE HIM WHAT HE FUCKING DESERVES!"
Flame had been gone for a few minutes at that point, and Umber was lying beside a tree, his head resting in his talons as he waited. Sora and Clay were both busy marking the area where tag would be played, and Nighthunter was lying in the grass, probably looking over her patients' files from the look of it.
The little folder she brought with her was packed full of different papers and dividers for each of her four or five patients — at least, that's what he could from where he was, as they were marked in bright purple, standing out clearly from the white folder and paper.
Working, even when her job was over. Even when she had her own time to relax and have fun, she was still working instead of enjoying the feeling of the sun against her scales.
She was using little reading glasses — something Umber had never seen her use before —, sitting comfortably on her snout, making the little text on the paper seem clearer.
It struck Umber with surprise. Nigthunter seemed like a reasonably young dragon, between fifteen and eighteen years old. How was her eyesight already bad enough that she needed glasses to read?
She sighed, closing her folder and setting the unopened jar of ink she had on top of it, before picking it up and shooting a glance at Umber. He quickly turned his head away so Nighthunter didn't realize that he had been watching her nearly the whole time.
She tucked it in her wing as she stood up and walked over. "Umber, could I talk to you for a moment?" she asked. She could obviously see the hesitation on Umber's face when she said "No, no, you're not in trouble or anything!" she assured. "I just want to talk about our session earlier."
"Our session?" Umber echoed, the slightest tremble in his voice. A sense of fear filled his chest, and he felt his heart plunge into his stomach. Maybe if I run now… the back of his mind started but was quickly interrupted.
"I just wanted to go over how that made you feel earlier. Just so, y'know" — a fake chuckle escaped her mouth, trying to ease the severity of the situation — "you don't have a panic attack again and run out on me." His heart slowed, and hearing her say those words brought him a little shame mixed with embarrassment. "So tell me," she continued. "have you been doing okay since then?"
He thought back to the conversation and how he felt afterwards. The only thing she really did was ask Umber to tell her about Crane, such as the foods she liked, her pet peeves, little things, nothing that should've brought up any memories.
After, though, he had only gotten to their room a mere few minutes before Flame. He could feel his talons shake, his voice tremble, and his mind start to rain down like a thunderstorm, each droplet containing a memory of him and Crane. Luckily, though, he had an umbrella.
"Fine, for the most part," he answered truthfully, but Nighthunter's brow raised, unconvinced he wasn't lying. He didn't exactly blame her though — all the times he had lied to steer away from her surely didn't go unnoticed. "I'm telling the truth, really! Once Flame got back from his session, he knew something was wrong and…" he trailed off, unwilling to tell Nighthunter what happened afterwards.
She hesitated for a moment, probably reading his body language for any indication of a lie — an open book that only she could see. But Umber knew she would find nothing she didn't already know. "Alright, well, good, because we're getting to the point where I should start talking about her more," she said hesitantly.
He had seen that coming ever since they first started their sessions together, so why was he so afraid when it actually happened? Why was he so surprised? The moment she first asked about her, he should've expected it but he didn't.
She could see it on his face — anyone could see it on his face, with or without being able to read body language. He turned his head down to his talons, his tail flicking back and forth in fear. "I'm sorry. I know it's hard, I really do, but you need to stay strong, alright?"
A strange anger started boiling inside of him at those last words. He turned his head up to look at her. "What do you know about staying strong?!" he lashed out, letting the anger roam freely without restriction. "All you do is sit in your office all day and talk to dragons about their issues! How can you know what it's like to stay strong?!"
Clay and Sora looked his way, hearing his anger echo throughout the garden. Three little sticks were planted into the ground, an unfinished square of an invisible wall. He ignored the feeling of their eyes digging into the scales on his back.
Nighthunter looked down, her eyes idled on the path below. He swore he saw her eyes flicker, a moment of hesitation spread across her face. She sighed. "Umber, when the Night Kingdom exploded," she winced, her eyes squeezed shut. She started again, her voice lower. "When the Night Kingdom exploded, my mother was left inside. I tried to go back and save her but…" she trailed off, her voice was shaky. "I had to hide in a cellar. The explosion didn't reach it, but the light permanently affected my vision." A shy tear fell down her scales, it dripped onto the grass leaving a dark brown dot against the light brown path. "So yes, Umber, I do know what it's like to stay strong. I know what loss is like just as well as you do."
He felt his heart break as he looked at her. He may not have known his mother or father, so he imagined Flame. Even the thought of him being in that situation scared him, making him wince at a situation that had and never would happen. He dropped his voice low and tilted his head down. "I'm so sorry," he apologized, not only for her loss but also for his outburst.
"Don't be, you didn't know," she said. "But that's why it's important to move on, Umber. These situations can be hard, but sometimes you have to brute force your way through them if you ever want to come out on top." She paused for a moment, before reaching inside of her wing and pulling out a notebook. "Here. If you ever feel like you want to talk about something, write it in this. I will only ever read it if you want me to. If you're ever feeling sad or lonely or anything at all, write in this." She reached her arm out, and Umber took it, stuffing it in his wing.
"Thanks," Umber said in a lower, calm tone. He bowed his head and turned towards the tree he had been lying down under before. He didn't even get halfway there when he picked up on a familiar scent that began getting stronger. He flicked his head around until he spotted Flame holding a big bag of what he presumed was food.
"Hey, MudWing," he greeted, he set the bag of food down beside the tree. Umber felt a smile spread across his face when Flame pecked his cheek slightly and his heart flared up in warmth.
"What's gotten into you?" Umber asked as he pulled away, his smile was still firmly planted on his face. As he stared at his face, he saw something that immediately brought his concerns up for him. One little drop of dried blood dripped down the side of his cheek, almost blending in with his scales. Almost. "Oh moons, Flame, are you okay? What happened?"
He gripped the side of his cheek and wiped at the cut. Now that he was feeling it, he could tell that the cut extended from one side of his cheek, all the way to the back. "I'm fine," he said nonchalantly. "I just tripped on my way out and scratched myself with my talon on accident."
He paused, inspecting the wound. "You sure you're fine? Should we get something to make sure it doesn't get infected?" he asked again.
"I'll be fine, stop your worrying," Flame smiled. "You'll turn into me one day if you keep it up."
"Alright, if you're sure."
Flame smiled at him, and Umber smiled back. For that brief moment, Umber felt a surge of dopamine rush through him. Like all of his worries would just fade away as long as he was with Flame. Like everything would be okay as long as they were together.
"How about we go play hide-and-seek now?" Flame finally asked. Umber hadn't even noticed that their tails had intertwined as Flame stood next to him, they were wrapped tightly around each other as if one small mistake could tear them apart forever.
"I'd like that," Umber smiled.
The game that followed was nothing short of exciting. If Clay wasn't out first because he couldn't find a hiding spot, he was seeking. Flame often tried to sabotage Umber, giving his freedom in exchange for Umber's. Which backfired pretty quickly, as Umber started doing that for Flame.
Since most of them were his sibs, they would almost always side with him, and Flame would be the one getting out. In retaliation, Flame would intentionally target Umber, making it his one and only mission to get him out first.
By the time the sun started setting, Clay left first for his long flight back to Jade Mountain. Sora on the other talon, stayed for an extra hour before exhaustion kicked in, and she went back to Zephyr's house with Jet.
It felt like a blink of an eye before they were both in bed laying next to each other. As usual, Flame had his wing wrapped firmly around Umber, pulling him close into his warm embrace.
As he drifted asleep, the only white noise being the soft sounds of Flame's breathing and the crickets chirping outside, he thought back to the day behind him. In a way, it gave him some nostalgia back at the Mud Kingdom, where they would all play together any day they didn't have to fight a useless battle.
So that's what he thought of as the thin blanket of sleep was dragged atop him, hoping to go back and relive those moments. Maybe he would see Crane again — the thought of her hurt much less to him after that day.
Maybe one dream with her wouldn't hurt, especially after so long. Maybe seeing her again would make him happy for once. Maybe one last game of tag with her wouldn't hurt.
But oh how wrong he was.
Author's notes: AUGH FINALLY! It's been a while since Healed has been updated haha. Two weeks is crazy, especially for me. First, I wrote my short (Chromis's First Halloween) and then I finally took my break, which wasn't even really a break because I was writing more of the storyline during a lot of it. But finally, after all of this time, it's been updated!
Something I've been planning for a while now are my OC stories. What are those you might ask? Well, it would be a completely separate story from Healed, each chapter being a different OC. The ones I have plans for currently are Atlantic, Endwatcher, Simoom, possibly Aquatic (not sure yet), Turvar, Nighthunter, and Manticore.