Healed

Chapter 23

"What's a dream-visitor?" Umber asked as their food was brought to the table. The smell of cooked sausages and fatty meats made him instantly salivate as the aromas danced around in his nose and mouth, but he held back. The expression on Flame's face indicated now was not the time to start gulping down food.

The SkyWing rubbed his face again before dropping his talons back on the table. Umber fought the urge to reach out and hold them.

"It's an animus thing that lets you visit dragons in their dreams and talk to them," the SkyWing droned with a grim expression.

"And that dragon," Umber jutted his chin in the direction Ochre had gone, "helped you steal it? From who?" Umber was trying to understand this. Why would Flame want to take some creepy animus touched thing? What was he hoping to find in the dreams of other dragons?

The red dragon squirmed and his talons twitched with nervous energy, searching for something to tear at. "I...uh...stole it from Starflight when we were trapped in the NightWing's Kingdom," Flame spoke quickly as if hoping that if he said it fast enough Umber wouldn't hear it.

But at the mention of Starflight's name something clicked in the MudWing's mind. Oh! Ochre...I recognize that name now. Clay told me about him. He was supposed to be some sort of backup version of Clay or something. So weird...

Umber always felt a chill run up his spine when he thought of the NightWing Kingdom and what the NightWings had to endure. It must have been terrifying for Flame, to be thrown into that world of smoke and darkness, not knowing where he was or what who to trust. Umber could just imagine how horrible that must have been for the SkyWing. But it still didn't answer his other question: why?

Why would Flame need something like that?

"Listen," Flame's urgent voice snagged Umber's attention. "I don't want you to think I stole it because just because I wanted someone else's stuff. I took it because..."

With nothing to tear at Flame's claws had begun gauging lines into the wooden table. Releasing his self-restraint Umber reached forward past the still warm pots of food and grasped Flame's antsy talons. He gave them a comforting squeeze, encouraging Flame through his touch.

The SkyWing's scarred maw curled up into a grateful smile. He squeezed Umber's talons back and breathed out through his nose in a sigh. "I did it because I wanted to talk to my mother, to tell her where I was and to come get me but...I really had no idea where I was, and every time I went into her dreams they were so confusing." His gaze dropped and he stared blankly at his cooling pot of rice. "I could never find her."

"But you found her eventually," Umber gently offered. "And you got to go home."

"But then she sent me away again!" he spat, the sudden venom in his voice made Umber jolt. "She sent me to that fucking Academy with all those shitty dragons...uh," he quickly backtracked, "...excluding you and Sora of course."

Umber snorted. "Wow, thanks. I'm really feeling the love."

Flame shrugged helplessly. "You should know by now that I don't know shit about talking romantic. Would you prefer if I had said something like oh Umber, from the moment I laid eyes on you I knew that someday...we would probably get kicked out of a Tea House together." Flame's voice oozed with flowery praise as he batted his eye-lashes.

Umber, who had just taken a small bite of his meal, immediately began to choke as the laughs filled his chest and throat. Flame started laughing too, but then had to go over and pat Umber on the back as he continued to choke on his amusement.