Healed

Chapter 26

Starfish woke up that morning feeling that something was...off. He rose and made his bed, gathered his satchel of files and locked his door as he left, all why contemplating this strange churning in his stomach and tingling in his gills.

It was a feeling he had come to associated with impending doom...or a rain storm.

Either way, he still had a job to do. No apocalypses, calamities, or light showers were going to stand in his way.

Starfish doubled checked that his door was locked before making his way down the East-wing of Queen Ruby's palace. Since the Healing Center was reserved for patients, the SkyWing Queen had graciously offered her castle to house the Soul Healers who worked there. She had converted many of the old servants' chambers into smaller rooms. They weren't lavish in any sense, Queen Ruby was apparently much more frugal that her mother, but they served their purpose.

The sun filtered in through the vast windows that perforated the arching walls. It warmed the stone floor beneath Starfish's talons as he continued down the corridor towards the take-off balcony. As soon as he stepped into the light the SeaWing spread his wings to absorb more of that wonderful heat and took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air.

It wasn't the ocean but it was still a beautiful place to live.

He gave his wings a few pumps to warm them up further before taking to the sky, riding along the swift currents of air that tumbled down the mountain's face to the valley below where the Healing Center lay safely nestled.

His first stop was the cafeteria, where he snagged some coffee and a bagel to take up to his office. Precariously holding the coffee with his right wing-thumb, the bagel in his mouth, and his bag of files under his left wing he unlocked his office door and stumbled through.

As much as he would like to sit down and enjoy his breakfast he needed to prepare for his session with Flame in twenty minutes. The SeaWing took a big gulp of coffee and pulled out the hefty load that was Flame's documents.

Even though Starfish had only really been a Soul Healer for a little over half a year, he knew Flame would always been one of his toughest patients. Not because he was difficult to work with, Starfish truly liked Flame and wasn't bothered at all by his rough mannerisms and tumultuous temperament. No, what made Flame difficult was the depth of complexity of the emotional damage.

There was no single moment to pinpoint his trauma, nothing concrete to hone in on or focus their energies. Instead it was spread out over his life like the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish, warping his personality and psyche into what he is today. It would take a lot of work and patience to untangle Flame from his past, but Starfish was willing to do whatever it took to help the young dragon.

Flame deserved to live a happy life.

However, before Flame could properly heal he needed to confront the source of this web of trauma: his mother. It hadn't taken Starfish long to figure out how strained their mother/son relationship was and he had written several pages of notes dedicated to the topic. Shuffling through the parchments he took out the first scroll and briefly read the paragraphs.

Session 8

Flame's relationship with his mother is chaotic and unstable. During our sessions Flame has spoken many times of how furious he is with Avalanche for leaving him behind and pushing him away. These rants are often followed by acute episodes of anxiety, guilt and (even though Flame tries to hide them) tears. However, when I try to follow up Flame quickly becomes defensive of his mother.

It is obvious he loves her very much, but she has hurt and neglected him to the point where he no longer feels he can rely on her as a source of love and support. I believe this strain in their relationship is the source of his overly aggressive behaviour and his eagerness to assume that everyone is thinking the worst of him. I also believe there is some connection with his strained relationship with his mother and his attempted murder of Stonemover, but I will have to wait before I make any theories. He is reluctant to talk about the NightWing and seems to display immense regret for his actions.