New Flames

Chapter 16

Flame felt words escape his mind. He felt tangled in a dark web, one he had chosen to fall in.

His mother sat in front of him, rain streaming down their red scales as they sat near the edge of the lake, alone.

He wasn't ready to talk, but he knew it was too late to back away now.

"Well?" Avalanche asked. "You care to tell me why you're staying at a hospital? The last time I checked, you were supposed to be studying. Or trying to, at least."

Flame considered his options, but as he felt the webs in his mind tighten their grasp around his limbs and neck, he chose to tell her everything.

The cave exploding, Bigtail's death, the discovery of Stonemover's powers, Darkstalker's emergence. And, with excruciating detail, how he'd almost killed the almost petrified animus.

His mother didn't stop him, so he cut the explanation short, letting her know the bare minimum about Summit Central, and the dragons within.

She didn't have to know about Ardor's klutzy smiles, Ire's morning rage, Placoid's submerged anxiety or Rail's intrusiveness and wit.

Those weren't tales worth sharing. Or maybe he just didn't want to share his feelings about them yet. They felt like the closest to familiarity that he had right now, and he wasn't ready to have that torn apart. Yet.

Avalanche stopped and thought about it. "That's a lot to take in..." she said finally.

Flame imagined it was. He realized that this had all taken place in less than a moon, and felt slightly sick. A lot of change, and just like Treen had noted, he hadn't given himself much time to process it.

"Where were you, in all of this?" He asked again, but Avalanche didn't look at him.

"This is it. She'll tell me she's done. That I can't heal from this, and that she's not gonna stick around to watch me fail," he thought, but in a matter of seconds, that reality was crushed.

He saw her flare her wings, bare her fangs and start pacing in what felt like a second. She growled, anger infusing her every movement. Flame had rarely seen her mood switch so instantaneously.

"Those moon-spitting rams! I will show those dragons what it means to mess with my son!" She snarled, facing him. "I've fought one NightWing to protect you. I would fight a thousand animi to keep you safe. And I didn't know you... your trial. I would have been there Flame. You've got to believe me."

His mother's mood swings always found a way to startle him. But he didn't let himself fully break down yet. He knew his mother would protect him. He'd heard of how he fought Morrowseer once too. A realization dawned upon him: did no one tell her about what had happened to him?

"But... didn't Queen Ruby come to find you? Didn't she tell you about what had happened?" He finally asked, flatly, but he saw his mother vigorously shake her head.

"I didn't get anything from anyone. In the best case scenario, she didn't know where to find us. Worst case, she's another monarch with too many things to deal with to remember about her dragons," she said, and Flame knew she was remembering the horrors of living under Scarlet, the last SkyWing Queen, who had been a monster and merciless killer.

"So that means..." Flame started, but Avalanche finished for him.

"I never abandoned you, and I don't ever plan to," she declared, moving closer to her son as her rage melted in the rain.

Flame felt himself falter as images from when he was a small dragonet flashed between the webs of his mind. He saw that dragon again - his dark russet scales and demanding amber eyes. Normally, he would have tried to push those thoughts back, but this time, he ran towards them instead.