New Flames

Chapter 17

Avalanche insisted for Flame to stay the night, and despite the SkyWing's conflicting thoughts on the matter, he agreed to that plan.

"I'll find a way to make sure Buzzard or Hurricane don't find out," he thought, as they made their way back inside what he had found out was to become Sanctuary's city hall. He found the idea of communal space for dragons dangerous, but also oddly soothing.

At Jade Mountain, he had hated the prey hall. It was a mess of dragons running and eating and invading his space. But Summit Central had shown him that, with a proper organization, even working side by side could be made bearable.

He remembered that he had to talk to Rail about his plan, and excused himself from his mom, who held him tight one last time before allowing him to go find his friend, as she called them.

It didn't take long to find the hybrid. They were chatting with another SeaWing, Sturgeon if he remembered right, and Flame saw that they looked pretty comfortable, despite the completely unfamiliar context.

"Good for them. I wouldn't want to get close to anyone if I had suddenly been chucked in a lair of strange new dragons," he thought, reminding himself that that had been exactly what had happened at Jade Mountain Academy.

"Rail," he called out, walking near them. The hybrid whipped around and smiled, as they held something out for him to see.

"Flame, these dragons are amazing!" They said, full of excitement he would have only imagined to see from Ardor. "Sturgeon here embroidered my sash, and it looks so good!"

Flame looked at the piece of cloth that Rail was holding out, and saw that what had once been his blue scribe-apprentice sash was now covered with little patterns of embroidered art. He saw some small flames and leaves, but also spirals of water and what he thought was a poorly-made cascade of gemstones. But as they wore it in front of him, Flame had to admit it suited them very well.

"It looks nice," he agreed, nodding at Sturgeon, who was waving at him with a needle still in his claws.

"Hurricane might kill me, but I look extremely radiant, so at least I will die in style," they concluded, and Sturgeon laughed as he slowly returned to embroidering what Flame guessed was Sanctuary's new flag.

The two of them walked away from his station, and Rail took a few seconds to look over at him.

"You were out for a while, huh? You're basically drenched in rainwater," they noted, and Flame shook his wings a little, but to no avail as the water was still soaked in his wings.

They walked aimlessly for a few moments, but Rail obviously couldn't keep their curiosity in check. "Did you talk with your mother? That exchange you had at first didn't look very nice to me. I hope you're ok," they said, slowly, without the hint of a smile on his snout.

Flame appreciated their effort to keep their questions to a minimum, but he wasn't sure if he felt ready to answer that yet.

"Yeah, I'm ok," he said, meeting his eyes for a second. He then remembered what he had come to tell him. "Avalanche... my mother, proposed that we should stay here for the night. She said this storm is likely going to stick around until nighttime, and these mountains aren't pleasant to fly around when you can't see," he explained and saw Rail's face light up.

"Oh wow! Yes! If Hurricane finds out about this she will actually kill me, but we've gone halfway, might as well go all the way, right?" they declared with a smile, and Flame found himself nodding.

He hated to admit this, but the RainWing-SkyWing's quirks were beginning to grow on him.

-/-

Rail spent the whole evening talking to as many dragons as possible. Riptide seemed to like them quite a bit, but he had to slowly remind him that sharing all the secrets of the Talons to Peace wasn't something they could do, much to the hybrid's dismay.