"Flame?" Hearing Ardor's voice at that moment was like being poked between the ribs.

His muscles wished they could ignore it.

"Let me sleep-" he wailed internally. He didn't remember the last time he'd slept so lightly, without remembering anything of what he'd dreamed of.

However, today was not the day to pick a morning fight.

He obediently stretched and proceeded to poke his head outside his sleeping cave groggily.

Ardor was there, standing with Placoid. The two dragons were wearing satchels, as well as their sashes.

They looked expectantly at him.

"Landslides and storms!" He thought. He must have slept in.

"Ire ssaid you might have wanted some extra ssleep," Placoid said, looking worried. Flame quickly fixed his bewildered look.

"No," the SkyWing growled, his voice still half asleep, "I overslept. Thanks for waking me up."

Ardor and Placoid exchanged a look, in complete silence.

"What?" He asked, the sharp edge of his voice finally setting back in.

Ardor let out a little giggle as she waved her talon. She seemed to not sense his tone at all.

"Oh, nothing. Just don't believe I've ever heard you thank us before. Despite all we're willing to risk," she said, her voice purposefully theatrical and her wings flicking.

Placoid's look was deeply concerned. Flame was sure the SeaWing would have intervened to patch her words if he hadn't responded first. He didn't want to witness a fight.

"Neither do I," he realized, despite Ardor's almost deliberate attempts to taunt him.

"Yeah..." Flame admitted, "I could have been hmm- More thankful."

Ardor gave him a surprised look and laughed again. "Oh. Don't worry. I was mostly not serious.."

"She wass exaggerating," Placoid chimed in, a smile forming on his snout as he shifted his weight.

"Even so," Flame responded, slowly, "thank you. For doing this."

He remembered Ire's words, the worry in her eyes as they'd spoken.  "I'll keep you both safe," he added, "I'll try."

"For real. Not just for Ire."

Placoid relaxed. Ardor smiled.

"We know that. You are a fighter - it was obvious even before you tried to attack some guards or Ire," she declared, as they walked towards the cave's exit.

"Or you," Flame added, grinning awkwardly, as he grabbed his satchel, and Treen's scroll.

"I'm ssuddenly feeling a ssinking feeling that I'm not ssafe here," Placoid declared all of a sudden.

Both SkyWings looked at him.

Silence fell.

And then their crooked, wholehearted laughter filled the sky as they flew together towards Summit Central.

-/-

"Mom! Please, everything will be ok," Flame grumbled, as his mother held him in yet another tight hug, her wings wrapped around his back.

"I know, Gemstone. But I just don't want to leave you again, you know?"  She said, her voice slightly ragged.

Flame caught a glimpse at her face. He could see that she was fighting back the tears that were clouding her sharp, small eyes.

"She still feels awful about all that happened after Jade Mountain Academy," Flame realized, "she feels awful for not having been there. For 'abandoning' me. Like he did."

But one thing he would always be sure of - his mother was not Glint.

And she would never be.

"It's ok, mom. I'll be ok," Flame said, holding her earnestly. "You can cry," he whispered, as his own eyes grew wet, "I'm here for you."

They held each other, silently crying in each other's embrace. For a moment, they were just Flame and Avalanche.

Two SkyWings in the mountain's sunlit morning.

For a moment, everything else didn't matter.

"Thank you," Avalanche said, craning her neck to meet her son's gaze with a small smile, "I guess I needed that."

Flame nodded. "I did too, Mom," he said, with a smile of his own.

The rest of the departure was nearly nowhere as emotional.

The young SkyWing felt himself ache as he saw Ardor and Buzzard hugging, and laughing to each other. He hoped this wouldn't be a goodbye.

He'd promised Ire that he'd try to make sure they saw each other again.

But he also had his own reasons to want to safely bring every dragon back to the Kingdom of Sky.

He'd already seen a mother lose her daughter. And he'd seen dragons die, and lose their friends.

"I don't want to lose these dragons. I just don't," Flame thought, brashly, "plus, I think I've had enough of tragedies for now."

Treen had saluted him with a few words and a nod. She'd also given him a smile when she saw he was carrying her scroll with him.

"Good luck out there," she'd wished out loud, "I hope to see you soon."

Flame nodded with determination. "We still have... stuff to discuss," he'd said to the older RainWing.

"Maybe I can tell her about the NightWing island... Viper... my dreams," he thought. Something told him she'd listen - without calling him twisted or dark or messed up.

"I'll be here," she declared, "unless the trees come back to claim me as their own. And, trust me, they won't".

"It's their loss - the RainWings are missing out on a great dragon's spirit," he thought, placidly.

He'd miss her dry humor. And her quiet, resolute, patience.

Almost as much as he'd miss another dragon.

Because Rail was also there.

"Hey," Flame called, as the hybrid whipped their head to meet his gaze.

"Hey," they responded. Their yellow scales almost melted in the yellow, lazy rays of the late morning sun. Flame wondered if Rail could change their scale colors - to if this had just been a happy accident. 

But the hybrid's eyes were still filled with the same emotion he'd seen a few days ago in their unmistakable expression of stillness. Even if there was something more today. Something different.

"Guilt," Flame realized, "about something they won't tell me." He didn't think it would hurt that much.

"I hope you will be ok," Flame said, flicking his wings.

The yellow dragon tilted their head. "Me?" They asked. "I'm not the one who's headed into a perilous land with little to no plan," they said - if their tone had been different, Flame could have easily thought it was a lighthearted jab.

But Rail's expression told a different story.

"I know," the SkyWing breathed, "And call me stone-headed, but I wish you could join us too."

"I do too," Rail said quickly and unexpectedly, "but there are reasons why I can't. Reasons that go past friendship and curiosity."

"I know. I don't know, but I know," Flame thought, his head grappling with a flurry of memories.

"We'll be back soon," Flame tried, his wings slightly spread to feel the breeze, "and I hope that when this is... resolved, I can try to be better - a friend," he paused, then added quietly, "like you are to me."

It was clear by how the hybrid's eyes flashed with their signature spark of life that they'd heard that, too.

"Well," the hybrid started, "an apology for attacking those guards like a mindless mountain goat would be a good start."

Flame snorted, "mountain goat?"

"Well, mountain goats don't have the capacity to talk things out calmly like dragons can, so yeah," they asserted, flicking their wings in response.

"I barely even scratched them! And I didn't want them to-" Flame stopped talking as Rail raised an eyebrow.

"It's not about them, or about who I hurt. It's about me doing it at all. It's about what they felt when I did it," he thought, feeling another wave of hurt. But he could let Rail see that hurt, perhaps.

"Yes, I'm sorry. For scaring you," Flame agreed with a nod. Somehow, that didn't feel like a defeat - it felt freeing.

"Thank you," Rail said, and smiled at him, for the first time in days. "We can work on the insult-spewing dragon-scorching aggressiveness when you get back," they added, challengingly, "but in the meantime, don't let a SeaWing snatch your firebox".

And then, just like they arrived, they walked away towards Ardor and Placoid. No goodbyes, no waiting.

"Oh, Rail," Flame grumbled jokingly, "one day, I'll show you the full force of my sarcasm."

That was all he could think about before a blur of pink appeared next to him.

"Rail doesn't say goodbye, ever," Hurricane voice's startled him. Had she been eavesdropping? "Be careful out there, Flame," she continued, flatly, "we need you all in one piece for the trial. And if we want to not start another SkyWing-SeaWing conflict. Mostly the second one."

"Not because you care at all about me," he noted, "I've caused enough trouble for her here, it seems."

He nodded. Hurricane narrowed her eyes at him, then walked off. Flame could feel her shadow finally leave him when she quietly glided away.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who didn't want me here,"  he thought, "she could have alerted Buzzard of my "kidnapping" of her prized student. She'd have every incentive to not trust me, and protect Rail. But why hide like this..."

Flame didn't want to admit it, but he was still put off by Hurricane's piercing glares, and by the way she seemed to always be one wingbeat ahead of everyone. He wondered if that was who Rail was aspiring to become - in some way, he could almost imagine it.

But he wasn't scared of her, or anyone. He would be far away soon, and he'd figure this 'mystery threat' out.

"Despite everything, I feel safe here," he said to himself, as he walked towards the other soon-to-be travelers. "I may not understand everything about this place, or fit in particularly well, but I just... I wouldn't want to leave, even if I could."

And yet, as his wings lifted him off the ground, he left Summit Central Hospital at last.

Flanked by Ardor, Placoid, and Glint, the SkyWing took off into the sun-stricken horizon.

It was wild to think that, almost a moon ago, he was flying towards the hospital with no less than that SkyWing Queen. And that he had been planning his escape plan for that whole journey.

"And now I'm flying away, with other dragons, towards the Kingdom of Sea - who in the actual moons could have predicted that," he commented internally. 

Suddenly, the distance from Summit Central felt more real. The magnitude of what he was trying to do - find a cure for an ancient animus curse - was once again shaking his very core.

"I am definitely going to struggle out there. All those dragons, staring at me... SeaWings nonetheless, who would have every reason to add a few more scars to my snout if I just... do something wrong," he thought, as the weight of what he was about to do settled onto his back again.

But his claws didn't clench.

His scar didn't burn.

And despite all of it, he didn't want to bite anyone's snout off.

"I think that is enough for now," Flame thought, "maybe it doesn't have to be easy - and maybe it never will. But for now... I think it'll be ok." He breathed, quietness sweeping through his mind webs as his nerves tingled into a sense of placidity.

Clouds. Dust. Wind. Sun. Sky.

But, just as expected, this wasn't about to be a quiet flight.

SkyWings never had a quiet flight.

Especially not that SkyWing

"I know what we should do!" Ardor exclaimed happily all of a sudden.

"Enjoy the ssscenery of the kingdomss below us?" Placoid offered, trying to keep up with her frantic pace, as Glint and Flame trailed behind.

"Nope!" She replied with a big smile, "I want you to tell me all about the nitty-gritty of the Kingdom of Sea! The secrets! The drama! The hidden medicinal properties of jellyfish who are definitely smarter than us!" She clapped in excitement, then looked back at him, "Stuff that isn't in the scrolls, you know?"

Placoid smiled, "Oh, I have sso much to share with you, now that you're asking sso kindly."

Glint puffed out a cloud of smoke as the two dragons started gesticulating and loudly chatting in front of them.

Flame exchanged a long, quiet look with the scornful SkyWing. The look of "I wish these two could just leave me alone."

But to Flame, that feeling felt further now than it ever had before.

"And I hope that won't change anytime soon," he thought, as warmth burned through him, "that's something worth fighting for."

His wings propelled him upwards, forward into the horizon, until he was finally surrounded by chatter, stillness, and sky.

Next to his friends.