Heart of Water

Chapter 1: H-2-Oh No

The Rescue Riders were out camping in the forest. Since there were no rescues to be done lately, Chief Duggard said that they could have a small vacation. They decided to go camping. It was early in the morning and everyone was sleeping.

Well, everyone except for Leyla, that is.

Leyla needed some time to herself, she had been with the others so much that she needed some alone time. Not that she minded spending time with other people, it's just that she hadn't been by herself in a while. She was walking in the forest thinking to herself.

But before she left, she grabbed her pencil from her small purse and an extra peace of paper and wrote the others a quick note.

When you wake up I will have already left, but please don't worry. I will be back around noon or so, there is something I need to take care of in town.

~Leyla

She quietly crawled toward the tent flap and quickly unzipped it enough for her to slip through. She then walked into the woods, wanting some time to herself before the others woke up.

But little did the girl know that she was being watched by a figure hiding in some nearby bushes.

The sun hadn't even risen when she left. The sun was just peeking over the Horizon right now. It had rained last night so it was really dewy out. There was fog all over. It wasn't that bad that she couldn't see but just enough so if she tried to look far she wouldn't be able to. Leyla had her small satchel that had her pencil and dragon diary. Normally she would be a bit tired for waking up this early even though she is a morning person but she went to bed early so that she could be back in time for a little bit of breakfast and training. It wouldn't be fair if she skipped training and everyone else had to do it. Leyla listened to the birds chirping happily and the small crunch the grass made when she walked on top of it.

She suddenly saw a small pond in the distance, though it was still hard to see. She carefully walked over to the pond. She bent down and touched the water gently. It scent small ripples through the water. Some people don't pay attention to the little things and miss out on a lot, like seeing the beauty in smaller things. An example is like just now, the water, how it can be so... graceful. People take water for granted, if we didn't have so much of it people would die. If there's a lot of something, most people take it for granted.

She stood back and looked at her reflection. Her hair was in its normal braid. Her eyes shone the normal green they always are. She had on her usual outfit and her face had a kind smile. Then she saw something behind her. It looked to be in the shape of a dragon.

Leyla stared at the strange shape for a few more moments before stepping back and deciding that she should start heading back.

As she backtracked through the woods, a strange sound in the distance made her stop in her tracks. The sound came again and Leyla's heart dropped to her stomach.

A snap of a branch made Leyla stop in her tracks. She quickly spun around, her sharp eyes searching for signs of danger.

But there was nothing there.

"Must have just been my imagination," Leyla quietly muttered to herself, still a bit on edge as she carefully traversed through the woods.

But before she could take even a single step forward, something leaped out from the shadows and tackled her to the ground.

Yelping in surprise, Leyla tried to wriggle out from underneath of the figures small yet larger frame, but it was no use.

"P-please... j-just l-let m-me g-go!" she begged, wanting to get away and run back to the safety of the camp. The woman just simply smiled down at her, making the hairs on the back of Leyla's neck rise up in alarm.

"What are you doing?"

The woman didn't answer, simply pulling something from the folds of her cloak and chanting something that Leyla couldn't understand.

Before Leyla could say a word, hot searing pain shot through her entire body like a savage wolf hunting for its prey. Her small form twitched and writhed, a high-pitched scream tour from her throat and her vision started to fade away.

Help me! Somebody, please help me! She silently preyed in her mind, hoping against hope that Dak or one of the dragons would hear her agonized cries.

Leyla's screams continued as her body began to expand, her clothes ripping as she grew, her hands turning into claws, a tail popping out from her butt. Her teeth falling out, as new sharper teeth popped in and her mouth turned into a dragon muzzle. Her back exploded as wings burst out, and scales covered her entire body. Soon it ended and where once was a human girl was now a sky blue Fastfin with gold markings on her paws and forehead which are the same blue and her underbelly, tail-tip, and wings were yellow. She also had dark brown eyes that were barely staying open. However, she smiled when she saw a full-powered blast of fire and water blast into the cloaked figure and knocking her backwards. Summer and Aggro, having heard Leyla's screams, arrived just in time to see the end of Leyla's transformation, which caused them to pause in shock at what was happening as it finished, before recovering and acting to save her when the cloaked woman approached.

Summer, seeing what the woman was about to do, quickly leaped in front of the now unconscious Leyla and gave a low-warning growl.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Summer shrieked, snarling and leaping toward the woman at an unnatural speed. "I won't let you hurt her." The Fastfin growled, not really caring if this woman could understand her or not.

"What did you do to Leyla?" Aggro shouted, her body lighting up with a soft orange glow. "And how do we fix what you've done to her?" The Fire Fury snarled, preparing another fireblast just in case it was needed.

The woman cackled manically and muttered another incantation under her breath. The area was covered in smoke and the woman disappeared without a trace into the smog.

"Hey, where'd she go?" Aggro asked once the smokescreen had finally faded. "And what are we going to do about this?"

Summer shrugged and turned her gaze to Leyla. "I dunno Agg, but we need to get her back to camp, and fast."

"But what would the others say if we come back carrying an unconscious Fastfin who they have never seen before?" Aggro asked her, blinking and tilting her head to the side. "You know that doing that will only make the others ask us questions that we can't really answer right now." The smaller dragon said the last part while motioning to Leyla with her tail.

The young water dragon sighed softly and twitched her tail anxiously from left to right. What are we going to do? Is this going to change everything? What about the team, what will they think? These thoughts were racing through the young Fastfin's mind like a raging storm and she wasn't sure what to do about anything at the moment.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Calm down, Sum. It's gonna be ok, we just have to track down the cloaked woman." Aggro broke through Summer's mental panic attack by waving a wing in front of her face.

The Fastfin sighed softly and shook her head, trying to calm the uneasy feeling pooling in her stomach. "Y-Yeah, yeah you're right, Aggro." She replied, shaking out her wings and glancing up at the clear blue sky above them.

"We need to track down the person that turned our friend into a dragon." Aggro said as Summer gently hoisted her unconscious friend onto her back.

"Will you be able to fly with Leyla on your back?" The Fire Fury questioned as they prepared to take flight.

Summer nodded her head and took to the sky with Aggro following her lead. "I'll be fine, don't worry about it, Aggro." She told her with an easy-going smile. "Now come on, let's go find that cloaked woman and get her to change Leyla back to normal." Aggro nodded and with no more words left to be said, the two dragons took off into the sky, making various plans as they flew on through the forest.