Heart of Water

Chapter 6: Dolphin Bay

Summer flew through the air, looking around for any signs of Riptide and Aggro. She eventually found them on a nearby island with Laburn and Cinda. They were playing a game where Aggro, Laburn, and Cinda used their fire to make targets for Riptide to use her waterblast on. Eventually they noticed Summer and both Riptide and Aggro turned to stare at her with scowls on their faces.

"Summer!" Aggro growled while she and Riptide had narrowed eyes. "Here to complain about Riptide spending time with me?"

"You better not be!" Riptide hissed, a glare still on her face as she looked directly into Summer's eyes. "While it hurt when you said it, It hurts more because it means you think I can't spend time with others, like you own me."

"I'm really sorry, Ley." Summer told her with a soft sigh. "I was jealous."

"Jealous?" Riptide and Aggro asked, looking at each other in confusion as Summer blushed a deep scarlet while staring down at her feet.

"Cutter helped me figure it out after you left," Summer told them truthfully while looking down at her feet. "I've fallen in love with you and with you spending so much time around Heiđrún, I unconsciously thought that the two of you were going to get together, which made me crabby."

Riptide looked down at her feet, thinking for a moment before sighing and looking at Summer. "I was starting to fall for you as well, but what you said really hurt, though I didn't know it was due to jealousy, so I'm willing to give you a chance. But we are our own people, we don't own each other."

"Agreed!" Summer told her with a small blush on her face as Aggro awwed, causing all four of them to look at her with gaping jaws and wide-eyed stares.

"Not one word," Aggro said after realizing what she did. "If you do, I will set you on fire. Still, since you're together now, why don't you go on a date?"

"That sounds good to me!" Summer nodded in agreement, blushing and looking at Riptide with a soft smile. "How about Dolphin Bay?"

"Works for me, too! Now come on, let's go Sum!" Riptide smiled brightly up at her as they took off into the air, saying their goodbyes and heading in the other direction toward Dolphin Bay.

While on their way to the bay, they swam with a group of dolphins, playing for several hours before catching several fish and taking them to a beach by a forest for a picnic, and talking about anything that came to their minds.

Eventually, they got tired of talking and decided to go for a swim, doing a various amount of different tricks, not noticing that some of the fish were disappearing behind them as the swam.

"Nice one Riptide!" Summer called out as Riptide did a loop while spinning, before paling. "Look out!"

Summer then turned and swam away, taking to the air and flying to the beach, knocking headfirst into a tree and causing the spying Aggro to be knocked out of it and in front of Summer, before paling when she looked to the water and saw what had scared Summer. Meanwhile, Riptide was too slow after hearing the warning, and was wrapped by an eel that then bit into her.

"Let me go!" Riptide cried as she tried to struggle away but was completely wrapped up in the eels coils, which made it so she could not escape. The eel made several other bites along her underbelly, causing Riptide to bleed out before it let go with its mouth but kept the coils wrapped around Riptide to watch as she drowned and died. Luckily for her, and unluckily for the eel, Riptide, in her panic, let loose a high-pitched and powerful sonic blast attack that hit the eel in the face and stunned it, causing it to loosen up enough for Riptide to struggle free before blasting it with a waterblast, sending the eel onto an underwater crab that was not happy and got into a fight with it as Riptide made it back to land where Summer and Aggro got over their fear and helped her. Summer used her water to wash the blood away from her scales and cleaning the wounds while Aggro used some nearby plants to doctor them.

"Are you okay, Riptide?" Summer asked as they finished. "Those bites look pretty deep, and you got bitten by an eel a lot more and worse than I did."

Riptide shuddered and shook out her wings. "You mean other than dozens of eels snapping at my tail and giving me nightmare material for the rest of my life? Not really."

Riptide paused and took a shuttering breath before she continued in a slightly more happy tone of voice.

"I am now, thanks to you guys." Riptide said before looking at Aggro confused. "What are you doing here?"

"I may have been spying on your date," Aggro told them with a small blush and a sheepish look on her face. "Sorry about that."

"I'm sorry I panicked," Summer sighed sadly while staring guiltily down at her feet. "I'm a Fastfin, and as such I'm supposed to be one of the few breeds of dragons not scared of eels, yet I let you down."

"It's fine, Sum, don't worry about it." Riptide told her with a small smile on her face. "You were attacked by one when you were younger and that would make anyone scared of eels. I'm pretty sure I'm scared of them now too. But there was one good thing that came out of this traumatizing experience." She added with a quick glance in Summer's direction.

"What exactly is good about being attacked by an eel?" Aggro asked her with a deadpanned look on her face. "Are you crazy or something? Eels ARE terrifying!"

Riptide nodded her head in agreement at that last part. "I'm with you on that one, Agg, eels really are terrifying. But while I was being attacked by eels, I kept thinking about how I wanted to see Summer one last time. So now I know that I love her." Riptide kissed Summer with a blush before turning back into a still equally injured Leyla. "But I think I will stay human for a few weeks so there is no chance of more eels attacking me while swimming."

"After what happened today, I don't blame you for playing it safe." Summer giggled before nuzzling Leyla. "By the way, I like both your forms."

Leyla walked over to Summer and hugged her cheek. Summer smiled and leaned down and licked the smaller female on the top of her head.

Summer then had only one question left to ask. "Leyla, will you do me the honor of becoming my mate?" She asked and Leyla's heart fluttered at the question.

"Of course I will." She said and Summer smiled brightly.

"Good." She said, licking her cheek.

With that Leyla hopped on Summer's back and they flew back to the Roost while Aggro was pretending not to find their actions adorable.

Once they had flown to the Roost, it was starting to approach sundown and the others were sitting outside, most likely awaiting their return.

"Where did you three fly off to?" Dak asked them, blinking and tilting his head with a confused look on his face. "And where's Riptide?"

Summer blushed and ducked her head, staring down at her webbed feet.

"Uh, guys, I have an announcement to make." The sea-foam green Fastfin mumbled with a soft smile forming on her face.

"What is it, Sum?" Winger asked once the water dragon had landed and Leyla had hopped off of her saddle. "Is everything ok?"

Summer nodded and curled her tail over her front claws. "Riptide and I are officially together," Summer told them happily. "We're a thing, and she left to go tell her parents. She'll be back in the morning."

"Wait, you guys are WHAT?!" Dak yelled, shocked.

Summer blushed and shifted nervously from foot to foot. "You're not mad, are you?"

The other riders just stared at her like she had grown a second head.

"No, of course not!" Winger told her with a disbelieving look on his face. "Why on earth would we be mad, Summer?"

Summer giggled and turned to Leyla and Aggro. "What about you?" She asked the girl, who was leaning against the Fastfin's side. "What do you think, Ley?" She asked her, even though she already knew what her mate was going to say.

Leyla blushed, though only Aggro saw it as the girl leaned over to whisper something into her mate's ear. "I love you, Sum, that's what I say!" She said, grinning up at her dragon. But out loud she said, "I'm so happy for you, Sum!"

And with nothing else left to be said, they all had a quick supper before heading inside the Roost and prepared to sleep for the night.