Heart of Water

Chapter 2: What Now?

"Ow, what in the name of night furies happened to me? I feel like I got zapped by a dozen electric eels!" Leyla mumbled with a soft grown. The two dragons both halted their search when they noticed that their friend had finally woken up.

"Oh thank the Alpha you're finally awake!" Aggro said with a relieved look on her face. "Are you okay, Ley?"

"I feel sore all over!" Leyla replied quietly, wincing as she tried and failed to regain her footing. "Ugh! Stupid forepaws!" She grumbled under her breath with an annoyed huff.

"Well, I mean, you did just get turned into a Fastfin." Aggro said listlessly, making Summwr scowl and she then proceeded to hit the Fire Fury in the head with her tail.

"Aggro!" She hissed while still scowling at the small fire dragon. "Be more tactful."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Leyla exclaimed in shock, blinking rapidly and looking down at herself and seeing her new form before she yelped and fell to the floor, tripping over her tail in the process.

"Woah! Easy there, Ley." Summer giggled as she and Aggro helped her stand back up. "You still need to learn how to walk. Then after that, we can find the lady and have her change you back. Hopefully before any of the boys find out what happened."

"Wait, what? They don't know yet?" Leyla asked them, blinking in shock. "You haven't told them about this?" Leyla asked while sweeping her tail over her new body to prove her point.

"Well, you see... we didn't exactly know how to explain it without making them all freak out." Aggro responded with a sheepish smile forming on her face.

"Me neither," Leyla agreed with a small laugh. "I was just out taking a walk in the woods, and then that cloaked woman jumped me from behind. We need to find her and get her to change me back to normal."

"Well then what are we waiting for? Come on! Let's go find that woman!" Aggro said before Summer held her tail, preventing her from going anywhere.

"Wait! Hold on!" Summer said, stopping the Fire Fury before she could move another inch. "We still need to teach Leyla how to use her abilities. Otherwise she wouldn't be any use."

Aggro sighed softly and nodded her head. "You have a point there, Sum." The fire dragon told her with a shrug.

"So, what will you teach me first?" Leyla asked, trying to get in front of Summer only to trip over her now webbed feet. "Stupid forepaws," she grumbled under her breath.

"Walking," Summer muttered with a deadpanned look on her face.

They then spent the next hour teaching Leyla how to walk, use a water blast, use her prehensile tail, use her wings to block, and finally how to fly.

"Good job, Ley." Summer said with a proud smile forming on her face. "You're really getting the hang of this!"

"But wait, what about swimming?" Leyla asked Summer with a raised eyebrow. "Shouldn't I learn how to do that too?"

Summer shook her head.

"We don't need to teach you how to swim since we'll get you changed back, but the other things you learned will help with that." She paused for a movement before quickly glancing over her shoulder and paling. "Oh no, hide!" She screamed while racing away and out of sight.

Summer and Aggro then rushed to hide. Summer in the ocean and Aggro under a pile of sand. Leyla just blinked, looking a bit confused as she quickly looked over her shoulder to see why, only to pale as Dak and Winger showed up.

"Hello," Dak said, giving the sky-colored water dragon a kind yet confused look. "Huh, it's kind of strange to see another Fastfin other than Summer around here. What is your name?" He asked the sky blue Fastfin curiously.

"And what are you doing here?" Winger questioned, jumping into the conversation upon seeing the damage to the beach from her practice.

"Riptide! My name is Riptide!" Leyla said in panic, before calming down. "And I was practicing my abilities. What are you doing here?" She repeated, asking the same question that Winger had asked her not only a few moments earlier.

"We're looking for my sister, Leyla." Dak informed her with a small frown forming on his face. "When we woke up we found a note that said she had something she needed to do alone, but she had never mentioned it before. She must've been in a hurry though, because the writing was harder to read then normal." He paused for a moment before continuing, giving Riptide a curious glance as he spoke. "Have you seen her anywhere, Riptide?"

Leyla shook her head with a small frown on her face. "Nope, I haven't seen her." She told him with a small shrug. "You're the only human I've seen since I woke up."

"Well, thanks anyway, Riptide. See you around!" Dak sighed softly and turned away from her. "I guess we'll just have to wait for her to return. Come on Winger, let's go back to camp."

"Alright, Dak." Winger sighed and turned to Riptide with a sad but friendly smile. "See you around, Riptide. And thanks again for trying to help us out." He told the water dragon before he and Dak left, heading back to camp. Once they had gone, Summer and Aggro came out of hiding.

"Riptide?" Aggro asked, staring at Leyla with a deadpanned look on her face. "That's the best you could come up with, Ley?"

Leyla smiled sheepishly and stared down at her feet. "I'm sorry, I just panicked." Leyla protested with an anxious twitch of her tail. "But we still have a mission to complete. We need to get me changed back to normal and fast! So come on! Let's go."

Summer and Aggro both nodded and with a plan in mind, they took off into the air and started flying deeper into the island, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of the cloaked woman that had caused this whole mess in the first place.