Heart of Water

Chapter 11: Dragon Hunters

After they had finished up with the rest of Aggro's water training, Aggro returned to her fire fury abilities and they were on their way back to the Roost to join the others for supper and to do some last-minute training. They were about halfway there when they were forced to stop when a plasma blast flew right in front of them, making them duck out of the way just in time.

"What in the name of night furies was that?" Summer cried out in surprise as the three of them turned around and saw a boat filled with dragon hunters and worse there were two dragon hunters riding on the backs of two dragons. One of the dragons was a Deadly Nadder and even worse, there was a Light Fury that had powerful chains wrapped around them, giving the hunters search control of it. The poor dragon's eyes were broken, like they had given up all hope of escaping from their captors.

"Oh no! Those are dragon hunters!" Riptide cried out, quickly dodging a net that was thrown at them. "Summer! Aggro! Look out!" She shouted a warning toward the other two.

"Well! Well! Well! Look what we have here! Three more dragons!" The one on the Light Fury yelled out to his companion. "But none of them are rare enough to be helpful for our boss to enslave. But hey, we'll still be able to add them to the kill count and use their scales for armor and their flesh for meat!"

At hearing those last few words from the hunter riding the Light Fury, the three dragons glanced to one another with equal looks of discussed written plainly on their faces.

"Are they really going to do that to us?" Riptide asked nervously, looking at both her friend and mate with fearful eyes. "Cause I don't want to become somebody's dinner!"

Summer brushed her wing over her mate's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Don't worry, Riptide. I promise I won't let anything bad happen to you," she told her mate with a reassuring smile on her face.

"Aye, and it's a good thing we've built an immunity to the Nadder's venom!" The one on the Deadly Nadder said with an evil smile forming on his face. "And that means we can still eat them after using its poisoned spikes. Fire!"

With that the Nadder fired several venomous spikes at them.

"H2Oh no you don't!" Summer cried out, blasting them out of the air with a powerful water blast.

"Feel the heat!" Aggro shouted while shooting a fireblast directly at the nadder's spiked tail. "Ha! How'd you like that dragon hunters?"

With that Summer took on the Deadly Nadder and its rider, while Riptide distracted the Light Fury and its rider. Leaving Aggro the boat. The large numbers of dragon hunters posed a problem with their weapons, but they were on a wooden boat in the middle of the ocean. Aggro easily used her fire to burn the boat, after using her cloaking to sneak up on it. She then flew up to help Summer, since the nadder was more dangerous since the chains prevented the Light Fury from using it's better abilities/strategies, and slowed it down while the Nadder was venomous.

"Take this!" Aggro said as she sent a fireblast through the wing, causing it to fall to the ocean when they heard something that chilled their bones.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Riptide screamed, causing Summer and Aggro to look at her and see that the Light Fury and its rider was soaked in water, but the Light Fury had the base of Riptide's tail in its mouth and was biting down hard.

"Ha!" The hunter said with a manic grin plastered on his face. "It's a good thing we covered this dragons teeth in venom from the Nadder. And its venom is stronger than normal. No escape for you. Only a water lily could save you now, and you can't get one in time!"

Hearing that, Aggro used her last fire blast to roast the rider in his dragon scale armor, before her and Summer used their combined water blasts to send them underwater where they found the blood in the water from the dragon hunters that hurt themselves trying to escape the burning ship had attracted eels that were quite happy for the meal.

"RIPTIDE! NO!" Summer shrieked, shooting one last powerful waterblast at the remaining dragon hunters before quickly racing to her mate's side. "Are you okay, love?" Summer cried, her eyes brimming with tears as she watched Riptide's eyes flutter and her breathing started to grow ragged and raspy.

"S-Summer?" Riptide moaned weekly, slowly opening her eyes to stare into the worried ones of her mate. "I-I don't feel so well, Sum," Riptide whimpered, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes as she stared up at her mate with a pained expression clouding her face. "I just want to go home."

Summer crooned softly and curled protectively around her mate, careful to avoid touching her injured tail. "It'll be ok," she whispered, giving Riptide's head a comforting lick. "Just hang in there a little longer, okay Riptide?"

"Oh no! That doesn't look very good!" Aggro said as they looked at the base of Riptide's tail at the bite, which had begun to turn a dark purple color.

"I-I don't feel so good," Riptide said, her eyes fluttering as she looked up at Summer and Aggro through rapidly blurring vision. "I feel really hot and I feel like I'm going to be sick," Riptide moaned, whimpering and curling into a tight ball. "The water lily he mentioned is a pale blue plant that grows in the depths of the ocean. Please hurry. And I'm sorry for being a bother."

Summer crooned softly and nuzzled her mate lovingly with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "You're not a bother, Riptide. You're the best mate that any dragon could ask for," Summer said, nuzzling her mate's neck one last time and giving the top of her head a comforting lick before she and Aggro helped Riptide lay on a floating and non-burning piece of the ship before they dove down into the water, and using the eels distraction to get past them without getting seen, then using Aggro's luminescent orange glow to see deep underwater and finding the pale blue plant.

Once the plant was found, the two dragons quickly resurfaced and flew to the wooden platform that they had laid Riptide on.

But when they got there, they saw that Riptide's eyes were closed. "Riptide!" Summer screamed, running over to her.

"S-Summer?" She mumbled.

"Riptide..." Summer whispered.

"Are you ok?!" Aggro said, coming up beside Summer.

Riptide looked at her, then back at Summer. "D-did we win?" She asked quietly.

"Yes. We won." Summer said, swallowing back tears. She gave a small smile, then closed her eyes. "Riptide!" Summer shouted again as she took her in her arms.

She opened her eyes again. They were week, graying out. She reached her paw up to Summer's face. "I... love.. you..." She said weekly.

Summer looked into her eyes. They closed again and her paw dropped from Summer's face.

"Riptide!" Summer shouted, tears falling down. "No! Don't do this to me! Riptide come black!"

Summer started to freak out when she saw her mate's eyes close. She turned to face Aggro with a terrified look in her eyes. "Aggro! We need to give Riptide the flower, and fast!" She cried out, trying to hold back tears.

The Fire Fury nodded and gave the sky blue Fastfin a soft nudge with her head. "Come on Riptide! Please open your eyes!"

Riptide's eyes slowly peeled open, though they still looked gray, but at least they knew she was still breathing.

"Here Riptide," Summer said while giving her the pale-colored plant. "Eat this, love. It'll help remove the poison from your body."

The sky blue Fastfin slowly nodded and weekly lifted her head from the ground as Aggro tilted her head up so she could swallow the plant without the fear of choking on the flower.

Luckily for both Aggro and Summer, the water lily quickly healed Riptide, who quickly turned into Leyla and rode on Summer's saddle the rest of the way back due to the tail injury.