Heart of Water

Chapter 17: Summer Vacation

About a month or so after Glow's unexpected visit, Riptide, Summer, and Aggro had decided to have a girls day with the two young adolescent Fastfins.

"So, does anyone have an idea of where we should go?" Aggro asked to brake the silence. "Cause I got nothin."

Riptide frowned as a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Hey, I know! Maybe we could find a place to be our own little secret base!" She told the others with a wide grin splitting across her face. "What'd you guys think?"

The others all nodded eagerly in response.

"Ok then what are we waiting for? Come on, let's go!" She cheered while flying higher and higher into the clouds.

A few hours of exploring later, they finally found an island base. From the air it looked like a small hill sticking out of the ocean, but when they landed on it to rest, they found out that the center had a hole leading to an underground cave.

As they traveled through the underwater cave they found it led into a spacious mostly underwater cavern. The walls were filled with gemstones that gave off light. There was dozens schools of fishes, and coral that provided a perfect place for water based eggs to hatch, while there was a single section of stone above water that gave anyone that did not want to swim a place to rest.

As they were heading home they found a small island, barren except for some stones they decided to use to play voleyrock.

The adults were letting the children win, and between them Tempest was winning, but then they paused when they felt rain drops and looked up just in time to see lightning and realizing there was a storm, they all dove underwater to avoid it and started swimming home.

They were halfway there when Sapphire saw something to the side and slightly above.

"Um, hey, mom? What's that?" She asked, causing the others to look over and except for Tempest to pale, when they saw a giant eel heading straight for them.

"EEL!" Riptide, Summer, and Aggro yelled while taking off in the opposite direction of the eel. "SWIM FOR IT."

Sapphire and Tempest watched them swim away before turning back to the eel, which was almost there.

"I don't know what in the name of Nóttu that was all about," Tempest mused aloud to her sister as they turned to face the eel head-on. "But no one scares our family." She growled while charging at top-speed toward the offending creature that scared their parents and aunt.

With that Tempest blasted it in the face with a sonic attack disorienting it, before Sapphire bit and clawed it, then when it recovered Sapphire blasted it while Tempest bit and clawed it and repeated the same process until it was dead. Once they knew for sure that it was dead, they dragged it along with them until they found Riptide and Summer, though no Aggro hiding behind a rock, and curled up around each other until you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.

"Mom! Momma! It's safe!" Sapphire called, causing them to unfurl and reveal that Aggro had been inside the Fastfin ball, completely covered so you couldn't see her at all.

"Sorry. Past trauma means that despite being Fastfins the two of us share other species fear of eels." Riptide explained upon seeing their confusion before shaking when she saw the dead eel behind them. "What in the name of Nóttu is that?" She asked while pointing to the eel with her tail.

"Lunch!" Sapphire and Tempest said, much to the others shock and terror.

After recovering from their shock, they headed up to a nearby island, glad that they had passed out of the storm while Sapphire and Tempest carried the eel with along with them.

"Uh, is that thing even safe for us to eat?" Riptide asked skeptically while glaring distrustfully at the dead eel nearby.

"I have no clue, but I'm not gonna chance it." Aggro muttered while shaking her head back and forth. "Hey, Riptide, does your dragon diary have any information about eels effect on dragons?"

Riptide blinked and looked deep in thought before she finally stood shakily to her feet and quietly muttered "Metamorphose" under her breath.

"Having any luck?" Summer asked her mate as she came over and read over the girl's shoulder.

Leyla shrugged and looked up to face her mate and the other dragons. "All it says in here is that most dragons can't eat eels, but there are some dragons, like Fastfins, Typhoomerangs, and a few other dragon species that can eat eels without getting sick." After reading a few more pages, Leyla closed the book, put it back in her satchel, and returned to dragon form.

"So... you're saying that as Fastfins, we can eat the eel, but aunty Aggro can't?" Tempest asked once the information finally sunk in.

Summer and Riptide both nodded their heads in response.

Tempest and Sapphire glanced to one another before turning back to face their parents. "You guys wanna try some?" They asked while gesturing to the eel with their wings.

The two older Fastfins cringed and flinched away, their eyes wide in terror. "N-no thanks, we're good." Summer mumbled while backing away from the eel. Riptide nodded her head in agreement and also backed away from the nightmare-inducing creature in front of her.

"Well, ok then. Suit yourself." Sapphire replied with a shrug while taking a hesitant bite of the eel.

"It's really not that bad," Sapphire told her sister after swallowing. "You should try some too, sis." Sapphire told Tempest while gesturing to the eel with her tail.

The other Fastfin inched forward slowly and sniffed the eel, almost as if she was checking to make sure it was really indeed safe to eat.

Once she was sure it was safe to eat, Tempest slowly opened her mouth and took a small bite of the eel.

"Well?" Sapphire asked once Tempest had swallowed her share of eel. "How is it?"

"It's better than I thought it would be," Tempest answered with a shrug. "But if I were being honest, I have to say that I'd rather stick to eating fish."

Sapphire nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, same here. Eels aren't bad, but I'd rather eat fish instead."

Tempest nodded and bent her head down and took another bite of the eel.

The two of them kept taking turns until they had fin ashes and there was nothing left but a few pieces of bone.

"We're done eating!" Sapphire called to the adults, who were looking away while they were eating the eel.

This caused them to turn back around and stare in shock. Sapphire looked like a sky blue ball with green swirls, and all four legs, her tail, wings, and her head sticking out the sides, but being unable to even touch the ground. Tempest looked the same but with her colors and markings. One thing though was it was clear they would have to be carried home.