Sizzling Raindrops

Chapter 1: Riptide's Fears

"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."

Summer and Aggro shared a look before turning back to face Riptide.

"Riptide, can I talk to you in private please?" Summer asked the other Fastfin. "I need to ask you something."

Riptide nodded and the two water dragons walked faraway from Aggro, who just gave Summer a small nod.

"So, when are you going to tell me what's going on?" Summer asked, deciding to get to the point.

Riptide' frowned and gave her a sideways glance. "What do you mean?" She asked cautiously.

Summer sighed. "Come on Riptide. I think I can tell when my best friend is upset." She told her, repeating the exact same words Riptide (As Leyla), had told her when Summer had admitted her fear of eels to her.

"I'm not upset." Riptide replied defensively, her tail twitching slightly from left to right.

Summer raised her eyebrows in response to her friend's words.

Riptide sighed in defeat. "Is it really that obvious?"

Summer just nodded.

"The truth is, I am afraid of eels, Summer. I know I'm a Fastfin, and I shouldn't be. But I am." Riptide turned her gaze away and continued after a short pause. "I know I was born as a human, and as such, humans aren't scared of eels, but I am. When I was a kid, I was swimming with Dak in the ocean. And, keep in mind, I was still learning how to swim at this point, and he learned a lot faster than I did." She paused again, taking a shaky breath before continuing again. "He swam ahead of me and I tried to follow after him, but little did I know that an eel was hiding in some seaweed ahead of me. It lunged out of the seaweed and bit my forearm. It got infected and mom had to treat it, she said I got lucky that I heal so quickly." Riptide shuttered at the memory.

Summer listened intently as Riptide told her story, cringing at the image that popped into her head at Leyla's forearm getting infected. Once the sky-colored Fastfin had finished her story, she was shaking and tears were cascading down her face.

Summer, seeing how upset her mate was, slowly walked up to her and started crooning softly while nuzzling her cheek.

Summer crooned softly and nuzzled her cheek against her mate's neck. "Shhh. It's alright, love. It's alright. I'm here and I'll never leave you." She whispered comforting words into her ear.

It took a few moments, but eventually Summer managed to calm her mate down. Still in dragon form, Riptide flicked her tail anxiously from left to right.