Dragon Girls: A New World

Chapter Thirteen: Farewell

Me and Toothless sat across from each other at a table in the diner. His hands were cupped around mine in the center of the table. I looked up at him. "Toothless...I...I think that I--we--need to go home."
"What do you mean?"
I sighed. "I don't belong here. Neither does Echo," I admitted. "I was never meant to be a human, Toothless. This isn't me."
"It IS you," Toothless insisted, squeezing my hands. "Just a different interpretation."
I smiled weakly. "But I can't stay here. I have to go home, back to where I'm from." Just then Diamondspirit showed up, looking a little dazed. "Where's Echo?"
He shrugged.
I stood up and pulled Toothless with me. "Diamond, would you mind holding our spot? I wanna talk alone with Toothless."
The two of us went outside behind the diner. Toothless looked sad and he clasped my hands firmly. "Please, Paint," he begged, "don't go."
"I have to, Toothless," I insisted. "I have an entire island that needs me. I have a magic academy to run, potions to brew...and a certain black dragon who couldn't live without me. He has green eyes and a great personality, and is seemingly toothless. He's you, just as a dragon."
"But I need you too!" Toothless wrapped his arms around me and I could feel his chest shaking with quiet sobs. I found myself crying into his shirt. "If you go, I won't have you!"
"Yes you will; the original human me from this world will reappear and you'll start where you left off."
"But I love you, and even just having you return to your own dimension with the human version of you returning here hurts me. There will always be a missing part of me that knows I can't be with you."
"Toothless..." I looked up into his eyes.
And then I found myself with my arms wrapped around his neck, his arms around me, our lips pressed together in a kiss I could never forget.
I pulled away. "I'll always be with you. I will never leave you for anything, not ever. Even if you were to cheat on me--"
"I would never do that!"
"--I would still love you and be by your side." Toothless kissed me again.
"And I will be by yours."
----
"Hi," Echogreen said as she sat down.
"Hi," me, Diamondspirit, and Toothless replied.
"Echogreen and I have decided to leave," I announced to mostly Diamondspirit. "This isn't our world and we don't belong here. We're leaving today." Toothless nodded glumly.
"Actually..." I looked at Echo, who seemed unsure of what she was trying to say. "Actually, I don't think I'll go."
I locked eyes with her. "Echo. Berk is your hometown. You need to go back."
She threw her hands in the air and snapped, "I never fit in at Berk, though!" Then, in a whisper: "Never."
"It's her choice," Diamondspirit supported quietly. "Let her do what she wants."
I felt flustered. "But Berk's her home."
"I could go home." Echo's voice was edgy and dripped with bitterness like a feather quill soaked in poison. "Just to say goodbye to the one person I know."
My eye twitched, and for the first time I could feel my temper slipping away, though I didn't know why. "Can I have a word?" I said quietly. "Alone?"
Echo nodded. "Fine."
I pulled her aside into a corner and hissed, "What's gotten into you?!"
Echo merely shrugged. I felt like I was a teacher trying to ask a bratty kindergartener why he shoved a kid on the playground. "There's something going on," I pressed.
Echogreen sighed dramatically. "Fine. Fine fine FINE! I never felt right at Berk, but here, I feel like myself! I'm important, but there at Berk? I'm no one. I'm invisible."
Now my temper was flaring because one of my best friends was demoralizing herself. "That's not true."
"Yeah?! Look around, Paint. Look around and step out of your little bubble. Life's not all that great for me. I'm a stray--a loner! It was mere chance we got together, Paintsplash. Mere chance. If you'd look up once and a while, you'd see that Hiccup hates me, Astrid cringes whenever I come near, and not to mention the other villagers!"
I tried not to explode. Here was my closest dragon friend, telling me to stop dwelling in my own problems and dealings and look at everyone else's problems. Like I never did that. The thing was, I always did that. "If you'd look up once and a while." That statement hurt. I didn't know that Hiccup hated Echo, but that wasn't my fault. Trying to help run an entire nation of refugees and keep track of another nation's detailed issues was more than I needed on my plate, so knowing that my friend was having problems was not available.
I took a deep breath. "Echo--"
"I don't want to hear it, Paintsplash!" she snapped. "I'll go home with you, but I'm coming back."
I sighed. "It's your choice."
"I know." I locked eyes with her before turning on my heel and walking back to the table. I laughed and joked with Toothless and his brother while Echo sat down and remained quiet, stormy.
About five minutes later she decided it would be a wonderful time to leave. "Come on, Paintsplash. Let's go."
I shrugged. "Toothless--" I looked up as Echo ran out of the diner, Diamondspirit in hot pursuit. I turned back to Toothless. "Just know...I love you, and I always will. Don't forget that."
"I won't," he promised. I stood up and he followed suit, hugging me. It occurred to me that this might be the last time I ever hug anyone as a human.
"Let's go."
----
"You ready?" I asked Echo. She had her arms around Diamond.
She nodded and muttered something to Diamondspirit, winking.
Then we both stepped into the portal.