Kyton hurried to my head and knelt with a glowing green flask in his hand. "Drink this." He tilted it into my mouth.
I swallowed, and the pain in my legs faded a little. Potions like that concentrated on the most severe wounds first, so I shouldn't expect my wing membranes to heal at all with probable broken bones and internal bleeding. Still, I wished they would. They stung like a thousand paper cuts on rug-burned skin.
As Kyton climbed onto my back, I struggled to stand. The three passengers that had felt light minutes ago now felt like ten tons of bricks weighing me down. One healing potion hadn't been enough to fix my injuries completely. Breathing still hurt, and walking hurt even more. But I couldn't afford not to do those things.
The ground rumbled as the caterpillars grew closer. I ran. I ran until I was seeing spots. Then I ran some more. We weren't going to die because of me. My friends weren't going to die because of my failures.
A wall came into view through the trees. Not a wall, a stone cliff covered in ivy. It towered over us and stretched far to the right and left. There was no time to go around it. I had to climb.
"Hold on," I shouted.
Kyton repeated my command to the others as I reached the base of the cliff. I leapt at the cliff and dug my claws into the ivy. They were too sharp, cutting through the vines before I could get a good grip. I didn't have fingers. Even if I retracted my claws, I couldn't climb.
Wait, I could climb the stone if it was soft enough. I jabbed my claws into the stone. Pain ricochetted up my foreleg. The stone was not soft, not soft at all.
"Why can't I fly? What kind of stupid dragon am I?" I shouted at myself.
"Dragons use magic to fly," Kyton shouted back. "You don't have any of your powers with this crown. You have to find somewhere to hide, maybe a cave."
The cliff didn't have any caves, as far as I could see. Only-
I spun on my heels and sprinted to the right before I could even finish the thought. The waterfall and the river had been heading this way. When water hit rock, water won. It made caves. I just hoped the cave was small enough to keep the caterpillars out.
The river came into view, leading straight into the stone cliff. Sure enough, it had carved out a low tunnel in the rock. There was barely two feet of clearance between the water and the cave ceiling, exactly what I needed. The caterpillars wouldn't be able to get to us in there.
I jumped in the water. It was so fast-flowing that I didn't even have to swim; it swept me into the cave. Luckily, my body floated well, and I had no problem keeping my head or my friends out of the water.
The tunnel narrowed as I floated down the river. Stone pressed my wings against my sides, and the water rose higher. Within a matter of seconds, I was wedged tightly with the water splashing around my ears.
Eva moaned. Wet wet wet.
I shushed her. "Everyone okay back there?"
Kyton shouted over the roaring of the water, "everyone's fine. Are you stuck?"
"Yeah."
"You have to get the crown off."
I shook my head. "If we break it off, I won't be able to transform again." Just up ahead, I could see a literal light at the end of the tunnel. If I could squeeze a little farther...
Fiery daggers stabbed my right calf. Hissing with pain, I kicked with both legs. My claws hit something large and scaly. It bit my other leg.
"Just break the crown, Lilly. We'll be fine without it."
"No." I could do this. I kicked as hard as I could, thrashing my tail. I scraped another inch farther.
The thing in the water bit my tail. My legs were already going numb. Kyton was right; I couldn't squeeze out of here before that thing killed me. I slammed my forehead against the ceiling, trying to break the crown.
Eva squawked. Stop, I break, crazy dragon.
How are you going to-
She flapped her wings. The tunnel lit up with a fiery light, and heat spread through my head. It was comfortable enough for me, but the others groaned like it was hurting them.
Be careful, I insisted.
I careful, I careful. The light and heat grew stronger. Hot metal dripped down my neck, and it did hurt.
Hissing, I forced myself not to dunk my head. If I cooled the metal, she would have to start all over again.
The thing in the water struck my haunch. My tail and legs were numb. I couldn't have hoped to dodge, even if I wasn't stuck like a pea in a straw.
"I'll catch her as soon as she eggs," Kyton said.
"What?"
Finally, the crown was gone. Its magic drained from me, and everyone splashed down in the water. The rushing river shot us forward. I felt a tangle of arms and legs, something scaly, sharp rocks scraping at my arms.
I flew off the edge of something into bright light. A short fall, a splash. Water covered my head. Flailing my arms, I fought to rise above the surface. Without my legs, it was impossible to keep my head above water in the churning river.
One second I was taking a gasping breath and staring out over the ocean. The next second, I was plunged under the water again.
Someone grabbed my arm. I didn't know who, and I didn't care--just as long as it wasn't the snake. They dragged me onto the sandy river bank and collapsed next to me. I rolled onto my side to look back at the river. It was massive now, leading into a huge ocean. The snake was gone. So was the jungle, actually. Except for a few palm trees lining the river, all I could see was sand and scrubby plants for miles.
"Count off," I called out. "Lilly."
"Nissa," the person next to me said.
"Piper."
"Kyton, and I've got Eva's egg." He groaned, the kind of noise a sore person made when they sat up. "I'll get it in a fire." He was silent for a moment. "Guys, you have to look at this."
I tried to sit up, but I was numb from the waist down, and my muscles weren't responding right. Nissa propped me up. Kyton was pointing at the ocean. Or more specifically, at an island in the ocean.
Nissa threw up her arms, letting me fall back to the sand. "Finally. I thought we'd never find it. Oh, we have to get there before it disappears. Come on everyone, let's-"
Kyton grabbed her arm as she started to stand. "However this land-shifting thing works, speeding toward the island won't stop it from disappearing. We've been running, and we've been sleeping when the land changed. It's been a few minutes or a few hours between changes. Nothing we've done has affected it."
"Fine, what do you suggest we do?" She crossed her arms.
"Heat up Eva, heal Lilly, heal our wings, eat, and rest. The island could be huge and just as dangerous as the land. We don't want to be searching it while starving and half asleep."
Speaking of starving, my stomach rumbled. Of course it would still hurt, even after half of me was numb. I ignored it. Without my crown, I wouldn't be the one transporting us across the ocean. Kyton needed all his strength. I couldn't be stealing his blood now.
Nissa dug through her bag. It was practically shredded after she'd been tied up by a tree, crashed through a canopy, and scraped through a tunnel. Cursing, she stuck her whole head in the bag. She looked at me through a hole in the bottom.
"The mini-dimension disconnected from the bag when it was shredded. My supplies are gone."
Kyton held up his shredded bag. "Mine too."
Piper took off her bag, which was actually my backpack. "Mine's not bad, just a little unstable." She took out a flask of healing potion. "Good thing I packed pre-made potions. I've got plenty of-" With a sound like a popping balloon, the bag jumped in her hands. She peered into it. "Never mind."