Seraphina Frostscale's Arc

Chapter 5 of 11

Seraphina had held the shift on the ground. But the elder spell asked for more. A full dragon flies. She had never left the earth in that form. If her grip broke in the air, she would fall as a beast and never pull herself back. The green vapor crept south each day, eating her clean ground. She had one more field left. She would fly today or lose the chance. Draven flew her to the far field on the black winged cat. The creature dropped low and landed in short grass. Its shadowy wings folded. Its barbed tail flicked once. Seraphina slid down and looked north. A thin green haze sat at the tree line, closer than yesterday. Draven set his hand on his sword and stood beside her. "Same as before," he said. "I stay under you." "You can't anchor me in the air," she said. "You can't fly." "I'll watch. You look down. Find me." At the edge of the field, a wolf with sweeping antlers lifted its head. Silver wings rose from its back. It had followed the vapor south too, driven from its home like everything else. It watched her with pale blue eyes, then stepped back into the grass. Seraphina lifted the pendant. The center stone woke. Light ran up her arm and the beast surged for the gap. She opened the door and let the change take her. Bones bent. White scales spread. Wings tore from her back and caught the wind. She held her grip through the pain and finished whole. She stood full dragon, breathing hard. She crouched and pushed off. Her wings beat down. The ground dropped away. Air rushed under her, cold and fast, and her stomach lurched. The beast smelled the freedom and lunged. Up here there was no grass under her claws, no solid thing to hold. Her vision whitened. The grip cracked. She dropped a wing and spun toward the earth. "Down here," Draven shouted. "Look at me." She found him through the light, small on the grass, sword raised so the blade caught the sun. She fixed on his red eyes. She stopped fighting the fear and closed her fist around it. The spin slowed. Her wings found the beat again. She pressed the beast back into its gap and sealed it. She climbed, turned, and held the form steady over the field. Ten wingbeats. A hundred. It did not tear loose. She came down hard and folded her wings and willed the change back. Her body shrank. She stood human, shaking, whole. Draven caught her. "I flew it," she said. "The whole way." Then the wind turned. The green haze at the tree line had crossed into the field. It curled toward her feet. This ground was gone now too. She had mastered the shift, on land and in the air. But every field she could use was poisoned or dying. To finish the elder spell, she would have to stop the vapor at its source.