Dragon Witch ✔️

70 - Sea Hunt

"At least we still have one potion." Piper glanced between me and the others. "Is there enough to split? I can't tell. Potions were never my thing."

Propping myself on my elbow, I shook my head. "Not for major injuries. Healing potion is already just a glorified bandaid. It takes care of a lot of the pain and bleeding, but any serious injuries it heals will stay fragile and weak for a while. If you're too rough, cuts can open up, bones can re-fracture, cautarized arteries can split. If you skimp on it, you're just asking for trouble. Give it to-"

Kyton interrupted me as he piled dried, dead plants in front of him. "Give it to Lilly for the snake bite. It could be lethal."

"It doesn't feel lethal." I poked my leg. "Actually, it doesn't feel like anything at all."

"I agree with him," Nissa said. "Even if it's just paralyzing, you can't afford not to walk. You'd be dead in an hour."

"Who cares if I live a little longer if it means none of us can fly out of here?"

"Draconia to Lilly," Nissa said, shaking my shoulders, "Draconia to Lilly--have a little sense. If you're dead and we escape, the dragons will eat us. We need you more than we need our wings."

I pulled away from her. "Fine, then I'll have Eva heal me as soon as she hatches. You or Kyton should still take the potion."

Piper spoke up. "Phoenixes can only flame and egg once a day. If they've been well rested and fed for a long time, maybe twice. Unless you want to kill her, I wouldn't suggest it." She leaned over the little fire Kyton was trying to start by hitting two rocks together. "Those rocks won't work. You need flint and steel."

Nissa grabbed the potion from Piper with one hand and one of my horns with the other. "Either drink the potion, or I'll shove it down your throat." Shadows darkened her face.

"There's the violent shade we all know and love." As soon as I said it, I knew I shouldn't have. It was just magic starvation talking. I opened my mouth to apologize, but she shoved the potion into my hand and marched off.

Kyton shot me a harsh look. "She's trying to help you."

"I know." They were right. Even if they managed to get to the exit portal without me, the dragons would kill them. They needed me for that, even if I wasn't useful for anything else. I drank the potion. The numbness in my legs faded painfuly, and the bloody bites were soon nothing but red marks.

My stomach growled loudly, and I stood. There had to be something around here that was magical, some plant I could eat. Okay, maybe not a plant, not in the desert. The palm trees by the river were the only ones I could see, and they didn't smell magical.

There could be coral in the ocean, though. Wasn't coral an animal? I'd watched a documentary on them, and I was pretty sure they were colonies of tiny animals. If they were tiny magical animals, would they be intelligent like Eva or Leo?

My stomach growled again.

"Are you hungry?" Kyton asked gruffly. "You haven't drank blood in a while."

"I'm fine. I'm going for a walk, alone." Drawing my knife, I marched away in the same direction Nissa had gone. It was the only direction not blocked by the river or leading into the desert.

She'd stopped on a rock not far from the others. I passed her and kept going. It probably wasn't a good idea to go fishing for coral alone, but if Kyton came with me, I would probably bite him. Piper was busy helping Kyton care for Eva. And Nissa wouldn't be volunteering to help me anytime soon after what I'd said. She was close enough that she could probably hear if I screamed, though.

As soon as I was out of sight of Kyton and Piper, I shed all the extra clothes I'd been wearing and started out into the water. It was fairly warm and clear, which made it easy to see the school of fish that fled from my path. They looked dreadfully normal, not magic at all.

I swam out farther. My tail was surprisingly useful for propelling me along. I treaded water over what looked like some type of pink water plant. Squinting, I stuck my head under the water. At first, the salt stung my eyes, but then a sort of film went over them. It was kind of like the "third eyelid" I'd heard some animals had. I could still see, but the salt didn't sting anymore.

The plant was definitely pink, and it was a flower. Like a normal, ground-based flower. That was something I hadn't seen in a nature documentary. A blue lobster had the flower in its claws. Even through the water, I could sense magic coming off the flower. I wasn't about to let the lobster eat it.

After surfacing to take a deep breath, I dove. The lobster skittered backwards with the flower. I stabbed at it with my dagger, but it was too fast. My blade only hit dirt. Stupid lobster. All I wanted was a stupid flower so I wouldn't do something stupid and hurt my friend.

Kicking my tail back and forth, I jetted after the lobster. It darted around a huge boulder. Prip, it was probably running back to its den. I swam even faster. My lungs were burning, but I just needed to hold my breath a little longer, and the flower would be mine.

I followed the lobster around the boulder. It ran in a cave hollow in the boulder. The mouth of the cave was a squeeze, but I managed it. The lobster couldn't escape from me now. Some kind of bioluminescent something lined the walls of the cave. I had no trouble chasing the lobster up the back wall. My head breached an air bubble in the cave, and I took a deep breath.

The lobster was flying. It hovered a foot above the water, taunting me with its flower. No, not hovering. Suspended. By a giant, ropy tentacle coming from a hole in the back wall. As my magic-starved brain scrambled to explain that, the whole cave shook.

I dove toward the cave entrance. It was gone. The glowing walls were completely empty of any escape hole. I surfaced again. Stupid, stupid Lilly. I'd stumbled into some kind of monster trap. The lobster was some kind of lure. Its flower wasn't even real. It definitely emenated magic, but it was animal magic, not floral.

Eva? I called.

No response. Why would there be? Kyton and Piper hadn't even gotten the fire started when I left. It might be a while before it was hot enough to hatch Eva. I had to find a way out before the monster came out and ate me. Or worse, maybe the cave was the monster and it would start digesting me soon.

I felt every crack and crevice of the cave, but the only real hole was the one with the tentacle in it. Something told me that the tentacle was really a tongue going down a throat, and I had no desire to find the stomach of this creature.

Eva? I tried again.

No response. At least, no response from Eva. The cave rumbled as if it had heard me. I dove beneath the water just as the entrance hole opened. What luck! I kicked off the far wall, aiming for the opening.

A blast of water threw me back against the wall. I caught a glimpse of something large shooting through the entrance hole before it closed again and I surfaced for air.

Kyton surfaced next to me. I glared at him. Not only had my stupidity gotten me swallowed by a cave monster, it had also led to him getting swallowed. Though, this might be a good thing.

"Ky, call Nissa--or whatever it is you do with your telepathy--and tell her to come get us out."

"I can't. Something about this rock must be blocking the signal. Besides, we need to talk." Treading water, he seemed less intimidating than he had on land. "Piper told me that now you're a stage three changeling, you need to drink more often. Why-"

I shoved him, and he dunked under the water for a second. When I let him go, he bobbed back up, completely unphased.

"I can breathe underwater. You can't drown me just because you're annoyed."

"You fixed your wings? Your powers are working again?" His powers might just get us out of here.

He shook his head. "No, breathing underwater is a passive gift. I don't need to control it, so I don't need my wings."

"Good for you. We're still going to die in here."