The moment the stone beneath them split, Seraphina shifted back into her dragon form.
Her massive body filled the limited space above the summit, and the wind from her wings swept away a storm of shattered rock. There was no time for everyone to find somewhere safe to stand. She simply reached out with one claw, grabbed the nearest people one by one, and dropped them onto her back.
She wasn't particularly gentle about it.
Several of them landed in a tangled heap, then scrambled to grab the surrounding scales before the shaking mountain threw them off.
Ethan was still dangling from Seraphina's other claw. He held Idra tightly in both arms and looked down at the crumbling mountain, his confusion giving way to alarm.
An unpleasant possibility occurred to him.
Was this mountain alive?
Auri stared down in surprise from Seraphina's back.
