Kaz didn't think. He was shifting into his true form the moment he saw the boulder falling from above, rushing to it before it could crush any of them. He barely made it, his talons grabbing at the rock just before it could fall and pushing it out of the way, throwing it a few dozen feet away with a mighty crash.

Kaz let out a breath as his front feet touched the ground again, but he didn't get to enjoy the fact that Elaya and Rhen hadn't been killed because another earthquake followed right after, sending a rain of small but sharp rocks down on them. Kaz barred his fangs, stretching his wings out over his friends to shield them as he adjusted his pose to avoid falling. Even though it hurt to have rocks hit his sensitive wings, he was not in any actual danger, unlike a human would be.

"Run!" Rhenor yelled over the rumbling as the earthquake got even more violent. Even Kaz with his now four legs was having trouble standing upright, let alone moving quickly, but they all did their best. Elaya and Rhen used him for support, keeping a hand on his side as together they stumbled out of the gorge and back toward the forest, trying to ignore the sound of falling rocks behind them.

And suddenly, the ground stilled just as they got to safety. Kaz didn't spend any time thinking about what had just happened, though. He folded his wings and squeezed himself to the ground, which his friends understood, and thankfully got onto his back without having to be prompted.

Spreading out his wings again, Kaz jumped up and flapped them hard, trying to get into the air in the very limited area between the gorge and the forest. It proved challenging, especially since he still had limited experience with flying, as embarrassing as that was, but he did manage to get above the island fairly quickly.

He let out a breath. At least his friends were safe from earthquakes here.

As he began to glide above the gorge, he scanned his eyes over it and the forests surrounding it, trying to figure out where it would be safe to land again so they could talk about what had just happened. It was difficult to do that while airborne, as he'd come to find out. If it had been a normal earthquake, then there would be no reason for concern, but he'd felt magic before it had hit. Someone had summoned it, but for what reason? Either way, it was clear that they weren't alone here.

A flash of purple disappearing among the trees on his right caught his eye for a split second, but it was gone before he could even identify what bird it had been. He watched as more birds flew out of the forest, this time a group of what looked like seagulls, as he sighed to himself. They couldn't catch a break, could they?

Kaz almost flinched when he felt fingers touch the side of his neck, bringing him from his thoughts, but he immediately relaxed as said fingers began to gently scratch at his scales. A relaxed rumble made its way out of his throat as he tilted his head to look at which of his friends was doing it. To his surprise, it was Rhen. And he wasn't stopping.

Kaz looked back to where he was flying, feeling warmth spreading through his chest as his heart gave a stutter that had nothing to do with the stress caused by the earthquake. Maybe Rhenor truly didn't hate what Kaz was as much as Kaz had thought after all. He had seemed adamant about it back at the beach, but Kaz had stayed skeptical. Rhenor hated dragons, and for good reason. Still, he would try to stay hopeful.

Kaz was almost upset when they reached a much smaller island a moment later and Rhenor put his hand away. Kaz already missed the feeling, but he supposed it was for the best—it was far too relaxing and comforting to properly focus on the conversation they were about to have.

With a thud, he landed on the rocky beach. He always tried to make the impact as soft as possible while carrying Rhen and Elaya on his back, but he wasn't very good at it, judging by the way they always jerked forward. He needed to work on his flying in general, assuming Rhenor could truly tolerate seeing him this way. His wing muscles still ached from the trip to Rethan, and his brief imprisonment, but even then, he was sure he wasn't flying as fast as he should be capable of.

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"What just happened?" Rhen asked as he climbed off Kaz's back, Elaya following right after. Kaz quickly looked them over, making sure they were okay. He didn't think he had let any larger rocks hit them, but it was possible he hadn't managed to protect them from everything that had fallen on them. Thankfully, they both seemed unscathed, though Elaya seemed unnerved. Kaz could understand why. A naturally occurring earthquake would be discomforting enough, but they'd both felt it—this one had been caused by magic.

And the question of who had summoned it made Kaz tense, too.

"Someone summoned an earthquake directly underneath us," Elaya said, running a hand through her long hair and shaking her head. Then she looked up at Kaz. "Do you think you could fly us somewhere farther away from here? Just to be safe."

Kaz nodded, about to agree that even though he'd love to give his wings a rest, it was for the best to put more distance between them and that island. Whatever had happened, it couldn't be good. But Rhen spoke before he could say a word.

"Wait, how do we know it was a person?" Kaz opened his mouth to explain, but then he paused. He hadn't considered it being something rather than someone. "In Arlow, there were earthquakes caused by magic, and it was because of one of those crystals dragons use."

Elaya raised a curious eyebrow at Rhenor. Kaz grimaced. They hadn't told her how they'd met, had they? Then again, there hadn't been much time for talking. He would make sure to rectify that later.

"I think putting some distance between us and that island is a good idea either way," Elaya said instead of asking Rhenor to elaborate on what he'd just said. Her eyes flicked over to Kaz's once more, and the dragon nodded.

And so they climbed onto his back once again and Kaz took flight, flapping his wings as hard as he could get away from the original island as much as possible. Only once his wings were burning with strain and effort did he slow down, gliding on a warm current of air instead. That took some effort as well, unfortunately, but at least his wings could rest for a while. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting himself relax, but if anything that just made him feel his aching muscles more. He would need to land somewhere soon.

His eyes flew open again when he felt a hand tap his neck, and as he looked back, he saw Rhen pointing at something to the right. Kaz turned his gaze the way his finger was pointing, only to spot a large island in the distance. Even from this far away it seemed huge. Kaz wasn't too thrilled at how long he would still have to fly to get there, but he was also excited to have a destination in sight and so gave Rhenor a nod before flapping his wings again.

The sun was high in the sky when he finally reached the island, and despite his best efforts, his tiredness got the better of him as he landed on the grassy field too abruptly, almost making his friends fall off his back.

Kaz grimaced, expecting them to complain, but neither of them said anything as they climbed off. Kaz wasn't sure if he liked that. He didn't enjoy getting scolded of course, but he didn't want them to feel like they couldn't criticize him either.

But he might be reading too much into things, as he was prone to.

"Are you okay, Kaz?" asked Rhenor, who had apparently been watching him and Kaz had been too busy thinking to notice. The dragon nodded quickly, his heart fluttering. He wasn't sure why exactly, but he enjoyed getting fussed over by Rhen.

"Just tired." He gingerly stretched out his wings with a sigh, letting them hang limp over the long grass. It felt good to let the sun warm his scales like this. "Would you mind if I lay down for a while?"

Elaya smiled at him, though there was still worry in her eyes. Not that Kaz could blame her. What had happened had left him shaken, too, both literally and figuratively.

"Sure, go ahead, Kaz. We'll wake you if something happens."

Seeing Rhenor nod at him too, Kaz looked both humans over one more time before settling down onto the grass, pulling his tail around himself and curling into a ball. He didn't mind staying in his human form indefinitely, but there were things he missed when he was like that, and resting like this was one of them. He wasn't even sure why curling up like this felt so comforting, but it did, and he couldn't do that without a tail and four legs.

He let the sun, the murmuring voices of Rhen and Elaya, and the sound of waves colliding with the shore just a few dozen feet away lull him to sleep, feeling at ease for the first time in a good while.

At least until a scream woke him up.