Ethan looked up and immediately recognized the towering figures in the sky, the Dragon Child, the Dragon of Consumption, and the Fortune Dragon circling above like three shimmering omens. The sprawling vacuum beneath them, a dry basin dozens of miles wide, was mostly the Dragon Child's doing, although it clearly needed the Dragon of Consumption's power to hold the sea at bay. The little golden one, for all its glitter, mostly hovered in encouragement.
"Your Majesty, we should move," Ethan called, already leaning forward.
As he spoke, he shot across the churned earth like an arrow released from a bow.
"Ah, yes, Jorund, Jorunn!" the Merfolk King barked.
At his command, a dozen Merfolk warriors broke off from the main force. As they left the water, their shimmering tails split and folded, reshaping into legs in a blur of scales and muscle. Ethan watched with grim satisfaction. Just as he suspected, Merfolk could fight perfectly well on land when they needed to.
