"I'm burning!" Zann screamed. Only his head and shoulders were above the hot, bubbling water.
His friends were screaming too. But Zann could only think about his own searing pain.
A sharp whistle came from overhead. Zing was flying back and forth between the kids and the rocky shore.
Being a fire dragon, Zing was immune to heat and had already shaken off the hot water.
Seeing Zing cleared Zann's mind a little.
The wormhole was over their heads—too high to reach.
The shore was pretty far away. There was only one way he and his friends would survive this.
"Focus, everyone!" Zann yelled. "We have to zap out of the water!"
He hoped their magic would work in this world. If not . . .
He tried not to think about it.
"Everyone join hands!" Gliss cried.
Zann felt someone grab his hand. He almost yanked it away because the touch hurt his injured skin.
He forced himself to squeeze back though.
"Zap!" he cried.
He landed on the rocky shore with a grunt.
The heat was gone. Well, some of it was gone.
Looking around, Zann could see that they were in a world of flame and scorching heat.
A fiery red sky hung overhead. Steam rose from the bubbling lake.
Zann could already feel sweat beading on his burned skin.
But at least he no longer felt as if his whole body were melting.
Gliss rubbed her hands together, wincing at the pain. Then she touched Darb. "Heal!"
Instantly Darb's skin went from fiery red to its normal color.
"Thanks," he said, slumping with relief.
Gliss quickly healed herself next. Zann and Perda did the same.
"That was close." Perda looked around. "What world is this?"
"I don't know," said Zann. Zing landed, and Zann scratched the dragon's head. "Thanks for the help, little buddy."
Zing chirped, sounding nervous. A large shadow passed over the group.
Glancing up, Zann saw an enormous dragon flying overhead.
Luckily it didn't seem to notice them.
"We need to figure out whether Wyssa is here," Perda said. "Quickly."
Zann and his friends picked their way carefully up the rocky slope.
"There goes another dragon." Darb shaded his eyes to watch a shadowy creature fly by in the distance.
"Look out!" Gliss grabbed Darb and yanked him back. "You almost stepped in that puddle!"
Zann wasn't sure why she sounded so anxious until he looked down.
Right near his feet was a puddle of burning hot lava!
"Everyone be careful," Perda warned.
They continued walking. Several more dragons flew by in the distance.
The only other signs of life were a few scrubby trees and shrubs.
"This is crazy," Perda said after a few minutes.
"How are we supposed to figure out if Wyssa or Morb is here?"
Gliss mopped her brow. "It seems like the kind of place Morb would like—dangerous and scary."
A scraping sound came from behind a house-sized boulder nearby.
"Shh," Zann whispered. "That could be an unfriendly dragon."
He tiptoed around the boulder. A teenage boy was scraping at the dirt.
"Hey!" Zann blurted out. "It's a person!"
The boy spun around. "Oh! You startled me!" he exclaimed.
"Sorry. My name is Zann."
"I'm Arrano," the boy replied with a smile.
By then Zann's friends had appeared, and Zann quickly introduced them.
"What's the name of this world?" Perda asked Arrano.
Arrano looked surprised. "Don't you know where you are?"
"We just arrived through a wormhole," Gliss explained.
"Really? You came here, to Drac, from another world?"
Arrano's friendly expression changed to a worried one.
"We don't get many visitors here. It would probably be best for you to leave before they see you."
"Before who sees us?" Perda asked.
Arrano didn't answer. He was staring past the visitors.
Zann turned. A pair of dragons had just waddled into sight.
They were a little smaller than Zing but much plumper, with shiny blue scales.
"Shoo!" Gliss said, waving her hands at the little dragons. "Get out of here!"
The dragons ignored her. Darb watched them with interest.
"They look a little like river hoppers, don't they?" he remarked.
Zann nodded. "One of Boz's friends has a hopper as a pet.
It's bigger than these though." He frowned as the dragons came closer. "And much less bold."
He turned, planning to ask Arrano how to get rid of the pests.
To Zann's surprise, Arrano was nowhere in sight.
"Hey, where'd he go?" Darb wondered.
Perda shrugged. "He seemed kind of nervous or something."
"No wonder, living in a crazy world like this." Gliss shuddered.
Zing was glaring at the approaching dragons.
He sent out a warning blast of flame. The smaller dragons jumped back.
Then one of them let out a sharp cry.
The second one opened its mouth and shot out a stream of lava.
"Whoa!" Zann jumped aside. The lava hit a shrub, which was instantly burned to a stump.
"Okay, maybe they're not much like river hoppers after all," Darb said. "Let's get out of here!"
"Good idea." Zann whistled for Zing. "Come on, boy!"
Before Zing could get to Zann, one of the other dragons leaped up and batted him out of the air.
Zing landed on the hard ground with a grunt and lay there stunned.
"Zing!" Zann cried. He tried to rush over, but one of the blue dragons blocked him with another lava blast.
"I've got him!" Darb dodged around the second dragon and grabbed Zing.
"Darb! Look out!" Gliss screamed.
Both dragons had turned toward Darb and Zing, who were now backed up against the huge boulder. The dragons moved closer.
"Uh-oh!" cried Darb. "I can't get past them—we're trapped!"