I turned back to face the other three, who had huddled together, James and Speedy behind Sara.

“Lyra, you are active,” James said, slowly moving out from behind Sara.

I shook my massive head.

“You just shapechanged...into a jungle jaguar,” Sara commented, waving her hand at me.

“I’ve never seen anyone do that before,” Speedy said. “Everyone’s only able to change musculature or facial features or stuff like that. This is a full body transformation into another creature. How are you able to make the change? It would have to completely rework your DNA.”

I looked at Speedy and lifted my paw, deliberately biting into it, then showed it to him as it healed.

“Your healing ability,” he said, getting it immediately.

I nodded.

“Can you change back?” Sara asked.

I shook my head no. Then started walking.

“You can’t, so we should just keep going?” Speedy asked, hurrying to walk beside me.

I looked over at him and nodded.

James and Sara quickly caught up to walk on my other side.

Opening my mouth to take in smells, I noticed the iron scent of blood.

Turning my head this way and that, I pinpointed it to Sara. I nudged her shoulder.

“What? Will you stop commanding us to do things?” She snarked.

I lowered myself to make it clear that she was to ride me.

“Why the hell...what is your problem?”

She was fighting back, but I noticed the wobble in her voice. I stayed put.

After a couple moments of tense silence, James asked, “Sara...are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine!” She insisted, wincing, and her hand fluttered toward her side.

“No, you’re not,” James said, taking notice of her hand and kneeling to examine her side.

Speedy came around to the other side and joined James. Sara stood in place, looking miffed.

“I agree with Lyra. You should ride her. You’ve been running with that, and it’s only made it worse,” Speedy said, gently prodding the edges of the wound.

Sara hissed, and I saw a small amount of flame flare in her hand, but it was quickly put out.

Without another moment, she grabbed fur at my neck and hauled herself on my back. “Fine, let’s go already.”

I started walking, and when I was sure she had a good grip, extended into a lope.

Speedy and James were able to keep up, Speedy by running, James by teleporting every couple of minutes.

We covered a lot of ground until I felt my skin start to prickle again.

Stopping, I crouched down.

“We’re not there yet,” Sara said, gripping my fur tighter.

I shifted my muscles as the prickling intensified into buzzing.

“Fine,” she commented, sliding off.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, I let go of my hold on the jaguar form and shifted back to human.