Kali's eyes opened, only to be welcomed by immense darkness. She realised her body was sprawled to what seemed like a bed of fallen leaves. Sitting up she looked around.
Tall trees surrounded her; their leaves and branches obscured the sky and let in the tiniest rays of light. She could not see much through the gloomy surroundings, but she could feel the gentle gusts of wind passing her by.
She looked around and saw Haya sitting beside her. "What happened to me?" she asked him in a low voice.
She put her hand to her forehead, not noticing that she had taken her human form again.
"Like I said, we almost died." Haya tensed his muscles as he spoke in a low tone.
"The last thing I remember is you fighting with Lucas." She frowned. "Lucas!" Suddenly she began to scan the atmosphere, looking for him.
"He's fine, just not conscious." Replied Haya to her nervous demeanour. "But we have to go, we have to wake him up and get on our way." He added.
Haya bent his knees and pushed his butt off the ground, he stood up.
He looked at Lucas who was still lying on the floor, "is he always this sleepy?" He asked Kali.
There was no answer Kali could give him as she did not know Lucas that well yet, they went to the same school and the time they spent here was more here in this place and so far Lucas had shown too many strange feelings and behaviour for her to form an opinion about him.
"Where should we go?" Kali asked him as she tilted her head to the side.
"To the city of the elves of course, that's our mission." Haya walked slowly beside Lucas' body. "It's getting darker, we have to hurry."
"The city of the elves ... right." Kali nodded, remembering the order the system had given them.
"Aaaa!" Kali cried out as she finally realised her hand was human. "My body, what happened?" She quickly stood up, "Wh-what happened to my body?"
Her face was pale from all the energy Renexa had sucked out of her.
"Oh, you'll feel better with time, now come and help me wake your boyfriend." Haya touched Luca's waist with his foot.
Lucas did not move from the spot. He looked like a dead man, but he was breathing this at least.
"He is not my boyfriend!" Kali replied immediately.
Her face became even redder and her hands sweaty, 'he is not my boyffriend, not yet', she muttered to herself.
"Yeah, whatever, come and help me wake him up." "Wake up," Haya replied in a low tone. He nudged Luca's body with his foot again.
Lucas' body moved a little to the side so that the grass and weeds slid against his white trouser legs. The wind that slid through the leaves and the cracking of the undergrowth with each step made the situation even more tense for the two of them.
"Wait, let me do it." Kali spoke and put her left foot forward to help her keep her balance. 'It's really strange to walk on two legs again, okay..' She put her right foot down and started walking slowly.
Her legs felt wobbly, but not because she was scared, but because she was getting nervous. She felt like she was learning to walk again.
"Here." She stood next to Luca's body.
"It took you long enough to get here." Haya smiled kindly.
"Well, if you had four long claws, I'd like to see how fast you could walk?" She replied to his remark. There was a slightly sarcastic tone in her voice, but she meant no harm.
"What's your name anyway?" Kali asked him out of curiosity. There was a strange man in a strange looking hoodie claiming he was here to help, it struck her as suspicious.
"My name is Haya, protector of the dark sea." He pushed Lucas' body one more time without paying attention to Kali.
"The protector of the black sea, that's so cool!" Kali spoke in surprise.
Little butterflies filled her stomach and made her feel some kind of amusement. She was in a new place and everything around her was exciting.
Kali liked adventure.
"And your name?" Haya stopped for a moment hitting Lucas' body.
His hoodie hid his face from Kali, he could not look her in the eye, his gaze was fixed on Lucas.
"Ka- Kali, my name is Kali." She stuttered for a brief moment.
"Okay, Kali, could you help me lift your friend's body, we need to move." Haya reminded her one more time that they needed to get out of here.
"Yes, of course." She nodded.
Kali leaned closer to Lucas and grabbed his head with her small, soft hand. She started shaking him and pulling his hair, thinking it would help wake him up.
"Hey, idiot! Wake up, we have to go." With her other hand she gave him a light slap on the cheek.
Haya stood there speechless, not expecting a girl to be so violent towards her boyfriend.
"Idiot, wake up!" She shook his head one more time.
As she stared at his closed eyelids, she noticed small changes in his face. Lucas had a small scar on his chin, she had never noticed that before, 'maybe it's new?" she thought and slowly moved her eyes to check his forehead.
His forehead was a little redder than usual, it was probably from the fall on the floor, and the way Lucas' body was lying, she assumed it had fallen on his face.
But the strangest and most recent thing was that a small piece of Luca's hair had turned white in the front. The rest of his hair had turned black again, but this small piece had remained in a white, ashy colour.
It was strange in her eyes when he changed his hair colour, and when he acted like a whole new person, "how did he know how to fight?" this little thought ran through her mind.
"Wake up." She slapped his face again, making Luca's eyelids to finally open.
"What kind of dragon are you?"
Kali was startled by Haya's sudden question.
"A pink one, of course." She answered him confidently.
"Sigh, forget it." Haya shook his hand and pushed his hoodie further in front of his face.
Lucas finally opened his eyes, but the colour of his eyes had changed one more time, from a light - ruby hue, it had turned dark red again.
It was at least a shade darker than before.
"What is it? Why have his eyes changed again?" Kali moved his head to the side and scanned him with her eyes.
"Oh, it's an after-effect of Izek." Haya yawned, not bothered by the sudden change in Luca's eye colour.
"Izek effect?" Lucas spoke at last, with his eyes and mouth wide open.
"It means you do not have much left until he takes over your body completely."