From Izky’s direction, a black object flewi n a parabolic motion. Increasing in size as it was approaching, Kôra discerned what was it. It looked like a gastropod shell he saw in books: a conispiral exoskeleton with a short spire as long as its width, which surface was heavily sculptured by numerous lirae. The boy stopped as the shell drifted in front of him, blowing a cloud of azure sand. It revealed its fullest size in front of him: at least six meters from the apex to its siphonal node. The large rotund aperture gaped between its pearly lips, like a dark eye that stared back at him. A wave of chill travelled down the boy’s spine.

“Get in!” Izky commanded.

The kid responded by rushing to the gargantuan structure and did what instructed. Squeezed by its spiral construction, the inside was less spacious than he thought. He saw something black covering its opening as soon as his body entered entirely, a thick corneous operculum fitted by Izky. It shut all the light from outside, filtering the unsound darkness from him.

Barrages of loud jabbing and stabbing noises ensued just after he got into a comfortable position. The boy curled up against the vibrating ground, wondering what kind of threats Izky was up against. He gritted his teeth, feeling weary and shaky; his hands cover his mouth to not let anything come out from. Everything was spinning, rolling, and moving; whether inside or outside his head. This enveloping darkness, this disorderly chaos, this imminent entrapment; that boy could not help but reminisced the earthquake.

This remembrance and resemblance was unspeakable. Almost eight months’ effort of forgetting, it was now came into nothing. It was uneasy; it was too much of worry. Kôra wanted to go out and run, wanted to question his safety in front of an unknown danger he was facing. He knew that he could not and should not; as Izky told, do it for Izky.

As a heavy silence succeeded, Kôra thought of checking outside He had only heard nothing from Izky. Just as the kid tried to push the heavy cover and slip out of the shell, a sharp noise from afar alarmed him.

Before he could react, the second wave on attack occured. This time, it was way more violent, as so he felt the turbulence inside. Before closing the operculum, Kôra could see black thorn impaling parts of the ground which was not spared by the protection of his shell. He wanted to scream out for his own safety; he wanted to scream out for Izky, he wanted to scream out that he should hide too and abandon his mission protecting him. All he can do was to control his trembling body, here below the shell’s interior.

Will Izky be safe? Please do not hurt! Do not die!

Please God, make Izky safe. He tries to do good thing for people he does not even know, he is doing good deeds in Your way. Do not kill him because he eats dogs.

Please. . . Do not let people who try to protect me die. . . Please. . . Kâmun. Atone my sins and let me die instead. They are more worthy of living. Let me di—

“Hold tight, we’re flying out of here!!!”

Kôra beamed, hearing Izky’s voice calling for him. The hopeful boy moved himself near the opening. He could feel a sweep of air as if the shape shifter approached him. It was what he wanted to believe while the shell shook from an outside grasp, lifted to the air. Higher as he hoped, Kôra’s stomach dropped from the feeling of elevation.

Yes! We are flying!

Before he plummeted back to the ground.

Inside the shell, Kôra writhed, his body shook from the forceful fall. The boy was struck with the same agony he had when his bone broke, just like what occurred to him in the earthquake. This was, however, four times as painful. He asked Izky earlier about injuries, and his body would be fine as long as it is not being consumed by another being. Kôra just need to deal with the fading pain, which was dwarfed by his worry.

The boy fanned the white smoke and a cloud of blue sand with his hand to clear the sight. He found the aperture now gaping open; the stone-like operculum was thrown away by the falling impact. Neither the shell nor that appendage seemed damaged. Izky should not too, as the boy wanted to believe.

“Izky!!! You are fine, right?!”

Kôra startled by a bumping noise from the outside of his shell. He peeked from the shell’s aperture.

It was Izky’s severed arm laying meters away. Torn almost shapeless, covered in smoke and oozing with black liquid. Kôra’s jaw dropped, he let out a whimper of pain as if it was his own arm.

»»-------------¤-------------««

“Don’t get out!"

 Izky repositioned the operculum, shutting Kôra off. He the moved the shell away from the projectile spine of onlooking predator without making a contact. Manipulating a separated body part cost higher than he expected, moreover it was a majority of his body. For a moment, the wounded creature sat between the falling pieces of black feathers.

“What happened?! Come inside and save yourself!”

Izky ignored the muffled scream. The man attempted to reabsorb the feathers, it only added to the stump on his shoulder. The shape shifter was out of shape, his was body melted and evaporated so much that the clothes merged with his body. He panted with a dim light in his eyes, both from the exhaustion and injury.

Earlier, Izky attempted to transform into a massive raptorial bird. It was the largest he could with only ten percent of his body, big enough to grab Kôra and the shell with his talons. His plan was to take and drop them exactly at the portal, and flew back to engage the slower monster as the kid enters. Yet, the dragon’s spike grazed his wing soon after he took off. Izky was forced to amputate it, else the poison would spread all over his body.

He winced as his severed arm gradually melted into a grey puddle; an effect of xhirombo venom. The dragons’ bodily fluids are venomous, which are the main factors of their lethality towards Xhichai. Astral dragons’ venom potency would be dampened when delivered into a separated non-living structures. It require a tremendous amount of such structure to pull off, as in Kôra’s shell. A Xhichai can only  turn maximum ninety percent of their body into a separated non-living structure; however, that number was an outlier amongst the population. Each Xhichai has their own limit determined by genetics that could be increased by training. Exceeding that limit caused form fixation and loss of bodily control which most often lead to death.

This will give us a chance to escape or fight, but I can’t transform into something that big anymore, Izky glanced at the dragon who chew on his half-melting arm. He gritted his teeth as the dragon tore it. As long as it is not completely vaporized or liquified, the sensations in his unattached body parts still connected to the main body. I can’t last long by dragging the shell to avoid her thorn.

 Izky turned into a wasp-like insect as big as the first shell, and dashed towards the beast. A pair of his six legs was missing, while his stinger was exaggerated. The creature dodged a wave of incoming spine and aim for the eye. Izky separated the stinger from his body just before the mossy green bodily fluid spurts and flew from the scene. He lost a little part of his body which turned gray. An inevitable loss, considering he barely master this form.

The being recollected some nearby smoke into his body, except a bit which has been spread away too thin. Izky did not feel too exhausted. He compared the lost part with those he managed to preserve.

In a mere seconds as his opponent was distracted, he changed the shape of Kôra’s shell. It turned into an elongated club-shaped structure with a siphonal canal doubling it length. The shell was thick and heavily sculptured with big, curved spikes.

 “Izky, what happened! Answer me! Get in! Or let me out! I will try to help!” The boy panicked due to this sudden change. The shape shifter ignored his plea.

Confining the kid in a fortified shell was the most viable option for Izky, as it was the most of Izky being compressed. The calcareous object should protect the kid from the poison, which creature himself unsure if it was lethal for the kid. Even if the dragon managed to get her jaws on it, she would have a hard time biting or crushing it due to its construction.

“That fucking lizard is somehow attracted to you. Stay until Agi or Lastri get you out! You’ll be safe, I promise!”

"What about you?!!"

A new sense of confidence replenished Izky’s weary body. As long as Kôra did not get out, the situation was under control. His priotity was to engage the lizard as long as he could; to injure, and tire it. It mattered none to him that he could faint, die, or get eaten before the reinforcement come. 

I can do this. I stand out among my people. 

With a reignited shine in his eyes, Izky charged forward.

This is the least I can do!

»»-------------¤-------------««

Inside the lonely darkness, it was difficult to tell the exact time. Kôra sat still with face buried to his knees, trying to keep a sharp state of mind. The boy silently wished he was never thrown into this scene. This was probably the worst of all the nightmares he has had. It was real.

His senses steadily becoming detached, in a wish to disassociate with this scene. Kôra started seeing things in a flash. Strange faces, familiar faces, sitting people, rushing people, darkness, and bright room. Behind all of them, however, he could distinguish the undertone of grave danger. The boy closed his eyes for the vision of doom to haunt him vividly and opened it to a vivid reality of an impending doom.

Kôra's mind was busy proposing possibilities beyond this ominous silence. The last time he went through this, he struggled to find a way out of the debris which sandwiched him, crying for help from the top of his lungs. Underneath and nearby, were the bodies that bleed with leaking fluids. Smell of death started to reek even when he was finally free from it; the exhausted and dehydrated boy was barely conscious in the hands of his rescuers. The boy was lucky enough to be alive unlike the other people who were crushed near him. He was later lucky enough to hear the news of his mother’s demise.

Undoubtedly, this situation was different as it was entirely. Out there and in here, lurked possibilities of imminent danger. He could do nothing except stay silent in his drowning fears and wait. The longer the more it felt changeful and dire, the less he had trust in the shape shifter’s words. The time kept running; Kôra was contemplating should he get out or not at this point, and in what situation Izky was in. 

No, I. . . I. . . Should. . . I should not. . .

Kôra covered his mouth tightly with hands.

No.

“Iz. . .” the boy forced his hand stronger in response, leaving nail marks around his face.

No!

“Ky.”

No! Don't!!!

“IZKY!!!” Kôra let out his worry explodes, screaming against his own common sense.

To nobody.

"IZKY, ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!"

And still, no one answered. Only a silent echo. The lonesome Kôra left trembling of this hard truth. He went frantic, started screaming and punching his cage. In the confusion, Kôra pushed the operculum and dug around it despite what Izky told him.

No! No! No!!! Izky is alive!

Deeper, deeper into the sinking ground he dug. The coarse sand grated his fingers into a numbing pain. Its flying particles scorched his lungs and grazed his eyes. He struggled to surface through the sea of sand until he inhales a fresh air.

Izky is alive. . .

Walking outside, only to a sight of floating black haze seen by. Likened to what was left of an extinguished blaze, the color of soot engulfed the entire place. No matter how meticulously the teen forced his watery eyes to scan the perimeter, there was a zero sign of another person in this barren land.

Izky is. . .

“No. . .” Kôra’s knee weakened, the youth’s entire body tumbled down. His morale was crumbled into pieces which swept away by the wind. He wished himself too, as his senses started to evaporate into non-existence. By the grains of sand all over his face, irritating his eyes into pure white tears which melted his face; he could not think about anything anymore except this loss. "Izky! Not funny! Do not do this to me!!!"

“Why is Izky taken from me?! Why?!!! Why, you fucking shit?!!” The overwrought Kôra yelled it all out with his sharp, cracking voice. White smoke and thick liquid seeped from the scratches where he clawed his face. He kicked the ground, punched the air, assaulting the inexistence which he could blame on. “How dare you?! Give Izky back to me! Else, die!!! Die!!! DIE!!!”

The commotion woke the predator, who was just laying meters across him. She stretched her body and loomed over Kôra. With blinded eyes and fresh bleeding wounds all over her body, she was reinvigorated by the sound and smell of an easy prey.