—Kallan—

The sea surrounded me. All was calm. A sense of ease washed over my body as the rhythm of lapping waves against the shore happily greeted my ears. My feet danced atop the surface of the water, moving to an unknown melody. My arms then followed suit and created their own elegant routine. The melody that I was dancing to suddenly came to my lips, and I happily sang the lyrics as I danced along the surface of the ocean.

"Tha a 'mhuir, tha e a' gairm dhomh. Bithidh mi a 'dannsadh gu tonn òran."

I waved my hands and watched in delight as a flower formed from the deep indigo liquid, rising up until my face was mere inches away from it. I gently blew on it, and watched as the petals scattered before turning into bubbles.

I was in my own world, my very own sanctuary that my mind could visit while my conscious body slept. Between visions of what was to come and memories of what was, it was rare that I spend much time here. That just made moments like these all the more precious.

I kicked up some water with my feet, creating a wing for a fraction of a second. I then spread out my arms and ran across the water, whooping and hollering like a child. I jumped and allowed my body to do a series of complicated flips, giggling as I called upon my dragon half and let them take over.

My dragon is beautiful, around twenty feet tall with blue scales and green fins on her legs, back, head and tail. She has an elegant, streamlined body designed for swimming and a long, serpentine neck.

As her body replaced mine, I dove into the water and watched as a new world of coral and marine life came into existence. I giddily swam through this underwater wonderland and lost all the worries and burdens that I had normally carried with me.

Nothing felt more relaxing than the sensation of the water flowing over my scales. I would have continued to enjoy myself if not for an ear-splitting scream that broke through my illusion.

My paradise crumbled around me. I woke up with a start and turned on my lamp to see Talia struggling to push off a guy that was a good half a foot taller than her. I gasped and reached for my bracelet. I tapped it and willed it to become smaller than what it would normally be. Soon I was holding a crossbow. I aimed the tip of the arrow towards the intruder, making sure I didn't hit Talia.

As I let the arrow fly, I watched it uselessly bounce off the intruder's forehead. He looked at me with little more than an irritated scowl. As scared as I was, I knew I had to put on a brave face.

"Let her go!" I yelled.

He shrugged and striked Talia over the head, enough to knock her out. He then pulled a dart from one of his pockets and threw it at me. I tried to dodge it, but my attempt was in vain. The tip burrowed itself into my neck, a sharp pain shooting through the entirety of my body. I quickly pulled it out and groaned as I realized what it was; a tranquilizer.

I grit my teeth and lept off my bed, even though my vision was already getting cloudy. I focused on trying to create a stream of water, but even my magic was failing me. I picked up my weapon and willed it to expand to its full size. In one last desperate attempt, I tried to smash my bow into the back of his kneecaps. He simply kicked it out of my hands.

"Tal..." I managed, trying to crawl and save her even though my body begged me to collapse and give up. I reached my hand out towards her and called out one last time as my vision finally gave out.

***

I woke up with a start, my heart beating unbelievably fast. I looked around. The door to our hotel room had been mercilessly ripped off of its hinges, the bed sheets were messed up, and the tiara-shaped hair comb that Talia always wore was carelessly thrown on her pillow. I gingerly picked it up.

An immense and indescribable grief came over me. Talia...what had I done? I grit my teeth. No. I knew Talia. She wouldn't go down that easily. She was probably still here...right? I got up on my feet and ran out of my hotel room. I pushed past people as I yelled my sister's name, desperately waiting for a response. Each time I was met only by silence.

I got multiple weird looks from people in the hallways. Who wouldn't? There was a crazy-eyed, blonde Scottish girl wearing dolphin-print jammies and screaming for someone she had just lost. Their opinions, however, didn't matter to me.

I must have scoured every square inch of that building, knocking on every door and looking around every corner. There was still no sign of the grumpy Russian girl that I had grown up with. Silent tears began to stream down my face.

Talia...

My hand was still clutched tightly around her hair comb. I hadn't been able to protect her after she had protected me so many times. I fell to my knees and began to wail like a banshee, my moans sorrowful and pitiful. I held the hair comb close to me and ran my thumb along the edge. I had brought it with me from Scotland as one of the last things from my father. It was the only piece of his work that had survived the fire.

I had given it to Talia as a present for her tenth birthday. Even though she couldn't manage to say, "thank you," she wore it everyday after that. It had made me so happy. Even when she wore the most casual clothes, Talia was never seen without her tiara. I choked on my own tears. How could someone have taken away my best friend?

I had to find her, wherever she may have gone. I owed it to her after all the things she had done for my sake.

"Kallan!"

Someone was calling my name in the distance. I didn't care. It didn't matter; not when my world was falling apart before my very own eyes.

"Kallan-senpai!"

I clutched the hairpiece and held it to my chest. Nothing mattered. Nothing at all.

"Kallan, you've really got to snap out of this!"

I looked behind me to see Jian and Hazu both staring at me with worried expressions. I sniffled, and between shaky breaths, held put the comb and managed to squeak, "Someone took her."

"We kinda figured that out." Jian said gently. He brought up a piece of paper to my hands as I held it with shaking hands. The bright pink pen ink made me want to cry.

In order to find your friend, bring the Fertile Blossom to Hanako Yakisoba outside of Akihabara in three days. If you refuse to comply, I will kill her. It's your choice.

I felt something snap within me. Anger boiled in my blood. How dare someone barter for my sister like that? As quick as my anger had surfaced, it was replaced by worry. What if we couldn't find the Fertile Blossom? What if this was just a waste of our time and Talia was already dead? I'd never be able to see her again...

All of these worries just caused me to break down again and bawl, blubbering incoherent nonsense. I must have looked like a complete idiot, or someone who had lost all hope in life, which I basically had. First my mother got locked up by an evil dragon, then my human parents died, and now my sister had been taken away from me.

Suddenly, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, a head laying on my shoulder. I looked behind me to see if it was Jian, but I was surprised to find he was still sitting next to me. Instead, I saw a streak of pink nuzzling into my shoulder. Hazu.

I couldn't believe it. Hazu, the most tentative and shy out of any of us, was trying to comfort me and help me feel better.

"We're gonna find her." She said, unusually confident, but still soft and soothing. "Everything's gonna be alright, Kallan." She took a deep breath. "Cuz I'm gonna complete the Life Trial."

"Hazu, what about—"

"Talia's in trouble." Hazu snapped back uncharacteristically. "Talia's our friend and Kallan-senpai's sister. No matter how scared I might be, I can't let that get in the way of what I need to do. She needs us!"

I looked at Hazu's face, and was met by a completely different person than who I was used to. She had a determined look on her face, and her posture was straight and confident. Just as I was beginning to commit this look to memory, she hunched her shoulders forward a bit and stared down at her hands. "Besides, I don't like seeing Kallan-senpai upset."

A sudden feeling of hope filled my chest. Hazu was doing this for me. I couldn't believe it. A sense of joy overcame me. I smiled as tears of happiness started to cascade down my face.

"We're going to have to prepare, then" Jian said after a bit. "I'll start packing our things. Hazu, you take care of Kallan, alright?"

Hazu nodded as Jian walked off. She helped me to my feet, and I couldn't help but smile as she looked at me. "Kallan-sen—"

"Kallan. No honorifics, please." I managed to say through my rugged breaths.

She took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. "Alright. Kallan, we're going to get through this, okay?" I promise we're gonna find Talia and the Life Artifact, and I won't stop until we do."

I gave a few happy sobs and wrapped my arms around her. "Oh, Hazu..."

"Hey, it's gonna be alright." She said as she began to rub my back soothingly.

"Hazu..." I choked. "I know Talia hasn't treated you the best in the past..." I sniffled as I looked up at her. "...but you have no idea how much this means to me."

"It's what anyone would do." She said.

"But...the Blossom...Talia...Kali...with all that's going on..."

"Kallan," She said in a stern voice, her face becoming serious. "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you if it means I get to see you smiling."

I don't know what came over me after that. It was like some invisible force had possessed me and I was no longer in control. I shouldn't have done what I did, but I did it anyways.

I kissed her.

OH MY GOD WE FINALLY DID THIS ITS ABOUT TIME!!! Yeah. I know. This took forever. You're welcome, people. Here's your Kazu chapter. You'd better be grateful cuz this one took forever to get just right. And in case you're curious, what Kallan says at the start of the chapter is Scots Gaelic for, "The sea, it is calling to me. I shall dance to the wave's song."

I've really been on a roll with writing lately so yeah. This one hasn't come a month after the last chapter. Good on me! I did a thing!

Signing Off, Kiera Savage.