If Only In Our Dreams

Chapter 5 - Firstlight

"Kaaaaaaiiiiin--" 

A distant voice echoed within the hybrid's blank mind. He recognized the voice, but decided to ignore it for the time being to let his mind fall back into it's deep slumber. Much to his dismay, however, the voice was persistent and continued calling out to him in it's almost childish way.

"Come on, Kaaaaiiin! Wake up!"

Eekainine finally gave in to the calling he kept hearing, struggling with his heavy eyelids as he used every force of his being just to simply peel them open. A bright orange and red hued sky blurred his initial sense of sight while he remained perfectly still, trying to adjust his eyes to the odd lighting and surroundings. As the hybrid began to come to his senses and actively wake up, he realized just how odd what he was staring at truly was.

The sky was red and orange, innocent fluffed dark gray clouds scattered sporadically. The sun appeared almost as if it were an inverted cosmic black hole. Rather than entrap all light within its darkness like a black hole, this sun still appeared as a pitch black circle, but had an outer shining thin rim that radiated light into the land.

Obviously, he was just in some dream, and immediately closed his eyes while letting out a huff of air from how ridiculous he felt by thinking he was awake after seeing such a sight.

"No, Kain! Dammit, don't pass out again!"

This time, the shouts were profoundly louder and accompanied by a pair of hands on his chest to shake him into consciousness. With his eyes shot wide open out of the sheer fright of being jumped awake, Eekainine grabbed onto the assailant's wrists and sprang himself up into a sitting position. His eyes landed on a very familiar figure kneeling down beside him, the God of Insanity, Zekai. The look on the God's face portrayed pure concern, though, a look not often worn by the usually giddy and lofty demon.

The more Kain came to his senses, however, the more concerned he got himself as well. He began to look around his surroundings, a curious and increasingly worried set of feelings causing the beating organ in his chest to increase in speed. As he glanced at the vast emptiness of the land around them, the only conclusion he could currently come to was that they were no longer on Earth. And that terrified the hybrid more than anything.

"Where are we?" Eekainine whispered out his question with a quivering tone, genuinely afraid of the answer. 

His hybrid eyes continued to scan the land around them. On the horizon, he could see structures that appeared to be some form of mountains, but for the immediate miles spreading out around them, there was only flat land covered in a vibrant green grass that contrasted the hazy atmosphere. The air was not cloudy or foggy by any means, but the humidity and heat itself almost blurred vision enough to make the area feel as if in a daydream of sorts. There was no landforms, buildings, or even other living creatures where they sat on the grassy ground. Sounds of the warm wind and their breath were all that broke the silence between their outspoken words. The stillness and emptiness definitely did not help in calming Eekainine's nerves.

Before the Demon God could actually answer his friend's question, however, Eekainine happened to glance down at his own hands still clutching onto Zekai's wrists, and an immediate gasp escaped past his lips as he pulled them back and physically scooted himself backwards a few feet. His hands looked different than usual. All of his favored jewelry, from rings to the many bracelets, were all black and silver as opposed to the vibrant array of colors that they should be. His fingers were skinnier with more veins showing through the skin than he was used to seeing, and at the edge of his fingertips sat a couple sets of elongated sharpened black nails on each hand. The nails felt to be made of a stronger material compared to typical fingernails, though, being much stronger and thicker to resemble what an ideal set of claws would be.