Silva slowly opened her eyes. She had been awake ever since Mika’s mother came to tell her that she and her husband were leaving the house for work. That was already a couple of hours ago, but up to till now she still had no real reason to get up.

It was the first time since forever since she had spent the night over at someone else's house and she was not sure of what to do now. She suspected that wandering around her friend’s house without supervision would be rude, but it was getting late and Mika still had not woken up.

She checked to phone, to see the time. It was past 10 p.m. and she started to feel the need to find a toilet, but first, she wrote to her father a message explaining that she was fine and would be back home later.

After she procrastinated some more she finally got up and got dressed, before heading to the toilet to refresh herself. She held a small hope that her moving around the house would make enough noise for Mika to wake up. Still, she did not want to be rude, so she still moved with caution, as not to seem like she was being noisy on purpose.

Silva soon was done with the natural needs and had to decide how to proceed. After standing and mulling over it for several minutes she decided that she would go to Mika’s room to wake her up. She felt a little bad about it, as they both had not gotten much sleep, but for now, it was too oppressing for her to be alone in an unfamiliar house.

The slow knocking at Mika’s rooms door did not produce any results and Silva after deliberating decided to open the doors and head in. It would be better to carefully wake her up than just start pommel the door till her friend got up.

Slowly she opened the doors and when the gap was large enough for Silva to peek inside she made sure that her friend was still asleep. From the slow and rhythmic breathing, Silva judged that her friend was, indeed, still asleep.

Silva, after a moment of hesitation, entered the room and closed the door behind her. Mika looked defenceless and carefree, unlike the usual self. Silva sometimes got a feeling that Mika was still on guard around her, but thinking back of how worried she had been yesterday she threw those thoughts away. There were no doubts that this girl cared greatly for her.

Carefully she closed in on the bed. There was no real reason to be so mindful, but seeing that sleeping face Silva felt like it would be a shame to wake her up.

Looking at her friend now Silva could not help but take notice of how different she was. Even though Mika's body was covered by blanket Silva still could tell how shapely she was. “So different from me.” She smiled bitterly.

A sigh escaped Silva’s mouth, it was not that she hated how she looked, but having more curves would be nice. Mika’s slight movements under the blanket made it slide off revealing even more of her body dressed in a blue nightgown. Even Mika’s skin looked lovely. It would probably feel very nice to caress it.

Silva swallowed before shifting her stance a bit so that she could get a better look and as she did she noticed that Mika’s eyes were now open and gazing back at her. For a moment they simply watched each other until Silva rapidly started to turn red and in a panic, she tried to hide with the help of her ability forgetting one important fact.

“You do know that I saw you?” Mika asked, her face still drowsy and her hair sticking to her lips, to which Silva nodded. “So then why did you went invisible on me now?”

Silva shrugged lacking any viable answer. “Oh... Right...” She slipped out of her zone, still standing in the same spot, still looking at Mika. Cold sweat started to gather on her back as she frantically tried to find the best way to explain herself.

“You surprised me?” Silva half asked, half stated. “I was about to wake you up, but you suddenly moved,” she continued now more assuredly. “It is getting late, and your parents already left. So, it was nothing strange.” She spoke quicker than she had wanted to. “After all, I did want to wake her up, and she did startle me. And I am not sure if what I did was wrong... Okay, it probably was, there is no way it was not weird to not call out to her and just stare. Let us put this aside for now and feel guilty about it afterwards. Just like dressing room incidents. Yes...”

"Oh..." Mika mumbled before she looked downwards noticing her revealing sleeping posture. Her face began to rapidly redden. "No, it just..." Mika started to pull her blanket over her. "You have dressed already."

“Well, yes.” Silva tilted her head wondering what was this about.

“Oh… I wanted to wake you up...” Mika muttered while she pulled her blanket over her head. “But I missed the chance.” Now Mika was barely audible. Silva’s friend seemed to be comfortable hidden and Silva started to suspect that she had fallen asleep again.

Her suspicions turned out to be unfounded as Mika’s head popped out from under her retreat. “Ah, could you give me a moment to get dressed? The kitchen is at the end of the corridor, I'll get dressed and then make something to eat.” Mika blinked the sleep out of her eyes. Then she took a breath and asked. “So… I- I didn’t do anything weird yesterday did I? My head was in a mess, so...”

Silva tilted her head to the other direction.

"Weird? No? You were very nice to me." Silva was truly grateful and felt lucky to have such a nice friend. Not only Mika had rushed to her when she needed it the most, but also had brought her back home and made sure that she had a place to stay.

“That's-, great, yes. Right, would you be so kind and let me get dressed then?” Mika repeated and Silva feeling hunger settling in nodded.

Silva left Mika's room and followed her instructions to arrive at the kitchen. She took a seat at the table and waited for her friend while remembering that she had undressed yesterday with no delays, but looking back maybe that was too daring. Mika seemed to mind other presence while she changed. “Thinking back she did react strongly when I started to undress…”

After a while of waiting, Silva was starting to get bored as Mika was taking her time. She heard her friend bustling around the bathroom and taking a shower. However, all in all, it did not take Mika long to get ready and soon she joined Silva in the kitchen.

"Sorry for the wait. I was sweaty, stinky and… You know, never mind! Now, let me see what we have in the fridge." Mika said as she turned on the tv hanging on the wall and started to rummage through the refrigerator leaving Silva to her own devices.

“Eh… I think you smelled nice though?” Silva absent-mindedly spoke as she watched the TV. Just when she finished speaking she heard Mika dropping something on the floor. Luckily it did not seem to be anything fragile.

“Ah, what? When?” Mika questioned demanding Silva’s attention.

“Always?” Silva warily gave a vague answer spooked by the sudden enthusiasm from her friend's side.

“Than… Thank you! A-, Anyway, is there something you can’t eat?”

“Not really,” Silva shook her head. “What do you have?” she inquired.

“Well, how about pasta with veggies and chicken?” Mika questioned back her head back in the fridge.

“That seems like a lot of work for breakfast,” Silva noted but did not mind it. A real home-made meal was too precious to pass.

"Well, it's already almost eleven, by the time I am done it will already be almost noon," Mika shrugged. "Besides, I want to show my womanly charms." She looked back at Silva measuring her response.

“Womanly charms?” after a moment Silva decided to ask, not understanding what was there to show to her. It did seem like Mika was waiting for her to say something, but Silva was drawing a blank on an appropriate answer.

“Right...” Mika sighed. “Never mind.”

Mika kept assembling the meal as they exchanged words, soon the meal was ready. Mika slid the full plate over the table to Silva and sat down across of her.

“So, let us dig in.” Mika gave Silva a smile.

"Thank you for the meal!" Silva returned it. Mika seemed to stare at her and forgetting the bite she was trying to put in her mouth. "Uh, is there something on my face?" Silva poked her cheeks wondering what had caused her to have such a strong reaction.

“No, it's. You-, you don't smile all that much, I was surprised! That's all.” Came an explanation.

“I don't? I think I smile the normal amount though?” Silva pondered. She definitely remembered that she smiled regularly. “Like when I am with you and Steven.”

“You definitely don't!” Mika's strong response left Silva baffled. “Ah, I mean... you usually keep your face neutral.” Mika coughed in her hand.

Silva thought about her expressions for the rest of the meal. “It's not like there are a lot of chances for me to show them. But to get told that there are almost none. That's a shock.” She pondered while her eyes drifted back to the TV.

It was when they had finished the meal and Mika started to gather the dishes that the moment Silva had dreaded all morning came.

“Now that we have time, will you explain yesterday? In details.”

Silva had enough time to gather her thoughts and she started to speak. Step by step she went through the last night. What she had gone, what she had seen and what she had felt. She did not leave out anything. She hopped that Mika would have a solution if she explained everything orderly, but when she finished her story she was left baffled by the response she got.

“We do nothing.” was Mika’s succinct answer.

“But-…”

“No but’s! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is? We do nothing!”

“Shouldn't we at least call the police or something?” Silva did not relent.

“And they will do exactly what? I don’t think authorities are our best bet. Even if we get them to raid the Refuge what after that? They will start looking for us too. Or at least I would. Listen, I know you want to help, but there is no actual danger for us for now. As you said no one heard or saw you. As for Steven it truly is not something involving anything supernatural. I’ll speak with him and get him to talk with you, he will explain everything.”

Mika’s words did make sense, but it did make Silva feel a bit bitter. Not that she wanted to rush headfirst into danger, but the feeling that they were powerless was unpleasant. While she was trying to think of anything they could do her eyes caught the TV.

“Ugh...” Silva chocked and started coughing. “Mika, turn on the sound.” She gestured at the TV.

"Why..." Mika's was about to ask when she noticed the moving text at the bottom of the screen. It read 'Breaking news! New video evidence of a mysterious creature haunting forests around the city of Oldsteel.'

Mika turned on the volume as they both silently sat and watched the News Show.

"...rumours. But today we have new video evidence provided by our viewer. Our experts have guaranteed the authenticity of the said video..."

The news host kept rambling on, but what grabbed their attention was the video itself. It showed a wolf or what seemed to be a wolf. The thing was huge. While the camera was zoomed in on the thing it was not noticeable. However, when the camera panned to the sides it turned out that the beast was standing next to a car. And it was the same size as the car. Silva noticed that under its paw there seemed to be a figure of a person. And the news host confirmed it shortly after, assuring that the person was fine and under medics care.

What followed next was a string of various theories. Each next one was more unbelievable than the previous. Silva glanced at Mika who in turn was looking at her.

"I'll give a call to Steven," finally Mika announced as she went to her room to get her phone. Silva was left watching the show. When Mika returned she was already done with the call and she returned to the task of cleaning the dishes.

They were quiet for a while, each with their own thoughts.

"That's probably enough of evidence that there is something strange about Oldsteel isn't it?" Silva quietly asked.

“Don't phrase it like that.” Mika sighed. “It makes it sound like we are part of the strange as well.”

“Aren't we?”

“Maybe. But still...” Mika finished washing the plates and sat down across the Silva once again. “We don't know if it's really the place that is at fault. There were plenty of other areas with strange happenings as well. I just know Oldsteel the best, so I concentrated my search here.”

"It looked frightening... Do you think it was fake?"

“I... don't know.” Mika hesitated. “If it wasn't... There will be more videos. I don’t think that thing can hide properly. Not with that size.”

“So what do we do...” Silva felt a bit lost.

"Still nothing." Mika shook her head. "We don’t have to act as the saviours, there are people better equipped to deal with it. And the video is probably fake."

"Right..." Silva was unsure of how to react to this news. Her world was changing faster and faster.

Not only the video but even more the blue crystal was bothering her. She might not have believed the video yesterday, but now it all seemed so real and concrete. Silva already did not have any firm plans for future, only ideas. All this new uncertainty was exhausting her.

Silva looked at Mika who was still watching TV. At least there was Mika and Steven now. And her dad. She was not alone any more, but they had not discussed their future plans after Mika had said they should think about them. It was Mika's and Steven's last school year. Will they go to university? Will they start working. Will they leave her behind?

“Will you continue to be my friend Mika?” Silva asked.

Mika turned to look in Silva's eyes. Silva did not know what her friend had seen in them, but Mika stood up and went around the table to sit next to her. She put a hand around Silva's shoulder and tugged her closer.

"I... I'll be your friend for as long as you want me to be." Mika reassured her.

"Thank you... I... I am just afraid..." Silva finally said. "I only just recently met you… And now all this…" She did not specify but Silva was sure that Mika will understand.

“World is always changing Silva. We can be afraid, but that can’t stop us. We just have to take one thing at a time. And if you are lost I will always be there for you.”

“I know. Thank you.” Silva snuggled in Mika's neck. After a moment Mika shot up from her seat, leaving Silva surprised.

“Ah, you see… How about we go back to my room and watch a movie? Something fun, a comedy? Or is there anything you want to watch?” Mika quickly showered Silva in words.

“Yes, let's do that. Let’s watch something fun. I’ll let you decide.” Silva gave Mika most genuine smile she could manage. Then she stood up and started to head to Mika’s room, but when she looked back she found her friend frozen in place.

“Are you coming?” She asked.

“Yes!” Mika exclaimed as she rushed past Silva, leaving her amused about friend’s antics.