Katya sat across from Casimir, ready to hear the information he had to say, but when he didn't say anything she decided she had to push him, "COME ON!!! You said you would tell me more about Kyria!" 

Casimir laughed "fine, pushy much?"

"I am NOT pushy!" Katya huffed

"Alright, alright" Casimir smiled, "What I know about Kyria: the first thing is: well, its another world?"

He ended on a question mark and Katya raised an eyebrow judgmentally. "Fine- I don't know much more than I told you but, I do know that there are barely any dragons like you."

Katya blushed "What does that have to do with anything?" she asked quietly.

Casimir blushed too, obviously knowing that he didn't mean to have said it like that. "NO- I mean of your coloring."

"Oh, so you're being rac-"

Casimir flung himself to the ground. "ARGGH! NOw I KNOW you fooling around!"

Katya snorted and stood up, "we might have to get a move on, I have a strange feeling about this place."

Casimir looked at her strangely "Oh, well alright I guess we could move again-" 

A figure emerged from the bushes, holding some sort of loudly beeping device and Katya wondered how she had not heard it before now. "It's SIr!" she gasped to Casimir, "But how has he found us?" Then reminded herself, Right, enemy. Not a good time to be cringey

Sir took out another device and aimed it at Casimir, but before he even shot, Katya felt unbearable pain in her tail, as if someone was stabbing it with a knife. She whipped around and saw that someone HAD stabbed her with a knife. And standing behind her, holding a knife was her mother. And, someone else, but Katya didn't know who they were. 

She roared and flew like a rocket into the sky, blood pouring from the wound like a waterfall. She blew a burst of blue fire into the air and her mother and the other person scrambled back, trying to avoid the scorching flames. "Careful," Her mother whispered in a soft voice "you do not want to die like your sister." 

The human that wasn't her mother got up and Katya realized that she looked like a much younger, Chloe. " Right, mother." These words infuriated Katay and she scanned the two women. Her wings outstretched were as dangerous as double swords, and she swooped close to the ground, knocking young Chloe off her feet, and causing her mother to duck onto all fours. 

"Great job, Katya!" Casimir's voice found its way to Katya's ears and she was pleased by the compliment. But one small detail she had forgotten was that they still and the translators on. And the words he had spoken crackled out of it. Her mother froze "Kkk-k Ka-katy-Katya?" she stuttered, she glanced to the tree that Katya had carved on and her eyes winded, but before she could fully make the connection Casimir was sent spiraling into her, both of them lay motionless. 

Katya did a 180 and saw Sir, how had she forgotten about him? She cursed and flew over to Sir, for right on to disposing of him was her main job. She circled around him trying to look for a good place to dive but Sir had his eyes glued onto her, and she never found a decent opportunity. She might have been flying in boring circles for hours, with her already- sore wings if Young-Chloe didn't choose to start crying at that moment.

Sir looked away long enough for Katya to swoop down, he only noticed when her talons were just about to sink into his shoulders, but it was too late. Her Claes pierced through his skin and she lifted him in the air, Sir screamed as he dangled in the air. young- Chloe cried even harder, seeing her father hanging in the air, suspended by only a dragon's claws, which the dragon in question kept beating her wings, going higher and higher, being able to release Sir at any moment.  once she was so high the air became to turn thin and Katya felt light-headed with exhaustion. she loosened her talons slightly and Sir screamed ad grabbed one of her legs and hung there, high above the earth. 

"Please dragon- I'll do anything! I'll take the tracker off-" He paused realizing what he had just said.

What Tracker? Katya wanted to growl back but she kept quiet. not making a noise. Just focusing all her energy on keeping herself aloft. When sir continued saying nothing Katya strained herself to go higher, and Sir began to scream, and scream. He screamed till Katya's mind was filled with screams she Began to slowly sink to the ground, her wings becoming too weak for use, her mind too riddled with the screams to think. Just shut up She was barely able to growl in her mind. But he screamed some more and both Katya and SIr were sent spiraling falling swiftly to the ground. All she remembered was hitting the ground, a crack, and then eerie silence.

Katya felt like she opened her eyes, but she couldn't see anything. She tried again. It seemed like only one of her senses was working: feel. She couldn't hear anything. nor could she see anything. Katya was just lying in the darkness staring into nothingness. "Casimir- SIr? anyone?" She asked to the empty silence. A warm Talon enclosed hers and all of her senses (except for hearing and seeing) went on alert. But being unable to see or hear made it impossible for Katya to know who it was. 

"Casimir?" She asked hopefully. But of course, she didn't hear anything. Just empty darkness. Katya stumbled to her feet and she could feel herself standing but nothing in the darkness changed. She took a step and slipped forward into a puddle. no, Lake? not that, River? She fell into the river and it started to wash her away. Katya struggled but was unable to see anything and was being pushed by the river. Someone grasped her wing and Katya gasped as they pulled her up, and slowly the darkness became blurry light and a flash of golden scales glinted right in front of her and she thought she could hear someone yelling, or more like whispering. Slowly everything returned to normal. She looked around, everything was still pretty blurry but it was better. and at least Katya could somewhat hear Casimir when he started talking again. 

"Katya! What happened? It's like you went both blind and deaf!" Casimir yelled, but it just sounded like normal talking to Katya. 

"What? Oh, well I dunno what happened." She replied holding her head, waiting for the blurriness to clear from her eyes. Once it did, she saw that now she was in yet a different place. "How did I get here?" She wondered aloud.

Casimir shrugged "I don't know exactly how you got here, but when I went looking for you, here you were." 

Katya tried to think back to what happened before she woke up here, she and Casimir, SIr was there, young Chloe, her mother. "Where's SIr?" Katya asked 

"I'm not sure, by the time I came around Sir and the other people had left." Casimir said sadly "But I didn't want to go after them because I couldn't find you. And when I did I was afraid to move you so I tried my best to do some healing magic, but I can't do that very well..." 

Casimir paused and Katya laughed "Don't talk much, huh?"

Casimir looked embaresed "Hey! WELL, I was WORRIED about YOU!" Katya didn't say it but she felt slightly pleased by the fact Casimir was worried about her. But her relief didn't last long as she remembered something Sir had said.

"Sir said something about a tracker, I think we should check to make sure neither of us have one on us."

 Casimir nodded and moved over to Katya and he murmured "although I guess a tracker would be hard to find with your scales." 

Katya smiled "yeah, I guess so." She extended a talon and took off a small black dot of Casimir's neck. "I think- oh wait it's a beetle." She ended sadly. 

Casimir snorted "y-you thought a BUG was a TRACKER?" 

Katya looked offended "well, it- I..." They both just laughed and Katya whapped Casimir with her tail, and when he dramatically fell back that just led to more laughter.

"But seriously, you guys really need to find my tracker." A voice said from behind them. Both Katya and Casimir spun around and saw a young man leaning against the tree behind them, he held a red apple in his hand. 

Katya growled at him and the man rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes. I know, me human. humans kill dragons." He took a bite out of his apple and threw it onto the ground behind him. He stopped leaning on the tree and started causally walking over t Katya and Casimir. Both of the dragons backed up wearily. Who are you? She almost said but didn't since she learned that with humans it was best to stay quiet.

"whoa, whoa. I'm not about to hurt you," The man smiled "I mean, I can and will. But I'm Not about to hurt you." Katya narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't think we should trust this guy." Katya whispered to Casimir so quietly that he leaned closer to Katya. 

The man stopped smiling and looked hurt, "no? You don't think you should trust me?" when Katya looked surprised he smiled again "Oh well, might as well show you..." He leaped backward and picked up the apple he had thrown behind him. He held it up and drew a knife from his pocket. He stabbed the apple. As the juice began to drip down his arm like blood the man started changing. and not too long later a large scarlet dragon stood in front of them. 

Both Casimir and Katya looked at each other, "You're a dragon?" Casimir asked hesitantly.

"That depends on how you think of dragons. My name is Kai." when Kai said the last word, Casimir lept back. 

"NO! What, That can't- convinced." Casimir sounded utterly terrified

Katay was extremely confused "Casimir! What, what about Kai?" 

His voice was quiet, " Kai, brother of Kyria, he tried to help the humans kill his sister but ended up getting killed himself."

Kai smirked, "Oh yea sure give my sister all the credit, just as always." 

Katya, hungry for more information about Kyria, (both the dragon and the place) stepped forward, "tell me the story. "

Kai seemed eager now that someone wanted to hear what he had to say. He gestured for Katya and Casimir to sit down. Katya sat a good distance away, but close enough to hear. Casimir reluctantly followed.

Kai sighed, about to begin his tale: "If you are familiar with the story of Kyria then let me tell you the truth. You know of my sister, Kyria helping to create the portal to the other world. But what you probably don't know is that one of the reasons is that Kyria was the sole survivor of the five. and even her best friend Hari died saving Kyria. You see you can only travel to different worlds if you use a sacrifice. But for that many dragons, you needed a hundred sacrifices, but instead, the portal was planning on taking the five most powerful dragon's lives. But when Hari sacrificed herself to save Kyria, the portal was underfed so to satisfy itself it started picking off dragons, sometimes it would take entire family and once a whole village. I decided that we couldn't keep being picked off this way. So my idea was to kill my sister. I knew no one else would go along with me since at that time everyone loved her. So one night while she was sleeping I put some sleeping draft in her water. And when she woke up in the middle of the night for her water break, as she did every night, she drank the water and collapsed onto the floor. I picked her up and took her over to the cave where the portal had first appeared. I was about to kill her, and trust me when I say this: I didn't want to hurt her. But I knew that this was for the best. But right then she woke up, and saw me, I tried to kill her, but she dodged and started attacking me. And I don't know how or when it happened but somehow I was hit with an apple that Kyria threw- a bad wepon- but it punctured on one of my spikes, and as the juice dripped down my scales I slowly changed into a human. We stopped fighting, but the damage was done, crying my sister and I wrote a note for the other dragons, then she sacrificed herself to send me to the human world. And only here did I discover that I could use pure apple juice to change from human to dragon." Kai stopped talking sadly and both Katya and Casimir sat in a shocked silence. 

"So It wasn't your fault," Katya said quietly. still thinking about the story. Casimir looked to surprised to speak.

Kai smiled sadly, "And for some reason, I haven't aged at all. Maby it was because when my sister sacrificed herself to save me, maybe it was a different reason. Who knows?" 

Katya got up and sat next to Kai, she hugged him with her wings, "I know this probably doesn't mean much, but I am sorry, truly." 

"Katya. W-we- I- should go." Casimir muttered. Katya pulled away from Kai.

"Casimir-don't-" suddenly Katya understood why Casimir was suddenly acting strange, (she was a 9th-grade girl after all) she got up and ran over to him, and as he was turning away, tackled him with a hug.

Kai coughed awkwardly, Katya stood up and shook off her wings. "Right," she said "So Kai, me, and Casimir should really find that tracker that Sir had." 

Kai laughed "oh yea, about that. I am kinda working for SIr. he sent me in so he could get close to you guys without you noticing." 

Katya stared, "does that mean you are not the real Kai?"

"No, I am the real one. But you know new times new Kai. I am done mourning over my sister." 

Casimir backed up. "I KNEW we couldn't trust you! Katya, c'mon we need to leave before anything-" 

Kai lunged forward and grabbed Katya he turned her around and held a talon to her throat, ready to cut it open. "Too late." he snarled.

Casimir's eyes winded he stepped forward, unsure about what he should do. "Katya?" he whispered.

Katya strained trying to break Kai's grip but she couldn't, "Casimir! Behind you!" She managed to gasp. Kai angrily pressed his talon to her throat and a few beads of blood appeared, contrasting against her dark scales. 

Casimir was about to roast Kai's face with his flames but behind him appeared a dark figure, it raised something and brought it down on Casimir's back. He crumpled to the ground blood pouring from a wound. 

Sir flicked his hand and what seemed like 20 people rushed forward and bound Casimir, then hauled him (none too gently) into the truck. Katya attempted to back up, forgetting that Kai was behind her. He growled and shoved her forward, her wings spread preparing to fight, but the sheer amount of people overtook her and tackled her to the ground. Katya struggled till she felt a knife being raked across her back, then she stopped struggling, feeling a bit nauseous from blood loss. 

Katya eyes fluttered open. She was in a large truck, with the bottom covered in blood. At first, she was extremely concerned about the dragon that had bled that much- until she realized it was herself. Katya tried to stand, but the wound on her back- which had just barely closed was torn open again and she started to quickly lose more blood. Her legs felt weak, too weak to stand and she collapsed back into the blood which now felt like it was an inch deep, although she knew it wasn't THAT deep. her scales, which used to be a dark midnight black were now covered in sticky blood. The van turned and the blood splashed into Katya's eyes. Right then she noticed that there was more than just one thing in the van. she saw dead, animals, and a large shape Katya was surprised she hadn't seen it before- but soon her mind realized that the shape was- Casimir. She rushed over to him, but the truck didn't seem so large once Katya knew there were two dragons in there. 

She moved over to Casimir, slipping on the blood-covered floor. "Casimir-" Katya whispered. She pressed her talons to his worst wound, trying to stop the bleeding. It slowed but the other wounds were still bleeding wildly. Her eyes winded, How am I ever going to solve this? she thought desperately looking around. Katya remembered something, dragons could use healing magic! She tried to concentrate, but it was hard, she opened her eyes and saw the only thing she had managed to do was clear up some of the blood and stop it from bleeding so rapidly, and already she was starting to feel sick as if she would faint...

Katya looked around. What happened? she thought looking around. the last thing she remembered was that she was in a bloody truck with Casimir. But now she was in a clean room with no blood. It was pretty obvious that she was no longer in a truck. And she was all alone, sadly Casimir wasn't with her. Katya got up and sighed, as this wasn't a new experience when the shackles on her legs and wings clanged. She glanced quickly around the room and she saw a clear glass door. but the rest was shiny metal. Katya stared at her shackles and chains, which was the same metal as the walls. In the corner of the cell were a water dish and a food dish. If anything it seemed to Katya like she was in some sort of zoo. 

And sure enough her theory was proved in about an hour. People were lining up and gazing through the glass door, which was actually a glass wall. The people oohed and ahhed as Katya moved around and spread her wings. She stared at the people but none of them seemed finding a dragon there. 

But before long a Zookeeper came and started cleaning the cage. "The vet will see you soon." he sniffed. Then he left. Katya cocked her head, by now she was extremely confused. Why hadn't Sir killed her? Why was she here of all places? 

Luckily Katya soon got the answers she was looking for. Because SIR entered the room. "Hello dragon, how do you like your new home? Well, it is not like it matters anyway. You will not be here long now, will you? No, you're set to be killed next week. All the people here, they are coming to see the public execution of a dangerous mutation. That has already killed a person. And the other dragon too of course. The pale one? But he is already pretty much dead." Sir laughed and left. Leaving Katya silent, trying to process what he had just said.

Katya paced back and forth, worrying about Casimir and a bit about her fate. Why had she decided to trust Kai? If she had just listened to Casimir everything would be fine. And Katya wished so much that everything was back to normal. Or at least how it had been a few days ago. She remembered Casimir's warm scales and his glowing eyes. What if she lost that? Katya would never forgive herself. but even right now she resented herself. If it wasn't for her neither of them would be in this mess. Casimir wouldn't be one step away from death and Katya herself wouldn't be scheduled to have a meeting with death next week. 

The next few days passed both quickly and slowly, as Katya was preparing herself to die. Finally, the day came and sir and three assistants came and put a muzzle around her snout then they put some sort of strange horse bridle on her face. Next, they tied a rope to it. and dragged her out into the hall. slowly they progressed into a gigantic room, filled with hundreds of people. They led her onto a stage. Where Katya's sensitive nose picked up the scent of death. Sir and his assistants put Katya right in the middle of the stage. Sir stepped forward and gave some sort of speech that Katya really didn't want to listen to. But something caught her eye: Casimir leaning in a dark corner of the stage. It looked like the humans were either trying to put him to sleep or- suddenly Katya remembered something from when she was really little:

One of her classmates had a really sick cat- and the cat had to get a shot that would- as their teacher put it- put them to sleep forever. But it seemed that only Katya knew what that meant, they were basically giving the cat poison, and, either they were trying to do that to Casimir, or something else She wasn't very sure. But Katya was leaning toward the first option.

But that sight and those thoughts triggered something inside of Katya. She tried to rip free from her bonds but in front of hundreds of people =, that wasn't such a good idea. Sir paused his speech and laughed, "looks like the dragon wants to die early!" He nodded to a man hiding in the corner he surged forward and Katya saw he was holding an axe, Katya panicked and swung out her tail, it tripped the man and he fell onto his axe. Katya didn't stop to laugh at that, People screamed and some lept up to help Sir, others ran out the door. Katya struggled under the people trying to free herself. Currently, her best weapon was her tail. But people soon learned to stay clear of it. 

Casimir dodged the person again, but for some reason, the people seemed to be leaving him and going to a different figure struggling under a mound of people. Casimir lept up when he noticed it was Katya he launched himself in the air, with the rope hanging from his halter hovering right above the ground. The people started yelling as he blew flames into the midst of them. 

Katya lept up as the people started leaving her, their clothes smoldering, Katya looked around, people were screaming and running everywhere, and their clothes were light ablaze with Casimir's flames. Katya too managed to wriggle out of her bonds enough to get airborne. 

"Great job, Cassi!"Katya cheered Casimir on.

He smiled for a second then his expression became a bit confused, "Cassi?" he asked.

Katya shrugged, "didn't know what else to call you. how 'bout we get out of here?" 

"Sure! That is a fine idea." Casimir nodded. 

Katya and Casimir began to search around the room for some way to escape but one strangely smart person had closed and locked the doors. Not a human being was left in the room. 

About an hour later Katya flew back over to Casimir, panting, "It-its no use. This place is really tight- can't even melt the metal." 

"Yeah, I tried everything." Casimir agreed, who was also panting.

Katya looked around her, "I sure hope we can get out of here. what a misarible place to die."