There was nothing more pitiful than a caged animal that refused to accept the knowledge that it was caged. With a sigh in contempt, Chase opened one of his eyes to watch the mythical creature that paced before the bars of its cell—none too far from where he was trying to meditate. The female dragon's tail occasionally beat against the bars with a metallic twang and despite that she could very well move as stealthily as a cat if she wanted to her sharp claws scraped against the floor's stone surface with every step in impatience and agitation.

Closing his eyes shut once more, he took a breath and spoke with enough emotion to let some of his own irritability slip through. "You should know that pacing won't make time move any faster," he said, "or make my decision come any sooner."

An icy mist seethed through the dragon's clenched fangs as her cold, blue eyes glared venomously at her capture. "It isn't your decision!" she snapped, her voice echoing in his skull. "You have no right to keep me here! Let me out!" She angrily swung her tail against the bars with enough force that the resounding clang rang his ears.

Neither her rage nor the noise rattled him. He merely raised an amused brow to her angry cries. "Oh, really? The terms of my bargain promised me one dragon: I believe you're what's owed to me."

"I belong to no one!" Spreading her jaws apart she released a powerful blast of ice. With ease, Chase leapt from the ground and dodged the incoming attack to land gracefully some ways away. The blast struck the floor and froze it solid, and a wolf-like growl rumbled from the dragon's throat when she saw her attack missed.

"And that won't improve your situation either," Chase added, his voice dripping with warning. "You're not very good at making things easier for yourself, are you?" Approaching the bars, he reached through to place a gloved hand at her side. She spun her neck about to bite him, but only managed to snap at air as he swiftly pulled his hand away in time, nonchalant as always. "Is it in your nature to make things more difficult than necessary?"

"Just as much as it is in your nature to think only of yourself," she retorted. She turned her back on him to face the blank wall behind her.

He nearly laughed, "This coming from such a liar!"

"I lied to protect myself!" she snarled. "You lie only because it suits you."

"Your words hurt," he smirked, leaning against the wall, "And here I was beginning to think you liked me."

He waited for her snide remark in turn, but when none came and she simply walked away to curl around herself in the darkest corner of her cell his smirk fell into a nasty scowl. One never had to worry about their opponent until they fell silent: Those who ranted and raved could never be feared, but silence usually meant something boiling underneath the skin, waiting for the right moment before eruption.

Not that he saw his captive as a threat, but the creature had managed to keep him in the dark for a good, long while. She was a clever, slippery thing—just like most of her kind—and keeping anything hidden from him was enough of a feat to put him on edge. If there was one thing Chase couldn't stand it was being fooled, and she had tried his patience long enough.

"Your… accommodations, can get much worse, I assure you," he continued as he folded his arms behind his back and prepared to leave the dungeons. "So if I were you, I'd make peace with myself in what time you have left. I'll return to collect you in the morning."

As he made his way toward the winding stairwell to head upstairs, he snapped his fingers and two of his jungle cat warriors appeared. Immeadiately, they passed to stand at attention on either side of the stairwell, carefully watching the dragon and ready to act should she somehow manage to break free from her prison.

He only spared a single glance back, carefully musing over the events that had occurred over the past few days. Nothing had gone quite according to plan, but he found himself nonetheless satisfied with the end results. He had his prisoner, Wuya was out of his hair, and the Xiaolin Monks had one less ally on their side. All was going as it should be, and yet…

"Sleep well."

Something felt off. Over and over again, he played the events through he mind to find the source of his troubles.