Simply put, Kaz had seen some shit.

Living in such a diverse place as San Francisco and its surrounding area had opened up his eyes to a lot of things. Whether it be that half his friends did some form of drugs or vapes, skating late at night at sketchy skate parks and getting into an argument with a homeless person as a result, or walking down the creepy side streets of Chinatown and nearly getting mugged, it took alot to make Kaz uncomfortable.

This though, took the cake.

"Nani?"

Where the possessed crystal had once been on the ground, was now a living, breathing, fully real dragon sprawled across his room's floor. Kaz was completely frozen at where he was standing. This was definitely not how real world logic worked. This just didn't happen. At least, that's what Kaz had always thought.

It appeared that he was wrong though.

As his panic-ridden eyes started to scan the body of the dragon, a more horrifying realization passed through him. He recognized this creature. No, this wasn't true, it COULDN'T be true, and yet here it was.

The terror of skies, Cynder, was lying directly in front of him, and from what he could best decipher from, also unconscious.

'Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit.'

Doing his best to stop himself from having a panic attack, he could tell that she was around 5 feet tall and 6 feet long, not including her tail, and her scales certainly seemed a lot darker than in the game. Something that was curiously interesting for him though was just how real she looked, compared to the obviously animated look from the games.

Gulping, mind still ablaze trying to comprehend the situation, Kaz started to move from his position and crouched down to the side of Cynder. Slowly, he moved one of his hands forwards and gently placed it on Cynder's side, noticing immediately how warm she was.

As if she reacted to the touch, Cynder let out a mild grunt in her comatose state, scaring the living daylights out of Kaz. Falling on his butt and pushing himself onto the side of his bed, he saw the dragon slowly start to wake up, eyes bulging at the sight.

"Ok. Keep calm Kaz. Keep calm Kaz. It's just a dragon, it's okay, she's nice from what I saw in the games."

A new thought passed through Kaz suddenly. What if she wasn't the same as in the games. How did he know the game's reality even existed?

'I honestly don't think I should be questioning stuff anymore'

Cynder opened her eyes as she started waking up. Looking around, she could tell she wasn't in the center of earth anymore, but couldn't tell where exactly she was either.

'Did we survive?' Cynder thought to herself. Now fully opening her eyes, she could see a plain blue wall in front of her, and felt herself currently lying on some sort of rug.

"Spyro? Are you here?" her voice said with a hint of worry. She could remember him being suddenly engulfed in light, as he had tried to bring the world back together. Had he survived? Did she even survive? Was she actually in the afterlife.

Turning her head around, she could see that she was in some sort of room, with a desk and bookcase, alongside two windows to the right of her. Then, turning to to her left, her eyes widened a little, as she came face to face with some creature she had never seen before. He appeared to have a similar body structure to a cheetah, yet was hairless and a good foot or two shorter than Hunter the cheetah that she and Spyro had met.

"Who are you?" Cynder said to the creature. "Where am I?"

The creature seemed to visibly pale when she asked those questions. After a few moments, he managed to stutter out an answer to her.

"Y-Your i-in B-Belmont, n-near San F-Fransisc-co. America?" He choked out.

Belmont? San Francisco? America? She had never heard of these places before. She must've somehow gotten a long ways off from Warfang.

"How did I get here? Who are you?" she said with a little more force in her voice.

"I d-don't know, I dropped a crystal I found in m-my yard and you a-appeared from it" it responded.

A crystal, how could she appear from a crystal? Had Spyro frozen them again when he had used his power to save the earth? In order to protect them?

"Where is Spyro?! If I was in a crystal, then he should've been in the same one as well?!"

The creature seemed almost at a loss of words for that. "Im s-sorry. Only you came from it. "

Ok, this was bad. Despite her distrust in this being she had never seen before, she could tell that he was too scared to lie at this point.

"You said you found me in a crystal in your yard, correct?" she said more slowly.

He nodded. "Yeah, i was walking by it, the all of a sudden I saw a flash and a small crystal was in my fountain all of a sudden."

Ok, Cynder was lost now. How was she in such a small crystal in the first place? How could she have just suddenly appeared? Her head was starting to hurt with all the questions she had.

"You said I was in a place called America? Where is that on earth?"

Kaz had to stop to think of a response. How could he explain to someone, supposedly entirely fantasy, that she was now real? It seemed like she thought she was still on her own planet. He couldn't just say "Yeah you technically didn't exist until just now."

"Uh, I think you might not be where you think you are." Kaz replied, to which Cynder gave a questionable cock of her head.

"I don't understand."

Kaz decided that there wasn't going to be any easy way to explain this to her easily, now that he knew that this was the same Cynder from The Legend of Spyro games.

"Um, you see, it's kind of complicated" he said with a sigh. "Like, you might be an…" he paused for the right word. "An entirely different dimension."

Cynder obviously looked surprised, then a scowl crossed her features. "How is that possible? Why should i trust that your telling the truth? Dimensions are just fantasy!" Cynder said with a growl.

"Wait wait wait!" Kaz said, waving his hands frantically. "I have proof!" Quickly getting up, he ran into his closet, grabbing an old map of the world he had and stepping back into his room. Unfolding the map, he lay it down on the floor in front of Cynder. "Do you recognize this? It's the map of the world we are on right now."

Cynder examined the map carefully. The landmasses were completely different than all the maps she had seen before and were all spread apart by large oceans as well.

"Wha-at?" Cynder said in mild shock. The creature was starting to make sense. Suddenly appearing out of a crystal that came from nowhere in a land that she didn't recognize, nor a creature she had ever seen.

"Im as confused as you are, I was just minding my own business." Kaz stated

"No. No, how? This can't happen? Alternate dimensions are just theories made by lunatics!" Cynder said, a panic starting to wash over her.

"That's what I thought too apparently." Kaz replied. It seemed as though the weight of the situation came crashing down on her.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, she turned back towards the creature. "What are you? I've never seen someone like you from where I come from?"

"Oh, um, i'm a human, pretty much the only sentient species on this planet."

"Interesting…"

Another silence washed over the room.

"Well, I'm a dragon from where I come from."

"I know" said Kaz, not realizing what he had implied by that.

Cynder's eyes widened once again. "How did you know that?!" she asked, confused.

Kaz widened his eyes as well, now realizing what he had said. How could he explain that he already knew about dragons.

"Uhhhhh...Dragons are kinda a thing here."

"There are other dragons on this planet?" Cynder replied with some hopefulness, quickly disappearing as a frown etched it's way on Kaz's face.

"No actually, they don't. You see, dragons are mythical creatures that were created by people for stories hundreds of years ago. So no, dragons don't exist here."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

'Also, your kinda the main character of one of those stories' Kaz thought.

A few moments later, Kaz got up from his position near Cynder and sat on his bed, silently thanking that his parents had fallen asleep before all of this had happened. Cynder, eyeing his movements carefully, then asked "Well, at least I should get to know your name?"

"Yeah, its Kaz. Kaz Kobayashi." he responded.

"Kaz Kobayashi...what a strange name…" Cynder repeated to herself.

"I mean, I guess I could say the same about your name as well."

Cynder froze at the mention of that, while Kaz's eyes (for about the fourth or fifth time that night now) became as big as dinner plates.

"You know my name?" Cynder said in shock.

' '

"How?"

'I guess there's no backing out now.' Kaz thought, placing his head into his hands and mumbling something incoherent.

Lifting his head back up to face her, he said "Cynder, right?"

"..."

"...Explanation. Now" Cynder said threateningly.

Vigorously nodding his head, Kaz responded "Well, you know how I said that dragons are used in stories a lot in our society?"

"Yes, but how does that relate to my name?" Cynder replied.

"Well, you see, um, you kinda are in one of those stories." Kaz said half-heartedly.

More shock for Cynder. This "human" already knew about her? Was this a reason why she had appeared here? Not really sure how to process that information, considering the sheer improbabilities and logical fallacies broke by now, said "Go on…"

Relieved that it appeared that he wasn't going to have his head ripped off from his mistake, he continued. "Well, I think it would be better If i showed you personally" Kaz said, moving over to grab one of his game cases, the same one he had happened to be playing that morning, and showed her the cover.

Cynder stared at the image presented to her. Right on the cover, it depicted her and Spyro attacking some of Malefor's forces in front of a mountain.

"I...I remember this moment" she said in shock. "What else is in this story?" Cynder asked, trying to confirm what she thought.

"Well" Kaz said "It's not a story actually in the traditional sense. You see that black rectangle on that wall, and the objects with buttons on them below?" to which Cynder nodded slowly. "Well, the black rectangle is called a Television, which humans use to watch things. Think of it this way, instead of having to go somewhere to watch a game, the game is projected on the television for you to see without going anywhere." To give an example, Kaz grabbed the tv remote and turned it on. Switching from HDMI 2 to TV on the menu, the screen lit up which was currently tuned into the highlights of last night's basketball game for the Miami Heat vs. The Golden State Warriors.

Cynder curiously studied the event that played on the tv, watching how more humans, most of them differently colored from Kaz, running around a field and throwing a ball around, occasionally shooting it into a net on either side.

"It's called basketball, and is one of the most popular sports in America" Kaz explained.

"Interesting. How does the TV do this? Magic?" Cynder asked.

Letting out a small cough, Kaz replied "Oh, actually here we don't have magic. It's a made up idea as well. We use lots of technology to make up for it though, which is why we can make things like this. No magic, just science and engineering."

"No magic?! But, how? If you didn't have magic, how could earth even exist?! The moon and the sun would have crashed into this planet then?!" Cynder said worriedly.

Kaz realized that the society that Cynder existed in was probably nowhere near as advanced as his' was, and even laughed internally at the absurdity of the statement Cynder had made. It looked like they hadn't discovered astronomy either then.

"I think that's a story for another time." Kaz responded, to which Cynder nodded slowly, still bewildered.

"Anyways, TV's can also display things besides events, you can play games on them as well." Kaz switched back to the HDMI 2 setting and turned on his PS3, Cynder watching, fascinated.

Starting 'The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon" with Cynder observing, he opened up the new game, which opened up to a cutscene of the next portion of the game. Once that cutscene had played, he turned around to look at Cynder, her mouth slightly open.

"I remember that too...Me and Spyro had that exact same conversation! Even in the same place! Buh...wha...how?!" Cynder finished at a yell.

"SHHHHHH!" Kaz loudly whispered, putting his index finger in front of her snout. "I can't let my parents know about you! They are sleeping!" Relaxing, Kaz continued. "Look I know i might be accepting of you suddenly appearing here, no matter how much logic has been broken now, but a lot of people probably couldn't wrap their head around you existing. You could get in some real danger" he warned.

Cynder shook her head in understandment. At least in her view, she could think something similar would happen to Kaz if he appeared in her world.

"Sorry" she whispered, turning her head back to the screen, which has moved to an overhead view of her and Spyro in Avalar.

"I'm still just having a hard time understanding that what's happening is real. To think that my entire is life is known by so many people in this fashion is creepy." Cynder stated, looking up at Kaz.

"Its alright, I understand you" he replied. "To be fair, the games focus on Spyro a lot more, so people don't know EVERYTHING about you, compared to him."

After watching Kaz play through a small portion of the level, Cynder adding more comments on how she had experienced these exact moments, he saved the game and shut off his tv.

"So…" Kaz said to Cynder, currently stretching her wings out. "We need to figure out a way to hide you from other people, specifically my parents, and anyone else in general."

"I guess so. I'm just worried how i'm going to find a way to get back to my world. From what you've said and what i've seen so far, it doesn't seem like I can rely on any forms of magic from others to help me out" Cynder said, slightly dejected. "If only Spyro was here…I hope he's okay."

Kaz and Cynder sat in silence for a moment, before Kax said "You love him, right?"

"How did you know?" Cynder replied, confused.

"The game, remember?" Kaz reminded her.

"Oh…" More silence. "Yeah, at least I think so. I think being with him as a fighting companion for so long, I don't really know what we are. I don't know how i'd be able to deal with normal life without him at this point…" Cynder finished. Turning to Kaz, she asked "Do you have a mate, or a love interest?"

That caught him off guard, he hadn't expected a question like that. Quickly regaining his composure, he said "No, not currently. I'm only 16 years old, I don't really feel like it's the right time for one right now."

"16?! You should already be an adult now? Why wouldn't you be looking for a mate?"

Kax sighed, realizing that he would half to explain more things about humans. "Humans don't become adults until the age of 21, and even then, some don't find a life partner until their 30's."

"So your an adolescent then?"

"Yeah."

"..."

"How long do humans live for?"

Another sigh. "Most humans have a lifespan of about 80 years old these days, but if your lucky and in good health, you can live into your 90's and even your 100's. The record for the oldest person was 122 years old."

"ONLY 80!?" Cynder yelled, quickly being hushed by Kaz once again.

"Yeah, why is that a surprise?" he questioned.

"Well, for dragons, we can live up to 10 centuries on average. The cheetah can live for nearly 200. And from what I know, the moles have the smallest lifespan, and that's still reaching 150 years on average."

"Oh, honestly i'm not surprised. I always expected mythical creatures to live for a long time." Kaz said, although slightly dejected.

"I'm sorry?"

"No no, it's fine. It doesn't bother me at all." Kaz said quickly. "Anyways, we still need to figure out a way for you to hide, it's getting late now."

"Oh I know, I do have shadow camouflage, I could easily hide in your room if someone was to walk in" Cynder stated.

"Alright, well that solves that problem then. We should probably get some sleep right now though, and then I promise i'll try helping you out starting tomorrow."

"You'd do that for me?" Cynder asked.

"Well yeah, of course. Who'd id be to let you figure this out when you know almost nothing here. It'd certainly add some spice in my life as well' Kaz said while a small smile.

"I, um, thank you, uh...Kaz" Cynder said with a smile of her own. "I'm not really tired though right now, since I kind of just woke up an hour or two ago from my state."

"Hey, no problem, just please don't leave my room while I sleep. Feel free to check out anything in here, ok?" said Kaz as he slid into his bed, before turning off the lights. Through the darkness, he could still see Cynder's turquoise eyes looking back at him.

"Thank you a lot" Cynder said after a pause "for helping me adjust. It's been a lot to take in all of this so quickly after whats just happened."

"Again, no problem" said Kaz sleepily.

"Uh, goodnight Kaz."

"You too Cynder"

Wow. 3K words down in 6 hours. I don't think ive EVER written so much at once. This is getting to be really fun for me to write. I hope i'm not rushing the Cynder and Kaz friendship too much, as I feel that would be unrealistic (If that's possible in this story). Again, please leave any comments and concerns. Thanks!"