As Cynder watched Kaz fall asleep, she slowly put her head back down. The past two hours had been a whirlwind of new information. She had been glad to have someone willing to help her back home, but still felt a sense of emptiness.

She wanted Spyro back.

Oh how Cynder missed his sweet voice. How he could be so happy go-lucky and then immediately become serious. His rare, purple scales and golden underbelly, and horns that glimmered in the sunlight. He could think his way out of any situation, and Cynder often saw him as hope for the future in times of trouble. He had been the first being to put all his trust into her, which she thanked him immensely for. They had been through so much so far, through nearly four years of adventure (If you included being in a crystal for three of those) against Malefor's evil forces, which had even included herself at one point.

Now though, he was gone. Cynder didn't even know what to think. For all she knew, he could've been in another world himself. Or dead. Or still on their home planet.

"Or dead"

"Or dead"

"Or dead"

No! He couldn't be dead! She refused to believe that! Spyro was too strong for that! Her Spyro couldn't fall to himself after going through so much. He just couldn't.

'But then, why did he not end up here with me?' she thought. They were both at the same place before everything became white. Why had he not gone to the same place as her?

'Because he's dead'

"No, he can't be" Cynder whispered to herself.

Those final words that she had said to him. The most powerful words in the world. I love you.

She did love Spyro. She knew it. She had even said it to him, but had he heard by then? She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. To finally forget the war. To settle down and enjoy what life had to offer with him. But no, here she was, by herself, with only a person she had met a few hours before in an entirely different reality.

"I love you Spyro" Cynder whispered, beads of salty tears forming in the edges of her eyes.

Suddenly, a look of resolve flashed onto Cynder's face. What was she doing?! A strong dragoness, crying in a stranger's room. She didn't cry! At least, she didn't think so. Until now.

"I will find you Spyro. I promise."

After Cynder's little session of moping, she rose to her feet, careful not to wake up the boy who called himself Kaz. Not needing the light that much thanks to her excellent night-vision, she decided to examine the room a little closer.

From the center of her room, like mentioned before, was a black bookcase, a what appeared to be wooden working desk that was cluttered with papers which looked similar to something Volteer would bury his nose in, and shelf of what appeared to house some sort of miniature figurines.

Kaz's bed seemed similar to the ones that most moles and Cheetahs slept on, with a blue cover that Kaz had nestled under. Next to the bed, was another drawer that had a lamp on it. Above the bed though, was a picture of what appeared to be some sort of sleek metal object with wheels and windows.

Deciding to take an interest at the colorful arrange of books that housed themselves in the ebony structure, Cynder stood up on her hind legs and placed her front paws on the second row of the shelf, examining the titles that were, surprisingly, in the same written language as well.

Most titles of the books did not make any sense to Cynder. What the hell was "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"? Or "Calvin and Hobbes"? Eventually though, one text caught her eye, labeled "The San Francisco Bay Area; A Picture Guide". Remembering that Kaz had mentioned that name when he she had asked where she was, Cynder grabbed the book and gently set on the ground. Lying down herself, the moonlight from one of the windows provided enough illumination for her to read. Opening up the book to the first page, she was greeted with a multitude of maps that showed San Francisco's location in the world, alongside its population and elevation.

She noticed that Belmont, another place that Kaz had mentioned, was located a little ways South of San Francisco. Interesting, it appeared as if this society had smaller cities surrounding one larger city. Cynder assumed that Blemont was her current location, which was nestled between a mountain range on one side, and a bay on the other, yet didn't seem more than 25 miles away.

Looking back at the maps of the area, she shifted to the population measurements, which was to be a shock for Cynder. 800,000 people were indicated to be living in the tiny sections of the city, which was listed as only 45 square miles (Curiously, this world had the same measurements as hers).

"How is that possible though? Warfang is nearly three times the size of that, and yet the population barely reaches 25,000." Cynder muttered. Her question though, was quickly answered, as the next few paged showed the skylines of San Francisco and it's buildings.

Where as most buildings in Warfang where rarely higher than a story or two, these buildings were huge! Some of them were more than 40 stories up in the air, with no signs of instability, and look at all the windows that they had!

"These humans, how do they do it?" She asked to herself. They had no magic, no wings or claws, and didn't appear to be all that strong, and yet where attempting feats of technology with ease. Kaz wasn't lying when he said that they relied on math and science for everything, it must've taken ages to calculate all of this. Volteer could've had a field day studying everything. Scratch that, probably a couple weeks of field days and wouldn't get bored.

Admiring some of the eye candy presented to her as she glossed over photos of Nob Hill, Union Square, Coit Tower, and The Presidio, Cynder realized that these photos seemed almost hyper-realistic for drawings. It was like someone had taken a picture from the vision pool, added clarity to it, and put it in a book somehow.

Diving deep into the book throughout the night, Cynder was also able to concluded that the metal objects with wheels were some sort of transportation device for humans. Passing through more pictures, she reached a picture at the end of the book, which portrayed San Francisco from a mountain apparently called "Twin Peaks". From there, it gave a panoramic view of the entire city and what surrounded it.

The city was truly beautiful, even more so than Warfang, even before the war Cynder had to admit. There where to massive bridges that connected the tip of the peninsula to the other sides of the bay. The grey one, while much larger and connected to an island, could not compare to the red one that seemed to span across the entrance to the ocean. Their was also another smaller island in the middle of the bay, with a large hub of buildings on it.

Overall, the city just seemed sharp. It was like every available plot of land been taken up. If these humans were good at making things, they were even better at utilizing it.

'What a peculiar society' Cynder thought. 'Our world could certainly learn alot from these people'

As light slowly trickled through the windows of the multitude of houses on Pullman Avenue, Kaz started to wake up. Groaning lightly as he stretched out his arms and legs under covers. Rolling his body over to the left side of his bed, he swung his hand out a few times before finally managing to grab his phone. Unplugging it from the charging cord, he pressed the home button on it, squinting as the brightness invaded his tired eyes. "7:12 AM" it read. Letting out a yawn, and then counting down from five, Kaz managed to swing his legs over onto the side of the bed, eyes still half open.

"Oh, hello Kaz" a voice said.

"Hi mom" Kaz replied, assuming that the feminine voice was hers.

'Wait a minute, my mom never wakes up this early' thought Kaz.

"Uh, excuse me?"

Opening his eyes all the way, he realized that the voice had actually come the purplish/black blob currently on his carpet. Suddenly, the memories from yesterday came rushing back to him. How she had appeared from a crystal and the whole shebang.

"Oh, uh sorry, forgot you were here for a moment, thought you were my mom" he stated, placing his head into his hands.

Lifting his head back up, he could see that Cynder was surrounded by at least four or five book. The one in front of her was titled "The bomb", a world war II book Kaz had gotten recently.

"I see you did some reading while I was asleep" he said.

"Yeah…" Cynder replied hesitantly.

"Is something wrong?" he asked

Cynder let out sigh. "It's just the book I read" motioning towards the one in front of her. "It just brought back some memories of the war I was fighting in. It seems like you guys had it a lot worse from what I saw."

"Oh, yeah. The human race seems to have an obsession with fighting. With so many people on earth, there's bound to be some clashes, but yeah some are over the top."

"But, killing 80,000 people at once?! They were just normal citizens! How did the people fighting live with themselves!" Cynder half-yelled.

"SHHHHH!" Kaz said again, trying to get her to be quiet before she woke up his parents. Answering, he said "Yeah, I honestly don't know either. Believe me, I'm not that proud of my own people. Theres been alot of bad things we've done."

Calming herself, Cynder said "But, thats so many people. They'd be wiping out Warfang three times over!"

"Cynder, I know your mad at what these people did, but this happened almost 75 years ago, there's nothing we can do to change the past" he replied.

"I suppose, I guess i'm just sensitive on issues like this after everything i've been through…"

"I would think so."

Clearing his throat, Kaz asked "So, what else did you read?"

Eyes lighting up, if barely, Cynder grabbed a book to her right. ¨This was the first one I read last night." Handing the book to Kaz, he flipped through the pages.

"A picture guide of San Francisco, cool."

"Is it true you live near this city?" Cynder asked.

"Yeah, all my life. What do you think of it?" he answered.

"It's amazing How is it so small and yet so big at the same? Everything is so much more simple back in our society" Cynder said, slightly eagerly.

"It's probably a benefit of having a bunch of super smart people here. The Bay is full of the world's top technology companies."

"Its like you guys can do pretty much everything here…"

"Yeah, it really does feel like it sometimes" Kaz replied. It felt good to hear someone complimenting his city so much.

"Also, a question. How do you get such good artists to make these pictures" They don't look anything different than real life, do they?" Cynder asked.

Of course, Cynder didn't know what cameras were either, Kaz thought. "Well, that's actually not a drawing. We take pictures of things using something called a camera. Here, I'll show it to you." Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he swiped up for the camera app. "You see here, you press this button, and the moment is saved."

"Wow…"

"Here, i'll even take a picture of you with it." Turning his phone towards her, he pressed the button and a click was heard. Pressing on the album icon, he opened up to the picture and showed it to Cynder.

Admiring herself in the photo, Cynder said "You could remember so much stuff with this!"

"Yep, that's the primary purpose, you can also take things called vidoes on it as well." Proving this as well, he switched to the video option and pressed record.

"Alright Cynder, say hi to everyone!"

"But, what? I thought we were agreeing to keep me out of other people's view for now?"

"Nah it's just for this. I ain't actually gonna show anyone."

"Oh, uh, alright. Hi everyone" said Cynder meekly.

Letting out a small laugh, Kaz pressed the stop button on his phone and then turned the phone around before pressing play, showing the events of the last 15 seconds to Cynder.

"So exactly like the vision pool then?" asked Cynder

"Yes, except you don't need anyone to view the video again, and it's not taxing on the user"

Deciding to simply process another new revelation, Cynder lay there in contempt as Kaz watched.

Kaz broke the silence. "So any ideas on how your getting back home?"

Immediately, a frown was seen on Cynder's features. "No, I don't have any leads besides a crystal that apparently was actually me."

"Well, I have some homework I need to get done for school, but then I guess we can start figuring stuff out."

With a confused look, Cynder asked "What's school?"

'Oh'

Kaz realized that either schools didn't exist in the Spyro universe, or she just hadn't ever learned about it due to her being race as an evil force.

"Well, a school is a place where children, adolescents, and young adults go to learn stuff. Eventually, you get to choose your own classes to set you up for a job. It's also required by law."

"What is it like?" Cynder asked.

"it's actually really difficult and really boring. You have to go through it from ages 5 to 18, with mot continuing to age 21."

"That long? You could be doing so many things in that time period though"

"I don't make the rules, but I think most people at school would agree with you there" Kaz responded with a shrug.

Suddenly, a growl was heard, mainly from Cynder's stomach. Lighting up in embarrassment, Cynder stood up and stretched her wings and joints out, asking "Um, what's there to eat here?"

With a small laugh, Kaz responded "I'd imagine inter-dimensional travel would be taxing, huh?"

"I'd assume so" said Cynder, slightly laughing herself.

"Well, I don't exactly know what dragons eat for breakfast. I have some food at home, mind telling me what you have?" Kaz asked.

"Oh, i'll eat almost any type of meat raw, but I'm fine with a few berries as well."

"Alright" he stated. "You ever had bacon?"

'Note to self, dragons have a big appetite' thought Kaz as he literally sweatdropped at Cynder's eating habits.

If Cynder was all grace and efficiency when it came to fight or flight, then she was the complete opposite when it came to eating. After explaining to her what exactly bacon was, as well as a fridge, he had taken the contents of the bag of bacon his parents had gotten yesterday and cooked the entire thing, thinking that he would leave some for his parents. Not the case.

As soon as he had taken the strips of bacon back to his room, Cynder, upon complimenting the smell, had wolfed it down like it was her last meal. Once finishing the plate, she had happily asked for more.

"This is the best thing i've ever tasted!" She had said happily.

"Who knew a dragon could be brought down by food" said Kaz in response, munching on his own plate, before heading off to get more.

And thus, Cynder ate all the bacon.

It was now around 9AM, Cynder had apologized profusely realizing what she had done, to which Kaz said was no worry. However, he knew that his parents would be coming down any moment and had warned Cynder on the plan for action.

"So, since you have shadow camouflage, just hide in my closet if my parents are ever near my room, alright?" Kaz had stated.

"I understand."

Right on time to, as Kaz could suddenly hear his parents coming down the stairs of there house.

"Go!" He hisse quietly, Cynder quickly nodding in understanding before walking into the closet, disappearing before Kaz's eyes as she entered the unlit area.

A couple seconds later, Kaz's dad stuck his head in the room. "Morning Kaz, did you make us bacon, it smells good down here."

Kaz's face paled at that. 'Shit' he thought, what was he gonna say?! "Yeah dad some dragon who showed up last night ate it all"?

"Oh um, no sorry dad. I made it earlier this morning but I dropped the plate and it fell onto the floor, so I threw it away."

"Kaz!" his dad said in annoyance."We just got that yesterday! Be more careful!"

"I Know I know! I wasn't paying attention, i'll be more careful next time."

Facepalming, his dad replied "Alright alright" before walking back to the kitchen, clearly still annoyed.

'Jeez that was a close one' Kaz thought.

Kaz suddenly heard a whisper. "Can I come out now?"

"Not yet" he replied. "Wait until they head off somewhere. Try to make yourself comfortable, it might take a while."

After a an hour or two, Kaz's parents had finally headed out of the house, stating they were going to Lowe's to pick up some stuff for the backyard, and then wash the SUV.

Waiting until he heard the door close, he motioned for Cynder to come out. Making herself reappear, she launched a glare at Kaz, undoubtedly for being kept in their for so long.

"Hey, don't blame me! I'm trying to keep you safe, I didn't have a choice."

"Yeah, I know, I'm just too prideful to be bossed around."

"You didn't have a problem when Spyro told you to do things" Kaz shot back.

Deadpan stare.

"Shuddup"

"Oof"

Alright! Another three thousand words pounded out today! It feel so great to finally be picking up momentum on this story. I'm still kind of struggling with keeping Kaz and Cynder's relationship in balance since they only just met. I'm trying to have Cynder still be a little hostile at first just to fit her character, but its just so much easier to write her dialogue and attitude like this. If you have anything you'd like to comment, please do. Thanks for reading!