Kenmei swirled the contents of the small vial around as she held it up above her face, currently resting on her back on the beach. The thought of what was inside it still made her stomach clench with nausea, but that was quelled by her curiosity. She had many questions, but she was unable to ask them at the moment, not wanting to disturb him. Judar was currently sleeping beside her, resting on his stomach with his face hidden in his arms. Beneath them was a blanket Kenmei had brought to make their time on the pebbles more comfortable, as the summer heat was making it nearly unbearable to sit on the small rocks. Judar enjoyed the blanket greatly, though he complained many times that the fleece got stuck in his scales that lined his back.

Sitting up, she took a moment to observe him, watching as his back moved with his steady breathing. He had seemed exhausted that day, and Kenmei wondered if making the contents of the bottle had taken much of his energy. Another question she would have to ask when he woke up. Not wanting to disturb him, she stood carefully, walking over to the edge of the water to think. Once again staring at the glass vial in her hands, her mind began to race with thoughts of what would happen if she drank it. Would she really end up as one of his kind? Was this some type of trick with malicious intent?

Judar had seemed so sincere when he had given it too her, nothing like his typical snarky attitude, and she felt that he was being genuine. He wanted her to be with him in the water, and taking this was the only way that would happen. What she had said before was true. There was nothing for her on land anymore, but the thought still terrified her. Could she really adjust to a completely different world like that? Would she gain all their abilities, or would she have handicaps? Frustrated with these confusing thoughts, she reached up and rubbed her face, trying to calm down. She would be able to ask in time, once he was awake.

Suddenly, the familiar sound of a vehicle reached Kenmei's ears and she turned, looking up at the top of the cliffs. It was the loud guttural sound of a large truck, and she felt her stomach begin to churn as she heard it suddenly cut off, as if someone had turned off the engine. Panicking as she could hear voices, she shoved the vial into her shorts pocket and ran back over to Judar. Shaking him, she spoke in a hushed voice. "Judar! Wake up, you have to get in the water!"

He seemed irritated as he was pulled from sleep, not hearing her words in his groggy state. Lifting his head to look at her, he didn't see the figures appearing at the edge of the cliff. "Mei, let me sleep-"

"Don't move!"

With a shriek, Kenmei fell to sit, looking up at who had yelled at them, her body frozen in fear. Along the cliff, there were six men standing at different intervals, all with guns pointed down at them. Her heart racing, she could see Judar slowly rising himself up onto his arms from the corner of her eye, one of his hands moving to grip onto her leg tightly. "Mei, what is this?" Swallowing hard, Kenmei looked down at his hand, noticing that his scales were raised. "I-I don't know-"

"I said don't move! Get back on your stomach, animal, and put your hands on the back of your head!" The same voice yelled, pulling both of their attention back to the top of the cliffs. Judar did as he was told, though Kenmei could feel that he was ready to take off at any second. She spoke quietly, her body beginning to tremble. "Judar, just go…" He turned his head to look at her. "They'll shoot you. They'll do anything to get me. You just need to stay back."

Eyes beginning to well with tears, she gathered her courage, moving to be on her knees. "N-no, I can't let them hurt you." Judar hissed her name as she stood, but she ignored him, keeping her hands raised. "Please, what's going on?" She called up to the men on the cliff, watching as ropes and a long ladder began to appear down the side of the cliff, moved by more men. She received no response, but her heart skipped a beat as she noticed a familiar figure come into view.

Unable to control her sobbing as she realized it was her father, she began to feel rage build within her, moving to stand in front of Judar. "Dad, you tell me what this is! Now!" Though she tried to sound confident and demanding, her voice came out meek and trembling. The smirk on Keneiji's face told her he was not afraid, looking behind him and waving his hand down towards them. Instantly, men came down the ropes and the ladder, and they were once again screamed at to not move.

Before Kenmei could even think, she was grabbed and thrown out of the way, landing hard on the rocks. The bump to her head made her dizzy, and she struggled to sit up, vision blurry as she tried to focus on what was happening in front of her. Judar was being restrained by at least five men, but he was no longer following orders. He was flailing and hissing in an animalistic way that Kenmei had never seen before. Any part of him that was human seemed to be gone, and she gasped as he broke free and tackled one of the men to the floor, sinking his teeth into the victim's neck.

"Restrain it or cut the hair off before it gets away!" Keneiji called from his safe place on the cliff's edge, watching with amusement. Following direction, one of the men grabbed Judar by the braid while he was distracted, pulling a knife from its sheath resting on his hip. Panicked that they were going to stab him, Kenmei stood and ran towards them, but was quickly restrained with her arms twisted behind her back. She screamed out in pain but was unable to struggle, her arm on the verge of breaking. "No, don't hurt him!"

The sound of her voice seemed to pull Judar back into sanity just long enough for him to be overpowered, forced down into the blood soaked rocks with his arms and tail successfully restrained. She was able to catch his gaze for a moment before the man holding his hair placed a foot on his head, screaming at him to keep still with heaving, exhausted breaths. Pulling the hair taut, he brought the serrated blade of the knife to the base of Judar's skull. He began to saw at the thick clump of hair right above the fabric Judar used to tie it, and Kenmei could only watch in horror as his entire braid was cut loose.

Putting the knife away, the man began to head towards the cliff side, starting up the ladder with the hair slung over his shoulder. Keneiji gave a few small claps, his voice booming across the now quiet area. "Great job, gentlemen. Now get that thing up here so we can go. The scales we will have to harvest on site." The man holding Kenmei released her roughly, and her weak knees collapsed, sending her to the ground. She looked back up as Judar was hauled up, and Kenmei felt her heart break at the utterly defeated expression on his face. He was panting heavily, and she couldn't tell if the blood that covered him was his own, or from the many men he had injured.

As the men began to take him towards the ropes that hung down the cliff wall, Judar's wounded gaze landed on Kenmei. She could see the accusation of betrayal in his eyes and she shook her head, forcing herself to her feet. "No! Dad, you have to let him go!"

Keneiji looked down at her, his expression and body posture only expressing how proud he was for the great job he had done. "Thank you for showing me this creature, Kenmei. It's worth triple the amount your mother gave you, but don't expect to see a penny of it." The men holding Judar began to gripe again as he started to struggle. Though, he was so far from the water by now that even if he did get away, it would be pointless. Instead of struggling to get free, he got his head loose from the grip one of the men had on his hair.

Leaning his head back, he let out an ungodly high pitched screech that immediately sent almost everyone to their knees, including Kenmei. Covering her ears, she tried to focus her vision, but the sound made her head spin. It was stopped as one of the men covered Judar's mouth, though he quickly realized his mistake as Judar sunk his teeth into it.

"Give it the shot already! It will screech like that the whole time if you don't! We don't need its little friends hearing that racket." Keneiji called from the cliffs, also recovering from the sound. As Judar was distracted in attacking the man who had tried to silence him, another pulled a syringe from his pocket. Flicking off the plastic cover on the needle, he stabbed it into the bare skin of Judar's side, pushing the plunger down to the base. Immediately after the liquid entered his body, Judar began to grow limp, his head falling forward as his struggles ceased.

As they tied him to ropes to haul him up the cliff, Kenmei gathered her energy and climbed back up the side where the path was, panting heavily by the time she reached the top. She ran over to her father, instantly falling to her knees at his feet. "Please, please let him go! You can't do this to him!" Keneiji took a step back, as if her presence disgusted him. "Pathetic, that you would beg for the life of an animal." Kenmei's sobbing resumed, watching in horror as Judar's limp body appeared over the edge of the cliff.

They dragged him by the tail as if he were a dead fish, picking him up and tossing him into the back of a large truck. Kenmei saw that his arms were bound with rope, but she was unable to see the extent of the damage done to his body. "He's not an animal! How could you do something like this?!" She felt that familiar fear course through her as Keneiji glared down at her, and she cowered down into herself.

"It is an animal. Did you not see how it ripped into those men down there? It has no feeling or thoughts in its mind besides animalistic urges. Even you! Do you think it loves you? Pathetic. All it wants is to use you for reproduction, and then it will eat you." Keneiji walked over, kneeling down. He grabbed her by the face and forced her to look at him, his grip so tight it caused Kenmei to wince. "You're filth. And because of all the trouble you caused, I'm going to pluck out its scales while it's awake. It'll feel everything, and it will think of how you betrayed it."

Kenmei was frozen in horror at the thought, unable to understand how he could be so cruel. "How do you even know about his kind?" She forced herself to her feet, standing just as he did. "How do you know about them!?"

Keneiji sighed, adjusting his clothing. "How do you think I make so much money? Or, how do you think this town is surviving? By profits from farming? Well, I guess it is technically a type of farming." He began to head towards the truck, all his men gathered in other vehicles, being alive, injured or dead. "It's their fault for being too stubborn of a creature to leave their home that's nearby. So we use them, their hair and their scales, for profit. When we are able to catch them."

Unable to move a single muscle, Kenmei could only watch as he got into the truck and it drove away. There was the loud sound of squeaking metal as the truck purposely ran over her bike that was laid out on the grass, crushing it. Feeling as if all of her energy was sucked out of her, she fell back to her knees, watching the vehicles leave. She was so weak and useless, unable to do anything to save him.

Hugging herself tightly, she began to sob violently, her entire body heaving with her sorrow.