A/N: The debate of the gender of Hamaki (Later in this chapter) has always been a personal joke to me. I am not trying to offend anyone if they take any offence to the no-gender conversation.

I stared up at him, my brain screaming run!! But my body doesn’t want to cooperate. Sometimes I wonder if my body is deaf, because all I want to do right now is run to the others and hide behind someone as they attempt to protect me. My heart was beating louder and louder, that I was sure that the others can hear it, even the others in the rooms next door, if they are even in the rooms. I didn’t realize that I was shaking badly, not only because of fear, but because I felt cold. I don’t know why I felt cold, but I did; it was as if something was taking the warmth out of me and placing ice right back in.

He glared at me, then looked at the others, “You said that she would feel familiarity in this place, but I don’t see a sign of recognition on her at all.” I turned, the guys behind me, excluding Katie, are looking down and away from him. Katie was frantic at getting my attention, and it seemed as if she guessed that if she looked hard enough, she can bring me to her. I would be at her side right now, if my body could muster the courage that I temporarily lacked. I was about to say something, “What do you mean?” But my voice came out as a croak, so I tried again, “What do you mean?”

It seemed as my fear was funny to him, since he smirked and gave a chuckle, but it didn’t sound like a kind one, it sounded like the one that you wanted to hide from. “Ah, humans are always stupid this way…” He lost his smile, “You’ve been here before, in another life. How else would everyone else know your name already?” I thought about it. That I didn’t consider, it sort of made sense in some way, but not entirely; another life? That I have a few questions about, I thought everyone knew me because of mind reading, or Kilinco telling, or if it was just something that I didn’t realize at the time. But another life has a new meaning to it, actually.

My body has now realized the imminent danger I’m in, and I was backing up, away from the creature. His eyes seemed to glint, or darken, I’m not sure but it made him look more menacing, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I started shakily, and I backed up right to Fi-shue. I could tell, because of the fur I’m feeling has a wonderful softness to it, that might of calmed me down if I wasn’t still being glared at. Fi-shue put his arm around me, and growled at the creature; but he just rolled his eyes, and walked off, and as soon as it turned the corner, everyone calmed down. I was shaking really badly, and I stayed in Fi-shue’s arms as long as he held me. But, mostly because I was cold. Cold and fear don’t go so well together.

Before I could even get my thoughts straight, Einstein gently pulled me out of Fi-shue’s arms, “It’s fine Jacklynn. He’s full of dark magic, it always makes you cold.” He started talking gently about scientific and magic stuff, but it wasn’t until I looked at his face, did I realize he changed. Instead of skin, he had scales, they were mostly smooth but they were rough in some places. He was a dark blue, and a dark green on his arms around his wrist and hands. “Einstein?” I questioned. He looked at me for a second, “Ah, yes. This is my actual form, a dragon.”

“But, where are your wings?” I questioned. There weren’t even stubs, it was as if he was born without them. “My species of dragon don’t have wings as some do. You can’t just stereotype them all.” He explained, and waved his hand...paw, around. I’m not sure what to call it, and he gave me a look that says that he doesn’t know either. “Well, um, who was he anyway?” I ask, shivering at the thought that he might be listening to us right now, but I doubt it anyway. Kilinco made his way through the crowd, and glanced at me before saying, “Narko.”

That name sounded so familiar, but I just can’t get a grip on it. I looked around, Katie was also visibly shaken by the experience, and Kya is talking to her to hopefully calm her down. I’m not sure who is more scared; us or them? I don’t see why they are scared, I’m scared because he...Narko is intimidating. They can probably fight him and win, unless…“Is Narko powerful?” I ask. They all nod, even Kya, who was busy keeping Kimbu from licking Katie’s face off, Katie seems to feel a bit on ease, if not, she may think that Narko is gone right now. But the coldness of him is still there, so I think he has to be nearby. I’m not sure, but he is close. Kilinco shook his head, “Well, do you want to see around the house or not?”

I nod, I want to see the rest of the house, and hopefully I will forget about Narko. He leads me back to the kitchen, but then we took a different hallway, the same that the doll went through. What was his name? E? I think. Wow, only one letter name. Anyway, we ended up near a room, but all I smelled was smoke, was there a fire place here? Or an actual fire? But everyone seemed calm to smell this, save for Katie who was just as confused, but it smells like a lot of things are burning. It wasn’t until I realized that my eyes were stinging that we were walking near the smoke, and the room is starting to heat up. I would of welcomed it a few minutes ago, but the cold from the ‘Dark Magic’ that Einstein talked about has eased away while we were walking.

“Hamaki, we know you’re there already. We can smell your smoke.” Kilinco said. A few seconds after that, the smoke smell got stronger and stronger, and the room was very warm. A person came out from a room. At least, I thought it was a person, but I realized quickly that the person was too tall for a human, but then again, there are some tall humans. But this one was at least three feet taller than me. They were wearing orange armor and helmet that covered the top of their face except the eyes, and some metal shield around the mouth causes us to only see the eyes of the person. The smoke smell seemed to come from the person. Now I realize that I’ve referred them to as ‘they’ since I still cannot find out their gender. It has long blonde-white hair that comes out braided from their helmet, but still, it may be a boy thing or something as well.

“Jacklynn, Katie, meet Hamiki. The Fire Guardian, and Jacklynn’s strongest Bond-Mate. Hamiki, you already know them.” I was confused, Bond Mate? As in, boyfriend and girlfriend or something? Hamiki chuckled, their appearance had no distinction between male and female. And their voice didn’t either, “I am Hamiki, and no, Bond-Mate is something of importance, not the way you two are thinking of it.” They had some sort of humor in their voice. I was glad that I wasn’t the one who asked their gender, “Um, excuse me, Hamaki. But, what gender are you specifically? Are you a boy or girl?” A little silence, then, “No.”

“Wait, what? So you’re not a girl?”

“Yes, I am not a boy.”

“So you are a girl!”

“No I am not.”

“Your a boy?”

“No.”

“Are you transgender or something? Are you a boy or a  girl?”

“Maybe.”

This was so hilarious that I couldn’t contain the giggles anymore. Soon the giggles turned to laughter and such, I kept laughing for a minute or so, and luckily I wasn’t alone. Kilinco, even though he got a few elbows from Fi-shue, was giggling with me. And Katie started having the snort fits too. Eventually we all calmed down, and me and Katie asked at the same time, “Are you Transgender?”

“No.”

Einstein stopped us from continuing further by saying, “Hamiki, would you like to show Jacklynn your gem?” Hamaki stopped burning, or for somewhat of it, I still smell the smoke, and pulled out a gem from their pouch they carry around. It was a rather beautiful gemstone, it was bright orange, but a bit yellow in the center and red surrounding it. It glints wonderfully with the armour, and it seems to glow a bit. “That is Hamaki’s gem. They can return to it when they are weary or weak, or when they want to rest at will.” Hamaki was about to hand it to me, but I kept my hands away, “I shouldn’t hold it. I’m clumsy with holding objects.” I stuttered. Katie looked in awe at it, “Does everyone have a Bond-mate?” She asked.

Einstein nodded, “Yes, even you. But before you can meet them, you will have to go back.”

“Where?”

“To Earth, of course!”

“What!?” We both exclaimed. I don’t really want to go, since I’ve felt like I’ve just arrived here. And I’m enjoying the time here, I don’t really have to worry about anything, and for some reason, I felt giddy and happy the whole time I was here; other than Narko bringing the dark magic here, other than that, I felt happy and excited. I was never really shocked or scared from the creatures that live here, just curious and surprised from seeing unique faces. I looked at Katie’s face. I won’t grace it with a description, but it’s rather upset at the announcing of leaving.

“Sorry, but you two have to go. If you stay here any longer, I’m afraid that your parents will be rather upset, or worried that you’ve left too long.” Fi-shue explained. For some reason, he seems to know what our fears are. In this case: our parents. “Wait, how can we go back without them worrying?” Katie asked. I was confused about her question, I was thinking we may teleport or something.

“We just disappeared out of the blue after Jack arriving in my house! They’ll surely be suspicious.” Katie explained, then I understood what she meant about it. We did disappear without a trace, in front of her parents and…

My brother…

My parents wouldn’t believe that I “disappeared” if I come back safely, but I then remembered something. It was small and black, it had some silver lining around the glass, and my brother was holding it...I couldn’t focus too long about it; cause a familiar doll walked into the room. Now that I got to see more details, I saw some strings hanging from his back, and his mouth was sewed together tightly, as if opening his mouth would cause the end of the world or something. “Hello E. How are you today?” I asked politely. For some reason, everyone but Hamaki moved away from him as he walked into the room, as if they were afraid. But he was a little doll, you can just have someone hold him for you and you can drop kick him out of here!! And as for the response for my polite question, he just stared at me, and I swear he mumbled something along the lines of “Don’t talk to me, idiot.” And I instantly felt offended of what he said.

I looked at him and smiled, “At least I wasn’t made in Thailand, idiot.” As to joke with him, but I clearly hit his buttons. He growled, and everyone backed off even more, Hamiki just didn’t look at him. I looked around, Katie wasn’t backing off, she was just holding in her giggles. “C’mon guys, he’s a doll. You can just put him in a super stiff dress, and he can’t do anything.” I said. Katie was now hardly containing her laughter. E was fumed. I was about to joke some more when Kilinco got in the way, “Enough Jacklynn.” He growled at me, but he still kept an eye on E, who was now leaving. Usually that’s a bad sign. If he thrown a punch then and there [although I doubt that it would hurt], he would just have spilled his anger then and there.

But from countless of my experiences from my brother, walking off while angry, means that they’re planning something...and from the radiating fear from the others, I can tell that it’s not good.