Chapter 5

Before she could comprehend what was happening, Mira had a hand over her mouth and was being roughly dragged away from the boisterous dancing at the square. Being manhandled by some stranger, Mira could do nothing but panic. She frantically looked around as she was being dragged into a dark alley, further and further from Ryder, whom she could see being held down by two dragon men. She tried to scream to him, but her shouts were muffled by the hand muting her. As she felt herself get pulled into the alleyway, she began to struggle against the tight hold she was trapped in. She thought she heard someone click their tongue, but she couldn't be so sure because of the loud music coming from the square. She continued to struggle, but to no prevail; the hold her captor had on her was far too strong. When she felt something hard slam into the back of her head, Mira realized that he must've had enough of her struggling. She fell limp in his arms and she could feel blood moistening the back of her head, dying her snow white hair in a deep red. Her eyesight started to turn fuzzy and began to fade to black as she got closer and closer to unconsciousness. Ryder breaking free from the dragon men's hold was the last thing Mira saw before the darkness took over.

• • •

Ryder didn't know what to do. He revisited the moments of Mira's capture in his mind over and over again, trying to figure out exactly what happened and who was the one who took her from him. After he was released from the men, Mira had long since disappeared. He sat on a fountain in the town square, contemplating what he should do next. Of course, he knew that he would try his best to get Mira back, but he hadn't the slightest clue as to how he would do it. After a few moments of pondering, a possible suspect of Mira's kidnapping popped into his head. Ryder wasn't one hundred percent sure if he was correct, but if he was then he'd give it a go. Suddenly, the voice of a woman pulled him from his thoughts.

"Is that you, Prince Ryder?"

Ryder head shot up at the dragon who had recognized him. To his confusion, the woman in front of him had her face covered by a veil, obstructing his view of her face. He looked at her, puzzled.

"Um, I'm sorry, but who are you?" he inquired.

"Oh, I apologize for my disrespect. I shouldn't cover my face," she replied as she yanked the veil from her head, revealing a familiar friend.

Ryder looked at her in surprise. "Lensha! It's you!"

He stood up and pulled the dragon girl into a tight embrace. After a few moments, he smiled at her as he let go of her, looking her up and down. She hadn't changed at all since he last saw her all those years ago. She still had the same dark purple hair and violet eyes, but the curved goat\-like horns that protruded from her skull had grown slightly bigger than before.

She smiled. "Prince Ryder, it's been far too long since we've met. What brings you to Basinhorn?"

Suddenly, Ryder remembered the reason for his previous distress. "Lensha, I need your help."

Lensha looked into his eyes, shocked to see a fierce determination residing within them. She stoned her expression and nodded at him. "What can I do for you?"

• • •

Mira knew that she was dreaming. There was no way she wasn't. She had long since escaped from New York and the torture she had endured there. Albeit she knew she was in a dream, she couldn't help the fear that erupted at the sight before her. This scene was a recurring one in her night terrors; she had grown used to it. Yet somehow, this time, she couldn't stop herself from screaming in horror. The scream was so shrill and chilling that if she hadn't been in a dream, her voice probably would've shattered any glass around her. She felt weak at the knees as she trembled, all the while not being able to remove her eyes from the events transpiring in front of her. She robotically shook her head, refusing to believe what she was reliving. A sequence of pleas consisting of "no's" and "please no's" came out as mere whispers from her quivering lips.

"iT's NoT yOuR fAulT," a petrifying voice said from behind her, sounding eerily similar to Rohan's.

She screamed again as she fell to the ground. She couldn't help but look up from the ground, once again facing the horrific scene before her. Her brother and her mother lay dead and mutilated on the red stained ground. She fearfully stared at the extremely disfigured bodies of her only relatives that lifelessly laid before her. Mira gazed around the bodies, realizing that some of the limbs belonging to either of the bodies\-\-maybe her mother\-\-were spread all around the area. She gagged when she noticed that her brother's head was missing from his body, somehow still oozing thick, red fluid. Feeling a drop of something wet fall onto the nape of her neck, she forced herself to turn around. And there it was; her brother's head was maniacally smiling at her while an insane, disturbing version of Rohan held the head. Both Rohan and her brother's head smiled creepily at her as she shook in fear. Slowly and eerily, both of them spoke in unison, making their two voices sound like one.

"WHy DidN't YoU sAVe uS? We'Re dEAd bECaUsE oF yOu!!!"

Her brother's severed head and Rohan's duplicate rushed towards her as she screamed once again. She closed her eyes in fear and when she opened them again, she was back to reality and staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

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