Author's Note: Hey guys! It's been quite a long time, eh? (I didn't turn Canadian btw, wait, now that stereotypical, and that's bad.) I wonder how you guys are now... It sure is quite lonely being here. My counterpart, Mizuki has a wonderful sequel to her first story, "Magical Mirror", which I am currently very excited about, since I know the ending~! But no spoilers~ Hahaha~

Anyways, I hope you enjoy another chapter of my story. The plot is starting to show, and I'm super excited to see your reactions! :3

P.S. Oh there's still a warning for the foul language of the magical creatures - namely Francesca. She would like to apologize.

Francesca: ...It's not that I feel sorry, but I can't say no to my author...okay?! Nothing else!

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"You didn't have to do that!"

It was the first thing that Kathleen had heard when she woke up without opening her eyes. She was pretending to still be unconscious. Kathleen knew exactly what had happened when she got knocked unconscious. She could picture it vividly; she'd doubt that it would be any good to open her eyes right now. Back to the voices she had heard, Kathleen found herself realizing that she was listening on an argument between the two voices, namely, Francesca and Chalcine.

"Why not? She deserved it!"

Francesca's voice. Why was she being so hard-headed...? She was being stubborn even though that Kathleen wanted to confront her, because obviously, anyone could see that the female dragon was having some issues, especially with the mentioning of the "infamous dragon" thing, and the reaction itself, so to speak. Kathleen's suspicions were garnered correct when she tried to piece the puzzle pieces together - especially with Chalcine's attempts earlier to calm the dragon down.

"She did not! She was innocent!"

Chalcine's voice. This all felt familiar, but Kathleen couldn't put her finger on it.

"Look at her! Obviously she was never innocent from the very start! She only came to see the infamous dragon who fucked up on being one!"

Why was Francesca so persistent that everyone who comes by her - unintentionally or intentionally, not that Francesca would care, are only there to laugh at her?

"Why are you so...like this...? The Francesca that I knew was so much better than this."

"...You don't know anything."

"Oh no, you're wrong, Francesca. I know everything. I've known you for a long time now - enough for me to tell and guess what you're thinking. And I'm disappointed. Ever since the accident, you've been behaving nothing but selfish and cruel to others who never even did any sort of harm to you."

Kathleen felt that she was intruding on something she wasn't supposed to be hearing. Like she had accidentally eavesdropped on something personal, but it felt right. Like she wasn't supposed to hear it, but somehow it didn't make her feel really guilty, but it made her feel like it was the right thing because it was a familiar feeling. Like she was compelled to do something.

"..."

It all felt increasingly familiar and it wasn't pleasant.

"If you want to make up for it, you better take care of her. She's your responsibility now."

"...Fine."

Kathleen could practically hear the tone of defeat and resign in Francesca's voice. It made her feel guilty - it made her feel like a burden. She didn't like feeling like the one bringing others down. After a few moments of utter silence, she decided that now was the time to wake up.

She opened her eyes and groaned. "Nngh.." She sat up, turned her head to look at her surroundings. It was blurry, so she rubbed her eyes lightly. She saw that she was still in the same clearing where she and Francesca had fought, but she was all alone. For now, at least. It seems that Chalcine and Francesca had left - but where to...?

It was already nighttime. It was quiet; and the only sound that could be heard was the cackling of a fire nearby that Kathleen had just noticed. No wonder she wasn't feeling cold. She felt tired and drained of her strength - both physically and magically. A simple healing spell should do the trick; it doesn't drain my health as much as those duplication spells or powerful attacking spells.

Kathleen sighed as she stood up and took her stance as she recited the words to the spell. As the spell had finished, Kathleen felt slightly refreshed. Yet, Kathleen sill felt drained of her magic. She groaned in irritation as she slumped back to her sitting position.

"Hey." Francesca's voice rang out suddenly, making Kathleen flinch slightly in surprise. Kathleen turned her head to face Francesca, who had somehow appeared a few feet behind her.

"What?" She asked.

"I wanted to ask you something." Francesca explained, looking tentative to speak up as she walked to the opposite of Kathleen's position. The fire illuminated the dragon's face; and for a moment Kathleen could see the sadness in the dragon's eyes.

"Before that, I want to ask you something." Kathleen spoke softly. Pretending to not have heard the conversation or argument between Francesca and Chalcine earlier wasn't exactly a good thing, but then again, it would save her from a lot of trouble.

"Go on." The dragon spoke. Kathleen took a breath and looked down at her twiddling hands as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. "Why did you save me?"

The question was like a bomb, dropping and extinguishing everything in it's wake, leaving nothing behind - except for the deafening silence. "I mean - you could have just eaten me, or just left me there to die...so why?" Kathleen finally stopped staring at her hands and looked up at the dragon. The dragon looked skeptical to answer the question, but opened her mouth to give her explanation.

"It's not that I'm guilty for knocking you out or anything, it's just that, Chalcine - the voice you heard interrupt the fight earlier - forced me to do this because she was saying that 'this has gone too long and you need to get a grip' and something like 'for starters you could apologize to this young woman and nurse her until she wakes up.' It's not that I'm guilty, I just can't say no to Chalcine... I mean, she gives great advice so I thought if I'd follow it, maybe, just maybe, things will get better with me." Francesca rambled on.

Kathleen had to stifle a giggle as she listened to Francesca's ramble about 'Not feeling guilty but just that I can't say not to Chalcine' when she saw that Francesca's body language and tone of voice had betrayed all of her claim of not being guilty at all. Personally, she felt concerned for the dragon, even though they had just met, Kathleen felt extremely compelled to comfort her, as if she knew the dragon for a long, long time.

"Anyway, about my question." Francesca looked at her with a serious expression, before continuing, "Do you really know nothing about the "infamous dragon" thing?" She asked.

Kathleen almost slapped herself in frustration and irritation. "Didn't I tell you when we were fighting? I don't even know about such thing! I didn't come here for a specific purpose, I was wandering around because I didn't have anywhere else to go!" Kathleen finally burst, letting out her frustration.

Francesca was silent. Kathleen breathed in and out slowly, trying to catch her breath. A few moments of utter silence; the fire dying out slowly in the background and it's soft cackling was background noise. Kathleen sighed softly, enough for only her to hear it. "I'm sorry."

Kathleen turned her head, a little surprised - but if it weren't for the feeling of familiarity, she would have been fully surprised by the sudden apology.

"It's fine." Kathleen replied, her tone a little too calm for Francesca's taste.

"You're kidding, right?" Francesca looked at Kathleen funny. 'No, I'm serious."

"You apologize too quickly." Francesca muttered as she looked away, staring into the lake nearby. Kathleen wondered if that was a bad thing or a good thing. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Weird. Just a few moments ago they were like people meeting each other for the first time and now they're asking personal questions like it was casual.

"I'm not sure." Francesca replied, chuckling slightly. "It depends on the situation." Kathleen smiled and looked at Francesca directly in the eye and asked, "Is our situation a bad one or a good one?"

"...I don't know either."

They stared at each other for another minute, then broke into fitful peals of laughter. "Hey," Francesca called. "Yeah..?" "Why were we laughing like we were old friends or something?" Francesca "I have no idea." Kathleen deadpanned. "It's not a bad thing, is it?" "...No." Francesca replied, with a slight hesitation and disappointment in her voice. Francesca looked down at the ground.

Kathleen didn't notice.

"Hey, um," Kathleen started, "I wanted to ask..." "Yeah?" Francesca looked up. "What was the whole "infamous dragon" thing about?" Kathleen asked in a soft voice, not wanting to offend Francesca. The dragon sighed.

"It happened a long time ago...it's not that important." Francesca rasped out, sounding like she was about to cry. Kathleen felt extremely guilty when she heard Francesca's voice break — it sounded so vulnerable, so human. Kathleen could only stay silent; she saw herself in Francesca, vulnerable, weak, dramatic and emotional. But it didn't matter to her on being dramatic for a while. She was about to stand up and rush to Francesca to comfort her and to hell with anything about being strangers — when a voice broke through the silence.

"I see you're awake." A voice said. Kathleen turned her around to see the mysterious person known as "Chalcine." She'd expected a dragon or a unicorn or some other magical creature that she didn't know of, but she hadn't expected Chalcine to be human.

"Wait, you're human? But your voice was too loud to be human earlier! It sounded like it belonged to a dragon or something!"

Chalcine had brown eyes, and light brown hair that reached only a little below her shoulders, her fringe covering one eye. Her pale white skin looked like it was glowing, all because of the contrast. But Kathleen was sure it was glowing not just because of the contrast. In all honesty, Kathleen found Chalcine attractive.

Chalcine groaned. "This is gonna be a bitch to explain..." She muttered. She turned to Francesca with a look of irritation. "Change to your human form. NOW." Francesca looked thankful to Chalcine for intervening and scrambled up to her feet and quickly did as she was told, her scales slowly disappearing; her form shrinking with the sound of the cracking of bones as it molded to a human-like form. Kathleen could only stare until everything was finished. She was sure the bones cracking hurt.

Francesca's human form had hazel green eyes and dark brown hair that it almost looked black, with pale skin that was only slightly tanned. Now, unlike Chalcine, Kathleen didn't find Francesca attractive the way she found Chalcine attractive. She was pretty, but Kathleen could only see it as a platonic compliment.

After a few moments of staring at both Chalcine and Francesca in disbelief, Kathleen swallowed before finally managing to speak, "...How..? ...What..?" Her mouth was open. Francesca sighed. "I guess I should have told you before..." "Obviously you should have; look at her, she's not even moving." Chalcine shrugged as she walked to Kathleen. "You think she's still breathing?"

Francesca asked. "I dunno," Chalcine replied as she waved her hand in front of Kathleen in an effort to evoke any kind of reaction.

Then Kathleen closed her eyes and fainted, right one the spot. Talk about late reactions — sheesh.

"Hey...you still there?" Chalcine asked — more like yelled into Kathleen ears. Francesca winced, that was sure to hurt if it were anyone else. She was sure Kathleen would have done any reaction at that, but she didn't. "I'm getting worried, Chalcine...She's already unconscious! You know that we haven't been with humans for 3 years now — we don't know how to treat her!" Francesca rambled, getting panicky.

"Oh, shut up. We can handle this with just a little magic!" Chalcine exasperated, looking a 100 percent done with Francesca. "And besides, we've done this before...don't act like this hasn't happened before." Chalcine muttered quietly. She hated not being able to tell the truth when she knew exactly what was happening. 'If only Kathleen would remember...' she thought.

"Oh. Right." Francesca muttered.

"Do you think she'll be able to remember?" Francesca asked quietly. "We could try telling her, but it's not our place to do that." Chalcine replied quickly. She didn't like talking about things that she couldn't tell to others when they deserved to know.

"Let's not talk about this, okay? I don't want to talk about it."

"...She deserves to know."

"I know that she deserves t know, Francesca, but she doesn't deserve to hear it from us!" Chalcine yelled, her patience was thin ad it was about to break.

"And what does that mean? We're her friends too, right? Why can't we tell her?!" Francesca yelled back. Chalcine looked at Francesca with disappointment.

"Just shut up. I don't want to talk to you right now." Francesca opened her mouth to retort, but closed it a few moments later in frustration.

As if on cue, Kathleen opened her eyes. She looked at Francesca and Chalcine and groaned halfheartedly. "...Um..you both can be human and dragon...right?" She asked. "Yeah." Kathleen looked at the ground and sighed. "It's a little hard to take in." "Oh, is it?" Francesca sneered — the words fell out of her mouth before she could even think about it. Chalcine gave her a look of horror and anger.

"Well...it's not very surprising as I thought it would be. I think that's what shocked me..." Kathleen said. Chalcine looked a little hopeful at this - too hopeful. "...Have you felt this before?" Francesca pressed further, wanting to know if it was okay to tell Kathleen the truth — desperate to tell Kathleen everything. Kathleen looked a little skeptical on answering, but replied, "...Yes."

"Don't you dare!" Chalcine shrieked suddenly. Kathleen looked at the two in confusion. "...What? Did I say something wrong?" She asked.

"No, you didn't." Chalcine and Francesca both replied simultaneously. 

Chalcine glared at Francesca for being so foolish and stubborn on believing that Kathleen would remember. "I need to speak with Francesca privately. Is that fine with you, Kathleen?" Chalcine asked. "Oh, of course it's fine." She replied quickly.

"Thank you." Chalcine said, before grabbing Francesca by the arm and pulling her away from Kathleen and the clearing.

Once they were both in the forest, she turned to Francesca, who looked smug as she smirked. Chalcine glared at her. "That was dangerous, Francesca! She isn't supposed to know about it from us!" Francesca huffed, "It would have been easier to tell her and end everything!" Chalcine went silent.

"Think about it, Chalcine. If we told her, we could end this! We could end everything!"

"You mean...end this loop?" Chalcine asked.

"Obviously."

Chalcine sighed. "I already told you we can't. We're not supposed to interfere!" She reasoned, her tone getting exhausted from repeating words. "I'll ask you again, since when I asked you the first time you didn't give me a clear answer — Why can we tell her?"

Chalcine looked at Francesca in the eye with a serious face. "Remember my ability to see all the future possibilities with each important decision?"

Francesca nodded slowly, the gears in her head turning slowly as it processed what was told. "But doesn't it come randomly?" Francesca asked, looking doubtful.

"It does, and since we've already tried telling Kathleen about the time loop several loops before — in which she never believed us, this time I saw the possible outcomes of us telling Kathleen about the time loop she created." Chalcine explained. Francesca stared at her with wide eyes, surprised by the information. It was like an avalanche of papers filled with at least a 100 facts about the world suddenly got dumped on your working desk and you had to read them all.

There was a moment of silence as the two women stared at each other with shaky, bated breaths.

"...W-what did you see?" Francesca pressed further. Chalcine looked slightly better at this, although her frown was still on her face. "It wasn't exactly what you'd call a utopia either. Rilliane and Arthur still died, causing the Spades to go into ruin in which caused Kathleen to start another time loop."

"But...why? There has to be a good ending!"

Chalcine sighed. "I guess it is just fate. Only we in the country of Spades are affected by this time loop...or so I think."

"Do you think we can try to stop it?" Francesca asked. Chalcine laughed in a sarcastic manner. "I've already answered that question, remember? The answer its clear," Chalcine paused, taking a deep breath.

"The answer is no."