I come to my senses. I'm lying in a comfortable bed, wrapped in fluffy blankets, my head placed on multiple pillows. It almost feels like some royal chamber. 

My wounds are bandaged, yet some still hurt. 

The room is spacious, with stone walls as if to make an impression of some secluded cave, plants in pots placed in all corners, and a lot of lights on the ceiling. To my right, there's a brown wooden door. Another red one is built into the wall oppositely to my bed.

In the center of the room, there's a dining table with multiple velvety chairs around. On the wall to the left, there's a giant computer screen, now turned off.

In an armchair near my bed, Knut is sitting, in the same outfit as before. His eyes too are blue. Now I wonder whether I've ever seen them be green or it was just my imagination.

He hasn't yet noticed I woke up. He's too busy playing with some yarn in his hands. Truly a languid cat, he is.

I wonder if he's helped Shon as I asked...

"Knut..."

Now he flinches and glances at me.

"Oh, you woke up?"

He puts the yarn on the bedside table right next to me and leans over my side:

"How are you feeling?"

"Knut... did you help Shon?"

"The werewolf boy? Yes. I checked on him after you raved about him so much. He's resting in his cell now. I've bandaged him up. I've told Terry to give both of you to me to judge. After you both are healed you're going to be punished as you deserve. Now then, how are you feeling?"

Is he for real? He's healing us and then we're going to be punished anyway? So much for a helper...

"Give us to you? How come you judge prisoners?" I ask. "I thought you only were a doctor."

"I'm in the administration. I heal those who need my help and punish those who deserve it... like you, for example," he replies. "Now then, does it hurt anywhere?"

"No, it does not, and I don't need that kind of help!" I retort. "I've come all the way here just to thank you and this is what I get? I shouldn't have felt obliged to you at all! Now I've pulled Shon into this, and we both are going to be punished by you? This is madness!"

I avert my eyes from him. I feel upset, betrayed, and disappointed. He's just like all the other deviants - prideful, rude, and remorseless. I bet he only helped me in order not to disturb his precious warden on such a trivial issue as my turning into a raven beast, back then.

"Thank me? You've come all this way from the vampire district only to thank me?"

I turn back to him to reply when he laughs right into my face:

"Are you out of your mind?"

I flare up - now this is too much. I spring from the bed:

"You're right - I've made a huge mistake! I thought you were not like other deviants, but turns out you're even worse. You sicken me! I want to go back to my cell. I don't need treatment from the likes of you!"

However, I don't feel as well as I try to look. Due to my brisk motion, I soon begin to cough. I cover my mouth with my hand - blood follows up. I guess Dave and his henchmen have kicked me way too hard, back there...

"Okay, lie down."

Knut softly pushes me back to the bed. I want to object and struggle against him, but he applies more force and pins me down quite easily. I glare at him. He goes on whispering in a completely altered tone, while his soft fingers undo the bandages:

"Okay, steady... It'll be alright..."

Once the bandages are undone and my wounds appear all bloody, Knut grows the claws on his fingers. Some green liquid, just like back then, begins to come off of them. Right at that moment, I behold something marvellous - as if by magic or a miracle, the snow leopard fur wrapped around Knut's arms and legs grows black like that of a panther, while his eyes gain a tint of greenness that I could remember back from our first meeting. He pours the green plant medicine on all of my wounds on my forehead, my shoulder, my breast, my stomach, my arms and my legs. Then his claws minimize again, and he regains the snow leopard fur and the blueness of his eyes. He opens a certain drawer in his bedside table, takes out bandages, and wraps up my wounds once more.

"There you go."

He sits back in his armchair. I am still stupefied by what I just saw.

"What was that?"

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"Like, your fur turned black, and your eyes - green. What the hell was that?"

"Oh, that? That's just the elemental change."

"Huh?"

"You know, the elemental change?" he repeats as if his explanation should be obvious enough. When he notices I've got no clue what he's talking about, he chuckles: "You don't know what elementals are?"

"No, I do know what elementals are, but I've never seen them pull such tricks before!" I retort.

"Oh, I get it. Yeah, you wouldn't see them do that. Not all elementals have this type of power." A proud smile forms on his lips, making me want to slap him all the more. "I control more than one element, so I change back and forth as I utilize them. My initial is the water so I'm a snow leopard most of the time. If I change to plants, I become a black panther. So my eyes and my fur too, tend to change. For medicine, I utilize both the water and the plant powers simultaneously, so the colours merge, too."

"So that's what dual power means? You really are a dual elemental?"

Now I remember what Yelen and Annabelle had been saying about him back in the cell - that he should possess dual power. I couldn't understand their words back then, but now I seem to grasp it - Knut does indeed control both plants and water, and he holds two types of feline species within him, not just one. To be honest, if he weren't so stuck-up and annoying, I would've actually begun to respect him after this.

"Well, actually..." he hesitates for a moment as if pondering whether to tell me something. Then he shrugs: "Yeah, I am a dual one."

"Huh? What is it?"

There was clearly something else he wanted to say.

"No, nothing."

He grabs the yarn again and resumes playing.

"What are you doing?" I can't help but laugh at his stupid activity.

"Relieves stress." he shrugs as he rolls the yarn in his hands.

"Just looking at your doing that causes my stress, not relief!" I laugh again. "I guess you're the only weird one in here."

I remember how he's told me I was out of my mind, earlier. Now it's my time for revenge.

"Telling that to the one who's about to pass judgment on you, is not a good strategy," he answers. I can tell he's happy I'm like some defenceless prey in his hands. Well, I won't be giving him that.

"I don't give a damn. I'm not afraid of your punishments."

"Not even of the warden's awakening?" A mischievous smile runs through his lips.

"I don't believe the warden's such a big deal," I retort. "Mark my word - I'm going to escape this prison."

"Well, good luck with that_"

Someone knocks on the door to the right. Knut glares at it:

"Who the hell is deranging my peace?"

The door opens and the vice-warden, Bob, enters. He bows down and says:

"Knut, sorry for disturbing you, but I've come on a serious matter."

"Can't you take care of at least a single thing without me?" Knut grunts like a pouting kid and scratches the yarn with his claws. I can tell he doesn't really fancy Bob's presence.

"I am sorry, but this is urgent. We have an escapee."

The yarn falls off Knut's hands. I am no less shocked - someone has really managed to break out of this prison?!