continued. "Whoever was in that fifth bed isn't here anymore, or maybe...maybe they never were to begin with."

Jasper put his arm around Max and pointed to a door at the end of the room. "See that door? That's the only way out of here, but it's locked tight."

Max approached the door and pressed his ear carefully to the crack. The soft sound of footsteps outside gave him a jumpy feeling. Whether this was of joy or fear, he wasn't sure.

"Someone's outside." He turned back to the three and pointed to the source of the sound. The three began to back away from the door.

Kuda spoke up. "Max, the people on the other side of the door are the same people who brought us here and messed with ourminds. You want to make contact with them?"

Max rolled his eyes. "Will pretending they don't exist get us out of here and back home?"

With that, he raised a paw to the door and hit the surface three times. Upon raising his paw for a fourth knock, the lock on the other side of the door began to unfasten. Jasper crouched at the foot of the bed behind Vix.

The door opened to reveal a large dragon wearing a clean uniform of notable valor. The markings and symbols covering his patches and collar were unrecognizable by all four of them, but made clear his ranking was not to be questioned. The dragon was immediately followed by a small anthropoid feline much like Jasper. "Good. You're all awake."

Seeing that the dragon