Autumn stood in the captain's chamber, before the large wooden table near the middle of the room. Captain Clement leaned over the table propped on his hands, while First Mate Meredith stood quietly off to his side.

"What do you know of chimeras?" the captain asked.

"Not much, captain," Autumn admitted, "just that they're nasty beasts to encounter."

"Aye," the captain said, "they're abominations of mismatched pieces of other beasts. All kinds of meat stitched together into a twisted monstrosity -- which makes a man wonder," the titan trailed off.

"What do they taste like?" Autumn finished with an excited smile.

The captain bellowed a short laugh and pointed at Autumn, "yes, exactly! See Meredith, I told you she was a good hire."

Meredith rolled her eyes, but didn't respond to him. Instead she turned to Autumn, "we'll be reaching the grasslands by tomorrow morning, we have it on reliable word that there's a loose chimera near the border of the Great Forest --" she darted a passive-aggressive glance towards Captain Clement, "the captain wants to send out a hunting party for it."

"I'm in!" Autumn said, "but I’m gonna need my team."

"Of course," the captain said, "Meredith, send out a few good fighters with them too, I want that chimera by sunset tomorrow."

______

As the morning sun rose over the lands, the redwood forest gave way to the rocky cliffs of a short mountain range on the northern shore of the river, while the southern shore transitioned to open plains of lush grass, dotted with large patches of stout, broad-leafed trees. Much of the grass appeared golden at the top, creating large bands and swathes of gold that waved through the sea of grass. From the deck, Iris could see for miles across the gently rolling hills of the grasslands before they finally met the vast blue sky at the distant horizon.

"It just keeps going," Iris marveled.

"You could travel on foot for weeks and not find the edge," Misty said from nearby, "where I come from, we call it the green-gold sea."

The hunting party was gathered on the starboard side of the main deck as they prepared to depart. Besides Iris's main team, Killup and Adan joined them -- as the ultimate goal of the mission was to acquire the meat of the beast for dinner, the captain had insisted that the full kitchen staff participate to ensure the best cuts were harvested. The other additions were Cameron, Misty the swamp elf, and Dorragth the orc, who Iris was less than pleased to be stuck on a mission with.

While Cameron, Titus and Dorragth prepared a dinghy to ride to shore, the ship was carefully brought to a slow crawl with the help of extended brake paddles from the mechanical deck and the large sails of the main mast catching headwinds.

"Clear to depart!" Meredith shouted from the helm, "we'll keep her slow and meet you down river!"

The hunting party crowded into the dinghy as it hung from ropes over the side of the ship, and pirates on the deck lowered them down with a pulley system until they splashed down into the choppy wake of the ship. A hard shove off the hull from Autumn, Dorragth, and Misty pushed the dinghy away from the ship, and an angled down-stream course brought them to the sandy gravel shore.

There was one extra pirate on the dinghy, who stayed behind while the others shoved the small boat back into the river where it could return to the ship. Iris watched the dinghy leave for only a second, quickly accepting the sudden reality that they were on their own now, and turning her attention to the vast plains before them.

The beach was thin and mostly sandy gravel, with a few small rocks scattered around. Immediately behind the beach was a thick wall of tall grass that reminded Iris of crop fields. Large swatches of the grass were topped with tiny, brilliant golden flowers that clumped along the top few inches of the plants they grew from, creating the illusion of golden waves Iris had seen from above. Only the tallest amongst them, Titus, Dorragth and Misty, could see over the tops of the grass now, however.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"We're looking for tracks, animal corpses, or droppings," Cameron said, "keep an eye out for animal trails and paths too."

"This river is dangerous to drink from," Misty said, "the current's too strong and the foam is toxic in large quantities. The animals around here mostly drink from small watering holes scattered around the plains, those will be good places to start."

"You know the area?" Cameron asked.

Misty nodded, "it's a common training ground for young champions from Fale Nalore."

"Is that where you're from?" Iris asked.

Misty nodded again, but didn't elaborate, "that doesn't mean I can navigate for us, though. I've spent time in these plains, but it would take a life time to fully explore them. I know a few landmarks I can call out if we're close to them, but right now, I have no idea where we are."

"Let's go," Dorragth said impatiently, barging off into the grass.

"Guess we're moving, then," Eli said. He looked to the sky and whistled loudly, then unslung his staff and moved to follow after Dorragth.

Dorragth's large frame pushed a path through the grass and made it easier for others to follow, and one-by-one each member of the hunting party followed after him. Iris, Autumn and Killup stuck to the middle, as the smallest of the group -- and in Iris's case, the weakest -- they had no desire to risk getting picked off from the rest of the party. Titus and Adan brought up the rear, while Victoria floated overhead in her ghostly form.

The grass was a dense mixture of various kinds of plants, and home to no small number of bugs and critters. Some of the plants had nasty stickers in the form of spike balls that clung to clothes or thin blade-like flowers that effortlessly slid into skin when touched. Iris's ropes and armor protected her for the most part, but she earned quite a few scrapes and cuts on her hands and face as they pushed through the thicket.

The further they got from the river, the thinner and shorter the grass became. After a short while of suffering the tall grass, they finally broke out into a wide, expansive meadow dotted with various pink, yellow and white flowers. The wind pushed ripples across the grass and flowers, creating beautiful traveling waves as sun glinted off the last of the morning dew.

"This doesn't feel like the place we'd find a twisted monstrosity," Iris observed.

"The chimera's prey likely thinks the same before it dies," Adan said.

"He's right," Eli said, "keep your wits, even beautiful places can be dangerous."

Dorragth was already charging off across the meadow, trampling flowers in his wake as he cut a straight line towards a glistening pond in the distance.

"Or we can just sprint off into the unknown, I guess," Eli sighed.

A screech came from overhead, and every member of the hunting party who wasn't a member of Eli's team immediately took combat stances as their eyes scanned the sky. Those that were a part of Eli's team simply looked up with fondness as they quickly spotted Glimmer the griffin circling above. She landed with a trot and hurried over to Eli, who greeted her with a hug and ear scratches.

"Wait," Autumn said, "does Glimmer count as a chimera?"

Glimmer screeched in Autumn's direction as if she were upset.

"Definitely not," Eli said, "griffins are natural creatures. They hatch, grow and reproduce in the wild. Chimeras are created."

"Created by what?" Iris asked.

"Flesh crafters, mostly," Misty said casually.

"What the fuck is a flesh crafter?" Iris asked in horror.

Titus took on a grim, angry expression, "imagine a necromancer that works with living flesh. Flesh crafters are an affront to the Thread of Life and everything it stands for."

"Not all flesh crafters are evil--" misty began, but stopped with Titus shot her an intense glare.

"Let's focus on the mission," Eli said, "our intel is that this chimera has been living wild for years, we won't be dealing with whoever made it."

"We should catch up to Dorragth," Misty said, taking the lead across the meadow towards Dorragth.

The pond was modest, and there was a muddy shore were it had visibly shrank since the last rain. A few small deer with tiny straight antlers were drinking on the far side, but scattered when the hunting party approached. The mud surrounding the pond was trampling with countless overlaying animal tracks.

Dorragth was already crouching to inspect tracks, and was soon joined by Cameron and Eli. There was short argument as the three men disagreed about which tracks belonged what creature, but eventually they settled their attention on a set of tracks that seemed to include two different kinds of feet – which caused another small argument about whether or not the two different prints actually did belong to the same set of tracks. After the trackers finally came to an agreement, the hunting party followed the tracks away from the pond and down an animal trail that cut through the meadow, towards a cluster of trees.