The excitement surrounding the incident died down shortly after our conversation, the footsteps of exhausted travelers echoing through the door as they returned to their rooms. Around a half hour after that, Aeolus barged back into his room, Sera and the rest in tow. “Whatever it was, that creature was fast. It evaded Millie and escaped into the woods!”

Aeolus leaned his sword against the bed I was sitting on before moving to take a seat next to Sky. Sera sat on the third bed in the room. Azure and Helia, true to their position as bodyguards, stood near the door. It was crammed, but not uncomfortably so.

Taking stock of our expressions, Aeolus continued, “You don’t look surprised.”

I looked to Sky for help. He shrugged. Aeolus, noticing this, crossed his arms.

“I had a dream about it yesterday,” I admitted.

Aeolus’ suspicious expression transformed into one of anger. “What?!”

Sera leaned forward, curious. “I was wondering why you two didn’t follow. What did you see?”

Turning toward her and away from the angry Aeolus, I explained my dream and my reasoning for keeping it a secret. Aeolus had relaxed a little by the time I was finished, the anger draining from his form.

With nothing in her face or tone that indicated her opinions on the matter, Sera simply said, “I see.’

Helia, still standing by the door and much less restrained, said, “Regardless of what you think is best, you should have told us. You took away our ability to act accordingly.” Although she said ‘our,’ her tone suggested that it interfered with her duty as a bodyguard.

I dove into the heart of the matter “Even if it had resulted in Sera being injured?”

Azure interjected with a comment of his own. “Ya can’t know for sure what would have happened.”

“I knew they wouldn’t be injured.”

“And yet, you had the dream.” Sera pointed out. “For what purpose would you have dreamt it if you weren’t intended to act?”

“That implies someone wants me to interfere.” I didn’t believe in any form of higher power or fate.

“Perhaps someone does.” Sky pointed out with a meaningful look.

After being transmigrated, it was hard to argue that point. And so, I dropped it. “Anyway, Sky already lectured me,” I informed the rest of the room.

Sagely, Aeolus nodded. “Ah. That would do it.”

“Indeed.” Sera agreed.

They said it like his lectures were some rare occurrence you should be afraid of.

Helia picked the point back up. “I’ve encountered a few fortune tellers in my travels.”

Interested, Aeolus, Sera, and even Sky leaned forward to listen. Expecting more of a lecture, I crossed my arms and leaned back, giving her my full attention.

Helia looked at me intently, clearly believing her next statement with her whole being “I would hate to be you. Knowing the future is a terrible burden.”

That was not helpful. Also, the current empathetic look on her face didn’t suit the suspicious and resentful looks I’d been getting since I’d met her, making me feel very uncomfortable.

Azure chimed, briefly placing a hand on Helia’s shoulder. “The poor guy already got a lecture from Sky.” She nodded, and Aeolus and Sera gave me sympathetic looks.

….were his lectures usually that bad?

Aeolus directed his full attention toward me as if I’d be able to answer his questions. “Anyway, what was that thing? At first, I thought it was a chimera, but it didn’t look like any I’ve ever seen.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Chimera? You mean the human-phoenix and human-dragon hybrids?” Sera had mentioned them before on our way into the city.

He nodded.

Sky directed a meaningful look at me, “I’ve heard rumors that he has been experimenting with other magical creatures.”

So, had read rather than heard.

“But what creature?” Helia questioned. “I’ve traveled all around the world, and I can’t recall any that resembled that.”

No one had an answer.

Frowning, Aeolus asked, “Could he be using more than one? The scales could be from a dragon or sea-serpent, and the horns from any number of creatures.”

Sky shook his head. “As far as I know, that’s impossible.”

With his knowledge of the original book, took his statement as truth. The others, lacking the same information I had, disagreed.

Aeolus defended his point “Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

Sky was already shaking his head before Aeolus finished. “The sheer–”

Not wanting to hear them devolve into an argument, I interjected with a suggestion of my own. “Maybe it’s recently discovered? Where I come from, we discover new species and creatures almost daily.” I said, thinking particularly of the sea creatures.

It didn’t seem to be as common here, the others looking doubtful at my suggestion. Sky caught my eye and he leaned forward, hand to his chin and staring. “Or maybe…”

Or maybe what?

Sera, noticing his obvious stare, asked, “Does it look familiar to you, Hayden?”

“Not at all,” I answered honestly.

Aeolus yawned, breaking the tension that had accumulated. Through sleepy eyes, he asked, “You two are planning to go to the library again, right? Maybe you’ll find something there?”

Thinking of how little we’d discovered the last time, I answered doubtfully, “If you say so.”

Sky bent over, fishing a bag out from under his bed and pulling stone tablets and a thin piece of wood, almost like a pencil, out. The tablets were tied together and he untied them, setting one on his lap. Pencil hovering above the tablet, he admitted, “I didn’t get a good look at it. Could you describe it for me?”

“It looked like a seriously deformed individual. Horns, claws, a snout, fur, scales, uneven limbs, and it moved like a snake,” I said, counting on my fingers as I listed the details.

Having gotten the best look at the creature, Sera and Helia vocalized their agreement as Sky started sketching on the wax tablet. Periodically, he’d flip the picture he was etching into a wax coating on the tablet toward us so we could confirm or deny any depictions were made, and we described it to him as best we could. Once we were satisfied with the depiction, Sky carefully folded the waxed sides back toward each other, tying the tablets together in such a way that they wouldn’t slip.

The conversation died after that, our adrenaline having long since faded and exhaustion tugging at our bodies. Leaving Aeolus, Sky, and Azure in their room, we each headed back to our room to sleep for the next couple of hours or so until morning.

Sky and I did, in fact, return to the library the next day. Crowds of people entered and left the temple, and it took longer than it had been yesterday to weave our way to the attendant’s desk. The same attendant from yesterday was there, and she let us into the library with hardly a hello, eager to get back to her busy work.

Silence lingered between Sky and me as we laid our notes back out on the table.

“Any more dreams last night?” he finally asked.

“Nope.”

Obviously expecting the answer, he started flipping through the pile of notes in front of him, searching for something. Finding it, he slid a scroll from the pile.

“These are notes containing what I remember from Heirs,” he explained, “I was worried I’d forget,” the scroll rustled as he scanned through it, “We were discussing the chimera attack last night, I realized something about it sounded familiar. Ah, here we go.”

The only sounds were the rustling of the scroll and the tapping of my nails against the table as he scanned his notes.

“So, Sera and Helia were attacked like this in the original timeline. Unfortunately, it obviously isn’t the same chimera.”

He pushed the papers over towards me, and I read over the description. Basically, it sounded like what you’d think of a classic dragon-human chimera. Horns, wings, scales, claws, the whole nine yards. None of it explained the uneven limbs, the face, or the snake-like spine of the creature.

“It doesn’t match up.”

He took the scroll back from me, jotting notes in the margin.

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

Sky shrugged. “As you know, a mage was making human-dragon and human-phoenix chimeras. Originally, Sera and Aeolus defeated him only a couple of months ago. Most of his creations died, the lingering few scattering and hiding through the continent, occasionally raiding or attacking villages. The Mage’s apprentice appeared and began rebuilding the old chimera army by hunting down the lingering chimeras and making new ones. Unlike his predecessor, he wasn’t obsessed with using only dragons or phoenixes for their power, and he later started making new chimeras using more common magical creatures. They were weaker than the previous generation of chimeras but still far stronger than the average human.

“In the original timeline, the Sea Serpent king ordered his mage to send an assassin after Sera before her and Aeolus’ marriage to prevent the two most powerful kingdoms on the continent from uniting. This shouldn’t have occurred for another year.

“However, Aeolus and Sera defeated the mage much sooner this time, so it’s possible the timeline of events has sped up. Regardless…” he trailed off, flipping through more notes, “I still can’t remember or find any record of a chimera that looked like last night’s. I don’t even know what magical creature it’s made of.”

Sky pulled out the stone tablets from yesterday, setting the one he’d drawn on face up on the table. “It looks familiar,” he said, turning the tablet this way and that as if it would change in front of his eyes.

I eyed the drawing skeptically. “Does it?”

“If I could just remember…”

“Speaking of familiar, what were you hinting at last night?” I asked him as he browsed the shelves for potentially relevant items.

Distracted, he answered, “I thought you might be connected.”

Curious, I leaned on the table, placing my head on my palm to watch him. “How so?”

He stopped browsing, turning back towards me. “You showed up and then a chimera wholly unknown to all of us shows up as well. Your dream followed the creature, not Sera and Helia. But, if you don’t recognize it, then maybe it’s a coincidence.”

Something in his words struck a chord deep within. Goosebumps crawled up my spine. “Maybe,” I agreed.

On that note, we began our second day of scanning books. As I’d expected, it was even less productive than our first. We discovered a grand total of zero magical creatures to be potential matches for the chimera. The only hint we had was Sky’s familiarity with it, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Like yesterday, we gave ourselves some time to grab food before meeting up with Sera and the others. Sera’s group had as little to update us on as we did them, and we made ready to go for a hike in the woods. My legs protested at the thought, but it was go with them, take a nap, or wander the city alone. Neither sounded any better.