The ocean waves; so serene in the way the sunlight catches on the surface, and so calming with the woosh of the waves. Except for two individuals; a sorcerer and his apprentice/daughter. They were having their own little battle with life and death as they attempted to surface the ocean depths for sweet life-affirming oxygen. What stopped them? The continuous wave after wave of surging water that tossed them around like socks in a washing machine.
They were on a cruise touring the Caribbean until the ship they were on sunk. The crew and grand majority of passengers felt nothing amiss before and as the ship was sinking. No explosions, no strange cranking or crunching sounds, and no quake of any kind.
And because of this the whole affair was a rather calm thing – the sinking of the ship, I mean. Once the crew noticed their gradual depression in ocean level, the captain told the passengers over the ship's intercoms, “Um, we appear to be sinking. Don’t worry, it’s very slow, as I’m sure you all can or cannot see, and we should have more than enough life rafts. So if everyone would, in a calm and orderly fashion, make their way to the boarding stations at the sides of the ship, then we can all get ourselves out of this mess and back to port as soon as possible.”
So, how did the father daughter duo end up in the middle of the ocean, thrashing for their lives? Well, let’s go back to the drowning duo to find out. In the middle of this frightful fit Horace – the father, noticed an island nearby, about the size of a baseball stadium. In between the ceaseless bombardment of sea tides Horace shouted to his daughter, known as Ella, “The! Island! Swim! To it!”
The waves were equidistant to the two, so it hit them at near the same time, allowing Ella to get the gist of it and swim to the island. After paddling for a few minutes the two began to calm down considerably, likely in parallel to the change of their surroundings – the water was settling. Yes, at that point they thought the worst of it had been behind them. And it all was… or would be, until one final gargantuan tidal wave, about half as tall and wide as their cruise ship came over them like a python over its prey. And swoosh. It swooped down and engulfed them exactly as a python would pounce over an unsuspecting mouse. In this wave, they were caught, thrown and slammed onto the shore of the island the were swimming toward.
Soreness, that was the one word that reverberated in the minds of the awakening Horace and Ella. Soreness from the pain of impacting the shore at such a high velocity. Soreness from their arms and legs from continuous paddling and soreness in their lungs from holding their breath longer than they ever had before. A soreness of the mind; tired of the day’s events and wishing for nothing more than to return to their home, or at least an airtight room with a bed. Alas no bed would be offered to either of the two on this today. Only the bitter chill of the sea breeze.
Horace was to first to wake. It was slow and gradual. First he regained a fading but present consciousness, about to sit up but interrupted by the seawater that wretched out of his lungs and onto the shore that was beside him. After flushing that all out Horace felt better, much better. He was regaining his wits and the first thing he did was look fervently around for his daughter. She must be close. We were both caught in that tidal wave, Horace thought. And she was close. Visible relief surface on Horace as he saw his daughter not too far away. As he made his way to her side she woke up in much of the same manner dad her father did. She also looked around worriedly, catching site of Horatio who was beside her. Her eyes changed from genuine happiness to impatient anger in an instant.
Ella questioned her father like a mother admonishing their kid, “You just had to go down there, didn’t you!? What were you even doing down by ship’s storage container?”
“Ella, I felt something strange outside of the ship, and the only way to get closer to it – besides jumping overboard – was to go into the interiors of the ship, where I could more easily see locate it.”
“That’s not what I saw. After you told me you were leaving in the middle of the shuffleboard tournament I chased after you and found a hole in the hull, gushing water at you like a loose fire hydrant.”
“That was, uh, an accident. The creature, the anomaly, or whatever it was. In the middle of trying to examine it, it expanded and retracted, or disappeared and reappeared, or something like that; something I'm not sure I've seen before. It was an accident, something I couldn't have seen coming.”
“That's not an explanation! ” cried Ella at the top of her lungs.
“Isn’t that wonderful? More to figure out for ourselves!”
“Ugh, you’ve always been like this, Dad. Can’t you ever give it a rest?"
"This could be a great find! And think of what the other professors will say? They'll be grinding their teeth whenever they see me!"
"We were supposed to be on vacation. It was supposed to be an end to the constant lectures at the academy. An end to the constant lectures from you -”
“I thought you loved my insights? When I see something that pertains to a curiosity I think: there, that is an opportunity!”
“I know, Dad. And I did love your lessons, but that was when I was a kid. Now I have a bunch other teachers that are trying to cram my head with a bunch of their philosophies and stories.”
“I see. I wish you’d told me earlier, how much you detested my insights.”
Much like a child would, Horace crossed his arms and turned away from his daughter. Ella said apologetically, “Please, Dad, don’t be like that.”
“Hmph, like what? I haven’t the slightest as to what you’re referring.”
Ella gave an exacerbated sigh.
“Fine. I don’t care. I’m going to setup shelter. Tell me when you’re done pouting.”
Ella reached for her boot where her wand was stored. Like grandpa always used to say, “If you have something important then put it in your shoe.” I always thought it was kinda gross, but it worked out this time. She flicked her wand around like a conductor of an orchestra who wanted all of the instruments attention. They were wide motions with her arms and precise flicks of the fingers. Little sparkles littered the area in arcs in front of her, eventually settling on the ground. What was I supposed to do next? Oh! That’s right.
Ella made her way inside the forest of the island. It was shrouded from most sunlight by the abundance of long, wide leaves. The ground of the forest was overgrown to the point that you could hardly see the dirt and instead saw an assortment of vines, roots, leaves, weeds, and flowers. Minutes later she walked out with a trail of trees, and giant leaves the size of umbrellas floating a couple inches from the ground and following her in a line. The trees and leaves piled atop the glittering sand from earlier. In front of this pile Ella said with wand at the ready, “Orvus deleyes avra alinoom!” Shouting wasn’t really required when casting a spell, but wizards and sorcerers alike agreed that giving it some feeling strengthened the spell a tad.
“Ah, fixing up shelter, huh?”
“Yes, Dad, that’s what I said I was going to do. Are you done sulking?”
“I know I can drear on at times. And I know it can be trying, and that you were really looking forward to this trip; especially winning the shuffleboard tournament. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Dad. And I really do love your insights, but this was supposed to be a vacation from all that talk of magic theory and its inner workings.”
“Yes, I’ll try and lighten up a bit.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Oh, I think you missed a spot.”
Horace pointed to the lower right corner of the recently formed hut. From that spot a creak sounded, and from that creak a shaking and rumbling spread throughout the entire hut until it collapsed on the spot.
“Thanks, Dad...”
Horace said, “How about taking a break from this and instead we go looking for something to eat? We’ve already slept plenty from the, uh -”
"Loss of consciousness from being slammed onto the shore?" answered Ella.
Horace feigned a light cough and agreed with Ella. She too agreed with Horace about looking for something to eat. And so, the two would head into the forest depths of this island they knew little to nothing about. With a flourish of their wands a dim fluorescence emitted from the ends of their wands. Horace lead the way while Ella followed closely behind.
The inner layers of the island was much like a rain forest. Along their travel they saw numerous fauna and flora that reached up to their waist.. There was a humid, somehow warm air, even though it was already night. Looming trees, lush leaves of all patterns and orientation.
They saw a flock of thought to be extinct parrots called martinques. They had bluish-green feathers on their body, a cloudless sky-blue beak, honey-yellow eyes, ash-gray feathered heads, and a cherry-red streak on its tail feathers and another across the top of its head like a Mohawk.
And flowers called crêpe ginger shaped like bells, colored eggshell-white, and a stem with thick upside down scales which would eventually open to release seeds. At the sight of these flowers Horace ceased and observed.
“What is it? Do you recognize these flowers?” asked Ella.
“I believe so."
Horace flicked away the light of his wand as if it were a match and held the tip of it above one of these flowers like a chemist would hold a pipette over a test tube. A drop of what looked to be mercury manifested itself on the wand's tip and fell onto a petal of the crêpe ginger. The flower began to give off a dim white glow and after a couple seconds the glow ended.
"They are crêpe gingers, said to treat a multitude of sicknesses including rash, fever, a bad kidney, and even ghost possession.”
Horace decided to pick a couple of these but in doing so realized he didn’t have anywhere to put them, so by grabbing a couple of the almost ridiculously sized leaves, he made a tote bag and put the flowers in it.
Along their way Ella heard a pitter-patter that seemed to be following them from behind. Ella had been hearing it for a long time now, ever since her father and her left the shore, but every time she looked back, she would see nothing of note. Weird. Is it just my imagination? No way. The sound is too distinct compared to the chirps and croaks of the forest. She had an idea.
“Dad, walk a couple of steps ahead without me. I want to check something.”
Horace was a bit confused, but he saw no reason not to and obliged his daughter’s sudden request. Moments later in front of Ella a little away from where she had just walked from, a palm-sized crab that when compared to sunlit sand looked identical in shade, popped out of the dirt in the ground.
“Aha! It was you!”
To the sorceress’ exclamation of joy the crystal crab jumped half two feet and once it was on the ground again it burrowed its way back into cover.
“Awww. Please don’t be scared. I swear I won’t bite.”
The ghost crab lifted the dirt roof up, peaking its eyes out like a kid under the covers trying to hide from an imaginary boogeyman. Ella slowly held her hand out a little away from where the crab was situated. She then relaxed and smiled, emitting a warm, welcoming air.
“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
The crab made its way out of its hovel, scuttled toward the outstretched hand until it was nearly touching it, the crab touched her index finger for the slightest of seconds and reached back its claw. The crystal crab did this a few more times until it decided it was safe to climb onto the palm of her hand.
“I’ll call you Andros.”
Ella stood up with Andros in hand, ready to show her father when -
“Ella, my dear, look what I found.”
On the top of Horace’s thumbnail was a frog the size of a, well, thumbnail and the color fire-orange.
The father daughter duo saw the other’s new companion in unison and soon after the clicking of pincers resounded.
“Oh no you don’t. I won’t let your crab eat my little Echo.”
“Jeez, Dad, he won’t do anything.”
Ella looked at Andros with eyes that awaited affirmation. The crab looked behind himself and looked back at Ella, thinking who?
“That’s you!”
The crab jumped again, this time only a few inches and began nodding profusely.
Ella placed Andros on her shoulder and asked her father, “Did you find any food? ”
“No, I - “
The two became completely silent and frozen. They could feel something stalking them.
The two stood still, waiting, and when nothing was heard they quickly turned to it. In the pitch black darkness that covered the area beyond their wand’s meager glow, they saw a pair of gold slit eyes.
“Don’t move,” whispered Horace.
Ella whispered back in a quick and panicked tone, “Why would we not move? This seems like the perfect situation to be running—a situation where its claws or teeth haven't impaled us.”
“If we run then it will chase. Blow out your wand.”
“What? Are you sure?”
Horace nodded without hesitation.
“Restoration will take hours.”
“Trust me.”
Ella raised her wand high with her right hand and covered her eyes with her left arm. The dim glow that radiated from it grew brighter and brighter until it started to flare. And then it shifted back to its dim glow, reverting back in forth between both states until it was flashing. Waves of energy from the wand blew back leaves, the smaller trees, and the particles of dirt around her. The waves pulsated from the wand in parallel to its flashing. The wand shook so erratically, looking as if it was trying to fly free from the sorceress’ grasp at any cost. And finally, the glow exploded with a thunderous accompaniment and bathed the entire area in blinding light.
The beast toppled over in a daze. Horace said, “Now we run.” And so, the pair did, as fast as they could in the opposite direction of the beast. They almost slammed into trees and tripped over roots along the way because they kept on looking back, thinking, is it behind us!? Ella shouted, “That was a Chimera, right!? What the hell is a Chimera doing on a nothing island in the middle of the Caribbean!?”
The Chimera was a creature originating from Greek myth. It had the head and body of a lion, another head of a goat on its back, and the tail of a serpent.The first Chimera was said to be a sibling of Cerberus – the guardian of the gates to the underworld and the immortal Hydra. But as time grew on and the legend near forgotten the term Chimera went on to mean any mythical beast that was a mixed breed of two or more magical creatures.
Horace replied, “One thing’s for certain: the sighting of a Chimera means inevitable disaster. We need to get off this island and we need to do it yesterday.”
“Isn’t that just a superstition, though? Like how black cats are supposed to be bad luck?”
“You know as well as I that wizards and witches spread that rumor so no one would mess with their familiars. And Chimera were and are still said to bring disaster because they always do; wars, volcanic eruptions, any tragedy you can imagine; they have been documented to always appear before them. We’ve got to get out of here.”
By this time they had made there way out of the forest, both looking ragged and worn from the sudden exercise of running through stray brambles and mud puddles.
“What do we do?” asked Ella.
“We can’t create a portal or teleport. We don’t have an anchor or co-ordinates to a corresponding one. We can’t fly without a proper vehicle of channel. A ship! We could build a ship! But how long would it take to assemble? How long would it take for us to get out of here before what happens happens? And we still don’t know where it will come from or how wide its reach is.”
Worry invaded Ella’s mind as she was given the dwindling options. If dad can’t think of anything then that must mean we’re really sunk. This day went from good to bad to worst way too fast. There has to be something we’re missing. Ella's mind race, stopping at her first question.
“What if we killed it? Would that stave off the disaster?”
“No no no, the chimera is merely the messenger, not the cause. Attempting to kill it would achieve nothing.”
Ella cursed her own ineptitude and said her next idea,
“Let’s setup a barrier. We can’t run from it or stop it, but we can put up a barrier.”
“You’re right.”
Horace remembered the state of Ella's wand (wondering if it was worth the cost) and reached his wand up, ready to wave, but something stopped him.
“Oh, no, this is...”
“What? What is it, Dad?”
“...A barrier”
“What!?”
“There’s already a barrier here. It’s all around the island. I couldn’t see it because they’re almost invisible, unless you look directly at them. This is all wrong, terribly wrong. We should not be here. Oh god.”
Ella looked up, searching for something, anything. And there it was, the lines of what looked like spiderwebs cascading over the island’s vicinity like a cage.
“Dad, what’s going to happen to us!?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“What can we do!?”
“I… don’t know, maybe nothing.”
In the realization of being intertwined in someone’s machinations the pair were dumbstruck. They couldn’t run. They couldn’t see what was coming. What else could they do but fear and cower away from whatever was coming until it grabbed them in its ever reaching embrace.
I couldn’t protect her – my own daughter. Forgive me, Ophelia.
From the forest a rustling of branches and bushes came. The duo were too lost in their thoughts to notice.
“Excuse me, but I have a warning to give. And you two seem to be the only ones on this island.”
The sorcerer and his apprentice looked behind themselves, back in the direction of the forest. What they saw was the Chimera, tilting his lion head curiously.
“It can speak!“ exclaimed Horace in disbelief.
“Of course I can speak. What a silly thing to say. Why, I have three heads. Why shouldn’t I be able to speak?” the chimera asked in a slightly offended tone.
“My apologies, great Chimera. Please, tell us everything you can.”
“I am no great Chimear; I am Gorenan.” The Chimera collected himself and said, “They’re coming to this island. Mages who seek what this untouched island offers. They wish to entrap, dissect, and experiment on everything that dwells here.”
“That’s it?!” blurted out Horace, “I thought it was some natural disaster like an unstoppable cyclone or a volcano eruption; or a weapon of mass destruction! But this!? This is not our problem. We’re getting out of here right this instant.”
“Wait, dad! Let’s hear him out!”
“What more is there to hear? They wish to research this place. We are academics too – I as a professor and you as a student. Think of the advances that may be made. Think of the greater good.”
“You know there’s always a line. One that all must have and never cross. You know we can’t just leave them. Not to mages like these.”
“No! And that’s the final word!”
“Why!?”
Horace was silent at this seemingly simple question that meant everything to him. And then his eyes had that far away look, remembering everything. In the end he could only sigh, as if all the life was escaping from him.
“I promised her—your mother, that I would keep you safe. That I wouldn’t allow you to be thrown in with the dark arts...”
“Oh, dad… I need to. We can’t just. Please...”
“...”
Horace sighed one last, breathless time.
“No, you’re right. We can’t just sit idly by or run away. We have to fight... I only wish you didn’t.”
Horace turned to the Chimera.
“Gorenan, why do you care about this place? Why do you protect it?”
“It is the last place to protect. I have failed so many – too many before. And so I beg of you,” the noble chimera brought his right paw forward and bowed solemnly, “to defend this land.”
