W.S.S.H.

The World of Mysteries

I nodded, holding onto the dragon book and following him to one of the round, cluttered wood tables. It was very bright and colorful since we were right behind a large, multicolored window, leaking sunlight into the room. I sat in one of the chairs and he sat in the one next to it, sitting so close that I got a fresh whiff of whatever cologne he was wearing.

"So, what do we have here then?" he sighed, pushing the clutter away from us and spreading the book out on the table. He opened to a random page and I saw an evil looking squid thing, grimacing up to us from the drawing on the page. But it moved, so it looked like it was trying to escape and strangle us.

"Ah, Grindylows, nasty little things, we've got some of them in the lake." Sherlock said with a sigh, glancing out the window as if he could actually see what was there through the colors.

"What do they do?" I asked.

"Pull you into the depths of the water, kind of pathetic alone but in packs they are very dangerous. Never go swimming alone Mr. Watson, surely you know that." Sherlock pointed out.

"What else is in the lake?" I asked, kind of creeped out by these new creatures.

"Oh, you know, fish, merpeople, the giant squid." He shrugged. My jaw nearly dropped onto the table, making Sherlock's face split into a grin.

"You have a giant squid?" I asked in amazement.

"Why yes, throw it some toast and you can probably see at least a part of it. I've never seen an eye or head, but the tentacles are common." Oh sure, totally normal you liar.

"And merpeople are real?" I asked.

"Oh nothing like you'd think they are, if you know what good for you, I'd advise against going to go chasing them."

"What do they look like?" I asked. Sherlock flipped some pages in the book, and after a moment I could see what looked like a fish and an alien mixed. That was one messed up Ariel. It thrashed and scowled, thrusting an iron trident hopelessly at us. These pictures are quite violent.

"Whoa... I guess I won't be having any mermaid girlfriends anytime soon." I sighed, slightly disappointed.

"Well god, I hope not." Sherlock agreed. I opened up the dragon book, and Norwegian Ridgeback blew fire at the words on the opposite page, seemingly upset about being trapped here. I read it briefly, but it was mostly just speed, firepower (a pun that made me smile), agility and stuff I didn't necessarily care about. It wanted to hear about violent deaths from these beasts, fights, and, most importantly, where to find them.

"How about these?" Sherlock asked with amusement, flipping to one of the last pages. I glanced over and just rolled my eyes.

"So unicorns are real then? My sister tried to catch one once, when she was younger, she was convinced. I guess she was right." I just laughed. The unicorn, unlike all the others, merely looked at us with annoyance, as if it was our fault that it was our fault he was in there. It was beautiful, truly, but also looked a lot more dangerous than the characters the princess shows display. There unicorns had wicked sharp horns on their heads and didn't seem afraid to use them.

"We've got unicorns in the Forbidden Forrest, but they disappear before anyone can really see them." Sherlock shrugged.

"Still amazing. What other creatures do you have that muggles look over?" I asked.

"Oh, well pretty much everything, we've got trolls, giant spiders, werewolves."

"Werewolves?" I asked with a smile.

"And vampires, but thankfully there are no whiny teenage girls that manage to fall in love with both of them." Sherlock said. I chuckled at that, my sister used to love those movies, it couldn't stand them.