While living peacefully with her beloved father, Lili Mause sees her life turned upside down. A man comes to fetch her to take her to the School of Bermuda, where she will learn magic. Lili proves to be a very talented witch and a truly extraordinar...
The young farmer signaled to the students to stand behind him as the beast approached slowly.
"We can help," Risath whispered. "At least Saadia, me, Zasissa, Lorel, and Ilesielle..."
"No, you're just students," Kareth growled. "You're not capable of facing such a monster, regardless of whether you're in fifth or final year! When I give the signal, everyone run in different directions, as far away as possible from it!"
As the beast continued its calm advance towards them, Kareth gave the signal, and everyone scattered.
But instead of being disappointed by the sudden disorder, the beast immediately began to run after Lili, revealing itself to be much faster than her. Seeing this, the farmer called upon his summon, a female llama with two fluffy wings, which launched itself at the carnivore. But the chimera paid no attention to the camelid. It continued to run until it lunged forward, its lion jaws grabbing the child's arm while pinning her to the ground with its big feline paws.
The llama swooped down on the creature again, but the serpent tail caught one of its wings in passing, causing the ruminant to fall a little further away.
As the monster began to pull on Lili's bloodied arm, presumably to tear it off, a sudden bolt of lightning struck it on the flank. This blow made it release its prey before being thrown a little further away. The llama summon suddenly froze, staring at the source of the attack. Frozen with fear, Lili raised her trembling head towards the person who was extending a hand to her, the same person that the camelid had been observing, and whom Ree had described the night before. That unknown albino who had come into their dormitory.
A growl made her lift her head, no longer trying to lift the child, he surpassed her to stand between her and the monster, a wicked smile on his lips. Without a trace of fear, he calmly walked towards the chimera, holding his index finger in the air, twirling it while, little by little, a strong wind began to encircle the beast, which soon found itself trapped in a small cyclone.
Directing this wind with a simple movement of his wrist, he sent it up above the forest before releasing it all, causing the creature to fall violently among the trees.
"Who are you?" Kareth asked, kneeling next to Lili.
The stranger turned towards them, positioned his index finger in front of his lips stretched into a strange smile, then disappeared, just as he had in front of Ree.
The farmer clenched his teeth, muttering curses against this strange individual, while examining Lili's arm.
"You were lucky," he murmured. "It could have been much worse."
Lili remained skeptical. Yes, the worst would have been to have her arm torn off, but it was only partially shredded, not to mention her dislocated shoulder. Suffering in agony, she tried to focus on the face of the pensive adult.
"Sir," Luil called, "we should take Lili to the infirmary."
"Yes, of course! I will stay here in case another chimera returns, they must not reach the school. Luil and Khalil, take Lili. Risath and Ilesielle, I would like you to go inform the headmistress. Saadia, Zasissa, and Lorel, if you would be so kind as to go to the teachers and let them know what just happened, I would be grateful. The rest of you, return to your dormitories."
The students nodded and headed towards the school.
"Does it hurt a lot, Lili?" the little dragon asked.
"Oh no, not at all," the young girl replied sarcastically, grimacing.
"Sorry, that was a stupid question."
"It's okay, yes, it hurts a lot..."
Luil observed the youngest girl's arm while walking, eventually making them stop and pulling a towel out of his bag.
"I am quite clumsy," he explained, wrapping the arm in the towel, which quickly turned red. "So I always have towels with me to clean up my messes. It will stop the bleeding a bit until we get to the infirmary."
Lili thanked him, holding her painful arm until they arrived in front of the large door of the infirmary, which the two boys opened. Luckily they had arrived, she felt close to fainting.
Once again, the room was empty, not a sound could be heard. Some candles were even extinguished, probably because it was getting late.
"Maybe the nurse is sleeping," Khalil murmured. "Should we wake him up, do you think? I haven't met him yet."
"Me neither," Luil admitted. "I'm clumsy, but I take care of myself."
"Mr. Clawdell?" Lili called out with all her might. "Mr. Clawdell, are you here?"
A huge bat descended from the ceiling and changed shape in mid-flight, Viktor landing perfectly in front of them, looking a bit sleepy.
"Good evening," he mumbled, yawning. "Excuse me, I thought the day was over."
The intoxicating smell of blood woke him up, he lowered his head to see where it was coming from, then noticed the blood-soaked cloth wrapped around the girl's arm.
"Good grief!" he exclaimed, leading her to a bed. "What happened for you to bleed this much?"
He removed the towel to examine the dreadful wound, sliding his hand over her shoulder to notice that it was dislocated, all while the two boys told him about the misadventures that had befallen them half an hour earlier.
Viktor remained silent, suddenly putting Lili's shoulder back in place, not without her letting out a cry of pain.
"How can it be a chimera?" Viktor growled, applying a cream to Lili's shoulder. "Is this a joke? Chimeras don't come out until it's dark, and the sun has barely set! Besides, they don't single out a specific prey, when there are several that scatter, usually they turn back to find an isolated prey. You must have been mistaken!"
"And my arm, was it mistaken too?" Lili grumbled, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "It was a chimera! Mr. Lalus was surprised, but it was definitely a chimera, and it pounced on me."
The nurse looked at her, perplexed, before bringing the girl's arm closer to him and smelling the scent of her blood.
"You won't start again!" Lili growled.
"No, don't worry, even though I really want to, I can control myself... but chimeras have a highly developed sense of smell. If I can only smell your scent when you have an open wound, chimeras can probably perceive it under any circumstances, and it's highly likely that you attracted it."
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I've tried to make a sculpture of the scene :
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