Sentinel

Chapter 5: Monsters & Mages

By the time all of us got to the apartment I was feeling better and could walk without Will's help.

Hana sat on the couch while the mystery boy and girl made themselves at home next to her. I was glad the girl sat next to Hana, she looked a lot nicer than Muscles.

But I was surprised that Hana was even willing to sit next to them at all, considering the curved blade the girl cradled on her lap and the clearly visible guns Muscles had. Hana seemed to be pretending not to notice them. Maybe she was in shock.

I pulled over chairs from the dining table for Will and me.

We sat in silence until Hana asked for a third time, "What was that thing?"

There was another pause and then Will answered. "A chimera."

The muscle man cursed under his breath.

"You think this is a good idea, Will?" The girl asked, worry in her beautiful soprano voice.

Will just shrugged in response.

"What's a chimera?" Hana asked.

I wanted to know the answer to that too but first I wanted to clear some of the tension from the air. Or at least know who I'm talking to.

"How about we do some self-introductions before we get into that?" I suggested. "I'm Skylar."

"We know," muscle man said. "Will told us about you." By his tone, I could tell he didn't like what he had heard.

I forced a smile and pretended like it didn't bother me. "Okay, well he didn't tell me about you, so what's your name?"

"Nathan," he grunted like he was unhappy to give it up.

The girl gave a small smile and said, "I'm Brynn."

"And I'm Hana, nice to meet you. Now, what's a chimera?"

"A chimera," Brynn explained with a sigh, "is the byproduct of Mages working strong magic."

"They appear wherever there is a high concentration of magic welders." Will continued. "They're like magic infused animals. Well, more like monsters. That one was called a gowrow, according to American folklore."

Mages and magic. The words brought to mind an old video game my brother and I used to play as kids. Even though I had seen some unexplainable things over the last three months, it was still hard to consider magic outside of a made up fantasy world.

"So why would they come here? I've never seen one in such a populated area. Is it because someone is doing magic nearby?" I asked.

Hana's eyes darted to me. "You've seen these things before?"

I nodded but didn't say more.

"We don't think that they are attracted to magic," Will said. "We believe that when Mages do large spells it weakens the divide between our world and wherever chimeras come from."

Brynn's blues eyes were on me. "Why were you trying to face it without your weapon?"

"Why would Sky have a weapon?" Hana asked, her eyes flickering between me and Brynn.

I ignored Hana's question. "We were out for a run. I didn't expect it. I'd never seen any beast come into an area like this before."

Will nodded. "It is weird. Normally they stick to wooded areas but recently they've gotten bold."

"So, there are a lot of these things around here?" Hana's voice was brittle. She had lost the confidence she had displayed outside.

"Regretting wanting to know?" Nathan asked with an unkind smile.