The week passed somberly for Hector. The letter Ariane had been waiting for arrived, and she'd left five days prior with a great sendoff from the village.

Today, he could barely haul himself out of bed. The weather outside seemed to mock him: Today was a beautiful day, without a cloud in sight.

He sighed, and got ready for the day, grabbing some leftover bread from supper the night before.

As usual, Sara was already up. Her face was a vacant stare. Hector snapped his fingers, rousing her from her trance. "The nightmares again?" He asked.

Sara nodded. "They're still getting worse. I'm starting to think that it's a good thing that I can't remember them in the morning."

Hector nodded. "Give me a bit, and I'll be ready to go."

Sara nodded. "Take all the time you need."

Hector finished eating, then headed out to the river, and washed up. When he came back in, Sara was holding out his travel pack. He smiled, and accepted the gear. "Come on." He said. "She's waiting for us."

They headed out along the familiar path, making the trek for what seemed like – and probably was – the thousandth time. They walked along the path through the trees, keeping all senses on high alert. The forest kept out the biggest Chimera, but size was far from the deciding factor of lethality. The forests were favorite haunts of several different kinds of Chimera, from the twenty-foot long, 300 pound serpent, Osteolacero, which killed its prey by crushing it beneath its muscular coils before devouring it whole, to swarms of Borers: inch-and-a-half long insects with poisonous stings, powerful jaws, and big appetites.


They arrived safely at the graveyard around in the late morning. The graveyard itself was small and plain, with the bodies traditionally burnt and the bones and ashes buried deep so that the graves would not be dug up by scavengers. The entire funeral process was carried out here, from cremation to the service itself, so the cemetery still had to be a bit of a ways away from the town proper, so that the scavengers would not harass the town proper.

Today, there were no rites being given, no bodies being cremated, so the cemetery was empty, save for Sara and Hector. They made their way to their parents' grave, and set another small bouquet down on the grave. Hector closed his eyes, and offered them a silent prayer.

It was their mother's birthday today. Were she still alive today, she would have been forty. Their father's birthday had been two months earlier: He would have been 43.

Hector felt Sara tugging at his shirt sleeve. He turned to her and asked, "What's up?"

She pointed subtly to the far side of the cemetery. Hector followed her pointing finger.

It wasn't a Chimera that Hector had ever seen before in his life. However, recently, hunters had been reporting ones like it in the surrounding regions for a few days. Hector ran through all of the stories that had been told recently, matching all of the details to the thing before him.

It stood on four legs, the back two far more powerfully built than the front two, with an additional pair held over its head, all with dangerous-looking claws. A pair of tusks extended from either side of its head, and its mouth was filled with small, triangular teeth. A row of plates formed a sort of ridge along its back. A pair of wings were folded up behind the two vertical legs, and a tail extended out behind. The whole thing seemed covered in a mottled brown and reddish-pink. At the shoulder, it was about two feet tall, but the vertical limbs gave it another foot and a half.

The thing advanced slowly, every muscle in its body seeming ready to uncoil violently at the slightest provocation. Its beady yellow eyes seemed fixed on Hector and Sara.

"Sara, get behind me." Hector said. Sara nodded, and slowly began to creep backwards.

Without warning, the Chimera launched itself forwards, traveling the twenty feet between itself and its target in two bounds, faster than anything Hector had seen before. However, Hector still managed to get his knife out as the thing approached, only to cry out in pain and drop the weapon as the Chimera bit into his arm.

He felt a familiar and welcome tingle in his shoulder as his Mark added to the adrenaline already pumping through him. He picked up the knife in his other hand, and drove the weapon into the Chimera's head. The thing screeched in pain, and released its hold on Hector's arm. Hector held onto the knife as the thing bolted away, tearing the weapon from its fleshy sheath before replacing it in the sheath at his thigh. He grabbed Sara's hand, and tugged her to him. They started running.


By noon, they were back in the village, and Hector was admitted to the village's healer. There, he discovered the severity of his injuries: in addition to the broken bones in his forearm, his back had been struck repeatedly by the Chimera's upper claws, and there were several cuts on his legs from where the Chimera's front claws had torn at him. The healer said that it had been a miracle that he'd managed to make it back with his injuries.

Hector had seen others brought through town with wounds attributed to the new Chimera: one had been a Sylvan, helped through the town by her much-luckier companions after she'd been ambushed in her tree, suffering a broken lower leg and badly-mauled upper leg. Another had been a Tethysian. He'd had his back ripped up after the Chimera had attacked from behind. Worse, the incidents seemed to be accelerating. No sooner had the healer finished dressing Hector's wounds and applying the splint to Hector's broken arm than a Terran hunter was brought in by two others, his stomach flayed in much the same way as Hector's leg, only the cuts were longer and deeper. That the Terran was screaming in pain, and not unconscious from it, was a testament to his constitution.

Hector made his way back home, where his sister was asleep on the couch, eyes closed in what Hector recognized as a troubled sleep. He sat down on the couch next to Sara, and stroked her comfortingly.

Suddenly, Sara snapped up, moving so fast that Hector nearly fell off of the couch in surprise. Her breathing was rapid, and Hector noticed a thin trail of blood start to appear from her nose. "More of them." She looked at Hector with absolute terror. "Hector, there are more of them! Dozens more!"

Hector recovered, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, Sara. It was just a bad dream."

Sara seemed convinced, though. "I'm sure of it, Hector. I saw them! They're coming! They'll be here soon!" She started tearing up. "It's gonna happen again. I'm gonna lose you just like we lost Mom and Dad!"

Hector hugged her tight, feeling her sob and heave. "It'll be alright, Sara. I promise. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. No matter what, I promise that I'll always be here for you."

Then, the realization hit Hector. "Sara, you saw them in your dream."

"Yes." The realization hit her as well. "In my dream."

"You remembered a nightmare." Hector said. "Sara, you remembered! You-"

There was a frantic knocking at the door. "Emergency! Bar your doors and windows!" The call echoed. "Chimera!"

Even as Hector's mind froze up, his body went into action. He rushed to the front door, and secured its lock, before doing the same with the windows. Then, having done all he could, he returned to Sara, and held her tight.


For a few minutes, there was silence. Hector began to thing that the attack was over, that they'd be alright. He rose slowly…

The glass of one of the windows blew inwards as the Chimera jumped through it, landing inside on all fours. Sara screamed, and Hector knew that, this time, he wouldn't survive the encounter. Nonetheless, the knife found its way to his hand, and he moved between the Chimera and his sister, swearing that he'd do everything in his power to protect her. The thing crouched down into a leaping posture, tensing its back legs, locking its eyes on Hector, who crouched into his own stance, readying himself for the fight.

Suddenly, the creature leaped forward, towards Hector. This time, however, Hector knew what to expect from his foe, and he wasted no time in swinging his knife hand as the Chimera approached, driving the blade into the thing's flank, hearing what he assumed was the thing's exoskeleton crunch in the impact.

The creature screeched in pain as it went flying to the side from the force of the blow, but it was back up in an instant, watching Hector warily. It didn't charge him now. It circled him, keeping Hector in its sight. Was it waiting for something?

Hector realized almost immediately that it probably was. There were definitely more of these things attacking. Was it waiting for its packmates? He shook his head. There was no way. These were just Chimera. Dumb beasts with lethal weapons. There was no way for the other packmates to know that their friend was in danger.

Then, as the Chimera turned its injured flank back to Hector, he realized what it was waiting for. The injury was healing right before his eyes, the tissues and muscle torn apart by his knife knitting themselves back together right in front of him. The thing could regenerate; Hector could not.

Hector's charge caught the thing by surprise, that much Hector noticed. However, he was far slower than the Chimera. By the time he was halfway to it, the Chimera had turned to face him, and leapt forward to intercept him. Those lethal claws and crushing jaws quickly caught Hector's attention, and he focused his efforts on the latter.

He was rewarded with several cuts across his chest and stomach, and the satisfaction of hearing its exoskeleton crunch under his knife's blade. The blow sent the Chimera spinning again, and this time, Hector was on top of it as it recovered. He struck at it again and again until the thing stopped moving.

Finally, it was over. Hector's entire body ached, and his injuries, both from the morning's encounter and this one, sent flares of pain through his body with every action. He looked over to see Sara was alright, and slowly standing up. He rushed towards her and hugged her tight.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Sara nodded. "I'm fine. But you're not: you're bleeding really badly."

Hector looked down, and blanched. His chest had been spared the brunt of the attack, but his stomach had been the victim of the Chimera's more-muscular back legs. The cuts there were deep, and bleeding profusely. Hector clutched at the wounds, the last traces of his adrenaline gone. His vision went blurry, and black began to creep in.

He heard frantic knocking at the door, and made it halfway to the door before passing out.


Hector came to in the healer's home, with his stomach wrapped in bandages, turned brown with dried blood. He sat up, but his head started spinning and he laid back down.

"Oh, good. You're awake and alive." Hector recognized the voice as belonging to Glen, one of the herbalists. "Alexia's out getting bandages, and Maria was here for a bit, but she left to get some herbs from our shop."

"How's Sara?" Hector asked.

"Sara's alright, Hector. She wasn't hurt in the attack, just shaken up."

Hector sighed in relief. "That's good. How bad am I?"

"Pretty bad. In addition to your stomach, Alexia says that some of your ribs are cracked, and one broke altogether."

Hector nodded. "I figured it would be pretty bad. How long until I'm up again?"

"That depends." A new voice said. Hector sat up slowly, and saw Alexia, the village's healer, arriving with new bandages. "You've been out for a day already, and you're showing signs of improvement." Hector laid back down as Alexia approached. He felt one cool hand on his chest, and a slight addition of pressure to his stomach, then the familiar pulse of energy as her Mark of Health triggered.

"Your ribs are all better, with the exception of the broken one, but that'll be better fairly soon as well. The injuries on your chest have healed as well. But your stomach…"

"How bad is it?" Hector asked.

"It'll scar when it finally heals up." She said. That alone spoke volumes about how close Hector had come to dying. His mark had saved him several times, but he'd never scarred. This was a first for him, one that spoke volumes about how dangerous these things were.

"How many others?" Hector asked.

"Thirty-seven." Alexia answered. "Twenty-nine were guards and soldiers. The rest were attacked in their homes. You were the only one in that group to survive. Out of the Guard casualties, about half died from their injuries. Most of the survivors are already on their feet. There's only one that's still bedridden, and he'll be up and about pretty soon."

Hector did the math in his head. More than twenty people were dead. More than half were trained soldiers. The devastation would only continue.

"We can't stay here." Hector said. "We wouldn't be able to survive another attack like that. We have to leave now, or we risk getting attacked again and again."

Glen looked at Alexia, who nodded. Glen looked at Hector. "After the attack, the Council voted on sending a group out and hunting down the Chimera nest these things came from, and since the attack came in the middle of the day, they're sending out the group tonight, while the things are asleep."