Mirai

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I wished I hadn't teleported there and I wished I could run away. The problem was that the noise of me teleporting had already alerted the creature of my presence and I was rooted to the ground. My shock and fear had made me become one with the stone.

The creature got up on its four paws. It moved the front paws forward, leaned down its head, or rather one of its heads, and stretched out its lion body. While it did so, the head on the back of it yawned. After a sufficient stretch, it straightened up and showed off its full size.

I stood maybe ten meters away from it, but I knew I was shorter than its legs.

It saw me and pierced me with all of its eyes. The eyes which belonged to the lion head at the front. The eyes of the goat head that sat on its back. Even the eyes of the snake it had instead of a tail, bent around its body to look at me. Its red, scaly wings, which fit best with the snake head, stretched out, and the creature let out a low growl, only it wasn't low at all but loud enough to make the earth underneath my feet vibrate.

It was a chimaera. I had just disturbed, woken up, and pissed off a chimaera.

"How dare you come here!" it growled at me. Or he, for from the voice I assumed it was a male.

"I... I... I'm sorry," I got out and my legs unfroze. I took a step back. "I didn't mean to bother you. I... I'll be going now."

I turned to run, temporarily forgotten about such things as teleporting. But there was a whooshing noise behind me. The wind hit me hard enough to make me fall over and the chimaera appeared before me. Blocking my path.

I looked up at him. He towered over me, and his lion lips were curled back in a snarl. The goat looked at me with narrowed eyes. And the snake came slithering down to have his face right by mine.

"You dare to run!" the snake head hissed.

"I... I'm sorry. Please. I didn't know you were here," I pleaded and looked between all three of the heads, unsure of which to address.

"I should have your life," the goat head said.

"Been long since we had witch meat," the snake agreed.

My body trembled, and I had no idea what to do, what to say to escape what seemed to be an inevitable death. But then, just like words had come to me when talking to Elijah, words came to me as I looked back up into the lion head's eyes.

"It wasn't Rikus' fault and you know it!" I shouted at him. My voice firmer and stronger than moments before. 

He let out an earth-shattering roar that would have had me clasping my hands over my ears if it wasn't for the fact that one of his front paws hit me as well. I was thrown a few meters away. The rug sack Elijah had given me fell off me and landed between two rocks. My back hit a stone. The impact set shots of pain through my body, all air was pushed out of my lungs, and stars danced before my eyes. I fell forwards and scraped up my arms and knees on the uneven ground, but thankfully managed to keep my head from hitting the stone.

"Don't talk to me about that imbecile of a dragon!" he growled at me.

The wounds were blistering, my back ached and every tiny movement caused pain, I had to force air into my lungs, my vision was slightly blurred. But I felt a small triumph within me.

The chimaera definitely was strong enough to throw my body in one motion so hard against the rocks that I would instantly die. That I only got scrapes and bruises meant he wasn't interested in killing me. At least not at that moment.

I got up into a kneeling position. The metallic taste of blood swam in my mouth. I fixed my eyes on the lion head. Then I continued with the words that came from somewhere within me with a strong and urgent voice. "You know it's true! It wasn't his fault. And it wasn't yours either. It was just an accident and if you want to ever find her, you have to forgive yourself. Isn't that what Aurora would have wanted?"

"Who are you? What do you know of Aurora?" he snarled at me and took a step closer. The snake hissed with his tongue out. The goat bent his head to show his horns. While the lion head held me with his eyes, though his teeth were bared.

"I... I'm a clairvoyant. I don't know Aurora, but I know what's in store for you if you don't let Aurora go. You'll lose so much more if you don't and you'll never escape your self-imposed misery." It felt like wild ramblings to me. I had no idea what I actually talked about. Had no clue who Rikus or Aurora were. But as long as my words kept the chimaera from killing me, that was all that mattered.

His eyes were narrowed, and the goat gave a sharp bleat while the snake gave a low hiss, the lion snarled under his breath. But then his demeanor changed. The tension left, and the snake and goat exchanged an amused glance.

"A clairvoyant, you say," the lion head said while the snake and goat heads laughed. "If you're a clairvoyant, then how did you not foresee waking me up?"

I didn't know how to answer him. Or well, rather that there wasn't any good answer except the truth. "I only recently got my ability, so my gift isn't that strong."

The snake and goat heads laughed some more, or it was rather taunting sniggers that echoed in the valley. But I was happy to receive those any day of the week instead of his angry roars.

"Run along then, little clairvoyant, and never disturb me again," he said and took off from the ground again. Flew back to the rock he had been resting on and laid down there with all of his eyes closed.