Joy collapsed with weariness; they had been traveling again. They had passed through the whole of Birchen Woods, and now they were in the middle of some rolling hills.
What Joy found strange was that, on this trip, there were no other animals. She had been trying to ask but Selvester, with his babbling mouth, wouldn't stop talking. There was no break where she could ask. Was he hiding something? And where exactly were they going?
Jeremy quickly rushed over to Joy to check if she was hurt. "Joy, are you okay?"
"Yeah . . . I . . . I'm fine," she mumbled.
"Yes, yes! Come, come! Let us hurry!" Selvester prodded.
"Selvester!" Jeremy snapped, "Stop that! Let us rest for at least a moment! You keep annoying us, you continue to prod us on, but what for?! Where are you leading us? I bet we're all just plain lost and you have no idea. Or maybe you're a traitor and you're leading us into a tra--"
"Please be quiet!" Selvester cried, though he froze and drifted into another tale. Yet for once, his voice was hushed. Joy didn't really want to interrupt, but Jeremy did have a point. Where was this stranger leading them?
"S . . . Selvester," Joy whispered.
Selvester paid no attention.
"Selvester!!!" Jeremy glared at the white fox who coward with fear.
"Y . . y . . . ye-e-s . .s?" Selvester whispered with a shaky voice because he was trembling. Joy couldn't help but feel a bit bad for the poor little fox.
"Listen to what my sister has to say." Jeremy still looked suspicious.
"Selvester, I don't wish to be unkind or anything, but you're truly being quite suspicious. Who are you? Where are the other animals here?" Joy asked, trying to be as gentle as possible.
Selvester shuffled his paws with a hanging head. "It . . . it is always watching!" he hissed. Joy and Jeremy both looked questioningly at him.
"Go down! Cower now!" he hissed again.
"Selvester . . . what . .?" Jeremy and Joy both asked.
"Down! Down!" Selvester's eyes were flaring and he looked irritated. "Mustn't . . . tell . ."
Joy and Jeremy slipped down. Suddenly, the most bone-shaking roar filled the air. Joy ducked down and covered her ears. Selvester squealed and bounded away before Jeremy could catch him.
The earth shook and the roar sounded again.
"ZHEMOSOPHAT HAS AWAKENED!!!" a yell followed the roar. Several voices rose up and cheered. Joy realized that the voices were animal noises: barking, meowing, purring, roaring, yipping, howling, yowling, croaking, chirping, and much more. She also noticed that all of the animal noises were from carnivores: domestic dogs, domestic cats, wolves, panthers, tigers, lions, ocelots, foxes, coyotes, eagles, hawks, falcons, and all of the sort.
"Look, Joy!" Jeremy whispered with horror. Joy warily opened her eyes and stretched up a little.
"It's . . . it's . . . terrible!" he breathed again. He was right! There were all sorts of creatures, and all of them wore blood-matted fur and icy eyes. Some of the cats wore collars stunted with sharp bones while their claws were reinforced with sharp teeth. The dogs' eyes were red and bloodthirsty. All of the animals were wiry, proud, evil, bloodthirsty, and ready to kill. But what?
Though that wasn't what exactly troubled Joy. What truly troubled her was the giant monster that was behind all of the animals. It was horrifying, so horrifying that it was truly difficult to explain it.
First of all, as said before, the creature was huge. At the least, it was eighteen feet tall. The center head was a lion. The head to the right was an eagle, to the left was a ram head. Then a long, venomous looking black snake rose up to be the tail. The body was a lion, the legs were legs of a ram, and then there was a most astonishing part(or not so astonishing, considering the eagle head): there were the biggest wings she had ever seen. They were a very dark brown - almost black. Those wings stretched to be possibly twenty feet or more, and they were very wide, too.
Joy couldn't believe her eyes. Her mind skipped back to the past, while she was reading a couple of interesting books. They were research books of all sorts of mythology, monsters, etc. To what books she had studied, there were quite a few illustrations of the monsters. There was one that looked similar to what she saw before her.
'What was the name?!' she thought to herself. She knew it started with a C. Though, apparently, she didn't need to remember.
"A . . . a chimera!" Jeremy whispered with overcoming fear. Joy had to tremble, too. What would that monster do them if it found them?
Author's Note: I sure hope you enjoyed this piece, because there might be a couple weeks without it. I'm going to be everywhere until late August; I'm traveling to my relatives' houses and stuff. In the car. Yes, yes, and no Internet, either! And I don't have a laptop :(. We'll see if I'll be able to get all of the weeks in, but I doubt it. Thank you for reading!
