The Chimaera’s Island I was on my ship, looking at a map trying to determine which direction we should head, to reach land, but suddenly some of my men barged open the door to my study. “Odysseus”, one of my men shouted to gain my attention. “When will we be home? ” Thad no clue when we would be home and I was in no position to lie to my crew. I looked up from the many maps scattering the large desk and said, “My men, I will not lie to those few who have survived with me. I have looked at many of the maps we have on board and without an island we know, there is no way to tell which direction is the best.
Without the Gods helping us, the best way to travel is to hope for the best and wait to hit land or for the Gods to intervene. ” “We have been traveling for over 8 years, Odysseus. We can not take your leadership any longer! Your directions have led us from monster to monster, island to island, and problem to problem. We are through with your decisions. ” When my men finished talking they reached for me and forced me up to the main deck. When we reached the surface the rest of the crew that was left was there waiting for me, watching as I was pushed closer to the edge.
What is going on here? ” I knew the crew was growing tired of these awful situations, but I never thought they would go this far. I saw they were all standing by the side of the ship with a few boards tied together in the shape of raft just big enough to sit on. The crew pushed me to the side and threw me overboard, and I hit the sea with an icy splash, the raft a few seconds behind. I grabbed onto the raft and held on as I was floating aimlessly. After a night of floating I landed on an island I soon discovered was called the Chimera’s Island.
For the first three nights everything was calm and peaceful. The beach was a mix of white and black sand, so fine that the Gods must have laid it here themselves, along with every tree in the jungle, that loomed over the fire | sat by at night. A short walk from where I landed was a high cliff, the only high point on the island, where the freshest water fell into a bed of glass, and created little ripples throughout the pond. The waterfall was where all the other animals seemed to go to refresh, sharing the only fresh water I could find.
Aside from the food I managed to catch around the waterfall I thought I was alone, until on the fourth morning of being on the island, when I was blasted out of a wonderful dream of being home again, surrounded by my wife and son, there was a loud noise coming from the far side of the island and coming closer. readied my sword and hid up in the trees along the edge of the sand. A creature emerged out of from the bushes creeping slowly along the beaches edge. With every step he took closer to until he was under my tree, then I held my breath and looked down.
The beast that walked below me was a mix of many, inside this one monster appeared to be a lion, but where a tail should have been there was a large snake, along with a goat’s head attached to the lion’s back. I soon learned this beast was called the Chimaera, he stopped under my tree and saw the fire ring I had used for the past few nights. Suddenly he blew fire out of the his mouth restarting the bonfire that had recently died. Right then I decided to attack the monster below before it attacked me.
I drew my arm back grabbing my sword and when the Chimaera was not paying attention I jumped from the tree, and sliced off the goat’s head in one clean motion. The lion’s head screamed in agony as it looked at the severed head lying beside it. Fire emerged betweens the lion’s dagger teeth as the fire blazed closer I dove and threw sand back at the Chimaera, managing to hit the lion’s eyes. I went to lunge for the lion, but the snake bit my arm. I screamed out and backed away, it felt as if the lion’s own fire was burning the skin and tissue surrounding y punctured skin.
When I could start to see past the excruciating pain starting to run down my arm, I swung my sword and cut off the Chimaera’s snake tail, watching the snake wither as it died and the lion once more breath fire and roar over the pain. All that was left was the lion and I. We were on opposite sides of the bonfire slowly moving in circles. Suddenly, what was left of the Chimaera, leaped over the fire and onto me. I fell backwards, feeling as if I was hit by a minotaur, my sword fell a few feet away as I hit the sand.
I pushed the lion away inches from my face as he tried to bite me. I managed to pus his head up moments before fire emerged from his mouth missing my head by centimeters. I reached for my sword and shoved it into the lion’s heart, making him land as a heap on top of me. I pushed the lion off me and got to my feet, now very aware of the pain coming from the arm the snake bite. In the distance I could see people coming towards me. They rushed closer as they saw the Chimaera lying dead with the other two heads close by.
The people smiled and cheered, they came rushing toward me, realizing I was the one who destroyed the beast. It was hard to understand the men and women, who did not speak often. They led me back to the little town they made on the opposite side of the waterfall. I was led to a hut on the edge of town, where there were rows of different color flowers and leaves. An old man was tending to the plants, and without even looking up he walked down one of the rows and pulled these blue leaves off one plant and an orange flower off another.
The man walked past me and started mashing them together until it formed a thick paste. He walked up to me and took my injured arm and started rubbing the mix on the punctured arm. “This should stop the venom from spreading and draw it out,” these were the first coherent words I heard come out of any of the islanders mouths. After a few seconds the pain started to dull and my arm became numb. “The islanders will start building a raft after the celebration of you killing our greatest enemy, the Chimaera. ” I sat there in silence, xhausted and drained from the battle. The old man led me to a bed after he was done tending to the plants. The next thing | remember is being awoken by one of the islanders and them guiding me to a huge fire. It was dark out, but the town was bright with fire. The celebration had begun and was much bigger than I would have thought.
There was drums and food and dancing. We celebrated all night over the death of the mighty Chimaera. The next morning I woke up and walked down to the beach to see a boat built and being filled with supplies. This is our way of saying thanks for killing the Chimaera, we hope you go get back to wear your need to be,” the old man said. “Thank you for the boat and all the supplies,” I told them as I was getting onto the ship. They pushed me off and I started floating into the sea. I found my ship within a day and found out my crew had started to come back for me, realizing the only way to get home was together. My crew pulled me up onto my ship and I told my tale to them as we continued to find out way home.
