The Shadow Archer Twins

I woke up at the crack of dawn. No, really. Through the east-facing window of our room, I could see exactly one crack of sunlight peeking through the hills as I pulled on an extra pair of jeans and a white cotton shirt.

It was still relatively dark, with the weird three buildings that made up this strange motel casting massive shadows onto the front parking lot. I don’t know why, but I felt drawn to them. The shadows, I mean, not the buildings. I couldn’t really place the feeling, but something about those shadows spoke to me. They were deep, full of darkness, and would be easy to hide in, if you knew how. That’s one of the reasons Katie and I loved DC. With all of the narrow back alleys, and massive office buildings, the city was like a playground of shadows, just waiting for the right person to sneak through them.

As I put on my leather jacket, I murmured to myself,

“This is why you bought it. For shadows like these.”

I walked down the stairs of the building and headed into the dining hall, which was quite small, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was a cup of coffee and a bagel, but then I saw the buffet. Every breakfast food imaginable was laid out on silver platters down the length of a table that took up most of the room. Waffles, pancakes, French toast, sausages, ten different kinds of cereal, and a huge fruit platter. I thought that I had died and gone to heaven, but then my stomach brought me back to earth. I hadn’t realized how intensely hungry I was until I had finished wolfing down a huge plate of food, two cups of orange juice and a coffee, sitting in the back corner of the dining room. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much before in my life, but I felt great. I no longer felt afraid, like I had back in the forest last night.

I remembered the cold fear that had gripped me among the dark trees, with their menacing shadows and creepy sounds. Those shadows weren’t like the ones outside. They were uncontrolled, dark, and evil. I couldn’t hide in those shadows, they felt untrustworthy.

I had gotten so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed the employee we met yesterday standing over me until he suddenly spoke, in that soft, purring voice,

“Enjoying your breakfast, Mr. Holmes?”

I jumped so much I hit my knee on the underside of the table, hard. Trying to regain my calm, and mask the pain in my knee, I said, “Yeah, it’s great. Thanks for the food, Mr—?”

What was him name again? Chai? Kyle? No, Kai. And then I realized something. He had called me by my last name. I never told that to anyone, and I hadn’t even spoken to him when we had checked in. A dagger of that old fear crept back into my chest as he said,

“People call me Kai. It’s short for something, you know, but that’s not important to you, child of prophecy.”

“Child of prophecy?” I asked, “What does that mean?”

His lips curled into an evil smile, showing canine teeth like a lion’s. Just like a lion’s. He continued, in a mask of curiosity, “Oh, you don’t know about your heritage? That’s sad. In my time, every hero I came across knew their heritage going back many generations. They always like to boast before I killed them.”

“Killed them?” I asked. I was starting to get seriously scared. Then, a voice, soft, and guiding, told me,

Think, Otis. Use the knowledge that you have about Greek myths. You know this creature, so, recognize him.

I started to think, madly trying to indentify this man. I thought about the lion’s face on the front building, the wooly fur of the middle building, and the viper coat paint, with its wispy tail of smoke coming out of the chimney. A name popped into my head. A name of one of the worst Greek monsters of all time, a killing machine worse than the manticore in New Orleans. Kai must have seen that I was trying to recognize him, and his grin widened.

He roared, leaving the purr behind, shouting,

“Yes, Mr. Holmes! My name is Kai, short for Chimera! I am the son of Echidna, mother of all monsters! And I, am going to kill you!”

Then, Kai changed. His face became rounder, and a snout grew out. A mane of hair sprouted from his neck, and his arms turned into the front legs of a huge lion, strong and muscular. From his back, white stringy fur started growing through his uniform, and a goat’s head pushed through the back of his dress shirt, sticking out over the lion’s head. His legs turned into a mountain goat’s, thin, nimble, but strong, with thick hooves on the end. Finally, a tail sprung through the seat of his pants, revealing a viper, as thick as my arm, spitting thick, black poison.

He roared again, and I couldn’t move. I was in shock. His back legs tensed, getting ready to pounce on me for the kill, when he staggered back. A bronze arrow had sprouted out of his front left leg, and he roared in pain. But, his viper tail stretched forward and ripped the arrow free, and the chimera turned to face his attacker.

Malcolm had saved my life, but he looked annoyed, as if he was used to monsters not dying when he shot them. In the moment that the monster turned to see who had shot him, I saw my chance. I launched myself forward, and tackled the monster with all my might, sending us both flying into the breakfast table. Sausages flew everywhere, along with two or three bananas, and a plate of bagels. My leg got wrapped in its viper tail, but I quickly untangled myself, kicking the monster and the table in the process. A fresh pot of coffee spilled all over the chimera’s goat head, and it bleated in pain. But instead of sound coming out of the goat’s head when it bleated, a stream of liquid fire, almost like napalm, sprayed out of the creature’s mouth. Coincidentally, I just happened to remember the fact that Chimera’s goat head spat fire, right as I leaped away from him, still on the floor.

Malcolm moved forward to help me, with an arrow knocked. Then, the chimera made his mistake. He roared in defense, thinking it would scare Malcolm away. All it did was provide him with an open target to shoot at, which Malcolm did. The arrow flew straight into the monster’s lion head and punched through the back of its throat, leaving a half-dollar sized hole in its mouth. The roar was cut short as the monster realized that it had just been fatally shot, and then its entire body dissolved, leaving only a pair of curved horns from the goat’s head.

Malcolm rushed over and helped me up, but I felt fine. Well, fine doesn’t really cut it. With the adrenaline coursing through me, I felt like a drug addict on the strongest dose he had taken ever. My eyes darted everywhere. I noticed everything, like the subtle stench of the monster dust, the singed chairs in the corner of the room from the goat-fire, and how ripped my jeans now were. I took a deep breath, trying to bring my heart rate down. My eyes stopped pinging around the room, and I could think again. I bent down and picked up the two goat's horns and handed them to Malcolm. That was when I felt the pain.

A searing, pain, like liquid fire, was shooting up my left leg. I looked down, and saw a smudge of what looked like tar on the back of my pants leg, surrounding a hole in my jeans. Occupying the hole, were two inch-long bite marks, perfectly uniform, and a sickly shade of green. I tried not to vomit or pass out when I saw the wound, and Malcolm saw it just after I did. His face paled,

“Oh Styx!” He cursed, “That’s really not good. We need to get that wound cleaned now, or you’re going to die in the next fifteen minutes.”

I could already feel my life force draining away, slipping away from my grip on reality. Thank the gods for Katie’s timing. She rushed into the dining room with the red medical kit from Malcolm’s bag and said,

“Are you two hurt? It sounded like a professional football game was going on in here! What the heck happened?”

Malcolm looked at me, to answer the question, and I replied,

“Chimera,” I clipped off, “Kai. Chimera. Lion, fire-breathing goat, and viper. I got bit. Not feeling great.”

And with that, I slumped backwards, blacking out from the pain in my calf.

Notes

Sorry this one doesn't have as much dialogue as hoped, but it was supposed to be all about the fight scene. Next two chapters should be out soon.