City of Fear

Chapter 8

A/N - Fluffy: Look! A consistent updating schedule! Who knew, right?

Queue: Consistent isn't exactly the same thing as frequent, but who's complaining?

Fluffy: Not me, that's for sure. Heh heh heh. . .

Queue: And neither am I. *whips head to look at Fluffy* For once.

Fluffy: *looks down at feet*

Queue: *follows gaze* Hey look! A chapter!

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John spurred his horse to catch up with Sherlock, who had ridden ahead of him and Merlin. They had been traveling for almost a day now, on their way to Ishbayern after investigating Garman's village and informing Arthur that they'd need to track down the chimera's origins.

Sherlock didn't even look at him. "About time you joined me. We need to discuss what we saw."

John rolled his eyes at Sherlock's use of the word we. "Let me guess: you're going to ask what I noticed, I'm not going to say the right thing, and you're going to correct me while being very condescending." This was John's least favorite part about being friends with a consulting detective.

Sherlock furrowed his brow. "I'm not condescending."

John laughed. "Right. Of course you aren't. So what did we see?"

"You're not going to tell me you didn't notice the tracks."

"I'm afraid I'm about to tell you that exact thing."

Sherlock sighed, exasperated. "The tracks, John, the tracks!" he cried before lowering his voice again. "Those lion tracks were replaced by boot prints. I followed the paw prints into the forest, and they stopped right where the footprints started."

"And?"

Sherlock threw his hands into the air, causing his horse to rear its head. When settled, Sherlock took a deep breath through his nose and said calmly, "And, John, that means that we're not dealing with a chimera. We're dealing with a shape-shifter, like I already suspected."

John gave him a puzzled look. "Already suspected?"

"The first double-attack was by two different creatures. A leshy and a basilisk. As I thought about it last night, I assumed that either we were misinterpreting evidence, two mythical creatures were working in league with each other, or we were working with at least one shape-shifter."

"Brilliant. But why didn't you bring this up before?" John tried not to sound insulted.

"It was an assumption, not a presumption. I was waiting for something to back it up. Transforming tracks were just what I needed."

John paused for a moment. "Does that mean that we should turn back?"

Sherlock shook his head. "Shape-shifters pass their gift on through their children or their children's children. When I was in Ishbayern last, there was rumor of one going around."

"So you had us travel all the way out here on that? A rumor?"

"A rumor, maybe. But also, John, the king can't know about this discovery yet. He's already strict enough about magic, and if he finds out that a shape-shifter is loose in his kingdom, he'll be interrogating everyone twice for good measure. We need a tactful way around this, like we always have. Locking up anyone who's even remotely suspicious is no way to solve a crime."