Impossible Creatures

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and animal death.

When Christopher ascends the hill, a stampede of otherworldly animals—including a unicorn—almost runs him over. As the animals flee past him, Christopher cannot believe what he is seeing; he pinches himself to prove that he is in the real world. He then pulls himself out of the path of the animals and moves to return home. However, as he walks down the hill, he hears the sound of a creature in trouble. Returning to the hill, he discovers a lake, in the center of which is a wounded griffin—a mythical animal that is part lion and part eagle. Christopher rescues the creature and promises to protect it. (The narrator notes that this is a dangerous promise to make to a living thing.)

Christopher takes the griffin home, but his grandfather is not shocked by the fantastical sight. As Frank tends to the creature’s wounds, he explains that the family is part of a line of guardians who safeguard the “waybetween”: the place where the nonmagical world meets the magical Archipelago islands. Frank gives his grandson a map of the islands and a bestiary—a book that the guardians of