The tremors felt in Sunnydale were just the outer edges of an Earthquake under the Pacific Ocean. It was not big enough to cause tsunamis or anything big on the surface but it was enough to awaken something lying dormant on the sea bed. Among the rocks one eye slowly opened. Behind it a long serpentine neck emerged from the sand and rocks scattering all other marine life in the area. The small hill on the other end of the neck began to shake. The wedge-shaped head looked from side to side for a moment then gazed unwaveringly towards a specific town on the Pacific coast of North America. Something new was coming to Sunnydale.

"It's the Navir, not the nervous, Codex and at present I am at a complete loss as to what it's prophesying, even accurate prophecies are often difficult to comprehend fully until after the event. You are the living proof that prophecies can miss out important information, such as the death of a Slayer being a mercifully temporary condition."

Xander and Willow entered the library discussing what had caused the death of the dinosaurs. "I still say it was a number of different causes," said Willow. "A cometary collision may well have been one of them but that by itself would not explain why some creatures died and others didn't. If the sun was blocked out, why do we still have crocodiles?'

Xander saw that he was losing and decided that he would have more fun annoying Giles. "So G-man, what's the word from the world of the undead and the British."

"Xander, the two are neither mutually exclusive nor directly connected, but as for news as I was explaining to Buffy I have discovered a prophecy in the Navir Codex which is rather difficult to understand."

"If *you* don't understand it, I don't think the rest of us are going to be much use," confessed Willow. "I mean, you're the expert on these things." "Yes, I had realized that," answered Giles, "but the more people think about it and the more ideas we have the more likely we are to understand the portents before it's too late. The prophecy in the Codex says, "Beware of the shaking for the wyrm cometh forth, from the water to the fire and even the demons fear. Tooth and claw shall rend the Earth and the Slayer shall fall beyond the grave."'

"We have to beware of a worm? Bug men aside, that doesn't sound too dangerous to me," responded Xander.

"The word "wyrm", particularly as it is spelled here rarely refers to the Annelida or common earthworm," said Giles, showing Xander the piece of paper on which he had written the prophecy. "Wyrm is used for many different types of creature, mainly those with long necks and tails but not even necessarily legless. Although often it is supposed with the legless variety that if cut in half..."

"What was that about me falling to my grave?" Buffy interrupted. "I know my death was only temporary last time but that still doesn't mean I'm exactly happy with death predictions, particularly those referring to me." "It didn't actually say 'to' but 'beyond the grave'," corrected Willow. "So it isn't necessarily a death prophecy, it could indicate a trip to hell, in either the figurative or literal sense." Then her face fell as she realized that was not what the Slayer needed to hear.

"Thanks Will, that makes me feel so much better," remarked Buffy, but upon seeing Willow's face added, "but thanks for making the effort. Anyone else got happier news for me?"

"Not as such, no, but although the prophecies tend to be accurate the correct interpretation is not always the most obvious one. So I would not go writing your epitaph just yet," said Giles. "I'm not sure what to make of the wyrm coming 'From the water to the fire'. Also I assume the demons it's referring to are vampires but it must be something fearsome indeed if even the vampires are afraid of it."

"It mentions the tremors, maybe the water is the Ocean," said Xander, "the epicentre is meant to be somewhere out there. As they all looked at him, he added, "What? I do have good ideas sometimes, you know."

"The fire could easily be the Hellmouth, and besides its tendency to act like a weirdness vacuum, that would explain my involvement," said Buffy. "Whatever this wyrm is it would almost certainly attract it."

"Yes, but perhaps the biggest question is, what is this wyrm?" Giles proposed. "The problem is too often in the past people would assign the same name to any number of creatures. It could be some sort of sea serpent, a dragon, a wyvern, a slime crawler, basilisk or any one of at least twenty other creatures. Until we actually see it we can have little idea of just what we're dealing with."

The gang was not sure of some of the monsters Giles mentioned. No one spoke and a gloomy silence settled over the library. Suddenly Willow said, "Ooh! Assuming the prophecy is only talking about one creature I think we can rule out a sea serpent." The others looked at her in amazement. Her face turned red and she continued her thought, "Well, the second bit says 'tooth and claw will rend the Earth', and sea serpents are usually a bit lacking in the claw department. Also it would be difficult for a sea creature to get to the actual Hellmouth even if it gets to Sunnydale harbour."

"You're right," said Giles "that would also rule out plesiosaurs and a number of others too, but though that narrows the search there are still several possibilities."

A bell rang. "Well we seem to have got as far as we can with the prophecy," said Buffy. "And we have a Biology class to get to. Later Giles." They picked up their bags and left the library.

Giles stared after them for a moment and muttered to himself, "When is a wyrm not a wyrm" and returned to his books.

"This is good news?" asked Buffy.

"Well it's bad news for the victims but it may at least give us more of an idea of what we're looking for, if Willow can find the coroner's report," responded Giles as Willow took her seat by the computer.

"Well, the coroner's report is not a huge help because not much of the bodies are left," said Willow "but I'll print a copy. It might help if I can decrypt the police report...but this may take a little while.'

Buffy read the coroner's report then handed it to Giles remarking, "Well, lots of blood was left and lots of flesh was eaten so we're not talking vampires."

"Yes," confirmed Giles "and missing flesh does not fit a basilisk. Also there seems to be no pattern to the missing body parts either so we are not talking about an organ-harvesting demon either. There is no indication of burns on the bodies so it was not a fire-drake."

"For those of us who haven't been studying mythical creatures for the past forty years, what are basilisks and fire-drakes?" asked Xander.

"The basilisk is a tiny but highly venomous creature, the mythic version had a glance that turned people to stone and a poison that would run up any weapon stuck into it and kill the person holding the weapon. The actual creature has a hypnotic stare and a powerful electric shock which gives the same effect as the mythic characteristics." answered Giles. "A fire-drake is quite simply a fire-breathing dragon. Such creatures are listed in a book known as a bestiary, like that one." Giles indicated a book left on a desk behind Xander. "It's a sort of monstrous creature catalogue."

"The police report mentions a huge mark, resembling a bird's claw but much larger, close to the scene of the attack. It has two toes pointing forward and one backward. Does that help?" asked Willow. "It also mentions someone nearby thinking they saw a large silhouette rising into the sky around the estimated time of death."

"It will certainly narrow down the search," said Giles. "Pass me that bestiary please, Xander. Hmm, a tridactyl claw and the ability to fly. It's a pity they have the animals listed alphabetically and not by attributes. Let me see... Acridians, Aurochs, Barishi, Basilisks, Bears, Boars, Brownies...this will probably take me most of the morning to find and note down the possibilities, not to mention how to combat them." As if on cue the bell rang.

"I have a free, I'll help," volunteered Willow. "It will be nice to know what's going on for a change."

"Good, that should reduce the time it takes. I'll need you to look through some of the other bestiaries," said Giles.

"You know, when this is over," said Willow, "If we put this information on a computer database we could create a search for 'tridactyl claw' and 'wings' without 'firebreathing' and it could pull out all the entries for us without us having to search through all this...what's this?" she asked in surprise. "There really is such a creature as a bookworm?"

"Unfortunately some of the writers of these bestiaries got a bit carried away, most of the reports are second or third hand at least and they had a tendency to make up extra creatures to explain things they didn't know about, like wasps or moth larvae eating paper," explained Giles. "Now where did I put my notebook, I need to keep a record of the creatures that fit what we have so far. He continued as they returned to searching the books.