Legacies' First Monster Is the Craziest Thing We've Seen in Mystic Falls Yet

Legacieshas introduced its first monster-of-the-week, and it came out of the gate with guns blazing -- emphasis on blazing.

The search for Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) led Hope (Danielle Rose Russell), Rafael (Peyton Alex Smith) and Alaric (Matthew Davis) into the woods surrounding the freak bus accident, where they ran into what they thought was a survivor in shock. She looked like she'd seen the inside of a bus set ablaze, after all, and that's what the knife does, right? So, so wrong.

It turns out the knife didn't burn those people to a crisp, a dragon did.

That's right, a dragon. Wings, talons and all! The Vampire Diariesmay have taught us that only vampires, werewolves and witches exist in this supernatural world, but things in Mystic Falls are changing, and they're changing fast. Inside the seemingly innocent facade of a young girl wandering the woods in a panic was a fire-breathing dragon, which even Alaric, master of monsters and all things supernatural, thought was just a myth.

So, how are we just now learning about these creatures? For that answer, we went to showrunner Julie Plec.

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"The big question when monsters start knocking on their door -- not just metaphorically but actually -- is where are they coming from and how are they walking on this earth?" Plec tells TV Guide. "Because there [are] a good 10 years of TV history that says there's no such thing as these kinds of creatures in the Mystic Falls/Vampire Diaries universe. That is the mystery of the season. Why are they here? How are they here? Who or what is sending them here? And we just go from there."

It's hard not to be intrigued by the tease that someone (or something) is sending mythical monsters to the school gates, but that's a bigger mystery that we'll have to bite into later. We may not know how this dragon found itself in Mystic Falls, but we do know what she was after -- the knife Landon stole from the Salvatore School.

There's something off about that knife, and even Hope could see that when it helped her repel the dragon's fire. Its full powers still remain a little mysterious, but one thing is for sure: Monsters want it for themselves.

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"I have to say, it's a little bit of a season about a knife," teases Plec. "And that might sound ridiculous, but if you watch, you'll see there's something about this knife that nobody can destroy, nobody can define, nobody can understand what it does, why it does what it does, and most importantly why a whole menagerie of thought to be fictional creatures are coming after that knife. So, there's a big mystery attached to it and a lot of questions, and we're looking forward to really teasing that out over the course of a lot of episodes and building a really rich mythology for these creatures and for that weapon in particular."

It appears the next monster from that menagerie is going to be a gargoyle of some sort, and that final shot of the school revealed it's already inside the gates! Alaric may have urged Hope to be less like her father in this episode, but moving forward, she may have to tap into her inner Klaus (Joseph Morgan) if she wants to face off against monsters that are bigger and badder than even an Original vampire.

Legacies airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

Want more Legacies content right now? Check out these Vampire Diaries and Originals Easter eggs hidden in the series so far, take a tour of the Salvatore School and find out which Vampire Diaries and Originals characters the Legacies cast hope to see stop by the spin-off!

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