Hey, everyone! Thank you all so much for the reviews. I feel so loved.3

Anyway, I'm going to slowly start introducing the characters I've chosen, so feel free to keep submitting- nothing's final yet!

Sorry this chapter is a bit slow and kinda long, a certain person kept pushing me to keep writing when I didn't know what to put… But I'm thankful. :D

Please read and review!


"Don't you have some sort of weapon or something?"

Aria's voice was strained, shooting arrows while running wasn't exactly easy. She could only shoot one every long while, but each shot killed one or more Basiliskos. They would explode into a rain of ashes, or the fire would simply burn the serpent to a crisp. Although Aria's shots were dead-on, the snakes were overtaking them. There were still more coming.

"No- I don't think so!" Cedar yelled back. Only then did Adrien glance back to look at him- and did a double take. Were those... Hooves? Part of him felt surprised and confused, but to some part of him … well, it didn't seem all that strange. Adrien's contradicting feelings showed only through a confused frown at the hooves, and then kept running. "Sorry I couldn't tell you before, but-"

Adrien cut Cedar off, "doesn't matter. I wouldn't know if you had told me before anyway."

Aria gave Cedar a confused look, silently asking what was happening. Cedar gave a shrug, not exactly knowing himself.

"Can we just focus on not dying?" Adrien asked calmly, too calmly for what Cedar and Aria thought be normal.

Running through the streets of New York, all three teenagers were beginning to pant. "It's just a bit further!" Aria called back through heavy breaths.

After what seemed like too long, a grassy hill came into their view. Cedar breathed a sigh of relief, and seemed to have renewed energy. He seemed to pick up the pace, calling over his shoulder, "guys, I can see the pine tree from he-"

Adrien strained to look above the crest of the hill to see why Cedar had stopped talking so abruptly. Soon enough, he approached the source of the voice, only to see a Basiliskos wrapped around Cedar's neck. His face was turning an unsightly shade of blue as his oxygen was cut off.

"Cedar!" Aria called out, shock in her voice.

In one fluid movement, Adrien turned around to face her, "can I borrow one of those? Thanks." Before she had a chance to respond, he took one of her arrows and darted forward towards Cedar. The snake hissed, and took a strike at him. Adrien ducked, letting his instincts take over. With the bronze-tipped arrow, he stabbed upwards and skewered the snake's head. Pivoting on his back foot, Adrien swung the arrow and flung the Basiliskos away from Cedar.

As Cedar began to fall, Adrien caught his arm. Where the Basiliskos had been wrapped around his neck was a band of dead looking, black skin. The color was spreading quickly. Cedar's breathing was shallow and ragged. Adrien looked up as Aria approached with a worried look. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

Bending down to kneel beside Cedar, Aria paused for a moment, examining Cedar's wound. Her light brown eyes had a sad light to them as they examined the discoloration. "No... There's no antidote for Basiliskos poison." She coughed softly, trying to keep her voice steady. "The least I can do is take his pain away."

Adrien gave her a questioning look. How was she going to do that? Unless she had some sort of power … Why did he think that right away? He shook his head lightly, and then nodded to her, a silent thanks.

Clearing her throat, Aria began to speak, a strange sort of chant in rhyme. "His fight may be in vain, but release him from his pain. For a gentle passage I pray, on this day of dismay." As she spoke, a gentle golden-yellow light glowed from her hand that she placed over Cedar's neck. As Adrien looked on, Cedar visibly seemed to grow more relaxed.

Adrien tensed, sneaking a glance behind him. He could see far too many yellow eyes looking at them from the gloom of sunset. He tightened his grip on the borrowed arrow and prepared to spring into action, keeping an eye on the snakes behind him while paying attention to Aria and Cedar.

Looking up at Aria with gratitude, Cedar swallowed hard and tried to speak, his voice coming out in ragged breaths. "Get... back to camp," he coughed, pausing in his speech, "don't worry... about me. Don't.. don't give me that look. Go!" Cedar coughed again, this time spitting blood onto the grass as he turned his head. He weakly reached into his pocket and drew some reed pipes, and began to blow into them.

As soon as Cedar began to play a strange melody, albeit weakly, on his pipes, grass began to spring to life. Adrien heard hisses, and felt his instincts twinge, grabbing Aria by the shoulders and pulling her backwards. Her half-formed exclamation fell short when she looked at the Basiliskos hissing in the spot she had been standing just moments before. She nodded her thanks to Adrien, and rubbed at her eyes quickly.

Adrien followed her gaze to Cedar, who gave them a faint grin, and Aria returned it. "Well, let's go then. Don't just stand there, hurry the hell up!" Despite her sharp words, she refused to make eye contact with Adrien and pointed out a weird-looking pine tree with a... golden thing of wool? Before he could ask what exactly they were running towards, Aria grabbed his sleeve and began to run. It took him a couple of paces to regain his balance and sense of direction, but once he did he ran on his own she let go of his sleeve.

They ran on in silence, Aria occasionally sprinting forward only to stop, turn around and fire an arrow. Her arrows always hit their mark. Adrien followed a couple of paces behind, still using the borrowed arrow as a weapon. It was covered in grime from the snake's blood, and also the ashes that they burst into. They were both breathing heavily, and the snakes kept coming.

They continued to back up the hill, trying to fight the snakes back at the same time. Aria stepped past the golden wool, and sighed. Adrien glanced back, "won't these things just follow us?"

With a sigh, Aria, grabbed his shirt again and pulled him past the tree. Adrien lost his balance and fell on his backside, looking up at the Basiliskos that tried to spring after him, only to see it hit an invisible barrier and dissolve.

"That golden thing? That's the Golden Fleece. It protects this place from monsters," Aria explained, standing behind Adrien trying to catch her breath. "They can't enter. That's what makes this such a safe place."

Taking a deep breath, he stood up and turned around to face Aria. "So," he began, "what exactly IS this place-"

Adrien stopped abruptly, and jumped backwards, banging into the tree. He raised the arrow that was still in his hand, and narrowed his eyes, which took on a weird light. Though they were tensed, they also betrayed alarm. He was crouched, ready to either jump into a fight or run- he couldn't decide which. "The hell is that?" He directed the question to Aria, his voice low and tense.

Aria looked alarmed at his sudden reaction, and quickly spun around, looking at the large monster in fear for a moment before laughing. "Thomas, you really should stop doing this to new campers."

The... Minotaur lowered it's twin swords, which disappeared into it's hands. It laughed, a deep sound which turned into that of a teenage boy as a burst of smoke enveloped the area. When Adrien could see again, he saw a black-haired boy with glasses that was around his age. The boy stopped and rubbed his temples, giving Aria a pained look.

Aria shook her head at the boy, but walked forward and murmured another chant. Soon, the boy straighted up and thanked her, whatever pain he had felt in his head gone. He laughed again, and stuck his hands in his jean pockets. "Hey, sorry to scare you like that. I just happened to be in the middle of an experiment, and I couldn't resist."

Adrien slowly straightened up, unwilling to relax until he was sure the threat had passed. Aria rolled her eyes at him, "oh come on, he doesn't bite. Most of the time."

Thomas laughed lightly, "sorry man, I didn't think you'd be so edgy." He ran a hand through his already messy black hair before adding, "I'm not going to do anything else, feel free to calm down."

After a minute, Adrien straightened up, and a moment latter handed the arrow back to Aria, who stuck it back in her quiver. The cold spark in his dark blue eyes faded, and Adrien shook his head a bit to clear the fog in his head that had made him feel weird through the entire encounter. He blinked a couple times before shaking his head again, this time in response to Thomas. "No- I don't know why I reacted like that. Sorry," he offered a small smile, "but you were looking pretty scary."

Giving a smile back, Thomas laughed again, "you're a strange one. Super tense one minute, and super calm the next. So," he began, "I'm Thomas. And you are... ?"

Before Adrien had a chance to respond, another girl trotted up. She wore a heavy-looking white snow coat with a fur lining around the hood, and had chocolate colored hair. Her gray-brown eyes were cold looking, but she didn't speak with a cold tone. More of a polite, yet cool one. "Thomas, don't leave your clothes lying around," she tossed Thomas a white lab coat, and turned to Aria. "Is he new? There's a small meeting going on now, I came to get Thomas. Bring him."

Without another word, the girl turned around again and walked back in the direction she came. Aria sighed, "that was Alice. She's always like that, don't be offended." She glanced over to see Thomas fumble with the coat for a moment before putting it on. "We should get going. You can introduce yourself there."

"Wait. One thing first," Thomas glanced around before following Aria as she began to walk away from Adrien, "where's Cedar? I haven't seen him. Wasn't he the one who you were working with?"

Turning around slightly, Aria only looked at Thomas briefly before turning around again. "He didn't make it," was her curt reply.

Deciding not to push her, Thomas slowly nodded before continuing, walking until he disappeared over the crest of the hill. Aria took a deep breath before beginning to walk again, turning around as she did so. "Well? Come on. You really don't want to be late."