Author's Note:

3rd of January, 2024 - Message from the author

This work is indefinitely incomplete. It is not being updated and is not being worked behind the screen. When hiatus began, I had plans to come back to the work, but every time I came back to the project, I found I was unable to continue the work due to frustrations with the quality of the original writing.

If new progress is ever created past what has already been posted, it will not be posted until the entire rest of it is written to my current satisfaction and standard of quality, which would involve a complete rewrite, not only for the general prose, but for the plot and characterization of all areas of the work.

In the interest of posterity, I won't be deleting it even though there is a very good chance it will not ever be updated again. To anyone who read this and got enjoyment out of it at one point, my sincerest thanks and well wishes.

Kindest regards,

Maggie

Chapter 1: Cold Blood

It was a Saturday. More specifically, it was a hot, lazy, too hot to do anything, Saturday in a small house in a small suburban town in Concord, New Hampshire. Even more specifically, it was a house belonging to one Michael Lynk, in which he and his two children, Josephine and Caleb lived.

It was on this hot, lazy Saturday in late July that said children were sitting in the living room, both bored. Josephine was sprawled on the couch, her feet in the air, her head on the rug, allegedly reading a book that she was holding upside-down to match her position. In all honesty, she had lost interest about five pages ago, and the information was going in and out of her head as she flipped through the book. Caleb, meanwhile, was engaged in a jigsaw puzzle that he had about as much interest in as Josephine did her book. The silence was heavier and more muggy than the day.

"Ugggggggghhhhh!" the sister said, and she slid off the couch until she was lying on her back on the floor. She discarded her book by throwing it at her brother. "Could you say anything or am I doomed to die from the silence?"

Caleb gave her a stink eye. "Oh, I'm sorry, Jo, I should have realized that you wanted me to talk to you from the way you didn't ever ask me to talk to you."

"Yes, you should have." she answered, and to prove her point, she picked up a puzzle piece that had fallen on the floor and threw it at him.

He glared at her again, picked the piece out of his lap, and started looking for its place in his puzzle, suddenly interested in it if it meant spiteing Jo.

Jo pulled herself off the floor, and sat up at the coffee table to help with the puzzle. As she picked up a piece, Caleb slapped her hand. "Find your own thing."

Jo gave a huff, and flounced down the hall, her golden hair bouncing back and forth as she made her way to her room, and slammed the door. The silence perpetuated for a few more minutes before she came back to the living room, still annoyed by Caleb's silence.

"You're so boring." she said, and picked up her abandoned book, before setting it back down and settling on staring out the window. Another few minutes went by. "Caaaaaleeeeeb?"

"Jo, just leave me alone will you? Unless it's life or death-"

"Caleb, it's life or death, I think. There is a snake lady right outside this window."

"Try again. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." He replied without looking up. Jo screamed, and fell backwards onto the table, destroying both the table and the puzzle.

"Jo, what the hel-" Caleb began, before seeing the creature before him. If possible, the already pale Caleb got paler. In front of him was, in fact, a snake woman. She had two snake tails coming out of her waist, and a woman's torso. Her eyes were yellow slits, and she had fangs and a forked tongue.

"Caleb, what do we do?" Jo asked, the fear evident in her voice

"I don't know! This isn't exactly an eventuality I've prepared for!" he replied, his own voice barely more than a whisper.

"Sssssssssso….new blood!" the dragon lady rasped. "I've longed for a sssssssnack!"

She lashed out, and grabbed them both. Caleb around the waist, and Jo by the neck. Jo began gasping for air, pouding on the scaly arms with her fists, but to no avail. Caleb was hitting her equally, grabbing at her arm in an attempt to pull her off. As he gripped the reptilian woman, she hissed at his touch.

"Cold. Very cold. You have her blood, do you not?"

Caleb wasn't sure what she was talking about, and Jo had stopped flailing, her punches coming slower as her oxygen was cut off. Caleb knew he needed to do something or she would die.

Following some instinct, he pressed his palm onto her wrist and felt it growing icy under his grip. The woman dropped Jo in shock, and attempted to pull his arm away, but he kept it where it was, freezing her under his grip. After a moment, she fell, and shattered like glass...or ice. Then, she turned into sand, and blew away.

Jo was gasping still. "Caleb….Caleb how did you do that? What was that thing?"

"Oh no, oh dear, I've gotten here to late and they'll both be dead-"

They heard the door open, and around the corner came the source of the shrill voice. The man stopped as he saw them.

"Oh. Well, if they aren't dead, then I'll need to take them to camp still. Camp, then, I suppose. Maybe I'll complete an assignment then, maybe."

"Who are you?" Caleb asked

"Oh, I'm just a problem. Everyone says I'm a failure, but-I mean, my name is Winston. I was sent here to protect you and bring you to camp, but I didn't do a very good job at protecting you. You probably want a different satyr, I'd better go."

"Camp? Satyrs?" Jo asked "I have so many questions, and no one seems to be answering them."

"Well yeah. If you'll just come with me, I can take you to someone much more qualified to answer questions. Chiron is good. Or the Oracle, she gives-well usually more questions, that one. Or the others. Those two that are still at camp are very good at answering questions."

"Winston, could you give any straight answers?"

"I'm told I'm not good at that either." he glanced out the window. "Great, she had a friend with her. If you don't want to battle another dracanae, you might want to come with me, though if you don't want to-"

Jo looked up at her older brother. "I'm sold. Coming?"

He looked out the window too. "I guess so."

The Lynk siblings stood up and followed Winston out the back door, and down the road south, toward Long Island Sound.

After about an hour of walking, they came across two majestic animals-winged horses.

"I'm sorry," Jo squeaked. "But I'm looking at two pegasi."

"Oh, yes, well, it was hard to sniff you out from way in the air, so, I uh, I dismounted to try and find you better. That's probably what slowed me down, it was a stupid desicion, but these can get us to camp faster, so, um, you might have to share one."

Jo climbed onto one of the horses, and Caleb sat behind her. "So, just follow me, okay? The pegasus will know what to do, honest, just don't fall off. Then I would fail my mission."

The two horses took off, and continued to bring them south toward their fate.