Before you begin reading, be aware this is rated 'T' for swearing and probably minor blood and violence later on. So if you don't like that kind of stuff, you probably don't want to read this. Just a fair warning :D

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"Look at me, listen to me, drink in my words because your life depends on it. There is a room where the light won't find you and one where you will never have to face the darkness. You and five others must find these rooms and prevent what the rest of us cannot stop. Do you hear me? Do you understand me? If you or any of those others do not stop what is coming I swear to whatever you hold close that I will find all of you, kill you all slowly, make you suffer. I will let them kill off your entire race- for real this time. The last time they thought killing almost all of you would've been enough. Imbeciles. But trust me; they won't make the same mistake again. And neither will I. I don't know who or where the others are. I don't know if they're alive or if they've moved on. I don't know how many of them know what they must do. But what I do know is that I've found you. Do you know what that means, sweet scales? It means you are now the messenger. You must find the others and carry on this little message. If you don't, I will make your suffering much, much worse than the others. Alright? Good. And if I'm wrong about you- well it's just one more worthless human life gone, right? No big deal. And now if you'll excuse me, I have more searching to do. Good luck sweet scales, you'll need any you can get."

---

The air was thick and humid. The world around her was filled with silence that made her stomach churn in anticipation. Her body felt warm and disgusting. A sluggish, groggy feeling filled her senses and made her eyes feel heavy. Over all, she just wanted to throw up and go to sleep. Gods she wanted to throw up. Maybe not wanted to, but needed to. If that made her stomach feel better than so be it. Her lungs felt like they were filled with blood, or something was weighing them down from the inside. Her back ached too, like thousands of tiny needles had stabbed it… It almost felt like she had an intense cold.

What the hell happened? Why did she feel so awful?

The sixteen-year-old breathed in shakily and opened her tired eyes. Patches of dull scattered light dotted the mix of dead grass and dirt around her. Tall pale white trees filled her vision everywhere she looked, their equally long roots entangled with one another on the ground, covered by dull green leaves. She made a mental note not to trip on those as she looked up. Much like the roots, the tree branches above were woven and tangled up within one another, their many dark green leaves blocking out the sun and scattering any light that could actually get through to the forest floor. But even at that, the female could make out a thin canopy of clouds above the trees, further blocking out the sun.

Overall, this forest was eerie but peaceful in a way.

She inhaled shakily, slowly preparing her body for movement. Pain laced her body as her mussels tightened and her joints popped and creaked.

'Gods I feel like an old lady,' she thought to herself, forcing a small smile as she went to stand up on her legs. The teenager gasped in surprise as her legs gave out and she fell back down to the dead ground below her. 'Okay, clearly not the best idea to stand up while feeling sick. Good job, you idiot. Good flippin' job.' She thought bitterly as the scent of dirt assaulted her nostrils and her body lit up in new found pain.

A small sigh that came from in front of her yanked her from out of her thoughts as fear shattered her foggy mind. Faster than she thought she was able too, the teenager sat up and looked directly at the one who made the noise.

A large beast stood in between the thicket of trees in front of her, and she swore that her heart stopped beating all together. It was a Minotaur, the half man-half bull from fantasy and mythology. It looked like something out of one of the video games she played; only this wasn't a video game creation. It was a living, breathing creature standing right in front of her.

It was huge compared to her, about 16 feet tall with a large, burly structure. It had wide broad shoulders and an almost athletic build, including muscular arms and powerful legs. Its bull-like legs ended in two, sharp-looking shiny black hooves that should probably be avoided. The creature had sleek brown fur that covered his entire body, though there was a little more of it at the end of his whip-like tail; a small tuft of it, which was a bit darker than the rest of his body. A pair of dull white, bull-like horns adorned it's head; Hale also made a mental note to stay away from those too. The half-man half-bull wore odd metal cuffs around each of its wrists and a pair of dark green shorts that ended at his knee-caps.

The Minotaur's yellow eyes seemed to look her over and track her every movement.

She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, gods she couldn't even move. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Sure, she believed that mythical creatures did roam the world at one point or another- but she never thought that she would come face-to-face with one; let alone one this powerful looking.

The Minotaur seemed to notice her fear and paranoia, because the next thing she knew it was slowly approaching her, wearing a small comforting smile and speaking to her.

"Don't worry, little one," his deep voice rumbled "I am not going to harm you."

"O-okay," she squeaked out as he, judging by the voice, came to a stop in front of her- deciding that it would be rude to not answer him. Her breath hitched as her blue-gray eyes looked up to meet his yellow ones. His eyes reminded her of someone she knew, which she tried her best to find comfort in. The problem was she couldn't remember whose eyes they reminded her of. It was just someone she knew and had found comfort in…

"What's your name?" he asked her, still smiling. The teenager's already tense shoulders tensed up even more. Why did he want to know that? What could he possibly gain from it?

'My name?' She thought to herself, feeling her shoulders slump. She…she couldn't remember her name. She had one, she knew that- but it was somewhere at the back of her memory. She panicked, fearing that he would harm her if she didn't give him an answer despite his calm nature. The teenager scrambled to find a name that she would want to use for the time being. She remembered creating a couple of 'pen names' for herself a while back, so why not use one of those?

"Hale," she finally forced out quietly, "Hale Sinclair." It wasn't the most common name, and while it wasn't her favorite pen name she had, she still loved it. It was the name of a band or at the very least half of the name of a band by the name of 'Halestorm'- she couldn't remember if that's where she got it from. And, come to think of it, the name wasn't very human sounding since it wasn't common, but she doubted the Minotaur in front of her would know that.

"Hale," The bull said quietly, almost as if he was trying to engrave her 'name' into his memory, "My name is Absalom; it's a pleasure to meet you. Though I do wish it was under better circumstances." The last part he had mumbled quietly, almost as if it was more to himself than it was to her.

"Can you tell me where I am?" Hale blurted without thinking, her mind suddenly being thrown into overdrive with questions. Where was she? How did she get here? Why couldn't she remember anything? Why was she in pain? Why was this odd creature speaking with her and not killing her? Not that she minded that last part… but she didn't expect such a powerful creature from myth to have a civil conversation with a mangy human of all creatures.

But that was beside the point, she realized as she flattened herself to the ground with another squeak because of her outburst. Before she had a chance to apologize Absalom began to speak,

"Do you remember anything, young one?" He asked her gently. Hale slowly straightened out again as she searched her mind for anything that she could recall about anything at this point. Everything was…fuzzy in a way. Almost like a dream that you know you had, and somewhere in the back of your mind you know you could remember it perfectly, but at the front of your mind it's just there and you can't say anything about it. And that fact irked her to no end.

"I can't say that I do," Hale answered after a long pause, momentarily forgetting her fear in favor of trying to remember who the hell she was and what happened.

Absalom let out a deep, pained sigh that caused Hale to look up at his eyes again. His mighty shoulders slumped slightly and his face suddenly looked extremely aged, it was almost like he was dreading something…

"Hale, I don't know how else to put this," The large beast began slowly, calmly, gently… he was doing something that Hale recognized, it was that attitude parents had towards their children when they told them a pet or a relative died. Another part of her stomach curled in fear, she didn't like where this was going.

"But you have passed on. Your old human life has somehow ended, and instead of going to heaven or being reincarnated or whatever else you may believe; your soul has converted into its true mythical form and has sent you here to me. These special types of souls are called 'Mythend Souls'- you are one of them now, and I am one of them. I have been the caretaker of these souls like you and I for many years, all of us live in a mansion not far from here… Hale?"

The teenager couldn't believe her ears… I mean, why would she!? Being told that you've somehow died and have been transformed into something else doesn't exactly happen every day, so how the hell is she supposed to react? Her head swam with the information she was receiving, making her stomach feel even worse than it already did.

'I'm dead? No longer living? Gone? I manage to find a way to die at sixteen of all ages and I can't even remember how?! There's no way this is a dream, it's far too painful to be that. And I don't usually have dreams, let alone ones this bizarre… I shouldn't be so shocked. I mean, life is really short right? So I should be expected to die young. I always thought I wouldn't live past twenty but I never expected that 'prediction' to actually come true. And this Minotaur in front of me is dead too? Was he human too? How does he know what he's doing? Wait… he said he's been doing this for many years. There's more of them… no, us. Mythend Souls. Mansion. A mansion. What? Who? Caretaker. Absalom. Minotaur… what? Me?'

Hale lost the ability to form coherent thoughts the more the gears in her mind ran and worked in a vain attempt to figure out what was going on. Her head was still spinning, but now her stomach was churning and she couldn't breathe.

The teenager looked down at her hands for the first time since she woke up. Light blue filled her blurry vision for a few moments before forearms, scales, and paw/hand like structures came into view. She stared for the longest time at her 'arms', trying in vain to figure out what she was, even though she had a pretty good idea.

"Absalom?" She whispered quietly after another long pause. She heard the bull sigh quietly and move, a large palm warmed her shoulder. But even at that she didn't look up. It was an attempt at comfort, she realized after another moment of silence, but even if she had found it a threat she still probably wouldn't have looked up.

"I'm a dragon, aren't I?"

His hand gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, causing her to inhale shakily again. Some of her terror of the large creature was beginning to come back. But that squeeze, it was a sort of confirmation to her statement and something more… something she couldn't put her finger on. Or claw? Talon? Oh hell…

"I am unsure," he said to her quietly, "You could be a hybrid, but in a way-yes, you are an ice dragoness."

Hale felt a sad grin slip over her features, and she almost laughed; her name made so much more sense now…

---

It had been silent for a long time after her realization. For a long, painful thirty-five minutes the two creatures sat there in silence; one trying to fight back angry tears while the other tried to provide comfort.

And then the silence had been broken with a question that caused the new Mythend soul's heart to jump in her throat and then sink in defeat: 'Will you please come with me, young one?'

So, here she was, walking quietly behind a huge Minotaur with her head hung low and her wings draped at her sides through an odd forest to a mansion where other messed up souls like her lied. At this point Hale could only wonder when the next time she would sleep would be. She wasn't frantically wondering who she would meet, what they would be like, if she would be brutally attacked, what they were, if this was a trap- like she normally would in any social situation. All she wanted to do is curl up into a scaly ball and go to sleep until she could figure out how to react to all of this or until she could get her emotions in check.

"Hale," Absalom said quietly, catching her attention. Hale didn't move her head, but she did focus her tired, watery eyes on him. His concerned yet cheerful eyes bore into hers, and Hale felt her chest tighten and her gut churn. She hated that look, and she couldn't say why. "When we get there, please don't feel intimidated by who's there, I assure you all of them are friendly and are going to help you through this," he said, clearly trying help ease any nerves he assumed she must be feeling.

The dragoness almost smiled, gods this Minotaur was nice but he still hadn't mentioned anything about food or sleep or what happens next.

'Well, maybe it's because you haven't asked, dumbass,' she thought bitterly to herself as she mutely nodded to Absalom, who smiled in return and suddenly stopped walking. The dragoness was about to question why, when she noticed what was in front of him.

A huge mansion sat in a clearing of trees. It looked pretty old, but stable. The building itself was a dark gray in color with black rimmed window stills and accents on the edges. It was tall and wide, looked like it had at least three floors and lots of rooms, judging by the many windows. The windows on the bottom floor were wide and horizontal, and if one looked close enough you could see the kitchen on the right side and some sort of lobby on the left. The other windows on the other two floors were vertical, rounded at the top and flat edged on the bottom. There was a name for that shape, but the name of it escaped Hale for the moment.

The mansion had multiple, tall, thin cone-like roofs that were a dull royal blue in color and were rimmed with the same dull black color that accented the entire building. It also had a front porch that curled around the front and halfway around the sides of the house, it was enclosed with a frame of 'bars' or separated columns that were waist high. It was also covered with a slanted, flat roof held up by two slim pillars on the corners of the patio. Contrary to the rest of the house, the patio frame and pillars were a dull white in color while the deck was planked with dark wood. On the left side of the patio, there was a large circular table with a couple of chairs, and to the right there was a huge, circular porch bed(complete with pillows and blankets) that hung by a few slim chains.

The perimeter of the mansion was fenced off with long slim black bars with sharp points that would impale any who tried to climb over and moved the wrong way. In the middle in front of the mansion was a gate (obviously related and connected to the fence) that was wide open. A stone walkway marked the entrance along with the gate. It ran in a straight line towards the steps that led up to the porch until it ran into a circular marble fountain that was in between the large gate and the porch of the mansion; at that point the walkway diverged and circled the fountain before meeting back in the middle and continuing its journey to the white steps of the porch until it came to a stop.

Hale lifted her head fully to get a good look at what would be her new home, and while she was impressed by the elegance of it, a part of her still felt like it was curling up and dying.

"How did you manage this?" Hale asked the large bull quietly while he continued to grin.

"All will be explained in due time, young one," Absalom said, gently resting a hand on her shoulder before beginning to walk towards the large black iron gates. The dragoness sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day and began to hesitantly follow Absalom to the stone path. Despite her mood and her insecurity, Hale made an attempt to hold her head high and flare out her wings slightly, but in the end she probably looked tense instead of… oh, what's that word? Confident.

The dragoness was a lot slower than the large bull-like creature in front of her. He strode through the iron gates with an air of confidence while his black hooves clanked loudly on the stone below him. Hale stumbled through, flattening herself to the ground, her black claws tapping quietly as she tried to keep up with his pace. She briefly wondered how he was comfortable with being so loud. Everything around them was so quiet, even the fountain in the middle of the front yard seemed quieter than his hooves.

"Why is he so loud? Was he always this loud? Is it just me? It has to be. I mean, everything has been quiet since the moment I woke up. Everything is fine. I'm just going to walk into the mansion, nod and force a smile to anyone who speaks with me, and then I'm going to go lie back down again because I don't know what else to do.' The dragoness eased up at those thoughts,'Yea, that'll work. No one could really blame me, right? Being told you're no longer living can have those side effects. I just need time to comprehend and understand all this and not be so numb about it. It's just odd. I should be more depressed but I'm not. I'm just numb. But that's fine. No one is going to judge me. Absalom said they're nice. He seems like someone who would tell me the…'

She stopped mid-thought as her spine and the back of her skull tingled. Any thought or feeling of comfort she had just given herself vanished and was replaced with anxiety and panic. Someone was watching them. She didn't know how she knew, but something was defiantly watching them. It wasn't something small and trivial, like a bird or some sort of bug. The thing watching them was large and… off in a way; and not the good kind of 'off'.

Hale's pale eyes scanned the area around her as she walked, which was somewhat difficult considering she now had to use four legs instead of two and was now focusing on something besides her emotions and walking- but she managed. Everything seemed normal. The trees were moving only with the wind, nothing stirred in the bushes, there wasn't anything ruffling the leaves or the dirt on the ground, and there was nothing in the front yard that anyone or anything could use as cover. The front yard of the mansion was bare except for the porch, stone path, and the fountain.

Hale picked up her pace. Absalom was nearing the porch by that point; she wanted to yell, to tell him to stop moving and being loud, that there was something watching them. She quickly passed the running fountain, small water droplets splattered onto her left wing- they felt too warm. She continued moving in a quickened pace, slowly catching up to Absalom. Something was wrong, or something wasn't right and she couldn't understand how he didn't notice it. He just kept on casually walking up to the front of the house acting like everything was alright with the world.

It was moving closer. They couldn't see it, it was hidden too well. She didn't know which direction it was coming from or where it had been originally watching them from. That bothered her too. It was moving quickly, moving with purpose, with intent. It was on a mission, as if it was trying desperately to fulfil some sort of goal. It was moving faster and faster, zeroing in on them.

Hale rushed up to the Minotaur's side, which seemed to startle him slightly. He stopped moving and looked down at her, his yellow eyes bore into hers worriedly as she opened her jaws to speak.

Just then, the front doors to the mansion flew open with a loud bang. There was a screeching sound that made her ears burn and her head pound. Multiple loud footsteps that rushed towards them. Hale flared her wings out in a panicked frenzy as the feelings in her bones and heart suddenly exploded. As she looked up with wide fearful eyes, she swore to the gods that her heart stopped beating for the second time that day.

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I apologize in advance, because I am awful at descriptions and tend to get comma happy. So, this is the first chapter, I know it's kind of boring but bear with me, alright? :)

Reviews and helpful criticism is welcomed and appreciated :D

The characters belong to me, so please don't steal.

But, I don't own the band 'Halestorm'

 

2: Introductions and a family...?

Just then, the front doors to the mansion flew open with a loud bang.  There was a screeching sound that made her ears burn and her head pound. Multiple loud footsteps that rushed towards them. Hale flared her wings out in a panicked frenzy as the feelings in her bones and heart suddenly exploded. As she looked up with wide fearful eyes, she swore to the gods that her heart stopped beating for the second time that day.

---

As soon as she looked up, the horrible tingling that had exploded through her only worsened. Her vision went blurry, but she could still see the fuzzy colors and outlines of the figures around her. A small, quick pink and white blur was coming straight for her, followed by a larger reddish-brown one. She could hear flapping too, but it sounded far away.

 Hale panicked and made an attempt to jump backwards to get away from the figures that were quickly approaching; which would have been easy if she were still human, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case anymore. The dragoness pushed her front legs off of the ground and reared backwards, completely forgetting that she now had back legs she needed to worry about. She yelped in surprise as she threw all of her weight backwards, and in one swift motion she fell backwards. The teenager winced in pain as she collided with the stone path. Her wings were crushed under her weight, as were the spikes that she apparently had because she could feel them painfully press into her back. She wasn’t focused on the pain though, she was too focused on trying to get back up and get away from the figures.

She rolled from her back onto her side, and winced in pain as the tingly feeling that had overwhelmed her before suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a painful throbbing in her head and back. Hale let out a hiss and placed one of her hand-like paws on her face, mentally cursing every word in the book as she used her index and ‘thumb’ claws to rub her closed eyes.

“-agon.”

“Calm down, Sarah!”

“Hah! Not the only one anymore, bro!”

“-ou okay?”

Voices. So many voices tuned into her brain it was almost dizzying. Hale heard a giggle and felt two arms that were slightly warmer than her wrap themselves around the bottom of her neck near her chest. The teenager’s eyes flew open and she tensed up, looking down. Large, innocent, silvery-white eyes with golden-red flecks around the pupils bore into her light blue ones. A small, pale skinned girl grinned up at her. The girl looked to be about seven or eight years old, she had long snow white hair that hung in loose curls ending around the bottom of her back. She wore a pink sun dress that had a thick black bow tied around the waist and silver floral patterns lining the bottom rim.

She squealed happily and hugged the dragoness tighter when Hale looked at her.

“Oh my gosh you look like Cole! And you’re soooo pretty! Prettier than Cole! He’s all dark and gloomy colored but you’re light and-!” The girl cut herself off with another happy squeal as she nuzzled her head into Hale’s chest.

Hale stiffened up even more. Most girls, or just people in general, found kids funny and cute, but they both scared the teenager to death and irked her to no end. When she was around them something in her stomach curled uneasily and she became fidgety, not knowing what to do or how to react around them. But, when they were being loud and obnoxious, that awkward uneasiness turned into a bitter, hot hate and she just wanted to strangle them.

But now, one of those things was currently complimenting her and nuzzling into her chest. She wasn’t horrible or anything like that, if anything she was just more peppy and over excited than annoying. The teenager just didn’t know or understand how to react, she didn’t know if it would be acceptable to push the child away or to tell her to move or… Before she could figure out what to do, the girl began chatting excitedly again.

“So what’s your name? My name’s Sarah! You’re a dragon right? Abby says I’m a banshee, and that I’m very helpful around the mansion because I can predict when someone new is about to come! And he was right! How old are you? What powers do you have? Are they the same as Cole’s? Are you as weird as he is? Do all you guys have wings and horns? What about those things on your tails? Will you-!”

Just then a chicken-like creature with dragon wings and tail came over and gently used his tail to lift the small girl up and away from the dragoness.

“Oh I am so sorry about her, miss!” He, judging from the voice, apologized kindly.

“Uhm…” Hale mumbled dumbly as her wide blue eyes slowly took in the scene in front of her while her mind tried to process what was going on. The creature in front of her, now that she had a better look of him, was indeed a rooster with dragon wings and a tail- so she wasn’t hallucinating. His feathers were a dark red in color with a few freckled white spots on his chest and cheeks. His leathery dragon wings and scaly tail were a cobalt color though they lacked any sort of markings. His voiced sounded aged but kind, and his posture was slouched ever so slightly- further proving her theory.

“She just gets excited when a new one arrives.” The bird said before grinning widely as he set the girl down and gave her a gentle pat on the head with his tail. He turned to Sarah, his smile melting into a somewhat stern look, “Sarah, don’t you have something to say?”

The small girl looked down at the bird, who was about half a foot shorter than her, and a guilty look flashed across her features. The banshee then looked up at Hale, and opened her mouth to probably apologize.

The dragoness also began to open her mouth, ready to say that any sort of apology was not needed, but she was interrupted once again by a voice she did not recognize.

“Relax Martin, she’s just a kid. It happens.” Sarah squealed happily again and turned around. Hale followed her gaze only to be met with the sight of two figures; one was human-like and the other was a dragon.

The human-like one was a young man that looked to be in his twenties. He had sleek, slightly messy pitch black hair that ended a little bit past his pointed ears( though his hair hid his ears for the most part). His bangs were swept to the side, away from his odd, bright neon green eyes so he could see. Most of his skin was hidden by his attire, but the skin on his face was visible. He had pale, almost grayish skin. It was like blood was no longer flowing through his veins and his skin had become lifeless.

‘He is lifeless, you dumb ass. All of us are,’ Hale thought bitterly to herself before continuing to look the two figures over.

The human figure wore a black zip-up trench coat with many pockets that ended a little bit past his knees. Currently, it was unzipped revealing the dark blue and gray striped tank top that he wore underneath. The figure wore a pair of black pants and lace-up boots that went up to three inches before his knee caps.  

The male was grinning widely, revealing a pair of sharp, white fangs… A vampire maybe..?

The second figure that walked beside him had a similar color scheme. The dragon’s scales were the same black color the assumed vampire’s hair was, with dark grey under scales and the same neon green eyes. He had light gray horns adorning his head that were angled back towards his body in a jagged, flowing manner. He also had a spade on the tip of his tail that was the same color as his horns, which Hale assumed is what Sarah had been questioning her about earlier. The dragon also had jagged, dorsal-fin like spikes that began at his forehead and ended at the tip of his tail. His dark grey-blue spikes started out small at first, each individual spike growing slightly larger than the last as they traveled down his spine until they hit the middle of his back where the largest one lied. After that they decreased in size once more before disappearing into his scales. Two large, black wings with dark blue-grey insides sprouted form his back.

His wings looked similar to her own; in fact, his whole body build seemed similar to hers.  Four legs, two wings, one tail… Maybe they were the same type of dragon. That was beside the point though, for the moment.

“Has ta’ learn somehow,” The bird creature mumbled in reply as the vampire and dragon came to a stop in front of them. “Why are you outside anyway? Doesn’t yer’ skin hurt?” Marvin continued, ruffling his feathers with a small sneer.

“But Martin, we have a guest!” The human-like creature exclaimed, gesturing to the dragoness with his hands and arms. Hale felt herself shrink back a bit as all eyes were suddenly focused on her again, she hated when everyone was looking at her.

“No Neo! Not guest! Buddy! Friend!” The little girl exclaimed, jumping up and down by the twenty-year-old in her excitement. The one called Neo grinned widely down at the girl and reached out a hand to pat her on the head.

“Yes, Sarah, a friend.” He said to her, continuing to rest his hand on her head while he regarded the bird-like creature again. “It would’ve been rude if I didn’t come out like everyone else!”

“I don’t care about that! Get back in that house before you turn to ashes out here! And before you even give me the ‘oh but its shady out here’ excuse, I don’t want to hear it! Sunlight can still seep through and then what!? I don’t think Absalom would approve of that happening either!” the elderly creature exclaimed with a flap of his blue wings.

The dragon beside Neo, who had been silent up until this point, slowly opened his right wing and allowed it to hover over the vampire; almost like an umbrella.

“There! Problem solved!” He said, flashing the small group a wide grin filled with many sharp needle-like teeth. The little banshee giggled and clapped her hands while Martin let out a huff.

“Teenagers,” he grumbled under his breath with a roll of his shiny black eyes.

“Cole! Cole! Look!” Sarah exclaimed, rushing over to the dragon and grabbing his left forearm. “She looks like you! You can have a friend now!” the banshee pointed to Hale, still smiling.

The dragoness tensed up once again, not liking being called to attention by a kid. All of their eyes fell on her again. It was like she was being examined, inside and out; like if they all stared long enough they would be able to know exactly who she is and pry into her secrets and such. Of course, that probably wasn’t possible, unless any of them had mind-reading powers or could see into her past.

‘Mention anything about babies or marriage kid and you’re dead…again.’ Hale thought bitterly before forcing a small fake smile.

“Uh… Hello,” she said shyly, trying her damnedest to be polite despite wanting to snap at them to stop staring at her.

“Well hi there! As you’ve probably heard, my name’s Neo, and this is my brother Cole. Welcome to the mansion!” the vampire greeted her energetically, continuing to keep his huge grin. Was everyone here this happy and energetic?

“Oi! That’s my line,” Absalom said with a small smile as he approached the group. Neo and Cole laughed, Marvin just smiled, and Sarah giggled and ran up to the minotaur.

“Abby!” She exclaimed, raising her arms and outstretching her hands in a ‘pick me up’ motion while standing on the tips of her black flats. The large creature smiled softly and in one swift motion picked the giddy girl up and sat her down on his left shoulder.

“Sorry ‘Abby’, but I like saying your line,” Neo joked with a wide grin. Absalom simply shook his head and smiled, clearly not having any more to say on the subject. Instead, his yellow eyes focused on Hale.

The dragoness flinched before slowly getting to her paws, feeling like a complete and utter fool for her reaction. But how else was she supposed to react? It’s not like she knew what was going on…

‘But what the hell was that…feeling anyway? Is that a normal thing for dragons to do? I hope not. My head is still pounding too. Maybe I should ask Absalom about it?’

She once again locked eyes with the bull-like creature, who of course saw her staring and simply offered her a kind smile.

“Come on, let’s go get you settled in; you still have much to learn and see.” He said before turning around and beginning to walk up the creaky white porch steps.

“Dibs on finding her a room!” Sarah called over her shoulder to the males that were slowly beginning to climb up the steps.

“Hey, no fair!” Neo called back with a small pout. “I was gonna call that!”

“Dibs on the tour!” Cole suddenly called out with a laugh as he removed his wing from over Neo’s head  when they had entered the shade of the porch.

“No! Not my own brother too! You traitor!” the vampire exclaimed, comically balling his hands into fists and waving them around like an angry old man. The black dragon simply laughed and patted his back with his tail.

“Gotta’ be quicker, bro.” he replied.

Martin simply huffed and began to slowly make his way up the steps, but he still wore a small smile.

“You all get so over-excited about these types of things. I’ll never understand it.”

As Hale watched all of the chatter and events unfold in front of her, she couldn’t help but let a sad smile slip onto her features.

‘Holy crap.’ She thought to herself as she slowly climbed the white steps that led to the large mansion doors; double tapping her foot on each step to make sure they were stable. ‘It’s like they’re one, huge, weird, mixed up family. All of them are dead, there’s a father-like figure, there’s a child, a grandpa, and two teenagers, all of them are living under the same roof, and they seem to care a lot for each other. All they need now is a mother.’ Another thought slipped into her mind as she hesitantly walked through the large double doors and into the vast interior of the mansion.

‘Oh my god,’

“Welcome to your new home, young one.”

‘I’m a part of this family now.’

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Yea it’s not the most eventful chapter, but I wanted to get descriptions and introductions out of the way. It also seemed like a good stopping point. 

Characters belong to me, so please don't steal.