Chapter 3: The island

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Jason

Crystal blue waves slowly give way to lush white sand. The water here is so clear, we can see well into the ocean. Schools of fish team around the ship.

And the island looms closer and closer.

It's beautiful. The beaches, vast and white. The trees a ridiculous lush green silhouetted against the never ending sky. I can see why one would want to live here if they had enough money for a private jet to get on and off.

The others join me at the helm of the ship. Together, we stare off at our mark.

"Fun," Ev says, actually bouncing in a circle.

"What are we looking at?" Poor Reese.

"I'll give you more serum in a minute. We're looking at the island," Ari tells him.

"Everybody know their positions?" I ask, looking at the others. They nod.

"All right, let's do this," I say, more confidently than I feel.

A shadow passes over us.

We look up, a dragon, with golden scales and a fiery breath, swoops over the ship to circle above the island. It cruises there in the air for another moment, allowing us to admire its shining wings, before swooping in for a landing among the trees.

To be perfectly clear, I did not think dragons existed.

"Cool," Ev says.

"That's different," Ari says.

"Do you think it's guarding the fleece?" Frankie asks.

"Of course it is," Hugh is unimpressed.

"I didn't think those were real," I say, softly.

"Bitch, you fought a hydra," Ev says, folding their arms.

"Anybody gonna tell me what we're talking about?" Reese asks.

"Sorry---there was big dragon, with scales of gold. It was easily bigger than this ship, and it's wings had shining feathers. It seems to be guarding the island and probably the fleece," Ev narrates.

"Cool. So repeat after me: I am not gonna get eaten by a dragon," Ari says, raising one hand. "What you thought I was kidding? No. Do I look like I want to resurrect you people? I'm gonna require a fifteen slide powerpoint with citations explaining why and how you got murdered if I have to raise your ass."

"I'm not gonna get eaten by a dragon," we all say, rather sullenly for people who actually don't want to get eaten by a dragon.

"All right, let's go up top and go over the plan. The fleece may be more heavily guarded than we anticipated," I say, "And they may now know we're here."

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