this will never be finished, i had an incredibly ambitious idea for a book series that i never followed through with, just thought what i had already was pretty good

basically the pack is called by fate or the gods or whatever to help the six hidden peoples and lands, each book would be another land and adventure. i have no idea what they were helping the people with, all i wrote was some cryptic schist about some "endless commander of death and life," do not ask me now what that means i came up with it a year ago

each of the lands would have another member of team crafted, showing the pack around and what's wrong, i had a pun for Ty that he would be undercover as a "loxmith" like locksmith ha get it

more info on the "story" at the end i guess? i would still write it if i had the motivation lol, maybe i will in a few years or something idk

geez i was so much better at writing then, at least when i wasn't feeling the pressure of updating, i added in so many jokes and references

~**~

"Lachlan, could you grab the-"

I handed my dad the bucket filled with fish bait. Dad nodded in acknowledgement as he hooked the bait on the- well, hook. He cast the line into the lake, and I just sat there, still bored. I liked fishing, sure, I mean, I am the fish-fish-fish overlord, but only as a hobby. I don't like fishing when I'm forced to do so. My family sold fish for a living, and while it was fun for the most part, we also had to deal with taxes and math and stuff and I hate that. And I hate it when I am forced to fish.

My eyes slipped upwards as a bout of thunder rolled across the blue skies. It was peculiar, judging by the fact that there were only white clouds I could see, no grey splashes of cotton anywhere in the sky. I frowned. This was weird.

As Dad reeled in a catch, putting the freshly caught bass into the ice box, he looked at me. "Did you know there is a legend about this?"

I was confused. "About what?" I asked him, closing the lid of the ice box.

Dad smiled knowingly. "About thunder with no clouds."

Now I was intrigued. "What is it?"

"They used to say the king of the dragons shook the sky when he roared."

I rolled my eyes. Here we go again with his beloved myths. Dad continued in his old man storytelling voice, "In the old days, humans weren't the only intelligent species that lived. Dragons, humans, and many more other species walked alongside each other on the earth. They helped each other out, with food, wars, and more. But one day, the other species cut each other off from us and the rest of the world for unknown reasons. The only ones who allow themselves to be acknowledged are the dragons, using their cries to signify the coming storms they control."

I looked up in the sky, half expecting to see a great winged creature gliding across the blue. I have to admit, that legend would be pretty cool if Dad was better at descriptions. I should go to the library and look it up. For, you know, a better version of the legend. "But if a storm is coming, shouldn't we, like, head back home?" I asked.

Dad shrugged, reeling the empty line back in. "Yeah, we should."

We steered the boat back to the shore, and, after half an hour or so of immense levels of struggling, we were driving back home in the truck, the boat in tow. Dad was humming along to a random song on the radio, which was apparently so old he knew all of the lyrics. I stared out through the windows, watching the pastures and trees pass by. I found myself wishing I could be running in those pastures, climbing those trees, but now was not the time. Maybe later. Tomorrow. When I didn't have to fix up some fish to get ready to sell.

We pulled into the driveway of our house, which was surrounded by dark, scary woods. That's what we get for living in the middle of a forest, I guess. Mom came outside to help with hauling our catches of the day inside. Another boring chore of the boring day. Everything was boring today. Even my clothes, a white shirt and basketball shorts, were boring. I was only wearing them because my good, fancy-ish clothes are in the wash.

If you couldn't tell, I'm really bored.

Once I was inside, I dramatically collapsed upon the couch, flopping facefirst onto the soft cushions. Without looking, because my face was pressed into the couch, I managed to grab the remote for the TV and turn it on. My ears filled with the sound of some random show that was probably Rick and Morty. I didn't really like the show, but I'm too lazy to change the channel. Sure, the remote was already in my hands, but still. You get what I mean.

I heard someone come into the room and sigh. "Lachlan, why on earth...."

That was probably Mitchell, my knucklehead older brother. Nah, it definitely was Mitchell. He is the only one in the house who had that voice.... duh. I lifted my head up to find a guy who was indeed Mitchell scowling at me. "You're taking up the whole couch," he snarled. He was very defensive about his couch privileges.

I allowed my head to fall. Though it was very muffled, I answered, "I don't really care."

Mitchell grumbled for a bit before returning to silence. My older sister Jackie was probably in her room gossiping with her friends on the phone or doing whatever it is girls do, I wouldn't know. A lot of people claim being the youngest sibling is awesome, but that's probably because those people are older siblings who are salty about something. In my household, being the youngest means you are forced to spend quality time with either mom or dad, doing whatever it is your parent wants to do with little consent from their child, meaning me. I was never alone. Never. It's stupid.

I got tired of not being able to breathe, so I got up from my awkward position on the couch and left the living room for my bedroom, where I could geek out in peace. I kept tons of books in there. I enjoy reading, because I'm an egghead. Uh, that's what my dad jokingly claims. At least, I think it's jokingly, but I don't want to have an existential crisis right now.

"Dragon."

I stopped in my tracks, whipping around to locate who exactly said that all creepily. There was nobody there, like one of those cliche action movies. Except this wasn't a movie. It was real, freaking life. I was in the hallway outside my bedroom, sliding on the wooden floor in my blue socks.

"Uh.... Dad?" I scratched an itch on my forearm. "Is that-"

"Dragon born of men, hiding in the rough sand of deceit. The northern lands await your coming."

I gulped. "W-what are you...."

Go figure. More cliche-ness, just what I need right now. More silence, too. Yaaaaaayyyy.

You know what? Forget all that stuff. I'm just gonna go finally do my reading homework.

----------;-;----------

"THE LACHY DACHY HAS ARRIVED!" my best friend Preston shouted as I walked over to our normal lunch table. Before you ask, yes, he always does that. Every single frickin' day. Even when he's the late one and I get to the table before he does. He's annoyingly persistent like that.

One of my other best friends, Vik, aka Vikk (don't ask, we don't know why we started calling him Vikk with two Ks either), didn't say hi to me because he was busy narfing on his peanut butter and pickle sandwich. He's weird that way with his food.

I had three other friends sitting at this table, too. We weren't as close and didn't know each other that well, I was just wrapped into Preston's weird circle of friends because he has a tendency to do that. There was Mitch, star member of the basketball A-team, Jerome, the one guy who will eat anything off the floor for a quarter, and Rob, a quiet kid that really likes flowers for some reason.

Preston has a lot of weird friends like these guys. Not that I'm not weird as well, but you get my point.

I pulled out my lunchbox and looked inside. I saw a piece of leftover pepperoni pizza, a bag full of grapes, a Martin the Minecart juice box (I'm not three years old, Mom), and a brownie. Mmm, delicious. Except for the grapes. Those I just ignored.

I chucked the juice box at this one kid with glasses and a weird gray hoodie with ears whose name is my middle name. I think he's a furry. The kid (Ross) was beaned in the head, but he caught it afterwards when it bounced off his skull. He shot me a dirty look and ran off to sit next to the rest of his friends, hurling the juice box into the trash can.

It was just a prank, man. No need to disrespect the juice.

Mitch started up some sort of banter with Jerome over pasta or something. They're best friends. The rest of us have started betting over when the two of them would start dating. It could be a thing. Really, it could. Vikk joined in, arguing that pastrami is disgusting. Okay, they were arguing about sandwiches? Preston also butted into the banter, claiming Maseratis were weird and he preferred Priuses.

Okay, what the heck are they even talking about? Even Rob's chatting up a storm about some kind of flower. Seriously, pick a subject and stick to it. Not all of us are city kids by heart able to keep up a conversation with thirty-two different topics. I grew up in the middle of the woods, for Notch's sake.

Over a bit of time, my friends stopped arguing over.... whatever they were talking about. After a moment of silence filled with the sounds of eating stuff, Preston randomly said, "Okay, so something really weird happened last night to me."

Rob froze, Jerome and Mitch glanced at each other knowingly, and Vikk looked genuinely interested. I didn't know what to feel, but I assured myself that it was probably going to be something like "My sister dyed her hair and I thought she was a burglar and ran away yelling for help" or "I stepped on my staircase and it just kind of broke beneath me; I'm not that fat, right?".

But no.

"Some weird spooky guy just said something weird when I was trying to play some video games- well, I don't know if it was even a guy, it sounded like some wind, honestly," Preston added, laughing a bit. "Y'all are just gonna think I'm crazy or something, why am I saying this.... well, it just sounded like wind, honestly. He- she- they said-"

"Outsiders of men, unifying to defeat the endless commander of life and death. The lands of yours to save await you."

Without missing a beat, Preston exclaimed, "Like that! Exactly like that!"

Then he realized what the heck just happened, and he was silenced.

~**~

aaaaand that's all i wrote

here's some more notes i had, oh the cryptic sayings for each person are in order of each book i wanted them in, like lachlan's the first, preston's the second, that stuff

Lachlan: Dragon born of men, hiding in the rough sand of deceit. The northern lands await you.

Preston: Monster born of men, fleeing the hatred of the storm. The southern lands await you.

Jerome: Missing born of men, helping the lost lone wolf. The western lands await you.

Rob: Enchanter born of men, searching for the lasting bloom. The eastern lands await you.

Mitch: Dead born of men, mending the cause of hope and despair. The closest lands await you.

Vikk: Builder born of men, riding the waves of bloody ties. The far lands await you.

All of them: Outsiders of men, uniting to defeat the endless commander of death and life. The lands of yours to save await you.

Mitch is killed in fourth book in the last chapter, fifth book starts with him in the underworld

Rob doesn't actually like magic, but he has it anyway lol rip him

Preston was bullied in the past, so he doesn't want to go on the adventure because the floaty voice called him a monster, Lachy encourages him to come along

baaaaasically Lachlan would have to meet up with Ty because enderlox and negotiate with the dragons about something really far in the north where there are mountains or something? preston gets quentin i think and the monsters in the south, for jerome i remember having this whole thing about what the "missing" were, but i was too stupid to write it down and i forgot rip, pretty sure ian was there tho, rob is an enchanter ooo fancy magic duh he gets shown around by seto in the east, mitch dies and he gets the underworld, which is of course the closest lands because well it's the underworld, he meets jason because withermu shenanigans, and then vikk has to go to the farlands and meet sky woooo im done

each book would be called "land of dragons" and "land of builders" and yeah you get it, redefining is the name of the series for no particular reason it just sounded cool

so yeah haha that's pretty much it bye now it