Today, I spiffed up chapter 20, where our hero, Zara has to fight off the cartel who have come to return her to her foster mother, the cartel boss, in the little town of El Dominio on the border of Texas and Mexico.
However, their plan didn’t work out. Zara, scared out of her wits, and with Gracie and Katie, morphs into her dragon self and fights off the cartel guys. Unfortunately, Gracie and Katie see her as a dragon and now Gracie is afraid of her. Katie, of course, thinks it’s way cool.
Zara sends them off to Gracie’s sister’s place to hide from the cartel while she goes to find Carson and meet head on her biological father, Maximillian, and see what the heck is really going on.
In this scene, Zara mentions someone she remembers while she’s a dragon—Electryone. She says she was her best friend, and she feels extremely sad about her. We don’t find out why, only that she misses her terribly. I’m sure there’s a backstory there, but I haven’t written it yet. 😊
Electryone, also known as Electryo or Alectrona, was the Greek goddess of the sun. Some think she might have been the goddess of morning or “waking from slumber,” waking men from their sleep in the mornings. Her father was Helios, Titan lord of the sun. And her mother was Rhode or Rhodos, a nymph, sister to the Heliadae.
She died a virgin, and the cause of death is unknown. There is speculation that she was killed during a war between the gods.
Alectryon means “amber, shining, iridescent.” It’s also similar to the Greek word for “rooster.” Hence the connection to mornings.
Electryone is also associated with a fresh start.
An inscription on a marble tablet dating back to the 3rd century BCE reveals regulations for visitors to her temple in Ialysos. She was considered a heroine and received offerings and rituals similar to their deified heroes in ancient Greece.
So perhaps, in the far distant past, Zara was one of the Greek goddesses, although very minor because there is nothing written about her (in real life, however, in the story I’m writing, I’ll be making up a lot). She befriends Electryone, perhaps as a child and they grow up together. But something happens. If Electryone dies a virgin, something happened to prevent her from finding a male friend. What would that be? Was she not straight? Perhaps she had a relationship with Zara? Or a relationship with someone her parents didn’t approve of? Humans?
There are a lot of opportunities to create some really fascinating stories here and I’ll be working on that! So stay tuned and we’ll have some fun discovering the distant past of gods and goddesses.
