The griffin is a creature that has a body of a lion and the head of an eagle. The phoenix is a legendary bird of fire and associated with the sun that is birthed out of ashes. Research into these creatures and the cultures from which they come has provided anthropological understanding in some areas, but has also led to many more questions about the creatures' existence and origins. This book examines the myths, legends, and facts surrounding the griffin and phoenix. Cultural diversity is celebrated through the examination of myths and legends from around the world and presents different interpretations about each, providing detailed information for the reader to dissect and explore. The chapters include a detailed sidebar giving insight into legends of past civilizations and encourages students to compare and contrast myths across ages and cultures. Portions of the book use primary sources directing where students can find more information, including links to websites, videos, and other rich content.

The sugar leapt up and twisted itself until it formed a castle with turrets as perky as meerkats... Griffin's rock band is about to have their big break. But when her lead guitarist and soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend throws a drug- and alcohol-induced El Screamo Thrasher Solo Temper Tantrum, he gets the band kicked out of the gig. She is devastated, and minus a lead guitarist. Enter the mysterious Rickenbacker, a restaurant manager with a tempting offer: if Griffin works in his restaurant making desserts, she can play in the house band, the Spurious Correlations, alongside Matteo: a super-talented lead guitarist. What Griffin doesn't know is Rickenbacker is a competitor in an Other Worldly Live Action Role Playing tournament. In order to win the championship, he has just two weeks to push her to the limit with dessert-making mayhem, enough to drive her to perform an unthinkable task, all without letting her suspect she's a pawn in his scheme. Griffin is yanked unwittingly into a frenzied fantastical world of music, magic and baking. She gets to make music with Matteo, the most perfect guy she has ever met, and she has never played with such a terrific band. It seems too good to be true! But making desserts for Rickenbacker is a nightmare. Is Matteo worth it? Well, he is awfully dreamy . . .

Arising triumphantly from the ashes of its predecessor, the phoenix has been an enduring symbol of resilience and renewal for thousands of years. But how did this mythical bird become so famous that it has played a part in cultures around the world and throughout human history? How much of its story do we actually know? Here to offer a comprehensive biography and engaging (un)natural history of the phoenix is Joseph Nigg, esteemed expert on otherworldly creatures from dragons to gryphons to sea monsters. Beginning in ancient Egypt and traveling around the globe and through the centuries, Nigg's vast and sweeping narrative takes readers on a brilliant tour of the cross-cultural lore of this famous, yet little-known, immortal bird. This entertaining and informative look at the life and transformation of the phoenix will be the authoritative source for anyone fascinated by folklore and mythology, re-igniting our curiosity about one of myth's greatest beasts.

"One cool, lively, exciting book set in a unique new world-more, please!" - Tamora Pierce The king of Long City is dying. For Kai Zu, the news means more than it does for most former street rats in the small mountain stronghold, because he and the king's daughter are close friends. Then the majestic ruler of the ghost dragons orders Kai to travel across the country to the Phoenix Empire, where the princess is learning statecraft. In a court filled with intrigue, Kai and his best (female) friend Yan must work together to help the princess escape and return to Long City. A refreshing mixture of magic, wit, and action, Fox and Phoenix is an auspicious debut! "I couldn't stop reading! Ghost dragons, talking pig spirit-companions, magic phones, royal intrigue, and a treacherous journey. . . . I loved this adventure through a unique magic world." - Sarah Beth Durst, author of Into the Wild

A vivid, novelistic history of the rise of Athens from relative obscurity to the edge of its golden age, told through the lives of Miltiades and Cimon, the father and son whose defiance of Persia vaulted Athens to a leading place in the Greek world. When we think of ancient Greece we think first of Athens: its power, prestige, and revolutionary impact on art, philosophy, and politics. But on the verge of the fifth century BCE, only fifty years before its zenith, Athens was just another Greek city-state in the shadow of Sparta. It would take a catastrophe, the Persian invasions, to push Athens to the fore. In Phoenix, David Stuttard traces Athens’s rise through the lives of two men who spearheaded resistance to Persia: Miltiades, hero of the Battle of Marathon, and his son Cimon, Athens’s dominant leader before Pericles. Miltiades’s career was checkered. An Athenian provincial overlord forced into Persian vassalage, he joined a rebellion against the Persians then fled Great King Darius’s retaliation. Miltiades would later die in prison. But before that, he led Athens to victory over the invading Persians at Marathon. Cimon entered history when the Persians returned; he responded by encouraging a tactical evacuation of Athens as a prelude to decisive victory at sea. Over the next decades, while Greek city-states squabbled, Athens revitalized under Cimon’s inspired leadership. The city vaulted to the head of a powerful empire and the threshold of a golden age. Cimon proved not only an able strategist and administrator but also a peacemaker, whose policies stabilized Athens’s relationship with Sparta. The period preceding Athens’s golden age is rarely described in detail. Stuttard tells the tale with narrative power and historical acumen, recreating vividly the turbulent world of the Eastern Mediterranean in one of its most decisive periods.

The Devourer. The Dark Death. Goddess of Wrath. Nemoria has many names. But she has only one goal: To slaughter every dragon in Requiem. Requiem. A noble, ancient kingdom. The land of dragons. For years, Requiem has been fighting Nemoria. Barely surviving. And now, the goddess unleashes terrifying new pets. The titans rise from the sea. Gargantuan beasts. Tall as mountains. Their feet shatter forests. Their jaws feast upon cities. Requiem's dragons are mighty. But by these titans, they seem smaller than flies. The dragons fly to their final stand. Their fire lights the darkness. Their voices ring out: "For Requiem!" As the titans rampage, Requiem's dragons must fly higher than ever before. They must invade the realm of the gods. They must do the impossible--slay a goddess.

Freshly mated Omega Cyra and her four Alphas are being hunted, by Cyra’s parents, the media and the police... At the yearly Night Gala, an exclusive event for rich shifters, four Alphas catch Cyra’s Omega scent and react to her instinctively, recognising her as their mate. They don’t know what to make of it at first, but as the party is not a place to talk privately, especially not with so much paparazzi around, they decide to sneak off and find a better place to figure out what’s happening. Cyra, a rare Omega phoenix, has been hiding herself from the shifter world for years because she wants to live her own life and not be constantly controlled by an Alpha. As soon as an Alpha mates an Omega, the Omega becomes that Alpha’s property and Cyra refuses to live like that. More importantly, when an Alpha reacts to an Omega’s scent in an instinctive way, it means that they’re fated mates and belong together. Or, well, that’s how it works normally, when you’re not a rare shifter type and your parents aren’t crazy rich... According to the law, there’s one thing more important than an Alpha marking their fated Omega and that is if the Omega is already promised to a different Alpha by the Omega’s parents. Marking and mating a promised Omega is illegal and punished harshly. After Cyra and her four Alphas, hydra Zack, griffin Spence, cerberus Max and centaur Liam, have been spotted sneaking away from the Night Gala, their pictures are plastered all over the shifter gossip media. And, out of nowhere, Cyra’s parents show up, claiming that Cyra has been missing for years and that the four Alphas have kidnapped her. Even worse, Cyra’s parents claim that they had already chosen an Alpha for Cyra, that she has been promised to someone for years, even if Cyra didn’t know about it. Of course, Cyra and her four Alphas only find out about the promised Alpha after Cyra has gone into heat and the four have already mated her, marked her as theirs. They never kidnapped Cyra, no matter what Cyra’s parents are claiming in the media, but they are now breaking a much more serious law, the law of illegally mating a promised Omega. If they’re found out, they could end up in jail, or worse, dead, leaving Cyra vulnerable to whatever insidious plans her parents have for her and the four Alphas can’t let that happen. Which is why Cyra and her fated Alphas are now on the run from Cyra’s parents, the drama hungry media, who are exploiting this situation to the fullest, and the police... This is the second book in the Her Shifter Harem’s Babies series, a paranormal Omegaverse reverse harem #WhyChoose story. This book may include any of these elements: steamy scenes, ‘I need tissues NOW’ moments, cries of ‘why, oh, why’ and cliffhangers that make you bite your nails (and curse the author). ??This story includes MF and MM scenes.