Sphinx

A typical tale of archaeologist meets sphinx, falls in love, faces prejudice, loses sphinx, wins sphinx back, gets into a big fight; etc, etc. Middle-aged archaeologist John Parker saves Penelope, a wounded sphinx in the Saharan Desert. She is from an adjacent realm and is being pursued by a manticore. They visit the oracle at Delphi, hang around his hometown in Illinois for awhile trying to figure out the oracle's prophecy. They eventually do understand,and return to confront the manticore in Penelope's realm, a Classical Greece of legend where mythological beings exist-some of those beings accept them and some do not. In case you did not recognize it, this is a romantic fantasy. The author thanks you for even taking the time to read this.