by Ryan Johnson
“I am a Pangaean, not a human,” said Sora. ““This dress I’m wearing is called a yukata. It’s a tradition for female Pangaeans like me to dress with the greatest beauty while attending a party. Female Pangaeans always shown their beauty and males always show how handsome they could be. And I can see my brother has been drawn to my beauty; beauty I’ve inherited from my mother.”
“Huh, I now have grown envious of a Pangaean’s lifestyles,” said Flarefur.
“Well, all talk of Pangaea aside, we should think about—”
Horns blew from the distance, interrupting Valverno’s voice. The horns were loud and soft, and the three knew what was happening: the ceremony was beginning.
A NIGHT OF WONDER
Valverno, Sora, and Flarefur saw a host of Griffins, Dragons, Unicorns, Pegasi, Centaurs, and Fairies gathering in fields close to the wheat fields. Many dropped down in the dozens of each species. They appeared on the village’s outskirts like a swarm of flies.
Around more than a hundred creatures landed near a distance from the village. Many of those hooves and feet took up a large space of land they would have overcrowded the human village. The Dragons and the Griffins numbered at about twenty-two each. Teenage-looking Centaurs numbered at fifty. Pegasi had a number of fifteen, and the Unicorns at about twenty. It was hard to tell how many Fairies were among the gathered creatures. Compared to humans, this looked like an army of a thousand humans.
Valverno, Sora, and Flarefur saw the creatures splitting into two groups. In a matter of moments, the creatures separated into different groups: each belonging to their own species. After each species had been grouped together, those groups spilt again like cells replicating from cells.
The group of Dragons that had spilt into two was the same with the rest. Two groups had been spilt: the differences of small and tall. The creatures smaller in body size were the young adolescents and they were the ones going to be being accepted as full grown adults.
“They have been gathered,” stated Flarefur. “And by tradition, the Griffins go first and it would mean my king will be greeting the young ones as full grown adults soon. After that, the Dragons come second. The Unicorns and Pegasi both come at the same time. Lastly, a swarm of Fairies flocked above the Unicorns and Pegasi.
“Unfortunately, we’re far from land and there aren’t enough waterholes around this village for the Merpeople and the Sea Serpents. They are by sea and the ones gathered here are by land. Sadly, land creatures are going have to come first and we’ll get to the sea creatures later.”
Valverno breathed softly. He saw there were waterholes nearby but no sea creatures had shown up. Constantly, there would always be sea creatures watching the villagers’ workdays when he lived in the village when he still lived in isolation. This must be a private party the demigod would be attending.
“My apologies, Demigod Valverno,” said Flarefur. “I need to be with the Griffin King, and he is soon due.”
“Don’t wait to my response,” said Valverno, turning away from the creatures grouped by size and species. “If you’re needed, then go.”
The Griffin bowed his head in response and soared away.
Sora took a few steps forward and stood beside her half-brother. “He is loyal to his own species,” she said.
“Just like Pangaeans were loyal to their homes and family,” Valverno sighed. “How many could have survived, if they were loyal to their family instead both houses and family? Many hundreds of thousands of Pangaean children could have been spared if the parents didn’t sacrifice their limited magic to both their houses and their children, which proved too much for the adults to handle and assured the destruction of the homes and the civilization.
“And yet, here we are, Sora.” Valverno turned to look Sora. “You and I. The last Pangaeans. Living up a modern civilization with an ancient Titan from the First Generation. Three people from two different Generations living with the current Generation.”
“Not a day goes by I can’t stop thinking about mother and our close friends, Valverno. I miss them, terribly,” she said, with a frown.
Valverno quickly spread his arms around Sora and pressed her against his chest. This caught Sora by surprise and prevented her from making a mournful cry. “Er, Valverno?” she said.
“The feeling is mutual, my sweet baby sister. And they wouldn’t want us to be attached to the past. They would want the both of us to keep moving forward and not let the past be a burden on our shoulders. The past is in the past, and the future is in our hands now. They have passed to another world, and we still live in the Mortal Realm. We still have a life to live and a future to build. And you and I can build a brighter future with Marina, Flavius, and many others for future generations to thrive.”
Sora felt the warmth of Valverno’s arms and the softness of his soggy voice giving her the comfort she needed to fight away her tears of sorrow. Sora was always a family girl when it came to the subject of her family, and loved them to her heart’s content.
Then she wrapped her hands around Valverno and embraced him and he was embracing her. After a long moment, both half-siblings released their arms from each other.
Sora smiled with a hint of slyness.
Valverno was puzzled by her change of look. “What’s with your look?” he asked.
“Oh, I was just thinking now. Have you been drawn to me because of my beauty? Oh, no. What will happen when Marina finds out the married demigod has fallen for his Pangaean half-sibling?”
“I see your little trickster personality still hasn’t changed after these thousands of years, Sora. Don’t pretend to cling your way to leaning against me. And the love I have for you is entirely different than the love I have for Marina.”
Sora held her hands behind her back, stepped closer to Valverno’s side, and leaped him to kiss him on his cheek.
This caught the demigod by surprise and jumped away from Sora. “Sora, what… what was that for?” he asked with a loud tone.
“Oh, my high-and-mighty, elder, demigod, Pangaean half-brother. You’ve spent so much time with these humans who once lived in caves you’ve forgotten the traditions of Pangaea, especially how we make promises to each other: a kiss to the cheek. That is the Pangaean way of making a promise and to keep that promise.
“And I promise to you, Elder Brother, I will never abandon you as you never abandoned me after our home was destroyed,” said Sora. She winked an eye smilingly and slowly ran away.
Valverno exhaled some smoke from his nostrils. Now, his heart was torn between two different girls and both felt were competing for him. Valverno shook his head before turning toward the village.
As he took the first step, he turned his head from Sora running to the creatures and toward the village. Before he took a second step, he saw Marina standing in front of him.
“I saw you,” said Marina. “Your ancient tradition of you homeland is very strange. That must be the wife’s job to do, not any other female people outside or inside a family. But still, a family promise to you? I may accept that.”
Valverno chuckled.
“What is that for?” asked Marina, sternly.
“It was at one point you wanted to kill her,” Valverno answered, with a smile. “Now, you have accepted her into our lives.”
“I admit I was always jealous that she always clung to you like kid not letting go of her toy,” said Marina. “And I still feel that hint of jealousy when she gets close to you.”
“Old habits die hard, Marina. Ever since we met her in the cave I was held in a jar, my memories are vaguely coming back. And that moment you saw is now an ancient, dead tradition: the kiss to a cheek. That means a promise that is to be kept. It’s not out of love, but a sacred promise.”
“Hmm,” Marina smiled.
“What’s with that look?” asked Valverno.
Marina moved forward close
r to Valverno and kissed him on his cheek. The Siren made the same move Sora did with the demigod.
“That tradition is long dead, Siren,” Valverno responded.
“And it’s a promise that I will not abandon you. From here on out, everywhere you go is where I will go to. You’re going have to take me everywhere you go, along with the three seeds I’m carrying.”
Valverno shook his head. “Come on, my Siren wife. We better join the night’s festinates. They would want to hear the news after the ceremony where the young become adults.”
“Before we do, what do you know of someone called the Demon Prince?” asked Marina.
Valverno blinked at the name of Demon Prince, the one person named to believe to have caused the downfall of the Titans. “Where did you hear that name… Oh, Sora told you.”
“I never heard about such a being or a race known as Demons,” said Marina.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. I never told the people or the creatures of the past about the Demons or also known as Fallen Angels. Yet alone about the Demon Prince.”
“You sound like you know him.”
“I never met him, not personally anyway. Only what I’ve heard from my mother. Sora would have told you the details, but I know something that she doesn’t; our mother fought against the Demon Prince in the past, during when the Titans were still in existence.”
“Can you tell me about that?”
“I don’t know much, but the fact of the matter was she was an Angel. She was a celestial spirit and of the first who created by the gods. She was the one who led the other Angels to cast down the Demons from the Gods’ Realm and into a prison set beneath the Mortal Realm. Then she saw one Demon, the Demon Prince, getting away and went into the Mortal Realm to battle him. But he was cunning and hid from her throughout the centuries.
“Then he went to bring down the Titans and destroy the First Generation. The gods weren’t the ones to end the First Generation of Living Life. After then, Celestreá la Mùne managed to find the Demon Prince and fought him. From what I’ve heard from her, she managed to defeat but couldn’t kill him. So, she did some purifying power and caused the Demon Prince to be redeemed. I don’t know happened after that; my mother didn’t tell me anything else about him.”
“Hm, okay,” Marina gave a soft reply.
“But enough talking about the past. We have a party to attend to. Let’s talk of Demons, Angels, and the Three Gods later. Those will be stories for the three seeds to hear when they begin to sprout.”
“I can live with that,” said Marina, smiling.
Valverno and Marina held their hands together and walked toward the village.
It was about two hours since the creatures have gathered in the village. By the time the young adolescents were greeted by each ruler of their species. Sora was the only humanlike person to be walking among the creatures while her brother and his fish-wife walked near the humans. The young creatures were awed by the beauty Sora displayed for them, even the rulers were drawn as to how a Pangaean could walk upon modern mortals.
Valverno saw the creatures from afar gazing at a bright glitter dress Sora was showing-off. During the time, many grown adult creatures helped with food and supplies for the humans.
This reminded him greatly of the celebration Geraldus once put for Valverno when he killed the Minotaur years prior, when he went by his hideous, spiteful name: Vaeludar.
It’s been three-and-a-half years since that skirmish, which brought him to where he was: a demigod ruling over Shimabellia. Since that day, he traveled to the north to retrieve the first armor artifact and battle a Five-Headed Dragon. Soon after, he discovered he was a demigod from an ancient age long since passed.
It was one day he was isolated in the village’s largest house. Now, Valverno had grown from an outsider to being a ruler of Shimabellia. He was married to a Siren soon to have triplets, and he was going to be the father. With having three kids, he felt more anxious than he was facing the Five-Headed Dragon.
What was he to expect from three kids? He is a hybrid, and he married a Siren. Now she was to have three kids. Three kids he would expect to be hybrids like him. Half-half creatures. One can look like a human siren hybrid, one a siren dragon hybrid. And maybe one full embodied Siren.
Valverno imagined how many forms his future kids could take, but he wondered if he was up to the task of taking reasonability for the kids. He spent most of his life isolated and three years ruling and fighting. He doesn’t have the knowledge of being a father yet hardly any experience being a family member.
His anxiety was making his red-skinned face look pale white.
“Is something wrong, Valverno?” asked Marina.
Valverno blinked and looked at Marina. Her face expressed worrisome of Valverno’s face changing color.
“Your face is looking pale,” Marina continued.
“It’s the future I’m worried about. Being the father of three kids is going to be new to me.” He looked at a table he and Marina were walking by that sat Geraldus kids: Arron, Nerio, Eliana, Naìra, and Andrei. “I remember sometimes the twin boys always get into trouble and I would be the one to shout at them.
“Our kids could end up with similar traits Geraldus’s twin sons and twin daughters. They can go grow to be reckless or sweet. Thinking about it having kids is making me—”
Marina stopped walking and suddenly kissed Valverno. This suddenly made Valverno lose his anxiety and felt some comfortless Marina was showing.
After a short moment, Marina released her lips with a smile. “You’re not alone, you know. There are Flavius and Sora. Most importantly, there is me. I’m also here for you as well. We’ll all help each other. That is what family is for, right? Now, stop worrying about the future and start thinking of tonight, alright?”
Valverno closed his eyes and breathed softly. In a matter of seconds, he felt calm and passionate. Valverno opened his eyes with a smile. He nodded in response and continued to his walk with Marina.
During their walk, many long and narrow tables have been filled with glorious food. Glazed turkeys, molted pig, apples carved into different shapes filled with grapes, salted meat stashed on plates, and many more flavored foods glazed just enough for light to reflect.
Valverno was too familiar with the setting, and it was all the same to him night of the celebration when he killed the Minotaur. Nothing was new, and everything was the same. Creatures and humans living on the same island and giving a helping hand in big events were all the same and nothing was different. The only difference was what the celebration was about: the young adolescents taking the title “adult.”
The demigod had now debated if he should participate in the celebration. There was one more armor artifact for him to find, and it was on the island of Isla Maeli. He had the chance of slipping away, but not with Marina standing close to him and Lusìvar hiding at the location. He was going have to wait for the night to be over for him to travel.
After he and Marina walked through the surrounding areas, they walked through the village in a short time. Every villager they passed bowed in their greatness. Marina was their Queen and Valverno many called Demigod King, even though Valverno preferred the just one word: his name, Valverno.
It was at one point the villagers saw Valverno as a monster living in the village years ago. Now they look up to him as a hero and their ruler. He went from being a “nobody” to “somebody” and that “somebody” ended up being an ancient being from an ancient land.
After their slow walk through the village, the Siren and the demigod made their way toward the creatures. Many of the creatures in specific groups stood by, and they seemly waited for something to happen.
The two found Sora walking among the young teenage Centaurs, and they looked at her beauty. Valverno had a surging feeling many of them wanted to get close to her, but he wouldn’t allow it; Valvern
o knows his sister’s heart already found someone: Flavius. Being the elder sibling and apparent guardian of Sora, Valverno wasn’t to let a group of Centaurs chose Sora as their bride-to-be.
Valverno and Marina trailed over to Sora. Before they could get closer to her, a Griffin, accompanied by other Griffins, suddenly blocked the couple’s way. It was Flarefur.
“Demigod Valverno,” greeted Flarefur, slightly bowing his head. “We are done with everything now. All of our young ones have been accepted as adults. However, there is one more thing that must be done before the night’s done. We need something from you.”
Valverno blinked his eyes; he was on his way to see what Sora was doing, but he ended up blocked by one of his old companions. “Let me guess,” said Valverno without trying to show disapproval. “I must give some ‘some kind of divine talk’ for everyone and creature gathered here today and mention about a future being bright. Is that the something that must be done?”
“Relatively speaking, yes,” answered Flarefur.
“Alright, I might as well give some divine inspiration for the next generation so they can grow up to be happy and take reasonability for their futures. Where will I be speaking in front of everyone?”
“Follow me, Demigod Valverno” said Flarefur.
Instead of speaking to his sister, Valverno and Marina were led to a different location, away from the creatures grouped in different species. Valverno was patient and Sora wasn’t going to be given to any of the Centaurs surrounding her but to Flavius she has been drawn to.
They headed toward west of the village in an area people sat on long tables filled with juicy foods. Many of the people loudly talked to each other and a few stared at the three walking their way.
Flarefur led Valverno and Marina through the crowded tables and halted a small platform, which looked oddly familiar to Valverno, and held several musicians playing with string instruments and whistling in flutes. He processed his memories as to why the platform looked familiar, and it soon crossed his mind.
