Dusk of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  It was the same platform which stood the Minotaur’s head, and Vaeludar once stood holding a small goblet and said to the crowd “Let the feast begin.” Instead of saying a one-line sentence, he was to give a speech to the people and the creatures gathered nearby.

  Excitingly, Valverno stepped on the platform and looked at everyone staring on him. Many humans and creatures alike were looking at him, as years they did beforehand. But this night the stares were of waiting for the demigod to speak. Down below, he saw Marina smiling and Sora from afar smiling at him. He sighed with relief and said:

  “On this night, many have gathered here to witness a gathering of something special. This is a night of celebration, not of victory of battle or conquest of battle, but of a new generation. When one generation goes away, a new one generation takes its place.

  “Perhaps it is no coincidence that this age is called the Third Generation of Living Life. And this is a Generation consisting of humans and creatures living and evolving together. A Generation that makes life grow from small infants to big adults.

  “At one point, it was the Titans when they lived in the First Generation of Living Life. And after they were casted away, the Second Generation of Living Life came into view and Pangaeans roamed the world. But even that Generation had to be forfeited. I, Sora, and three other Pangaeans survived and lived into the Third Generation of Living Life.

  “When the Third Generation came into place, it was time for two islands to live and grow as the past two Generations did. And we are here tonight to witness more creatures to live and grow in this modern Generation and have them take their parents place in this era.

  “And let it be known for all future generations of humans and creatures alike, the Three Gods gave us the ultimate freedom to grow and evolve. If they hadn’t done that, then we would have been puppets attached to strings and the gods would have been the puppeteers. Instead they gave us freedom and live in any way we want to live our lives. And no evil, no savaging king, no witch, and not a Shadow King will take that freedom away from you. We were created to be free, and we will stay free!”

  Many shouts and cries cheered of Valverno’s speech. Many of the creatures pounded their feet, hooves, and claws on the ground, making the ground shake if only a weak rockslide rolled less than a mile away.

  Valverno smiled after his small speech and walked down from the platform and everyone started to enjoy the tasty food of the feast ready to be eaten. Once again, he felt the center of attention again and a celebration starts goes with the feast. Valverno stepped down from the platform and rejoined his Siren wife.

  “Nice short speech,” said Marina.

  “I wanted to make it short, and everyone was waiting to be digging their mouths into the food. I couldn’t keep them waiting impatiently. And I know Nerio and Aaron would want to start eating as soon as the food lay in front of their eyes. Many kids would be like those twin boys: don’t wait, eat now.”

  “Then I hope our kids don’t grow up spoiled.”

  “And I hope I get to spoil them,” said Sora’s voice. Sora was walking to Marina and Marina and Flarefur. The White Knight of Charity joined the small group. “Since I’m going to be the aunt, I will have more right to spoil them.”

  “You spoiling them?” asked Valverno. “I don’t think so, Sora. Making you the aunt isn’t going to give the necessary right to spoil my kids. Spoil your own kids, Sora. I’m the father and I’m going to raise them without spoiling them and ending up as little bratty kids.”

  “Sure, whatever,” replied Sora.

  “That is right,” said Flarefur. “I’d quite forgotten you two were going to have kids. I was there at the group meeting with regional leaders and the creature rulers. Weren’t you going to say to everyone about this news?”

  Both Valverno and Marina looked at each other. They were going to announce to everyone they were going to have their own kids, triplets.

  “We were going to announce to everybody,” said Marina.

  “Not right now, Marina. We’ll let the people eat first. Then, after everyone is done eating, we’ll tell everyone. How about you sing them a song, Marina?”

  Marina did not hesitate to walk up to the platform to stand in front of everyone. The musicians stopped their soft tones and saw the Siren coming up to them. They all smiled at each other and Marina turned to face the crowd, whom many stopped eating to gaze upon the beautiful Siren.

  Marina opened her mouth and the musicians behind her played with her tone voice as she sang:

  Back then, I felt so frightened and lonely

  It was dark. I was dying slowly

  But deep into your eyes

  I saw a flash of new light

  You give me strength, when I hold your hand

  I see the light when you pull me close

  When I feel troubled, when I’m sad

  You give me strength to help me stand

  Without you I felt so blue and now I’m with you

  In the moment I was deadened n’ weakened by the sea

  Everything is so brand new

  You gave me the strength I needed to be who I want to be

  You gave me the strength when took me

  I can see the light clearly when you hold me

  You give me the strength for what I need to be

  The help that replaces the day from the night

  No longer will I sulk in the shadows

  For when you hold me in your arms

  I always feel your love

  I don’t need anyone else

  You give me strength, when I hold your hand

  I see the light when you pull me close

  When I feel troubled, when I’m sad

  You give me strength to help me stand

  Marina ceased her voice as the musicians kept playing a soft tone. Marina took a gasp of air before she stood down. She saw Valverno saw smiling at her.as she was walking down from the platform.

  “That felt so heartwarming,” Sora said, in a soft voice.

  “Sirens always had the talent of singing,” Marina replied. “I would have been dead if it weren’t for one specimen. And if it wasn’t for me, he still would be sulking by an open window in a big house with no one special to be around.”

  Valverno strolled over to Marina and held her by the waist. “And it was the power of fate that brought us together, two different people from two different worlds that were meant to be together.”

  Marina smiled and leaned her forehead against Valverno’s forehead. She felt a brim of his long red hair drabbing over from his horns and over his ears. His hair felt soft like a fish’s skin.

  Flarefur and Sora stared at the two leaning toward each other. A hybrid and a Siren is what they were looking at. A child of two different species and a humanoid fish were spicing the air with their love.

  “Excuse me, I belief I have an emergency meeting to go to. I think my feathers are starting to tingle.” The Griffin rose and suddenly left in a rush to get away from the rising astrosphere of two people romancing in the public’s eye.

  “You are so extremely bold showing off that much stuff in front of everyone’s eyes,” said Sora. “I hope I can the same thing when I find my special person.”

  Valverno’s eyes turned toward a different direction if he was seeing someone of great important coming his way. “Flavius, since when you were behind Sora?”

  Sora’s face was blushing red. She couldn’t tear her head, thinking Flavius was behind her and overheard everything she said. Sora couldn’t reveal herself to a man she still views a stranger but a stranger her hearts yearns for. “Oh, kill me now.”

  Sora slowly began to turn around and look behind her. When she looked up, there was no one there. There was only the crowd of people eating and talking, and no one was standing behind Sora. She then heard Valverno laughing and her red blushing face turned into a red furious
face.

  “Valverno, you heartless brother,” her voice nearly yelled. Sora turned her ferocious eyes to her brother who fooled her to thinking Flavius was behind her. “How dare you trick me. How could you do that to me?”

  “What’s going on here?” asked Flavius voice. Flavius spoke out loudly enough for Marina, Valverno, and Sora to hear. He was a fair distance away he didn’t hear what the three people were talking about. Now he had joined with the small band to see what they were talking about.

  Hearing his voice, Sora’s red lit red again and looked down. “Pardon me for a long moment. I have to find someplace to extinguish my gut before I end up making a wet mess of myself.” Sora titled her face down to once again hide her face of embarrassment and walked away from Valverno, Marina, and Flavius.

  “That was mean, Valverno,” said Marina. “Making fun of her that way over someone she loves.”

  “Sora and I always played tricks on each other when we were kids living in Pangaea. Over the course of the two islands, she gave up those games but I haven’t. And as her demigod brother, I can still make some fun of her.”

  “You really are a mean demigod.”

  “Just a method of how brotherly I can be.”

  “And how annoying you can be. At times, I question if you really are meant to be the hybrid I thought you were so many years ago: a hybrid concealed away from humanity.”

  Flavius was confused as to what the three people were talking about. “What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, I was having a little fun of my little sister,” answered Valverno. “She still acts like a child to this day in age. It’s as if she still hasn’t grown up yet. She maybe an adult but her personally is still a bit childish, but what can you expect from a Pangaean? Pangaeans have long lifespans that stretch by thousands of years and we mature a lot slower than a modern human. But she’ll grow into a fine adult and be a motherly figure.”

  “Still going on she loves me?” asked Flavius.

  “Absolutely, and she doesn’t have the strength to confe—” Valverno paused. He felt something was amiss and his skin hidden beneath the armor he wore was feeling warmer and growing hotter by the second.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Flavius.

  Valverno felt his skin feeling a strong breeze too warm for spring weather. “Is it just me or does it feel like it is getting hotter?”

  Flavius touched himself in his belly and his shoulders. He smelled the air and caught no scent of a hot wind. “The weather feels fine to me. It must be just you, Valverno. You’re half dragon after all. Maybe blowing the fire is making your skin warmer and hotter.”

  “I don’t think that’s it. I’m telling you there’s some kind of heat moisture in the air, and my skin is feeling it.”

  “Maybe you’re absorbing the heat the bonfires are making. There isn’t any hot I’m feeling. The weather is perfect. Summer is months away, and we’re in spring. There is nothing to be worried about.”

  “I’m feeling a bit faint for some reason,” said Mariana. “It feels like the weather has become warmer and hotter. And I am starting to feel like I’m going to fall on my feet.”

  Valverno rushed over to Marina’s side and wrapped a wing around her body. Marina squeezed in Valverno’s wing like a blanket. Then Valverno held up a hand. A cup filled to the brim with cold, icy water magically appeared.

  He handed the cup filled with water to Marina who grabbed it suddenly and drank all of it in mere seconds. He refilled the cup several more times, and the Siren would guzzle down cold refill the demigod was giving to her.

  Around the twentieth time of refilling and drinking, Marina was feeling like she was herself again, but Valverno kept her wrapped up in his wing. “It does feel like the spring weather when you cover me up, but summer heat when I’m outside your wing,” she said. “I guess you are the hybrid I chosen to be such a devoted husband.”

  Valverno stayed silent. He only gave a smile and a nod in response, but gave no comment. His mind was focus on the weather and how he and she were feeling a sense of change of warm weather. Summer heat was too soon in the season of spring, and the air must be colder than hotter.

  “But this weather you and I are feeling isn’t what Flavius can’t feel,” said Valverno. “And it seems no one else appears to be feeling it. I can’t explain as to why you and I are the only people feeling the heat. Maybe it’s because we must be feeling the presence of our kids growing faster than—”

  “Valverno, look,” said Marina, pointing up in the night sky.

  Valverno looked where Marina was pointing and what he saw weren’t bright, diamond stars or the three colored moons; about a dozen rays of strange, red colored rains were falling down. Several sparks that lit like fire fell from the sky and fell toward the west.

  Valverno and all of the people and creatures gathered at the village stopped their feasting and talking, and they looked toward the sky as they saw a dozen or more sparks fall from the sky.

  DESTRUCTIVE RAIN OF FIRE

  More than a dozen flashy white sparks fell from the sky and left behind trails of smoke as they descended down. Each was bright as the sun and lit the starry night like the crack of dawn. The stars had faded from a person’s view when the white flares rained from the sky, falling toward the eastern horizon.

  More than a dozen fell from the sky; about a hundred of strange flaring balls appeared from the night sky. All which fell toward the east, but nothing seems to be landing on the island’s surface.

  These strange forms of fire struck silence in both human and creature alike; one moment they were loud noises and the next was dead silence. All eyes had dropped from watching entertainers, jugglers, showoffs, fake magicians, and people pretending to ride on creatures to staring at mysterious fire with great curiosity. None of whom were bothered by the weather changed by the appearance of raining fireballs.

  Valverno showed more concern for Marina who was on her knees. He placed a wing around her body and made sure the heat affecting her health. Sirens were fragile to summer heat and winter cold, and the weather felt like summer heat, despite the island was in the early spring. “Marina, are you alright?” he asked with great concern.

  She smiled at him and nodded her head. “Don’t worry too much about me, demigod. I maybe a Siren, but a Siren could still adapt to harsh conditions.” With her own strength, Marina stood back to her feet.

  Valverno looked at Flavius, who was drawn to the sky. Valverno stayed silent as Flavius was curious to see what was raining from the sky.

  Although Valverno was curious to see what was falling from the sky, but at the same time, he was looking after Marina’s well-being. He still didn’t want anything to happen to her, seeing she was trying to hide the fact she wasn’t doing okay. Valverno could see Marina was lying to him about being okay.

  Then his eyes caught the sight of Naìra and Andrei. The twin sisters were standing between him and Marina, with Naìra on the left and Andrei on the right. The demigod felt a tense moment the twin girls were going to jump on him.

  “What are those?” asked Naìra.

  “I don’t know,” answered Valverno, in a soft voice. “I have never seen such fire raining down from the sky.”

  “Those aren’t fires, Demigod Valverno,” said the Dragon King. The large Dragon walked toward the demigod. “This is a rare occasion to gaze upon.”

  “Then maybe you can tell us what those are. I’ve never seen or heard fire raining from the sky, unless it is an army of Dragons spitting down fireballs.”

  “It is a comet shower,” said the Dragon King. “It’s very rare to see such a large view of comets falling on this time. The last time was over three centuries ago when my father had passed and I began the next Dragon King. Comet showers are such a rare thing to see, even humans won’t be able to see such a thing in many lifetimes.”

  Valverno bl
inked a few times. He stared back at the others and saw everyone and every creature looking at the brighten night sky. Seeing how everyone was drawn to the sky instead of the big party, the demigod might as well watch the comet shower. Yet, he found something strange about the comet shower; each comet was leaving behind a trail of a black smoke behind.

  Valverno’s eyes weren’t deceiving him. His eyes caught the site of a shadowy power the Dragons themselves weren’t seeing. The change of the weather, a red sunset, the growing fold of falling comets was something bringing something familiar to Valverno’s memory, but he can’t recall what. He widened his wings and flew up to the sky.

  “Valverno!” cried Marina’s voice.

  “I’ll be back,” Valverno called back. Valverno ascended into the sky. He lifted himself to the sky high the people down below appeared small as ants, to an altitude Shimabellia was shaped like a stick.

  To the east, the hundreds of comets fell upon the ocean floor. The comets fell so far along the eastern horizon’s rim there was no telling if the comets were touching the ocean’s surface.

  And to the eastern horizon, a red-orange filtered like eastern rim like the orange sun at the peak of dawn. The sky reflected the light of the flaring from the falling comets. There was hot moist surfacing on the demigod’s skin, and he felt sweat dripping from the armor he wore.

  Then Valverno smelt the air and caught the scent of fire and ash. He felt a great steam burning like hot coals. Everything he felt was heating higher than the sun in the summer. His skin was scarping like burning charcoal. The demigod never thought such heat had warm to high temperatures, and this heat would dehydrate a human in seconds.

  His gaze at the red horizon starred for many minutes. He floated in the air staring at the horizon, thinking it has a bad omen.

  Then, his mind drew in a memory from his wedding day. Lusìvar was there that day and attacked with a small army. The capital city took heavy damage and many people died, including Alaric. He remembered Lusìvar’s voice echoing these words: