Dusk of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “Other people or monsters will cut across the roads and take action against you or they could join you, and every road is a pathway to another road. Where the road leads will come to certain danger and will block you on that road, and it will come down to what choice. What decision you will end up making that will affect both you and people AROUND you, altogether.

  “So, there will ways to get around obstacles or monsters that’ll come your way, and there will be moments certain choices will be made. And if the right choices are made, some good will come out and you will reach your road’s end; it will mean you made it to the top and overcame all obstacles in your path. But, if you make the wrong choices, bad things will happen and you end up feeling so down that you have given up.

  “Each mortal has their own road to take, and it is up to that mortal to reach the road’s end, with help or alone. And when they reach that road’s end, death will strike and the mortal will close their eyes and soon reopen them to another where death doesn’t exist. And that is all I have to share with you, kids. I’ll tell another story another time.”

  The kids applaud in response of after Valverno gave a friendly truth of the existence of life and death.

  At first, he expected some kind of sad or distressful reaction from the kids, but their reaction was more positive than he imaged. This was a sight that the young kids knew a symptom of how dark a reality can be.

  “Thank you, kids. Now I’ll take my leave, High Priest,” he said, bowing his head. After Valverno raised his head, he wrapped his red-yellow colored kimono back to his body and exited the tent. The kids waved goodbye to the hybrid as he was smiling as he left the tent. “Well, that felt good,” he muttered.

  “Teaching them a bit of reality, eh?” asked Halvdan’s voice.

  Valverno saw Halvdan standing next to the tent’s entrance with his arms crossed.

  “I’ve seen my fair share in two different lifetimes: Pangaea, Shimabellia, and Marina. Young kids will believe in the idea of ‘happily ever after.’ But when they feel the sense of reality and when it strikes, they will feel the deepest trauma and be completely horrified down to the bone. They will become paralyzed with fear. Their minds are too young to grasp the dark natures of reality, and if it strikes in the young children’s minds, then they will be rendered in a useless gesture and be immobilized.

  “So, I was giving them a warning to prepare themselves for the future. And I’ll be sure to tell them more in the future. Kids would want to hear about the craziest adventures I would have to tell them, even if they are the monster-slaying stories.”

  “Monster-slaying stories?” called out Freyya’s voice.

  Freyya was walking from around a tent carrying a basket of dried herbs. “My children happened to be in the tent the High Priest was in, and you told them a story?”

  “About my fight with the Five-Headed Dragon,” said Valverno, walking with Freyya and Halvdan walking behind them. “Remember the day I woke up? I told you and the others everything that happened in my life? Well, I only told the kids about my brutal fight against the Dragon with five heads. A large winged-lizard with wings, four legs, and a tail that could breathe fire.”

  “Kids would want to hear any story that’d make them excited to hear for another,” said Freyya. “Our kids always like the most dangerous battles. And if you told them about a battle, then they would want to hear more from you.”

  “I’ll be looking forward to it,” said Valverno. “And I’m wondering, has any Pangaea in this settlement ever seen a Dragon before?”

  “No, I haven’t but the High Priest did or so he says,” answered Freyya. “The High Priest remembered seeing one before and didn’t talk to him. Only saw the Dragon talking with a strange hooded figure that spoke with a strange accent. I don’t know how long ago he witnessed seeing a Dragon and this hooded stranger, but he says he saw a Dragon near the ocean shores. He overhead a name from the hooded figure, but I can’t remember how it’s pronounced. Rayskrit. Ralenit. Ranit. Ralenmit.”

  Valverno stopped and in a sudden stump a foot pounded into the ground. He knew what Freyya was trying to say, which he spoke aloud: “Ralenskrit!”

  “Yes, that’s name but, it seems that you…” said Freyya.

  “That you know him, personally,” said Halvdan.

  “Better than any of you. In my third lifetime I’m living, I’ve once called that draconic scientist my father, who is reality is the Dragon who tried to harness my divine my power and used my as a test subject on dead animals with a witch named Belverda, who I also thought was my mother of this Third Generation. And both, in a dark reality, were servants of the Shadow King Lusìvar.”

  “Oh, yes that’s right,” said Freyya. “I quite forgotten you mentioned that part the day you woke and told us your whole story.”

  “He and that hooded figure, who has to be none other than the witch: Belverda, tried to copy my divine power or they tried to turn me into a mindless slave, through experimentation. And that resulted in the creation of bringing monsters back from the dead and an explosion they thought would have killed me.

  “And humiliatingly for seventeen years of my life, I thought of them to be my real parents. How the power of time can revert me back into an infant and erase all my memories from existence. How such a thing is done I’ll never know, but I only know there is only the way forward. They’re both dead: Belverda fell from a cliff and Ralenskrit trapped himself in stone-form. The last remaining threat is none other than Lusìvar, and here I am trying to find a way to activate my divine power.”

  “Reality can be dark, can it?” asked Halvdan.

  Valverno looked at Halvdan with a blank stare. “I don’t need the reminder. I experienced it enough to know how it feels. And I’m still alive, which will make Lusìvar’s future become a dark reality. But now, I wish to remain alone. Having brought up such an unpleasant memory is making me feel uneasy to be around with people who mentioned something about a dragon scientist.”

  Valverno turned and walked from Freyya and Halvdan. Valverno went back to his tent and placed his kimono on the display where it once hung from. He heard noises of footsteps from the Pangaeans passing, and cared not for any other disruptions for the rest of the day. He felt concealing himself until the dawn of the next day.

  A TREMBLING EARTH

  A new dawn awakened the hybrid sleeping in the tent, which he woke up from a year’s slumber. Valverno slept through the night and into the brightness of a new dawn. The sun’s light flickering through one of the tent’s entrances.

  The hybrid got back up from the single cushion laid across the floor like a mat. Valverno gave a weak yawn before shaking his head from a dreary night. The thought of Belverda and Ralenskrit being near the settlement seemed meaningless; they almost found the Pangaeans’ settlement but never did. He found it odd as to why Belverda and Ralenskrit, who knew the locations of the three artifacts, would be on the island of Isla Maeli. He could only guess they were trying to look for the Pool of Light and maybe tried to bathe in it or just scouting.

  Whatever reason was as to why the two scientists were unknown to him. But he wasn’t going to dwell on the matter; they both are dead, and they don’t matter to him. What mattered more than two dead scientists was Lusìvar was alive, and the hybrid was in a weakened state. He had to find somehow to use his divine power at will.

  From a warm breeze Valverno was feeling, he slept through the night and awakened at the brightness of the rising dawn. He heard lots of voices chanting softly outside the tent. He stood up to his feet and shook his tail, from his tail and finishing to his tail whipping like wiping off water from its tipping point.

  Then he strolled up and dressed himself into the kimono robe and made himself look more presentable to as a real Pangaean. If he needed to start living as a Pangaean, he needed to look like one and not a naked hybrid awkwardly. “And I’m beginning to feel l
ike I am a Pangaean, no matter what form I look like. This is starting to feel like home. If Marina was only here, then we both could be living as Pangaeans.”

  Valverno exited the tent and walked among the Pangaeans. He was feeling he was a part of their society now, despite the fact he spent a month away from the settlement taking care of a plant. But taking care of the plant made him feel he was a part of the society as how he saw a few demihumans farming on the settlement’s outskirts.

  On his way around the tenth he passed and into a great opening of open terrain, he stumbled across Freyya and her kids looking at an orange sun rising over the mountains.

  “You see, kids?” said Freyya, showing her kids showing the sun rising form the east behind mountains in the far horizon. “A bright dawn means something wonderful will happen today.”

  “And that just might come true, kids,” said Valverno.

  Freyya and her kids turn to see Valverno standing behind them. “You must have your own experiences of good dawns rising for you, hybrid.”

  “Quite right, Freyya. I had my own share of dawns I felt that haven’t even dusked yet. There is so much in this world of my lifetime that hasn’t dusked on me, and there are quite a lot I want to dusk.”

  “Hmm. Kids, go run along and go find the cave. Just don’t go too close to the cave by the seashores,” said Freyya.

  Her kids nodded smiling big and ran off. They dashed passed the hybrid but halted; they bowed their heads and said, “Thank you for your story yesterday.” Then they ran off again.

  “I am quite envious of you, Freyya.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You have two adorable children you’re taking care of. I just wish I had three little youngsters of my own.”

  “So sad for you. From your stories you told me and others, falling in love with a Siren, which is thought to have been a fish ten thousand years ago. Such a tragic fate, even if she was blessed to have a set of three kids with you as their father.”

  “No husbands should have to bury their wives with three unborn kids. And now the seeds I once felt from within her will never see the light of day and they will never see their hybrid father. Even if Lusìvar falls and I succeed in life, I will only be living a half-life without Marina filling the half-gap I feel.”

  “Yes, so sad,” nodded Freyya. “I, too, suffered. My husband passed away from a rare disease a few years ago, and my kids knew him. They’re both eight years old, and they were five when he died. If it weren’t for this settlement, our lives would have died as well. We Pangaeans must always look after each other, even in the darkest moments of life. We help each other out, to no matter what we look like or what cultures we come from.”

  “That is the same personality I remember back in the ancient land. The land maybe long gone, but the people still thrive. As long as the people remain alive, then Pangaea is still alive, even if there is one more life.”

  Freyya smiled and sighed. “Now, excuse me, I find to go after my children. I promised them I’ll take them to a cave, and I don’t want them falling and breaking bones.”

  “Go ahead then, Freyya. Don’t let this Pangaean hybrid stop you.”

  Freyya bowed her head and took off in the direction her kids ran off to. She made a strange airy breath from her mouth, if she was trying to hide a sad, teary cry.

  Valverno didn’t dare make eye contact to Freyya, who said her husband died from a sickness and left Freyya and her kids alone but in a band of Pangaeans. Valverno was awestruck when Freyya lost her husband but managed to presence a lot of humility; something Valverno didn’t do when he lost Marina. He had no humility when Marina died in his arms and instead of being comforted by Sora, he tossed her aside.

  Valverno felt a huge regret of pushing his sister aside when he needed the comfort from family. But instead, he chose to be selfish and vile and turn away all family love.

  Then he shook his head to purge any negativity his mind might be unleashing and strolled back to the encampment. He walked at every turning point and came across Halvdan, Alfhild, and the High Priest Ganymede. He saw Ganymede and Alfhild both cutting dried herbs and spices on a flat circular table, and Halvdan was just standing behind the Elf.

  “Oh, there you are, hybrid,” said Ganymede. “We could use some help and your tail is just what we need.”

  Valverno walked over to them to see what they needed with his tail. “What do you need my tail for?” he asked.

  “We need help with this,” answered Alfhild. She and Ganymede removed the plants from the top of the table and revealed a circular object. “This is what we make pottery with: a spinning wheel. But a certain attachment is broken, and we need something else to substitute it.”

  “You’re a magic user, aren’t you, Alfhild?” asked Valverno. “Surely you can fix the attachments with your magic.”

  “It’s healing magic I know, and I’m still learning how to harnessing it,” said Alfhild. “I don’t know anything else about fixing anything with magic.”

  “Very well then. Where do you need to put me tail?”

  “Beneath the table,” said Ganymede. “There is a small hole in the table’s center. There’s a lever that’s broken, and I was about it fix it with my own magic. But since you’re here, you can help us out. That is if you got nothing else better to do than to go walking around in circles trying to find something to do.”

  With nothing to do but walk around in circles, Valverno walked closer and slivered his tail beneath the spinning wheel. His tail was just long enough to silver beneath the tabletop. His tail’s pointy end curved toward the top of the tabletop’s central point and a snap was heard. Valverno stopped moving his tail and remained still for as long as he could.

  “Okay, proceeding to make the bowl we need,” said Alfhild. Alfhild grabbed hold of a big chunk of claw and placed it on the table, which the top began to spin. Her hands remained on the chunk of clay and began to take form.

  For several minutes, Valverno remained still as the tabletop was spinning rapidly, and he didn’t feel anything on his tail. It was maybe it was of his scales that maybe protecting him from harm. He wondered if Ganymede or Halvdan were holding a magic trick into making the tabletop spin in a rapid circle.

  And for the time Valverno was stood still with his tail acting as a supporting structure, Alfhild shaped the chunk of claw into a large sized bowl enough to hold half-a-gallon of liquid. She kept her hands steady as the wheel spun and the bowl came into came.

  Finally, Alfhild had a big, wide bowl made from a chunk of wet claw, and Valverno removed his tail beneath the table, which stopped spinning. “There it is,” said Alfhild, gleefully. “Now we just need to let this sit in the sun for several hours, and it will be ready to be painted with three layers of paint and burned in a furnace.”

  Valverno stood up and saw the grey object Alfhild made from her hands. It looked wet and muddy, but shaped nicely with only bare hands to make a bowl with a wide brim. “Quite impressive. Need my help with anything else?”

  “No, we are fine here,” said Halvdan, rudely.

  “Don’t be so rude, Halvdan,” said Ganymede. “He took the time to help us while you’re stood there like a statue and watched us.”

  “That’s quite alright, High Priest. I’ve seen worst people with worse attitudes and no manners. Halvdan just seems to be a child refusing to grow up.”

  “I am a what!?” grunted Halvdan. Halvdan walked over to meet the hybrid close to his eyes. The wolf demihuman stood slightly taller than the hybrid and looked no higher than an inch down from an angel. “What did you call me?”

  Both Ganymede and Alfhild stood up with worried faces that a brawl would be happening soon.

  Valverno stood still as Halvdan stood inches away. “A child refusing to grow up!” Valverno coiled his tail ready to strike fast like a scorpion sting. “Wolves’ bites may bite bu
t a sting can be more harmful than a wolf’s bite. In your honest option, which option would be more harmful: a bite or a string?”

  “Such impudence? Why would I waste my time with you?” asked Halvdan.

  “Because you got nothing else better to do,” answered Valverno. Without a delay, Valverno switch his eyes away and walked the direction he walked from. As he walked around a corner’s tent, he stopped to listen to voices behind him.

  “What do you think you were doing?” asked Alfhild. “You may act high and might, but don’t act toward one of our own people, even if he just an outsider to us.

  “To remind you, it is one of the ancients: a monster, a Demon Prince,” whispered Halvdan.

  “No,” Alfhild argued to Halvdan. “He is one of us, a Pangaean. He singlehandedly took care of a dead plant with one single green leaf and manage to blossom it to life. He is a natural caretaker, not a conqueror. And he terrible misses the one strange but lovable woman he truly loves.”

  Valverno flickered his ears when he heard an indirect mention of Marina. He blinked his eyes several times before moving onward from his standing spot. He walked through the settlement and saw many people carving something or someone making a tapestry with colorful threads.

  Then he heard a cry coming from a crowd. “Help!” Valverno halted his walk and heard a woman’s cry.

  “My children, they’re trapped beneath a lot of a pile of rocks.” It was Freyya’s voice he heard, and he suddenly bolted to where he heard Freyya’s voice. From Freyya’s voice, he knew this familiar feeling; he remembered saving the twin boys from a Minotaur and the twin girls from a few witches.

  He found Freyya with the greatest horror on her face, and she was running through the crowd, whom she was passing by asking for help. Other Pangaeans nearby were being disturbed by Freyya’s cries for help.