by Ryan Johnson
“Freyya!” he called out. He rushed to Freyya as quickly as his legs could run. He quickly rushed through the crowd, but he made it to Freyya who seemed too unstable and too petrified to speak clearly; she was spurting out many words from her mouth.
“Freyya, what’s going on?”
“My kids! Trapped! Need help!”
“FREYYA!” roared Valverno’s voice.
There was dead silence in the air. Everyone around Valverno and Freyya stared at them with blank faces.
“Freyya. I’m trying to help you, but you are too overwhelmed to speak complete. Calm down. Take deep breaths. Clear your mind. And speak with an open mind: what has happened to your kids?”
Freyya only stared at the hybrid, and it was apparent she was never yelled at before. Valverno’s loud roar caused her to keep quiet and shook in shock that the hybrid she thought to be meek would roared loudly at her.
“Freyya!”
The sound of her name made her blink and made her to come back to her senses. For a moment, she had spaced out from Valverno’s roar, and the sound of his voice coming from the same specimen made her come back to her to the world of the living. “Oh, my children. They are trapped beneath a pile of rocks, and they are suffocating. I need help getting them out.”
“Buried? Where? Where are they buried?”
“There was a rockslide near to the southeast,” Freyya finally answered. “We were exploring a cave until there was a sudden quake. My kids are trapped in the cave.”
Valverno nodded and dashed away at a high speed with a stomp of his foot.
“Wait! Where are you going?” called out Freyya.
“To save your beloved children!” Valverno replied back.
Valverno ran as fast as his legs could carry him in the direction Freyya mentioned she and her kids explored. His trail came to a surrounding of rugged terrain of steep mountain cliffs and roads lurking around the mountainsides as well. It is a surprising location the Pangaeans chose to settle down. It only takes half an hour to go from a flat ground to a terrain of mountains. Luckily enough for him, where he was going didn’t have to do with climbing on any of the walls. He smelt the scent of the kids and followed the scented trail.
Along the way, he heard rocks falling from the high cliffs of the mountains and an avalanche of dirt would come drifting down from the mountains’ steepness. First there was silence. Then notice of falling rocks would erupt in a second.
A few sections from close to the mountaintops would suddenly collapse without warning. It was a dangerous terrain to go looking for a cave with a few rockslides rattled from the mountains.
Valverno dashed quickly to avoid the rockslides if he was to find them, and he seemed to be the only one to react quickly enough to find the lost children before more harm would befall on the children. The other Pangaeans were caught with confusion by Freyya’s shouting. He was the only one who took immediately action and went to go safe Freyya’s kids.
He continued his search, and he smelt the children’s scent was becoming stronger, which signaled he was getting closer.
“Help! Help!” Valverno’s hybrid ears picked up muffled voices of two children: Freyya’s kids.
He turned to see where his ears picked up the voices. He looked below a pile of collapsed rocks and three big boulders stacked with fallen trees. Valverno dashed toward the pile and climbed on the rocks He found a few, small gaps between fallen trees that blocked many rocks from collapsing. He saw quickly moved away the smallest rocks and a small tree’s bark split in half.
A few rocks slipped from the top and one boulder collapsed. Valverno found himself sliding with the rocks that slid from high above the pile, but he landed on the ground with his legs straining against the rocks, not sliding.
Once he stopped, he climbed up again to see through the gaps to see, if he was in the right place he heard the voices. He saw through the gaps, but they were too small to see clearly to see Gustavo or Querida.
“Help us!” cried voices.
“Hang on, kids,” he replied, seeing it was the voices of the kids. “I’ll get you out of there.”
“Help us!” cried Querida’s voice.
“We can’t breathe behind here!”
Valverno looked over and everything was just piled, and it would take him a long time to dig through the pile himself. He didn’t know if the other Pangaeans were coming, but he couldn’t wait; the kids were losing air from their trap and fast. He need to get them out of their quickly before they die from lack of air. He quickly slid back down and backed away to see what was the best way to kids out.
The pile of fallen rubble was hundreds of small-sized rocks, fallen trees, and three boulders; all of which was leaning toward one boulder, and it was the biggest boulder Valverno saw. It would mean a great risk if he was to lift it.
But without warning, Valverno grunted with his mouth and placed his hands beneath the boulder. With a moaning growl, the rock began to lift from the ground; Valverno’s difficulty with lifting a heavy boulder wasn’t insufficient his battle with the Minotaur; the boulder was more to the weight than dealing with a two-legged bull.
But with his strength, Valverno lifted the boulder from the ground and the other rocks started to rumble and slide down. Everything started to slide down from the boulder and the largest of the fallen trees fell behind him. And the weight of the other two boulders learning over the one boulder Valverno was lifting bore too much for Valverno’s two arms.
But inch by the inch, Valverno carried the boulder from the ground and to his belly. His muscles were strained from the weight capacity, but there were kids in dire need of help, and Valverno felt his draconic instincts taking hold and losing his humanity.
A monster was taking over! A kind caring, caring monster refusing to let two little innocent children die, even if they weren’t his children. He wasn’t going to let two little kids die under his watch. He couldn’t save little lifeforms before, but he wasn’t going to let two die.
He grunted as he lifted the boulder high and more rocks and debris falling from atop the boulder. With hard full legs, a combination of dragon and human muscle fibers branded into one hybrid muscular system, and a wing holding study of another boulder tilting from his right side, the hybrid heaved the boulder over his head and his arms holding it in place.
Without the use of his magic, Valverno still held hold to muscle strength Lusìvar failed to drain him; Lusìvar had only drained magic power from the hybrid, but not the muscle power running through his body. “Kids, come on out, quickly; I won’t be able to hold onto this for long.”
Querida and Gustavo appeared from the darkness and ran over to Valverno. With little space between them, the kids crawled beneath Valverno’s legs.
After several seconds, Valverno began to lose his control of holding steady against the boulder and more weight seemly being added to it. More rocks from the higher cliffs began to topple mysteriously. He growled as the weight began to crush down him, and he pushed the boulder up and jumped away from the boulder that rose slightly high than fell back to the ground.
Valverno picked up Querida and Gustavo with both his hands and dashed away from crumpling rocks falling from the cliffs of the mountains the pile laid across; it was if someone was causing an avalanche of rocks to fall upon the people passing through.
Valverno stopped away from the crumbling pile of rocks falling from the boulder he release from his grip and panting hard from his holding a heavy boulder with heavy weight adding pressure.
He saw the kids he carried safely away from the avalanche of rocks were unharmed, but they looked terrified of what they had experienced. It was a short time ago they were excited to go see on an adventure, but they ended up stumbling into unknown danger.
After he saw the kids were safe from harm, Valverno released the kids he carried on their feet. He looked at their w
orried faces and knelt down to look into their eyes more closely. “Are you kids alright? Hurt? Any broken bones?”
They shook their heads.
“Where’s Mama?” asked Querida.
“Mama is quite safe,” answered Valverno, placing his hands on the kids’ shoulders to give them some comfort. “She came running into town and yelled at everyone for help, and I was the first to response to her pleas. I dashed out here as fast as I could and get you two out of here. Now, I’ve saved you, and there is nothing more to worry about. Let’s go home, kids, before any more bad things nodded.”
They both nodded their heads in agreement, and Valverno stood up. “Let us holds while we all walk back, alright,” he said.
The kids smiled and immediately grabbing one of Valverno’s hands; Querida grabbed Valverno’s left arm and Gustavo grabbed Valverno’s right hand. He took a few steps forward with Freyya’s kids when he saw several Tokagehebi and three Amazons running from a mountain’s corner, with Freyya leading them.
“Children!” Freyya cried.
“Mama!” the kids cried back. The kids made a mad dash from the heroic hybrid to their mother who ran to them.
All three hugged tight of each other, and Freyya knowing full well her children were safe. Tears dripped from her eyes when she cradled her two kids in her arms.
Valverno kept smiling knowing the children were back with their mother. He walked slowly toward the happy family brought back together without a harmful death.
Freyya gazed with her teary eyes at Valverno walking to them. “H-how did you achieve this?”
“Your kids were suffocating from a lack of air, so I gave them air. I lifted up a boulder, they ran out, rocks crumbled from the top, and I carried them away from a collapsing rockslide to safety. And here they are in your arms. No mothers should have to lose their children to anything, even a collapsing rockslide.”
Okinawan walked from the group of Tokagehebi and looked where the spot Valverno rescued the kids. “You lifted all that weight yourself?”
“I couldn’t let the kids die from the lack of air they needed to breathe, and I do know the lung capacity of young demihumans. They have been stuck for quite a while. So, I needed to do something to save the kids. I had seconds to think, not minutes. So, I lifted the boulder, and they made it out. It took me a short time to get here and free the kids while everyone took longer to assemble and get here. The kids would have been out of time to be saved.”
“Well, I’d hate to argue but—”
The ground trampled so suddenly if a thunder struck earth hard from the sky. A crevice opened from the earth and spilt across the Pangaeans very quickly. It ripped through the surface like a paper being ripped in half, and it opened beneath Freyya and her kids.
And the earth shaking made the kids separated the kids from their mother. “Kids, no!” Freyya was pulled by the Tokagehebi from the crumpling ground splitting open.
“Mama!” the kids cried.
Valverno quickly grabbed both of Freyya’s kids as the crevice and backed out of the way. The terrain of mountains was shafting so fast and the earth was quaking and trembling. Rockslides slid from the mountain peaks and many boulders smashed the hard. The ground started to turn into a plain of sand and rocks on the bottom started to sink.
Valverno saw Freyya being grabbed by the Tokagehebi holding her back, and Okinawan jumping back to his trope of Tokagehebi and the few Amazons jumped high to the other mountains not crumbing or breaking. Freyya was picked up by the Tokagehebi and carried away by the lizard person.
The Tokagehebi and Amazons jumped away from the ground starting to sink. The piled rubble, which piled the cave Valverno rescued the kids, sank into the surface.
Every mountain crumbling from a great height dissolved into small rocks and boulders like an avalanche falling from heavily snowed mountains. This was no earthquake Valverno has ever experienced as every mountain in view broke and shattered very rapidly than he could run in a sprinting race.
And without a delay, Valverno flapped of his only wing that blew away the falling rocks and a kick of his feet. Valverno jumped out of the sand-sinking debris and grabbed hold of a wall of the mountain the Pangaeans jumped towards, and he latched into the rock with his left hand.
Before he jumped, he pointed the kids in front of him and behind him. Gustavo hung on Valverno chest. Querida was given a piggyback, with his tail trying the kids around him.
Both kids had their arms wrapped around Valverno’s neck, and Valverno made sure his tail was secured around the kids and tight enough, so the kids won’t have to fall from his grip.
“Look! Down there!” shouted a man’s voice.
From an angle, Valverno saw a Tokagehebi above them. The distance was a far distance to climb, but Valverno had the strength to make it. The terrain right below him still rumbled and ponded like a powerful, giant quicksand, but he dared not look back.
Quickly, he climbed the wall he jumped to and saw Freyya with the Tokagehebi peeping over the high cliffs. His muscles were strained from holding a boulder with his two hands, but he still had the strength to move climb ahead.
And he climbed without having any rock or any sector of the wall he climbed break or collapsing. In a matter of minutes, he made it to the top with no rocks falling upon him or slipped from the height he went up to.
Dragging over the edges of the topmost point, Valverno released his tail from the kids and hoisted Gustavo first within reach of a Tokagehebi’s arms and Freyya’s arms. Gustavo was safely placed back in his mother’s arms, and Valverno used his tail to wrap around Querida and hoisted her up to the reach of the Tokagehebi’s arms, which pulled Querida to the ledge; both children were reunited with their mother.
Then Valverno hoisted himself over the ledge and stood up and shook up his body from the treacherous climbing he endured. After brushing off any dust and dust from his dirty kimono, the hybrid looked at the kids hugging their mother who was happy to see them.
“That was brave of you,” said Okinawan, patting Valverno’s left shoulder. “Saving those kids when every mountain went crumbling down.”
“And I’ve never witness such destruction to a landscape,” said Valverno.
“It is a common yet rare occurrence in this terrain, which is why we try to stay clear. Such earthly phenomenons occur here every few decades or centuries, and it appears it has happen once again.”
“Hmm,” Valverno hummed while shaking his head in disbelief. Then he turned and saw the kids looking at him. They bowed their heads and said, “Thank you for saving us.”
Freyya was between her kids and bowed her head. “Thank you very much for saving my children from a gravely fate.”
Valverno smiled nodded in response. “I am Pangaean as I come. And I always help others in need, even if they don’t need it. And I was happy to help a mother who needs her children as much as they need her, and I will keep helpin—”
A snoring growl echoed from a ledge on the opposite end of the mountaintop Valverno, the Tokagehebi, Amazons, and Freyya and her children stood on.
A large hairy creature climbed from the cliffs: a lion!
Valverno felt the kids weren’t out of the woods yet.
A BRUTAL FIGHT
The lion stood at an extraordinary size that twice of the size of a full grown male alpha lion. The lion’s mane was wavy and long enough to blow hard with no wind blowing. Its paws were big enough to crush a human baby, and its teeth were long as a dragon’s fang.
With no sign of hesitation, the lion slashed the ground and the spot Valverno stood broke from the mountaintop. The change of land made him sink from everyone else. He was the only two-legged creature to be moving toward the cliffs, and the others suddenly falling to the ground from a stomp the strange lion creature pounded into the earth like sinking into quicksand.
Then the lion poun
ced over Valverno, who dropped onto his back and used his legs to grab hold of the giant lion’s mane and push the beast over the cliffs.
Valverno heaved the lion over the edge, but the lion quickly bit on Valverno’s tail lingering over the ledge. Valverno was pulled by the lion’s grip of his tail and went tumbling over the cliff. His fingers dug into the ground as he fell over the cliff, but the weight of the lion prevented him from grabbing hold of the mountaintop and fell with the lion over the cliffs.
Both slid on the mountain wall Valverno climbed to get to the top with Freyya’s two kids. Valverno used his right wing to cover his body. Then he crammed his feet against the wall to slow his falling and as well whip his tail free from the lion’s mouth.
But the lion’s mouth tugged on Valverno’s tail like a dog wildly tugging on a robe. Then Valverno used his legs to pounce from the mountain wall, and he strongly jumped off the wall. But the end of his tail snapped off, with the lion biting off the pointy end.
Valverno growled loudly as he landed on his feet on the ground, which now have been solidified and no longer sinkable. His feet trailed into the ground after he jumped away from the lion falling on the mountain wall. He halted quickly after impacting the earth with his feet. Valverno grunted after he halted and looked at his tail; few drops of blood dripped from the end that’s been pulled from a single bit. He looked at the beast standing on its four legs.
The lion growled and snarled looking at the hybrid. It paws scratched into the ground surface its legs stood on, and the claws made screeching sounds Valverno found irritating, if the claws were clawing on the his ears’ skin.
While he covered his ears with his hands, Valverno still gazed at the lion. The hybrid breathed in a great anger and a small mournful groan. He felt the power of Shadow in his body boiling through his blood, and his skin’s color changed go a dull grey like a rainy cloud.
