by Ryan Johnson
Marina’s face just shook in confusion and looked at the building, which was the childhood house of Sora and Valverno. At first, it was the house was rebuilt, but it was now a crumpled ruin again. It looked like something smashed the building from above like a comet. Then a shocking thought occurred to her: Sora’s tears of the rebuilt house suddenly demolished.
Marina stopped breathing as she felt her heart pounding hard and making it difficult to breathe. She climbed over the rubble to see what has caused childhood house of Valverno and Sora to come a pile of rubble again. She made her way to the top and gloated down to see a smashed point in the center of the pile and a body lying across the ground if it was asleep.
From the three blue moons, the figure had light tan skin like Sora’s tan skin. A pair of red wings with red scales laying on the legs right beneath the waist were spiked with a half human torso with red scales on both his lower hands. Shoulder-length red hair draped close to the neck. The body was positioned if it was sleeping on a small sofa.
“VALVERNO!” Marina gasped, dropped her bow, and rushed to a sleeping-looking Valverno, seeing his body lying on the ground. She rushed with the greatest haste and dropped to his side. She gazed upon the form that Valverno used to take, before his quest to the Northern Region.
“Valverno, wake up! I’m here! I’m here and everyone is here. We’re all saved, thanks to you.” Marina giggled a small giggle, but there was no response from the sleeping hybrid.
Marina smiled, thinking he was just sleeping. But her smile faded when there was a long scar on his chest was leaking red blood. “Valverno. Valverno!” Marina moved his head to the side, and there the head didn’t move back. Marina moved her mouth toward to the side of his ear and screamed, “VALVERNO!”
She screamed from the top of her lungs, directly into the ears of Valverno. Still, there was no response from the demigod.
Marina’s heart was starting to feel a great pressure, and her head began to sweat with the worst anxiety. “No. No! You can’t be dead! You can’t leave me like this! You can’t! I have three seeds I’m carrying, and you need to help me to grow them! VALVERNO!”
Still, no response. He was just lying there, if he was in a deep, trancing sleep. In a hard pull, Marina placed out her legs in kneeling potion and pulled Valverno’s upper body over her kneeling legs. Then pulled his closed-eyed face closer to her eyes and she leaned over to put an ear to his chest. There was no heartbeat and no sign of breathing. Then she kissed him on his lips to shore there was still love, but when she removed her lips from his, his lips gave no sound of air.
“Help! Somebody! Help! Heal him! Do something to help!” Marina looked at a few Unicorns and a few Elves standing over the rubble. There were also with a few Dragons, Centaurs, and Griffins. Flavius, his siblings, Ganymede, Halvdan, Freyya, and Alfhild, Teutates, Monico, the three clan leaders, a few human soldiers, and a few Pangaeans surrounded the Siren and the hybrid she laid on her legs.
Sora was the only one of the crowd to walk over her brother, and the Siren trying to resist the idea of the worst thing possible. She looked at the hybrid with his eyes closed, and Sora shook her head in disbelief. However, the truth Sora gazed at was in front of her eyes and her nose.
“I’m sorry, Marina,” said Sora, in a soft tone like singing a child’s melody. “I am so sorry it had come to this, but it has come. No matter how hard a Unicorn or an Elf may try, or the Pool of Light, they just don’t have the power to do it. Nothing, except a demigod, can bring a corpse back from the dead!”
“No. NO. NO! It can’t be true. It can’t be. He wouldn’t leave me like this! He wouldn’t! Valverno! Demigod Valverno! Demon Prince Vaeludar! WAKE UP!!” Marina shouted as tears dripped from her eyes. “MY LOVE! WAKE!”
“Marina!” Sora slapped Marina’s cheek and Marina and everyone else watching went silent.
The Siren was silent from a White Knight trying to hold back tears of agony and grieve. “Wh-what was that…”
“Marina. This is it. This is reality of the Mortal Realm, and the reality of a demigod: the body of Valverno, my big brother and your husband…” Sora paused and wiped away her tears with her fingers and continued, “… is… dead!” Sora then let out heavy tears and cried heavily after revealing the darkest truth of a mortal.
“No, Valverno. My love. No! Nooooooo!” screamed Marina. The Siren gave a shout of agony as Valverno still didn’t respond of her loud cry.
Finally, Marina gave into a loud cry and cried loudly sunk her face into Valverno’s closed-eye face. Her screams could be heard in the surrounding areas and many who weren’t nearby listened to Marina’s crying screams.
Valverno, the Demigod of the Mortal Realm, lied dead in the arms of Mariana the Siren!
A SISTER’S LAMENT
Hours had rolled into the night, and Marina cried for all that time pouring down her tears into the deceased face of Valverno. All the mortals gathered nearby heard the Siren grieving over her lost love and her heart’s light. They distant themselves from the Siren crying unstop as they felt her grieving heart in their minds.
Among them all, Sora was the only one standing by Marina’s side as the Siren was succumbing to grief. Sora knelt by Marina when no one else would stand by the Siren’s side to try to ease the pain she felt in her breaking heart.
But everyone knew there would be no words or any action that could heal the pain Marina felt; Valverno was dead and no longer part of the Mortal Realm.
Sora had ceased her crying grief after an hour long after Marina screamed in the worst grief Sora felt when she lost Pangaea. After the long hours kneeling by Marina’s side, Sora stood up without Marina having to look at her sister walking away. The White Knight of Charity slowly walked away from the Siren grieving over her dead husband.
I’m sorry, Marina, thought Sora, My brother has fulfilled his duty the gods asked him to do, and he has done it. The Mortal Realm is safe, and no more evil is here to conquer it; my brother has now become a god, which means he can no longer interfere with the Mortal Realm as the gods placed a sacred law not to interfere with our lives.
Sora walked away and trailed through the city’s buildings to find her father. It took her several minutes to find him standing with the three other White Knights. Alfhild, Halvdan, and Freyya weren’t with them, along with Flavius’s younger siblings. Ganymede spoke softly with Flavius, Teutates, and Monico.
Then Monico saw Sora walking their way, with a distorted face.
Ganymede saw Monico’s eyes turn from him to Sora and looked to see his daughter walking in a pasting manner.
“Sora, I’m glad. I’m sorry for what happened to your brother. I’m rather proud that he—”
Sora suddenly punched her father in his stomach. “You knew, didn’t you, Father?” demanded an angered Sora. “You knew he had to die to achieve his goal all along, didn’t you?” She spoke in such a demanding tone with a disappointed look.
Ganymede coughed when he was suddenly punched and bent over after feeling a bellyache; the others were caught off-guard of this sudden attack.
After a minute, Ganymede stood straight up. He blinked his daughter’s grieve had turned into an expression of anger. He did see Sora had ceased her tears of grieve and turned into a morale ambition of wanting to know something that her father must have known for all time, even when Valverno had accepted to be a “demigod” back in the Second Generation days.
“Not just me, daughter, your mother did, too. Your mother told me about his fate. When a god choses a mortal to be its ‘child,” the child gives up half of his mortality and is given divine power that protects him from death. And the child, no matter how dreadful events that may have the child killed, still remains alive and is protected of his half divine persona until the task he has been given is completed.
“Then, after the task is done, the child’s personality that’s still retained while s
till being a mortal would be reincarnated into the form of a god. Valverno retained his love to the Siren, to you, and to everyone else he saw as free mortals. He left his body, but he now has become a god after his final stage of his mortal life. Now, his personality of his mortal life will now have been reincarnated into the form of a god, and he will watch over us.”
Sora shook her head and turned her head away from her father. “And you didn’t tell him the time he spent with you. And you didn’t tell me when I first laid my eyes. You didn’t tell anyone about his final fate, but you still knew he had to die.”
“If I did tell you or any of these White Knights, you surely would have stopped him and prevented him from dying. Thus, you were to die as well, and Lusìvar would have killed you along with your fellow brethren. If I told you anything, you would’ve tried to take his place as a ‘demigod’ and try to be the hero the HE was asked to be.”
“But at what cost of not sharing this knowledge? He was always my hero. Of course, there were the three others: Hector, Desmond, and Herus. But those three always teased me in many matters, but he always pulled me to his side and protected me from their teases. He was always there with me when things when I felt everything going downhill. Every time I dropped to my legs, he was the one to pull me back. Every time I felt being teased, a string of despair, or a Shadow lingering within me, he would be the Light to brighten my soul.
“And now he is dead! Now I feel like my life is ruined, because of this life’s events. Light may have prevailed, but I wanted to have spent more time with him and help to raise his kids, my niece and nephews. But they are going have to grow up, without ever knowing or looking at the hybrid who saved their lives.”
Sora turned and tried to walk away, but she suddenly felt a force pulling her arm and she found her face dug in the deep of Flavius’s chest. “What are you doing?”
“You think you’re the only one who feels this way?” demanded Flavius. “I was just told this, too. I lost a brother as well. He and I were raised by our father, and we both grew up together. Now, he is dead. I feel the same way you feel.”
Sora wouldn’t have tried to barge from Flavius’s grip, but she allowed herself be caught in his grasped. At first, she felt cold like a winter storm, but now she felt great warmth rising from Flavius. However, at the same time, she felt she didn’t want a warm comfort.
After a while of allow Flavius to hug her, Sora pushed him away. She softly pushed him away from his grasp and distinct herself from her and the others.
“Don’t bother me; I need some time alone!” Sora turned away from the man she once called a primitive and walked away. She strolled away from the group. She walked through many buildings and courtyards and alleyways.
Sora walked through the city streets and came to a large dried fountain, with three large white stone marble statues. The statues depicted two parents and a newborn child in the mother’s arms. The statues were distinct of Elves, due to the long hair and pointy ears. This is the spot where my brother and I had the most fun, Sora thought, remembering the adventures she and Valverno has children.
She remembered one time she fell into the fountain drizzling with water. Someone pushed her in and made her cry. And Valverno was the one who pulled her out and kept her dried her with the membrane of his small wings. Then he would do the same thing to the Pangaean responsible to the people who pushed her into the fountain: either Desmond or Hector but never Herus.
She remembered Descend and Hector as trouble makers, and Herus was more of a silent friend more than a loud person. Desmond was one of a few Pangaean males to be an Amazon, Hector was a bear demihuman, and Herus was an Elf.
All three were the closest friends to Valverno, but always made fun of Sora; mostly Sora wasn’t any of the species known to Pangaea. She was never an Elf, a Dwarf, an Amazon, or a demihuman; she was a something that looked more distinctively toward a human than any other of Pangaean descent.
There were so many places around the city she and Valverno always had fun and prospered. And those places were always Desmond and Hector always made a little joke about Sora, but Herus was always silent around Sora and spent more time studying than playing with them.
Herus, Desmond, and Hector would always try to challenge Valverno in magic duels and fist fights, a way of boys having fun, and Valverno always end up on top. Somehow, without any proper training, Valverno would easily win without having to cast any magic or breathe any fire or even flap his wings. The only one capable of standing the longest against Valverno was Hector, and he had quite the brute strength that could have rivaled against Valverno, if Hector had lived through the ten thousand years.
But those three long since passed since the hibernation process some eight thousand years ago. Now, Valverno went to join them. Even with her father back, Sora still felt alone in the wondering city. The city may have been brought back, but not the same people or faces. Valverno and their three friends are what made the city so lively and cheerful.
But without them, the city would feel like a tomb-less graveyard. Sora drew out of one of her kukri knives and flung it toward one of the statues. The kukri knife faded into a cloud and sunk it into the statue of the mother.
Then the white statues glowed for a few short seconds and a yellow dazzle sparked around the three Elf-shaped statues and glittered around the stone-made fountain. Then water dripped from the statue’s hands, and the water sparked with clear water like the blue water of the open ocean.
After seeing the fountain pouring out water once again for the first time in ten thousand years, Sora sat down and sighed heavily. At first, she felt a magical presence of the water pouring out, but suddenly felt that feeling fading away like drowning in the fountain’s water, which covered about two feet deep. She sat down by the fountain and muttered herself in a soft tone.
Why? Why did my brother have to die?
I just don’t understand as to why
He wasn’t just a mortal, a hybrid, or a man
He was a special brother who could do anything he can
I may just be his sister, but he’s been my hero
He has always been a good big brother
I couldn’t ask or demand for any other
So, why did he have to die?
If there is an answer, I haven’t see it from the start
It feels like an evil has taken him away from me
And it was an evil spirit that pierced his heart
But just why did he have to die this young?
I feel sorry his children won’t get to know him
They will only hear about their father through a hymn
They’ll never get the chance to know how he cared
They’ll never get the chance to know how he wasn’t scared
In the future, I’ll see this day as a cheerful day
I’ll be sure to remember to be happy that I’ll pray
However, I’ll only see this is as a time to cry
Because, my big brother, I’m just not ready to say goodbye
And just why did you have to die this young?
Sora took another sigh after finishing. She looked around her, but no one was there by the fountain of her childhood memories. Among the original five kids to stand, sit, and play by the fountain, she was the last of the five to sit by it. There was no comfort to ease the pain of her heart and mind she felt sitting by the fountain alone. Her father may live, but he rarely visited the fountain when Sora was a child and there were other fountains they visited as a family.
She got up and headed back to her old home that was a ruin again and see how Marina was doing.
A HYBRID DEIFIED
Sora walked the way back to her crumpled house and saw a small group creatures crowded around. They were the rulers: the Dragon King, the Unicorn King, the Centaur King, the Fairy Queen, the Griffin King, and the Pegasus King,
and it was rather hard to find any ruler of Sea Serpents or Merfolk. Aside from the rulers, there were three dozen demihumans, twelve Tokagehebi, and three Elves. They all turned their heads toward her when she came walking through their crowded spot.
Sora walked through the small crowd and halted suddenly. She looked in one spot to see the Elf Alfhild. “I’m sorry this happened, Sora; Sister of Valverno” said Alfhild.
“He did his sacred duty that the gods asked him to carry out,” said Sora, trying to hold back her tears from the prowling eyes of the creatures. “And just call me Sora, Elf Alfhild.” Sora strolled across the other Pangaeans and rulers, walked up the wreckage of marble stone, and down to Marina who had ceased her crying but still had her face touching to Valverno’s face.
Sora stood near Marina’s side and looked gracefully at Valverno’s face. His eyes closed if he was in a deep hibernation, not dead. He looked at shoulder-length red hair, red scales that covered from his hands near the elbow; from the elbow to his shoulder was pure human skin and as tanned as hers. His wings, legs, and tail were in the color of fading red scales.
This is how you liked during your life of the Second Generation and early Third Generation, brother, thought Sora. You always looked like this when we were kids, and nothing of your appearance had changed. But it looks so different.
After staring at Valverno’s dead body for several minutes, she turned her gaze to her Marina’s head. “Marina?” she softly whispered.
Marina moved her head from Valverno’s face at the sound of her name. She saw Sora standing beside her with a mournful face. “Sora, you must feel the same way that I do.”
“Yes,” stated Sora, kneeling down beside her sister-in-law. “All my life I’ve spent with him. Several hundred years in Pangaea and two thousand years in Shimabellia and Isla Maeli. For the longest of time, we stayed together as siblings would, despite us being half. Looking back now, it feels like only one hour long we have been together. And now, he is no longer part of the Mortal Realm, the Realm where all morals had the same terrible fate.”
