by Ryan Johnson
“Yes, Sora mind-contacted us and said you were doing something important,” said Monico.
“Try to hurry it along, we are busy with our new titles and positions that fate has given us,” said Teutates.
“To be short, I am dying. I will meet my end when the sun marks its dusk on me.” Valverno quickly got to the point and made the three men blink quickly. “Yes, the ten years that I have spent with no organ heart inside me aged me rapidly. One year was ten thousand years. If I had half a heart, I would live a few thousand years. If I had the whole heart, I would live the full one hundred thousand years. But that reality won’t come true. I have come to say my goodbyes to everyone.”
“You’re dying? You’re finally succumbing to your death?” Flavius was shocked out his mind. For the longest of time, he thought the demigod would stay for a few decades or centuries, but the truth is out: his foster hybrid brother was dying.
“I’m afraid so, Flavius. I knew my time was going to be short, but these pass ten years have been aging me. In doing so, I have three wonderful children I am leaving behind. I will leave them in your care, and do be sure to spoil them too much. They need to be reasonable kids when they grow up, and they need to know what reality will be when they grow older. I’ll count on you to watch over them.”
Valverno and Flavius shared one last brotherly hug together. Then he went to shake hands with Monico and Teutates who didn’t seem too worked up of this news: Valverno felt they knew Valverno was meeting his end.
“And my children will need to be tended to,” Valverno said to Flavius. “I’ll need you to watch over them with physical eyes while I watch them with my godly eyes.”
“I’m sure my husband and I will manage and help Marina,” said Sora’s voice.
The group looked away and saw Sora entering with the four kids running from a portal. Athena, Talos, Midas, and Quirinus dashed like little squirrels to Valverno and all hugged him tightly in a group huddle.
“The kids suddenly awakened and wanted to come say goodbye before you take off,” said Sora.
“Must you really go?” asked the four kids.
“Yes. I have to, kids. The gods are calling. And do you know what they are saying?”
They shook their heads no.
“They say to go get that butterfly.” Valverno lifted a hand and revealed a small butterfly that flew from his hand. “Look at that butterfly, kids. Go get it, kids.” Valverno pointed at the yellow glowing butterfly flying through the village hut houses.
Athena, Talos, Midas, and Quirinus immediately rushed after to get the butterfly.
Valverno watched as the four kids ran off to chase after the butterfly. “That illusion will keep them busy for a while. Once they realize it is an illusion, they will know what reality is. And it would be for the best. Kids will need to grow up at some point and know how dark reality can be. Now, I must be off.
“But first, there is one last place I need to be, and the placed that set me on this path: the place I first met Marina and ended up becoming out fate to be together forever.”
Then Valverno held Marina by her waist and flew over the village and toward the west and to the beach shores where they saw half the sun on the brim western horizon. They had only less than half-an-hour to see each other, as mortals. They looked back and saw Monico, Sora, Flavius, and Teutates waving their hands at Valverno, and Valverno shook his hand back.
After waving one last goodbye to his friends and sister, Valverno landed on the beach and saw the net that had Marina trapped as a child, lying on the sand.
They were twelve years old when they first met. The spot they met after Valverno killed the hunting hounds and the men trying to kill the last Siren.
Marina walked and knelt on the muggy sand, not minding she was getting her dress dirty. She touched the net with her hands and gripped the tight knots. She pulled the net close to her chest and let a few tears drip down from her eyes.
“So many years ago. Thirteen or fourteen years ago, this is the spot you found and this where I found you. For many years, this spot has frightened me. Scared me in nightmares I always had. That’s why I wanted to be raised in the capital city, to stay away from this spot that almost killed me. Now, I’m not afraid anymore. I have confronted my fear of death and I see only Light on this spot, and you are the Light that lit my fear of this spot away.”
After several long minutes, Marina placed the net back down to the ground and stood back up. Then Valverno came and stood where Marina knelt. With one wave his hand, a large tidal wave beat against the muddy sand, running through their feet, and waving back into the ocean and taking the net with it.
“Now let the past sink and let a new net raise anew for the future, Marina the Siren,” said Valverno. “Just like me, when I need to fly off toward the west and the dusk. And let the sun rise and dawn on our children’s time. The sun is dusking on me. When it rises, it will rise the dawn of the divine power of our children.”
Then there was a soft wind blowing on his face. His clothes fell from his body, revealing his human skin. The scar across his eye faded. The glowing on him began to dim, and his physical started to fade as well like a ghost.
“My time has come, Marina,” he said bluntly. He looked at Marina who began to tear up heavily and rushed to kiss her hybrid husband, one final time. Suddenly, Marina’s hand slipped through Valverno’s hand, he had faded into a ghostlike substance, and their lips weren’t able to touch.
Then Valverno flapped his wings, and his skin showed once again, nudging his fading fingers through Marina’s fingers one more time, and they kiss for one last time. And it was before Valverno slowly flapped his wings and slowly release his lips and fingers from Marina’s fingers and lips, leaving Marina stranded on the ground.
Then Valverno rose higher and higher into the air, without taking his eyes off the Siren. And after full minutes of rising into the air, Valverno dripped a single tear from his emerald eye and gloated his face away and looked toward the west and the setting sun.
Far off in the west, the last of the sun’s upper lit circle was almost gone, and Valverno flew off in the direction of the western horizon, which gave a blue hazy gaze of fading blue clouds matching across the blue wave washing against the cliffy ledges of Shimabellia’s shores.
Marina breathed hard as she sniffed and tears drip from her eyes. Then she felt a hand brushing against her shoulder, and she felt it was Sora’s hand.
Then Sora moved forward and created a portal that led directly to the northwestern corner of Isla Maeli. The tree still stood but no longer the Pool of Light; both Pools of Light and Shadow had been destroyed by Valverno during his reign as a king.
Marina nodded her head and dashed through the portal. The Siren entered through the portal and charged forward on the land of Isla Maeli. She dashed pass the tree blossoming with green leaves on newly grown branches on top of the tree’s new top that grown taller than ever before.
She dashed passed it and hastened with all her might and speed until she halted at the edge of a high cliff at the northwestern spot that stretch far and high as the cliff could go. She saw Valverno flying in the sky and directly toward the sun making its final dusk, for the hybrid drifting towards it.
Then a windy breeze waved against her hair, waving the points toward Valverno. And that breeze caught up with Valverno, and he felt the breeze rushing up his face and hair. He stopped and looked back to see Marina standing on the land. He saw her waving an arm in the air. She was happy yet mournful in her eyes, and she smiled as her hair was blowing in the wind.
Valverno shared the same look Marina the Siren gave: a happy yet mournful look while smiling big to see their love still thrived. He turned his full front body to her, made one big wave in the air in a full circle, and turned back to continue his flying toward the sun dusking on his time in the Mortal Realm.
And when the
final edges of the orange light of the sun disappeared into the western brim horizon, a green flash flashed on the horizon…
…Valverno’s body was nowhere to be seen.
He faded completely from the Mortal Realm and his half divinity becoming a god in the Realm of the Gods. It is where he stands now with the Three Gods: Origenes (God of Shadows), Adelpha (Goddess of Light), and the Crystal Dragon (Balancer of the Gods). And Valverno stood among them, as the God of the Mortal Realm.
Marina sniffed heavily and wiped away tears from her eyes. After she wiped her eyes, she looked at the purple night sky with bright blue stars and three white moons. In the starry night sky, a star sparkled brightly like a fiery ruby. This represented Valverno’s divine appearance.
Then she spoke softly toward the sky and whispered to the star:
“For what it has been worth, my sweet hybrid. Your tale has been a great tale to be told. A tale of a hybrid… A Tale of a Human Dragon Hybrid!”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan Johnson was born 1994 in California. He moved to Arizona in the year of 2000, and he has lived there ever since. His first word was “flower” which pronounced as “tlower.” His world of fantasy adventures started when he was eight years old, when he had an idea he was reincarnated to Earth from another dimension. And throughout his childhood, he felt like an outsider and a lone-wolf than a people person, living in the shadows of other people.
He was diagnosed with autism at a very young age, and he wouldn’t speak until he was five years old, speaking only a hundred words. Throughout his childhood, he underwent many doctors, therapies, medical treatments, etc. Doctors told his parents there was no hope for him of being able to think for himself and forever be a low functioning human boy.
However, throughout the years, Ryan managed to pull through and now he has grown intelligent enough to live on his own. He is now creating different worlds like the two islands of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli and creating the characters of the world of A Tale of a Human Dragon Hybrid.
He currently lives in Arizona where he is has finished the A Tale of a Human Dragon Hybrid Trilogy, which he started in 2014 and completed it by March 2020. Now he moves onward toward his next series and the first series he started back in 2009: Mystical Warriors, Supernatural Warriors. And the first book already out: Rise of the Supernatural Heroes.
