by Ryan Johnson
Vaeludar was finally covered like a man of high nobility, with his hind legs, tail, and wings showing. The Crystal Sword was placed not too far from Vaeludar’s view; it was placed next to a mirror Vaeludar would view himself when being dressed by several tailors.
After standing on his dragon feet for long hours, Vaeludar found himself wearing the rich clothing that made him feel like a nobleman. The leather plating armor-like clothing felt tight on his arms and his chest. This was had to be done, so he would look like a hybrid of nobility and not peasantry.
He was able to walk around freely at last with his legs not being covered by manmade clothing; the tailors know how to dress humans, but they don’t know how to dress Dragons. And Vaeludar was a half dragon indeed.
With his dressing done on the morning of the third day and the wedding to be held in the afternoon, Vaeludar made his way toward the wide open courtyard he first landed and met the battalion of soldiers with Marina. It was largely crowed.
People were crowding other people. Ribbons were placed on the towers. Banners and flags of different symbols blew against the high walls. Everyone was prepping for everything, to make sure this would be the most legendary wedding of the century and millennium. Griffins were flying on the high rooves, placing colored flags on the tower tops.
Vaeludar flew in the air so he could not be mixed with the crowd. Not before dozens of eye witnesses saw him flying I the air, and dozens of people crying out his name. He saw hundreds of people staring at him, in awe and amazement. A year ago people in Geraldus’s village would stare strangely at him. After he had slain the furry Minotaur, he rose to fame sharply. Vaeludar couldn’t escape the public’s eyes and can’t make one stop without drawing attention from other people.
The hybrid flew toward to a window he saw wide open and seized the chance. He climbed in, taking the risk to go into the unknown than trying to crawl through the huge crowd with arms that would try to grab him. The window was big enough for him to fit through. He was stumbling into the unknown as he did when traveling the Northern Region.
“You can’t seem to go anywhere without being notice on your first step, can you?” asked Flavius.
Vaeludar quickly turned and saw Flavius standing near a stack of spears. Vaeludar seemed to have entered through an armory rather than a room he remembered when he entered at the Lost Castle.
“Tell me about it,” said Vaeludar. “I hate being called a ‘living legend.’ Slaying the Minotaur was an act of kindness; I was defending the village and your twin brothers from being killed by the rampaging monster. If I wasn’t there to fight, the entire village would have been rampaged to the ground. I defend the village from the monster, and I get to be turned into a ‘fairy tale hero’ or a ‘knight in shining armor.’ The common people think me as those titles. I think I should have thrown the Minotaur to the seas and let that animal drown.”
“You’re popular upon the girls in the kingdom, and the lot of them wants to marry you.”
“Well, I’m marrying only one of them and not to mention I lived with her under the same roof this past winter. Almost five or six months I had spent time with her, and we were happy, before I had to resume my search for the next armor artifact. Now I’m cornered by a hundred people outside and a dozen more in the next tower. I should be living in the Northern Region where the five clans are.”
Vaeludar walked toward the window and gazed at the courtyard. “I still can’t believe is happening. This wedding was supposed to have within a week not this afternoon. What is Marina thinking? We had an agreement to have a private wedding at your father’s village, and she goes behind me back to have an early wedding. We never agreed on the entire kingdom in the capital city. Why do I feel like the gods like to torment me with so much unnecessary, overwhelming obstacles I don’t need to encounter in my lifetime?”
“I think Sirens are more favorable to the gods than hybrids are,” suggested Flavius.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“It was just a suggestion.”
“I don’t need suggestions; I need solutions. I swear that Siren is going to be the death of me, even if Lusìvar won’t be. I was close enough to finding this laboratory my parents used, and I get called away a last minute by a humanoid fish. Like I mentioned before, I have an uneasy feeling about today’s wedding. I just know it is going to be a disaster.”
Flavius was stacking a pair of spears on other stacks of spears as he was listening to his foster brother’s grumbling. “I can tell it is going to be a long ceremony, because your holiday honeymoon is relatively going to be short.” After he stacked the last of the spears, he went to exit the armory. “The armory is yours. Try not to arm yourself with too much stress.”
Flavius exited the armory, only to have Geraldus enter. “I thought I find you here,” said Geraldus. He strolled over to his foster son. “Don’t look so gloomy. Join in the preparations. Have some food. Dance with one of my daughters. This is a happy day.”
“Not for me,” said Vaeludar.
“You regret loving her?”
“No, I regret proposing to her under months back,” answered Vaeludar. “I either should have waited until a spring full moon or until I had the second armor artifact. What is it with Sirens and their sensitive anxiety issues? She needs to have more of a draconic personality, a need to understand of certain power being used.”
“That’s a reason why she wanted to have an early wedding,” said Geraldus. “She was afraid you were becoming power hungry you would forget her and family needs.”
Vaeludar turned from the window and looked at Geraldus. “How do you know she’s afraid? She has been with me through the entire winter. Do you have a network of spies glaring at us through the snowy days?”
“A grown man always sees problems evolving around people enduring hard times. Look at her.” Geraldus pointed at Marina walking through a crowd of children.
The Siren was crowning many little girls with crowns made from white flowers. Marina smiled as she crowned each little girl with a blue flower or a white flower crown. Many mothers looked wary of Marina, but the fathers didn’t seem bothered of their kids going to see Marina, who was marrying the hybrid. Marina knew what most of the parents felt like living their kids near a Siren, a creature of myths that lured sailors to their deaths.
Vaeludar saw as his soon-wife-to-be being surrounded by a ton of children. Marina’s joyfulness among the next generation of life filled his lips with a small smile. “But I am glad I have met in in my lifetime. The Sirens would have gone extinct if I wasn’t there to save her life.”
“I remember that day you saved her. By Jove, you made your first kills over a believed monstrous creature. Killing those mercenaries by a twelve year old hybrid that lacked such experience and never been countered in a bloody battle was surprising to see. Even dragon hatchlings would have hesitated by signs of battle. Boys who experience any kind of battlefield for the first time would end up cowering a rock or tree, but you remained calm and fierce during her first battle.
“After Marina saw you kill those men, Cupid’s arrow shot right through her heart, and yet the arrow didn’t strike through you.” Geraldus placed his hand Vaeludar’s shoulder and shook the hybrid softly.
Vaeludar beat against his chest with his right arm. “Harden skin cells with cells of dragon scales mixing with my human skin make it hard for an arrow to penetrate. Now that I have the first armor artifact attached to my arm, my strength has dramatically increased. And my eyes are set on the second artifact, which will heighten my speed and agility to move a hundred times faster than a cheetah running on an open plain.”
Geraldus removed his hand from Vaeludar’s shoulder. “Go get her,” said Geraldus, changing the subject. And he turned to leave the armory.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s your wedding day. She’s going to be your wife by midday, and you can’t marry her in a room stacked full of weapons. You may end up killing someone, and yo
u would make yourself look like a criminal. It’s your wedding day. Lighten up today. Good luck with her, Vaeludar.” Geraldus exited the armory, leaving the hybrid by himself.
Vaeludar signed and looked back at the Siren walking away from the crowds of children and walking toward a row of tables aligned in three different angles. The tables were set if they were on a stage. Long golden and silver tapestries hung from stoned pillars. Yellow shades also hung overhead, to serve has shade from the sun’s light from blinding people sitting on those tables.
Vaeludar signed again, seeing how he can’t undo Marina’s decision from changing the wedding; the preparations were underway and nearly complete, and he would have to face a large crowd during the wedding. He was the groom of the wedding as Marina was the bride of the wedding, the two most important people of a very important event, and a large crowd would gaze upon the unusual, human-like couple. He jumped out the window with a wingspan spreading eight feet long and flew to the tables Marina was sitting.
Marina saw the hybrid flying down beside her. As she saw him flying down to her, she moved a chair for to land and sit in. “Dear husband,” she called, “Sit by me.”
Vaeludar didn’t aim to sit down. After he soared downwind from the window, he landed away from the chair Marina was pulling. “I have too much weight on me for me to sit down,” said Vaeludar. “I’d end up crushing the seat before I could sit down.” Vaeludar looked at the chairs that were built for humans, not for him. His long, slivering tail wouldn’t fit on the through the chair’s backside.
Marina frowned. “Why won’t you sit down by me?”
“I just said it: I have too much weight. I have half the weight of a Dragon. Remember last month you made me sit on a wooden stool while I was frying a fish in the fireplace?”
Marina removed her arms away from the chair She forgotten more than a month to the wedding day, she and Vaeludar were making a seafood buffet for them both and Geraldus and the twin girls. During the frying time, Vaeludar fried the seafood they had with his dragon fire. She offered him a wooden stool for him to sit on, only to have it being crushed in an instant.
“Don’t make me sit on something I can crush so easily,” said Vaeludar. He saw silver goblets and golden plates and silverware had been set on a traditional dinner table. Small flags blew with the wind at the furthest corners of the tables.
In a different spot, on the opposite end of the courtyard was a white, blue-swirled canopy blooming with pink leaves falling from surrounding blossom trees. Purple curtains with small emerald glitters draped over the canopy.
The spot where their exact wedding place would be taken was more less than a hundred steps from they were sitting and standing. Vaeludar knew midday was nearly crawling around the corner and then he and Marina would finally be married to each other. They waited the whole winter for this moment, and their wish of being a married couple will happen beneath the canopy.
Despite not being able to sit, Vaeludar motioned his hands in a water-like movement. A single fog appeared and suddenly moved the chair Marina offered to Vaeludar from the table. Vaeludar moved close to the table and Marina and sat down. The fog was morphing into a chair without a backside: a large four-legged stool and it was being made from fog and a few soaring stones. Vaeludar signed at this stone he created and sat close to Marina’s side.
Marina moved closer and leaned her head against his shoulder. She seemed worried he was still disappointed the fact he couldn’t get over this early wedding. Marina had thought this wedding, no matter what time it was, would be satisfying to her and Vaeludar; her plan was backfiring.
Vaeludar was more disappointed than cheerful with this change of plans, and she didn’t know what she was causing this type of anger: Vaeludar’s dragon side or his human side. With human and dragon assets she was seeing on him, Marina could hardly tell what Vaeludar was really more: more of a human than a Dragon or more of a Dragon than a human.
Vaeludar stretched his arms on the table in front of him. He was sitting inches higher than Marina and Vaeludar melted his stone stool a few inches lower that way he was only an inch taller than Marina. As the fact this was a wedding day, he was feeling more negative of Marina’s choice than positive: a bad trait for a future husband to have for his future wife. “Let me make this clear,” Vaeludar finally said, breaking the big silence they both were sharing, “I am going to be the head of a new House we are about to create like Geraldus is the head of his House, and as I am to be the new Head of our new House, I must give a final approval on any decisions we make. Do I make myself clear on that?”
“I know of that at,” said Marina. “I know men are in more of a higher class than women, but those rules were made by the humans, for the humans. There are no rules that implies for Sirens or human dragon hybrids, in that matter.”
“But I will be your husband and the Head of our new family, and I want all choices you make to be made through me. You and I have moved away from the families we were raised by and are now living under the same roof.” Vaeludar stroke his part scaly chin, which sprouted a few dragon scales and smaller ones across his face. His skin has grown agitated when dragon scales began to grow over his human skin. “From here on, I will make the final approval of our choices, without Geraldus or the king making our choices for us, and that is fin—”
A loud horn blew. A garrison of horse riders had galloped from out of nowhere. More than three dozen came abruptly from the crowd with many short people moving away from the running horses. The horses spiraled in the middle of the courtyard, catching the attention of the Dragons, Centaurs, Pegasi, and Griffins.
Vaeludar stood up at the appearances of this unexpected, uninvited cavalry. He gripped his hand around the hilt of the Crystal Sword attached to his back, ready for any lingering threat these men may pose.
One of the horse riders strolled ahead of the other horse riders. A middle-aged man with a short brown beard and mustache with short length brown-silver hair dismounted from his horse. The man was drabbed in silver armor with orange cross swords painted on his chest plate. He gazed around the crowd, seamlessly looking for something of great value. Then his eyes were drawn to Vaeludar, who was gazing at the man with a stern look. The man, who had his stern look, preceded to walk toward the hybrid, fearlessly.
Vaeludar saw the man coming to him and Marina. Never before has Vaeludar saw a man walking toward him with a fearless look. All men Vaeludar never encountered gazed with odd, strange faces, but not with an angry look. Vaeludar was now curious to see who this man was: a man dared riding through a crowd and coming during the wedding’s final preparations.
The walking man drew to a halt about than six feet away from Vaeludar and Marina. He quickly studied Vaeludar carefully: his wings, legs, head, and Vaeludar’s entire hybrid body. “So, you’re the creature everyone is talking about? Vaeludar the Hybrid, wasn’t it? The one that brutally killed a bull creature without taking a scratch?” the man asked.
Vaeludar raised an eyebrow, removing his hand from the Crystal Sword. “Yes, I am. I am Vaeludar the Hybrid. May I ask who you are?” Vaeludar spoke with a draconic tone.
Before there was an answer, the man turned to see Marina sitting and turned back to Vaeludar. “I am Teutates, distant relative of Uragiru your king.”
Vaeludar sparked a small flare in an eye. The man the hybrid was looking was Teutates. Teutates was said to be a frightful man feared by many people, even the Dragons have come to fear of this man. Even though he is thought to be feared by the many, he was somehow well respected by other people mostly among military generals and pirates. It was also said he was a skilled battle strategist, being able to win ground wars without losing a single man or a sea battle without losing a single warship. Strange rumors once spread he manage to killed five Fire Dragons with only ten men without losing a single man to five full-grown Dragons. The tales of Teutates seemed frightful, but the man himself wasn’t frightening to Vaeludar.
Vaeludar removed his hand f
rom the hilt. “Tell me,” said Vaeludar. “Did you come here just to attend a random wedding? Or have you come here to gaze on me?” Vaeludar glared his eyes. “If you want to see something entraining than seeing love, I’ll be first in line to swing the blade.”
Teutates drew a small smirk on his face, seemly impressed how the hybrid responded. Teutates had expected less about this hybrid. However he may heard about Vaeludar seemed to have been wrong. Teutates seemed to have been told of wrong information about Vaeludar, who Teutates thought to be more cowardly when Vaeludar would gaze his eyes on the man. “So you are willing to make threats to a guest while in public?”
“If I see them as a potential threat to the public,” answered Vaeludar.
Marina suddenly got up from her chair and stood by Vaeludar. “That’s enough!” she said, trying to eliminate the hostility that was just created by two widely known strangers. These two strangers just met and there was hostility in an instant. “Vaeludar, this is a guest, just like the rest of our guests, who were invited today’s events. Going from angry to hostile will ruin today’s happiness.”
“Well, my moodiness level was at happy, but it dropped to hostility when you went behind my back changed the original plans about this wedding,” said Vaeludar, moving away from Marina. “Sirens aren’t the only ones that can easily have sensory issues with their fishy attitudes; Dragons also have strong sensory issues, and they can easily lose their patience of an unexpected event or an obstacle getting in their pathway.”
Marina stepped backward and looked at Teutates. She bowed her head courtesy and welcoming him, “I am Marina, and I welcome you to our wedding, Teutates.” After welcoming the spiteful man, Marina raised her head. “I hope you have a wonderful time here.”
Vaeludar saw Marina giving Teutates a warm welcome, but Vaeludar wasn’t quite so warm welcoming a stranger than a ruthless reputation. He was seeing Teutates as a lingering threat than an open arms guest.
