by Ryan Johnson
Then Vaeludar saw King Uragiru walking between Teutates and the hybrid. “Calm yourselves, everyone.” The king came in just when Vaeludar was about to widen his folded wings. “There is no need for any hostility here. This is a wedding. Be happy. Smile. Enjoy this wondrous day. And yes, Marina, you are needed elsewhere.”
Several bridesmaids came circling around the Siren.
“There were some last minutes changes that needed to be done.”
Marina silently complied, seeing that the King of Shimabellia was standing in front between a distant relative and the hybrid. Marina walked with the bridesmaids to one of the nearest towering towers.
After Marina was sent away, the king glared at the hybrid. “You two should not engage in conflict in today’s session. Get to know each other first before you start to kill each other at first sight.”
Vaeludar wasn’t ready to talk; he was ready to kill. By having Teutates here made Vaeludar’s day getting worse by the second. But what could he could? The Siren had already made the choices already and the past and the present couldn’t be undone. He was going have to make do of what was going on at the current moment. Vaeludar shook his head in disbelief at the king’s interference and said, “Alright, I won’t kill anyone today. I’ll leave that to the Dragons, unless they try to kill me first.”
King Uragiru nodded and smiled happily that Vaeludar wasn’t going to killing any guests during the day. “Good. Then I’ll leave you two be. Don’t do anything so foolish that could ignite a war in seasons.” After the warning, the king walked away with a small garrison of soldiers wearing helmets covering their faces.
Vaeludar glared at Teutates in frustration. Since it was now the official wedding day, Vaeludar had little options to choose from. He slightly leaned on the table before taking his eyes away. “If you have anything you wish to say, say it,” said Vaeludar.
“You aren’t happy at all,” said Teutates.
“This wedding was to take place later on. Several days ago the plans were changed by Marina: the girl you just saw leaving me here,” said Vaeludar. “Everything you see before you was her idea. She asked the king to change the wedding dates and suggested inviting you here: all of which angered me easily. And I can grow angrily just as fast as a rock being thrown on top of a river. And she did make these choices without consulting with me at first.”
“You’re starting to regret you met this fish in the first place.”
“On the contrary, I don’t regret meeting her, but I do regret proposing to her months ago. We have been living together for that long, getting our own home and living through winter together. Once spring had arrived, I had to continue on a quest I had to put on hold during the winter, and I came too close into completing it that suddenly Marina had to change the dates of today and delaying my quest even further. That is the harsh form of reality.”
Teutates stroke his chin. He expected Vaeludar to have some sort of childish manner, but it turns out Teutates was looking a full-grown, mature, manly creature. “And here I thought you be something more of a child believing in the belief of fairy tales. It seems I was wrong about that.”
“And it seems I am wrong about you: thinking you were a tyrant walking through the caste’s doors,” said Vaeludar.
For one thing, the two strangers seemed to be agreeing on several different things just after becoming enemies at first site; both turning from bitter enemies to bitter allies, but this was just the beginning of what could be an alliance or a rivalry.
Vaeludar stroke his neck and looked around the other events that were happening around him. Before walking to leave, Vaeludar excused himself from Teutates and disappeared into the large crowd. Vaeludar walked through the crowd, which now had seemed to be like a regular crowd that wasn’t getting their hands on him as they tried to do earlier. However, there was very little room to maneuver around, with his tail silvering behind him and his wings massively wide even as they are folded.
The hybrid decided to maneuver around the big crowd with the air. Vaeludar widened his wings and soared through the sky. In the air, he had an endless view of space so he could move freely, unlike walking on the ground where open spaces can be grow crowded in seconds. Vaeludar soared to the nearest tower’s walls and see everything that was going on.
More than a dozen entertainers were rabbling. Jugglers stood on one foot with juggling with many small balls at once. Gypsies were showing off how flexible they could be. One wide open arena with a horizontal pole had two knights on horses running toward each other with long spears. Juggling, jousting, singing, music, and showoffs were all being conducted at the same time. There was a wide ferity of entertainment going on while Vaeludar was waiting for Marina to be done with her sudden final second changes that King Uragiru had brought up. So much to do and so much to see was too much for Vaeludar to see and think at the same time.
Vaeludar hasn’t see this much entertainment since he killed his first Minotaur. This was three times bigger than that celebration he had many months back. He had the feeling of taking on the Minotaur again instead of browsing through a large choice of entrainment. He was starting to regret of making the regret of proposing to Marina; he was glad he did to propose to her. But he still had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen latter on in the day.
Vaeludar signed of what entertainment he should watch first. He looked at the horses and knights jousting but he wanted something else than just seeing weapons or human flexibilities. He wanted to see himself being interpreted in a storytelling of someone telling of his adventure to the Northern Region or something some him slaying the Minotaur. Then he saw an open area of costume people with more than sixty percent of the large crowd was staring at.
Vaeludar glided toward the costumed people. He saw them preforming some kind of play. One was dressed as a bull and the other was dressed as him, with only wings attached to the player’s back. A narrator stood near the side speaking, “…and the large Minotaur was in no match for the unknown creature. And in one large fire breathing, breathe, the strange creature, whose name was Vaeludar, beheaded the creature with ease, killing the creature without taking a scratch on his skin.”
Then the player portraying Vaeludar bent down from above the Minotaur and a person in the background waved a blue flag near the player’s mouth through the Minotaur player’s neck. The masked head of the Minotaur player fell from the costume, ultimately ending the tale of Vaeludar and the Minotaur. The large crowd applied by the performance. A few other players on the stage bowed their heads to the applauding crowd.
Vaeludar smiled at this ending performance and though he should give a performance of his own. He flew up and around the crowd and landed in front of the stage players. Vaeludar stood up with his wings widened and his legs bent slightly.
His sudden appearance caught the players by surprise. They gave a show, but they didn’t expect to see the actual hybrid in person. The cheering crowd that saw the play was silent for a moment before cheering louder seconds later.
Vaeludar smiled even louder and waved his hands once. A fog emerged from his waving hands. The claws of Vaeludar’s two wings magically grabbed the fogging cloud and lifted above his head. The fog grew five times larger than his body size, and he sprouted a few lighting sparks from his hands that showed images in the fog. The hybrid was about to show his own memory of what happened with the Minotaur; he showed his hard fight against the large bull creature starting with the Minotaur appearing in Geraldus’s village and finishing with Vaeludar blowing the plasma blast through the Minotaur’s throat and killing the creature.
Then Vaeludar changed the images of his memory from the Minotaur to his journey to the Northern Region. He showed them his entire adventure at a fast paste. After one crucial point to another, Vaeludar was showing the crowd everything he could account for as a hastily rate. From the mountain border, the three witches and their Piper, the boat on the river, the Banshee territory, finding the armor artifact in the cave,
and to with the battle with the Five-Headed Dragon, Vaeludar showed them all the crucial points of his adventure, but he did leave out the White Knight of Charity’s death, the witch’s death by his hands and Marina’s teeth.
After he showed them of his grand adventure, the Cloud of Memory evaporated into the air. “I hope you enjoyed the show, because that was just the prologue of the tale,” said Vaeludar. “The main part of the tale is about to begin: the second part of the tale of this hybrid is about to start with this wedding and then going to search the second armor artifact.” Vaeludar flapped his wings several times before ascending into the sky. “The main part of the wedding is about to begin.”
The hybrid flew with several Griffins before he landed near the canopy. Vaeludar’s anger he had hours ago had faded away in a different, sudden mood. Vaeludar was ready to have his wedding, but when this ceremony would be over at sunset, he would proceed on his journey and continue his search. A long ceremony but a few-minute honeymoon would happen at sundown.
Vaeludar still needed to wait for his bride to come, so he left the canopy to see what other entertainment was going on. He went back to the table where he and Marina sat. Vaeludar stood behind the table and waited to see when Marina would come back.
As he waited, several people came walking to him and offered him gifts and said their congratulations to him on his wedding day. The gifts were mostly golden items such as goblets and plates and other were daggers or small weapons. Other gifts would be nicely crafted statues of him slaying the Minotaur or him standing with a sword pointing high. Several strange gifts were horns cut from rare animals or animal heads. Many gifts were awing, inspiriting, or very strange to see or have.
Soon enough, Alaric was joined in the giving of gifts. Geraldus oldest son had offered a small dagger glittering like the Crystal Sword; this looked like it would be called the Crystal Dagger. “Dear Brother, I offer you this dagger we have recovered from the Cyclopes’ cave. We have dozens more just like this dagger, in case if we ever come under attack of an invading army.” Alaric placed the dagger on the table.
Vaeludar grabbed the dagger with his left hand. “Thank you, Alaric. I guess I will make do with this priceless gift. I just hope the weapons with be enough to aid the cause against the Shadow King.” Vaeludar stashed the dagger on his left side of the robe and automatically stuck to it if the dagger was a magnetic item going on his skin. “It is always good to have a secondary weapon if the primary is out of use or far away from the user’s hands.”
Alaric bowed his head before he was left. “Have a nice wedding day.”
“You’re not staying?” asked Vaeludar.
“I am needed elsewhere on the lower levels,” said Alaric. “Father said to have tighter security on the lower levels of the capital city.” Alaric bowed once more time before walking away.
Then Geraldus came walking beside Vaeludar. The man stood beside his foster son and gazed at the not so nervous hybrid. “You ready for this day?” asked Geraldus.
Vaeludar signed softly. He still wanted the wedding in the later time and not today. “I originally was ready to have this day in later than today,” said Vaeludar. “But Marina had to do some other things otherwise, and how can I complain right now? This is going to be a long ceremony, but a short, short, short honeymoon: dropping off Marina at my new home and continuing my search on my own.”
Geraldus had an envious look on his face. Vaeludar mostly spent his younger youth inside the house he grew up with. Geraldus remembered the hybrid rarely would prowl in the wheat fields and try to play with the other human kids or dragon hatchlings, only to be shunned by the mere site of the unusual the hybrid. He also remembers Vaeludar mercilessly killing the missionaries who tried to kill Marina nearly six years prior; the day the Siren and the hybrid first laid their eyes on each other. Geraldus knew when the young couple laid eyes on each other; it was love at first sight. Now those days are gone and Vaeludar was going to be with the Siren and no longer with Geraldus.
This day would be a heartbreaking moment for Geraldus would see the hybrid he raised as a son would be departing from his house and be living with Marina. Like most loving fathers, Geraldus would miss Vaeludar as Vaeludar moves from an old life to a new life. He always thought Vaeludar would ever leave his household and seek adventure in the outside world, but Vaeludar had matured from an outsider to a full grown adult.
Geraldus signed to see Vaeludar, who he saw as a true son, stand up and hugged him. “Thank you for everything,” said Vaeludar. Vaeludar was thankful for Geraldus for being the father Vaeludar had, even though they weren’t blood related. Then Vaeludar released Geraldus and walked toward the blue-colored, themed canopy.
Vaeludar gazed near stood behind the canopy, and will wait there until Marina would come back. This was his wedding day, and he needed to make a charming, glimmering, knight-in-shining-armor, first impression when Marina would come out of nowhere. He was ready for her, but he still had to wait for her appearance.
For him, he has a sudden feeling of his personality: he was angry and disappointed in Marina. This sudden feeling of his temper was making him feel unworthy to Marina. He showed Marina this negativity for the past few days without acknowledging her choice. Marina was in love with his loveable, caring, positive personality and not his spiteful, negative personality. The hybrid was starting to feel he was not worthy of Marina, due to his change of his bad attitude he displayed and beginning to think he is the hybrid she deserves.
After half an hour passed, a small group of Griffins and Pegasi gently flapped their wings, making a weak gushy wind blow through the large crowd looking at the hybrid. Then several people moved away and the crowd spilt into two crowds, making a walk through alley between the diverting crowds. The people in the crowd and the flying creature in the sky turned their heads toward the back.
Suddenly, as the last people moved out of the way, two blue-leathered peacocks with great sapphire feathers appeared. They waved their long blue, tailed feathers with the breezing wind the Griffins and the Pegasi were making with their wings. The tail feathers moved away and revealed who was behind the big birds: Marina.
The Siren was dressed in a beautiful, cyan wedding dress. The dress wrapped around her shoulders and drabbed downwards as the skirt drabbed close to her legs. The coloring of the green and blue had defiantly matched Marina’s Siren skin, which seems to be the same as human skin but colored as the blue ocean. The Siren looked with a great beautiful smile as she proceeded to walk down the alley coming to Vaeludar, carrying a small bouquet of blue roses. Everything about Marina was colored in a blue color.
Vaeludar’s wings widened a bit by this cyan beatify. This hybrid was worthy to have this Siren as his wife, and he was glad to have been wrong. He was breathing out of control, and was now extremely nervous at Marina’s site of beauty. He was ready for this.
THE HYBRID AND THE SIREN
Vaeludar gazed at the beautiful Siren strolling down the alley in the crowd. His heart was pounding louder than a Dragon banging on a small door. The wind the Griffins and the Pegasi were making was slightly calming his pounding heart. His body began to melt to the concrete ground. His felt the spikes on his elbows tearing through the leather armor hidden beneath the clothes he was wearing, although his spikes weren’t literally tearing through anything. He just grew a strong feeling of nervousness now. Right now, he would take a fight with a lion-bodied Manticore than waiting to take his oaths in the coming minutes.
Marina gracefully walked through the alley and toward her few-minute-away-to-be-husband whom she smiled at. She saw Vaeludar smiling at her great beauty; she knew Vaeludar would have a priceless look at his face. She truly felt more like a princess than her foster sister Princess Stephanie.
Ever since Marina was raised by the king, she always dreamed of being Vaeludar’s true love, and she was the only worthy of having the hybrid to herself. Marina was happy to have her dreams come true, and her dreams were standing just feet awa
y from her. And Marina had always thought this day would eventually come and it did.
Marina soon joined Vaeludar beneath the canopy. Vaeludar lend out a hand to Marina who grabbed his hands. His dragon-human hybrid eyes gazed at her ocean blue eyes; they were truly meant for each other.
The bouquet Marina was carrying she gave handed to Vaeludar. Vaeludar grabbed the flowers from Marina and walked inside the canopy.
Inside the canopy, three statues of a dragon, a male human, and a female human stood inches apart. The statues represented the gods worshiped by the island’s inhabitants. The dragon statue was the Crystal Dragon, the male god Origenes, and the female god Adelpha.
Vaeludar and Marina placed the flowers beneath the statues. Then the blue flowers start to be lifted into the air, and the statues’ carved eyes lit green. A green fog suddenly surged through their legs inside the canopy. Then Marina and Vaeludar grabbed their hands and stood in front of the statues.
“Marina, last Siren of Shimabellia,” said Vaeludar, “Are you ready for this?”
Marina sniffed when Vaeludar asked her himself. When she left him with Teutates, Vaeludar was more negative than he was happy. Now he was happy. Whatever changed him was making her happy even more. “I accept you,” answered Marina, striking away several tears of joy from her eyes.
Vaeludar inhaled and exhale before saying, “And I, Vaeludar, will accept you, Marina. Let us say the sacred oaths.”
Marina gave a small nod. Vaeludar smiled as they both said:
Human, Dragon, Siren, Slave
Love is what we mostly crave
What matter what we look like
We always have each other
From the heat of the desert
To the cold of the mountaintop
Our love will never stop
It will keep growing
