Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  Light rays sparked from the branches of the treetops of the Greenwood Forest. A soft wind blew across the tree’s lower bark. Birds chirped on nests built on the trees high above the ground Vaeludar was standing on. Vaeludar seemed to be standing in a forest of peacefulness, not a forest of dangerous creatures.

  Since his time here, he found Nymphs and Pixies. The only thing he had found dangerous was the lone Gorgon tormenting a lonely village with only a few hundred people. Other than the snake woman terrorizing with a stony power, Vaeludar wasn’t finding the forest so dangerous at all.

  After Vaeludar had awoken from his nightly, bat-like sleep, he flapped his wings several times and was about to head out until he heard his name “Vaeludar” being called out. He heard Marina’s voice coming from within the forest’s trees. From nowhere, he felt his neck being pulled back suddenly.

  He knew Marina came running behind him and this was a way of her hugging him at first sight, if she hadn’t seen him for ten years. “I knew the memories of Flavius would lead us the spot he last remembered being, and here you are,” said Marina, soft gentle-like despite having a tight squeeze on Vaeludar’s throat.

  Luckily for Vaeludar, he neck muscles were stronger than Marina’s fishy, strong grip and thus making him able to breathe if she wasn’t even pulling on him. From what he was feeling, Marina was wearing the same animal skin dress she wore when she traveled with Vaeludar on his journey of the Northern Region.

  From the bushes, Geraldus and surprisingly the Griffin, Flarefur. had appeared. The search went from lone wolf to a group of a Griffin, a human, a Siren, and a hybrid. It seemed Vaeludar wasn’t going to be traveling alone. He was with people and a Griffin, two of whom traveled with to the Northern Region.

  Geraldus was a new addition, and they were there short three members: Gurro, Wasso, and Monico. Three more figures for Vaeludar to look after since he was the one who was the fastest, the strongest, magic-wielding, dragon-winged-legged-tailed, flesh tearing, hybrid among these living beings joining with him.

  Vaeludar’s dragon-like personality dimmed with a bit of an ounce of his half humanity became to reshape in his heart and mind. Feeling slightly more at ease, he placed his hands on Marina’s arms and slipped away from her arms. “Ok, people and Griffin,” said Vaeludar. “All of you seem eager to join me, but there is more information I need from the village about where I need to go. So if you want to come or wait here while I get the information I greatly need, I will be right back.”

  Vaeludar started to walk until Marina grabbed his neck again with a tighter squeeze than her first round. “You’re not going anywhere until I express more of my love into you,” she said, smiling and digging her fingernails into his skin around his front shoulders. “I will show you my love by doing by this, even if it kills you. Leaving without me wasn’t a wise thing to do:

  Vaeludar would rather now take the Five-Headed Dragon than have another heated argument with his new wife. He couldn’t feel Marina’s fingernails daggering into his skin, but he could feel a strong mixture of anger and sadness swelling in her mind, a power of great confusion of a certain question Vaeludar could easily read in her mind: Does he love me or does he hate me?

  Vaeludar read Marina’s mind and couldn’t tell how to answer her. He didn’t know if she had mind-reading powers like he did, but his resent actions and choices were making her believe Vaeludar does not love her, and she would be heartbroken just as easy as ripping a small leaf to smaller pieces. If she were to ask that question to him, Vaeludar wouldn’t know how to answer, for his body was like a battlefield: two ghosts fighting over one body they live in. Those ghosts would have been a human ghost and a dragon ghost. He would have been careful how to answer such a difficult question to a Siren.

  So, Vaeludar decided to let Marina hold onto his neck and dig her fingernails into his skin until she felt good enough to let go of him as Geraldus and Flarefur would stand in their places and watch the Siren cradle against the hybrid.

  Vaeludar and Marina stood in the same position for about fifteen minutes until Marina finally let go of her new husband. She seemed to be feeling happier than she was twenty minutes ago. Vaeludar stepped away from him and grabbed his neck.

  Although he felt no pain, his muscle felt the strong pressure from Marina’s grip, which he couldn’t be thankful for. “Alright, everybody seems fit and healthy to travel,” he said. “Let’s go before the afternoon comes out of nowhere.”

  Vaeludar took the first step through the bushes and the trees to find the village.

  Geraldus then stepped in front of the hybrid. “Wait here, and I’ll go searching for what you need to look for,” said Geraldus. “I’ll find information you’re looking for, and bring it back to you. After all, everywhere you go, Vaeludar, disaster strikes where you talk a walk. Let me go to this village and where the Secret Laboratory would be.”

  Vaeludar drew to a halt and glared at Geraldus. He seemed to be right about something: every step Vaeludar takes a great danger would be lurking around a shadowy corner somewhere. “Okay, go to the village and try to find some kind of usual information that could lead us to my parents’ secret working place,” said Vaeludar. Vaeludar stepped away from his foster father as Geraldus walked away from his foster son and disappear into nearby bushes.

  After Geraldus walked away from the small group, Vaeludar walked toward his old Griffin companion. “So, you choose not to join me on this will journey, but yet you are here now,” said Vaeludar. “Did Geraldus convince you to join me otherwise?”

  “No, it wasn’t him who convinced me, it was her.” Flarefur pointed his beak at Marina. “Since you joined us on the last voyage to the Northern Region, she has the same experiences we do, and she convinced me to come.”

  Vaeludar turned his head to Marina. “Convinced by him to join me, eh? What kind of Siren would do that for her half-hearted husband?”

  “One lovable kind of Siren that will always stick with her despicable husband, even if he was a full bodied Dragon tormenting a jealous princess from a tall tower.”

  The Vaeludar turned back to the Griffin. “How did she convince you to join me?” asked Vaeludar. “I couldn’t imagine how a flying creature be persuaded quickly by a watery creature.”

  “Sirens do have great… fishy persuasion that can make a mighty, greedy, reckless fire-breathing Dragon fall for them,” answered Flarefur.

  Vaeludar turned back to see Marina. Given to everything that has been yesterday, Vaeludar was feeling some sympathy for Marina, for his treatment for what he showing for. “I suppose I do you owe an apology, Marina,” said Vaeludar. “I’m sorry for my draconic rudeness and my attitude. I shouldn’t have been too harsh for your decision making.”

  “And I am sorry for not talking with you about changing the original date of our wedding day,” said Marina. “From now on, I’ll talk with you about any second thoughts I am have before any final choice is made.”

  The Griffin looked oddly at the hybrid and the Siren. “You two do seem like an odd couple. Love between crosspieces. I never thought I would see such a thing.” The Griffin laid his belly on the ground, crossing his front legs and folding his feathered wings. “And even stranger, I never thought crosspieces would try to be mating with another species: a half-bodied creature born from a Dragon and a human going with a full-bodied fish. I just don’t see how that kind of science works.”

  Vaeludar leaned against the tree while the trio was waiting for Geraldus to come back from his information hide-and-seeking. “There are many things science can’t exactly explain like my parents coming together in whatever union they shared and had me. I don’t know they did it. Geraldus didn’t know how they did. No human or creature knows how they did it, and I wish I know how they manage to create me.”

  “Can’t we stop talking science about science explaining love?” asked Marina, who also leaned against a different tree. “Can’t we just talk about true love and not the science of it?”

&nbs
p; Vaeludar smiled weakly and soon crossed his arms. “Well, this is quite the reunion the three of us are having. The Siren is here. The Griffin is here. And the hybrid is here. And the people missing: Gurro, Wasso, Monaco, and Flavius. I know Flavius had to go back to the Western Region, but did any you try to talk to any the other three to joining us?”

  “We couldn’t,” said Marina. “They are King Uragiru’s men. They were needed more at the capital city more than we needed them; Flarefur wasn’t part of the king’s army, so we manage to travel here faster than you could imagine. And with help from Flavius’s memories a Dragon showed us, we found the spot you and him were last at.”

  Vaeludar stood away from the tree he was leaning against. His ears flinched at the sound of leaves crunching suddenly. “It sounds like Geraldus is coming. I hope he has the information we need to continue this quest we’re about to embark on.”

  Marina and Flarefur stood back on their feet and saw Geraldus walking out of the bushes like he disappear into them. They had high hopes he was something that their patience weren’t in vain. “What have you come by?” asked Flarefur. “Did you find what you were looking for, Geraldus?”

  Geraldus’s expressions matched those on the negative side, meaning he had more bad news than good news. “Well, I didn’t quite get the stuff I needed to hear,” he said. He stroke his chin, thinking what to say in front of the hybrid knowing by his current appearance of the change his eyes, Vaeludar’s head would explode from his shoulders. “First of all, these people are so strange like, they don’t know the sights of a stranger in their lands. I heard several people talk of a strange building between three hills of burnt trees a little south from here and they—”

  Vaeludar widened his wings suddenly and flapped them quickly. “Good,” he said. “We know where they are at. Let’s get going without any further delay, shall we?” Vaeludar jumped from the ground.

  Before Vaeludar could make it pass the treetops, Geraldus said something else. “I’m afraid there is more I need to tell.”

  Vaeludar halted immediately and puffed through his nose and smoke erupted from his ears. Now his patience was wearing thin again. “Now what? Can you explain while on the way there?”

  “This will be short,” said Geraldus.

  Vaeludar signed once again and dropped down back to the ground where he flew from. “Make it quick. Just what else do you need to mention since we know the location of the Secret Laboratory already?”

  “The thing is: you have spider webs on wrapped around your horns,” said Geraldus.

  Marina and Flarefur laughed, none of them noticed that Vaeludar had thin, unseen spider webs wrapped around his dragon horns that grew behind his human ears. Vaeludar wasn’t appealed by this and scraped the webs from his horns.

  He knew he didn’t have those sticky strings wrapped around his horns yesterday. Spiders must have sprouted those while he was sleeping. “After I deal with Lusìvar, I’m going to deal with all the spiders in the Greenwood Forest and I’ll make them burn. By my own powers, what a sticky situation I’m in now.” Vaeludar lit a fire on his hands that were filled with spider webs, burning the webs into ashes and freeing his horns and hands from the white strings. “Shall we get going before my third sworn enemy comes around again?”

  “Yes, lets,” said Marina, still laughing a bit.

  “The place we’re looking for would be in a spot near three hills with lots of burnt trees,” said Geraldus. Geraldus hopped onto the Griffin, and Flarefur widened his feathered wings so he could fly from the solid ground. “Let’s head south and find the place since you are this close to finding your armor artifact, Vaeludar.”

  Vaeludar walked to Marina and aired her to him, using a wind magic power to push her towards him and catch her with one arm he place on her back. Then Vaeludar preceded to lift marry from her feet with his other free arm. “Feel enough love in you now?” asked Vaeludar, carrying his wife on his two arms.

  She smiled and kissed him on his lips: a way of saying yes.

  After Marina was done with her kiss, Vaeludar lifted himself with his wings and soared back into the air. He was followed by the Griffin that was following certain directions giving to it by the man the Griffin was holding on its back. Vaeludar followed the Griffin while Geraldus told them where to go.

  As they leaped above the treetops and freely with their flying, the flyers carrying the non-flyers took direction where Geraldus told them where the Secret Laboratory would be. Thus, bringing Vaeludar closer one step closer to the second armor artifact and one step closer into bringing down the Shadow King Lusìvar.

  A DARK SECRET REVEALED

  Vaeludar and Flarefur glided over a string of tree barks and branches burnt to a crisp. They found themselves flying to a giant valley overflowing with thousands of black, burnt trees. What used to breathe a great life was now a complete burnt ruin. Great green trees that were once living were now torched to nothingness. A valley of dead, black, burnt trees had laid across dozens of miles around before being joined by living trees. And Vaeludar thought the Northern Region had dreadful lands of its own.

  The small group touched down at a random location, in an open spot where they were fewer trees to deal with. Flarefur didn’t want his feathered wings getting caught amongst dead branches that he thought could be poisonous.

  Geraldus hopped off the Griffin, and Vaeludar placed Marina on her feet. They walked several yards within the dead forest of dead trees. They all seemed frightful by the sheer site of the forest if they never gazed upon such a dreadful plain of trees before.

  Vaeludar looked around as he saw three hills reaching several hundred feet into the air and scratching our several miles long. “Well, at least we are close to the Secret Laboratory and that second armor,” he said. “But it’s quiet around here. Too quiet. And I don’t like it. Why did my parents choose such a vile place to have their work station? A beach house would have been a better place than this forsaken place, and it looks like a great battle had been taken here long ago.”

  “If there was such a battle,” said Geraldus, “they used a lot of firepower.”

  “Can we just get to the building?” asked Marina. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

  “Yeah, me too,” said Vaeludar.

  Vaeludar sped ahead of the group. He had the same uneasy feelings when he looked at dreaded lands in the Northern Kingdom, and this land made from dust, ashes, and a valley and three hills of dead trees.

  The dirt felt so muddy and dry at the same time that Vaeludar’s feet sank two inches deep. With each step the group took into the dirt, the more they felt like they were walking on ashes that were burnt from a big body of a huge Dragon.

  The Griffin started to seem agitated of his claws sinking into the ground, and he was feeling uneasy being in a wide open area like a rabbit running in an open field trying to escape from a flying predator. “I don’t know about you people, but I have a strange feeling we’re being watched,” said Flarefur.

  “Why have you come to this forsaken place, strange creature?” hissed a female snake-like voice.

  The group was alarmed by this unexpecting voice and drew their weapons. Vaeludar drew out the Crystal Sword, his foster father Geraldus drew pulled out a long spear, and Marina drew out the shortsword he gave her that was given to him from Alaric. And the Griffin, Flarefur, crocked like a real eagle. They turned to see a woman’s half body as a human while with a long snake’s body and slivering tail.

  Vaeludar recognized the Gorgon he saw a while back and pointed the powerful sword down. “You!” Vaeludar still gripped the sword in case if she would attack. “Stand down, people.”

  “What do you mean stand down?” asked Marina. “She’s a Gorgon and…”

  “A Gorgon I personally spared instead of killing her.”

  “She’s still a GORGON!” said Marina.

  Vaeludar quickly explained to them the fight he had with the Gorgon days ago, just before Vaeludar received news about the
early wedding. Vaeludar had the chance to kill the snaky creature, but he had symphony for the creature and decided to spare the creature’s life. Vaeludar did state it was Geraldus mentioned there was no humanity to take a life, but there was humanity of sparing a life. He also mentioned having a Gorgon with them could be useful in any future fights against Lusìvar.

  Marina wasn’t convinced Vaeludar’s bold decision was a natural choice, but she had to respect her husband’s decision. And the same goes with Geraldus; he wasn’t convened Gorgons could be natural allies against; they would wait when the backs of Gorgons’ victims turn on them and land a poisonous blow from their slivering tail ends.

  “And what are you supposed to be doing here, Gorgon?” asked Vaeludar. “Trying to pay us a warning?”

  The Gorgon slivered to a side. She also seemed frightful of the dreary, ashy, haunted place. “This place speaks of the dead. Ghosts and ghouls and spirits of the dead roam this place. From beneath a hole, a city of an ancient has laid buried for many a year. Many enter but none return back to the surface.” The Gorgon seemed to be speaking in strange riddling the group wasn’t understanding. She was speaking if she suffered some kind of war trauma she never experienced.

  Then the Gorgon slivered and moved all around, if her mind was unbalanced and her eyes keep shifting from one direction to another and not focusing on the group. She seemed more like a lonely hermit who has acts as a watcher in these unexplored lands.

  Vaeludar found it hard if this creature was really a Gorgon or if it was a traumatized human woman who was transformed into a Gorgon from dangerous, dark magic. “What are you talking about? What about a strange building lurking in these parts?” he asked the Gorgon, but the Gorgon didn’t seem to be listening.

  After watching the Gorgon slivering for several minutes, the group watched as the Gorgon sliver away from them and out of their view. They looked confused as what to say the Gorgon was referring to or what she was trying to say.