Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

THE MEANING OF A NAME

  Vaeludar landed with the Crystal Sword sheathed and the book in arm. His evil-like eyes glared at the lab now burnt to the ground, becoming part of the wastelands the group is traveling in. The place from where he was used like a lab rat had been destroyed. This was a place he needed to wipe off the face of the island.

  He was growling softly, and the colors of his eyes have changed slightly; the iris of his eyes became redder and the yellow of his sclera more golden.

  Any sign humanity he had left was ceasing. He was losing his faith in his human side and completely falling to a more beastly tone. In his soul and personality, he was now a complete, fire-breathing dragon in a human-hybrid form.

  The news of his experimentation caused a big, horrific rift in his character. It destroyed and killed any humanity he had left and shifted his soul toward a great darkness. Never again he wanted to feel human but dragon. Vaeludar was putting his faith in the clutches of his dragon side. “Never again will this place be used for any experimentation,” he grunted. “I won’t accept the witch and her dragon partner as my parents. I might as well be something else than a lab.”

  “Vaeludar,” called Marina. Marina ran up to Vaeludar and gasped upon his appearance had changed once again of his skin and eyes, which were redder. “Vaeludar?” she whispered. “What is happening to you?”

  Vaeludar growled softly. His eyes turned to see the Siren, but turned them back at the smoldering smoke rising from the collapsed laboratory. He was hesitant to answer his wife; his appearance should easily answer her question to his sudden appearance. He himself thought and questioned his own appearance in his mind, but he did not care what he looked like or how he would act in his rifting draconic personality. He was planning to walk in the same path but use different methods in finding the second and third armor artifacts.

  Geraldus and Flarefur had walked up the hybrid and the Siren. They saw the remnants of the fallen building smoldering up in a wide smoke. From a distance, they saw the laboratory being destroyed from the inside, although they couldn’t see Vaeludar destroy it since he was inside the building swinging, plundering, and ravaging the place to down the ground. It was no surprise he saw his adopted son’s appearance change all of a sudden.

  “What is science coming to these days?” asked Flarefur. “The two scientists we thought were only trying to create weapons to counter against evil were playing gods. Bringing the dead back to life by the means of Vaeludar’s DNA. Using dead body parts sewed to make different animals are just barbaric. The creatures thought they would know them as just odd scientists, but they are just odd evil scientists.”

  “And is that supposed to make me feel better?” asked Vaeludar, speaking in a sketchy, dark tone. His voice had deepened and his vocals had sounded like a bear’s roar with a human’s talking voice. “Those two were never part of my life. They were never my parents to begin with, and they named me after the name of a science project: a project that failed.” Vaeludar held the book in his two hands and he was ready to burn the entire thing of experiments that were deemed failures.

  But he seemed conflicted. Vaeludar wanted to burn it and destroy the knowledge of what ever happened in the book, or leave it untouched so that he could study it himself and see what magically abilities he has from the bloods of other creatures running in his veins. Who knows what else could be written in the book instead of just experiments and science stuff? He stood his head and released the book from his arms and let it fall to the dusty ground.

  He still had to find the second armor artifact, which wasn’t in the Secret Laboratory, just like the first armor wasn’t at the Lost Castle but found under the ground in a cave. The cave he almost died, if it weren’t placing the one gauntlet on his arm. And Vaeludar knew this had meant the armor artifact he was looking for was going to be underground, and he had remembered the “underground, dark chamber” mentioned in the book.

  Vaeludar walked pass the book and looked at the three hills. His eyes studied the nearby surroundings and looked for many places for a lone mountain, which the book said had a ruined, ancient fortress built on the top. The second armor artifact had to be hidden in the chamber Vaeludar had been sealed in, and that is where he would have to go; it was the only clue they had in finding the armor.

  Marina placed a hand on his shoulder and placed her head close to his neck. “Whatever you’re thinking; let it go,” she whispered. “Don’t give into the darkness, Vaeludar.”

  “Don’t call me that anymore,” grunted Vaeludar, loudly. “Don’t call me Vaeludar. I won’t be named after some failed project. As of now, call me by the name that is my real name. The name given to me by my real mother long ago over ten thousand years ago: Valverno.

  “Vaeludar will not have any more meaning for me as it did for Ralenskrit and Belverda, and they abandoned me after they decided to recreate me into something different.” Vaeludar was changing his name from the name of a science project into a naming himself with his own name of his own choice: Valverno.

  Valverno, who now liked his new name than being named after a failed science project, turned to see Geraldus and Flarefur staring at him. “In case you guys did not hear, I’m now going by the name Valverno, the ancient name of the ancient believed to be the Chosen One, the son of the Crystal Dragon god, the King of the Gods. The name you told me in those stories I grew up as a child, Geraldus. Valverno has risen and will now continue his search for the lost artifacts.” Valverno turned and swirled his eyes in different directions.

  “You’re donning the name that supposed to be the real name of a fairy tale hero?” asked Flarefur.

  Valverno turned his eyes toward the group with a small glare. “As long as I am living and breathing,” he said, without a single smile, “I will never be named after a failed science experiment, and the two scientists were never my parents to begin with. I have a duty, and I’m going to finish what the Crystal Dragon started long ago: annihilate Lusìvar.”

  Geraldus shook his head at Valverno’s change of personality. This hybrid wasn’t the same hybrid he raised for seventeen years, yet alone didn’t have the same nobility like the one mentioned in the stories Geraldus told the hybrid when he was kid.

  “Do you mean the Valverno from the ancient legends every child hears? The one that is thought to be the hero chosen by the gods?” asked Marina.

  Geraldus strolled up to Marina. “Yes he is, Marina. He is choosing the name of a demigod.”

  Marina gasped softly. She definitely heard the stories of the demigod, but none came close of such villainy the renamed hybrid was showing.

  Valverno looked at the soundings but couldn’t find any lone mountains in place, only the forest covering the nearby hills had been seen in place. “I’ll might as well go and scout around this dreadful place and find this ruined fortress. This ruined fortress better have the second armor artifact.” Valverno flapped his wings and took off to scout the surrounding.

  Marina looked saddened by this story Geraldus told her. An ancient hero who seemed to be loved by everyone and a teacher who made sure no one was left behind and stayed with the entire group. “If the hybrid was like this hero, then that would mean… my husband is the son of a god? The Chosen Half-bred Hybrid? Can it be that this is all true? Is it true I married the Prophesized Hero?”

  “So it would seem, Marina, but we can’t say for certain if he is the Demigod Valverno for an ancient generation past,” said Geraldus.

  Marina took a small breath. If this was true, this version of Valverno wasn’t acting like the one mentioned in the story. “I can’t belief it. My Siren’s eyes don’t deceive me; he is indeed the hero many people come to love. But how is it he is still alive?”

  “Even that knowledge is far beyond the wisdom of a Dragon,” said Flarefur. “If your husband is the hero mentioned from the prophecy, he is indeed the Valverno, the son of a god!”

  Marina gasped at this sudden news. Her heart was pounding and her mind was gushing with many
thoughts occurring rapidly. She couldn’t believe the fact her husband was an ancient hero who lived in the ancient past, which took place about ten thousand year old ago. She was the wife of an old hybrid and a demigod, or so what she has heard from the man and the Griffin.

  Valverno landed near the trio. His face was reflected corruption. If it was true that he was a hero and born from a god ten thousand years ago, he wasn’t looking well for the hero type. After he landed, he looked at Marina’s conflicted face. “Did something go wrong here while I was searching?”

  Marina looked at her husband. “Are you really the son of the Crystal Dragon? What would make me think that you are the son of a god?” asked Marina. “You’re not like the one said in this story Geraldus told me.”

  “Those are meant for little kids, Marina. I have no memory of my past. I may not be the son of the Crystal Dragon god. Whatever happened is a mystery to me. We would need to find someone who has memories of my past, but who are we to find? Anyone living ten thousand years ago is already dead, unless if they’re dark minions of Lusìvar. And the name rather fits me than a failed science project a kid would never do in the far, distant future.”

  Valverno squeezed the curved ends of his shoulder-wings with his hands. Every now and then, Valverno would feel some kind of odd numbness of the muscles of his dragon wings and human shoulders. This occurs every few months or so, and one way to beat the numbness is rubbing a hand where the wing is attached onto the shoulder.

  After he rubbed his wing-shoulder muscle, Valverno removed his hands and shook his wings hard to make so the muscles are strong and fit to fight.

  “Feeling numbness again… Valverno?” asked Geraldus.

  “I don’t need any compliments from you or anyone,” said Valverno, now shivering his tail and shaking his wings. “If I am not the son of the Crystal Dragon god, then I’ll just name myself after the person, even if he is me. The name Vaeludar is insulting and very humiliating to me. I will not have it.”

  “Okay, we have already established that. Anything we need to know right now?” asked Flarefur.

  Valverno puffed. “Yes,” he answered. “There is a small staggering mountain on the other side of the three hills. It would be a treacherous road to walk through the ground, so the only way to there is to fly in the air. It is on another side of a long gorge that plummets down like falling down a dark hole with no end.”

  “Well, I’ll have to be flying you again, Geraldus,” said Flarefur. The Griffin bent his legs down so his rider would be able to get on him.

  Geraldus nodded and mounted on the Griffin. Geraldus made sure his spear he was carrying on his back was tied tight. This seems to be the only weapon he brought with him in a small band of armed people.

  The Griffin had claws, the Siren had a quiver of arrows, bow, and the shortsword, and Valverno had his wings, tail, claws, spikes, and indestructible skin. After he saw everything as perfect, Geraldus was ready to lift off, as long as Flarefur was ready to go as well.

  Marina quickly looked at Geraldus mounted on the Griffin then turned to see the hybrid widening his wings ready to flap and fly. She shook her head at Valverno and mounted on the Griffin unexpectedly and sat behind Geraldus, not before she manage to grab the book with her arms and went to mount the Griffin.

  “Whoa,” said Geraldus and Flarefur. Marina’s choice to join them caught them off-guard as it did Valverno. “What are you doing on me?” asked Flarefur. “Weren’t you going with Vaelu—, I mean, Valverno.”

  Marina sadly gazed on Valverno’s change of appearance, which does reflect his present personality. “No,” she said, stuffing the book into the Griffin’s feathers. “I don’t want to fly with a creature or even a hybrid until I know I can trust them not to have an evil heart or a corrupt appearance. I didn’t marry ‘Valverno’ has my husband; I married Vaeludar as my husband, and I will love no one else besides Vaeludar, even if he was a science experiment.” Marina turned her face away from the hybrid she now believed to be possessed by Lusìvar.

  Geraldus widened his eyes and looked at Valverno. “It looks like she’s showing you tough love, Valverno. I should have shown you this years ago, but you’re experiencing it for the first time. Tough future you’ll be experiencing the next few months.”

  Valverno rolled his eyes of Marina’s unexpected choice, but he still had to respect her choice. He still saw himself as her husband, even if he wants to change his name to something else that has nothing to do with science. “Let’s just go,” he said. “We’re wasting daylight.”

  Valverno flapped his wings and soared. Flarefur stood close behind him and followed the hybrid to the place Valverno may have found the ruined fortress.

  TO THE RUINED FORTRESS

  Valverno and Flarefur soared in the sky with Valverno leading the other flyer flying behind. They had explored dozens of miles to the northeast past the three hills. In the distance there was a long, black mountain in a perfect shape of a thin volcano, which in this case was a rugged, black, dull, rocky, spikey mountain was not a volcano but in the shape of one. The mountain stretch across for miles and reached high as five thousand feet into the air.

  The terrain of the wasteland the three hills were located stretched to this mountain point, and this was thought to be part the Greenwood Forest. At the moment, the small group seemed to be leaving the forest and entering a new territory with open land and valleys. In the far away surroundings of mountains and hills was stashed of green leaves.

  Apparently, the small group was still in the Greenwood Forest with a bigger portion converted in a wasteland. Remnants of tree bark and roots rose several feet from the ground, which meant this part of the wasteland was once blooming with leafy green now has been reduced to lifeless.

  The wasteland Flarefur and Valverno were flying over takes up a fifty mile diameter in the middle of the Greenwood Forest. Beyond the three hills, they passed over a long, thin gorge was crated deep underground, plummeting thousands of feet into a great darkness. The two flyers had no worries of falling, but only if the two passengers the Griffin were carrying would fall into that black hole.

  Valverno led Flarefur passed the gorge and take greater chances with the sludgy mountain. When the mountain grew larger in size and higher in altitude, the two flyers had to fly higher above the mountain’s highest point.

  Valverno drew to a halt when he saw the entire portion of the mountain’s top. The top had four rocky, towering points curved across the mountain’s waving top. A small area of the mountain was flat with strange stones that had been stacked as if built like a staircase for a fifty foot man. Valverno flew for a closer look and he gazed upon a great ruin built onto the mountain and dug deep.

  Remnants of a mighty fortress had lain in ruins. Many stones had been built in a staircase-like manner, which would have mean those were once high walls. Toward the inner core of the ruins had square-like openings built next to another square hole with a ground made flat for a living room or a bedroom. There were small buildings that remain intact, also built in square shape. Those remaining stone huts, or stone houses, served as homes for any ancient inhabitants who once lived in this high point of a mountain.

  At the far western point a large circular stairwell served as stone seats, which went up to fifteen rows and circled around a small arena. Three big arches seemed like entrances and at the arena’s end is what remains of a stage. A small wall with two door-like holes served as exits and entrances to the ruined, stoned stage: a ruined theater.

  Valverno dived to the mountain’s lower walls and saw a small city built halfway down from the mountain’s top ruin fortress. The city built on the wall were built with many buildings overlapping each other and made these look like one building: a building combined with another building like a house built to be combined to another house, if this was like a shopping district.

  The ruins on top the mountain and the city on the mountain’s cliffy side were amazingly built through some hard winds and a high pressure
of strong humidity. Yet alone how these ruins had been built by people who had to dwell on a straight, vertical side of the mountain and the top with many steep cliffs and edges.

  Valverno seemed impressed with these ruins of how they were built and how long what’s been left behind manage to survive for so many years. But now was not the time to be a tourist gazing at ancient ruins; it was the time to search-and-find instead of star gazing at the place. He soon enough rejoined the Griffin at the mountaintop, in the stage center of the ruined theater and folding his wings on his back.

  He saw that Geraldus and Marina dismounted from Flarefur. Valverno saw himself in front of the fifteen seating rows, if he could be seeing ghostly figure siting on those rows waiting for him to put on a show. “Well, we’ve made it,” he said. “Now to find an entrance to this dark chamber so we can be on our way out of here.”

  “This place looks amazing!” said Marina. She gazed at the place so gleefully. She grew a strong curiosity of what secrets this place may hold, how long the ruins may have been standing, and what purpose the place was original built for. “What knowledge could be hidden here and waiting to be found?”

  “Hey, we’re not here to window shop for ruins,” said Geraldus.

  Valverno softly gave a dragon groan and shook his head; Marina was acting like a city girl wanting to spend money on the expensive stuff. He was more annoyed Marina wanting to see the ruins, and having a warrior’s instinct, they would have to explore the ruins only to find the entrance to the “dark, underground chamber” and see more if there is to explore. “I just hope we don’t take too long in playing in searching for the entrance.”

  “What’s wrong with touring these ruins for a bit?” asked Flarefur. “There are secrets we could learn from this—”

  “I’m not interested in learning about this place,” said Valverno. “I am not here to window shop or to gaze upon ancient ruins of a long-lost fortress. I’m here to find a long-lost armor.” Valverno widened his wings and soared in the sky, if he made a small jump from his curved legs. He flew over the ruins of the theater and landed in dead center of the ruined fortress.