Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  For the current moment, Valverno didn’t want to wonder why Geraldus hid the fact he could have flown from the castle to the Greenwood Forest in the first place. Valverno could only think of the current objective he was on: getting an army in the Northern Region and marching south downward with the army.

  With a flick of his wing, Valverno took off at the speed of light to the Northern Region.

  THE NORTHERN VILLAGE

  Valverno had the speed of a flying cheetah. His great speed gave him a great boost from the village of Geraldus to the Northern Region in half-an-hour. Thanks to the leg attachment he equipped to his dragon leg, his speed was a hundred times faster. The speed he was flying could make him fly around the beaches of Shimabellia in a matter of hours. Valverno was proud of the speed he has, and he considered it to be a great gift from the Three Gods.

  Valverno and Sora landed at the village when he traveled with his traveling companions: Flavius, Flarefur, Wasso, Monico, and Gurro, with the twin girl Naìra. It was the village where Valverno had learned its inhabitants were under control by the Shadow King Lusìvar and the witches, who had been dealt away with.

  The battle with the Five-Headed Dragon left its mark in the surrounding mountains. Many mountains were crushed easily when Valverno and the previous White Knight of Charity were fighting against the evil threat, which had been casted away at the cost of the White Knight’s life.

  That battle happened six months ago to the day. Now the village was blossoming with life. Not just humans were being housed, but creatures down from the south started to roam in the village. Dragons carried heavy bags with their legs and placing the heavy bags, which seemed to be filled with bricks, onto buildings under construction. Centaurs were walking with the villagers. Several small Fairies used their small wands and Unicorns used their horns to lift big, heavy boulders of bricks to mount to a higher altitude.

  The village was undergoing heavy construction and more buildings had been built within the months Valverno had found the place. He saw there had been more buildings built and more than a thousand people living in the growing village than a hundred people.

  What was a ghost village became the capital trade city of the Northern Region. Thanks to Valverno and his group the village was blossoming with life. If it wasn’t for him, the village would still have been enslaved by Lusìvar, the witches, the Piper, and the five Dragons under Lusìvar’s control.

  “Hm, this village is more alive than it was dead six months ago,” said Valverno. Even though his face shown a darker side of him, he was starting to smile as life was growing in the village. Life itself is what brought great joy to his heart. As long he could see life living the way it was supposed to live: to be free, then he would be happy.

  Sora could see her brother smiling, despite seeing a demonic side showing on his face. She saw his human skin to be very grey. She didn’t take a liking to his appearance, but she was happy his evil-like appearance didn’t defy some humility Valverno has.

  “I was here some time ago when I was trying to find you,” she said. “I was traveling alone when I was trying to find you.’

  “A young, little sister trying to find her big brother on her own? You’re starting to grow up into a woman now.”

  “Growing up into a woman? I am already a woman, thank you for taking no notice at my grown body and image. Considering you have doing some re-growing from a small baby into a full-grown specimen over the past seventeen years, I’d say I am fully grown.”

  “True and since reconnecting with my ripped body parts, my aging increased back into its proper form. And as I recall, there have been a few times I would be a ‘learning support’ to you, when you didn’t know what to do or you would be too lazy to do something, you would lean on my shoulder for help.”

  “Ah, yes. I do miss those good-old days when we were young. Why can’t we relive those days?”

  “Because those good-old days are long gone and in the past. So, if you have the power to turn back time or transfer us both back when we were young kids playing in the dirt, we are stuck in the present. Right here right now, we are here to get the people we need to build an army. I just need to get them motivated to join me.”

  “Are you sure you can do that?” asked Sora.

  “We are two of five Pangaeans who helped the early people evolve from caves and small groups. Thanks to us, all living beings in today’s age is getting together and they are prospering when everyone is working together. This is the will of the Three Gods, and I, as their Chosen Hybrid, have to keep the Living Life in a perfect balance.

  “However, there are forces that do want to oppose and break apart the balance of the Living Life. Lusìvar is the main force that does want to end the balance the Three Gods worked hard to create. And they have chosen me to keep the balance, but mostly to get rid of the Shadow King.”

  “You make it sound you have been given a big responsibility.”

  “I’m a demigod, the divine son of the Crystal Dragon. With great power comes great responsibility. But enough talk of personal lives. I’ve got an army to assemble.” Valverno shook his head and presided to walk forward.

  “Before we go walking into town, should you think of changing your facial appearance yet alone your body?” asked Sora.

  Valverno stopped seconds after he finished taking his forth step. He held out his hand and a small mirror sprouted from his fingers. Valverno gazed at his reflection; his face was demonic-looking and the scar was deeply cut into his skin, and his legs and his wings were dementing. His human face had a few extra features looked different than what he first looked like when he came to the village six months ago.

  Seeing how different his face is, Valverno was going have a difficult time trying to fit into the village. Once the people saw his newly formed body colored from the Pool of Shadows, they would think he had change sides. He knew they were going to be judgmental of his appearance.

  The hybrid had now debated to how he was going to enter without causing a huge breakout. It took a big fight to proclaim him a hero, and walking right into the village would proclaim him a villain, just by his evil-dementing appearance.

  “We’ll keep pondering here if you just keep staring at yourself in the mirror, or is it you are finding yourself attracting you can’t take eyes away from the mirror?”

  Valverno scratch his mouth and gave a few slurs from his mouth. He was taking a liking to his new appearance and he could not walk right into the village and have everything think he turned evil. “Hm, I do admit: I look so attractive enough it would kill a squirrel at first sight. Even you would be head over heels of my demonic appearance.”

  Sora groaned and slapped the hybrid’s arm and walked a few steps away from him. “Jerk!”

  “Still the same as ever: I give wise comments and you slap them away.” Valverno smiled as Sora walk. “Ten thousand years in hibernation and still you give the same results when I give something to say.” Valverno walked over to his sister and wrapped a wing around her and pulled her closer to him.

  “I never meant on doing it, since I am married to another,” said Valverno.

  “But you were thinking it,” said Sora. The White Knight began to move away from Valverno’s wing and stood in front of him.

  “You thought about it first when the two islands came into existence.”

  “Because Mother and Father (your step-father) had died and you were the only one I had left in the family. I was still considered a child, and I didn’t know anyone else to look up to. I was young and I didn’t know what to do. Among the survivors from Pangaea, who were all turned to be White Knights, you helped us all survive. Over the next century, we ended up surviving every obstacle we encountered, and I wouldn’t have been able to survive without you.”

  “And back then when we were still having fun as brother and sister, despite having different fathers and the same mother.”

  Sora shook her head and step closer to Valverno’s head, so they were gazing at e
ach other’s eyes. “So, what are you going to do now? Keep talking the fun quality time we both shared ten thousand years ago, or are we going to march forward to the village?”

  “March forward to the village, says I.”

  “That was too quick of an answer. Are you not concerned of your appearance?”

  “More than one way to change my appearance, Sora.” Valverno spat on his hands with iced saliva and used that to smear over his face, waving his hands over the skin. After a few seconds, Valverno removed his hands and his face had change. His eyes were the blue-sclera, yellow-iris, and red-pupil they once were, and it wasn’t an illusion spell made from magic.

  With a flap of his wings, the glowing ceased to excite and morphed back into the plain, old, dull wings he once had before, when he went by the name Vaeludar.

  “Something Dragons learned to do: their iced saliva can turn their appearance into something else. Since I’m half, I found out I could do that too.”

  “One can only hope no one would find out you have changed, physically.”

  Valverno nodded and both walked toward the village.

  As they walked closer, no one was seeing them coming to them. Many were just thinking they were merchants from the south like the Dragons and Centaurs. Or some were thinking they were mere travelers looking for a place to rest. Whatever the villagers were thinking, they didn’t pay much attention to the two people walking into the village.

  “Look who has returned to the village!” called out a voice. “Vaeludar, savor of the Northern Region, has returned.”

  Then, there were cries and shouts of joy filling in the air. All the humans were crying in cheers their beloved hero has returned. Hundreds or possibly a thousand voices all cried immediately the crier called out his old name; the old name he now despised and mostly hated.

  Of course these people didn’t know the truth of his true identity. Unless King Uragiru had already told them of his real name, the villagers knew his old name and only knew him as a mortal human dragon hybrid and the son of the dragon Ralenskrit and the witch Belverda. They all cheer and called out his old name “Vaeludar” as he walked through the main street, as Sora walked behind him.

  And for some reason, he had a strange feeling the clan leaders knew of his true identity He has a gut feeling instinct they already knew of his true self already, when he unleashed a small power battling the Five-Headed Dragon. He could only hope they would believe him when he was going to tell them about the truth about his identity, and of his new form when he went for a plundering dip into the Pool of Shadows.

  From a far distance, the people looking at Valverno could easily tell it was him, with the dragon wings and the legs. His former yet disguised appearance kept him from revealing the people and the creatures from seeing his new demonic face. Valverno had a reputation to maintain and didn’t want to reveal it to the people looking at him.

  He saw a few Dragons looking at him and saw them roaring with great joy. There were many flying Dragons soaring overhead and seemed they were kept busy lifting heavy crates of stones.

  Then he looked at several Unicorns and Centaurs, which were also cheering for him. A few Pegasi were stomping their hooves hard, but they didn’t seem to be catching the thought of his disguise.

  No matter where Valverno turned to see, there would be a creature or a human who would be cheering for him. It seemed his trick was working for the moment, even the Dragons that invented the trick with iced saliva were falling for the disguised.

  Valverno knew the cheers from the villagers. His battle with the Five-Headed Dragon has apparently been told to everybody and every creature.

  The village was now busting with great excitement of Valverno’s return, even though he still wants to go by the demigod name. His wings and legs the people didn’t mind seeing. They were just glad to see the hybrid that saved them from a tyrant

  During the unexpected celebration of endless cheers, Valverno and Sora walked through the main street of the village and walked to the statue where the Crystal Dragon stood. A stone altar surrounded by stone pillars stood higher than usual and the statue was sparkling with diamond jewels. The statue looked more like the Crystal Dragon than just white marble stone standing for only decoration.

  It was now a place of worshipping the Crystal Dragon can now take place, unlike the precious forms of worship. Valverno remembered how a human girl was almost used as a human sacrifice, in hopes the people thought it would be the only solution to keeping the five Dragons they feared away from the village.

  Everything that the villagers had feared had been driven away from the village, thanks to Valverno and the group efforts his traveling companions put in place.

  Before Valverno drew close to the statue behind the altar, he saw red coloring stained on the stone ground.

  Dried blood!

  The blood was completely dry and stained to the stone. There were a few scraps of people who tried to wash away the blood. Eventually, it stayed there and no one was going to resume trying to wash away the stained blood.

  Valverno knew it had belonged to the four witches he battled a few times before. Two were killed by Marina, with her teeth. And that would mean the dried blood were from the witches Marina killed and ate, out of sheer anger of seeing some bronze jewels the witches carried with them and Marina stated those jewels were souls of deceased Sirens.

  The other two witches were killed by the hybrid and he knew no red liquid poured from them when he killed them. So, Valverno was standing on the spot where he and Marina killed the sisters of Belverda. And he has no regrets killing them: stealing youth of young kids for the witches to stay young. It was that kind of magic made the witches stay alive and never die, and Valverno decided it was time for them to pass to the Realm of the Gods.

  As Valverno was standing near the altar and the statue of the Crystal Dragon, he picked up the scent of three different people coming from behind. He turned and saw exactly three people standing behind him. He thought he would have to search for the three clan leaders himself but they found him instead.

  The clan leaders were behind him and Sora. And yet there was another man standing with the three clan leaders. Valverno remembered the man wearing the bear fur named Orinù. He didn’t learn about the names of the other two clan leaders: the woman wearing the feathered dress and the fat man wearing light armor.

  “Welcome back, Vaeludar,” said Orinù. “We are humbled to have you back. As a reminder, I am the clan leader of the Eagle Clan. We are known for our great sights for seeing far away. Great skills for an army of scouts and archers.”

  “We all do,” said the woman wearing the feathered dress. “It has been six months the last time you have been here, and I’ve never introduce my name. I am Kelda, clan leader of the Tigress Clan. My clan is known for being all female, and the warriors in the clan are all women and we fight with great brute strength.”

  “And I am Bjorg, clan leader of Cheetah Clan. We are known for our speed and our skill of a spear. We have the testacy for having more stamina in our battles and running a great distance without breaking a sweat.”

  The three clan leaders bowed their heads before their savor before rising their heads back up to view him.

  “What brings you here?” asked Kelda.

  Valverno stepped forward. “Here to seek your help against some foes I’m going to be facing against than Lusìvar. I need an army to overwhelm forces of two foes.”

  “After these six months, you need our help?” asked Kelda.

  “And our armies are what you need after you refused our loyalty.”

  “Not loyalty or armies a hybrid needs. It’s unity of an entire island. Something has happened with King Uragiru; he has joined forces with Lusìvar.”

  “What?” the clan leaders gasped.

  “King Uragiru? The king of the island? This man who knowns the entire island has joined forces with the Dark Warrior King?” asked Bjorg.

  “How is this even possible?” as
ked Orinù.

  “I had always known he would do something, as did all his ancestors,” said a man’s voice.

  Behind the three clan leaders, a middle-aged man revealed himself to the three clan leaders and Valverno. The man standing for them and the clans leaders was none other than the man Valverno hoped to meet but on the island of Isle Maeli: Teutates.

  GATHERING ALLIES

  Valverno never knew he would be seeing Teutates in the Northern Region and he thought the man would be on the island of Isla Maeli. He expected to meet with the clan leaders of the five clans and try to rally them to march south against King Uragiru. And to his surprise, the distant relative of King Uragiru was among the three of the five clan leaders.

  With Teutates among the three clan leaders, Valverno could have an easier playing politician and have an easier alliance in a short amount of time. This could work 2+if he could get Teutates to cooperate with him.

  “What’s the matter? Saw a ghost?” asked Teutates.

  Valverno heard Teutates’s voice spark with severity and arrogance. Teutates’s voice could have made a rabbit die of fright. Valverno stared at Teutates who was staring back with bitterness at the hybrid.

  Valverno needed an alliance with the harsh man, and it seemed it was going to be tricky trying to negotiate with the man. It seemed Teutates’s reputation has a harsh and angry man did precede him. Valverno heard the man always hated mythical creatures and did with magic, and he did seem to hate King Uragiru after the battle during Valverno’s wedding day; Teutates had a heating argument with the king about the security of the city.

  There was no way Valverno was going to let fear get the best of him. He tore down a Dragon with five heads. He tore down the King of the Titans. If he could fight with brute strength against giant monsters, he could fight with fighting words. Acting as a force to be reckoned with, he could easily persuade Teutates to join an alliance with the demigod.