by Ryan Johnson
Valverno turned to see Teutates standing behind Geraldus. The demigod was witnessing another surprise visit from the mysterious man making another surprising appearance. A week ago he was in the Northern Region. Before that, he saw Teutates at his wedding ceremony and he somehow managed to get to the Northern Region in a short amount of time.
“I’m not going to hold back; how is it you have traveled from the capital city to the Northern Region in a matter of hours? After my wedding? How did you travel to the Northern Region?”
“Does it matter how I travel, even if it is not your business to know?”
“I am a demigod. If I get to know people more and debate if they could be enemies or allies, yes.” Valverno answered very firmly and a straight look in his darkened face.
“The power of a White Knight can be useful when I know it is not magic,” said Teutates. “Saves time from riding on horses and flying on Dragons.”
Valverno signed.
“So you are a White Knight after all and I can see for a human to strength fast they would need great strength in their muscles to sustain a long run. I’d never know you would be Strength. And yet here are the three of the four: Charity, Loyalty, and Strength. And the White Knight we’re missing is Trust.”
Sora walked close to her brother’s left side and looked at Geraldus and Teutates. The two men suddenly changed their clothes of nobility to the white and blue garments of the White Knights. Sora was still in her White Knight garments.
“So this is all there is?” asked Sora. “What about Trust?”
“I’ve met the spirit of the original White Knight of Trust and a fellow Pangaean survivor on my journey to the Northern Region. Desmond, his Pangaean name was. I’ve meant him in the appearance of a wolf. You see I couldn’t fly pass the mountain border, due to some magic barrier that rebelled flying abilities. He helped me and my group travel to a river. After that, it seemed he had cross over and left to the Realm of the Gods.”
“So that would mean…” said Sora.
“It may seem Trust didn’t give his power to any successor, which meant the power he once held he must have bestowed to me,” said Valverno. “But I’ll figure out whom to pass the power of Trust to later. Right now, I need to know what happened in the past week in my absence.”
Geraldus and Teutates glared at each other. Sora stayed silent as something did happen but it wasn’t good news.
“There is nothing to say? Uragiru is sending a secret army to the Western Region in two weeks. And there will be seventy thousand men coming this way, and if I have no communication from leaders from different armies, we might as have lost already.”
Geraldus stood up and said, “We have heard everything we needed to know. I have already committed my forces and I’m getting some five thousand people from the swamps. Your three clans have also come to the Western Region while you withered around. Even though we may have gotten a few reinforcements, Teutates had to leave his clan behind him due to another clan believing to take the Northern Region.”
“The Snake Clan,” grunted Valverno.
“Yes, every civilian and every soldier from the Eagle, Cheetah, and Tigress Clans has been brought down here, with help from the Dragons, Centaurs, Unicorns, and every horse we could count. I have ten thousand men at the ready, plus the five thousand from the swamp lands. The soldiers from the three clans have fifteen thousand. We have a total of thirty thousand soldiers going against the ‘secret army’ of Uragiru.
“However, Teutates only contributed five thousand calvarias to the Western Region, which brings our forces to thirty-five thousand.”
“We’re going to be outnumbered slightly more than half,” said Sora. “Even if the island heard your message, he may still be adding some other loyal men to his cause. And if Lusìvar did hear what Uragiru had said, he may kill the king first or just abandon Uragiru completely.”
“Whatever he may throw at us, we’ll be ready for sure,” said Valverno.
“How can you be so sure?” asked Teutates. “He has more soldiers than us. And you said he has small units of evil creatures everywhere on the island.”
“And Lusìvar is the leader of the evil creatures. Surely he will not commit them to Uragiru’s aid, so the false king coming this way will only humans serving in the secret army. That gives us the ultimate advantage. We are allies with the Centaurs, Dragons, Fairies, Griffins, Merpeople, Pegasi, Sea Serpents, and Unicorns.”
“Don’t be so sure the creatures of light will be coming to join our cause,” said Geraldus. “Right now, they see us the coming battle as a ‘human cause.’ They will not be joining us in the fray.”
“Then we’re going come up with some kind of plan of what to do before Uragiru and his army comes. Right now, let’s take the time to gather what soldiers we have and ready them in the coming battle. Two weeks may seem long enough, but it is still a short amount of time of where to pick a battle and in what terrain to meet Uragiru’s army on.”
A water swirl and sudden slash came from the shoreline. Marina came walking up from the water with fish bones in her hands. She dropped the dry bones on the sand as she came walking up from the water.
Dosed and wet, the Siren shook her and her hair waved out with water drops splatting across the sand. She used her hands to squeeze any water remaining in her hair and dose it back into the ocean.
“I’ll leave you two be,” said Geraldus. He turned to see Marina once before walking off. Teutates walked in a different direction and Sora walked to a distance from her brother and stand in a spot she pretended to be invisible.
Marina saw the three people walking away from Valverno. “What was that all about?” asked Marina. “Were they talking about what to eat for diner? I’ve already had my fill, but tuna this time of year is really stale.”
“They were Sora, Geraldus, and Teutates. We were discussing about the battle coming this way,” said Valverno. “And in two weeks’ time, we’re going to need every soldier, every man and woman to stand up against Uragiru’s threat. The Western Region, under the command of Geraldus, of Shimabellia is going to war against Uragiru.”
PREPPING FOR BATTLE
Twelve days had past rapidly since Valverno met with the three White Knights. He learned Teutates used his White Knight power to travel from different locations though a portal he could create from his hands and summon it at will, like how Valverno saw with Belverda when she was withdrawing from her campaign from the Northern Region.
During the time Valverno was spending with Geraldus and Teutates, the three of them were planning on their attack of the battle. There wasn’t a mighty fortress or a big-walled castle in the Western Region, so they had one option: to meet Uragiru’s forces head-on.
They had only thirty-five thousand soldiers going against seventy thousand, which was slightly more than half than of Uragiru’s forces. Valverno and Teutates had agreed they didn’t like the odds, but Geraldus said otherwise: they had a few small hills and trenches they could lead Uragiru’s army to where they were rockslides.
During their battle plans, a few messengers from the Dragons, Centaurs, Pegasi, and Griffins came to Geraldus: they were not going to be supporting Geraldus or Uragiru, for they too saw the form of Valverno. The creatures saw both sides corrupt and will not take sides.
After claiming neutrality, the messenger creatures went back to their homeland. This was going to put pressure on Geraldus, Teutates, and Valverno. If Uragiru had an army of evil creatures such Banshees or Manticores, the odds of surviving were going to be very slim.
Geraldus didn’t like it, but he saw the dark power Valverno wielded saw a means to survive. Both Valverno and Teutates were against the idea of Valverno using the Pool’s dark power in such a desperate means to survive.
But Geraldus said if Valverno was the one controlling the evil power crawling within him, Valverno should have nothing to fear. He was a demigod after all, the son of a god. His divine power he received from the dragon god, according to
the old stories, Valverno received when he was walking alone at a lake. The divine power could balance his body, which Geraldus saw as an embodiment of a god’s divine pure power and the Pool of Shadow’s dark power.
Valverno was hesitant of the idea, but he was willing to go with it; if they didn’t have any possible means of surviving. Valverno sternly stated he wasn’t going to die in the battle or see any one loved ones dying before him.
Teutates was still against the idea of Valverno using such power. Geraldus and Teutates decided they were going to be the ones deciding of what to do while Valverno was going to stay out of it, since they had more battle experience and he had little experience leading an army.
During the time he wasn’t spending with the two men, Valverno kept his distance from the two twins of Geraldus: the twin boys, Arron and Nerio, and the twin girls, Naìra and Andrei. He was told by Geraldus the twin boys and twin girls saw him in the crystal orb that came to the Western Region, and Geraldus revealed he wiped their memories of him. As a father, he wanted to keep his children safe if they never remembered the evil form of Valverno, but the form of Vaeludar the four kids could call their brother.
Even though Valverno could hide himself from Geraldus’s four youngest kids, he couldn’t keep away from Eliana and Flavius. Geraldus’s two eldest children kept staring at Valverno and blamed him for Alaric’s death.
There was an instance Geraldus told Eliana and Flavius to let go of the past and focus on the future. He did tell them about Valverno’s confrontation with Uragiru, who had revealed his plans for obtaining power.
Valverno did regret the fact he did leave the Geraldus’s eldest child behind while he tried to go save the civilians from lingering danger. Valverno made the choice to sacrifice one life to save the lives of other people who needed it. To that end, Valverno learned Alaric die fighting to protect the twin girls, especially Naìra who turned up in the Northern Region after the witches and the Piper captured her.
W
At noon of the twelve day, Valverno was in the watch tower. He watched blacksmiths endlessly banging hammers on red-colored metals. Soldiers piled spears on wooden stacks and swords over swords.
Hundreds of tents were spread across the wheat fields with a small flag painted with an animal’s head. Each was big enough to fit two or three soldiers. There were a few hundred soldiers walking up and down the village. They were all carrying a few weapons and lifting heavy armor for the coming battle.
Valverno had never seen Geraldus’s village filled with so many soldiers. It was like his military had taken over instead of Geraldus being in control. He’d always seen the soldiers in the barracks, but he’d never thought he would see them walking with weapons or patrolling in the alleys.
He saw there were fewer children running through the streets or playing out in the fields. Valverno saw parents keeping their children close, as it was their first time seeing a lot of soldiers in the village and wanted to keep their children close to them as close as possible. Valverno knew the parents also saw his corrupted image and no longer thought Valverno as a hero.
He still remembers them seeing him as an outsider, but he could tell they now saw him as a monster waiting to catch when his prey who wasn’t looking or not keeping watch to their surroundings. He felt an outsider once again, but he doesn’t mind being the outsider again. And he won’t reveal himself to anyone until he could find a way to change his appearance.
“Keeping your distance as usual?” asked Flavius.
Valverno heard Flavius’s voice coming from the door in the ground that led to the watch tower’s top. Before he heard any voices, Valverno heard footsteps banging behind him. “Would someone want to be close to their sons or daughters at this time? War is coming. Geraldus and Teutates are planning of what to do. And I am stuck with a form that makes me look like monster.”
Flavius kept his distance from the demigod, and he didn’t want to look at the demigod he once call brother. But at last he made a strange breathing sound. “Father said I must find in my heart to forgive you for abandoning us during the attack and leaving Alaric to die, but I cannot,” said Flavius.
“I know,” said Valverno.
“How would you know?”
“I’ve been making some poor choices lately that been costing people to lose their trust in me, and I never wanted to fall into the Pool of Shadows in the first place.”
“Why did you even fall into that forbidden Pool?”
“I fell into the Pool by a might of force of a liquid whip aiming for Marina,” said Valverno. With a wave of his hand, a memory cloud spurred from his hand’s wave. There, images had shown from the grey cloud a long, black whip merging from the Pool of Shadows and whipping toward Marina. Valverno went to show and explain he saved Marina from being grabbed. “And the only thing keeping me safe from evil endangerment is the power the Crystal Dragon gave me, which I am thankful to have.” The cloud faded from view after he finished.
“She is very lucky to have you as a husband. But one has to wonder who he loves: the one who fell in the Pool of Shadows or the one who came out of the Pool?” asked Flavius.
Valverno glared at Flavius before turning to look outside. “How should I know? I can’t make Marina say who she loves or she hates. She’s a Siren. That kind of personality defecates from a human’s. And being a Siren, she can be quick to anger and brutally ea—”
“Flavius, have you seen dad anywhere?” asked a girl’s voice. It was Naìra’s voce coming from beneath the tower’s door.
“I gauss that is my cue to leave,” said Valverno. “I don’t want your younger siblings end up remembering me like this.” Valverno jumped out of the watchtower and hastily away from the village’s prowling eyes.
Thanks to his speed, Valverno manage to get out of an eye’s reach and get away from everyone, as he didn’t want to be seen by anyone for the time he was in his current form. He placed some distance between the village and the barracks and landed in a small valley.
The valley was a mile wide and long and surrounded by forest trees. There were small sunflowers with the hills overflowing with long grass that hasn’t been cut and long strays of roses and dandelions.
The green and yellow plants strength high enough for Valverno to have his legs covered beneath the plants. The plants went up to his belly as he landed softly into the ground. Many kinds of flowers and long green grass covered the valley. Several butterflies flew from each flower to another. A soft wind blew over the flowers, making them twirl and wave gracefully. His new long-grown, crimson hair blew in the wind.
In this valley, very few hummingbirds were flapping their wings and sucking nectar from a flower grown in the valley. Rabbits and squirrels would dash through the valley’s plants.
Valverno saw this was where he could be living if he never wanted to live with civilization ever again.
Then he heard a voice coming from a nearby hill. He spotted Marina standing on a hilltop. She was moving while she stood still. Her hair was blowing very softly and her eyes were staring at a range of faraway mountains. She was dressed with the same clothes she was dressed with when she traveled with Valverno to the Northern Region to retrieve the first armor artifact.
She had a quiver strapped around her waist and a bow hanging around her back.
He looked at Marina singing on a hilltop. There was a soft wind waving against her hair, as her voice could be echoing in the air:
One of these days when war is done
When the one I love returns
When he comes to the girl he yearns
And we can show our love in turns
One of these days when we’re not apart
The one I love won’t be violent
Light will shine brightly in his heart
And his darkness will stay forever silent
When that man I love comes back
His eyes will shine more light than black
He will become my man and I his woman
W
hen one of these days he turns human
Marina stopped her singing and turned to see Valverno staring at her, showing a small face of symphony. She showed an emotionless face. She wasn’t looking at the hybrid she fell in love with; she was looking at a completely different person, an odd stranger.
Valverno silently signed, with his chest growing slightly outward then inward of inhaling and exhaling air. Then he turned his face away and proceeded to walk from Marina.
“Sirens are monsters when they eat humans to death, and Dragons are monsters when they burn humans,” she said. “When this war is over, please tell me which one of us is the monster.”
Valverno nodded his head in response. And just as he opened his mouth, a horn was heard from faraway. Valverno and Marina turned their heads in the direction the horn was blowing from: to the northeast.
Thinking it could be Uragiru’s army, Valverno looked at Marina, who was shaking her head. She clearly stated she didn’t want to be touched by the stranger she saw before her. Valverno turn his head back where he heard the blowing horn and took off in the direction.
He flew back to the village and floated above the buildings from a great distance. When he got there, he picked up no scent of a large army or a large number of men coming to the village at the moment. He did see a small number of horsemen riding from the village’s northeastern boundaries. He flew to the watchtower’s roof to see what was going on.
About some fifty horsemen were riding to Geraldus village. Two in particular rode to face Geraldus and Teutates. The two men saw the two riders coming to them. Then the two riders dismounted from their horses.
Valverno watched from the watchtower the two men that are very familiar: Wasso and Monico. He was glad to see them, he didn’t want to reveal himself, as they were in the publics’ eye and Valverno didn’t want to get into the crowd. Even though he was far from where they were talking, his earing could pick up of what they were speaking. He could hear the four men speaking.
“We have seen everything we needed to see,” said Wasso. “We have seen Vaeludar in his changed form and his talk with Uragiru. My twin brother. Me. Lots of soldiers heard what ‘Vaeludar’ really was, and we’d never known he would have been an ancient demigod.”
