Dawn of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  Never before had this village been under attack. Vaeludar had heard of no wars that had taken place for some several hundred years. For the seventeen years Vaeludar lived in the village, it was all peace, love and hard-working people harvesting in the wheat fields and no attacks.

  Little did Vaeludar take notice of tiptoeing footsteps echoing from the hole of the watchtower’s top level. Someone was coming in the watchtower and he wasn't going to be alone with his thoughts from his morning battle.

  “I thought I would find you here again,” said Flavius, entering from the staircase.

  Vaeludar didn’t look back to greet Flavius “And I thought you were helping the others,” replied Vaeludar, looking at the crowding people working hard in the prepping of the feast Geraldus was going to be hosting.

  “It was getting too crowding over there. Too many people were getting in my way and your twin brothers are being watched by Alaric.”

  “Let me guess: Geraldus is asking you to watch me in case I did leave.”

  “No, not quite. Before this morning’s attack, you were going to depart from this village, but you’re still here. Starting to reconsider leaving?”

  “No, I have not reconsidered leaving. Somewhere on this island or the next island over, lie answers I need to find. As I have mentioned, my parents left me behind. I want to find them.”

  “You really don’t want to stay here for the rest of your life?” asked Flavius.

  “Yes, I am sure I don’t want to stay here forever. After all, I’m half dragon.”

  “What’s wrong with being half dragon?”

  Vaeludar sighed. “Dragons live longer than humans do. They can live up to five-to-eight hundred years, and I’m half-dragon. In theory, I will live up to two-to-four hundred years. I’ll outlive your family by a few generations.”

  “You’re worried about being lonely after my father, my siblings, and I die? I knew you were worried about us.”

  “I’ve been alone for the past decade, keeping my distance from humanity, the Dragons, and others I know what it feels like when I’m wondering through the woods on my own. I would be living like a hermit or a nomad, but I want to discover my past, my place in life on my own. I will walk, I will fly, and I will stand as I always will be: alone.”

  Then Vaeludar turned to Flavius with a small smile. “But after tonight, people will have second thoughts about me, and I won’t be an outcast anymore. I will finally be a part of human society.”

  “You have always been in human society,” stated Flavius. “You just don’t want to have staring faces looking at you in disgust, thinking you are not a part of the human world. You just think appearances are everything.”

  “In my experience, appearances often best describe the personalities. The way I look at myself through a mirror my body reflects my personality. I look human; who means my personality shows I am more human than a drag—”

  A horn blew firmly.

  “It seems the celebration is about to start, Flavius,” said Vaeludar, turning back with his three-clawed wings touching the window edges.

  “Then I’ll be see you at the festival,” said Flavius. Flavius bowed his head before leaving through the hole.

  Vaeludar looked at a dozen soldier battalions holding red torches and marching around the head on the golden altar, belly-dancing gypsies, food-serving servants, and Geraldus standing on the altar giving a speech about how Vaeludar killed the Minotaur with his fiery, ice, electric beam of energy.

  Vaeludar couldn’t hear what Geraldus was saying due to the cries of laughter, cheering, and shouts of partying voices. Then he could smell the scent of smoked pork, roasted turkey, caramelized pigs, and other roasted meat was being placed on the tables by the Griffins.

  Crowds were energetically crowding around the tables, anxious to eat. The Griffins and the Faeries were holding steady to the nicely polished bronze plates with the roasted meat. The Centaurs were placing fruits next to the crowding tables.

  It seems the creatures were having a difficult time to place the wonderful food on the crowding tables. Some hardworking peasants wanted to eat now. Geraldus himself couldn’t handle the situation.

  The hybrid could see some things were getting out of Geraldus’s control and needed to help out with another bad situation, which didn’t need to resort to violence like he did earlier that day.

  Here I go again, Vaeludar thought. He jumped out of the window with his wings wide out. He used strong, wind power from his winds to glide and soar on. He flew past several lightless houses, over foul, fenced pig sties, and over the golden altar. He did a loop-de-loop in the air and landed on the altar loudly with a bang.

  Everyone turned to see him landing near Geraldus.

  Suddenly, everyone went silent. The only sounds were the Centaurs, Griffins, and Unicorns still setting and loading the tables.

  The Dragons and the Pegasi were staring at him, not expecting to see him at this time. They didn’t seem ready for the hybrid to join them.

  Vaeludar just stood there, deciding what to do. In his entire life, he had been stared at with glaring eyes from a small number of individuals. For the first time, he had a big number of glaring eyes staring at him, not in a strange way but in much awe.

  “Too early to start the feast?” asked Vaeludar. “How about a little entrainment from this human? Dragon. Hybrid. Creature.” Vaeludar was starting to feel a bit awkward of not knowing what to do. The first thing that popped in his mind: fire. He spun around and looked at the sky and exhaled a small breathe of air.

  A great beam of fire, orange, blue fire came bursting in seconds. It stretched widely, flamed brightly, and steamed hotly. Its crimson light brightened the dark places where small torches lit dimly.

  Vaeludar closed his mouth after running out of air from his lungs and held up his hands. Then the fire spreading in the air stopped, still waving like wildfire burning through a forest. Vaeludar waved his hands, and the fire was spreading into different directions. Through his mind, Vaeludar was controlling the fire he exhaled out and making it form into a large shape: a Sea Serpent.

  The serpent-shaped figure moved and crawled in the air like a snake. From the people’s view, a small part of the fire split from the serpent and formed into a Minotaur. Then the snake-shaped figure turned into a dragon shape. The dragon and the Minotaur fire figures battled each other with heavy blows of big, puffy fire blasts.

  Vaeludar was putting on a show: a Dragon facing against a Minotaur. It is how he envisioned himself battling against the bull. Vaeludar imaged he was a fire-breathing Dragon battling against a beast threating to harm a village.

  In his youth, Vaeludar heard of Dragons destroying villages, but in this version he was showing to the villagers behind him was a Dragon defending a village instead of burning it to the ground.

  The show ended when the dragon pounded the Minotaur to the ground and blew fire right upon its head. Then the fire show vanished, reflecting Vaeludar’s victory in the fight against the large two-legged creature.

  There was a loud applaud behind him. Vaeludar smiled and turned to see the audience applauding him of his spectacular, fiery show. He bowed his head lowly before placing an eye on Geraldus. “How about some music now, to enlighten their senses?”

  “Ah, yes,” said Geraldus. “On with the music. Places, musicians. We have to hear the music before we eat. Hurry. Hurry. Places.”

  Several people started to move immediately. People will soft-toned, stringed instruments such as violins and cellos were seated on soft-pillow, stoned chairs and started playing with their soft strings and firm horse hair.

  The music was sweet and mellow like strings on a violin. The music started as a soft tone, then to a high note to a lower note to a median note and so on. They were followed people with strange harmonious, spiritual instruments called a long, wide flute called a shakuhachi, a string-on-wood koto, and a long, near flatten, spiky wooden fish with a stick that make
s wooden-stringy notice.

  Vaeludar heard the sounds of these three instruments that his spirit started to lift up from his body. The sounds were like the winds on the mountains, with birds fluting and wolves howling with a musical melody. He felt like the music was enchanting him to go have the greatest adventure of a lifetime. Then he felt words pouring into his head and let out with the rhythm and tone of the music everyone was hearing:

  From across from the blue seas

  The two islands are filled with beauty

  Where people live at ease,

  Sleeping beneath the green trees

  The two islands had their share of life

  Where people and animals don’t strife

  Peace holds in the hearts of human,

  Who can be very acumen

  From the mountain’s top, a wolf’s howl

  And the hoots of a night owl

  Had echoed in the whispering night

  Before the break of dawn’s light

  From across from the blue seas

  The two islands of have been filled,

  With forests spreading far and wide

  And surrounded by the oceans’ tide

  The islands were quiet under the moon

  In the spring month of June

  Where wolves howled in the mountains

  Where their great hunt would happen soon

  Vaeludar stopped when the music stopped playing. The musicians stood and left their seats. Another round of applause came from the people who were still waiting.

  “Well, that was quite enjoyable,” said Vaeludar.

  After his little performance, the people standing around were seated properly at the circular, stone tables. The Dragons, Unicorns, Centaurs, Faeries, Griffins, Sea Serpents, and the Merpeople were watching him. They seemed to be waiting for him to say something.

  Geraldus handed Vaeludar a golden chalice with rubies, emeralds, and apatite gemstones filled with fine red wine nicely crafted from the finest grapes their village had to offer. About ten miles north of the village was a small vineyard: a land made of grapes to make into wine.

  Vaeludar grabbed it, took a sip, held it up, and yelled out, “Let the feast begin.”

  Three seconds later, everyone dived into the food. Everyone was hungry for the food laid out on the many tables. Many people grabbed the meat while a handful of people grabbed many untouched fruits and vegetables. There were also cheeses sitting with fruits.

  While the humans ate their food they worked on to cook and prep, the creatures stayed away from the hungry humans or helped themselves to some food. The Griffins laid back on the rooftops from hard work. The Dragons had served themselves the piles of dead deer. Centaurs helped themselves to the fruits while some rudely took some of the meat. The Faeries, the small humanlike winged creatures, kept their distance in the grassy hills, as they shared the grass with the Unicorns and the Pegasi were eating in the grass in the grass fields.

  Vaeludar gave the golden chalice back to his foster father after drinking the rest of the wine and descended into the hungry crowd. He folded thinly enough for him to walk through the people sitting around the tables. His legs were moving like a lion’s back leg. Vaeludar’s mind was focused on the celebration instead of focusing on the fame he had.

  As he passed through the crowd, cheers were hailed to him. Adults lifted up stylish mugs of beer in shouts, “Hail.”

  He never felt so warm welcomed in the human community until now. Vaeludar heard cries of laughter, some bulky men were telling women stories of themselves, men getting drunk from their consumption of their beer, kids stuffing their months with the meat and completely ignoring their fruits and veggies, and woman eating like nicely like mannered lades would eat.

  At one stoned table, he saw his foster siblings sitting. The two eldest sons, Alaric and Flavius, were eating properly while the two youngest, Arron and Nerio, were throwing the nice cooked food at each other and across the table. The twin girls, Naìra and Andrei, were completely annoyed by their older twin brothers.

  “Alright. Enough you two or should I send you both to bed and make you miss the rest of the celebration?” said Vaeludar.

  They both responded by throwing food at him, but Vaeludar lifted his hands to form a wind barrier around, making the food spiral around his wind barrier and blow back at the two throwers.

  Arron and Nerio used their arms to block the flying food. It seemed the boys again got a taste of their own medicine.

  Once the flying food was gone, Vaeludar lifted and grabbed a falling apple Arron flew at him.

  They both looked angry at him and were ready to pounce on him. They suddenly stopped and saw what seemed to be strange.

  Vaeludar spun the apple around the tip of his sharp pointy figure and lifted a dragon claw and clawed the apple’s red skin off the apple itself. Then he held the apple horizontally with two fingertips while it was still spinning. He began to eat the spinning apple left-to-right like a corn. In ten seconds, the apple was eaten to the core. It seemed Vaeludar could eat an apple faster than piranhas eating a human corpse in thirty seconds.

  The two were planked out once again by an unknown skill Vaeludar just showed them. Their siblings laughed and giggled at Arron’s and Nerio’s shocked looks.

  Apparently, they are aware of the skills and strengths Vaeludar had while Arron and Nerio don’t know anything about Vaeludar abilities.

  Vaeludar puffed out smoke of his nose and tossed the eaten apple on Arron’s plate. Soon after, he left the two stunned twin brothers. He smiled in a straight face and headed back to the altar. Feet away from a staircase of the altar, he gazed at the head of the Minotaur.

  “How does it feel to lose to a hybrid?” Vaeludar asked the head, knowing it wouldn’t talk.

  Ten seconds after asking the question, he walked away from the head to join the celebration.

  From the table the sons and daughters sat at, Vaeludar didn’t see Eliana sitting with her siblings. He knew Eliana was hiding among the crowd, waiting to seize her chance to have a private chat with him.

  Vaeludar, now living a happy life he always wanted to live, was living the dream, but he still hadn’t forgotten about leaving the village. He still wanted to leave and go find the parents who he thought to have left him behind.

  However, he was starting to have a change of mind and was considering staying in the village for the rest of his life. It was probably where he did belong, not anywhere in the outside world. Even though he was happy to have everyone appreciate him saving the village from total disaster, Vaeludar still didn’t feel he belonged in the village. He wanted to know more about himself.

  After he walked through the heavy crowds, Vaeludar decided to keep his distance from the loud people and walk around the grass fields. Vaeludar made it to the fields of short grass shining of emerald green.

  In the fields, Vaeludar saw a lone figure standing several yards from him. He had found Eliana standing in the grass fields looking at the stars above. He knew if he tried to escape her, she would search for him.

  For a girl of her age, Eliana was smart and sometimes cunning. Every time Vaeludar had escaped her, Eliana would suddenly be around a corner, waiting to catch him by surprise. So Vaeludar would just use this time to talk to her and see what she thinks of him for dumping her the night before; he walked closely behind her.

  “Lovely night isn’t it?” asked Eliana.

  “Yes, it is,” said Vaeludar, standing beside Geraldus eldest daughter. He glimpsed at Eliana’s eyes that looked a bit furious. “Mad about last night?”

  “You left me in that empty room, which was meant for you. For years, he gave you gifts, and you keep rejecting what comes to you. How is it possible to reject gifts being given to you from Father?”

  “I didn’t see the gifts as true gifts. The gifts everyone was giving me weren’t very… playful.”

  Eliana shook her head. “You’re more than just a hy
brid. You killed a monster today, yet you don’t join in tonight’s celebration. Geraldus sees it, and I see it. You’re something special.”

  “I was raised by Geraldus, and you’re the only daughter of his not seeing as special as a brother figure; you’re seeing me more than an older brother to look up to. You want me more than just to be a brother to you, and let me tell you: there is one other girl in my life find special.”

  “I know who you talk about, and monstrous fish don’t make good lovers as humans do,” said Eliana before she turned around and pulled herself away from the hybrid.

  Vaeludar sighed and looked at the starry night. Finally, after all these years, I can now be happy with humans around me, he thought. He proceeded to walk back to rejoin the party with the people who came to adore him after what happened that morning.

  Hours passed like birds flying south for the winter. The party was dimming and the people were going back into their homes, having their stomachs filled with good food. In the middle of the night, Vaeludar saw the servants cleaning up after the people that left without cleaning up their own messes.

  Vaeludar stood by and watched the servants clean up the piled messes as he also helped the few servants staying so near to midnight. He picked up bones and bitten fruits trashed around the fields in his hands and blew a small fire on everything he touched. His dragon fire turned the trashed food to ashes and spread the ashes around the fields, as ash from dragon fire make good fertilizer.

  During his little cleanup, a long Unicorn walked up to the hybrid. Vaeludar ceased his cleaning production and gazed upon the first white unicorn walking to him.

  “Taking responsibility for someone else’s duties?” asked the Unicorn.

  “People working in the dead of night need some help with this big mess, so I’m deciding to help out. And if you don’t mind me asking, you’re the Unicorn King, aren’t you? The Unicorn walking around this village late at night.”

  “Yes, I am the Unicorn King. There had been talk of you for years. We thought it was only rumors… until now. We all gaze upon the son of the dragon scientist Ralenskrit and the human scientist Belverda. Both were excellent partners in science affairs.”