Dawn of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “You know them?” asked Vaeludar.

  “Everyone knows them. They must much renown throughout the island. They discovered ways to make life better without the properties of magic. They were a strange pair, strangely enough there are rumors they do unusual experiments. And I mean very unusual experiments at some laboratory somewhere down south, if I heard correctly.”

  Vaeludar remembered something once the Unicorn King said “experiments at some laboratory.” He remembered seeing the word “Secret Laboratory” on the map of the island on the cloth he threw into the Greenwood Forest earlier that day.

  “These experiments…” asked Vaeludar. “Where did they take place?”

  “I don’t know,” answered the Unicorn King. “They only mentioned have some kind of secret laboratory. I never saw it with my own eyes.”

  “Did they ever mention something about an ancient castle in the northern part of the island or talk of any Sirens in the southeast?” asked Vaeludar.

  “No,” said the Unicorn King, suspiciously. “What are you getting at?”

  “Earlier today, after I have slain the Minotaur, one of Geraldus’s twin boys had a piece of cloth. It showed the map of Shimabellia. It had three locations marked on every corner of the island. I really couldn’t tell what it was supposed to mean.”

  “Where is this piece of cloth?” the unicorn asked.

  “I threw it back into the Greenwood Forest,” said Vaeludar. “I saw the twin boys come running out of the forest, with the Minotaur behind them. Arron and Nerio nearly destroyed a village and I had to put down a monster just for a worthless piece of a cloth. A washcloth from what I saw.

  “So I don’t know if it was supposed to be important or meaningless. I gauss at this point we’ll never know. I threw the cloth back into the forest.”

  The Unicorn King tilted his head toward the Greenwood Forest. “Then I think it's for the best then. Shouldn’t bother going into the forest. Whatever goes into the forest will never come out.”

  “But there is some concern of the boys,” said Vaeludar. “They went into the forest without anyone seeing them entering, and they came out without a scratch. I wonder what provoked them into going. They can cause a lot of mischief, but I never thought they would go that far.”

  “You should talk to those boys,” said the Unicorn. “You should get the answers from them.”

  “No, I really don’t need to. What would be the point? The Minotaur is dead, the village is safe, and no one died during my fight. And those boys are the sons of Geraldus. He has to be the one to discipline them…” He sniffed the air and he could smell the scent of more fur, but it wasn’t a bull’s hair he smelled; it was dog’s fur.

  “What is it?” asked the Unicorn King. “What do you smell?”

  “I smell fur, as I did this morning right before the Minotaur came running out of the woods,” said Vaeludar. He could smell the furry scent coming from the Greenwood Forest. “It smells like a dog.”

  Vaeludar followed the strange scent close to the borders of the village and the Greenwood Forest. When he drew closer, there was a loud wolf howl.

  It was the howl of a wolf but with evil snarling and bull grunts. The treetops were moving. A sudden hard gush of wind spread through the dark forest behind Vaeludar. Leaves were torn and being blown around Vaeludar’s dragon feet.

  Vaeludar heard snarling coming from behind the darkness of the tall trees. He backed away from the blowing trees slowly, without turning his eye away from what may be lurking from within the forest.

  Out from the bushes, seven black-furred, blood-eyed, hound-looking Black Dogs softly walking like wolves. They were walking menacingly towards Vaeludar, growling frightfully.

  Vaeludar growled back; he wasn’t going to back down from another fight. He fought against a large Minotaur that morning and discovered his skin couldn’t be cut. So it would mean claws wouldn’t be able to tear through his flesh. He growled very darkly and hatefully.

  The Black Dogs carefully separated and began circling around Vaeludar.

  Vaeludar placed the claws of his wings slowly to the ground, so he would be ready to pounce or dodge any attack. He heard the Black Dogs sniffing him very carefully.

  With all of a sudden, they headed back into the forest, without one of them swinging a claw towards Vaeludar.

  Surprised to see this, Vaeludar ceased his menacing growling and went back to his usual self. He was ready to attack before the Black Dogs had withdrawn from their small engagement of the hybrid.

  He turned back and saw dozens of soldiers, Unicorns, Dragons, Centaurs, and Griffins ready for battle.

  Geraldus strode his horse towards Vaeludar.

  “You’re going to have to keep a good eye on your twin sons before they end up doing something deadly again,” said Vaeludar.

  A FAMOUS HYBRID

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  he next three days were quite a commotion; Vaeludar was the main talk of the entire town. It was a rare sighting to see a Minotaur venture out in the middle of daylight. It was told the beast only roams during the night and stalks villages smaller than Geraldus’s village. The Minotaur’s attack on a larger village was unheard of.

  The one house that was demolished was rebuilt, just a bit larger than the original house. The family, which consist a father and mother with two sons, were unhurt and sad to see their home was gone, but grateful for getting a new one.

  Vaeludar, who was the one to have caused the destruction of the family’s hut, participated in the reconstruction. He felt responsible for destroying a home, so he decided to help rebuilding as an apology for destroying it. His helping made the family happy and hopeful that the one who caused the destruction of a home was helping rebuild a new home.

  After the hut had been rebuilt, the family thanked the hybrid for rebuilding their home and said there was no need for an apology as it was just an accident while Vaeludar was protecting the people living within the village more than protecting the buildings.

  Vaeludar spent the entire morning of the third day walking around and seeing the villagers greeting him with a smile. After seventeen years of being the outcast of the village, Vaeludar was being accepted into the village’s society. They thanked him for protecting them and putting on the fiery show the night following his morning battle.

  Even among the humans, Vaeludar was becoming quite popular with the dragons. They had never known a single human could take on a Minotaur and live to tell the tale. What amused the dragons was the mention of Vaeludar’s skin. The mentioned of the Minotaur spear being unable to pierce the hybrid’s skin was highly unusual to hear of.

  Vaeludar did mention to a dragon crowd he was the first cross-specimen to be a human and a dragon, and he felt he was an embodiment of both in personality and physical form.

  Vaeludar was becoming the celebrity in the village, even more popular than Geraldus.

  Through the morning to the early afternoon of the third day, Vaeludar was sitting on Geraldus’s roof, as he always was. He could hear his name being called out from afar. His hybrid ears could hear human voices echoing around corner of the village.

  He was told by Geraldus that Nerio and Arron both entered the bordering forest, under a dare given to them from a dragonet (a dragon child). The twin boys accepted the dare and now both ended up under supervision and the one dragonet was caught by its mother for being reckless.

  The boys and the dragonet still remained free to play, but under guard from several Dragons and guards.

  Vaeludar didn’t care of what happened to Arron or Nerio; he wasn’t their father or older brother. The twin boys were Geraldus’s responsibility, and he was stern on them when Geraldus found out two of his sons did something so reckless that could have destroyed the entire village and the people living within it.

  Vaeludar kept watch on the people walking around every corner of Geraldus household and watched them wave as he would wave back at every human walking by.
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  After sitting on Geraldus’ rooftop for quite a while, Vaeludar jumped into the air and started flying. He drifted slowly above the wooden houses. He could see playful small children, ages between four and eight, seeing the flying hybrid and ran after him. Vaeludar saw the kids chasing after him and descended down to see them.

  Another eventful thing happening in his life was parents were allowing their kids to go see the strange hybrid. When Vaeludar landed, about a dozen kids crowded around him. Vaeludar showed them his dragon legs, his wings, the spikes on his arms and spine, and his red scaled dragon hands.

  They gaze in awe and smiled when Vaeludar told them about his battle with the Minotaur. As he was telling the story, he felt his tail being nailed by four little toddlers, wanting to sit on it. Vaeludar smiled and gently waved his tail back and forth, seeing the four smiling and laughing while Vaeludar allowed them to ride on his large tail.

  Vaeludar did take noticed of a few parents looking at him while he was talking and playing with the kids, including the parents of the four kids riding on his tail. He had to make sure the little toddlers riding on his tail didn’t fall from their fun ride.

  About ten minutes of having some fun telling the Minotaur story and the four toddlers riding his tail, several parents called to their kids, telling them it was time to leave. Vaeludar remained silent for the young crowd to disperse from him, while smiling happily as the children around him waved goodbye.

  However, the kids on his tail weren’t leaving, so he angled his tail to a position where they could slide off without getting a scratch. After he safely let the four toddlers off his tail, Vaeludar took to the sky again.

  This time he flew to the wheat field, where there was a lot of damage taken from his battle. He sternly looked at the wheat fields, which had the plants that could be made into bread, had been laid to waste. It was the cost of battle, there would be great damages done and casualties. Luckily his had only cost them the fields and one broken house and he was very glad no humans had been harmed during his battle.

  The Griffins had helped in restoring the crops that were destroyed but with little progress. The season of autumn had bloomed and the plants were starting to wither and go into their winter hibernation.

  Even through heavy damage was taken in the wheat fields, the peasants were still cropping what was left of the plants and turning them into wheat powder. Vaeludar had heard that there would be enough wheat flowers to last through the winter.

  It was regrettable for Vaeludar to have been battling in the wheat fields where it was the main food source for bread, but the plants could always regrow. He wanted to help in seeding wheat plants, but he felt the peasants may not want a fighter such as Vaeludar helping them do their jobs; he was now mainly known as a fighter and not a farmer.

  Besides, he saw the Griffins helping the peasants cropping and planting, so there was no need for him to work alongside those hard working Griffins and humans. Vaeludar turned to go to the southern part of the village.

  Above, he was flying and seeing all the humans doing their duties, seemingly having forgotten about the deadly battle everyone was terrified of being in.

  At the southern borders of Geraldus village, Vaeludar spotted Alaric dismounting from a horse, with a pair of guards helping him. Even though Alaric seemed fine, he had been a bit wobbly after a charging engagement with the Minotaur on horseback.

  Vaeludar was thankful for the Unicorns for using their healing magic. When Vaeludar saw Alaric dismounting from his horse, Alaric went straight to Geraldus house, limping along the way.

  Vaeludar sighed at Alaric not being fully healed. Vaeludar also wanted to heal Alaric, but Vaeludar knew Dragons do not have healing powers, and only Unicorns had the power to heal and Dragons never had the power to heal injured or wounded people.

  “Like to see how high you can go?” asked a looming, deep voice.

  The Dragon King, with an escort of six black Dragons, flew beside closely to Vaeludar. “Amazing, isn’t it? How a flyer could easily see how big the world really is and how small we creatures really are.”

  “And an easy way of transportation,” said Vaeludar. “I always find it easy to get out of crowded areas. What is the King of Dragons doing on this part of the island?”

  “I wanted to see how you are doing,” said the Dragon King. “Most young people of your age would be very reluctant to have made their first kill. And many would have been traumatized. However, you seem calm and relaxed about it. Humans would have been in great shock when they took the life of a creature.”

  “Well, I’m not full human, and I am half dragon. Half of my brain had been resistant to the feeling of dread. Yet I do feel some small amount of regret at taking a life, even if it was a monster trying to kill a small boy.”

  “It sounds like you have mixed emotions. Dragons don’t suffer trauma when they have made their first kill. But you seem to be doing fine and don’t regret killing the Minotaur. This must mean your human mind was feeling that shock, but your dragon mind wasn’t suffering.”

  Vaeludar gave a small grunt. “I may have a spilt personality: one being human and the other a Dragon. I wonder what Ralenskrit did in his lifetime. I wonder whether I was hatched from an egg or if the woman, Belverda, had to work very hard in labor.”

  The Dragon King snorted when he heard mention of the hybrid’s parents. From the Dragon King’s snort meant Vaeludar’s parents had a bad reputation among the Dragons.

  “I never knew Ralenskrit may have had such a bad reputation in the dragon world.”

  “That dragon and his human partner aren’t highly regarded in any society,” said the Dragon King. “In fact they were rarely seen by the outside world, no one knows what their ideas were or what they tried to do. There are unnatural rumors floating about them experimenting on some unnatural things.”

  “Unnatural? How unnatural are we talking?” asked Vaeludar.

  The Dragon King paused, reluctant to answer, “Trust me on this: you don’t want to know how unnatural that strange couple of scientists were and what rumors I’ve heard about. What you would hear would really disturb you”

  “If you say so,” said Vaeludar.

  “Excuse me then,” said the Dragon King. “I’ll take my leave.” The Dragon King flew away from the hybrid, with his escort of dragon bodyguards following after him.

  Vaeludar watched the legion of Dragons flying off into the southern horizon. Seeing the Dragons flying in the distant horizon made Vaeludar wonder how far he could fly, straight toward the sun. He wondered how far he could fly up high.

  It was close to noon and the bright sun lit the lands of Shimabellia. However, he ended up choosing to fly to the sun a different time. It was noon and it was lunchtime for him even though he wasn’t feeling hungry at all.

  Yet he never felt hungry in his life. For some strange reason, Vaeludar couldn’t properly eat a full meal. His stomach just couldn’t digest it. One time when he was eight years old, he ate a full human course lunch, only for him to throw it all up.

  Vaeludar had a theory he couldn’t disgust large amounts of food, so he kept to eating small foods. This had to be a symptom of being a hybrid as Dragons had a diet restricted to meats and humans were omnivores eating both meat and vegetables.

  Vaeludar guessed his bodily diet had to be restricted to a limited diet from both species, yet he didn’t know what his parents’ diets were. Since he only heard stories and superstition about them, he didn’t know their personal lives or their eating habits.

  Vaeludar had a chance to speak to the Dragon King, to get a better insight of his parents’ personal lives. Vaeludar would have had his chance to know his father better, and Vaeludar had been told that a king would know his subjects very well.

  For his mother Belverda, Vaeludar had been told she was a childhood friend of Geraldus. Both played, and grew up together. Geraldus told Vaeludar that Belverda was with Geraldus in their childhood years, unt
il she started seeing less of him in their teenage years.

  Belverda came to the attention of the dragon Ralenskrit and trailed behind the Dragon for some long decades. She spent more time with the Dragon than she did with Geraldus in their lifespan. Belverda went into science experimentation, though Geraldus did not know what experiments Belverda and Ralenskrit were conducting and they hid themselves well from the gazes of flying creatures and humans. They were last seen when they came to Geraldus’s house, with Belverda carrying a baby hybrid in her arms.

  Under a starless, moonless night, Geraldus mentioned Belverda leaving the baby hybrid in his care and then disappearing into the night, with the dragon beside her. The two scientists have not been seen since then.

  When he touched down at Geraldus front door, Vaeludar rushed inside and went into the kitchen. Surprisingly, he saw Flavius sitting on the far end of the table.

  “Ah, the Minotaur slayer!” said Flavius. “Hungry? Here.” Flavius tossed a large, red-raw chicken leg to Vaeludar.

  Vaeludar caught the flying leg in one hand. He looked at the raw chicken leg, seeing how it was not cooked. Vaeludar looked closely at Flavius’s plate of food, the meats on his plate were well cooked and roasted, but the chicken leg Flavius tossed to Vaeludar was not cooked.

  “A raw chicken leg?” said Vaeludar. “Not even cooked?”

  “The fireplaces are all taken, so there are no open places to cook raw meat,” said Flavius.

  “Ever heard of food being boiled in oil? You could have marinated the chicken in a small cauldron boiling over a small fire pit. There are a dozen fire pits built outside and you couldn’t even do that.”

  “You’re half dragon after all. Can’t you use your dragon fire to roast the chicken leg? Dragon fire does make good roasts.”

  Vaeludar stood silent. He always forgets dragon fire had always been useful for cooking raw meats and not just laying castles to waste. “I’m half dragon. I do like my meat nicely, lightly roasted over dragon fire, which gives the meat some descent flavor compared to manmade fire. I really have to remember to use my dragon fire for raw meats.”