by Ryan Johnson
“Giving you to the Griffin that will give you a free ride so you won’t have to walk onwards,” answered Vaeludar.
The hybrid proceeded to carry the Siren over to the Griffin ready to fly off. After Vaeludar had carried Marina to the Griffin, he turned to see Flavius. “Flavius, can you walk…” He spoke too soon; he saw Flavius weakly walking to the Griffin and hopped on right behind Marina.
“I am not as weak as you think I am or are you paying more attention to a girl needing some male attention?” asked Flavius.
“Don’t patronize me,” said Marina.
“Just stay quiet, everyone. I want to get going before this fog rolls in on top of us. And I don’t want to find out what may linger in this fog. Even if I have some dragon traits within these hybrid eyes of mine, I won’t be able to see well in fogs. And I don’t want to take the risk of fighting fifty Minotaurs or a hundred Manticores. I know my limitations, and I don’t have the power to withstand an army myself. I want this group to get going now. Move out! Or stay behind! I’m not waiting!”
Vaeludar was the first to move out and he was the first to show the people the power not of magic but authority with a strong voice. His voice sounded so deep it made the others look at him in confusion.
After he placed a short distance from the group, the others stopped their time of short breathing and caught up to the fast-paced hybrid. He sounded so stern and serious he would make the king look like a child trying to play house.
Seconds after Vaeludar stormed off, Flarefur followed closely behind him. Galvin dropped what packed bags he could carry, heaved those over his shoulders, and dashed after the walking Griffin. Wonomi and Monico stared at each other’s eyes of what they were ordered to do by a single specimen born of a human and a dragon.
From their perspective, the king wasn’t always stern and rude like this hybrid was. Both of them gathered the few remaining bags and followed after the hybrid, staying behind the others and whispering to each other.
Vaeludar, having great flickering ears that could hear noises a short distance away, heard the twin sprinters talk about him.
“I’d never thought he would have such a rude awakening,” said Wonomi.
“You’re telling me,” said Monico. “My drill sergeant wasn’t always so picky and snappy about moving out in the morning. I wonder where he gets these personality traits.”
“If you remember the king saying, Monico, he is an offspring of a Dragon and human scientist. I really don’t get it. A human is considered to be an ant to a Dragon. And since his father is a Dragon, I don’t get how a Dragon could fit into a human bedroom. Dragons are too big.”
“By any method, Wonomi, they managed to create a little kid. I for sure don’t want to know how they did it, and I’m sure you don’t want to either.”
“That’s right,” agreed Monico.
After hearing a little about himself, Vaeludar ceased his hearing from the twin sprinters and drew his eyes to Marina who seemed annoyed and shown a hint of jealousy when she was riding with Flavius. His didn’t hear anything coming from them as they both decided to stay quiet. Then he looked to Galvin, who seemed to be muttering to himself.
Regardless of what they thought of him, Vaeludar didn’t care. He wanted to get moving as swiftly as possible. He had the strength to withstand a single Minotaur, an army of Hobgoblins, a close encounter of Black Dogs, and a sword fight with a Shadow King, but he had a bare minimum strength that he couldn’t take on an entire army of Hobgoblins. He could be pinned down but his skin could protect his insides because his skin was like steel armor; nothing could penetrate it.
Vaeludar was going to ignore everything they had to say about him. If they were planning on overthrowing him, then he would have a problem with them. As long they obeyed his command, he would have no thought of what their opinions about him would be.
So, he led the group onwards through the mountaintops and across the mountain ranges. Vaeludar saw they were losing daylight fast and they had little time before the remaining light went completely dark. Over the horizon, he saw a large grey mist slowly coming their way. It was moving slowly against the wind blowing in that direction, and they had been walking for quite a while. The sky was turning black and no stars or moon would shine at night.
They traveled through the mountain tops and on several mountainsides nonstop without taking a single rest. Vaeludar could feel his legs weighing down upon him, but he would not falter to the failing strength of his legs. During the two hours, he kept looking behind him and saw the griffin walking well and the humans barely keeping up. Their time in the king’s army made them keep up with the Griffin and the hybrid, just barely.
Vaeludar had now wondered if they were ever going to make it to the village. The fog was coming in, the sun was setting with little lighting that was left, and the darkness of the night was coming.
This place was further than I thought or was it that the griffin’s brain was as small as a raisin, thought Vaeludar.
“There is the village,” said Flarefur. The griffin was flying overhead and ahead of the leading hybrid. The griffin then landed ahead of them all.
I spoke too soon, didn’t I? I just had to complain about such things.
Vaeludar looked ahead of the Griffin flying ahead of them. Jealous by the Griffin’s flight, Vaeludar flapped his wings in hoping he could fly like the griffin. For some reason, he wasn’t feeling the need to fly and his wings weren’t answering his call of flight. He just wasn’t flying at all and he wondered how the Griffin could fly yet he couldn’t.
Furthermore, Vaeludar saw many ruined bricked buildings. His eyes saw a few two-story buildings built of bricks. Stones of a long pathway stretched out a quarter of a mile long. Centered along the pathway, there were stones built in many squares. Many squares stretched as wide as a peasant’s house in Geraldus’s village.
Many stone squares rose from the ground by two feet and next to one square would be another. Many of these open squares were separated by rows and lines of stones and bricks like bedrooms that lost their walls and roofs and only leaving the inside room exposed to the sunlight.
Vaeludar and his group walked closer to the village of ruins, which only had three standing buildings and everything else was torn down and leaving square-shaped ruined walls. Of their two hours of hard travel, they made it to the village and they made it just in time too. The great fog the griffin mentioned was coming their way; the direction they were traveling in.
“Everyone, make it to the closet standing building,” ordered Vaeludar.
Vaeludar was the first to run. The hybrid dragged his feet like a running wolf to the nearest house. He saw the house was more of a stone hut built in the shape of a trapezoid. There was a five foot open doorway leading into the building. He entered and looked inside: it was dark. The hybrid spat out a fire and the fire glowed bright to view what was inside.
There was a ceiling directly two feet above his head. He saw in the center of the room a ladder going into a hole, leading to the second level of the stone hut. Four holes were plastered in the walls, which meant those were once windows.
There was a wide open space and it was one room with no other walls or doors. For the people that may once live in the village had no complete privacy unless each building was built two people each: one level for each person living in each hut. That way one person lived in the upper level and the other lived in the ground level.
However, the hut would see fit. Vaeludar couldn’t see anyone or pick up the scent of any humans nearby. He was truly alone in the hut until when the others came in behind him.
The first to enter was the Griffin and the passengers it was carrying. After Flarefur made it in, Marina immediately got off the Griffin and Flavius was the second. Galvin was the next to have entered, with the twin sprinters being the last.
Vaeludar spat several more fireballs from his mouth and made the room glow brighter. Light was shoving darkness o
ut the door and making the guests feel more welcome.
“Suppose someone lived here once and left it all behind?” said Flavius.
“My eagle eyes haven’t picked up any activities when I found this place,” said the Griffin. “And judging by these works, I’d say this village had been abandoned for some long centuries. If it had been a thousand years, the few standing buildings would have collapsed already. So I would say no one lived here for about five hundred years.”
“I wonder what happened them?” asked Wonomi.
Suddenly there was an echoing sound outside. The howl of a crying wolf echoed outside the building. It sounded so soft and close that everyone felt a cold chill running down their backs.
“I think we know now: wolves,” said Vaeludar.
The hybrid walked over to the door and saw the fog rolling in, covering the hut and now the ruined village. With his best eyesight, Vaeludar couldn’t see what lingered within the fog, but the fog couldn’t block any scent from him and the air was clear. After sniffing the air for danger, he turned to see Flarefur.
“Flarefur, there is something I need to ask of you,” stated Vaeludar.
“What is it?”
“I wonder: how is it you can fly while I can’t? That is something I don’t get.”
“That’s because you don’t have feathers. We Griffins can be easily picked up wherever there is wind. Our feathers guzzled up what wind is gushing by and let the winds carry us up like in the calm of a hand. This is how any beast with feathered-wings can fly in any windy conditions including the wraths of a tornado and a hurricane.”
“Sounds so useful it makes me wish I had feathered wings.”
“Be careful what kind of wings you wish for, Vaeludar,” warned Flarefur.
“Why’s that?” asked Vaeludar.
“Imagine yourself in the form of a dog with all that fur and some invited guests eating away beneath all the fur: fleas. I get those too when I’m not flying. You’ll be itching all day every day. Even the Pegasi could itch themselves to death if they don’t constantly fly once every few minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll take that as a heath issue. Thank you for notifying me on that. Why doesn’t someone climb the ladder and see what is upstairs.”
“I’ll go,” said Marina. The Siren pulled out her bow and held out an arrow in the hand holding the bow. Marina walked over to the ladder and climbed it, peaking her head through the dark hole. Vaeludar walked behind her and spat a fireball to the hole in the ceiling, making light on the second floor.
“Anything?” asked Vaeludar.
“There’s nothing. Looks more like an attic. I only see one small window without any glass on a wall.” Marina climbed down the ladder and back on the ground.
Vaeludar looked up where he spat the upstairs fire and blew out a hard wind, putting out the fire from afar.
“Now that we have somewhere to camp we can… wait!” Vaeludar smelled the scent of an unfamiliar odor he was picking up. It wasn’t human and he certainly knew it wasn’t food being cooked or glazed with light honey nearby; this was the scent of a creature.
“What? What is it?” asked Flavius.
“I smell a creature,” answered Vaeludar.
“I would agree with you, too,” said Flarefur.
“Why’s that?”
“That stench is all too familiar with the Griffins: Hobgoblins!”
Everyone gasped. Hobgoblins were trailing nearby. This must mean they must have been running nonstop through the night they were asleep.
Vaeludar sniffed again to get more of the air into his nose and see how many let alone how far the small creatures could be. From what he was getting, there was a small pack of a few hundred and they were getting closer. He looked to the group, which was definitely not an army. A few soldiers and a griffin scout. There was no way for all of them to get out of there alive expect Vaeludar who was the only one with armored-skin.
“Everyone, get to the second level of the hut now! With this one door and many windows on the walls, they could surround this building and swarm in like a swarm of bees.”
Flavius nodded first and climbed up the latter. Galvin followed after Flavius but Flarefur, Marina, Wonomi, and Monico stayed behind.
“What are you people doing? Get up there now!”
“Why should we? Planning on taking on those creatures yourself and get the glory? I don’t think so. So we are going to join you and—”
Suddenly there were soft scratching noises outside, very close by. Everyone stayed silent and Vaeludar slowly climbed down and walked over to the door as he stopped his breathing. Through the fog, there were many yellow lights glowing. He quickly and softly flapped his wings and blew out the dragon fire and everything went dark.
Vaeludar had his hybrid eyes, which allowed him to see in the dark. He could see in the dark and he saw heat signatures of the bodies around him like having a lizard’s eye. He saw the Griffin hurdling against Wonomi and Monico who had their swords drawn. Marina ran and knelt beside a wall with an arrow drawn to her bow.
Monico was the only person to have walked up to the second floor in the dark and everyone (including the Griffin) stayed on the ground floor.
The group stayed silent; the pack of Hobgoblins was outside their door and they were heavily armed with weapons. Vaeludar drew out the blue sword, ready to fight.
But he knew he didn’t like the odds: he was in command of less than a dozen people, himself included. They were going to go against a big horde of warlike creatures. The chances of them winning were going to be slim.
The many glowing yellow lights, which Vaeludar knew would be eyes of the Hobgoblins, were inching closer and closer to the building they were in. Then the eyes moved away and dozens more came into view. There were sounds of grunts and groans and hissing.
Vaeludar gave a small sigh of nervousness and readied the sword, prepared to fight and kill.
Suddenly, there was another wolf howl and it echoed louder than before. Vaeludar heard more noises and the glowing eyes faded into the fog. Then everything was silent for a few minutes. Even as ten minutes went by, there were still no sound or glowing yellow eyes: darkness only.
Not wanting to wait any longer, Vaeludar charged out and rolled from the entrance and stood out in the wide open. “Come at me. The Minotaurslayer is here and he wasn’t afraid to fight!” He voice shouted loudly to beat the wolf’s howling.
He was in the fog but he didn’t see any glowing eyes around him. He tried to smell the creatures but the air was clear like wind gushing through an open valley with roses and blossoms.
“Wait, Vaeludar!” shouted Marina’s voice.
“Stay inside, Marina. Too dangerous.”
“That won’t be necessary,” shouted Flarefur, “I do smell no scent of those creatures in sight. The Hobgoblins have been driven away it seems. I think by the howl.”
Vaeludar ran back in and spat a single fireball in the room’s center. Light filled the darkness again and no one had to worry about any monsters in the dark.
“We’ll camp here tonight,” said Vaeludar who flopped to the ground. “I might as well put out this fire, and we all sleep up top. We’re too exposed down here: one door and many open windows. Too risky. We stay on the second floor.”
Everyone and Flarefur made their way to the second floor. Vaeludar put out the fire and set another one in the second level. During a short time, everyone was sitting close to Vaeludar’s fire.
Vaeludar himself sat away from the group, against a wall. Then he turned his head away and laid his head on the hard wall as he heard Marina singing the same song he had heard the other day:
Oh, try to come to find us in these mountains
For we are high in the sky;
And there are no nearby fountains
For we are safe from any that can walk or fly
After hearing Marina’s little siren song, Vaeludar couldn’t bring himself to sleep
because of Marina’s soft voice. He could just listen to her sing all night long and not take a single wink. She sounded so much like an angel he could fly up to the gods, taking her with him and asking them to bless him with the greatest purity they could give.
Vaeludar shook the thought away, knowing the gods can’t be reached in his mortal body. He knows only the Sprits of the Dead could see the gods. He knows each body had its own Spirit (or ghost) that was the spiritual aura and was only released from the body when it dies. After the body dies, the Spirit then goes to the Three Gods themselves.
Vaeludar had always debated if he ever had one: Geraldus told him humans had one and Dragons also had their own. But Vaeludar wondered if he had one and he always thought about that one hero he thought himself as: Valverno. His name was nearly the same as the hero said to be a Demigod, a half mortal half god creature.
He always could compare himself to the legendary Demigod: they both were half of two separate things and had two different parents. Vaeludar was thinking maybe he was maybe the Valverno, but how could he be? If Valverno did ever live, it would have been tens of thousands of years before Vaeludar ever lived because Vaeludar was seventeen. There was no way he could be a legendary hero from ancient stories every child on Shimabellia had heard of.
“Thinking of something?” asked Marina. The Siren came walking to Vaeludar seating near the wall.
Vaeludar was so much in his deep thought he didn’t pay attention to Marina he thought was creeping up behind him. He saw her standing over him and he proceeded to sit up. “Marina, weren’t you singing?” he asked, avoiding Marina’s question.
“I finished about five minutes ago.” Marina then sat down next to Vaeludar. And you haven’t answered my question: are you thinking of something?”
“I guess there’s no hiding my thoughts from you,” said Vaeludar. “Remember of the stories you may have heard of the one Demigod?”
“Valverno? Yes, I know those stories when I being raised by my mother before she died and I heard more stories when I was being raised by the king.”
