Dawn of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  Naìra was blown down but not rolling down the hill.

  The strong wind blew back the witches toward the trench, but the Piper skillfully moved dodged Vaeludar’s blowing wind. He threw down one shortsword and ran towards a fallen Naìra who seemed to be moving.

  “Naìra, run!” shouted Vaeludar.

  Naìra shook her head and blinked a few times. She saw the Piper running and jumping up, but it was too late. The Piper grabbed her and carried her down the hill, running very close to the edges of the trench.

  Naìra screamed franticly as she was being carried by her captor.

  “NO!” yelled Flavius. Flavius was still on the ground and couldn’t be able to move. Marina had her hands on him, but the healing process and moving a very slowly.

  Anger began to swell within Vaeludar’s eyes and heart. His blood began to boil like steaming water. His claws, spikes, and horns sprouted two inches longer. Two small fins popped out of his back, upper arms and connected with his wings on his shoulder pads.

  Vaeludar flew forward at a tremendous speed, faster than the Piper’s eyes can move. Vaeludar stopped inches away and punch the Piper’s face with a bare fist. Vaeludar punched his enemy go hard it made the Piper fly in the air.

  However, instead of letting go of Naìra, the Piper flung her down in the trench and drowning in the rushing river.

  Without a second thought, Vaeludar air dived into the river. He saw Naìra staying underwater by the river’s speeding current, unable to swim to the surface for air.

  But Vaeludar had no experience swimming in a fast river. The river’s current was drowning him. Vaeludar was spinning around and around; his vision was going so fast he couldn’t see where the surface was.

  His eyes would see rocks for a brief second before being pounded by the water again. He felt the rush of the river pounding him like a thousand elephant pounding on him. His lungs were barely holding it like a regular human. He needed to regain control or breathe air or he was done for, but with his dragon wings somehow not connected to his mind underwater, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  He could only spot Naìra when he was swimming right only to be blown out of the way by a strong wave. He swirled his hands to rise up to the surface but ending up rolled and swirled himself. To and fro, the river’s current was too strong for Vaeludar that was spinning his vision from recusing his foster sister. He moved his eyes and too late saw his face being smashed into a rock.

  Then a strange feeling stuck him if something came alive in him. Vaeludar waved out his arms and his body stopped. His body wasn’t moving with the river flowing current. He was breathing in the water itself. He now was feeling like a fish.

  Suddenly, he saw in the deepness Naìra being flooded down further away. With him in control if he was defying nature swam like a human and his wings flapping like flying in the air.

  At a slow but steady speed, Vaeludar grabbed Naìra and held her closely in his arms if sprung out of the rushing river. Up in the air, he went flying before settling down on a rock.

  Vaeludar looked down at the river and saw river gushes pouring over rock cliffs and rocky gushes. Sounds of a soft flowing river were in his ears.

  Then Vaeludar placed Naìra on the ground. He placed his ear on her chest to hear a faint heartbeat, but she wasn’t breathing. Water was inside her throat and blocking her ability to breath. Without breathing air, Naìra was choking from within.

  “You’re not going to out on me like this, Naìra,” he whispered. Vaeludar used the palm of his right hand and light pressed against Naìra’s chest.

  Suddenly, Naìra opened her eyes. She spat out water from her mouth and ended up coughing as the result. She was breathing again and Vaeludar was relieved to see Naìra breathing instead of choking on water.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” he said. He began to hug her tight in relieve. “Well, I once again saved you from a piper and three ugly witches.”

  “Vael… Vaeludar?” she whispered, faintly.

  Vaeludar moved her head back to show him his face. “Yes, I’m here.”

  “Vaeludar!” she cried. She began to cry and hugged him tighter than he did her. Tears swelled in her eyes. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  “Yes, I am here. I am here. No one is ever going to take you while I am here. For as long as I live, I promise you, as a brother to you, I will stay close to you. If someone wants you, they’ll have to go through me first.”

  Again, he picked her up with his two arms and placed his wings around her to keep her warm and dry off her wet dress.

  “Well, so much how this of a family reunion had turned out to be,” said Vaeludar. “I’d never expected to find you up here, in the Northern Region. How did you end up with those odd… strangers?"

  Naìra looked blankly at Vaeludar’s eyes. “I… can’t remember,” she said. “At first, I was walking around with Andre and then… I suddenly fell asleep. I… I can’t remember anything.”

  “That’s all right then. Try not to think of what had happened. Right now, I have traveled with your older brother, Flavius, and he should be somewhere behind us. If we walk the opposite direction the river is running from, we would be able to find your brother, a few men, a Griffin, and a Siren.”

  “Vaeludar!” cried out Marina’s voice.

  “Speak by the fish,” said Vaeludar.

  He turned and saw a canoe drifting up to him. In the canoe, he saw his companions looking at him. He looked at how they managed to find a canoe without him being with them to find it.

  “How did they find that thing?” he asked. But what would it matter to him at the current point? He was relieved to have a good transportation to transport them on their journey to the north. He held Naìra close to his body, and jumped to the floating canoe.

  Magically, the canoe moved on so they would continue with their quest.

  INTO THE SWAMPS

  E

  veryone was on the boat after their brief fight the witches and the Fluting Piper. Flavius, Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, Flarefur, and Marina all found the boat the White Knight of Trust had mentioned, and managed to escape.

  They told Vaeludar they found it when he went underwater to save Naìra. They also told him they had a close encounter with Hobgoblins. They found the boat before there was a fight with the Hobgoblins and the witches with their servant: the Fluting Piper. Marina herself grabbed the sword Vaeludar had dropped when he went to go save Naìra from drowning.

  Vaeludar was relieved to see his comrades and foster sister safe, at least the time being. He had no knowing of when the next danger they may come across.

  Long hours have passed after the group had found the boat they came across. The boat slowly moved away from the mountain ranges and into an endless view of a fog, killing their vison of looking ahead.

  Naìra was asleep at the back of the boat snuggled up if she was on a bed at home. Flavius sat next to her. Wonomi and Monico kept to the sides of the boat. Galvin was at the front of the boat. Flarefur sat in the middle of the boat. Marina had gone swimming ahead and scout where the boat would be heading. Before she left, Marina left her quiver of arrows and bow with Wonomi.

  Vaeludar sat himself at the back near Flavius and a sleeping Naìra who appears to have easily forgetting the kidnapping.

  “She’s fast asleep,” said Flavius.

  “The question is: how did they get her and come this far north this fast?” stated Vaeludar. “We traveled in the mountains by foot and with flight power. It would have taken them weeks to walk towards the mountain border. How did the witches and the Piper kidnap Naìra?”

  “Who are these witches and this piper we’ve met?” asked Galvin. “What is with you have something personal with them?”

  Vaeludar turned and sternly said, “The witches and the Fluting Piper from today were people Flavius and I met four years ago. They tried to take his twin sisters and other little girls. They are witches who drain girls of their youths to make thems
elves younger. Naìra here almost became one of those little girls who have lost their youths. And the piper is called the Fluting Piper.”

  “The Fluting Piper?” grunted Galvin. “I’d never heard of him, and there are three ugly women who are witches. I don’t anything about them.”

  “That isn’t surprising,” said Vaeludar. “It seems these witches show up out of nowhere and end up kidnapping girls. The village I was raised in was would have been one. They tried to kidnap all the little girls by hypnotizing them by the sounds of their music.

  “But I happened to be there and the witches retreated when I harmed their Fluting Piper. I scarred him before he retreated into the Greenwood Forest. They never appeared since.”

  Now Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, and Flarefur understood why their hybrid leader had something personal to do with the witches and the Fluting Piper: the people who tried kidnap Naìra and Andrei, but Vaeludar was there to save them from the witches.

  “And back then, I was reluctant to kill; I was hesitant to kill them. So I scared them instead of killing them. Now I regret that decision of letting them go. The next time I see them, they’re going to be in unmarked graves,” finished Vaeludar, with great anger.

  “You managed to kill men when you saved Marina,” said Flavius. “Why couldn’t you kill the old women and the old fluting men?”

  “I don’t know,” answered Vaeludar. “I just reacted so quickly. But the answer is oblivious: my dragon persona. My dragon persona must have taken over and felt the need to kill the people to save the Siren from dying. But whatever. Let’s stay to the focus at hand.”

  With that said, Vaeludar kept his eye on the fog and ready for anything that could attack them at any time.

  Vaeludar could feel the morning turning into midday. Then the fog started to fade and the group could see more of green plants and a large body of water and murky trees rising from the water: they were entering into a large terrain of swamps and marshes. The boat shifted itself from the north to the northwest.

  Vaeludar could see the boat had come across a vast body of a large and wide large and he couldn’t tell how far the lake reached.

  The lake was wide and flat. Vulgar moss and dried leaves covered the water’s surface. The water was moldy brown no one could see one inch deep from the surface. Thin clouds evaporated from the water. A foul stench swelled the air as the boat descended into a dreadful swamp.

  There were sounds of monkeys and birds that sounded like no other. Branches of trees wisped a sound of a crack when an unseen monkey jumped. Trees grow up the deep waters of these unknown swamps. Every hour, a monkey or a bird echoed an alarming sound from the leafy bushes that grew from the waters.

  About three hours after midday, Marina returned with some fish with colored fins. She come up short handed with a handful of fish but still managed to gather seafood from underwater.

  “Here’s some seafood we have for an empty bag,” said Marina, dropping the dead fish. “Since we are running out of meat, I thought having some seafood would be a perfect replacement for the meat. But I fear these may last a day at the most.”

  “Thank you, Marina,” said Vaeludar. “Go out and find more if you can.”

  “Fish is to scarce in this scary water,” stated Marina. “Worst of all, the waters the boat is on is not fresh water; it’s toxic water. These waters have been poisoned by something but I don’t know the source of it. If poison wasn’t running here, then we could be fishing for more fish.”

  “Then something is at work in these northern lands,” said Vaeludar. “Well, continue again come back when it gets dark. But if you sense any danger, leave immediately and come back, even if you are close to a fish. Leave and come back.”

  She nodded and dived back into the water, disappearing into the brown deepness.

  “How do Sirens give birth if there are no males?” asked Wonomi.

  “Sirens are like some frogs, their reproduction systems can change from female to male, although their appearances don’t change. I learned that from Marina when I first rescued her five years ago. But be careful, Wonomi. Don’t any questions too personal about her. The wrong question would be very severe.”

  Wonomi gulped.

  “Sirens may be a sweet-hearted species,” continued Vaeludar. “But not respecting anything their personal habits could have deathly consequences. Sirens are the most sensitive species when it comes to personal talks and personalities. They’re rough to go around. She told me these things sometime after I rescued her and before she left to go live with King Uragiru.”

  Then Vaeludar went silent and the boat sailed went on

  The hours turned the day into dusk and the dusk into night. Stars dim as a firefly brighten the night sky. The moon was crescent, a small light glimmered the surrounding swamps. Trees were shown but weakly. There were mixtures of different sounds of birds, monkeys, slithering snakes, and other loud animals echoing in the trees.

  Wonomi, Monico, and Galvin went to sleep. Flarefur still sat in the center of the boat without a care in the world. Flavius went to sleep next to Naìra. Vaeludar stood a foot away from his foster brother and sister.

  For the rest of the day, he began to wonder where Marina was. He told her to be back at night. She was gone for a long time and there wasn’t a dripping sound that would have been a sign of her being close by.

  “Vaeludar?” whispered a girl’s voice.

  Vaeludar turned and lifted his hand. A small fire ignited on his hand and brightened the darkness. He eyes gazed where he heard the girl’s voice, and he hoped it was Marina.

  The fire showed Naìra standing close.

  “Naìra? What are you doing staying away this time of night?” asked Vaeludar.

  Naìra dashed and hugged her foster hybrid brother.

  “Why do I bother to ask? If you want to sleep beside me, it is fine. Just hope Flavius doesn’t get mad when he sees his little sister sleeping close to the hybrid.”

  A splash was heard.

  Vaeludar quickly drew his sword out with the other hand not having a burning fire. He concealed Naìra behind him and aimed the light toward the boat’s edge.

  In the flashing light, Marina showed herself with another small bundle of fish: a small group of catfish. Vaeludar signed and placed the sword back and helped Marina climb back into the boat. The fire burning on his hand faded.

  Overjoyed by her return, Vaeludar welcome Marina back and had nothing else to worry about. There hadn’t been any danger since that morning. Now they would be able to continue on, which the boat did for when it was first found.

  After Marina’s return, the three sat down together. Naìra stated she wanted to know more about Marina and Sirens. So Vaeludar left Naìra in the care of Marina, not wanting to hear of what Marina was going to say he didn’t want to hear about.

  Vaeludar went to the head of the boat, to overlook potently dangers that may lie ahead of them.

  FOG OF HALLUCINATIONS

  V

  aeludar woke up by the scent of something rotting like a fruit drenched in mold. Before his eyes was a very, deep, strong fog; a fog that was obscuring the light of the sun. Now he has encountered another fog that killed his eye vision to see ahead. There was light but it was faint. It was like being out in the sea where there are the strongest fogs. Before his eyes, the fog brewed strong that he could not see through.

  The lake the boat was sailing on must have moved to a more dreadful place than the swamps. There was no knowing of what dangers could be lurking in such a frightful environment that could scare a snail right out of its shell.

  In a short time, the boat was slowing its sail on the water. Black trees that grew without leaves or branches were being shown as the boat neared one. A tree would appear and disappear as soon it was seen as the boat passed by.

  No sound of a howling monkey or the sighting of a flying bird made Vaeludar and the Siren are well aware they could be entering enemy territory. The
humans and the Griffin on the boat were sound asleep, leaving Vaeludar and Marina the only ones awake.

  Vaeludar grew suspicious if the boat was evilly enchanted. He grew more suspicious where the boat was actually taking them. He could feel coldness of bitter misery and sadness within in the fog. He could smell a fire roasting a foul, skunked, scent of a garbage-smelling corpse that be left to rot in the sun. Vaeludar couldn’t visually see with his hybrid eyes, but he could smell, and the air was too foul for him to breathe. He thought the air was toxic for a human to hallucinate.

  From the fog, there was a ruined building burnt to ruble. Only standing burnt sticks and a small trace of a big roof were the only remnants of the building.

  Other ruined buildings with were followed. The river flooded about the lower half of the buildings. It was a dreadful village the boat was sailing through. All the buildings of this once lively village now lay half buried in water.

  “We seem to be entering a flooded town,” whispered Marina’s voice, in a meek, soft tone.

  Vaeludar never thought he would her whispering in such a meek, soft voice. He’s very used to hearing the Siren’s fishy voice, he not used to a softer tone of her speaking. Her voice sounded clear like Eliana’s voice.

  “This village looks like used to, at one point, once prospered for several generations, until some kind of flood engulfed this entire village,” he said. “Water never rises this high unless if a dam was struck down or a very powerful hurricane. We are hundreds of miles from the beaches, and there aren’t any storms that can do this very far inland. I can’t think of any natural disaster that could have destroyed this village.”

  “And the poor people living here? I wonder if any of them had survived in this flooding.”

  “Whatever happened here, life is long gone from here, Marina. There is nothing we can do to bring life back here. Even it could be turned into a fishing village; this fog is just like any other fog in the south: not created by magic. And no one would want to live in an endless view of a large fog.