Dusk of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “And I haven’t spent the necessary time with Marina who has yet to give birth to our three children. I still have a mortal body that hasn’t died yet. If I enter the Realm of Paradise now, then I will end up regretting it and still feel empty inside. So, for the remainder of my time as a mortal, I need to spend my remaining time with Marina. Then, when I am ready, I’ll join up with the others. I finally fulfilled my destiny.”

  Celestreá la Mùne nodded her head in agreement. “We knew you would say that. Take the time you need, my son. Raise your kids to the greatest extent as I have raised you and your sister. And when your time is up, we will welcome you with open arms and you can continue to watch over your kids and your beloved wife from this Realm.”

  Valverno nodded his and turned to Marina. Marina suddenly wrapped his arms around Valverno’s neck, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, and both kissed in front of many cheering eyes.

  After a full minute of kissing, Valverno and Marina released their lips from each other and stared at each other in their eyes. “I love you, Marina.”

  “I love you, too, God Valverno.”

  Then they both kissed again, before heading down back to the Mortal Realm, with the other mortals heading down with them and saying farewell to their beloved ones. And they soon planned on something big: a coronation of a hybrid.

  A week had passed after the group returned to the Mortal Realm, and there was a large parade going on in the Pangaean city on Shimabellia. The Pangaean city was filled with humans from across Shimabellia and the Isla Maeli. There also was the full entire population of Pangaeans, which was up to seventy thousand in total; ten thousand Pangaeans were trained as warriors who fought in the final battle. They hid in another buried city beneath the settlement on Isla Maeli while a thousand lived on the surface to safeguard the many living in the ground.

  The city’s streets crowded with both Pangaeans and humans, and they filled the central part of the city. Many of the buildings were decorated with blue flowers and blue roses.

  A chariot was riding in the city’s streets carrying Valverno in his white-blue uniform with Marina in a blue-feathered dress, and the chariot was driven by a pair of Unicorns. They stood by each other while holding hands, and they waved at many people shouting and cheering for them.

  Behind them a garrison of human soldiers, Centaur archers, and Teutates on horseback rode with the greatest of valor. Behind him, a garrison of calvary strolled. Behind the calvary, soldiers marched on foot. And the soldiers all sang in unison:

  Behold! The final tale has been told:

  Light and Shadow has been balanced as was foretold

  The demigod has won, and the Shadow King is dead

  And a bright path ahead is what we will tread

  A great hope has been born

  And it will never be torn

  A bright future has been spun

  And a new tale has begun

  He’d never lost the will to fail

  For he’s a true demigod we hail

  He shall rule with a mighty hand

  Throughout in all the land

  Behold! The final tale has been told:

  Light and Shadow has been balanced as was foretold

  The demigod has won, for the Shadow King is dead

  And the path ahead is what we will tread

  Finally, the chariot stopped in front of the temple that Sora was once trapped in she was her crystal prison. Shapes of a staircase made of pure rock marble painted in pure white formed toward the chariot.

  Valverno and Marina got off the chariot and walked up the staircase where there stood two marble stones. Then they stopped with Sora and Flavius waiting for them atop.

  Arron, Nerio, Eliana, Naìra, and Andrei stood behind Flavius. Naìra and Andrei carried a thin crown of sapphire diamonds, and Arron and Nerio held onto a crown made of ruby embers.

  On the left side of the roof, Galvin and Stephanie stood still. Stephanie was wearing the dress of a highborn noble that had her entire wealth spent, and Galvin wore a large nobleman’s suit. They both stared with blank faces, not that Marina and Valverno didn’t mind.

  Valverno and Marina walked close to the two seats, showing those were meant as thrones. Before they seated on their thrones, they both knelt before the two twins. Arron and Nerio placed the red ruby crown on Valverno’s head, and Naìra and Andrei placed the sapphire crown on Marina’s head. Marina winked at the twin girls, and made them smile as they crowned their queen.

  Then Marina and Valverno stood back up and looked toward the crowd. Valverno stepped forward and spoke to the crowd. “Today begins a new day of a new Generation. Humans and Pangaeans and creatures can finally live together in these glorified days of peace. With a bright future ahead of us and no Demons or Devils to do us harm, let’s all live and grow together and may we share the future for every mortal to have.”

  There was a loud cry of cheers and applauding from the humans and Pangaeans alike. Then Valverno gave a loud roar in the air, which made the people cheer even louder.

  Valverno smiled and walked back to Marina, and both sat upon their seats and showing they were the rulers of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli, with the Pangaean city serving as the new capital of Shimabellia.

  And there, Marina and Valverno would rule as queen and king of the two islands and in a loveable manner with their three children yet to be born.

  EPILOGUE:

  DUSK OF THE HUMAN DRAGON HYBRID

  “Stay away!” shouted a girl’s voice. A girl of age ten was trapped behind a rock with a large Manticore coming her way. She had long brown, blue-striped hair. She wore a vivid blue dress to match her blue-striped hair. Her eyes were sparkling emerald and her skin was a light tan with a small hint of blue skin. “Stay away!” she warned the beast again.

  But the beast paid her no attention to the little girl’s warnings and readied its scorpion tail with a fast thrust.

  The little girl screamed as the tail being toward to sting her, but a light suddenly sparked in between the girl and the Manticore. The Manticore’s attack was hurled away in the presence of the light that dimmed to form a blue-winged figure standing with two glowing legs on a human torso wearing a blue-white uniform.

  “Father!” the girl screamed.

  “Leave my daughter now, Manticore!” growled the girl’s father.

  The Manticore only screeched out a single word: Valverno. The Manticore ignored the legendary Demigod Valverno’s warning and slashed its tail forward, but it suddenly was whipped with ease by Valverno’s tail of glowing crystal scales. The stinger at the end of the lion’s tail sprouted off and melted into the ground. The Manticore groaned loudly as its deadly stinger was snapped off, and it suddenly ran away from the Demigod that is more powerful than itself.

  Then Valverno turned to see his daughter with a disappointed look. “Athena, what were you doing out here? I told you not to come alone in the wild. There are going to be monsters and animals a lot stronger than you.”

  “But, Father, I was trying to get you and Mother something,” said Athena.

  “Really? What were you trying to get Mother and me?” asked Valverno, in a stern tone.

  Athena held out a blue rose from her hands to show to her father, and Valverno leaned to see the flower at a closer look. His disappointed look changed into a happy expression.

  “You came all the way out here to find a rare blue rose?”

  “Yes. Mommy always liked the color blue. I wanted to surprise you and her with a little flower. But I didn’t know there was a monster out here.”

  “Which is why you need to obey us or let one of us know. The world is going to be full of monsters. And if you go alone without, you will become a prey of a predator and then it will all be over. You don’t want Mother to be left alone, do you?”

  “No,” answered Athena, softly.<
br />
  “Then don’t you ever go out here alone! You maybe my daughter, and you have talent in magic. However, you are not a demigod yet. That power will bloom, once you are ready for it. Promise me you won’t go on your own again!”

  “I promise, Father!”

  Valverno nodded his head. “Alright, let’s go home before Mother finds out that your—”

  “ATHENA!” cried a woman’s voice. Marina came running over from a wall and saw Valverno with Athena. The Siren came running to Athena and hugged her tightly. “Oh, thank the Demigod you’re alright!” After a tight squeeze, Marina looked at her daughter’s apologetic eyes. “What are you doing out here, dear?”

  Athena was silent. She only held up the blue rose she held in her hands, which caught the eyes of her mother and made the Siren smile to see a blue rose in the hands of her daughter.

  “I wanted to surprise you and Daddy, but a monster found me.”

  “I already talked to her about this matter, and it just seems she has experienced reality at such a young age. And it will be a learning lesson for her to remember, isn’t that right, Athena?” Valverno crossed his arms and folded his glamorous wings.

  Athena nodded her nod to show it was a “yes” she was committing to.

  “Thank goodness then,” Marina sighed.

  “Let’s head back home and place this blue rose by a windowsill,” said Valverno, grabbing hands of his wife and daughter. “I’m sure your brothers would like to see it as well.”

  They happily gripped his hands tight, and they all strolled back to the Pangaean city.

  Ten years had passed since Valverno and Marina began the rulers of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli. One month after, Marin gave birth to triplets: a daughter and two sons. The first born was a boy named Talos, the second born was a girl named Athena, and the third born was the second boy named Midas. And for ten years, Marina and Valverno raised their kids with the greatest love and sense of passion for their kids.

  Their triplets took the form of pure humans than Pangaeans; they didn’t have any genetic structures of a Dragon, a Siren, or a Pangaean like their parents. As human they turned out to be, Valverno and Marina were happy with the three infants they had in their arms.

  And for ten years, they had become wonderful children to play and raise, and they were completely obedient to their parents.

  After a time of five years after Valverno and Marina were crowned, they forfeited their titles and gave Teutates leadership of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli. Instead of ruling on Shimabellia, he decided to make the Seaport City the capital city and rule there; he had grown used to the city since it was where he was raised along with all his ancestors.

  And for the next five years, Valverno and Marina lived in the little house he and Sora grew up in. For Valverno, he didn’t see it has small anymore. He upgraded the house with two more floors above the ground floor.

  The first floor was filled with toys and three bedrooms. And the second level had a bathing room for the girls and boys. The house had indeed grown bigger and better, and Valverno himself sought to make his childhood Pangaean home bigger and better.

  Talos and Midas have grown to be scholars and expert fighters with a sword like their father, and Athena showed great skill in archery like her mother. Athena inherited her father’s eyes and mother’s face, and Talos and Midas inherited their father’s face and their mother’s eyes.

  The triplets showed remarkable skill they inherited from their parents, and their parents trained each of them in the art of warfare, even though there weren’t any more fighting monsters and Demons and Devils for ten years, not even a skirmish of a Minotaur.

  All three showed the spilt personalities from their parents as well: the daughter from her father and the sons from their mother. And their parents were proud of their kids having the same personalities as their parents.

  Soon enough, Valverno and his female family members made it back to the Pangaean city and Valverno’s old, newly-refurbished house. Marina and Athena placed the rose into an empty jar sitting and placed it by a windowsill near the front entrance; there were open holes in the walls to let air in and out of the house.

  Valverno magically placed dirt in the jar so the roots of the flower could eat the nutrients it needs to grow like Valverno’s triplets. Valverno strolled away to the back of the house to see his two sons sitting down on seats.

  “My sons!”

  “Father!” Both boys ran toward their dad, and Valverno pointed at the spot Athena and Marina were planting the blue rose. The boys walked to the mother and their sister, and she told them where he got the blue rose and the monster that ambushed her.

  Away from them was a third boy of age seven sleeping on a bed in the corner: his nephew Quirinus. Quirinus was the son of his half-sister Sora and Flavius. Every few weeks, Quirinus and Sora would drop by the house and check in for slumber night.

  Quirinus was such a wild child like a wild lion cub. Sora was a warrior in heart and that warrior’s instinct inherited into her son became incarnated with a wild warrior’s fierceness. Quirinus inherited both his mother’s and father’s instants as warriors and the genetic structures Quirinus had made him into a brute fighter, and easily ware him down to a sleep that can last for days.

  Next to Quirinus, Sora sat on a chair. Sora had grown into a fine adult lady and looking like a queen of warriors. She did wear the same uniform she worn into the final battle against Lusìvar, and Quirinus a similar uniform like his mother’s. She stared at her sleeping son before turning to see Valverno walking to her.

  “I never remember us being wild like us, brother,” said Sora, with a smile. “I was never wild. I don’t know where he gets it from. Flavius says he was wild as a child, but never wild as our son. But it has to be our hormones and warrior instants that when we pared together in bed, the warrior’s blood must have altered my son’s blood and made him into a beastly warrior.”

  “I would call it evolution, my little sister. After all, you have Pangaean genetics and Flavius has human genetics. You basically created a human Pangaean hybrid, like me a human dragon hybrid. But he does look human more than Pangaean.”

  “But he’ll grow into a fine young man. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “I’m sure he will,” said Marina, walking from behind Valverno. She leaned her head over on Valverno’s chest and let her daughter and sons go running to meet their aunt with the pot with the blue rose.

  “Aunt Sora, look at what I found,” said Athena, standing in front of her brothers and holding out the pot that held the blue rose.

  Sora smiled and pulled Athena on her lap. “Wow, Athena. You found a blue rose. I bet your mother likes it.”

  “Yes, she does,” said Athena, looking at her mother. Marina nodded at her daughter and Sora gave a hopeful smile.

  Sora looked at Valverno and asked him, “Why don’t you give them a lecture of how you and I were grew up in this house?”

  “Alight, come on, my sons and my daughter,” said Valverno. “I’m going to be telling you about how I and Aunt Sora grew up in this big house.”

  “Okay, Father,” they said. The triplets followed their father to the other end of the house to hear about their father and his aunt grew up in the house.

  Suddenly, Quirinus got up and rushed after his three cousins to hear about his mother’s childhood.

  “Just look at them,” said Marina. “Our children are just every special. I am rather glad to share them with a special specimen, even if he is a god now.”

  “Hmm,” Sora was only response. “So, how’s Stephanie doing?”

  “Stephanie? You haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what? Ever since I married Flavius and raising our only son, I’ve been a bit occupied with my son who turned out to be a wild one. Even at age seven, he is quite a fierce and speedy child. Someone has to keep an eye on the little one whil
e Flavius is watching over our home village and the terrain he lives on. That Greenwood Forest still creeps out the villagers, even though there is a good Gorgon living in those woods. That Gorgon is living a good life with the villagers living in that forest, and they are just a lazy bunch of people.”

  “I’ll be short, Stephanie is gone. She left the island five years ago with Galvin. It was after we made Teutates king of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli. She was still leaning support of her foster father, despite not being related and just had a hissy fit. So, she ordered Galvin and a few remaining supporters to leave the island and sailed east, never to return.”

  “Sorry to hear about that, Marina.”

  “No need to worry, Sora. She was always a spoiled bratty princess and always annoying. Even after hearing about the truth from Uragiru’s mouth, she still tried to retain her title as a princess. Until she gave up and sailed away with all her foster father’s followers, which is only less than two dozen followers. Hardly enough to start a new civilization with that mall number.”

  “It seems everyone is going their separate paths,” said Sora. “Those two twins of Flavius seemed to have gone their own separate paths. Nerio and Arron went to join Teutates’s army of the Lion Clan to learn what it means to be a strong fighter.

  “Naìra and Andrei went to join one of the five clans to be flexible warriors and be fierce when they grow older. Eliana moved to the Pangaean settlement on Isla Maeli to learn about the Pangaean culture. All of Flavius’s siblings are walking their own roads and living different lives.”

  “That reminds me of three clan leaders,” said Marina. “Bjorg had married some Amazon woman named Atalanta who both are ruling the Northern Region, and he gave up being a clan leader and gave his title to Kelda and Orinù.

  “Kelda and Orinù have married as well, and they merged the four clans into one clan: the Dragon Hybrid Clan. I don’t know why they had to name their clan that. It just makes me laugh, and I’m sure Naìra and Andrei will be in great care. I wish them luck to take care the four clans united into one that have settled on Isla Maeli. Also all the creatures: Centaurs, Dragons, Fairies, Griffins, Merpeople, Pegasi, Sea Serpents, and Unicorns have moved to Isla Maeli.