Dusk of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “Not to mention Flarefur now serves as the new Griffin King. And Monico acts as the top general for Teutates’s military units of the Lion Clan living with the Dragon Hybrid Clan on Isla Maeli.”

  “And as for the Pangaeans,” said Sora, “they are still living their own lives. Freyya still serves as a motherly figure; her children grown and tend to their daily lives. Halvdan still annoys all species. Alfhild is a master of healing and teaches the healing arts of all humans and young Elves. Okinawan still serves as a training instructor to all military recruits, and this Ívarr has grown mature and serves as Okinawan’s drill assistant. And my father still serves as the High Priest.

  “Basically, all the one thousand Pangaeans still live at that settlement. And all the rest of Pangaeans are living in this city, and they are over tens of thousands. It is such a miracle a big number survived. And both species from two different Generations are living in a new Generation: the Fourth Generation. The Age of Balance.”

  Marina and Sora both sighed. They watched as Valverno talking to his triplets and nephew in a soft tone, and they didn’t bother to listen on his talk.

  Both mothers were extremely tired and taking their small rests before having to raise their kids again.

  “And overall with those kids, it has been a wonderful time,” said Marina. “And to know they are growing up in the same house their father and you did.”

  “What about your cottage house?” asked Sora.

  “We use that occasionally, when it summer comes around the corner. Our kids don’t like the heat, so we use that as our summer home to go swimming and use the cool water to stay refreshed.”

  “That’s rather good. It would be shameful for you to build a house and just leave it to rot. Wasteful material and time, if you don’t use it.”

  “I agree, my sister.”

  Then they both sighed again before they can go back to the same thing all parents do: endless parenting.

  The hours passed and the day turned into a bright night. Valverno’s triplets and nephew fell asleep on a comfy sofa they listened to Valverno’s story of his and Sora’s childhood. Valverno spent the day from the afternoon to the early evening to tell the kids everything they wanted to know about himself and Sora.

  And when early evening came, the kids fell asleep one-by-one like telling them a bedtime story. Valverno held out a long blanket made from his shining scales and the membrane of his wings to keep the four kids warm.

  Valverno sighed as the three kids slept snuggling together on the sofa, breathing softly and dreaming of their father battling evil monsters and a beast with a hundred heads.

  “Mother used to do that to us,” said Sora. “Tell us stories to make us to sleep and wrap a blanket around us. Kids sitting on a couch, listening to stories, falling asleep on the sofa with our heads leaning against each other, and mother putting a blanket over us; all of those were good times.”

  “That was once us, Sora, but now it is their time. It will be their time to grow, and my time will end… soon.”

  Valverno walked away from the sleeping kids and walked to the front entrance of his house. He looked and saw a crowd of demihumans and humans walking amongst each other. Despite being of different races, the demihumans and humans were working closely together and peacefully.

  Once before in the Second Generation, the city was lively with Amazons, Elves, Dwarves, and demihumans while Tokagehebi were thought to be extinct. Then in the Third Generation, the city was a graveyard.

  Now in the Fourth Generation, it was a city of life again with mostly demihumans and humans, but this was the southern section of the city. It was more crowded toward the central and northern part of the city, and the western and eastern parts of the city were almost empty.

  But it was nice and honorable to see his home city blooming with life again. And Valverno was happy to see his childhood home be the home of his own children.

  “It must time for you, isn’t it?” asked Marina. “Your body is starting to lose its last cells, and you’ll completely fade from like a cloud in the sky.”

  “I’m afraid so, Marina,” answered Valverno, with a frown. He leaned against a wall and looked at his wife and sister. “My time is almost up. These past ten years have been aging my body rapidly it made my tens of thousands of years to go: one for ten thousand years.

  “In other words, if I was really a mortal Pangaean with no godly power, I would have lived up to a hundred thousand years. But since I cut out my heart to save Marina and our three kids, that aging process has accelerated rapidly.”

  “Must you really go?” asked Sora. “Can’t you stay longer?”

  “You think I haven’t already tried? My entire organ heart is no longer in my body, and that was the balancer of the years of my life-force. Since I have completely cut it out, the years of my life have completely drained, and my body is slowly decaying. It’s only a matter of hours before I am gone completely, and I’ll rise to be a god. The Phoenix feather I have may stop me from dying instantly, but it can’t stop me aging. This power doesn’t grant me immortality for my physical body, but it does grant me from being killed by a mortal enemy, but not the decay of time.”

  “Enough talk of science,” said Marina, walking up to the arms of her husband and warping his wings around her. They both shared a romantic, passionate kiss a few seconds before looking at each other again. “Time is short, isn’t it? You have until dusk, don’t you?”

  Valverno frowned and nodded his head. He had only hours in the Mortal Realm before he would leave it forever and go to a different Realm, and become a god.

  “Then let’s make the best of it,” said Marina. “Say your farewells to your old companions and let us spend the last few hours you have before dusk.”

  “My thoughts exactly and no taking shortcut portals,” said Valverno, lifting up Marina in his arms. “We’ll do the old fashion way, my dear Siren, through the power of flight. We’ll go by the beach where we first met, see the people living their lives (forget about Stephanie and Galvin), and watch me depart when the sun dusk.”

  But before they would depart, Marina and Valverno looked at their kids sleeping on the sofa and shouldn’t leave their kids alone where strangers could come in the house and kidnap them.

  “Don’t worry, you two,” said Sora, walking over to the sofa that sat her son and Valverno’s and Marina’s triplets. “I’ll watch over your kids.”

  “Thank you,” the couple said.

  Then Valverno turned away, widened out his glowing wings, and flew off into the north to go see the Northern Region.

  Valverno carried Marina to see the outlook of the land that he burned in the Northern Region; the land the surrounded the Lost Castle. When he got there, the land that was once a kingdom, then abandoned, then burned was now a land filled of beauty and fame. Plants and flowers and trees grew over the land that once held buildings and the Lost Castle, all of which were burned and turned into ashes.

  And from the ashes grew life and beauty of wonderful nature, and animals have migrated here as well. All the buildings that Valverno burned have been brought down by his flames and buried beneath the ground and plants, not a single wall made by humans was in view and only the beauty of nature flourished the land.

  Then the Valverno flew Marina to the village where they battled against the four witches, a Piper, and the Five-Headed Dragon. The village still remained the same, with only humans and a few creatures living there. The landscape was starting to have plant beauty and animals like birds and rabbits.

  Basically, the entire Northern Region was occupied by many humans and a few creatures, and they were living their lives like the humans and creatures in Geraldus’s village. And from the distance, Bjorg could see riding a horse and showing a squad of teenage riders how to ride a horse for combat, and he seemed to be doing well, considering he no longer is fat that a warrior do
esn’t need to be.

  “Nice to see this has changed ever since those people were enslaved,” said Valverno.

  “And now they are living peacefully,” said Marina. “Now let’s move onward to the next place: Isla Maeli and let’s end this journey at Flavius’s village and the beach where you can take off from there.”

  Valverno nodded and flew to the western horizon to see the people the couple knew who have moved to Isla Maeli.

  Valverno carried Marina to Isla Maeli’s central part and flew across the river to see a large village built. The village buildings matched like the village buildings in the Northern Region. There were thousands in many sizes.

  A flag flew on the tallest tower of a large castle that closely matched the castle atop the old capital city before it was ultimately destroyed, and that would be where Kelda and Orinù would be living. And the village down below is where the new clan, the Dragon Hybrid Clan, would be living.

  Valverno flew down at a flat platform that was the courtyard, and it was just like the courtyard on the capital city he landed on. He was surprised to see it as the same as the capital city. He placed Marin on her feet, and they saw a pair of girls standing who seemed to be waiting for them: the twin girls, Andrei and Naìra.

  The twin girls had grown from little girls into beautiful twenty year olds. They weren’t the little girls Valverno remembered them as, and they stared happily at the couple arriving in town.

  “Welcome to our humble home, Brother Demigod Valverno,” greeted the girls. They both were dressed as newly recruits, soldiers in training.

  “Good to be here, although it is quite surprising this place looks like the castle built atop the old capital city of Shimabellia before it got destroyed.”

  “That’s because we decided to reincarnate it on this island from the same stones used to build the old city,” shouted Kelda’s voice.

  From a door leading opening behind the twin girls, Bjorg and Kelda exited and walked down a small staircase and toward the couple that just arrived. The pair held their hands and walked gracefully.

  “I see you two are doing well,” said Bjorg. “We thought you were top on by today. Anything we can do for you?”

  Valverno shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t. My time is soon closing and I am here to say my goodbyes.”

  “What do you mean, Demigod?” asked Kelda.

  “Isn’t it obvious, clan leader?” asked Valverno, looking toward the west. The sun was setting toward the west, and it was barely at the peak of the distant horizon. “When the sun vanishes at dusk, my time in the Mortal Realm will end.” Valverno tuned back to see his two foster sisters and the two clan leaders looking with shocked looks. “I am dying, and nothing can stop a mortal from dying. I’m half god, but half mortal as well. I’m here to say my last goodbyes as a mortal, before I rise up to become a god after dusk.”

  Andrei and Naìra trotted up to their hybrid foster brother to give them a giant squeeze hug, with tearful tears. “We should have known this was coming,” said Naìra. “All the adventures we had with you as kids, I’ll never forget them.”

  “Either will I, Naìra. Even though you the twin girl I had the most adventures with. The time you were suddenly caught in the Northern Region, and I stopped the witches from having you. And you Andrei, even though I didn’t have the most adventures with, memories of us will still live on. You for sure can see that through.”

  “And when I have my own first son, I’ll be sure to name him after you,” responded Andrei. “Not your divine name, but your other name.”

  “Just be sure not to tell him about the ‘Demon Prince’ the hybrid brother you knew.” Andrei nodded her head, before her and her twin let go of Valverno who kissed them on their foreheads.

  “This is where I depart, and remember,” said Valverno, picking up Marina in his arms again, “as a god, I’ll watch over you, now and always.”

  The twin girls and the two clan leaders bowed their heads, and Valverno bowed his head back. Then he soared into the air to follow the north to visit the Pangaean settlement.

  Valverno flew fast as he could but landed softly in the heart of the Pangaean settlement. He was fast and quick no one saw him until he landed with Marina still being held in his arms.

  “Demigod Valverno,” a voice cried from the crowd of demihumans.

  Suddenly, the busy crowd of demihumans suddenly paved away for the demigod and his wife, and they all bowed in his presence.

  “No need to bow in my presence,” said Valverno, placing Marina to stand on the ground. “Go about your daily life, Pangaeans. I’m just here for a simple visit. I won’t be staying too long.”

  Then the demihumans started to walk away, and Valverno and Marina walked into the crowd. Valverno and Marina made their way to a specific tent Valverno knew where Ganymede would be telling demihuman children stories.

  The couple walked about the settlement that has been standing for many years after Valverno awakened inside it during his coma. They entered the tent and inside stood the familiar faces Valverno remembered seeing when he first awakened in the tent.

  Ganymede, Freyya, Alfhild, Okinawan, and Halvdan, Eliana. Eliana looked every up grown up as a full grown adult and grown beautiful.

  Valverno blinked to see the group and Eliana in the same tent he awakened in. “What’s going on here?”

  “We thought you stop by, since we know of what is happening to you,” said Ganymede. “Sora contacted us already, through mind-connection. I’m sure she has told everyone about it but not given the specifics you are dying. May I wrong?”

  “Ah, that sister of mine,” sighed Valverno. “I wanted to surprise people, but I guess she had to go behind my back and notify people before I got here. But yes, I am here to the obvious: I am dying by the second, and my mortal life will make its end, at dusk.”

  “You know, for what it’s worth,” said Halvdan, giving a small smile, “it rather has been quite an annoying but a pleasure knowing the former Demon Prince that killed his successor. That is someone I will admire.”

  “No need to go into that title,” said Freyya. “We are here to say goodbye to the Demigod that risked his own life to save the Mortal Realm. He won’t be with us in this Realm tomorrow, but from another Realm. It is just frustrating things have to end so soon.”

  “And very fast,” said Alfhild, wiping away tears dripping from her eyes.

  “No need to worry, my subjects, there will always be a time for you to look to the stars where I will reside to watch over you all. I will still be by your sides, even you see me as a ghost.” Valverno shook his own head and wiped away tears dripping from his eyes. “But we all knew this day was coming, and I will be leaving behind my three children. They will watch over this Realm when their time dawns as the next generation of demigods.

  “Until then, treat them as you would any children and don’t spoil them rotten. They need to be treated as proper children and then them.”

  “And I’ll be sure to treat them right just as I treated you right during your three months with me,” said Okinawan.

  “I’ll hold you to that, Okinawan,” said Valverno. Valverno walked up to Okinawan, and they both grabbed hold of each other’s hands. “And don’t hurt them until they are grown enough to know what reality is.”

  Okinawan nodded his head then Valverno turned to see Eliana. “Eliana, it would never have worked out between us. I always knew you had a love for me and wanted to marry me, but I just couldn’t feel the same about you.”

  “I know,” said Eliana. “But I still never gave up. And when I rise in the next Realm, I will be sure to keep on going until you have accepted me.”

  “Just try to,” said Marina, walking forward to hold Valverno’s arm. The Siren cradled against her husband’s arm and stared with a fierce dragon’s look in her eyes. And Eliana stared like a prowling tiger in Marina’
s eyes, and both stared with antagonizing, beastly eyes.

  “Let’s head to Flavius’s village before this gets hostile, Marina. No doubt the White Knights will be there if Sora communicated to all the people I have met in the past. I’m not even going to brother the creatures that much, since they are watching over new hatchings this time of the century.”

  Valverno led Marina out of the tent, not before bowing and saying his final goodbye to his stepfather and the Pangaeans that took care of him, with Marina and Eliana sharing one last glare.

  Valverno picked up Marina again and flew off to the distance and back toward the east, to Flavius’s village.

  Valverno flew back to his second childhood home: the lifetime he spent as the name “Vaeludar” in this village. It was back when Geraldus ruled this village and now belonged to Flavius. As always, the people were busy tending to their farming habits and the soldiers doing their daily training drills. It was all the same, but somehow it felt different. Valverno didn’t know how it felt different, but he had a strange feeling the village felt different and the same at the same time.

  On his flight, he saw Flavius with Monico and Teutates standing in front of a newly built mansion. The old one was destroyed during Lusìvar’s rain of comets, and a new house was constructed. The three White Knights were waiting for him and Marina.

  Flavius had grown a beard during his ten years of growing while the other two looked about the same but slightly older. Monico and Teutates barely grew any facial hair on their faces, but they did look slightly older as middle-aged men.

  “What’s this about?” asked Flavius.