by Ryan Johnson
Then she told him how she awakened from a hibernation. “It was all so sudden. It felt only yesterday we performed the ritual to make us go into hibernation. Then, after the interruption during your ritual, I had little choice but to conceal myself into a crystalized hibernation.
“However, the crystal I concealed myself in had been taken away by the intruders and hid it someplace else. It wasn’t until this princess you mentioned died, and the power of the White Knight of Charity was converted back to me.
“So I was able to break free from my back-then prison and reawaken as the White Knight of Charity. I was glad to have been able to find you during the six month winter. I am still shocked you married a fish.”
Valverno looked at Marina and back at Sora. “Ten thousand years ago Sirens were fish creatures, but today they have evolved into humanlike creatures. It was just like the Dragons of how they evolved from lizards a hundred thousand years ago. That is another main reason why I need to relive a new life than to fight Lusìvar: to learn the aspects of love. Ten thousand years ago, I never understood what love was or how it felt. Now I do understand what it is.”
“I’m glad you manage to find something to fight for, and maybe worth dying for,” said Sora.
As the brother and sister walked and talked ahead, Marina kept her distance from them and walked with Geraldus and Flarefur. Marina was still feeling jealous to see another girl being close to her husband, even if claiming to be his half-sister. She was the first girl to marry the male hybrid, and she didn’t want Valverno to be having the idea of his attention drawn only to Sora.
Marina spent six months with him during the cold, harsh winter in a nice sized cottage house. That was when she had his full attention and when no other people were disrupting them. Marina and Valverno lived a quiet life with each other for quite some time and getting to know each other. It seemed Valverno was interested in getting to know another girl he hasn’t been with in over ten thousand years, which they both had spent some time in a different form of hibernation.
Geraldus could see Marina still had jealously in her eyes. It seemed she wasn’t listening to his words. Either she heard his advice and couldn’t seem to get over the fact that her husband is spending time with another girl or Marina wasn’t listening at all. Geraldus understood his advice couldn’t fit into the Siren’s brain. “Can’t seem to get past the idea of Valverno with another girl?”
Marina then flared anger in her eyes. “I don’t want him with another girl, and I don’t like her. For some reason, I can’t just hate her for being with him. Valve... no… Vaeludar is spending time with a sister, but she isn’t any sister I know.”
“You’ve known my twin daughters longer than you have known this girl: Sora. And she seems to know more about the old world than any of us. She even replaced small fragments of his old memory, and she is friendly to the hybrid. Who are you to judge certain character of family virtue?”
Marina had her anger faded and a sudden sadness sparked on her eyes. “It was a long time ago. When… when my mother was killed. She was drawn to these people. Those monsters. They killed her. They tore her apart in front of me. She died horrifyingly. My only family was killed in front of me, and they tried to do to the same thing to me.
“However, love struck me when Vaeludar killed them before they killed me, and he fell in love with me when our eyes were drawn to each other for the first time. I was drawn to a stranger I just met.”
“I can see why you don’t want him being taken away,” said Geraldus. “Still, those men killing your mother were greedy men; men who sell themselves to do dirty work other men or women wouldn’t do. They all hunted Sirens down to total extinction, with you being the last of the Sirens. You’re the only hope to regrow the population the Sirens, and you don’t even need a male person to do the reproduction of the young.”
“But I do want to it, with Vaeludar.”
Geraldus blinked. He looked at Valverno, who is still being called Vaeludar by Marina, and looked back at Marina. “He is a hybrid. Half man half dragon. You can’t expect him to do it with you.”
“He is still a man by age.”
“He lacks the proper instruments to help with reproduction in the giving of new life. I know because I raised him myself. His body doesn’t have any of the tools to help you with giving new life. Even if he was full human and he would be able to help you, you would have to think of what your child would look like: a hybrid. Half human half Siren. I don’t know how that would work out.”
Marina looked at Geraldus with a smile. “The power of evolution always finds a way around the impossible. That girl is right about one thing: Sirens evolved from fish with looks of a human infant ten thousand years ago, and look where I am now.
“I will find a way to bypass with Vaeludar’s evolution and have him help me bear our children, no matter if they become hybrids like him. After all, he is the son of a god. He could have the right properties to help me give new lifeforms.”
“I’ll be staying silent from this science of biology and say no more. Good luck on your research, because you’re going have to be on your own. I cannot help with the science behind a hybrid body.”
“Oh, I will find the science behind his hybrid body, and I bare his children,” said Marina, determined to get Valverno’s attention. Then she saw Valverno letting his sister walk ahead of them.
Valverno stopped and walked backward and took sides with Marina, his new wife. Valverno saw Marina looked surprised by his change of direction from one girl to another. “What?” he asked. “I was talking with Sora and seeing how we both have been sleeping in different hibernation forms for over ten thousand years, and I’ve been telling her everything the about the modern age. It is apparently she forgotten knew a new age as began.”
“A new age?” asked Marina.
“The Prosperous Age, the Second Generation of the Living Life,” said Valverno. “The Second Generation before this Generation: the Present Age. We all know of the first Generation: the Colossal Age, where the Titans (the first children of the gods) had ruled.”
“You mean you go back fifty thousand years ago?”
“No, it was about eleven thousand years ago Sora and I go back. We were born in the final years of the Prosperous Age, the Generation where we both lived in a land called Pangaea.
“Pangaea was one a land that is both Isle Maeli and Shimabellia were made and formed from. During the final stages of life changing of events, earthquakes were starting to shatter and shake the giant mass of land into two different masses of lands. The capital cities had been buried underground and the rest have been buried into the sea. The inhabitants also were caught in the crossfire and they all either died in the natural disasters.
“This string of events happened before I turned into an embryo. All after the formations of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli and before the four White Knights and I were supposed to go into hibernation.”
“So, after your home country was destroyed,” said Marina, “how did you manage to survive? Did you eat my early ancestor still swimming in the waters?”
Valverno looked at Sora who was looking back at him with a small before turning her head forward. “No, we did not. We lived by the fruits and plants that grew on the two newly formed islands.”
Marina looked at Sora. Marina was then curious about the hibernation mentioned rom Sora. “Yet, she has been in hibernation for all this time. I wonder, did she hear everything that was going on.”
“Even though she was asleep, her ears were wide open. Magically, she had an ability to listen to everything around. Her hearing could stretch out for thousands of miles. Her mind heard listened to everything was happening and images swirled in her brain while she listened to the time changing the world outside her hibernation chamber.
“The past ten thousand years have been absorbed into her mind, and she knows what has happened, but she mentioned she only focused her attention of me and not the islands after the changing. What
a little sister she turned out to be, and I am glad I am proud to have been her big brother, even if we are half siblings.”
Marina could sense a bit of light shining in Valverno’s crimson eyes. Despite his outlook, corruptible appearance, Marina saw a spec of light sparkling behind those eyes. “I knew there was pureness behind those hideous eyes,” she said, whispering silently so Valverno wouldn’t hear her.
Valverno’s ear flickered of a fly bug sound. He heard whispering echoing close to an ear of his. He quickly looked at Maria was trying to hide a small smile. “Did you say something?”
Marina turned his eyes away from Valverno’s eyes. She was feeling embarrassed she was hiding her smile from him. “Oh, nothing,” she said.
Valverno shook his head. “Hah, I see what’s going on here, and you just planning on something to get my attention, are you?”
Marina stayed silent.
Valverno thought Marina was thinking doing something to get rid of Sora. He could, in fact, try to read her mind and see what Marina was thinking in that fish brain of hers, but he couldn’t do so without her permission; Marina was his wife after all and doing something bad could lead straight a divorce.
W
The group walked endlessly in the dark tunnels. As they pressed deeper into the descending darkness, the tunnel grew larger and the torches flying around the group brighten the darkness. Sora still led ahead while Valverno and Marina walked in the middle and Geraldus and Flarefur walked in the back.
After a long walk in the long, dark tunnel, Sora suddenly stopped and looked at small paintings carved on the walls. “Valverno, you must look at this,” she said, pointing to a picture carved on the wall.
Valverno stopped as did the others and walked to Sora, whom Marina grew angry again at for just saying her husband’s name. “Just what is it you want to show me?” Valverno looked closely at the picture Sora was pointing at. He gazed upon… himself. The hybrid saw the picture depicting himself as a small child with smaller wings and smaller legs.
Next to the childlike picture of Valverno was a tall woman in a hazel, emerald dress with a small green veil over her head and another child smaller than the other child being carried held in the woman’s arms.
“Is that me?” asked Valverno. “And would that infant be you when you were just very young? Mother sure did look the same as she was back then.”
“Mother was looking out for the well-being for the both of us,” said Sora. “She did love us, brother, as we loved her. She was just overwhelmed she was raising the first and only demigod ever created in the Mortal Realm. And every time harm would come to us, you would always be there to get us out.”
Valverno was suddenly sadden and touched the cave painting depicting his mother, sister, and his child appearance. “I remember her name well, but I can’t remember what she was like. Yet, I remember what she did manage to save us from Pangaea’s destruction.”
“That day,” signed Sora. “That day, when Pangaea was destroyed, was the day many of our kin lost their lives, including Mother. She have died, but we both lived on. But enough of childhood years, you need to know about the history.” Sora grabbed Valverno’s wrist and dragged him to the next set of cave paintings painted by an unknown species.
Valverno had nearly slipped but the claws on his feet kept him from falling and he walked the pace Sora was walking. Valverno felt eager to see what Sora wanted to show him. “You still haven’t changed one bit: dragging me everywhere with you, or when I go to fight, you always want in.” Valverno smiled of his sister’s eagerness to show him things they never discovered.
In some of his memories buried deep in his mind of those only of Sora, Valverno saw Sora and himself as kids. Then he would see blurred, shadowy figures watching over them. He could see a child Sora playing climbing up a tree but falling after reaching for the tallest branch, which broke easily and made a child Valverno fly and catch his falling sister before she could break her neck on the tree’s wide roots. His memories show Sora getting into trouble spots, and he would always be his little half-sister out of trouble.
Sora stopped in front of a large picture showing a large snakelike creature with a dozen tails with a three-eyed cobra head. Circling the big creature were the same but smaller and counted a dozen of those animals like a swarm of bees circling around the queen bee.
“Is that… a Titan?” asked Valverno.
“Yes, my elder brother, it a Titan, which’s name is unknown. The names of the Titans, the firstborn of First Generation of Living Life and first creations of the gods, have all been forgotten and destroyed. Despite having a destroyed mind, your memory is sharper than I thought.”
“You and I were learning about ancient life at the same time as possible. The memories you restored in my mind are a great help to me. Sadly, the only restored memories I have are the ones I share with you; most of my childhood years and the battles we both fought in. Those memories are what I only remember about my long, distance past.”
“Then those only memories will have to do,” said Sora, smiling. “But maybe I could help make new memories for you to remember.” Sora leaned her head against Valverno’s left shoulder. This caused Valverno to stop walking as his half-sister was seemly teasing him and maybe trying to get his attention instead of wanting him to look directly into the darkness.
However, the hybrid shook his shoulder for the new member to stay awake. “Hey, don’t get too comfortable,” said Valverno.
Sora laughed as she lifted her back up. “Hey? Isn’t that what we need animals with?’ she smiled. “Or did you mean you were trying to greet in another form of a hello? I’m curious as to why you’re trying to shove away your last family member?”
Then Marina barged between the half-siblings. The Siren angrily pushed herself between Valverno and Sora and separating the brother and sister in a madding mode. “Enough with your flirting,” she said. Marina gripped Valverno’s right arm tightly, making sure her husband wasn’t trying to be seduce by Sora.
Valverno and Sora took this by surprise as Marina by between the brother and sister. “Marina, what are you doing?” he asked. Valverno’s arm was stuck tight in Marina’s clutches. He couldn’t understand why his fishy wife was acting so fishy against Sora. He and Sora were just having some sibling bonding time, and the Siren had to become in obstacle. The hybrid had just lost his patience when Marina trotted into the Valverno’s and Sora’s conversation. “Marina, explain what is happening here.”
Marina looked Valverno closely in his eyes. “I don’t want you to be taken by this stranger. You’re married to me and only to me. No other female specimen taking you away from me: your new beloved Siren wife.”
Sora gave the Siren a mean glaring eye gaze. “I wasn’t trying to steal him,” said Sora. “It has been more than ten thousand years since I lost seen him, and I just wanted to get to know everything about him in the seventeen years he’d awakened before I woke six months ago.”
Marina gave a mean glare look of her own at Sora. “Still, this hybrid is married to me, and only to me. No other girl can marry him.”
Valverno found himself being fought over two female family members. He pulled his arm free from Marina’s grip. “Until I deem certain circumstances, both of you keep your distance from me and get to know each other first before I end up disowning you both from this family. Get to know each other first before you start killing each other.”
Valverno walked passed Marina. As he was passing her, his tail moved the Siren closer to Sora. “I don’t need any female family members fighting over me,” he said. Valverno stopped his pacing and looked at Sora and Marina with his crimson eyes. “We can have a little family reunion when we get back to the surface, but I can’t have you two argue in this underground cave. There is for certain danger will be lurking deeper in this cave and we all have to be ready to fight any monsters or face any kind of obstacle in our way. But no more fighting and get to know each other, because you people are sisters-in-laws
now.” Valverno turned his head forward and continued to walk in the darkness, with the floating torches lighting the way.
The two girls looked blankly at each other. In their eyes, some horrible hostility had reflected at each other, and their eyes were ready to kill each other for the hybrid.
“And before I forget,” said Valverno, stopping again. He turned his full face toward Sora and Marina. “Since I am a husband, a big brother, and a son of the King of Gods, I am founding of a new household name, my household demigod: Mordnarù. Marina, you are now called Marina Mordnarù.
“And you, my sister, shall be named: Sora Mordnarù. And Marina is named: Marina Mordnarù. And I am the head of Mordnarù House like Geraldus Cornelius is the head of Cornelius House. This is my order as a demigod and the Prince of the Gods, since the Crystal Dragon is a god and Ruler of the Gods.” Valverno once again turned his face in the direction of the dark tunnel and walked forward.
Everyone behind him looked confused as to what he had just said completely blankness, especially Sora and Marina who just heard they had become part of a new family name and Valverno seemed to have crowned himself the king of the family.
W
The group travel a bit further inward. They walked for quite some time with a feeling they walked for hours. It happened to be long hours that passed before the group came to a long archway with ruined statues seemly to be guarding the arch. Valverno raised a hand and another fire was set ablaze on his skin. He and the others entered through a large cavern.
Valverno spat several more sparks of fire. More floating torches of fire had spread out across the cavern. Light brighten the dark space of the cavern and the group’s eyes could see they stumbled across a mile long dome shaped cavern.
The cavern’s walls were covered in large and small paintings of animals. Hundreds of paintings rose dozens of feet in the air. Toward the central curved sides, these had shown different forms of animals battling against other animals. Three thinly stretched figures of two humans and a dragon had been placed in the dead center with blue-white waves toward the animals depicting in battling.