Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  Valverno gazed down below and he couldn’t believe his eyes: an underground city.

  Hundreds of large domed towers stretched onward for miles far and across. Each was tall or short or wid. About twenty or thirty towers alone within a ten mile radius had touched the rocky ceiling above the ground.

  This underground city seemed to be stretching outward somewhere between fifty to a hundred miles, nearly ten times bigger than the capital city on the surface. For a big, ruined city buried beneath the surface world, the ruin city was still standing and no signs of battle damage seemed to be appearing anywhere. A city still standing on its base had gripped Valverno’s eyes.

  Above this site, the ceiling above the fireball had some a thin crevasse that could barely fit a dragon through there. Only a human or a Griffin could be able to move in and out through there with ease.

  Valverno remembered seeing this kind of city painted in the cavern full with historical paintings: the city with domed towers and lit in great flames. His eyes had widened by this underground city. “Is it what I think it is?” he asked outload.

  “Yes, it is, Elder Brother,” said Sora. “Welcome back… to our home.”

  THE UNDERGROUND CITY

  Valverno was speechless. He was looking at the remnants of a large city buried underground. And this city, which he just heard from Sora, was his ancient home. Of course, he couldn’t remember any city under the ground, but he did remember many cities above ground.

  “You sure this is our home, Sora?” asked Valverno.

  Sora leaned against a stairway heading down toward the nearest and lowest domed tower. “Your mind may have been wiped clean from your memories you once carried ten thousand years ago,” said Sora. She seemed to have raised her tone. “Yes it is and I do definitely know this is our home, and where we both lived happily.”

  Valverno stayed clear with his sister’s upping mood. She sounded like she was losing her patience over his memory loss of his long distant past. “Alright, you don’t need to get upset over a question.”

  “Who’s getting upset? I’m perfectly fine with the way I am.” Sora made her way down the stairs that turned into a bridge, and entering through the domed tower’s walls.

  Valverno followed after his sister who he could tell she had a mean look on her face. Seeing how he couldn’t fly toward the little entrance Sora entered into the tower, Valverno had to travel the old fashion way: walking. He trotted down the stairs, over the thin bridge, and entered into the tower. Before he entered, he looked at the tower, which soared a hundred feet into the air and built from dry clay and dirt.

  Inside, Valverno saw the entire interior of the tower. His sun-bright fireballs soaring above the buried city was casting away the darkness and giving light everywhere, even inside the towers with very few, small windows. Valverno looked down and saw the floor, which was just ten feet downward.

  The hybrid flipped over the edge and saw himself in a living room. Chairs, couches, furniture, and a few tables still stood, but cobwebs draped over all the room and the furniture. A fireplace had been built behind him, only a few crumbled stones sitting there. The room’s walls were black as in fire-burnt black, but the furniture looked to remain untouched Valverno odd since the city was displayed being destroyed in a fire.

  “These things are completely fireproof,” said Sora, sitting on a three legged stool. She brushed away the cobwebs burying the stool with cloud-whizzing magic. “Magic still roams strong here. So many people sacrificed so much to save so many things: their personal belongings, their homes, and their children. The people tried to save so much of this city; it was doomed from the start. One big city grave buried beneath the surface world.”

  Valverno slowly walked throughout the room, blowing out fire to burn away the cobwebs in his way. Nearly ninety percent of the room was buried in cobwebs. It seemed he had entered into a nest of spider webs. Very unattractive and unwelcoming when entering through a former home, even if there is no resident living there.

  “Who would have thought to see so many things still standing and in one piece around this place,” said Valverno. “But this building wasn’t the exact we both lived in.”

  Sora gave Valverno an, odd solid glare. “You really don’t remember the exact tower we lived in with Mother.”

  Valverno shook his head. “The only memories of my long, ten-thousand year past that have restored are the ones with you in them. The memories of my childhood are hardly in my mind. I basically do not have any memories fully restored to the full potential. You have restored the memories only of you in them. Only the two other artifacts ripped from my body can restored all my memories and my full potential power.” Valverno had leaned against a wall covered in webs. “I’m sorry, Sora, I can’t remember that much about our past we shared together, even remembering the memories of Mother isn’t are there in my brain. Yet alone the roof we lived under”

  Sora stiffly turned her head away, disbelieving of Valverno’s memory loss. She seemed hopeful little power she gave him would restored all the memories about his childhood, but it was hard to accept she restored only the years of Valverno’s youth. “Is there anything you can do to restoring your memories? I now just feel so useless when I tried to restore the all of your memories, but I only restored a small portion of your years: the years I was with you. The memories of me are only restored.”

  “Don’t say that. You may have restored a small portion, but it’s better than nothing at all. After all, we are not gods, Sora. There are limitations to what we can or can’t do, even if you’re the only one in those memories.”

  “But it’s not enough. And you wouldn’t remember the other survivors from this crumbled and ruined city. Now I’m starting to wonder if you really are my brother and if I should follow you into battle again.”

  “Oh, Sora, now you’re hurting your brother’s feelings,” said Valverno, sarcastically.

  Sora grunted and drew her twin daggers. Valverno pulled out his sword at the same time he saw Sora pulling out her daggers. In a matter of seconds, they held their weapons against each other’s throats.

  Valverno was smiling of Sora’s quick reactions. “There is something I do remember from our childhood. I was ten or eleven when you were born from Mother and that unknown man who stayed with us until Pangaea’s destruction. Is that memory good enough or is it not enough?”

  Sora smiled big and stared at Valverno with a pair of saddened eyes. She had hoped to hear more from this sudden news, but she had to accept the fact Valverno has only few memories from when he and she lived over ten thousand years ago.

  They both withdrew their weapons from their throats and Valverno returned his sword to his back. However, Sora dropped her weapons. She couldn’t resist being held by her brother again. She walked closer to him and hugged him tight, and this time bursting into tears.

  Valverno smiled to see his sister coming to his side, showing her true feeling she was trying to conceal from him the entire time. “So, you were hiding your true excitement from the first time we met earlier when were at that alter of my painting on the wall. You seemed so happy you wanted to cry.

  “However, you wanted to show the symptoms of a warrior than an actual person. Remember what I taught you: you were a kindhearted person long before you were a bloodless warrior.” Valverno wrapped his arms around Sora’s back.

  “It has been ten thousand years,” Sora sniffed. “You have been in a deep slumber for all of it, while I was awake. I may have been asleep in a crystal, but I heard everything going on. I couldn’t get a moment’s peace or put my mind at ease.” Her voice was gushing out of how painful it was to wait ten thousand years to wake and see him again.

  Sora dug her face into Valverno’s chest and let her tearful cries roll down from her eyes. She couldn’t bear to be aside from Valverno’s side; she felt very much alive when he was near her. Her sisterly bond she was sharing with Valverno was unquestionable very strong like Valverno’s love bond with Marina. This
was clearly a sign Sora wanted to be with Valverno until the day she dies.

  “I would how this would feel,” said Valverno. “I remember a girl dying after trying to take on a Dragon with five heads.”

  “You really are a doting brother,” said Geraldus. He was standing beside Flarefur and Marina.

  “And what’s wrong with a big brother trying to comfort his younger, half-sister?” the hybrid asked.

  Geraldus was smiling big. “I never thought you would have a blood-related sister. You have natural traits as of a true brother: an older sibling looking after the younger sibling. And I never knew I have raised a very important figure older than all of us. Valverno, the first and only demigod son of the Crystal Dragon, the King of the Three Gods.”

  After a few short minutes, Sora’s crying had ceased and backed away from Valverno. Her teary eyes turned into the eyes of a fierce warrior. After she fought against to hide her cries and show she was a warrior instead of a person and a sister, Sora resumed her standing position instead of trying to hide anything this time, and Valverno could since Sora’s mind was clear.

  Then Valverno lifted both his hands, and Sora’s twin daggers soared into his hands. He walked closer to Sora and quickly swung those around Sora’s neck, making an X shaped with the daggers. “Now is the time, Sora: can you take the responsibilities of the White Knight of Charity?” Valverno flipped the two weapons so he held those on their blades on his hand, pointing the hilts to Sora. “Or will you live your days as a loner?”

  Sora stood emotionless. She foresaw Valverno swing her weapons against her at her throat. It was earlier she was holding those against Valverno, and ironically, they were being held against her.

  But now, she was being offered a chance to become the White Knight of Charity again. Sora couldn’t help but grab hold of the hilts. “If you don’t mind, I’ll become the White Knight of Charity for you, but I won’t be the White Knight for nobody else. We’re family, and family is the only thing I can trust in this entire world.”

  Valverno released his hold over the twin daggers and let Sora hold her own weapons. “And it means you will have to trust Marina.” Valverno looked at Marina who was smiling but small. “She is married to me, and I already took my vows in front of the beings of this generation: the Third Generation of the Living Life and in the eyes of the Three Gods

  Sora scoffed by the mention of Marina’s name. “The fi… the Siren?” Sora was about to insult Marina by calling her a “fish” but did not to, due to the fish being married to her brother.

  So, Sora had to respect Valverno’s new life in a new Generation and learn to accept Marina into his family. “It will be some time for me to get to know and accept this new member of your family. But I will accept you.”

  Marina and Sora gave each other a hostile glare.

  Valverno nodded his head. “So, since we’ll all together underground of this forgotten city, I’d say we’d find that second artifact and reconnect it to my body, and soon we can leave. And hopefully we don’t run into any monsters or demons of the shadowy world.”

  Sora looked at Valverno, thinking of an idea. “I may know where to start. Since we can’t fly here underground, we’re going have to walk to their. I remember where our old house is, my brother, we can start there. Follow me!”

  Sora sheaved her kukri knives and went out the only door not covered in cobwebs. The hybrid strolled behind Sora. Marina walked immediately after her dearly husband with a questionable personality.

  Geraldus and Flarefur shared a look at this newly formed family by created by the Demigod Valverno. “You think Valverno’s new family is going to be a problem?” asked Geraldus.

  “All families have problems,” said Flarefur. The Griffin waved his head and shivered his wings. “I just hope his family won’t become violent. Valverno’s wife a Siren, which is own for eating people, and his sister is a fierce fighter and not to mention a White Knight. We both must hope for a miracle if we are going to survive those two female hostiles.”

  Then the Griffin followed after Marina.

  Geraldus signed of the Griffin’s answer and followed him out.

  W

  Sora led the group out from the building and walked through many passages that looked exactly the same in the capital city. Narrow passage ways and alleys with no towers over the connected buildings had been built the same in the capital city on the surface world. The group walked through the passages of huts and houses built if they were all walkways. The only difference between this buried city and the city on the surface were the domed towers.

  The domed towers stretch over a hundred feet high. Other reached high as the rocky ceiling of the underground world, and these mysterious domed towers ranged from either high hundreds or to low thousands.

  While on the road, Valverno saw many abandon carts and empty vendor stocks. Everything the hybrid saw was covered in cobwebs.

  The only living, breathing beings down here are living, breathing, crawling spiders, he thought. And I wonder how these spiders manage to survive these past ten thousand years without any flies or mosquitoes. Yet alone how the buildings are still standing if this entire city came crumbing down by earthquakes and tremors. I sure wish all of my memories have been restored, so could remember what happened.

  Quickly enough, the group had come across an open courtyard with a waterless fountain in the center. The courtyard was empty and silent. Instead of a large crowd with many lovely couples with a romantic large fountain pouring spring water and romance blossoming in the air, it was a dead, dreadful courtyard silent as a graveyard.

  In the surrounding buildings, several domed towers had been built to a very low level, sprouting twice taller than trees. Houses with curved rooves were built in the manner of every farm house on the island’s surface. All the buildings looked the same down here as they did on the surface world, excluding the tall towers.

  The group was silent as the large, empty courtyard. Sora came walking to the fountain with web invested all over the stone structure. She showed no emotion when she first looked upon the cobwebbed fountain.

  “Remembering something from this thing?” asked Geraldus.

  Sora glimpsed at the man before turning her eyes away from him. “I have no memories of this fountain. It would be more toward the inner city; we on the far boundaries. Everyplace you see is what you can call a city within a city. The district we’re in is the suburbs, which is the smaller part of the main city. The suburbs are small districts surrounding the main city, which is inward. More directly toward the center of this underground world.

  “Valverno and I were raised toward the center of this city. But why am I stopping here? My brother and I would walk through one of these courtyards, but not the one we’re at right now. We would watch wizards and witches conjure their magic and we would stare at them for hours, eager to learn of what magic we can learn and how we could harness them from complete nothingness.

  “To you modern-day people, matter can’t be created nor destroyed. The science of today’s evolution never excited in the ancient days when Pangaea was around. Our races were blessed with longevity, peace, and great pride. Certain traits that kept my generation in a perfect balance, with no crimes or any negativity. The Second Generation of the Living Life was the perfect age to be living in.

  “And my brother. Oh, how the crowds would hail him everywhere. When the news spread he was born a demigod from my mother, he couldn’t bear the thought of becoming Pangaea’s world famous demigod. He couldn’t stand the large crowds and tolerate the loud howling of noises. He was so agitated when he couldn’t get a moments peace.”

  “Isn’t that something,” said Geraldus.

  “What?” asked Valverno.

  “She knows more about you than yourself do and more than I do.”

  “Yeah, because those events happened ten thousand years ago. How could you remember what happened during that time frame? Oh, that’s right. You weren’t born then. Of course, I am
suffering memory loss, so the most logical way to learn history is by talking to someone who lived during that time: Sora.”

  “So am I becoming a historian now?” asked Sora. “When I was born from Mother, you first you treated me as a little infant. After that, you treat me like an equal then to a warrior and finally a cult follower. What am I becoming next: a historian?”

  “I will gladly make you into a female historian after this war with Lusìvar is over,” said Valverno, “depending if any of us do survive this war that is.” Valverno remembered the mention of Alaric’s death, Geraldus’s eldest son died during the hybrid’s wedding.

  “You seem sad all of a sudden,” said Sora. Sora could feel the sadness in Valverno’s mind, but she couldn’t read his thoughts.

  Valverno signed. “It was during my wedding day.” Valverno bent a leg on the fountain’s small wall. “A person, a man I called a brother died during that event. I was so focused on my enemies I couldn’t save the man from the clutches of death.”

  Geraldus strolled his eyes from the hybrid. Now Geraldus was remembering the death of his eldest son Alaric. Even though he may be consider the wedding to be an unexpecting ambush and a big all-out fight, Geraldus couldn’t accept the fact Valverno running off into battle and taking on the enemy while leaving else behind to fend for themselves.

  Sora caught her eye on Geraldus’s eyes rolling away from Valverno. She could see how this was unfolding. “I can see it now,” she said. “This man killed at a ceremony of two distant lovers was someone of great importance I could imagine: a brother-figure and a son.” Sora looked at Geraldus. “You have raised my brother in your family, which means this death being mention must be a son related to you, Geraldus.”

  Geraldus flinched his ear. This was the first time his name was being called from a girl claiming to be Valverno’s sister and having been born thousands of years ago. Maybe this girl was acknowledging him as the man for raising Valverno in his family.