Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  The Piper didn’t come close to killing the hybrid but managed to fling one of the daggers to Valverno.

  Valverno moved with an inch length of the dagger’s pointed tip, but the dagger’s sharp blade grazed a little more skin at the bottom of his new scar. Then Valverno snapped his tail at the dagger, carrying the weapon at the tip of his tail.

  After catching the dagger, Valverno looked at the stained glass window at the back of the throne room. The hybrid took charge in that direction and exhaled a powerful gush of wind toward the glass, making a hole through the window and glass shattering to many shining dust.

  Both Valverno and Geraldus exited through the hole and out of the fiery throne room. Marina and Sora were confused of what was going on, and couldn’t think of why the men were withdrawing from the fight.

  Sora tried to argue, but Valverno wouldn’t listen to her; he was focused on retreating. After getting out of there, Sora was irritated by being carried by Valverno and saw it as a coward’s way of turning away from battle.

  “What are you doing?” asked Sora. “We need to turn back and kill those people.”

  “Do you think I didn’t want to. I wanted to. However, the Piper I hated all my life gave me a new reminder: I have a weakness, and if we stayed in there, there would have been a chance I could have gotten killed. And I don’t know why I didn’t pick up the Piper’s scent from my nose, and I could detect any scent in the throne room. Yet the Piper kept his scent a secret. We are retreating to the Western Region and plan what to do next.”

  Valverno flew higher into the sky and higher and higher, without looking back at the capital city. His flying direction turned toward from flying to the sky, to the direction of the east. He, along with Geraldus, went flying to the Western Region. They both needed to inform the other beings of King Uragiru’s betrayal and a witch had joined Lusìvar’s side.

  ON THE BEACHES

  Valverno and Geraldus soared past Geraldus village and on the shorelines of the beaches. Valverno released the two girls he was carrying, as Geraldus reverted back into his ordinary man’s form and pretended he never was a White Knight. The hybrid walked over to the shoreline, the waving water soared past his dragon feet. His eyes ushered great disappointment; the King Uragiru had betrayed them allied with the Shadow King Lusìvar.

  It was just at the brick of sunset. The orange sun in the distant horizon glittered in his eyes. Instead of seeing it as a priceless view, Valverno saw the brightness as dull as his life.

  Everything he saw within the time that happened so fast. Valverno found the answers he had been searching for, but he’d never expected them to be dark as he thought. He was never the son of a mortal dragon scientist or a witch doctor; he was a demigod from an ancient land of Pangaea, a legendary hero from the stories he heard from Geraldus.

  And the witch, Belverda, was never his mother to begin with, but a witch trying to subdue the hybrid into a torment of being control by the witch, trying to use his godly power for Lusìvar.

  Valverno had learned from Belverda wanted to use the demigod’s godly power as a weapon for Lusìvar’s rise to power, but ended up backfiring on her. And Valverno had no idea of where Ralenskrit was fitting in the idea of experimenting of Valverno, and he’ll never know since Ralenskrit was in an eternal stone prison.

  Sora placed a hand on his shoulder, connecting to his mind and reading the distraught he had fallen upon: the harsh truth of Belverda trying to use Valverno as a weapon. Sora could feel a great darkness growing inside him: a dreadful lust to kill Belverda. She felt this growing slowly like a snail moving with a heavy shell.

  Sora could feel herself becoming afraid of Valverno’s growing darkness. She couldn’t think Valverno would not become a demonic voice just like Lusìvar was: the great being he was trying so hard to get rid of. He was nowhere the same hybrid she remembered looking up to when she was a kid; Sora wasn’t seeing the determination, strength, or light he once had. She saw Valverno had great knowledge of how quickly to do with things, but she wasn’t seeing that personality inside this darkening demigod.

  “Valverno,” she said, with great grievance. “What are you thinking?”

  Valverno signed.

  “What is there to think? King Uragiru has betrayed the entire island. Belverda tried to turn me into a weapon to use as Lusìvar would saw fit to use. Ralenskrit took his own life. And Lusìvar is somewhere hiding on this island, observing us very closely.”

  “It sounds like you have given up,” said Geraldus.

  Valverno stood silently, gazing at the distant horizon as he was feeling very out of place for an uncertain future many may not see

  “Well, what do we do now?” asked Marina.

  “Well, we have two traitors joining Lusìvar’s and our list of allies is diminishing,” said Geraldus. ‘And with King Uragiru having command the majority of the island, my army of the Western Region will have no chance of standing against the king. Even with Valverno two-thirds strong as he is and if Lusìvar joins up with the king and the witch, any battle will be in their favor.”

  “Then the odds are against us and it will be no easy task trying to seek allies,” said Sora. “What do you want us to do, Valverno?”

  Valverno was lost with words; he two White Knights waiting give to give them orders. How could he give orders at this point? He made more enemies more he did allies. Now with only the Western Region under Geraldus command, no one may be able to survive another year with Belverda and the king joining Lusìvar.

  But he wasn’t let the odds of survival consume his mind. Valverno knew there were other people who could help him in his fight against the evil forces. And he knew both White Knights were sensing the darkness growing inside him. He knows about the evilness growing somewhere inside him and he wasn’t going to let it take control of him.

  With the upmost determination to beat the darkness swelling within, Valverno spun to look at the three people with him. “Gather what allies we know and whatever potential people who could be allies, Geraldus. We’re going to need as much people as we can.”

  “I’ll go call my bannermen,” said Geraldus. “And I’ll try to ask for help for some clans in the Southern Swamps. I’m not sure if the Swamp People will help us, but they do not show any loyalty to the king.”

  “Those people are going to be hard to convince,” said Marina.

  “How so?” asked Valverno.

  “I’ve been there a couple times with King Uragiru. I’ve seen firsthand of their personalities. They love and are obsessed with plant life more than human life, and they also love animals. They would kill anyone who would pull even a small weed from the ground. They’re not going to be convinced to walk away from their homeland.”

  “I’m aware of them and their views of plant life,” said Geraldus. “One single cut of one tree vine, and the person cutting the vine would end up losing their hand before he or she would cut a second vine.

  “On a different subject, there are a few favors I did for them throughout my life. Some thousands would be able to return, but I don’t know how many Swamp People will be come to repay the favors they now owe me.”

  “That’s brilliant thinking,” said Valverno. “And I hear they are trained to fight in any terrain, from the cold ice of the highest mountain to the hottest sand of the desert.” Valverno was starting to see there could be a possible chance of standing against King Uragiru, and he thought of another person who could really help them in their fight.

  “I know a person who could help us: Teutates.”

  “Teutates? Are you insane?” asked Geraldus.

  Sora blinked at this name she’s never heard of. “Teutates? Who is he?”

  “He is a distant relative of King Uragiru,” answered Marina.

  “Are you really insane?” asked Sora. “A distant relative of the most political man on this island who has royal authority? Not to mention he knows how to fight as a thirty year old man.”

  “Does anyone else have any
other options as an alternative to Teutates?” asked Valverno.

  They remained silent.

  “Well, there are the Northern Clans, aren’t there?” asked Marina.

  “I already had that in mind. And I know about the reputation Teutates has: he hates creatures as he does magic. And I have a feeling his ancestor rebelled against Uragiru’s ancestor for that reason: King Uragiru’s ancestor, who is the older brother of Teutates’s ancestor, made a secret alliance with Lusìvar and kept it secret ever since. The younger brother must have found out and tried to rebel against him but failed.”

  “That is just a theory,” said Geraldus.

  “I know, but it will remain a theory until we have the knowledge to say otherwise. King Uragiru may have the knowledge. So, unless one of us four wants to go back and try to tell us about those two ancestors of his or convince him to join us, I’ll be taking the risk with Teutates.”

  “Are you sure going to him is a wise thing?” asked Marina. “He hates all creatures. Dragons. Unicorns. Centaurs. Even Sirens. He hates all magic and creatures of the sorts. He only cares of humankind.”

  “Refresh my memory, Marina, who was it to invite him to our wedding before it was crashed?” asked Valverno.

  Marina grinded her teeth, knowing it was her who was invited the distant relative of King Uragiru to her and Valverno’s wedding day. She now was regretting the decision of inviting the despicable man to her wedding day. “Of course, it was me. But are you willing to take that risk?”

  “One thing I have learned about war is victory can’t be achieved unless there are high, deadly risks, like the time I sacrificed myself to save a group of people from a collapsing cave. We know what King Uragiru is now, but we hardly know any more about Teutates. If he hates magic, then we may able to have a chance to stand against the king and the witch.”

  “If that is your plan, then I won’t argue,” said Geraldus. “I’ll head to my village and try to send word to gather all my bannermen to assemble and hopefully send out word the king has joined Lusìvar before he could tell the island I turned traitor,” said Geraldus.

  “But before you go,” said Valverno, walking up to Geraldus. Valverno’s tail swirled to Valverno’s view and used his hand to pick up an object.

  The knife the Piper flung and Valverno luckily caught in his tail. Valverno held the knife in his hand and glared at it with anger. He saw there was red, dried blood on the blade: it was the knife that gave Valverno the scar on his eye. Valverno remembered he blocked only one knife but not the other, and this knife was the one he didn’t block on time.

  “Take this with you and find out what material it’s made from. Whatever it is, the metal is sharp enough to cut me, which means this thing is my main weakness of piercing through my skin.”

  Geraldus grabbed the knife and made with haste from the beaches and to his home village. The White Knight of Loyalty rushed back as fast as he could to his village and to send his messenger birds everywhere to tell of King Uragiru’s betrayal.

  Valverno was left with the two girls who were part of his personal life and bonded by family means. “There can never be enough manpower in any family I come across.”

  “Why don’t you try to push out some extra heat at the cottage?” asked Marina.

  Valverno twirled his tail around Marina and pulled her closely to him at point blinking range of his eyes. Then Valverno placed a hand around Marina to prevent her from escaping his grip. “My legs sure could make the heat instead of my dragon fire warming up the environment.”

  They both shared a kiss, knowing there was love inside them instead of hate. Both Valverno and Marina still loved each other, despite one being a demigod hybrid and the other being a humanlike fish. Valverno and Marina still haven’t forgotten their vows they made to each other.

  As the two were having their lovely time, Sora was blinking endlessly at them.

  Valverno and Marina stopped their kissing and looked at Sora, the White Knight of Charity strangely looking at them. Sora was staring at them very oddly and strangely she couldn’t wrap her head that her brother married a different species and not someone ordinary of her species such a full human being.

  “What?” asked the wedded couple.

  “I can’t get over my brother married a humanoid fish that was an ordinary fish tens of thousands of years ago,” said Sora.

  Marina released her arms from Valverno’s neck and looked at Sora. She walked closer to Sora with a very, unfriendly look.

  “And I can’t get over the fact my husband’s sister is a White Knight, yet the first White Knight of Charity. I still can’t over the fact my husband is a demigod from an, ancient dead land.”

  Valverno could see the tension rising again between the two girls, and he was in the center of the attention of another bitter talk Sora and Marina were having. Instead of acting like two sisters, they were treating each other as rivals fighting over the same hybrid.

  “Both of you, just stop!” he growled loudly.

  Marina and Sora stopped staring and both suddenly gave a glare at him. He gave a glare back at the two girls. He blinked once and a yellow mist swirled on the sides of his eyes. “Stop it at once, or I’m dismounting myself from this family you both are in now.”

  “You’re allowed to do that?” asked Marina. “You’re my husband.”

  “And he’s my brother!” said Sora.

  “And I am the son of the Crystal Dragon,” said Valverno. “Being half god means half of me as half divine. I can break all sacred vows of being a husband and a brother, even if I am half. It’s said the gods have some kind of power or breaking rules. Shall we find out if I could try it: breaking sacred rules that make me the husband of Marina and the half-brother of Sora?”

  Both girls remained silent.

  “Good. Now let’s just get along, since we part of a family now, Sora and Marina. Since Marina is my wife now and Sora is my half-sister, from today, you are sisters-in-law and you both will start treating each other as such if you were real sisters. This is my saying and it is absolutely final.

  “Tonight may be the last night of any peaceful comfort we may get. So let’s spend it with the time we have to each other, and let’s make it a small family reunion tonight and do get along well. Any bitterness you two have get rid of. As of this very moment, we are at war with King Uragiru and the people who follow him.”

  W

  Two hours had passed while the three were still standing on the beach and night had fallen over the sky. The night sky was filled with two purple moons and one blue moon. The stars flickered very brightly that a person could become blind in one flick of a flashy star. The night was more blossoming than the sunset was. Life was sparkling more lifelike than a big light setting with such dullness.

  The moons shined brightly to give enough light where dark were. High rocky cliffs and the waves of the watery ocean were seen by the starry night and moonlight. The moons weren’t as bright as the sun, but there was enough light to show the ocean terrain in the human eye.

  Valverno was standing on a high cliff with a good overlook at the beaches that shown beneath the three moons above. He could see out further out in the distant horizon and see other faraway rugged high cliffs.

  And he couldn’t pick a better spot than the one he was in right now. Dozens of yellow fireflies flew around him and Marina. Marina leaned her head against his shoulder, seeing how the hybrid she loved was starting to coming back.

  Sora was standing some distance from them, giving the two lovers she found very strangely clingy. She couldn’t get over the fact of two different species being in love. This was an idea she thought the Three Gods would consider very unnatural to the way of the Living Life. She wasn’t jealous of not spending time with her brother as they did when they were kids, but she just didn’t like the idea of two different species falling in love.

  As the night rolled on, the three were about to head to Geraldus’s village. They spent enough time as they have, if
was their last night to be alive on the island.

  After Valverno spent a romantic hour with Marina, the second hour he spent was with Sora on sparring, seeing what skills they knew. At first, the half-siblings started with ease but their training intensified when harder blows were being exchanged; in the end, both were equally skilled as the other.

  When they were walking through a valley of hills, Valverno heard a flick of a footstep coming their way. From the hard darkness, a shadowy figure appeared from the valley’s short hills while holding a small torch.

  His eyes, being like a lion’s eyes, saw it was Flavius walking his way; Flavius didn’t look happy.

  “Flavius, good to see you,” said Valverno. Valverno walked up to his foster brother with a smile, but Flavius gave no such smile back.

  “Father told me everything that has happened. King Uragiru. The White Knights. You being a demigod. Every scrap of detail, even your current form from the Pool of Shadows.”

  Valverno lost his smile, seeing how Flavius knows everything. “I’d guess you would have found out sooner or later. What happened with your younger siblings?”

  “No need to worry. Some Dragons gave us a ride back home, but not all of my siblings could have made back on Dragons’ backs.”

  Valverno knew why Flavius wasn’t smiling. “Listen. About Alaric, I am sorry for what had happen. There are no words for what happened to him and for not taking the right actions.”

  Flavius didn’t say a word about his oldest sibling, who lost his life in the battle during Valverno’s wedding. “You chose the people over your family; the family you lived since forever. There are no words of forgiveness and there is nothing that could heal for a lost life. Just don’t mention him near me.”

  Valverno nodded.

  “Since you already know Marina, let me properly introduce you to my half-sister and the first White Knight of Charity: Sora.”

  Valverno pointed to Sora and Flavius blankly looked at the girl he wasn’t going to show interest in.