by Ryan Johnson
For restless hours, the companions followed Worewolf. The wolf led them across the paths atop the mountains before walking on the sides of the mountains again. This time there were paths that were built as trading routs through the mountains.
The deeper they walked on the paths the sooner they saw smaller mountains and green trees in the northwest. These mountains were pillars of granite rocks formed over another rock. They went around for almost fifty miles long and wide.
“What kinds of mountains are those?” asked Vaeludar
“Those are called Chiricahua Mountains,” answered Worewolf, clearing rocks out of the way. “That is where you would have gone if you guys took the river through the fog. You wouldn’t be able to see where you’re going through those piled-rock mountains.”
“It is interesting how they are formed,” said Flavius, awed by the shapes the Chiricahua Mountains.
After looking at the granite, pillared-rocky mountains, they continued on.
When the day grew darker and colder, they were at the near the bases of the mountain borders. They rustled down.
Vaeludar looked on top of a hill they were on; there was another river just directly below them that led towards the north. In the north the river flows through, flatlands and marshes in the surrounding landscape. Lush green marshes and swamps were filled with ponds of swanky waters and the scent of molting grass and moldy leaves. The sun’s setting light dulled the landscape with the color of light brown.
Vaeludar could smell the swamps’ scent from where he was standing. He saw it would be a half-day’s travel if they go by the river.
“Go to that river,” said Worewolf, pointing his nose downwards. “There is a boat that will take you directly towards the lake. But before you cross the lake, you must pass through the swamps and marshes. It is a dangerous path to take but the quickest to go.”
The wolf and his pack gathered up small crowd.
“I thank you for trusting me,” said Worewolf, in a human voice.
“I knew it,” said Marina, drawing an arrow prepared to shoot the wolf. “They were waiting to hunt us.” Then she shot the arrow.
Suddenly, a flash of light sparked brightly as the sun, blinding everybody.
Vaeludar tried to see what the light, switching his human eyes to his dragon eyes. But his hybrid eyes, which could glare at the sun’s light for hours, couldn’t see the light.
“I knew he was about to end us,” shouted Marina, trying to shoot another arrow. She was the only who wasn’t stunned by the wolf’s light. As she was trying to aim, she couldn’t let go of her arrow. Something was holding her back. She couldn’t tell, with all her might, something was holding her back from firing the arrow.
“I know you would trust me, Vaeludar,” said a voice.
Vaeludar knew it had to be the wolf, with a different tone of voice.
“Present yourself to us,” shouted Vaeludar, barely glimpsing at the light.
The light blanked out.
Vaeludar opened his eyes and drew the sword. Marina finally released her grip of the second arrow. The arrow went flying and went clean through a clouded, ghostly figure.
The ghostly figure was wearing very bright white armor, bright as the sun. A helmet, which took the shape of a wolf’s head, hid the figure’s head; his eyes were shown. His was plated-armor on his legs and arms. His wore a leather jacket, which covered his upper body and upper legs, was strapped by a belt around his waist.
“I knew you would trust me,” said the white-armored figure.
“You’re not a wolf; you’re the White Knight of Trust!” exclaimed Vaeludar.
“Yes, I am, and you may call me Trust since I am entitled to that,” said the White Knight of Trust. “My name is Trust. My original name doesn’t matter anymore when I became a White Knight.
“A person’s birth name becomes erased and is then referred to the title the person becomes. Such as me, the White Knight of Trust. My name becomes Trust.”
“Then why did take the form of a wolf?” asked Marina.
“I had a wolf had my companion when I lived as the first White Knight of Trust,” said Trust. “He and I fought alongside for years. When I was about to fade away from time itself, my wolf died with me. His body became mine and so we both became one with each other. But now my time had come to enter the netherworld between life and death. It was my duty to guide people from one side of the mountain to this side. Now the deed is done, and I can go free.”
“Didn’t you ever lead any people before?” asked Vaeludar.
“No, when people first see me, they see a wild wolf. I don’t growl but the Spirit Wolves do, and those growling Wolves make the travelers run away in fear or die of a frightful shock.”
“That is why no one ever came back,” stated Monico.
“Yes, because of me, people would get scared so easily they would lose control of themselves to fear,” continued Trust.
The clouds of the White Knight started to fade away.
“I will take my leave now. You are on your own now. Before you meet your journey’s end, Vaeludar, you will meet another White Knight: Charity. And after the other, you will meet someone who was once very close to you, hybrid, someone from your long-lost past.”
Amazement sparked Vaeludar’s dragon eyes. “Where would I find the White Knight before you go completely?” he asked, prudently.
“For years, we Knights have waited for the person to come to fight against Lusìvar. Trust me, Vaeludar, you know her and she calls your name since she was taken prisoner, and another girl from your past will come after the current White Knight of Charity’s role is finished,” finished Trust.
The ghostly image of Trust was gone. The cloud his ghost appeared in went back towards the twilight sky.
Flavius, Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, Flarefur who was flying down, and Marina stood emotionless as the ghost of the first White Knight of Trust faded away from their view.
They were now on their own again.
Vaeludar sighed and said, “The princess in the Lost Castle is a White Knight of Charity? A girl from my past? But how can…? Never mind. Get some sleep, people and Griffin. Once again, we’ll start at dawn.”
Within the next five minutes, everyone and Flarefur settle down and went fast asleep.
Vaeludar was going to stay up all night again as he kept hearing the girl’s voice calling his name all night long, and Vaeludar wondered what girl from his past the White Knight of Trust was talking about. He could only wonder what would happen next. There was so much about his past he didn’t know of. He was starting to wonder if he was something more than just a human dragon hybrid.
It seemed he may finally get some answers at his journey’s end, which he knew would be some time before he could get the answers he had been searching for.
A PIPER AND A TRIO OF WITCHES
V
aeludar woke everyone up at the site of the red sunset. For once since they walked through the other side of the mountain border, they see a nice sunrise; light of the sun flickering the clouds with passive pink. He could see a real sunset than he saw the days he had been there. He never expected to have traveled through a large and wide mountain range in just days.
It took some time for Vaeludar’s companions to get up, stretch, move around, and other stuff to wake themselves from their sleepy night. Last night, they did sleep well enough to walk for two full days and nights. After waking, they ate the fruits instead of the meat, which happen to be a great relieve from Vaeludar. They had only one more bag of meat left.
After finishing their meal for the day, Vaeludar burnt any fruit core remnants. Even though they managed to go through the mountain within a few days, Vaeludar didn’t want to take the chance of leaving anything any trace that they were there, due to the Hobgoblins following them.
After making sure every fruit core and any traces of food was burnt to ash and scattered all around the rocks, they were ready to
leave. Immediately after scattering the ashes, the group got up and left.
“Everyone ready?” asked Vaeludar.
They nodded their heads.
“Then let’s go,” he ordered. With that said, they picked up the bags they each were carrying and continued on their way.
During the entire morning, they descended downward from the mountain top they were at. Even though the pathway down looked easy as baking a pie, they still found it dangerous. Boulders and other large rocks had lain across the group descending on the mountainside. They didn’t see it easy to descend, but found a bunch of lose rocks that could slip and fall at any time.
They may have received help from a long dead White Knight, but they didn’t seem to have help of what lies before them. They were on their own as to how they were going to continue. They traveled this far and considered they were almost out the mountain range.
Still, they had a lot of land to travel, and they had no idea of what will come cross on their long journey. It would be a few days before anything can be for certain. For the time, it was a lot of walking and traveling on their feet across a terrain of mountains. No one, but the Griffin, can take flight.
On the mountainside, the group was coming solid land and found themselves walking amidst a ruined fortress covered by a glooming fog and three tall towers with a large torn wall built around the towers.
“What was this place supposed to be?” asked Marina.
“I don’t know,” said Vaeludar.
“This place looks like it used to be a monastery,” said Wonomi.
“How would you know that?” asked Flavius.
“I learned about ancient fortresses built in the southern swamps of Shimabellia when I was training of how to be a military trained sprinter. Ancient fortresses in the southern swamps look like what we are seeing here.”
“If such things excited in the south, why are we seeing one in the north?” asked Vaeludar.
“It is said that before the kingdom of Shimabellia was ever founded, they was a great empire that ruled the island. I would say some thousands of years before the first King of Shimabellia ever ruled. And the people constructed fortresses, like this one, as a place of worship.
“They would worship some kind of Shadow God they believed would bring an age of darkness and eternal pain and suffering. They were shadow cults that served the base of this long, dead empire now forgotten. Only ruins they left behind still remain.”
“And it would seem this was one of those fortresses, or monasteries, would be those places of worshiping this Shadow God, which I have no doubt would be none other than Lusìvar,” said Vaeludar.
“What makes you say that?” asked Galvin.
“Think about it from all the stories,” said Vaeludar. “There were a few survivors from the Second Generation of which Pangaea was still around: Valverno and the four White Knights. They taught the ancient people of how life and thrive. And, all of a sudden, they vanished.
“And then, I would guess, that would be around the time Lusìvar would take the opportunity to corrupt the minds of the early humans to forge an empire. That is the logical way I would have to guess how history could be taught.”
“Almost sounds true, but it is all theories,” said Monico. “But parts of those stories seem to be true.”
“How?” asked Marina.
“We met a White Knight,” said Monico.
“But he didn’t tell us about the past, only what’s ahead,” said Flavius.
Vaeludar gave a small grunt suddenly. “Enough talk about ancient societies. Come up with all the theories we want, only the people of the long-distant past would know that kind of knowledge now dead. We have a goal to keep in mind, and we need to continue on.”
They nodded in agreement and continued on their way down from the mountainside, leaving the foggy fortress behind them.
Soon enough, they could hear the sounds of a river rushing down from the high mountain elevation. Snow that melt from the mountaintops would have its draining water flow from the mountaintops, flow down on the mountainsides, and flow into a single stream that would turn into a large river.
Vaeludar and his company finally made their way down to the river and somehow they would have to follow it down to the place where they are going. The question was: where is the boat the White Knight’s ghost mentioned? It was nowhere in sight of them. They were going have to search for it.
Just as Vaeludar took his first step to the river, music flutes of a pipe was heard. Echoes from the distant edges of the hill, where the sounds of the river running closely to where a large trench was coming from.
Fluting and water sounds mix together sounded of a hypnotizing tone. Voices of singing of girls, sounding like Marina’s singing voice, joined with the pipe.
The music notes of a pipe and siren-like singing voices sounds had echoed in Vaeludar’s hybrid ears. Strangely enough, the music was too familiar to him.
Flavius, Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, Flarefur, and Marina were hearing the sounds as well. They were alarmed when the sounds came abroad.
“What is that? Sirens?” asked Wonomi.
“I’m the last Siren, remember?” said Marina.
Then the men and the Griffin looked at Marina, knowing she is a Siren. Sirens did have a reputation of singing and they all decided to keep their distances from her and keep close to Vaeludar.
“Vaeludar, what’s wrong?” asked Wonomi. “Is that a Siren with a flute?”
“Have you not heard what Marina said?” asked Vaeludar. “She is the last Siren, and Sirens don’t need instruments to sing.
“And since we have the last Siren with us, there is no telling what we are going to come across.” Vaeludar pulled out the sword from his back, with the sun’s light flickering with the swirling cloud inside the blade. “But I remember this rhythm all too well. I haven’t heard this music since I was younger.”
“What do you mean?” asked Galvin.
“Something too personal Flavius and I don’t want to remember,” answered Vaeludar, sternly. “We’ll end up seeing them ahead.”
Vaeludar walked to the higher rocky edges and looked where the river was rushing down. He could see a long line of smoke rising from a close fire pit. From a nearby distance, Vaeludar could see a few figures bending over like weakly elderly humans.
“Tell them,” said three soggy voices.
The group joined up with Vaeludar and hastily looked from the terrain they were on.
Before their eyes, there were three hunched, white-haired, frail old women with the ugliest faces imaginable with infected freckles.
One man behind them was standing lean and tall.
He stood slightly taller than Vaeludar’s height. His hair, clothing, part of his face, and little parts of his body were black. His face structure was devilish-looking and heavily scared with four scars of dried blood, two of red and two of blue. One scar in particular was stashed cross his left eye. The color of gold was in his right eyes while his scared eye was blinded. Two shortswords hung from his sleeves.
Vaeludar’s eyes glared with anger as soon he saw four familiar faces he came across five years ago. “It is them: three witches and their puppet,” said Vaeludar. Vaeludar jumped down and charged forward to them. He stopped while he was feet away, seeing how the piper he was hiding something.
“Hello… Fluting Piper. How’s the scar I gave you four years ago?”
The Fluting Piper stood aside and revealed a girl of eight years standing right behind him, which made Vaeludar and Flavius gasp. Much to their horror, the girl was Naìra.
“Naìra!” shouted Vaeludar.
Naìra stood there, hypnotized. She could not see her brothers nor hear them; Naìra was completely under their control.
“That’s twice: four years ago and now this!” said Flavius, charging forward.
“Flavius, don’t run!” warned Vaeludar.
It was too late; Flavius ran w
ith great haste to save his little sister. The Fluting Piper jumped forward and knocked Flavius’s sword of his hands. The Piper swung his swords at his opponent’s arms and legs, wounding Flavius in the arms and legs.
Yelling by four strikes to the body, Flavius fell to the ground being unable to move. His body became numb and he couldn’t move a muscle. Unfortunately, the weapons the Piper was holding must be drenched with some kind of paralyzing drug.
The Fluting Piper jumped towards Vaeludar.
Vaeludar was ready; he once seen the Fluting Piper in action, waving the two shortswords to and fro like a ninja and a chef cutting vegetables with two butcher knives. Vaeludar struck his blade against the Fluting Piper’s shortswords. They clashed as sparks rolled out.
“I didn’t have a sword four years ago when you tried to take the twin girls. Now, I have a magic sword and you are going to feel what it will be like when you have been felled by a human dragon hybrid. And I am going to do what I should have done four years ago: kill you!”
He swung the blades around and kicked the Piper in the face just like he did when he first met the Piper four years ago, only Vaeludar scratched the Piper’s face with his dragon claws of his feet.
The Piper rolled down the hill like a rock. Seeing how he would easily end the piper, Vaeludar turned to his companions behind him.
“Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, get the witches. Marina, heal Flavius and get my foster sister. I have something personal to with and… WHOA!”
The Piper charged at full strength and head-butted Vaeludar towards his companions uphill. Vaeludar crash-landed at Wonomi and Monico while his tail whipped Galvin. Marina rolled away in the naked of time.
Marina was quick enough and pulled out two arrows to shoot the Piper. In her clear view, she quickly shot the two arrows.
However, the Fluting Piper knocked away the flying arrows aside with one shortsword. Marina didn’t look worried; she kept her cool and didn’t give into fear.
Unfortunately for the Piper, this was a distraction for Vaeludar to get back on his feet. Back on his dragon feet, he pulled Wonomi and Monico back to their feet with his tail. Then he flew into the air. He blew a hard gush of wind at the Fluting Piper and the witches and Naìra.