Dawn of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “So, you don’t plan on uniting us?” asked the woman.

  “Honestly, I don’t know,” Vaeludar admitted. “I didn’t come this way to unite divided clans. Though I will take into consideration into uniting clans like you say I can, but I need to stay true to my original objectives: find and gather these armor-pieces Ralenskrit and Belverda tried to find but failed to deliver.

  “For now, I’m done talking for a day. I just took out a Five-Headed Dragon at the cost of the life of a White Knight, who had passed her power to another girl. Now, I need some rest.”

  Vaeludar stood up and strolled out of the hut. He gazed his hybrid eyes on his right arms. The armor consumed Vaeludar’s entire right arm, ranging from his fingertips to his right shoulder and the same was with his left arm. The red scales that covered his arms to his elbows stretched upward to his shoulders. He still had human skin on his half human torso, but his arms were more dragonized.

  Vaeludar strapped the Crystal Sword around his chest, hanging the weapon on his back. Then he gruntingly sighed and strolled away.

  “Vaeludar!” cried Marina. The Siren exited the hut inches away from his slivering tail.

  Vaeludar sighed, slightly impatient. He stopped after taking his third step from the hut. He roared loudly in his mind, he could feel the farthest mountain all the way down south breaking down to small hills. “Is there something else they want?” he asked.

  “Don’t be so irrational about these people! You just saved their lives from the Shadow King. Having these people from these clans, whatever they are, would definitely increase our chances of success against him.”

  “I came to the north to find armor. First off, uniting these people wasn’t part of my plans. I fought a hydra-like beast with a White Knight who died in battle. Not to mention I nearly died in the cave when a million of rocks fell upon me. I barely got out of there, if it weren’t for the armor. I displayed more of a fighter instead of a negotiator.

  “Let King Uragiru do that. I’m going to stick to my original plans first, and find the last two remaining armor artifacts. Then I’ll worry about uniting these people, alright?”

  “When are you going to stop being selfish?”

  Vaeludar tilted his head. “What’s more important? Finding an armor set and therefore standing equally powerful as the Shadow King and be able to stop him on his next major or uniting clans and therefore giving Lusìvar more time to regenerate for his next attack of human life?”

  The Siren remained silent.

  Vaeludar shook his head, knowing Marina remained silent. Then he heavily sighed as he exhaled a puff of smoke. “I need some rest. We can talk more in the morning. I’m relatively exhausted from the fight I had, and flying from here-to-there and everywhere. I don’t want to be dragged into a dispute with any clans.” Vaeludar shook his wings and pondered around the village.

  Vaeludar had seen the buildings all built on two opposite ends like walking down a hallway with buildings on the walls. All were made from little stone and so much dirt. Dirt houses stood on other houses if they were built in the standard of a pyramid. Windows small as a horse head stood without glass. The village was in a very poor state that seemed to have no people working in any trade or blacksmithing.

  It was if he was walking through farmland where the farmers weren’t trained; the people weren’t probably skilled in any trade.

  The people stared in awe as the hybrid pondered the village. For years, it seemed they have lost hope of being liberated.

  And to make plans worse, Vaeludar had never thought to be uniting the people, especially the people he was looking at. They seemed to be more skilled as peasants than warriors. And after being under the influence of the Shadow King for who knows how long, Vaeludar wonders if they are skilled in any method of trade like blacksmithing or farming.

  After he walked through the village, he walked up to the statue of the Crystal Dragon, where he made an entrance and battled Lusìvar. The events happened so fast from the falling rocks in the cave to the great battle Vaeludar felt he went through a time warp that lasted for three seconds. His memories were vague from the falling boulders and placing the armor artifact on his arm in the naked of time.

  What does it matter now? Vaeludar was alive and survived the horrible events. Now, he had to look to the future of preserving future lives, without the usage of dark magic threating to change every life upside down.

  Suddenly, the eyes of the dragon statue glowed. Two white-purple flares stared at Vaeludar’s eyes. The hybrid felt himself being pulled toward the glaring dragon statue. His wings had stiffened and his legs frozen. Vaeludar’ tried to resist but his body was still as a statue to the bone. He closed his eyes, wishing he had greater power at resisting and of a sudden he stopped.

  Vaeludar was in control of his body. He reopened his eyes to view what was going on. His dragon-humanoid eyes saw a dark horizon with a horrible mixture of a crimson sky with swirling red-black clouds. A haunted wasteland lay bared in a toxic environment. A high wind gushed the air with poisonous fumes and decaying fogs.

  Vaeludar found himself staying on a pile of rotten human skeletons. Alarmed by the new change of sight, Vaeludar flapped his wings and floated from the ground. The village he was in had dispersed into a deadly, graveyard-like wasteland. The lands he stared at were flatlands, which would mean he was in a completely different location. He felt like he was going through a nightmare he wouldn’t want to dream about.

  Where am I? he asked himself. Was this the future when Lusìvar takes over? Was this a nightmare I’m dreaming? Or was this a vision I’m seeing? A vision the Crystal Dragon was showing from… thousands of years ago when he was fighting Lusìvar when he was in power?

  Vaeludar began to wonder where he was, let alone when he was. He had to be experiencing a memory from the past.

  Then a strong wind had gushed through the hybrid’s ears. A pale storm of dust forced him to block his eyes with his hands. Unable to see, he heard wings flapping and endless dragon roars and war cries of a human. All sounds coming from one place then to another.

  Vaeludar tried to see what was going on, but the strong dusty storm was blowing his eyes and he was unable to see what was going on. The sounds he heard grow louder and softer very few seconds. And each passing second, he felt his ears being drilled through screams of war cries and echoing of a long war lasting centuries.

  After the wind seemly was dying down, Vaeludar immediately reopened his eyes and gazed upon a flying, scale-bright dragon flying in the sky and a huge human figure wearing heavy armor top-to-bottom and carrying a sword and a shield.

  The Crystal Dragon and Lusìvar, thought Vaeludar. He knew where he was and when: a memory of the two godlike beings fighting tens of thousands of years ago. He had to be in a trance if he was witnessing a turn of events that happened so long ago.

  Then he heard his name from echoed from thin air: “Vaeludar!”

  His name was repeated so many times. Vaeludar saw a large dust storm coming to him at high speed. It came flying toward him and from out of nowhere, he found himself being sucked into the storm. This time he covered his face with his wings, causing him to land on the ground. For this wind storm, Vaeludar wasn’t going to cower beneath a cover; he untwined his wings and held up his right arm.

  Vaeludar saw the statue of the Crystal Dragon and found he was back at the base of the village. He stood as he was before he had the vision. He felt if a thousand eyes were glaring at him in confusion. He turned around.

  Two clan leaders were looking at him, along with a dozen of villagers curiously gazing at him.

  “I just had a dream: a vision of some kind,” stated Vaeludar.

  “What about?” asked the woman in the feathered dress.

  “I must have seen the Crystal Dragon fighting Lusìvar that’s taken place thousands of years ago. I saw vile lands destroyed and no signs of life anywhere. No trees, houses, stray, and a whole bunch of dirt wi
th no mountains or hills as far as the eye can see. It was all red, dark, poisonous, and the worst kind of natural life I can think of. I couldn’t imagine what life could have been like under Lusìvar’s rule.”

  The people staring at him remained blankness.

  “Never mind what I’ve said. Forget I ever said anything.” Vaeludar strolled past the woman and stopped suddenly. He felt some muscles twitching in his wings and the side of his head.

  The hybrid widened his wings then he felt a twisty nerve-bone rattling on his left wing, preventing him to fly. Vaeludar tilted head and found his left wing’s paper-like skin drooled several blood veins, as well with the other wing. Both his wings were popping out blood veins.

  “What are these?” The hybrid looked upon his blood-vein wings. Then he remembered: blood-veined wings were marking a beginning of dragon maturity, the event of a teenage dragon becoming a full grown adult. Vaeludar couldn’t believe it when he thought of his half-dragon body was maturing into a grown adult.

  Vaeludar took a quick glance at his human skin; a few scales grown on his chest, elbows, and the back of his hands, and his claws on his fingertips grew an inch. He touched his ears and he felt his horns had grown an inch longer. His hair was redder and grew a few inches longer, which covered his ears.

  “I’m guessing my dragon persona is in the maturing process, at a quick rate in that manner,” he said.

  Within minutes, Vaeludar still retained his human appearance, with some dragon features on his skin. The twitching he felt in his wings had ceased, and he felt like a grown man.

  The dragon process was a dragon instinct that had grown. Being raised by humans all his life never, Vaeludar never had the spirit or the personality of a dragon hatchling. But during the fights from the Minotaur to the Dragon with five heads, Vaeludar’s inner dragon was taking shape of his half-human body.

  With the new appearance and his dragon personality aging from hatchling to teenage, Vaeludar was now feeling tired. This fast-rapid aging process consumed a lot of his body energy more energy than he consumed when he fought the two-legged bull and the Five-Headed Dragon. He needed to rest for the night.

  Vaeludar strolled back to the statue, where he saw a small glimpse of the past: the Crystal Dragon fighting Lusìvar. There he found the male clan leader wearing the bear fur.

  “Have you been waiting for me?” asked Vaeludar.

  “Not for long,” said the clan leader, “If you want, you may rest here for as long as you need. This is my village you have fought with the Shadow King. Please, rest here for a few days. You can resupply and get to know more about us, before you resume your journey south. Consider this as my token of my appreciation for liberating us from his tyranny.”

  “Well, I can’t refuse the offer,” said Vaeludar. “I need some sleep myself. But I need to know where Marina and my companions are.”

  “Since your companions are your allies, we wanted to know their names and get to know them better, at least. And I know of the tales of Sirens. But this Siren is different than legends say.”

  “Okay, no harm done by knowing what was to know about us. Do you know where she is?”

  “Yes, but first I want to award you with something else.”

  “Please, there is nothing else I could ta—”

  “I insist,” said the bear-fur clan leader.

  “Okay, show me.”

  The clan leader led Vaeludar to the tallest building built a distance to the northeast. It was a circular tower-like building with a ruby glimmering dome. The windows were plastered with dull emeralds, and the stoned walls weakly shined the falling sun’s orange light. The door was long and wide. The clan leader pulled the door open and darkness covered the inside. Then something shined brightly inside.

  Gold!

  Hordes of gold, emerald, and jewels covered the inside of the building. Several statues picture of long-bearded men hung from the high walls, weapons were plastered beneath each window, and hills of golden coins and precious jewels were dumbed if they were worthless.

  “Anything you want, please take,” the clan leader offered.

  Vaeludar gazed in awe yet carelessness. He saw mountains of cold in the cave, which had a lot more than this small amount. He wasn’t greedy; the last gift he would accept was gold.

  He took a few seconds and pondered the hills of golden treasure, and in one corner his dragon eyes gazed upon a neckless of sapphire pearls and diamonds. Shocked to see something of great value for his beloved Siren, Vaeludar quickly flew over and grabbed the sapphire neckless and exited the building.

  “This will do,” he said.

  “Is that all?” asked the clan leader.

  “Yes, that is all. I’m not greedy like Lusìvar. I’m a freedom fighter, not a power-hungry king who wants to make slaves of other people. And besides, this necklace is a key to my greatest treasure.”

  “If you insist,” said the clan leader.

  “Thank you. And where is the Siren?”

  “She is at the tallest building on the southernmost side of my village. It will have a coyote statue on the roof.”

  Vaeludar nodded his head and soared into the air.

  “And by the way: my name is Orinù,” shouted the clan leader.

  Vaeludar heard the name of the clan leader, whose name was Orinù, before he rose ten feet high above the ground and headed straight for the building he heard Orinù mentioned. He flew to the south side of the village, to try to find the coyote statue. It was a hard thing to find, but eventually, Vaeludar managed to find the house with the coyote statue.

  It seemed abandon for years, all wore and torn brick-by-brick. The house didn’t look inviting, but if it is where Marina is at, then it had to be where the Siren is at.

  Vaeludar sighed and strolled through the broken door.

  The entryway was a long stairway going up. Vaeludar followed the stairway, stepping over fifteen steps and stopped at a dead end. Two doors on the right and the left were what Vaeludar had found. Find it difficult, he used his sniffing to try to smell Marina’s scent, since Sirens do semi-smell like fish such as tuna or salmon, but not a strong recommendation for fish food.

  Vaeludar smelt a weakly fish scent coming from the door on the left. He straightened his back and folded his wings and knocked on the door.

  “I know you are there,” said Marina’s voice, softly.

  Vaeludar never knew Marina would have sensible first guess. Vaeludar fearlessly opened the door, ready to see what was inside. He opened the door at a regular speed, not being fast or slow. And he found a few candles lit by a comfortable bed Marina was lying on and window with a great look at the setting sun and a crescent moon.

  Vaeludar found the Siren seemed to have changed her appearance, and mostly due to her hunt garments lying on the ground. Marina’s skin was a darker blue.

  “Whoa!” gasped Vaeludar. “Is this the Siren I’ve saved?”

  “Yes, this is the Siren you saved.” Marina was far more beautiful looking during the night than in the day.

  “Well, this brings out another Siren,” said Vaeludar, trying to conceal the sapphire neckless with his right arm and his wings.

  “And I can see you have change. Is the dragon inside you starting to hit the bed?” Marina was starting to talk seductively like a real Siren luring sailors to their doom.

  “Don’t even get started there,” snapped Vaeludar. “I’m not here to be seduced into making unnecessary action.”

  “Then what you are here for?”

  Vaeludar walked to the window, gazing away from the fully siren-formed Marina. He gazed at the three moons that were yellow-striped with a purple haze, reminding him of what the moons looked like back in Geraldus’s village.

  “With so little precious time left, before Lusìvar attacks again,” he said, “I want the both of us to have some quality time together. I want us to both have a house of our own. I want it built on a high altitude almost nea
r a cliff overlooking the ocean, with high surroundings. A place where we can live maybe during the winter, before we…” Vaeludar paused.

  “Before we what?” asked Marina.

  Vaeludar looked toward the Siren and smiled. “Before we get married.”

  Marina looked with confused at first. But her confusion faded into a shocking realization: he was proposing to her, asking her to marry him. Her eyes began to tear up with tears of joy. She covered her pounding heart. The hybrid who saved her life was proposing to her. The hybrid who saved a Siren, a creature considered by a vile monster, was asking for her hand without taking a sweat.

  “Do you really mean it?” she asked.

  “Why else would I give you this neckless of sapphires to you?” Vaeludar held up the neckless of sapphires he made chose from the building he found the neckless. The sapphires matched Marina’s sapphire eyes

  “Oh, Vaeludar…” Marina jumped out of the bed and dashed to the hybrid. She wrapped his arms around his scaly-skin neck.

  “Are you always this so lovable? I swear at times, I don’t understand the personality of a Siren yet you look so cute.”

  “You often say ‘judge by personality and not appearance.’ Was the great and powerful hybrid starting to judge me as a human, not a Siren? Sirens do have sensitive personalities and much more complex than a human’s personality. I thought you, of all hybrids, should know that.”

  “I am the only hybrid to be Dragon and human. Lookalike hybrids such as Mermaids and Centaurs aren’t part of the evaluation of humans or what I’ve heard from—”

  “Oh, shut up and just love me!”

  Vaeludar blinked silently. He just had gotten silenced by the lovable-hostile Siren. The Siren he just proposed to marry just silenced him. That wasn’t very lovable of Marina the Siren.