Dawn of a Hybrid Read online

  The demigod was surprised at this news and didn’t want to fight anyone, and yet being the son of a god had enthused his mind. Being the son of a god would mean he could do anything he wanted.

  But the Crystal Dragon could read the demigod’s mind and said to him, “You shall not become like the Titans or Lusìvar. It is up to you not to become them. I chose you to be a fighter for the Light and Shadow, not a player of the gods. You must do your duty and defend life. You mustn’t conquer life; otherwise, you will make life more miscible than ever.”

  The demigod could barely understand what the dragon was saying. The mere thought of being a fighter had baffled him, the demigod did not even know what wanted to do with the power, let alone fight any ancient spirit.

  “Give yourself some time, my son,” said the Crystal Dragon. “You will understand when the time comes for the power within you to awaken. And you will need a name to go by, you cannot continue unnamed, and you will take the name mortals everywhere will remember: Valverno.”

  Then the fog faded and the demigod had been named Valverno. Valverno went back to his home and told his mother and foster father about the news of him being named by a strange fog. Celestreá la Mùne reminded Valverno she told him about his mortal father going away and being replaced by a god.

  The day had come: the end of the Second Generation. A large wave from the ocean put a large crack in Pangaea. The large cities and towns of Pangaea began to break apart from the large cracking earthquake and drown beneath the howling waves of the giant oceans.

  Celestreá la Mùne had foreseen the coming of the end of the Generation and needed to save her children. With the power she had within her heart she cast a spell on her daughter and Valverno. The two children floated into the air while she and her husband, who had been with her since her daughter’s birth, stayed behind.

  The two children had been saved, along with three other children, but the adults could not be saved and had been consumed by Pangaea’s destruction.

  The land of Pangaea was split into two different islands: one long and narrow, and the other of a dragon’s footprint.

  The five children witnessed the destruction of the Second Generation and the coming of the Third Generation of Living Life.

  After the destruction ceased and the creation of two new islands, Valverno, his half-sister, and the three other people had trouble settling down in the new islands. They mourned the loss of their parents, their loved ones and their home which had gone up in flames.

  Luckily, the godly power sleeping within Valverno’s mind had awakened and his young mind had been transformed into the mind of a leader. Within a short time, Valverno led the survivors through the new era, where they oversaw many new species that started out young from the Second Generation: Centaurs, Dragons, Faeries, Griffins, Merpeople, Pegasi, Sea Serpents, and Unicorns.

  These species survived the destruction of Pangaea somehow and managed to live. How they survived remained a mystery, but they weren’t the only ones to have survived. Evil creatures also came to the two islands: Banshees, Basilisks, Black Dogs, Chimeras, Cyclopes, Harpies, Manticores, and Minotaurs.

  Many primitive species had survived into the new Generation while Valverno and his companions were the only humans to have survived into the new Generation. After the power within the demigod had awakened, Valverno gave a small portion of his godly power to his companions.

  Valverno had become the fighter the Crystal Dragon had intended. In no time at all, evil forces tried to take over the evolving civilizations. In the new Generation, he kept his appearance in a knight’s armor called the Crystal Armor as Lusìvar did in his black armor, to conceal his physical form.

  Time after time, the demigod acted as the hero the Crystal Dragon thought the child would become. The demigod took his four companions, the White Knights, into many battles.

  The four White Knights stood as the demigod’s companions as well as four virtues: Trust, Charity, Loyalty, and Strength. Through these four virtues, the White Knights protected the inhabitants of the two islands and destroyed any evil threats that may cling in the way.

  Soon enough, many evil threats rose and many claimed to be a follower of Lusìvar, but they were nothing more than weak users gossiping in dark magic. They did fight against the White Knights and some turned out to be strong and others weak. There were only a few encounters where the evil beings were stronger than the White Knights, but when it came to the demigod Valverno, they always regretted standing up to the White Knights.

  For many years, the White Knights and their leader, Valverno, fought in many battles, defeated many creatures claiming to be Lusìvar’s descendants, and taught the living species of the Third Generation: Centaurs, Dragons, Faeries, Griffins, Merpeople, Pegasi, Sea Serpents, and Unicorns to grow wiser.

  Valverno entrusted the White Knights to make the creatures of myth grow while he taught humanity to grow. When he first laid eyes on the humans, he saw them in the hundreds. He led them out of caves and into the light of day.

  After many years of teaching the humans and showing them how to prop and build, the humans grew from the low hundreds to tens of thousands on both islands.

  Valverno traveled back and forth between the two islands so that the humans on both islands could grow and thrive like the people did in the Second Generation of Living and he was proud of the humans growing rapidly. The islands were then named by Valverno after lands he personally grew up in from Pangaea before its destruction: Shimabellia and Isla Maeli.

  After a thousand years, Valverno and the White Knights led the humans and the creatures of myth to many glad, thriving societies. Many grew different cultures, some of which were peaceful while others turned out to be violent.

  The humans had grown too complicated for the White Knights and Valverno to handle. They grew more repulsive and higher in numbers than the creatures and the animals combined.

  However, the White Knights and Valverno had kept the young, primitive humans in check and made sure they did not go extinct.

  In the thousand years they had taught and protected the species to live and grow, the White Knights seemed to have been ceasing their teachings and fighting, for they had defeated the last known group of Lusìvar’s followers. A hundred years after they had fought and killed the last evil man claiming to be a follower of Lusìvar, the White Knights and Valverno thought the Shadow King was no longer a threat and the species of the Third Generation could live in peace, finally.

  So after the supposed evildoers have died, the White Knights and Valverno went away. In other words, they disappeared.

  Or so the story had been told…

  Four kids were sitting in a large living room with a candle-lit chandler hanging from the ceiling. There were two sets of twins: twin girls and twin boys. The twin girls were about eight years old while the boys were ten years old. They were sitting in front of a middle-aged Geraldus Cornelius, sitting on a soft, wooden chair covered in fur of a bear. There was a fire lit in a large fireplace, bringing warmth to the man and the four children.

  “And so that was how we came into being, my children,” said the man. “If it wasn’t for the demigod Valverno and the Three Gods, we wouldn’t have evolved from the caves.” He finished his story, only to look at mixed faces from his two sons and daughters.

  “Oh, come on! What kind of story was that, daddy?” asked one of the twin boys.

  “I thought it was boring,” said the other twin boy.

  “I think it was sweet,” said the twin girls.

  The man leaned forward from his original sitting position so that his eyes were closer to his kids. “That was about the creation of the old worlds and how we came into being, in a fast amount of time. Did you forget about the demigod? Valverno? It was believed he will return when the day of Lusìvar return comes.” Then the man stood up and walked toward the dying fire.

  “Could it be that Vaeludar is the son?” asked the twin girls.


  “I thought that myself, but he is not. Vaeludar is the son of a mortal human and a mortal Dragon,” said the man. “I thought of that too but he was born seventeen years ago, while the myth of Valverno was born thousands of years ago, long before any of us were born. And don’t bring your foster brother into this talk or this story. I’m telling you this because it’s bedtime, kids. Now, it is off to bed.”

  “How about one more story, please?” asked the girls.

  “No, girls,” said Geraldus. “I’ve already told you a story within a story. Off to bed, kids.”

  The girls begrudgingly got up and ran to Geraldus, begging for at least one more story. Geraldus looked at their innocent eyes before watching the twin boys stare at them and listen to their sisters’ innocent annoyance.

  “You should listen to your father, boys and girls,” said a mysterious voice echoing from the shadows of a staircase.

  The voice alarmed the kids, who ran toward their father. Geraldus laughed softly as his four kids ran behind him. He felt his children shaking on his legs while he seemed to have been expecting the voice to speak form the dark. He turned his eyes to the staircase.

  Geraldus could see a small glimpse of a shadowy figure standing from a hallway corner near the staircase. “Care for a bedtime story?” asked Geraldus.

  “No, I’ve outgrown those stories,” said the figure, sounding like a teenage boy. The voice sounded more than a mere human’s voice; it was more of a bear’s roar mixed with a gorilla’s yelling. “And you heard him, kids: it’s your bedtime. You don’t want the gods haunting this house if you don’t sleep.” Then the shadowy figure moved from the kids’ and Geraldus’s sight.

  Suddenly the kids ran and went upstairs. However, the boys went up the stairs screaming while the girls went up the stairs laughing.

  I wonder if he really wants to be alone away from society or if he really wants to find his parents, who left him here in my care, wondered Geraldus.

  LIFE IN A VILLAGE

  A

  n orange dawn had arisen from the east. The morning came around the corner; shouts of playfulness were in the cornfields. Kids were playing with small Dragons. Dragon hatchlings (or Dragon Children) flapped their wings and chased the human kids in the grassy fields. Big grown adult Dragons watched from nearby hilltops as their young played with the human younglings. Amongst the playfulness, grown human adults were grinding in the wheat fields and weeding unwanted plants. A hard-working village was at work as full-grown Dragons watched from a distance.

  Among this village, one of the twin boys was dropping sand in one of his sister’s hair. “Stop it!” shouted the twin girl. Her brother laughed and ignored her complains.

  “Get back inside the house, Arron,” yelled Geraldus.

  “But I didn’t…” said Arron.

  “I saw you dumping dirt on your sister’s hair. So get back in here, or you will be doing some laboring in the cornfields this afternoon. Come on.”

  Arron sighed heavily and went inside the house. The boy was annoyed by his punishment.

  It was an average day in the village. Peasants plowing in the fields, knights in the watchtowers or riding on horseback, the children running and playing with sticks or working with their parents, little Dragons playing with human kids in the cornfields, and the great lord Geraldus was overlooking the hard working people and the young Dragons with the kids in the cornfields.

  Geraldus Cornelius was the earl of the village and the head of his house: House Cornelius. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters; his wife had passed away from a sickness a year prior.

  The eldest child and first son, Alaric, was the leader of his younger siblings and mostly spent his time at the village’s watchtower. His had dark, tanned skin and dark brown hair, like his three younger brothers. He was well built and lean and always wore rich, black clothing like a black knight.

  The second eldest child and second son, Flavius, was always the sword trainer to the twin brothers and twin sisters. He had light tan skin and very much like his older brother: tall and lean but two inches shorter than him. He was usually dressed as a brown knight.

  The third eldest and first daughter, Eliana, was very beautiful. She had pale brown skin and light brown hair. She always dressed as a noblewoman.

  The twin brothers, Arron and Nerio, were the next oldest of Geraldus’s kids, and they were quite the troublemakers. They shared the same appearances with their eldest brother, Alaric, but they were smaller and younger. They pulled pranks on people and dropped cooked foods in the mud.

  The two youngest were the twin girls, Naìra and Andrei. They had the same appearance as their older sister, but they acted more tomboyish than their eldest sister was; they liked to be more like warriors than princesses.

  The family of the earl, the peasants, the knights, and everyone else in the village lived their daily lives like any normal human. The members of the House Cornelius were doing their responsibilities in their village as well as their big, mansion-like house.

  The dragon hatchlings were friendly to the humans as well as their dragon parents. For generations, Dragons and humans lived quite harmoniously along with the other creatures of mythology: the eagle-headed, lion-bodied Griffins, the horned-horse Unicorns, the winged-horse Pegasi, the human-horse-bodied Centaurs, the small, female, winged-human Faeries, the human fish-finned Mermaids and Mermen, and the gigantic, scaly Sea Serpents.

  For thousands of years, the humans and creatures had lived harmoniously with each other. Forever they lived in peace and they called each other peacemakers. In the modern day, after being called by his father, Arron came running into the dining room in a grumpy mood.

  “I swear, I didn’t do it,” he argued.

  Geraldus disapproved of his son’s attitude. “I saw you throwing dirt in Naìra’s hair. That is not acceptable in this household, young man. You are to wash the dishes this afternoon.”

  “But, Daaaaaaad” protested Arron.

  “Don’t ‘but dad’ me, Arron,” Geraldus said firmly. “Now get to work right now or else you’ll spend the whole day washing the dishes and working out in the cornfields.”

  Arron gave a big grunt.

  Geraldus shook his head in disbelief of his son’s bad behavior. When will that child ever think of people other than himself? he asked himself. Geraldus walked out of the dining room and into an open marketplace. Although he was the earl, his twin sons were the biggest problems of his life and his home. He always had to keep his eyes on them.

  Geraldus had to leave most of his responsibilities with his eldest son. Alaric was the captain of the guards, a horseback commander and served as his father’s right-hand man. His father’s responsibilities became his own. Geraldus kept the rest of his duties as the earl in his own hands.

  Geraldus was in charge of the villages’ growth, building homes, and trade routes. Even as they had peace, they still lived life as normal humans in anxiety and stress when something was not up to date. Occasionally, the creatures would sometimes help the humans in their daily lives but they preferred to live their own lives out of the reaches of humans. Only the Dragons would come into the lives of humans daily.

  Near sundown, Geraldus rode a brown spotted horse to the outer ridges of the village. He saw Alaric leading a garrison of soldiers back from a training exercise in the southeast, near the edges of a forest that had dark, glooming trees.

  The forest was called the Greenwood Forest, a forest believed to have creatures of evil. Geraldus had always feared the glooming forest because of how the trees looked: glooming, dark-looking, and scary carved faces on each tree. Even though they lived in peace, Geraldus had always had a feeling they were living right next door to the forest that some evil creature will attack from.

  “Whoever goes in there,” said a flying green dragon. “Never comes back out alive.”

  Geraldus looked at the dragon joining him.

  “Dragon King,” greete
d Geraldus. “I simply fear that something lurks beyond those woods. I would not dare enter.”

  “No man or creature would dare to enter that forest,” said Drago. “Only someone or something with no brains would foolishly go in there alone.”

  “I fear that one of my troublesome, twin sons would go in there recklessly.”

  “They’re causing trouble again?”

  “Yes,” Geraldus sighed. “I just don’t know what to do with those two. Arron always wants to be reckless, not thinking about what is going on around him and Nerio keeps messing with the cornfields. I fear those two will never be the men I need them to be.”

  “That is a problem with a lot of children,” said the Dragon King. “Always thinking they are ready to take on the world. The next thing, they don’t want to because they were beaten up easily like stomping an ant.”

  “I don’t know what to do with them, Dragon King. My two eldest sons seem to be doing the jobs they are meant to do. My daughter, Eliana, seems to be doing ok, but she is getting her head in too many books. Then there are my youngest twin daughters. They seem to take on boys’ roles in this village. It seems Alaric and Flavius are the only worthy heirs to take my place.”

  “What about that adopted son of yours?” asked the Dragon King, curiously. “Vaeludar?”

  Geraldus glanced at Alaric who was riding into the village with his battalion. His eldest son was coming back from a patrol of the village’s borders. Lately, he had been hearing rumors of thieves trespassing near his village and kept sending out patrols to seek them out, but every patrol would turn up with nothing. So Geraldus would have to assume they were only rumors and nothing more.

  “My adopted son?” answered Geraldus. “He is not like everyone else. He is very much different. He hides himself in my house, to spare himself the humiliation of other people. His appearance is a hard thing to live with since he is the first of any hybrid creatures.”