He turned toward Marina who remained asleep. The face he saw during the night changed again. The night before showed Marina’s skin was darker, but the light of the sun turned her skin color back to a lighter blue.
Vaeludar looked away and stared out the window. He could hear a rising sound growing from the altitude he was at. It was a low hum of a single hummingbird and loud noises of human voices. His ears could pick up the sounds of people walking from their night slumber and coming out in the middle of the morning.
It was a few days ago the village was a ghost town. Now the hybrid could hear the sounds rising from being dead-quiet to breathing-alive like a two-year old child running up and down the hall of its parents’ home.
But if he was a full human, he could only hear a wind sound coming from the window. With the distinctions of dragon hearing from his hybrid hears, Vaeludar could pick up on the sounds of a bird flapping its wings from half-a-mile away.
He knew Marina would only be able to hear the sound of the wind blowing into the room from the window. Vaeludar was tempted to leave the room and let Marina keep sleeping in the bed.
However, seeing how sound asleep she was, he wouldn’t leave the room until the Siren was up and fully awake. He wasn’t going to abandon his now-future wife alone in a foreign village.
To him, the village’s people were strangers and he didn’t have enough knowledge about them. He only knew one thing about the village he and his companions were in and that was how he saved them from being enslaved for many years. He didn’t know of any other villages or any other clans in the matter.
It was all strange to him, and he thought a few people could be working for the Shadow King and could be playing the innocent victims. It was just too early for him to trust the villagers he’d just come across.
He stood by the window for some time and the sun came rising higher in the east, and he felt the great warmth the dawn was bringing, which was usually cold during the autumn season. Unlike other dawns Vaeludar witnessed, this dawn was more special for him. He battled during the night, and as this dawn comes a new life was springing in this village he was visiting.
Vaeludar sensed this dawn was the dawn of a new age and the beginning of a new life for the hybrid. He felt this dawn wasn’t rising for the entire island, the village, or the people; he felt this dawn was rising for him, the awakening of a special hybrid.
Just as he watched aimlessly at the sun rising its bright light over the dimmed dark blue sky with its pink flare reflecting on the clouds, Vaeludar felt softness of skin touching his shoulders.
“Thinking of leaving me behind instead of taking me with you?” whispered Marina.
Vaeludar felt Marina leaning against his back while he was standing. He also felt her hands touching his shoulders. This caused him great worry because a column of dragon spikes ran down his spinal cord. Those spikes could impale through her delicate skin like a hook catching a fish.
But the way he felt Marina was leaning against him made his spikes sink into his skin as if they were bugs eating into Vaeludar’s body. “No, why would I leave the girl I love behind?”
“To go exploring the village without me? What kind of hybrid would leave an innocent Siren like me behind and go someplace unknown?”
“A ruthless, cold-blooded, brutal, cruel, evil hybrid that doesn’t have any love for any Siren. The kind of hybrid Lusìvar would consider his ally and friend. Am I that hybrid, Marina?”
“No, you’re the opposite of what you defined: lovable, daring, caring, kindhearted, and downright sympathetic. You risked your life to save these people and their future. You fought with a Five-Headed Dragon and managed to kill the beast. No one could have pulled it off.”
“But I wasn’t the only one, I had help. The White Knight we briefly met died during the battle. She was a big helping hand for me to fight the beast. Even with this new strength I have, I don’t have enough to go against that beast, and it shows you how strong the Shadow King is. She would have been a big help for us, but she’s dead now. This just means I have to go find the next armor artifact before Lusìvar stages another attack.”
“Then you’ll have to go fast and find it as quickly as you can. Surely you can find it before this long dead king from ancient times starting to attack another harmless village. But for now, let us celebrate with the villagers and the freedom you gave them.”
Vaeludar twirled his body around and faced Marina. He saw the Siren walking away as he was turning around. “Isn’t it a little early to be celebrating for victory? We have just got up and celebrating in the morning is just…”
There was a loud horn blowing through the window. It was loud and there were screams crying out all at once. It was hard to tell if the screams were scared or cheers of joy.
“See, darling hybrid,” said Marina, walking over to the window. “The people are doing early partying, which means they must have been partying all night. We should join the fun, too. After all, you managed to drive the Shadow King away, so he’ll be gone for quite a while now. Let’s
