Geraldus sighed. “Your mother, who was my friend, was having some sort of nervous breakdown when she and your dragon father left you here. They said they were into making an extraordinary weapon that could purge these lands from evil creatures, and said you were caught in the middle of the making of this weapon. They also said servants of evil have discovered what abilities and the tremendous amount of strength you have and that kind of power could be used for evil.
“Whatever the reasons they have for leaving you here under my protection, I trust they were doing it for your own protection and your own greater good. When your mother and I were younger, I owed her a debt in saving my life from a falling tree and made her a promise into repaying it however I can. So I repaid that debt by raising you as a son when she and the Dragon needed to keep you safe from watchful eyes where they were working in a part of the island.”
Vaeludar himself sighed sadly. “I wish I could have seen their faces once. I wish they could be here right now that way I wouldn’t feel like an outsider.”
“You should always know: if they hadn’t left you here, I wouldn’t have gained the most perfect son for the blacksmith, and teaching my two youngest sons the lessons they need to learn.”
The hybrid finally smiled.
“Even as I stay here, I don’t belong here. I have a lot of questions about my past, of what I am and who I am.”
“If you feel like you don’t belong here, you can always leave and find a life of your own out in the world. You’re old and strong enough to take care of yourself. I know you have a lot of questions left unanswered, but I don’t have all the answers. If you ever need answers of what you truly are or where you come from, you can always leave my village and find them, my foster son. You can always come back if that is what you choose. Remember, you’re the free one here while I have four sons to leave in charge of this village.”
“So, I leave whenever I wish, like right now?”
“Yes, you can leave right now. The choice is yours, Vaeludar. I’ve kept my part of my promise to your mother. I’ve seen you grow to be strong and able to lift heavy logs fifty men couldn’t lift, and you managed to breathe fire and fly on your own, without any help from anyone.”
Vaeludar huffed “I’m still half dragon, which would mean I have half the abilities full dragons have. Still, I don’t want to stay here. So by tomorrow morning, I’m planning on starting my own journey and will walk alone. I don’t want anyone to come with me, and need to be alone.”
“As you wish,” said Geraldus, he went back through the window and vanished from Vaeludar’s view.
Vaeludar took one more look at the village; it was quieting down and the sounds of cropping were ceasing and the people were going back into their homes. He jumped to the ground and proceeded to walk into Geraldus’s house.
Vaeludar made his way into the kitchen where the servants were cleaning. Unbeknownst to them, an expensive, well-designed plate was about to fall from a lazy stacked pile of plates.
In quick reacting time, Vaeludar’s dragon tail caught the falling plate with a bunch of other falling plates, moving his tail quickly catching them like an acrobat. He caught about twenty-three falling plates in no less than seven seconds, with his pointed tail holding them in one complete, straight, vertical pile.
Vaeludar’s skills, with his dragon tail, caught the attention of the servants; who were staring at him very oddly like everyone else did outside the house.
“Make sure every single pile of plates is like mine,” said Vaeludar, pointed at his own made pile. He raised his hand and used a wind power to place his pile of plates on the same pile they fell off. His used his hand to create another wind power and turned all the lazy piles into nice piles.
In thirty seconds, every lazy-made pile of stacked plates was turned into a straight, vertical pile of plates.
“This is how each pile should be, stacked up straight and not in a lazy manner.” Vaeludar turned to leave and went upstairs. Around the corner, there was a long hallway with doors going into different rooms. He picked the one room that was his personal room.
Vaeludar placed his hand on the crystal doorknob and opened the door.
In his square room, it was completely empty. There was a clear, rectangle window on the opposite side of the room. Vaeludar walked over and leaned over the open window. He saw the village houses’ chimneys were puffing out smoke while the other houses were completely black.
The three moons shined brightly, at a very close range that it was an eye-popping view. Vaeludar saw the blacksmith forging horseshoes in the fireplace. In fact, it was in this spot Vaeludar had flown the fireball he lit earlier that day, from his window towards the blacksmith’s fireplace.
For most of his life, Vaeludar stood by this
