Before he could guess where to go first, sounds of footsteps were banging from a hole on the ground behind the hybrid. Vaeludar listened but decided not to pay attention to who was coming up. He needed to keep his focus on where to go first, and he had four choices: north, south, east, and west.
When the banging ended, Vaeludar knew there was someone or a group of soldiers in the watchtower with him.
“I thought you would be gone by now,” said a male voice.
“I’m thinking of where to start when I leave, Flavius,” said Vaeludar, smiling. “I can’t start my long journey without a plan, can I? I need to take some time to think before I do something reckless.”
Flavius walked closely to Vaeludar. Flavius was watchful of Vaeludar’s waving tail on the ground. “Vaeludar, this is the first time you seem to be happy about something,” said Flavius.
“I know I no longer want to stay, Flavius. I have decided it is time for me to go find my own life beyond this village. For the first time in my life, I’m going to the borders of this village to find my own place in life. There are questions about my past I want answered. Where are my parents? Why did they leave me behind? Why am I not wanted by them? I need to discover the truth about them.”
“Everyone had family issues. Why not just stay and forget about them? Geraldus is our father more than being left behind by a strange pair of human and dragon.”
“Take a good look at me,” said Vaeludar, turning his gaze away and widen his arms, legs, and wings. “What do you see in front of you?”
Flavius observed Vaeludar’s body: his scaly, curved, hind legs, his bare upper body and arms, his red-blood-veined wings, and his human head with covered with dragon ears and a pair of horns.
“I see a fighter for a greater future of human and dragon kind,” answered Flavius.
Vaeludar turned his gaze back to the noises of the village. “What I see is a hybrid who will always be an outsider and a no good hybrid. I have no life here. I have questions about my past and by living here among humans, I won’t have answered questions. The Dragons are the only creatures in this island who can answer who I really am, where I can from, and what I was born to be. And I will–”
Suddenly Vaeludar heard a hard ruffle of a leaf from a tree swirling half a mile away. His hearing goes above the average human, but dragons’ ears were much like an elephant’s ear, being able to hear a cry from miles away. Since he was a hybrid, his hearing could even pick up a soft kitten meowing.
He then turned away from the direction he was facing to that of the dangerous forest: the Greenwood Forest. In a short moment, Vaeludar gazed at the trees of the bordering forest, while its green leaves remained still. Vaeludar’s eyes studied the trees closely that suddenly moved.
It was very typical thing for branches of trees to move and be blown against the softness or roughness of a weak breeze or a powerful windstorm. The strange part was Vaeludar couldn’t pick up any windy breeze powerful enough to blow against the branches of the trees. In fact, Vaeludar couldn’t feel wind or breeze being blown at the moment.
Flavius joined with Vaeludar at looking at the Greenwood Forest. “What is it, Vaeludar? What’s wrong?”
“Tell me: do you feel a wind blowing on your skin? Or any wind blowing right now?” asked Vaeludar.
Flavius raised a hand in the high. “I’m not feeling any wind blowing up here.”
“Then why are the trees of the Greenwood Forest blowing as if there is a hurricane? It doesn’t seem natural for trees blowing if there is no wind.”
“It’s the Greenwood Forest; it’s always unnatural for the trees to move without any blowing wind gushing.”
Then Vaeludar sniffed a scent; fur.
“You smell something?” asked Vaeludar. “Hair of some kind?”
“Yes,” said Flavius. “I smell horse hair.”
The hybrid looked at Flavius with an awkward face. “It’s not that I smell,” stated Vaeludar. “I smell the scent of a big creature with black fur. Some creature is watching us. I can feel it in my feet.” From the dark trees, Vaeludar saw the twin boys Arron and Nerio dashing out.
“Nerio and Arron?” yelled Vaeludar.
“My brothers?” exclaimed Flavius.
“Yes, your brothers are coming out of the forest, Flavius. Just what were they thinking? Going into the forest and running out? Why, someone stupid would do something… like… that—”
The roar of a bull howled and echoed in the air. Suddenly, the village was in complete silence. The people stopped walking when they heard the loud roar roaming around the village.
Vaeludar saw several people standing like statues. Then a second roar howled the air but louder. “Flavius! Call the soldiers! Blow the horn!”
“Is it a a rouge Centaur?” asked Flavius, seeing his foster brother flying out the window.
“No worse: a Minotaur!” Vaeludar poked his head out a window and yelled out: “Get to safety!”
Another, louder roar of a bull vibrated and hooves thundered across the ground.
There was now a crowd of panicking people. People were running over each other. Flavius was blowing the horn, warning the soldiers of a raging, menacing dark creature coming: a Minotaur.
A Minotaur was said to be a bull capable of walking like a human. It would basically be like Vaeludar: half bull half human, but not exactly human. An evil bull that was capable of walking and fighting like a human with black fur, bull horns, and a
