Vaeludar gave the golden chalice back to his foster father after drinking the rest of the wine and descended into the hungry crowd. He folded thinly enough for him to walk through the people sitting around the tables. His legs were moving like a lion’s back leg. Vaeludar’s mind was focused on the celebration instead of focusing on the fame he had.
As he passed through the crowd, cheers were hailed to him. Adults lifted up stylish mugs of beer in shouts, “Hail.”
He never felt so warm welcomed in the human community until now. Vaeludar heard cries of laughter, some bulky men were telling women stories of themselves, men getting drunk from their consumption of their beer, kids stuffing their months with the meat and completely ignoring their fruits and veggies, and woman eating like nicely like mannered lades would eat.
At one stoned table, he saw his foster siblings sitting. The two eldest sons, Alaric and Flavius, were eating properly while the two youngest, Arron and Nerio, were throwing the nice cooked food at each other and across the table. The twin girls, Naìra and Andrei, were completely annoyed by their older twin brothers.
“Alright. Enough you two or should I send you both to bed and make you miss the rest of the celebration?” said Vaeludar.
They both responded by throwing food at him, but Vaeludar lifted his hands to form a wind barrier around, making the food spiral around his wind barrier and blow back at the two throwers.
Arron and Nerio used their arms to block the flying food. It seemed the boys again got a taste of their own medicine.
Once the flying food was gone, Vaeludar lifted and grabbed a falling apple Arron flew at him.
They both looked angry at him and were ready to pounce on him. They suddenly stopped and saw what seemed to be strange.
Vaeludar spun the apple around the tip of his sharp pointy figure and lifted a dragon claw and clawed the apple’s red skin off the apple itself. Then he held the apple horizontally with two fingertips while it was still spinning. He began to eat the spinning apple left-to-right like a corn. In ten seconds, the apple was eaten to the core. It seemed Vaeludar could eat an apple faster than piranhas eating a human corpse in thirty seconds.
The two were planked out once again by an unknown skill Vaeludar just showed them. Their siblings laughed and giggled at Arron’s and Nerio’s shocked looks.
Apparently, they are aware of the skills and strengths Vaeludar had while Arron and Nerio don’t know anything about Vaeludar abilities.
Vaeludar puffed out smoke of his nose and tossed the eaten apple on Arron’s plate. Soon after, he left the two stunned twin brothers. He smiled in a straight face and headed back to the altar. Feet away from a staircase of the altar, he gazed at the head of the Minotaur.
“How does it feel to lose to a hybrid?” Vaeludar asked the head, knowing it wouldn’t talk.
Ten seconds after asking the question, he walked away from the head to join the celebration.
From the table the sons and daughters sat at, Vaeludar didn’t see Eliana sitting with her siblings. He knew Eliana was hiding among the crowd, waiting to seize her chance to have a private chat with him.
Vaeludar, now living a happy life he always wanted to live, was living the dream, but he still hadn’t forgotten about leaving the village. He still wanted to leave and go find the parents who he thought to have left him behind.
However, he was starting to have a change of mind and was considering staying in the village for the rest of his life. It was probably where he did belong, not anywhere in the outside world. Even though he was happy to have everyone appreciate him saving the village from total disaster, Vaeludar still didn’t feel he belonged in the village. He wanted to know more about himself.
After he walked through the heavy crowds, Vaeludar decided to keep his distance from the loud people and walk around the grass fields. Vaeludar made it to the fields of short grass shining of emerald green.
In the fields, Vaeludar saw a lone figure standing several yards from him. He had found Eliana standing in the grass fields looking at the stars above. He knew if he tried to escape her, she would search for him.
For a girl of her age, Eliana was smart and sometimes cunning. Every time Vaeludar had escaped her, Eliana would suddenly be around a corner, waiting to catch him by surprise. So Vaeludar would just use this time to talk to her and see what she thinks of him for dumping her the night before; he walked closely behind her.
“Lovely night isn’t it?” asked Eliana.
“Yes, it is,” said Vaeludar, standing beside Geraldus eldest daughter. He glimpsed at Eliana’s eyes that looked a bit furious. “Mad about last night?”
“You left me in that empty room, which was meant for you. For years, he gave you gifts, and you keep rejecting what comes to you. How is it possible to reject gifts being given to you from Father?”
“I didn’t see the gifts as true gifts. The gifts everyone was giving me weren’t very… playful.”
Eliana shook her head. “You’re more than just a hybrid. You killed a monster today, yet you don’t join in tonight’s celebration. Geraldus sees it, and I see it. You’re something special.”
“I was raised by Geraldus, and you’re the only daughter of his not seeing as special as a brother figure; you’re seeing me more than an older brother
