“What’s wrong? Wanting to sink to the bottom of the ocean?” asked Geraldus.
“What else can I do or what more can I be?” asked Vaeludar.
“Trouble,” said two female voices.
Naìra and Andrei ran toward their loving hybrid foster brother. Naìra was the first to jump on Vaeludar’s back before slipping halfway down.
Vaeludar smiled and lifted her by her legs and she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, giving her a piggyback ride. “You think I’m trouble, little girl?”
“Yes,” laughed Naìra.
“Oh, really. I guess I can be the biggest trouble any hybrid could be.” Vaeludar released one of his arms from Naìra and wrapped his tail around him and her. Naìra didn’t look in fear, only laughed. She knew Vaeludar was only playing with her.
“Bet you can’t get me,” said Andrei.
“Oh, really? Second little girl? Here I come then.” Vaeludar released his gripping tail and gently flew toward the other twin girl. Before he took off, Vaeludar made sure his one arm holding Naìra was tight enough for the girl riding on him to not fall off.
Then Vaeludar landed in front of the running Andrei. “Think you can get away from me?” Vaeludar caught the giggling Andrei with his free arm. He held her by the belly and lifted her up; both the girls were playfully laughing as their favorite hybrid trapped them both in his gripping arms.
“And say: how about we go for a little spin? Up in the air?” Vaeludar soared into the air a few feet and slowly spun himself around. He held the twin girls tightly enough so they wouldn’t fall from him. He went slowly that way the girls wouldn’t want to scream in horror, but he heard them screaming in laughter.
After spinning in the air for several seconds, Vaeludar touched back down. He bent his legs a bit so the smaller girls could get back on the ground.
Once the twin girls were back on the ground, they were dizzy enough for them to barely stand on their own feet. Vaeludar used his tail and a wing on the twin girls so they wouldn’t get their clothes wet or dirty.
Once they were back to their senses, the girls suddenly jumped on the hybrid, wrapping their arms around his head and pushed him to the ground with all their might.
Vaeludar vilely smiled as he just stood there and watched as the girls tried to push him to the wet ground. His weight was too heavy for them to push. This time around he went to go to pretend the twin girls were strong and he faked being pushed by a pair of small girls younger than he was.
Then Naìra and Andrei were crawling all over the grounded hybrid, but Vaeludar waved his arms around the girls. Against the twin girls and waving his back into the sand, Vaeludar played a bit with the twin girls as he and they smiled and laughed.
“Alright, girls, that’s enough. Get up before you end up sending your rescuer to a watery grave,” said Geraldus.
The girls’ smiles faded to big frowns. They loved playing with Vaeludar so much they considered him to be their favorite brother.
“Oh, come on, girls, don’t let your smiles turn upside down, otherwise I’m going have to eat those frowning faces.” Then Vaeludar made loud biting noises with his teeth.
The girls’ frowns turned back into smiley faces and ran away from the hybrid’s biting teeth. They ran with all their might, even running past their own father.
“Trying to eat my daughters again?” asked Geraldus.
“Only if they make such sad faces, which I don’t want to see in such small, sweet, innocent girls,” said Vaeludar, who stood from the ground and used his wings to wipe the sand covering his back. “How did you get here so fast? I saw you talking with Alaric and there was some distance between the beaches and your home village.”
“A Dragon offered me and my daughters a ride here, and I couldn’t refuse,” said Geraldus. “And the question is: what brings you out here?”
“To get away from the fame. At first, it was pleasant: big crowds and everybody coming and thanking me for my actions. Then it becomes too much for me to handle and kids are riding my tail.”
“Just like Naìra and Andrei?”
“They know how to be gentle when trying to ride my tail. But they aren’t as picky as your eldest daughter is. She would be tailing me everywhere I would go. She is one girl I can’t stand being around.”
“That’s a thing with young girls, especially sisters; they always follow their big brothers around.”
“Sometimes I wish they looked more toward Alaric and Flavius than just me. They remind me of that one sister from those old stories. What is her name? That unknown half-sister of the legendary demigod Valverno?”
Geraldus stroke his chin. “I’m not quite sure. If she does have a name, I wouldn’t know it. She is known for only being a half-sister of Valverno, and one of the original White Knights. Only the Demigod and his mother are named. There are no mentions of any other names.”
Vaeludar sighed. Then he walked alongside the shoreline where the waves came crashing one after another against Vaeludar’s feet and back to the ocean. Geraldus followed after the hybrid.
They spent some time walking on the shoreline until Vaeludar came across a small terrain of rocks and boulders piled about a tenth of a mile. Black and silver rocks and brown boulders had were covered with bird poo and a few seagulls cracking open sea shells.
“This is where you rescued her, isn’t it?” asked Geraldus.
Vaeludar looked at the rocks layered upon each other. These rocks weren’t layered by the ocean’s current or by a natural disaster; those rocks were layered by men. Wicked men who lured prey to
