“I know,” said Valverno.
“How would you know?”
“I’ve been making some poor choices lately that been costing people to lose their trust in me, and I never wanted to fall into the Pool of Shadows in the first place.”
“Why did you even fall into that forbidden Pool?”
“I fell into the Pool by a might of force of a liquid whip aiming for Marina,” said Valverno. With a wave of his hand, a memory cloud spurred from his hand’s wave. There, images had shown from the grey cloud a long, black whip merging from the Pool of Shadows and whipping toward Marina. Valverno went to show and explain he saved Marina from being grabbed. “And the only thing keeping me safe from evil endangerment is the power the Crystal Dragon gave me, which I am thankful to have.” The cloud faded from view after he finished.
“She is very lucky to have you as a husband. But one has to wonder who he loves: the one who fell in the Pool of Shadows or the one who came out of the Pool?” asked Flavius.
Valverno glared at Flavius before turning to look outside. “How should I know? I can’t make Marina say who she loves or she hates. She’s a Siren. That kind of personality defecates from a human’s. And being a Siren, she can be quick to anger and brutally ea—”
“Flavius, have you seen dad anywhere?” asked a girl’s voice. It was Naìra’s voce coming from beneath the tower’s door.
“I gauss that is my cue to leave,” said Valverno. “I don’t want your younger siblings end up remembering me like this.” Valverno jumped out of the watchtower and hastily away from the village’s prowling eyes.
Thanks to his speed, Valverno manage to get out of an eye’s reach and get away from everyone, as he didn’t want to be seen by anyone for the time he was in his current form. He placed some distance between the village and the barracks and landed in a small valley.
The valley was a mile wide and long and surrounded by forest trees. There were small sunflowers with the hills overflowing with long grass that hasn’t been cut and long strays of roses and dandelions.
The green and yellow plants strength high enough for Valverno to have his legs covered beneath the plants. The plants went up to his belly as he landed softly into the ground. Many kinds of flowers and long green grass covered the valley. Several butterflies flew from each flower to another. A soft wind blew over the flowers, making them twirl and wave gracefully. His new long-grown, crimson hair blew in the wind.
In this valley, very few hummingbirds were flapping their wings and sucking nectar from a flower grown in the valley. Rabbits and squirrels would dash through the valley’s plants.
Valverno saw this was where he could be living if he never wanted to live with civilization ever again.
Then he heard a voice coming from a nearby hill. He spotted Marina standing on a hilltop. She was moving while she stood still. Her hair was blowing very softly and her eyes were staring at a range of faraway mountains. She was dressed with the same clothes she was dressed with when she traveled with Valverno to the Northern Region to retrieve the first armor artifact.
She had a quiver strapped around her waist and a bow hanging around her back.
He looked at Marina singing on a hilltop. There was a soft wind waving against her hair, as her voice could be echoing in the air:
One of these days when war is done
When the one I love returns
When he comes to the girl he yearns
And we can show our love in turns
One of these days when we’re not apart
The one I love won’t be violent
Light will shine brightly in his heart
And his darkness will stay forever silent
When that man I love comes back
His eyes will shine more light than black
He will become my man and I his woman
When one of these days he turns human
Marina stopped her singing and turned to see Valverno staring at her, showing a small face of symphony. She showed an emotionless face. She wasn’t looking at the hybrid she fell in love with; she was looking at a completely different person, an odd stranger.
Valverno silently signed, with his chest growing slightly outward then inward of inhaling and exhaling air. Then he turned his face away and proceeded to walk from Marina.
“Sirens are monsters when they eat humans to death, and Dragons are monsters when they burn humans,” she said. “When this war is over, please tell me which one of us is the monster.”
Valverno nodded his head in response. And just as he opened his mouth, a horn was heard from faraway. Valverno and Marina turned their heads in the direction the horn was blowing from: to the northeast.
Thinking it could be Uragiru’s army, Valverno looked at Marina, who was shaking her head. She clearly stated she didn’t want to be touched by the stranger she saw before her. Valverno turn his head back where he heard the blowing horn and took off in the direction.
He flew back to the village and floated above the buildings from a great distance. When he got there, he picked up no scent of a large army or a large number of men coming to the village at the moment. He did see a small number of horsemen riding from the village’s northeastern boundaries. He flew to the watchtower’s roof to see what was going on.
About some fifty horsemen were riding to Geraldus village. Two in particular rode to face Geraldus and Teutates. The two men saw the two riders coming to them. Then the two riders dismounted from their horses.
Valverno watched from the
