Twilight of a Hybrid

was an act of kindness; I was defending the village and your twin brothers from being killed by the rampaging monster. If I wasn’t there to fight, the entire village would have been rampaged to the ground. I defend the village from the monster, and I get to be turned into a ‘fairy tale hero’ or a ‘knight in shining armor.’ The common people think me as those titles. I think I should have thrown the Minotaur to the seas and let that animal drown.”
“You’re popular upon the girls in the kingdom, and the lot of them wants to marry you.”
“Well, I’m marrying only one of them and not to mention I lived with her under the same roof this past winter. Almost five or six months I had spent time with her, and we were happy, before I had to resume my search for the next armor artifact. Now I’m cornered by a hundred people outside and a dozen more in the next tower. I should be living in the Northern Region where the five clans are.”
Vaeludar walked toward the window and gazed at the courtyard. “I still can’t believe is happening. This wedding was supposed to have within a week not this afternoon. What is Marina thinking? We had an agreement to have a private wedding at your father’s village, and she goes behind me back to have an early wedding. We never agreed on the entire kingdom in the capital city. Why do I feel like the gods like to torment me with so much unnecessary, overwhelming obstacles I don’t need to encounter in my lifetime?”
“I think Sirens are more favorable to the gods than hybrids are,” suggested Flavius.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“It was just a suggestion.”
“I don’t need suggestions; I need solutions. I swear that Siren is going to be the death of me, even if Lusìvar won’t be. I was close enough to finding this laboratory my parents used, and I get called away a last minute by a humanoid fish. Like I mentioned before, I have an uneasy feeling about today’s wedding. I just know it is going to be a disaster.”
Flavius was stacking a pair of spears on other stacks of spears as he was listening to his foster brother’s grumbling. “I can tell it is going to be a long ceremony, because your holiday honeymoon is relatively going to be short.” After he stacked the last of the spears, he went to exit the armory. “The armory is yours. Try not to arm yourself with too much stress.”
Flavius exited the armory, only to have Geraldus enter. “I thought I find you here,” said Geraldus. He strolled over to his foster son. “Don’t look so gloomy. Join in the preparations. Have some food. Dance with one of my daughters. This is a happy day.”
“Not for me,” said Vaeludar.
“You regret loving her?”
“No, I regret proposing to her under months back,” answered Vaeludar. “I either should have waited until a spring full moon or until I had the second armor artifact. What is it with Sirens and their sensitive anxiety issues? She needs to have more of a draconic personality, a need to understand of certain power being used.”
“That’s a reason why she wanted to have an early wedding,” said Geraldus. “She was afraid you were becoming power hungry you would forget her and family needs.”
Vaeludar turned from the window and looked at Geraldus. “How do you know she’s afraid? She has been with me through the entire winter. Do you have a network of spies glaring at us through the snowy days?”
“A grown man always sees problems evolving around people enduring hard times. Look at her.” Geraldus pointed at Marina walking through a crowd of children.
The Siren was crowning many little girls with crowns made from white flowers. Marina smiled as she crowned each little girl with a blue flower or a white flower crown. Many mothers looked wary of Marina, but the fathers didn’t seem bothered of their kids going to see Marina, who was marrying the hybrid. Marina knew what most of the parents felt like living their kids near a Siren, a creature of myths that lured sailors to their deaths.
Vaeludar saw as his soon-wife-to-be being surrounded by a ton of children. Marina’s joyfulness among the next generation of life filled his lips with a small smile. “But I am glad I have met in in my lifetime. The Sirens would have gone extinct if I wasn’t there to save her life.”
“I remember that day you saved her. By Jove, you made your first kills over a believed monstrous creature. Killing those mercenaries by a twelve year old hybrid that lacked such experience and never been countered in a bloody battle was surprising to see. Even dragon hatchlings would have hesitated by signs of battle. Boys who experience any kind of battlefield for the first time would end up cowering a rock or tree, but you remained calm and fierce during her first battle.
“After Marina saw you kill those men, Cupid’s arrow shot right through her heart, and yet the arrow didn’t strike through you.” Geraldus placed his hand Vaeludar’s shoulder and shook the hybrid softly.
Vaeludar beat against his chest with his right arm. “Harden skin cells with cells of dragon scales mixing with my human skin make it hard for an arrow to penetrate. Now that I have the first armor artifact attached to my arm, my strength has dramatically increased. And my eyes are set on the second artifact, which will heighten my speed and agility to move a hundred times faster than a cheetah running on an open plain.”
Geraldus removed his hand from Vaeludar’s shoulder. “Go get her,” said Geraldus, changing the subject. And he turned to leave the armory.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s your wedding day. She’s going to be your wife by midday, and you can’t marry her in a room stacked full of weapons. You may end up killing someone, and you would make yourself look