Twilight of a Hybrid, стр. 32
She smiled and kissed him on his lips: a way of saying yes.
After Marina was done with her kiss, Vaeludar lifted himself with his wings and soared back into the air. He was followed by the Griffin that was following certain directions giving to it by the man the Griffin was holding on its back. Vaeludar followed the Griffin while Geraldus told them where to go.
As they leaped above the treetops and freely with their flying, the flyers carrying the non-flyers took direction where Geraldus told them where the Secret Laboratory would be. Thus, bringing Vaeludar closer one step closer to the second armor artifact and one step closer into bringing down the Shadow King Lusìvar.
A DARK SECRET REVEALED
Vaeludar and Flarefur glided over a string of tree barks and branches burnt to a crisp. They found themselves flying to a giant valley overflowing with thousands of black, burnt trees. What used to breathe a great life was now a complete burnt ruin. Great green trees that were once living were now torched to nothingness. A valley of dead, black, burnt trees had laid across dozens of miles around before being joined by living trees. And Vaeludar thought the Northern Region had dreadful lands of its own.
The small group touched down at a random location, in an open spot where they were fewer trees to deal with. Flarefur didn’t want his feathered wings getting caught amongst dead branches that he thought could be poisonous.
Geraldus hopped off the Griffin, and Vaeludar placed Marina on her feet. They walked several yards within the dead forest of dead trees. They all seemed frightful by the sheer site of the forest if they never gazed upon such a dreadful plain of trees before.
Vaeludar looked around as he saw three hills reaching several hundred feet into the air and scratching our several miles long. “Well, at least we are close to the Secret Laboratory and that second armor,” he said. “But it’s quiet around here. Too quiet. And I don’t like it. Why did my parents choose such a vile place to have their work station? A beach house would have been a better place than this forsaken place, and it looks like a great battle had been taken here long ago.”
“If there was such a battle,” said Geraldus, “they used a lot of firepower.”
“Can we just get to the building?” asked Marina. “This place is giving me the creeps.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Vaeludar.
Vaeludar sped ahead of the group. He had the same uneasy feelings when he looked at dreaded lands in the Northern Kingdom, and this land made from dust, ashes, and a valley and three hills of dead trees.
The dirt felt so muddy and dry at the same time that Vaeludar’s feet sank two inches deep. With each step the group took into the dirt, the more they felt like they were walking on ashes that were burnt from a big body of a huge Dragon.
The Griffin started to seem agitated of his claws sinking into the ground, and he was feeling uneasy being in a wide open area like a rabbit running in an open field trying to escape from a flying predator. “I don’t know about you people, but I have a strange feeling we’re being watched,” said Flarefur.
“Why have you come to this forsaken place, strange creature?” hissed a female snake-like voice.
The group was alarmed by this unexpecting voice and drew their weapons. Vaeludar drew out the Crystal Sword, his foster father Geraldus drew pulled out a long spear, and Marina drew out the shortsword he gave her that was given to him from Alaric. And the Griffin, Flarefur, crocked like a real eagle. They turned to see a woman’s half body as a human while with a long snake’s body and slivering tail.
Vaeludar recognized the Gorgon he saw a while back and pointed the powerful sword down. “You!” Vaeludar still gripped the sword in case if she would attack. “Stand down, people.”
“What do you mean stand down?” asked Marina. “She’s a Gorgon and…”
“A Gorgon I personally spared instead of killing her.”
“She’s still a GORGON!” said Marina.
Vaeludar quickly explained to them the fight he had with the Gorgon days ago, just before Vaeludar received news about the early wedding. Vaeludar had the chance to kill the snaky creature, but he had symphony for the creature and decided to spare the creature’s life. Vaeludar did state it was Geraldus mentioned there was no humanity to take a life, but there was humanity of sparing a life. He also mentioned having a Gorgon with them could be useful in any future fights against Lusìvar.
Marina wasn’t convinced Vaeludar’s bold decision was a natural choice, but she had to respect her husband’s decision. And the same goes with Geraldus; he wasn’t convened Gorgons could be natural allies against; they would wait when the backs of Gorgons’ victims turn on them and land a poisonous blow from their slivering tail ends.
“And what are you supposed to be doing here, Gorgon?” asked Vaeludar. “Trying to pay us a warning?”
The Gorgon slivered to a side. She also seemed frightful of the dreary, ashy, haunted place. “This place speaks of the dead. Ghosts and ghouls and spirits of the dead roam this place. From beneath a hole, a city of an ancient has laid buried for many a year. Many enter but none return back to the surface.” The Gorgon seemed to be speaking in strange riddling the group wasn’t understanding. She was speaking if she suffered some kind of war trauma she never experienced.
Then the Gorgon slivered and moved all around, if her mind was unbalanced and her eyes keep shifting from one direction to another and not focusing on the group. She seemed more like a lonely hermit who has acts as a watcher