Twilight of a Hybrid, стр. 46

“What giving what to a what?” asked Flarefur.

Marina, Flarefur, and Flarefur joined Valverno at looking at the picture of a Phoenix giving a feather to a man.

Valverno saw the group staring at him. He placed his hand on the red bird picture giving its feather to a single man. “This is what I’ve just mentioned: a Phoenix giving a feather to a human. Ever heard of that?”

Flarefur, Geraldus, and Marina shook their heads.

“As I expected, we only heard about the birds, but no one has ever heard of an immortal bird giving a yellow feather to a mortal man,” said Valverno.

“But we never seen a depiction of the Phoenix,” said Flarefur. The Griffin had his feathered wings unfolded from his body. He looked at the red bird painting with a great amazement. “For some time, only pictures drew on frames and paper show what the ancient Birds of Fire look like. No creature other than me has ever gazed on an ancient drawing on rocks and boulder.”

“Creature other than you?” said Marina. “What ever happened to the Siren?”

“Sorry, Siren,” said Flarefur. “I always keep forgetting Sirens look more human than of the fish family.”

“Judging by outside appearances than by the inner personality? Judging by what I am instead of who I am? And I thought humans judged by everyone and everything by a creature’s or a person’s appearance. I maybe a Siren, but also have feelings, Griffin.”

Valverno heard the conversation Marina and Flarefur were having and it reminded of him. Valverno did spend his time upon humans, and they judged by his appearance: his human body with dragon legs, tail, and wings. They thought of him as an unusual specimen of human living upon human, and when he was a young kid, he thought he was a subspecies of human.

After he listened to the small conversation, Valverno followed the pictures to the other end of the cliff dwelling. His eyes dwelled on many of the strange animals depicted on the high walls he had never seen before with his eyes, animals that may have gone extinct long before the capital city was ever built.

Then Valverno caught the scent of an unfamiliar, foul scent coming from over the edges of the city’s cliff. He walked toward the ends of the mountain’s edges and gaze down to where the smell was coming from. His nose caught another sudden strange scent of a fresher, plantlike scent coming from around a corner of another passage. “I smell different scents,” said Valverno. “And if we don’t know where to go, follow the scent of your nose.”

Valverno followed the nice, freshly scent coming from a hidden passage built like a tunnel than the foul, smelly scent coming from the mountain’s cliff. He saw a giant hole going around inside the mountain’s side and followed it. The hole turned into a large tunnel and staying close enough to the edges.

Marina, Geraldus, and Flarefur followed after the hybrid who was now again walking off without them, but they did hear him departing the place in search of another place.

Valverno walked through the tunnel and saw light shimmering through small holes. The tunnel rose about fifty feet in the mountain’s rock. Valverno saw many thin corners and curves making it a very narrow passage to maneuver around. The ground was covered in lots of sand and his feet easily slipper into the sand.

Thanks to the light glittering from the small holes carved from the higher heights of the tunnel, the group could easily see where they were walking and not worry about their feet would slip off.

As they walked on, the tunnel started to grow larger and another giant hole big like the overview of the edging city behind them came upon them. Valverno made a sharp turn to fly to that point and see what they were coming across. He soared high enough to see where they were walking to and he saw a single, ancient building carved into the mountain.

A two hundred foot building with six pillars plastered on the bottom with stone human statues carrying spears standing next to the pillars.

On the central part of second story part of the ruin, a head of a bird with two curved horns stood above a dark entrance in the middle of the ruin. Two goat-like statues with human arms and griffin wings stood on different sides of the bird-head statue.

Valverno’s eyes flashed in awe; he could suddenly smell his own scent like the bottle he was carried in. “The entrance to the dark chamber and possibly to the next armor piece must be in there,” he said. Valverno flew back down and the ruin grew from two hundred feet to four hundred feet.

His other companions caught up with him, and they saw the four-to-six hundred foot ruin in great amazement. Another ruin, like the cliff dwelling city, was undamaged from the decay of time and manage to stand tall and mighty. They saw the dark entrance was a third of the ruin’s height.

Valverno walked to the entrance. He looked downward and saw stairs descending into a great abyss of darkness. Valverno puffed his chest, lit both his hands on fire, and descended down into the darkness.

“Do you really have to walk down there?” asked Marina.

Valverno stopped and looked back. “Yes,” he said, turning back and began walking down again. “Just like the time we went in that cave in the Northern Region.”

Marina shook her head and followed after the hybrid. She was hesitant of going underground; she had a very bad experience when she and other people walked in that cave with two snakelike Dragons and where they found the first armor artifact and where Valverno nearly lost his life.

Geraldus followed and the group went into the dark tunnel.