Twilight of a Hybrid, стр. 57
Valverno wasn’t shedding any tears, but he could feel his evil-like form twinkly from this strong emotional memory. He now couldn’t resist reaching out his arm and hug Sora holding her close to him.
Sora was taken by surprise; she was being held by her close to him. She found herself being wrapped in Valverno’s arms. Sora was being hugged tightly and found her head close to his neck. Valverno seemed a few inches taller than her, but she didn’t seem to mind. “What are you…”
“What’s the matter, Sora?” said Valverno, smiling big. “You always liked when I hugged like this. It made you feel so secured and safe, never feeling of being alone or unwanted or unneeded. Or do you not love your dotting, big brother’s comfort?”
Sora smiled with great joy, to hear Valverno was comforting her as he did when they were indeed kids. This great warmth I’m feeling, the softness of his rock skin, and his scent has never changed, thought Sora. This time Sora had let her tears rolled down her checks and she hugged him back.
“I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again: I’m going to be watching over you until the day I die, if I ever do die. Look at what happen to the enemies that wanted me dead.”
Sora snuggled her tearing eyes on Valverno’s part-scaly chest.
“You maybe a fierce fighter, but you always do show a soft side to me. Can’t you ever live your own life without me, I always wonder.”
“Hmm, just look at those two,” said Geraldus.
Valverno glared at Geraldus, Flarefur, and Marina leaning against the wall. They were staring at him not thinking to say of a corrupt hybrid showing brotherly love to a fierce, bloodthirsty female warrior.
“A dotting brother,” said Flarefur. “And I only saw Griffins looking after the younger generation.”
“And I thought I was the hybrid’s only love life and never thought him trying to show some affection to his little sister,” said Marina.
Valverno ignored the group. Ten thousand years of being apart from his sister was starting to make him feel lonely. Now Sora was there with him like they both used to be when the world was younger, and Valverno’s heart was starting to warm up. Valverno stroke Sora’s hair twice, feeling it was different the last time he touched it. He remembered it was smooth like lotion, but now it felt more sandy and moist.
Then Valverno moved Sora away of a few inches. “Okay,” said the hybrid. Valverno walked toward the center and stopped. He looked back at his sister and the group glaring at him. “What are you standing around for? We have a body part of mine to find and reattach to my foot. Let’s go.” Valverno had turned to walk to the other side of the cavern, with his corrupt form dimming from the dark to a dim light.
Sora smiled bigger and charged after her dotting, bigger brother idol.
Marina slowly walked behind Sora. “And he told me and that girl to keep our distance from him, yet he is allowing to her to crowd him. What is wrong with his mind?”
“He is a hybrid after all,” said Geraldus. “Half of it is going to be human and the other a dragon. But they mentioned humans didn’t excite some ten thousand years ago. And whoever their mother is has a human of some kind, but who knows. Just try to go with it?”
“How can I?” asked Marina.
“You mustn’t worry,” said Geraldus. “My wife, before she passed away a year ago, was always jealous when other girls came crowding around me. Human girls always fall for powerful men with powerful abilities or rich people. But family bonds are just strong as magic can be.”
“Get we just get moving?” asked Flarefur. The impatient Griffin trailed passed Marina and Geraldus. “I hate being underground. Griffins can’t tolerate being underground for a long time.”
Valverno could retaliate to that. He remembered the last time going into a cave. He did find the first armor artifact underground, but he never thought he would find two serpent Dragons sleeping in the cave that would later become a dragon with five heads. He had high hopes they will not find any sleeping Dragons or prowling monsters lurking in the great darkness.
The group walked toward the other side of the cavern. They walked through another archway like the one they entered from the other side of the cavern.
However, this time they didn’t see a large tunnel or a narrow hallway to walk through but a giant hole half as big as the cavern. It dropped deeper down. More stairs descended downward into the plundering darkness and the ceiling above stretched outward and widened upward like a cave.
The torches floated down and about two feet down was a large wall. The ceiling and walls narrowly stretched upward before curving down to a the torches showed from below.
“How much further down?” asked Marina.
Valverno shook his head of walking into even more darkness. A thought occurred to him they could be walking toward a tomb of a horrible person meant not to return to the realm of the light. “More than a hundred feet but less than a thousand feet,” he answered Marina’s question.
“Is that supposed to be funny or a statement toward a divorce?” asked Marina.
Valverno could guess Maria had let himself be touch by Sora when he told them to stay away from them, and he was breaking his own order he gave to the two females. “There are a few ways to find out.” Valverno quickly soared in the air with the flap of his wings. Then he grabbed Marina on his left side.
Marina was caught by surprise by Valverno’s grip. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m making this underground journey go a lot faster than just to walk the entire length on our legs, and I have bad experience underground. I nearly