Twilight of a Hybrid, стр. 62
“I will gladly make you into a female historian after this war with Lusìvar is over,” said Valverno, “depending if any of us do survive this war that is.” Valverno remembered the mention of Alaric’s death, Geraldus’s eldest son died during the hybrid’s wedding.
“You seem sad all of a sudden,” said Sora. Sora could feel the sadness in Valverno’s mind, but she couldn’t read his thoughts.
Valverno signed. “It was during my wedding day.” Valverno bent a leg on the fountain’s small wall. “A person, a man I called a brother died during that event. I was so focused on my enemies I couldn’t save the man from the clutches of death.”
Geraldus strolled his eyes from the hybrid. Now Geraldus was remembering the death of his eldest son Alaric. Even though he may be consider the wedding to be an unexpecting ambush and a big all-out fight, Geraldus couldn’t accept the fact Valverno running off into battle and taking on the enemy while leaving else behind to fend for themselves.
Sora caught her eye on Geraldus’s eyes rolling away from Valverno. She could see how this was unfolding. “I can see it now,” she said. “This man killed at a ceremony of two distant lovers was someone of great importance I could imagine: a brother-figure and a son.” Sora looked at Geraldus. “You have raised my brother in your family, which means this death being mention must be a son related to you, Geraldus.”
Geraldus flinched his ear. This was the first time his name was being called from a girl claiming to be Valverno’s sister and having been born thousands of years ago. Maybe this girl was acknowledging him as the man for raising Valverno in his family.
Sora stood beside Geraldus. “You have raised my brother in your family, and you have my thank you for his life and my symphony of your son.”
Geraldus blinked at Sora showing some sort of humanity to him. He remembered her mentioning no humans exited in the Second Generation of the Living Life. So how could this girl, who is looking human but isn’t, showing some kind of humanity to him. “Thank you for your condolences, but why show me these things when you can’t respect the Siren?”
Marina glared at Geraldus.
“You also had the choice to abandon him and leave him to die in the wild or drown him in the seas, but you spared his life,” answered Sora. “He spent his entire life with you, years of his life with you but he only spent months with his Siren wife.”
“You seem quick to rust,” said Geraldus.
“How trust works with me: it takes years to build up trust,” said Sora. “Since you raised Valverno for years, means I would trust you, but I still won’t trust his wife, yet.”
Geraldus walked beside Valverno. “Would you forgive me if I tried to convince her to join my family?”
Valverno smirked small. “If you can try to convince her to join your family, feel free to try.”
“I don’t want to join any more families or any clans,” said Sora. She strolled over to Valverno’s left side. “Valverno is the only family I am joining, and no one else’s. He’s enough for me.”
Valverno was smiling. This family bonding seemed to making him feel his was floating in the clouds floating high in the high. “Well, shall we continue on or should we just stand around her and talk about families.”
“I’d say we keep moving,” said Marina. The Siren was walking away from the group. She didn’t seem to like the new girl in the group. “I feel like I should be the only family Valverno deserves. After all, I am married to him.”
Valverno signed of Marina. He closed his eyes and his mind could feel Marina’s mind: jealousy was beginning to grow in the beautiful Siren again. “Sora,” said Valverno, turning to speak to the girl showing them around the city: “Care to continue again?”
Sora nodded her head and bounded for an alley. “The house we lived in, Valverno, will be this way. It’s going to be some distance, but we should make it with great ease.” Then she disappeared behind the nearest corner of an abandoned café-looking building.
Assuming there are no monsters down here, thought Valverno, following after her. While he walked, he saw Geraldus rushing ahead of him and strayed from him and closer to Sora. And Marina stayed near the Griffin.
W
It seemed as now a full day had passed but two of them felt an entire week has passed since they entered into this underground world. The Griffin was getting anxious from being underground for a long time. For a Griffin, born and raised to fly in the air instead of living underground like or an ant, he felt he was walking to his own grave.
The Siren was of a great help to calm the Griffin’s anxiety. Her singing voice helped calmed Flarefur’s nerves and put his mind at ease.
Valverno could sense Flarefur losing his sanity of being underground for so long, but that is how it is. Traveling underground for quick a long time could be disastrous, especially when exploring a buried city with no residents living in their homes. It was as if walking in a graveyard with dead bodies buried in the ground.
However, there were no bodies to be seen. The ten thousand years that have passed would have been long enough for any bodies to decay, grinded into bones, and the bones turning into dust.
Any sign of any a once great civilization would have been wiped clean in the dust brushed into the ground, though the group walking on the pathways didn’t have dust particles or ashes of dead bodies. It was just plain dirt, dried mud, and sand that fell from the rocky ceiling covering the city from the sun’s light.
It was quiet around every corner and silent as a