Twilight of a Hybrid, стр. 68

“Laugh it up, hairy wings and you fis… girl with fish scales,” said Valverno.

“Is that an insult or a complement?” asked Marina.

‘No comment,” said Valverno.

Valverno looked across the edge cliff and saw another platform about a hundred feet away from where he was standing. It looked impossible to get to. He couldn’t fly and he did have the ability to jump a distance to the other side.

Across the field, Valverno could see a bright light sparkling like a star in the night sky. It was surrounded by a canopy of pillars: the second armor artifact!

The second item Valverno was looking for was right there within an arm’s reach, if he could only fly across. He came this far down from the surface and he couldn’t give up that easily. One way or another Valverno needed to get to the other side and restore the power ripped form his body when he was transforming back into an embryo, according to Sora

With a long way down and a long wide cliffy terrain, Valverno seemed he was going have to glide all the way over to the other side, even it meant falling into the Pool of Shadows. He survived many battles that befell him, so he could survive sinking into the Pool of Shadows, but it would risk his personality becoming corrupted. He thought would be half possible for him to go half evil since he is a demigod. Valverno’s mind was coming with many theories of what will happen if he did fell in the Pool of Shadows.

The demigod backed away from the cliff fifty feet away so he could get a running start and see if he could glide to the other side. In a mad dash, Valverno took off. He legs kicked from the positon he was standing at and ran toward the cliff’s edge.

“Hey, stop,” shouted Sora.

Valverno came to an abrupt halt. He stopped a few inches away from the cliff’s edges. His feet impacted into the ground when Sora stomped in his way. “Care to explain what you’re doing?”

Sora pointed a finger to her left, which would be the right from Valverno’s view. A long, narrow bridge had hooked the two platforms together; Sora had saved her brother from doing something idiotic like falling into the Pool of Shadows.

Valverno was amused and annoyed of Sora’s decision to interrupt his own decision to glide across the craft. The demigod was going to have an easier time retrieving a missing leg. “Ok, thanks for the heads up.”

“Don’t mention it. It felt like I was the older sibling for a moment,” said Sora.

“If I remember correctly, I’m older than you are, Sora.”

“Yes, but you were aged backwards: back to a baby. And I haven’t aged at all. So that makes me older than you, little brother.”

“But earlier, when we first met, you restored some of my aging process, making me older. So I’m still the older sibling here.”

“I’ve restored one-third of your aging process. About three out of the ten thousand years you’ve been asleep have awakened, plus the years I’ve spent with you before you went back into an embryo. So that’ll make you about… I don’t know… four thousand years?”

“If I also remember correctly, the word demigod is also a ranking, which outrank all royalties combined. From top to bottom of a royal pyramid, the word god comes first. Second, demigod comes after god and the last would be king or queen. So, Sora, as a Demigod and the son of a god, I outrank you. And by doing so, I’m the older sibling!”

“Pulling the god and royalty ranking on me?” asked Sora. “I’m your sister.”

“Half-sister,” said Valverno. “Same mother different fathers. Remember, I was chosen by the Crystal Dragon to be its right-hand half mortal being.”

Sora shook her head of their heating argument getting them nowhere. “Arguing over age, experience, and rankings? Why are we arguing about these subjects?”

Suddenly Valverno pulled Sora closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Because you are my little, baby, half-sister I haven’t seen you for ten thousand years and the feeling to seeing you again beings tears to my eyes.

“You’re all I have from our mother, and I did make a promise, I would look after you. And I promised you to be at your side in the darkness of times in the darkness of places, and I promise you when the last of the evildoers fall, we would do it together.” The demigod was showing Sora a deep affection that she was a great importance to him.

Sora was caught by surprise. “You remembered your promises of us being together?”

“Fighting together,” said Valverno. “I’m married now, and you have another sister in this family. And remember what mother taught us: family is the greatest golden treasure. And so you and the Siren are my golden treasures: the greatest gifts I’ve ever received.”

“Oh, Valverno, you are so annoying with this family bonding,” complained Sora. Sora squeezed her brother harder than he was holding her.

There was some kind of bond they both were sharing, and it looked like it was shining as the moonlight under a starless light.

“They really are lovable siblings,” said Geraldus. “I’ve never seen my own children this way before.”

Geraldus, Flarefur, and Marina were once again staring at the odd siblings acting a bit over the top, or the three were thinking of Valverno and Sora could be more than regular siblings.

“There really are somewhat close, despite seeing each other for several hours,” said Flarefur. “I know of family bonding, but this is too much. I wonder what family bonding means for ancient Pangaeans.”

Marina was looking slightly happier than growing jealous. Marina was slowly starting to accept Sora into the family Valverno had created. She would need more time to fully accept Sora into Valverno’s new family.

Valverno released Sora from his arms and walked over to the bridge. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get that body part of mine, attach it to my leg, and get out