The Tale of a Hybrid and a Siren (old version)

Chapter 7: A Raging Battle

Marina only remained silent as she looked at the man claiming to be the offspring of a human and a dragon. A hybrid. A specimen born of two different species. This was unheard of. There were a few species of human and animal hybrids, but none were human and carried no human genetics. Also, none born of human or animals, but this was a hybrid born of human and animal, and his name claimed to be Vaeludar.

Vaeludar looked with a stern face at the siren as she remained silent on the ground with the human child she tried to protect.

"I'll ask you one more time: what are you, a siren, doing here in the middle of a human village?" he asked in a demanding voice.

His voice sounded human, but was a deep, soggy, somber voice. It sounded like there was something choking in his throat.

Marina stood up and sighed. "My name is Marina. I traveled afar, seeking a new home to set in. No longer can I live in the world of sirens."

Vaeludar remained silent and he looked down to the girl who had her carried around the siren's leg. "Andrei, it is safe now."

His voice cracked a small reaction to the girl and moved her face away from Marina's leg. She looked into Marina's eyes with a tearful look. The sight of the siren's emerald eyes made the girl stop looking so fearful. Then she looked at Vaeludar and dashed over to him saying, "Brother Vaeludar."

Andrei dashed from the siren to Vaeludar in seconds and carried her into his arms. He lifted her up to see a bright, healthy smile on her face as he lifted her up into the air and her arms spread out like a bird's wings. Then Andrei was hoisted back to shoulder-length of the hybrid.

Then Andrei was put back down to her own feet as a girl of age eight can walk on her own. Vaeludar's smile faded as he stared back at the siren with stern look; it was an expression of anger or of hatred, but an expression of overprotectiveness.

"Why is a siren living here among humans? The same species keeps eating without end."

Marina sighed as she didn't know what to expect to say to this specimen. Never heard or seen a creature like him before and witnessed his power against a pack of wild dogs.

"I'm the runt of the sirens, even my mother abandoned me. I have nowhere to go and no home. I knew what would happen to me if I left the safety of Siren's Cove, but I'll still face the utmost death. I'll rather die trying to find a way to live on my own than to die cornered in a rat's nest."

Vaeludar didn't make a move or show emotion on his face; he only just started. He was sniffing the air with a quiet inhale of his nose. He only walked up closer to the siren to have a closer look at his bodily features and seeing the emerald armor wasn't making him entirely convinced the siren was telling the truth.

"Wait, Vaeludar," said Andrei, rushing between Vaeludar and Marina with her arms swimming out wide open. "She isn't evil. I can tell. She tried to save my life."

Vaeludar blinked once as his first reaction, but his poker face was hard to read what he really was thinking. Marina couldn't get an easy read of the hybrid as he was expertly showing no emotions and hard to tell what he was thinking.

"Supposed I should be grateful and be thanking you for saving my younger sister," said Vaeludar, giving a small grin and loosening his eyebrows.

Marina was about to put on a smile, but she suddenly looked confused. "Wait! You called her your sister. How are you and her... related?"

"To avoid the confusion, I was adopted into her family so many years ago when my real mother left behind at the doorstep of a large household when I was an infant at birth. My father, a dragon, and my mother, a human, left me behind the doorstep of my adoptive father who is human, and he is..."