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

A Taste of Bitter Victory

Vaeludar strolled around from the carcass. His curvy feet drenching across as he looked at the minotaur body with its head at its side. Then he stopped. He turned his eyes from the carcass to see Marina standing nearby; Andrei wasn't with her.

Marina was awestruck with what she had seen before her eyes; the hybrid killed a large beast two feet larger than the hybrid person. And with great power and a powerful blast from a mouth she'd never witnessed or experienced; there was more to life than what she had expected to find.

"You killed that beast!" is all she could say.

"Get used to it; there's more than just what you witnessed."

Marina strolled forward and looked at the decapitated beast lying on the floor. "What is that?"

"You seem to know about humans, but not enough of the creatures we share the land with. It is a minotaur. A two-legged bull with great and fierce strength and speed and a hide strong enough to rebel against any weapon trying to pierce it. Even dragon fire would barely harm the fur."

Marina starred as it was a large beast and one with one powerful to go against the strength of the hybrid. "It is..."

"Don't be confused by thinking it is human because it's not," Vaeludar interrupted. "It walks like a human, but it has the mind of a mindless monster. A living corpse without a brain." Vaeludar knelt by the head and picked up the head from the corpse. "And I have something to show for it when it comes to fighting monsters, since that happens to be my specialty in this town."

Marina blinked in realization. "You kill monsters? How many did you kill?"

"Do you really want to know how many one 'monster' has killed in his lifetime? My lifetime?" Vaeludar's voice spoke in such a high warning tone.

His impression would be saying "you don't want to know," and it was what Marina was looking at. His appeal made Marian think otherwise as to her question and think more about what kind of person he was and how his appearance is appealing to her.

"It is strange," said Vaeludar.

"What's strange?" the siren asked.

"This creature belongs far north. Hundreds of miles north from here. North of a mountain range bordering the kingdom between the upper north and south. One has to think and question how a beast would be able to travel this far south. From the studies of past human brains, minotaurs are territorial beasts adapted to cold lands.

"Down here, it is too warm for them, and they are not very smart creatures. They wouldn't know how to cross a mountain range."

"You think they had help?"

"Undoubtingly. Someone did help this minotaur, but we will never know."

"Why?"

"Because dead memories can't show us the helper. Magic has ways of showing us memories of people and other creatures, but minotaur's have a strong immunity to all forms of magic. They are one of the strongest creatures resilient to magic, I just said that. And I, for one, do not know how to cast up memories of other people or creatures; I only know how to fight."

Vaeludar picked up the head with the horn and walked away. He walked past the siren and headed straight down the stone-paved road.

"Where are you going with that?" Marina asked with worry.

"Off to the tavern where warriors gather before or after they have a fight with monsters or other humans," Vaeludar called out.

Marina rolled her head away and started to walk away from the beast in the opposite direction, not knowing where her life will lead now.