RETURN OF THE HYBRID (Book III)

Chapter 11

The eastern side of Clivestone kingdom was sparsely populated. Most of the people there reared cattle. One could see them from far watching a large herd of cattle with their water skins and a long stick. Usually humming to an inaudible tune. On listening closely it was the pledge of allegiance to the king and the kingdom. Only a couple of people were there that evening when Ariella arrived through a portal that magically appeared. At first they thought it was just the wind but then they saw a woman. A very beautiful woman walking towards them. She was wearing a long brown dress but as she walked the grass and leaves down her path dried off.

"Who is that?" One of the men asked getting up.

"I have no clue my friend" The other one said joining him.

Running was not an option in that situation. They still had no idea what more she could do. After living in poverty for long they longed for days when a miracle would happen to them. A make a wish genie that would offer them three choices.

"Am looking for queen Aliya" She said looking around at how desolate the land was.

"I can take you on my horse" one of the men offered.

He was probably the genie maniac I was talking about.

"Let's go!" Ariella said leading the way.

"Wait! You can't just take her to the queen look at what she did to the grass, what if she wants to kill her? Besides she came out of a mysterious portal that appeared out of nowhere” the other man argued, the sensible one.

He had a point but Ariella did not care. She just turned around and grabbed his throat sending her fingers into his neck region. He died looking at her with his eyes wide open. The one who offered to take her to the queen decided to run but Ariella was faster. She was floating on air standing right in front of him. On mumbling a few words a fire lit up surrounding him.

"Get the horse I don't want to kill you", she said.

"Please don't kill me, am sorry I won't run again" He begged going on his knees.

He was sweating profusely from the heat of the flames around him.

"No you won't" Ariella said and turned it off with one blow.

They silently walked to where his horse was tied. When she saw them she became rumbustious all of a sudden, kicking and neighing loudly. She almost kicked the poor owner to his death were it not for Ariella intervening.

"Calm down girl, she is not your horse isn't she?" Ariella asked massaging the now calm horse by the neck.

"No, she is his" He said pointing at his dead friend.

"She will do, get on!"

They rode off towards the kingdom. The man was still scared for his own life in case they met any of the king’s soldiers he was going to tell them.

With Ariella around Clivestone was on the verge of collapsing, a Kong versus Godzilla kind of war was going to erupt between her and Leon. They were two very bad beasts. She was not back in time to waste time. For her it was a quick mission, kill Leon and get herself back to the normal timeline. Grace was still at large and she also needed the bodies of the three witches. Maybe just one, she cared deeply about Lydia not the other two.

*********

Ariella's arrival was felt. While riding away further in the woods Leon saw a dark cloud that was her typical signature. He still had not figured out how to go back and last time he checked Zeli wanted him dead. He jumped off his horse. The horse stopped. Leon laughed.

"Come on buddy, go! I got to take care of this alone" He said.

The horse neighed and started grazing. He was staying.

'It’s dangerous, go!"

He still grazed around the green grass and twigs. Of course he couldn't hear him. He was a horse and Leon was a man. But he came to think of it. What if he tried compulsion on him? There was no guarantee it only worked on humans.

"Go away, run east to the camp" Leon said staring at his eyes.

He ran away east as instructed. It was too late to celebrate his latest discovery as the soldiers caught up with him. Leon drew his swords and waited for the them. The first two were coming his way screaming, a cry of war. He easily chopped off their heads blood gushing on his face. He licked it and their memories started flowing in his veins. The blood made him feel stronger as more men charged towards him. The clanging of swords, cries of dying souls, the sound of blood gushing out of their Jugular veins coupled with that of breaking bones. Leon was feeling like an animal.

His swords were all red with blood, he was dripping of blood as he walked towards the scared remaining men. The blood of their friends was surrounding them, they were swimming in it. They could see his eyes and teeth as he spoke, his long hair was also dripping of blood. In his subconscious he was getting some similarities between everyone's memories he had since he came to Clivestone. They were all leading to some tomb that no one really wanted to talk about.

"Is that all?" He asked.

They looked at each other. Behind him was close to fifty bodies of their friends. Others were not dead yet. They were injured and rendered immobile. Others he had chopped their legs and they were slowly dying form exsanguination.

"Seize him all at once!" Their leader bellowed.

And like a pack of wolves they charged towards him all at once with their swords raised in the air. All that time Leon had not morphed fully. He had not used his speed or mind control. It was time he tapped into his beast side. They saw him drop the swords and slowed their momentum. Was he surrendering? They were wrong. As a powerful being Leon had not used his potential. There were some things he had not tried to do and one of them was manipulation of the weather to his advantage.

Leon was created by magic. He had the blood of Ariella in his veins. And his wolf side was inactivated leaving his vampire side active. A side that could use some magic. He blew a mist into the air, it became a cloud and covered the whole area. The men were confused, he was also thrilled at what he could do. And in that mist he killed them one after the other. The surviving ones only heard a scream then a head rolling to their feet. There was nowhere to run to. The mist was so intense others surrendered and went down on their knees.

Leon forgave them and left running after his horse. He did not use the super speed. Years of history started filling his head. The story of a powerful wizard who got locked away in a secret tomb. They were just bits of it and he was connecting them to prepare a final story. He ran past his horse. And stopped to wait for him. Leon jumped on it as it continued running toward camp but he was too late. He could hear the screams of his team from far. Their heartbeats were becoming faint and the smell of blood had replaced their scents. When he got there all of them were dead except for Johannes. He was lying on a pile of bodies with a spear in his frail gut. They did to him what they did to Jesus.

"Yo-your ma-jes-ty am sorry I cou-ldnt prot-t" He stopped to cough.

The prince had his hand in his. It was sad. Even the most powerful of beings was not impervious to pain and loss. Leon shed a tear. A warm tear down his cheek.

"Stop talking you i***t!" He said amid tears.

In all his life he was used to losing people he really cared about and that had not changed even back in time. The ghosts of his future were still haunting him. The shadow of death made it past the wormhole he used to get into 1823. Death was following him everywhere.

"Sor-ry" Johannes said.

Taking a life was easy to him sometimes but seeing one slip away especially when someone was struggling not to die, hanging on a thread between life and death. Walking on that bridge it was unbearable. He had not planned to have a sire and he did not know if it still worked but he tried anyway. Johannes was staring at him, not surprised. He had no strength to do that. Leon bit his wrist and fed him his blood to the last drop before the wound healed.

"I won't let you die, I know how it feels to be weak for the better part of your life" he said forcing him to drink.

If he could talk Johannes would have asked what the prince was doing but since he couldn't he let him do his thing. Leon the carried him away from the pile of bodies and laid him on a skin.

"You can die in peace my friend, see you on the other side" He said covering both his nose and mouth.

As Johannes breathed his last Leon was shedding tears. What if it didn't work? While Zeli saw him a threat and a beast deep down he was just a scared young man in his early thirties. Johannes did not struggle or kick. He just felt his heartbeat stop. He covered him and went to take care of the others.

The prince single handedly dug a mass grave in front of the tree where they had imprinted their names earlier on. Clearly their plan had not worked and general Osteen had either not gotten their message or he ignore it. He buried them with their swords. Took a wineskin from one of them and drank it empty.

"You guys are the bravest men I have ever met, you fought a good fight and am proud of you. Though no one else knows what you did I know. And I will kill the very last of them to avenge you. Go in peace my friends" He said and started covering the grave.

When he was done he took another wineskin and sat on their grave. He fed his horse an apple.

"Usually it doesn't take this long" He said looking at the lifeless body of Johannes in the woods," It's just you and I buddy” He said.

He added another apple. The horse was enjoying his company.

"Did you hear that?" He asked getting up in super speed.

Someone was coming. He thought Perhaps it was back up showing up like his normal timeline police. Always late.

"Come on go hide!” He said slapping the horse in its back.

It walked away while he carried Johannes's lifeless body deeper in the woods. He could not afford another fight with the two around. It would have put him in a disadvantage. The voices were getting closer, after taking them to safety Leon came back in super speed and hid on top of a tree. From there he could see a group of seven men. He realized he had left his bloodstained rob down there, with his boots and sword with a bow and arrows. Leading them was Osteen.

"They are all dead" The general said looking around.

"Even the prince?" One of his men asked.

"Looks like check this out" he said showing them Leon’s rob and boots.

They were stained with blood. Osteen got off his horse to check the robe as though seeing was not enough.

"This is fresh, and what's buried there?" He asked pointing at the tree.

Leon wanted to be sure they had not turned their backs on them. And to do that he had to wait a bit longer. All he needed was a reason to kill them.

"A grave, with their names I see"

"Who wrote the names?"

"Themselves maybe before they got butchered mercilessly"

"Or maybe one of them, we can't tell the queen he is dead unless we are sure" Osteen said walking away.

"So that was the plan? To let the prince die" A soldier asked.

"Yes, he stole our glory. We win battles around her. Go find him if he is not dead kill him!" Osteen said climbing back on top of his horse.

"What about the king and the people?"

"They will mourn for a few days and get over it, he is not better than the king’s four sons"

It was what he wanted to hear.