RETURN OF THE HYBRID (Book III)

Chapter 1

After close to a decade of starvation and torture in the magical prison with one of his worst enemies Leon finally escaped through the portal that had been created. The prison was breaking anyway and both of them were weak however, Leon had some strength left more than Ariella. There was a promise he had to keep he was not going to let her down. On his mind was his mistress, Lydia the witch but when he got outside the portal in a super speed faster than he had ever used before things were different from what he expected. First Ariella was not behind him, if she was Leon would have decollated her that very moment without hesitation, the change that caught his eye was the environment he was in. It was bushy, dark and a few heartbeats could be felt from all over the place. No sound of a vehicle or a phone ringing, there were no street lights, no tarmacked roads, no brick walled buildings as a matter of fact the more he crawled through the bushes the less he saw any houses around. He was confused and thirsty, not for water but for blood and right then he had his sight on something that could quench it, or so he thought.

"s**t! Tastes like nothing really, like leaves" He said dropping the carcass of a gazelle.

Leon continued walking in the vast grasslands. He was still feeling weak and he needed some real blood, human blood preferably from a vein or a pumping heart. The heartbeats were far away but he kept following the light hoping to stumble upon a settlement. He still had no idea where and when he was, dressed in a black suit, black shoes and a tie he still looked presentable for the future and strange for the ancient.

That same night, one of the king Rhodes advisors was going back home after working late. The clivestone kingdom was facing a rough phase, she had no enough warriors to protect herself, no food to feed her people and the king was losing it. His advisors were having a hard time putting him in check and once in a while they had to work till late night, until the king fell asleep. There were also bandits on the roads waiting to snatch from the effluent to feed themselves and their sight was set on the advisor's chariot. When they spotted it from far they tied a rope across the path and waited for him to arrive, unknowingly the horses fell in the trap. The advisor was sound asleep snoring loudly at the back the sound of his horses neighing and his body dressed in a fine linen robe soaking in the roadside mud woke him up.

"Who's is there? Do you know who you are robbing?" The advisor asked angrily staring around.

He was shaking both in anger and fear, his heartbeat had doubled its normal rate and he was looking around with his pen knife for someone he could not see.

"Let's make this easy for you", a giant approaching figure said getting closer to him.

He started retreating further in the bushes. Clearly they did not care who he was. He had something they wanted and they were not going to ask nicely unless he chose to be nice himself. He picked the latter.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"All your silver coins, your linen, sandals and the golden royal ring, we will also take the horses"

"Come on mate", he argued coming to light of their lamps his hands raised to show compliance and peace, "I can't go home naked and on foot my soles will be bruised!"

"You are worried about your soles being bruised when fellas are dying of hunger, you hypocrite!" A little one among the bandits shouted in anger with a club in his hands.

He almost got him were it not for the bigger one who easily grabbed him by both hands and tossed him away.

"Start undressing! He then shouted.

It was the last resort and yet he was not going down without a fight. Instead of waking naked, without his sandals with bruised soles he decided to taste the waters with his legs and put his far from athletic body to test. The advisor ran away as fast as he thought he could one of the three bandits picked up the horses while the shorter one now unleashed and justified to club him to death ran after.

God, if he believed one existed had read Leon's mind. Food was running towards him. He stopped for it to come to him.

"Help! Heeelp please! Help me am being robbed don't you just stand there am the kings advisor lord Herman the king will reward..." He ran out of breath and supported his body on Leon's, "He... He will reward you heavily"

"I doubt that" Leon said the veins around his eyes becoming swollen with blood, his iris glowed reddish yellow and his razor sharp sickle Luke carnassial teeth came out.

Lord Herman was still catching his breath when he fell with a thud all of a sudden it was the guy who was in pursuit that saw what was happening. He immediately dropped his club and started running back. Leon decided to start with him first, the poor bandit found himself stumbling into the same beast he left behind him. The last sound he heard was his own breath in bid to scream for help. Leon drained him to the last drop.

"What are you doing?" Herman asked surprised at Leon leaning over the bandits body.

He morphed back into his usual self, he looked even younger than he had been some few minutes back. Good for him he always carried a handkerchief with him which he used to wipe blood. Memories of the bandit were replaying in his head, they were not many apparently the poor guy was just twenty seasons old.

"Lord Herman right?" Leon asked smiling.

"Yes, thank you for saving me. What did you do to him? You didn't kill him did you? The king has a strong policy against killing you know" he explained constantly trying to sneak a peek at what had happened.

"Of course I didn't so, Herman why don't you take me to the rest of them...hey! Look at me everything is fine as long as you listen to me" Leon promised.

"Okay, let's go" Herman said leading the way.

He was so tempted to look behind but in the bright side the strange stranger was helping him. They found the other two still waiting for their friend to come back. When they saw Herman confidently emerging from the bushes instead of their friend the looks on their faces alone could not explain the surprise.

"What did you do to him?"

"Nothing, he did it" Herman turned to point at Leon who was no longer behind him.

"Over here!" Leon shouted standing behind the two armed bandits.

"What? How did you get there?"

They say that when one is cast out as a monster, they only have two options. One being to find a way to kill the pain of rejection and the other one being the very same monster. Leon perfected both over the decade he was trapped in the magic prison. Unlike his previous version, no whooshing sound was heard when he teleported from one point to another, you blink and miss it.

"You boys have no idea what you are up against" Leon said emerging from the shadow of the chariot.

"And who are you? What is a man dressed like you doing in the woods?" The bandit asked swinging his club like a plane propeller.

"Fine boys like you belong to the palace not our here. Bad for you we have to rob you" The other one mocked both of them bursting into a hysterical laughter.

It was their last. Leon ripped out both of their throats, Herman screamed out loud enough to awaken the ancestors until he couldn't scream anymore, he was now shaking, frozen with his eyes popping right out as Leon's face turned into what he would gave described as dog like and he started drinking their blood right away, feeding ravenously.

"Who are you?" Herman asked trembling.

"Nobody you want to mess with, now tell me Herman", Leon said licking the last drop of blood on his index finger, "When and where am I?"

It was then that he realized the strange man in a funny dress code was not from around. He had never seen him before in any occasion and he attended every occasion there was in the entire clivestone kingdom. As for Leon, he was not planning on making Herman his dinner. He had blood of three grown up men already in his veins, their memories and experiences, he was feeling their joy and sadness too. As a stranger he needed friends and Herman looked like a good ally.

"You don't know where and when we are?" Herman asked retreating.

"Just answer the question" He said quickly reaching for his throat.

"I... I... Can't breathe" He claimed trying to slip out of Leon's strong grip around his throat.

"Ooh am sorry Herman, I promise I won't hurt you unless you force me to. Now be a good advisor and tell me everything I need to know or I might just rip it out of you trust me I have means you don't want to find out" Leon threatened looking all smiley.

"Okay, okay this is clivestone kingdom the year 1823"

"I knew it! This place stinks old I like it though maybe Lydia is in here too"

"Who is Lydia and where are you from? I mean if you are not from here you must come somewhere"

"Lydia is the love of my life and am resident of the neighboring kingdom" Leon said dragging the bodies in the bush.

Their neighboring kingdom had no residents like him, Herman saw an opportunity to run, to confront his fear and just ran as fast as he could but again he was not good at running. He found Leon waiting for him where he intended to hide.

"You leave me no option" Leon said walking towards him with his iris burning red hot.

"Please, don't kill me I won't tell anyone about you and I swear I won't run again", Herman begged his hands raised sweat trickling down his moist long hair and heated that left a small aperture for a mouth.

"You i***t am not going to kill you. I always keep my word" Leon said amid chuckles.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"This"

Before Herman took the next breath of fresh air Leon was holding both of his shoulders, looking straight into his eyes. He felt like he was trapped in his own brain.

"You are going to take me to your house for the night and tomorrow you will introduce me to your king as his son from one of his concubines who you saved from an animal attack that occurred in the woods on your way home. Forget everything you saw here tonight"

It went dark for a minute and when he regained his visual abilities, Herman felt more relieved and happy too for rescuing the kings heir.

"Come on, let's get you home I will take you to the king tomorrow" He said dragging Leon away like a little kid.

"Thank you Lord Herman" Leon said wearing a nasty smile on his face.

"Please call me Herman your majesty" He said opening the door of the chariot for him.

And in the middle of the night, one of king Rhode's loyal advisors carried home a beast of the night, a hybrid lost in the course of history due to a supernatural blip back to his own home. It was the greatest honor a man could do for the king mores on with the kind of situation he was in. The kingdom needed something to believe in or rather someone and the king had no prince or princess, seven of his sons and his only daughter had died in the war. Rhode himself was even contemplating suicide.

"Welcome toy humble home your majesty" Herman said.

"Thank you"

"My wife and kids are asleep, I will introduce them to you at first sunrise, for now follow me to your room He Said walking upstairs.

The room reminded Leon of Ariella's castle, green walls, not painted per say but from algae struggling to survive on it. A set of candles and makeshift bed with a sleeping bag, two pillows and a blanket.

"Not bad for 1823" Leon said.

"What?"

"No, nothing thank you"

"Okay goodnight my prince" Herman said leaving the room.

Clivestone kingdom was not ready for their prince.