A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Book one: The outlanders (Part I-IV)
Chapter 15: Dragons and oldenmessers

“Chekwansilorush, Irkirtalarsialor, Havlardaldalor, Ulzardaldalor, is that all?!” Farumbirznaaks asked four dragons. “The rest did not escape?!” he was furious and burst into flames upward. “Prophecies! Prophecies! Almost all of our kind was destroyed by prophecies! Oh, there she is!” Falsalvgudina with a flock of large argiphones flew up to the dragons. “You are a false mother!” Farum spewed an incredible stream of flame that Skarswanga barely dodged, but the fire partly incinerated one of the snow argiphones, which, falling, turned into a woman.

The clouds covered the Larmar Islands, it became dark and only light argiphones, and Irkirtalarsialor, a light blue dragon, and Farum himself, a golden dragon with black spots, were bright against the sky.

Snow argiphones began to turn into women, except for the one Skarswanga was flying on. And then they began to turn into birds again.

“Yes, we are falsalvgudinas,” their voice seemed to sound in the dragons’ heads, “you are not our children, and today you will die!”

Nine snow argiphones, not counting the argiphone with Skarsvanga, flew to the dragons. The birds turned into women with swords in flight, and then back into birds again. The dragons did not have time to react to the false mothers’ attacks. One snow argiphone flew up and then swooped down, transforming into a woman with a sword, and pierced Havlardaldalor’s eye, leaving a ghostly blade inside. The dragon screamed and flew downward, his body smashing against the sharp rocks.

Chekwansilorush was able to grab one woman with his claws in flight, then bit off her head and threw away the dead body. Irkir poured fire to the right and the left, while three falsalvgudinas attacked, at last, he dived into a grey cloud, and then appeared behind them and burned one false mother. The black dragon Ulli, fighting off one falsalvgudina, did not notice how the other dived from above and thrust the sword into his back, but the sword got stuck in the scales, without touching important organs. Farumbirznaaks incinerated another falsalvgudina, and he saw that Ulli needed help. They had already flown away from the island, and the battle took place over the water, the rain begins. Farum picked up speed, flew up to Ulli quickly, and then changed position and clawed at the falsalvgudina, who took the form of a woman, and was able to squeeze her body, and then he grabbed the sword with his claw and pulled it from the dragon’s back. Ulli made a growling sound in pain and began to fall towards the water, touching the water slightly, he was able to flap his wings again and gain altitude. At that moment, Skarswanga attacked Farum from behind on a huge snow argiphone, which clutched at his neck with claws, but Farum was able to twist his neck and blaze with fire, which, although the argiphone dodged, he had to fly away.

“Falsalvgudinas,” thundered Skarswanga’s voice, “retreat!” and all the false mothers flew away, moving to the east.

The dragons flew up to each other, they fled from the islands because of the battle, but now they are heading back. The raindrops bounced off the dragon scales.

“We believed one of them and we fought with our brothers! Sirridwyn, my mother, why are we cursed?” Farum lamented. “Forgive me, brothers, I should have led you on the path to the rebirth of our kind, not its extermination!”

“It is our fault, not only yours I trusted the oldenmessers, who should serve us and not guide us!” said the wounded Ulli.

“By the way, where are these lying creatures?!” Farum asked.“Hidden in the castle? We will deal with them later! But now it is important to understand what happened to Gaal? He didn’t recognize us! He burned our brothers as if we were his enemies!”

“I think he lost his mind,” Chekwan said.

“Or turned into an animal,” Ulli suggested.

“A losing your mind or becoming an animal isn’t the same?” Chekwan asked.

“Animals use their instincts and they are consistent in their actions, while the mad creatures do chaotic things,” Ulli explained.

“Maybe it was instinct, not madness, maybe, he thought that we want to attack him?” Irkir intervened in the dispute.

“Brothers! The important thing now is to figure out how to stop him!” Farum said. “We have lost so many that the rage in me does not fade away, I almost like an animal and I can’t control my rage!”

“Then maybe you should take some sedative, smoke a mixture with the Tear of the Dragon?” suggested Taewan who suddenly appeared, and the dragons looked at him for a moment in surprise, and then Farum sent an incredibly huge stream of fire at Taewan, and the ancient elf crumbled to dust.

“And I listened to that idiot!” Ulli said regretfully.

The dragons took off and headed for the main castle.

***

Tola and Sephron were able to replace the escaped larmarians a few hours ago and put them back in the magical cages.

“Taewan has gone mad!” Tola said. “If I were Farum, I would have burned him by myself for his unthinkable impudence!”

“It’s not the dragons’ fault, nor is it ours, but the problem in our blind faith in one hand and our total rejection of reality in the other. Admit it, Tola, we’re confused. Gaal is different now and he is burning Ermir!”

“Dragons should have burned Ermir so that in the flames we shall be reborn again,” Tola said.

“Perhaps, but since Gaal incinerates even his kind, then no one knows who will be reborn, and it is completely unclear how our kind of oldenmessers will survive in the future.”

“Only one thing is clear now, they won’t let us out alive,” Tola said.

The dragons flew up to the castle, Tola and Sephron stepped away from the window.

“Oldenmessers,” Farum shouted, “if you don’t come out immediately, we’ll start burning, incinerating, melting... We’ll start melting the stone! This is how it sounds in your union language?! We will melt your stone castles and you’ll be buried alive!” Farum took off and decided to fly around part of the island, giving the oldenmessers time to think.

“Let’s send the larmarians,” Sephron suggested, “for negotiations,” and, without waiting for Tola’s reaction, he approached Uldra. “Uldra Farniss, I’ll let you go now, you go out of the castle and talk to the dragons, tell them that we were misled by various prophecies, inconsistencies and lies. Be convincing, otherwise, they will turn you to dust, literally, to ashes!” and the ancient elf freed the girl from the cage.

Uldra headed for the castle exit, followed by Tola to make sure the girl completed the task. Tola pushed Uldra out into the courtyard and immediately closed the door behind her, running back as quick as her old age would allow.

Farum completed his circle and flew towards the rest of the dragons, who were looking at Uldra. It was raining slowly, but Uldra was already completely wet. Larmarian girl opened her mouth in surprise because of the powerful appearance of the dragons.

“O... Oll... Oll-den...” Uldra was suddenly so frightened that she began to stammer. She forced herself to suppress her fear. “They... want...to live.”

“My brothers wanted to live too!” Farum was furious, and he raised his head to the sky and unleashed a mighty pillar of fire straight into the cloud.

“And larmarians too!” As if infected with Farum’s wrath, Uldra perked up her spirits. “You’ve burned my family, my relatives and friends alive, and I thank the gods that someone is destroying yours!”

The oldenmessers who watched what was happening from the castle were annoyed.

“What a fool! What she is up to?!” Tola exclaimed.

“She’s probably a relative of Taewan and Rzalu,” Sephron said.

“You shouldn’t have put Rzalu in this row. An accident happened to her! You can’t be immune to that kind of thing!”

“Quiet, don’t distract, maybe we’ll listen to something important,” Sephron said.

In the courtyard of the castle, Uldra did not calm down.

“If you want to burn me, you vile creatures, come on, incinerate me! And you can burn the entire castle to the ground! Come on!” The rain was running down the girl’s face, and dragons hung over her.

“We have to let her go,” Irkir said suddenly.

“Maybe she works for decrepit elves! Better to take her life and save her from suffering,” Ulli proposed, “and if we do not replace a way to stop Gaal, then we’ll all be exterminated, like her kind.”

“Or maybe we should die in the fire of Gaal and then maybe the flame will revive us, as stated in the main version of the prophecy?” Chekwan put in.

“Do you want to become a mad dragon or a mindless animal?” Farum asked. “If that is the essence of the prophecy that our intellectual species should turn into primitive creatures then maybe such a prophecy we must send to the Helavspadasmur mother?!”

“You’re brainless creatures already!” Uldra yelled at them. “Come on, burn everything around, destroy, it’s so reasonable!” She laughed and looked around. “Just look at this,” she pointed to the ruined castles and the fallen trees and trampled fields. Raindrops fell from her raised hand, and she laughed. “Intelligence! To burn down a planet with all the life on it, to use the prophecies as an excuse, not even knowing if they are true or not, that is a truly high level of intelligence! Outstanding!” And she clapped her wet hands.

“She’s right,” Irkir said, “I suggest letting her go.”

“We understood your position,” Ulli said to Irkir, and then looked at Uldra and said, “Sometimes you have to destroy everything to prosper.”

“Go, a young child of Ermir,” suddenly Farum said to Uldra, “you can die without our help. Are there only oldenmessers left in the castle?”

“No, there is a one larmarian,” she remembered of Julianip. “He is a prisoner of the ancient elves. Will you keep him alive?”

“I doubt it, young one, but we have no purpose to kill him, we just need to force the decrepit elves to come out!” Farum said and turned to the dragons, “Brothers, it’s time to bring death on the heads of the false prophets!” And four dragons soared into the sky.

The oldenmessers hiding in the castle looked at each other. Julianip, who was in the magical cage, shouted, “Don’t leave me here!”

“Sorry, larmarian,” Sephron said and ran down to the underground part of the castle. The Tola followed him.

Dragons melted the stone walls of the castle, demolished the towers in flight. Uldra ran away and roared to the rocky ground, the impulse of her frantic courage gone.

Ulli decided to pour fire on the lower part of the castle and break the outer walls with his paws. And he just damaged the stairs along which the ancient elves were running. Suddenly Tola, moving by inertia, fell from the half-destroyed staircase, and a piece of the stone stair flew behind her and crushed her. Sephron didn’t have time to grab her arm. He began to conjure a magic dome, and after that shouted, “I surrender!”

On one of the upper floors of the castle, falling stones bounced off the magical cage or gathered on the roof of it. And so Julianip’s cage was dispelled. The larmarian took an advantageous position, and the upper piles of stone fell so that he could bounce off and not get hurt, and then he began to crawl, making his way between the stone pieces. And Sephron, using the magic dome, walked to the partially blocked exit from the castle.

“He surrenders!” Ulli’s voice boomed, and he began to rake the passage with his paws. Farum flew up to Ulli, and the other dragons landed nearby.

Finally, Sephron got out.

“I’m a victim too...” Sephron began. Suddenly Farum burst into flames and incinerated Sephron, breaking through his weak protective dome.

“Now let’s replace the rest of our brothers and try to come up with a plan to stop Gaal!” Farum commanded. And the dragons took off and headed north.