A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part six: The death
Chapter 10: Arinella

“We must save them!” Arel insisted.

“Shh, you keep your head down, there are already five dragons flying around,” Arinella said.

They hid behind the giant rocks that Ansell scattered around until he disappeared. After his disappearance, a new attack by the tukhtaash outlanders began, and Arinella and Arel managed to hide, but Alaya and her daughters did not. And now Arinella watched as the wallitarf woman and her daughters were placed in a magical prison cage.

It was moderately cool, but winter had not yet reached the southeastern part of Kaushmanashtoon. Silenta was about to fall over the horizon, but it was as if something was forcing the star to move slower than usual, which terribly annoyed Arinella.

The huge tukhtaash man took the glowing rope that stretched from the magical cage floating in the air. Inside the cage, Alaya and her daughters looked calm, as Arinella thought, but it was too far away to see their faces. The tukhtaash said something in their language, and then moved toward the ruined city, Chumbiksirinish. The tukhtaash man pulled the cage behind him.

“We must do something!” Arel didn’t let up.

“Let’s wait for Ansell, sooner or later he will deign to appear, that’s when we’ll do it. Do you want to die saving three wallitarfs?”

“They saved our lives!” Arlandiel said loudly.

“Yes, but if you go after them, you will die,” Arinella said.

When the tukhtaashes were finally out of sight, Silenta went beyond the horizon and twilight enveloped the space.

A portal opened nearby and Ansell appeared, followed by two women. They began to look around and Arinella came out of hiding, followed by Arel.

“Ah, there you are,” the First remarked happily, “let me–”

“You left us again, old man, if it weren’t for your strength, I would cut your throat right now,” Arinella shouted.

“Child,” said the brown-eyed woman with black hair at the roots and light gray at the ends, ’how dare you threaten our father?”

“Father?!” Arinella wondered.

“Yes, Arinella, haven’t I had time to tell you everything? I remember saying in Chumbiksirinish about Gaal, that he was the child of the Firsts, though of course I should have said he was the grandson of the Firsts.” Ansell looked at the seriously uncomprehending gloomy face of the arqilunians. “Well, I’m one of the Firsts! The Firsts, besides me, have done terrible things, such as misinforming the population and spreading false prophecies on Ermir, in which I and the other Firsts begin to get confused. The Firsts created daughters and called them askaldenfirsts, daughters of the Firsts, no matter how trite it may sound,” he chuckled, “and the Firsts were able to make mothers give birth to dragons, also we… I mean they… created falsalvgudinas to confront the askaldenfirsts–”

“And for that, father, you should be beheaded!” the second woman said, she was blue-eyed with blue hair at the roots and white at the ends.

“Sister, he is our father! Treat him like a father!” the other woman said.

“You’re askaldenfirsts!” Arel guessed. “Daughters of the Firsts.”

“Yes, that’s what I just said,” Ansell raised his gray eyebrow.“Here this is,” he pointed to the brown-eyed woman, “Singyamekhvildra Heraverskuglis, you may call her Singyama, and next to her,” he turned his head to the other, “Flamislablada Sekkihegslogvad, you may call her–”

“You may not,” Flamislablada interrupted him, ” I’m not going to tolerate shortening my name!”

“Flamislablada, don’t interrupt your father, please,” Singyama said.

“Sister, he said himself that he had taken a minimal part in our creation. And sometimes he said that he didn’t take any part in it at all! Even if he is our father, then think about how many of our sons and sisters died because of him and his kind!” Flamisla said, not hiding her irritation.

“Father is grieving, you see, and he didn’t want to take any part in it, and when he wanted to stop it, he left,” Singyama retorted.

Arel and Arinella looked at each other, Arel wanted to say something, but the arqilunian gestured for him to be silent.

“He is grieving, he didn’t want to…” Flamisla rolled her eyes. “And what did he do to stop the vicious circle of creation and death? He decided to give up everything and leave! But how many cycles were there with the deaths of our sisters and sons? How many cycles were there with the creation of new puppets of the Firsts?!”

“You are right, Flamislablada,” Ansell said, “I’m a bad father and friend, a bad protector and I didn’t want to interfere in any of this, even though I’m the strongest of the Firsts. I liked this city,” he pointed to the dilapidated Chumbiksirinish, hidden in the twilight. “I’m very sorry that you had to realize the meaninglessness of your own existence. But now everything will change. Everything is already changing, the old world has been destroyed. Gaal was able to transform into a fire dragon, and the greyskuggies can destroy Ermir... I’ve spent as much energy in recent weeks as I haven’t spent in the last couple of thousand years! And what am I doing now? Instead of saving the poor ermirians, the innocent little children of the sand dwarfs, I went looking for you, my dear daughters, because I want to think that you’re my daughters. And now I’m here with you and I want to save as many as possible! By the way, where are Alaya and her daughters?”

“She and her children were kidnapped,” Arel said, “the tukhtaash outlanders captured them and took them to the city in a magical cage.”

Suddenly Flamislablada dodged a flying arrow with lightning speed.

“Kots Bak Sart Pakus Dan Arjur!” Ansell said, and they were shielded by a four-sloped powerful protective dome. Dozens more arrows bounced off it. It was already dark, but the dome was glowing all around. A stream of fire streaked across the dome and flew apart, illuminating the space for a few seconds, and several dragons became visible in the night sky. The arrows continued to fly, bouncing off the dome.

“Plar For At Skar Khat,” Singyama said, and hundreds of fiery arrows fell from the sky. One of the dragons let out a piercing roar and then fell right next to the dome, making Arinella feel the ground shake. The dragon’s eye was pierced by a fiery arrow.

“Skiv Bael Alain Blut,” Flamisla cast a spell of giant barely distinguishable jagged blade, and the dragon, which was hit by three small fiery arrows without causing him significant harm, suddenly split into two parts, and all his insides flew and fell next to the dome, and then the two halves of his body collapsed.

“Maybe we could negotiate a truce with the dragons, because they are your children?” Arel suddenly asked.

“They are not ours, arqilunian!” Flamisla replied.

Arinella instinctively began to cover Arel with herself, keeping her hands at the ready.

Arel jumped in front of her and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Arinella pretended not to understand what she was doing.

“Get ready,” Ansell shouted, “it’s about to get nasty, just like the last time. Sten Sem Eg Mon Fal Hin Forstor!” and giant rocks began to fall from the sky. The roars of the dragons could be heard. The rocks fell on the dome as well, but then they either cracked themselves, falling apart, or bounced or rolled down the dome, creating additional protective walls that deprived visibility.

For a while there were scream and dragon roars, tukhtaashes and tukhtaash-dragons were wounded and dying in agony, crushed by the giant rocks.

“Rum Lit Skod,” Arinella cast a spell of magical light to illuminate the space. But the dome itself glowed and glowed more inside than outside, and now the rocks also blocked her view. The elf’s magical light increased the illumination inside the dome, and Arinella felt completely helpless, which infuriated her.

“Far Hlut Fra Mer,” Ansell cast the spell of the Firsts, and all the giant rocks flew off the dome into the darkness. The screams and groans of the wounded increased.

“Enough!” some dragon roared.

“Arinella tried to see beyond the brightly lit dome, but couldn’t.”

“We have hostages,” the dragon’s voice continued to rumble. “We’ll kill them all if you don’t surrender!”

Ansellellor looked at Arinella.

“Maybe I’ll teach you something later,” and he smiled strangely. “Star Nam Sen Lis Lup An Krin,” Ansel cast the spell of the Firsts, creating a powerful light source that could pass through any protective and other magical domes. The askaldenfirsts and the arqilunians instinctively closed their eyes and turned away. A huge, bright, but not radiating heat star soared into the sky, breaking through the dome without damaging it.

The whole space lit up as if there was daylight. Hundreds of rocks crushed hundreds of wounded and dead bodies. Some were in the form of dragons, some were tukhtaashes.

One dragon flew over the Ansell’s dome, and below two tukhtaashes walked under the protective dome toward Arinella and her group. The tukhtaash-dragon landed not far from their dome, took the form of a tukhtaash ermirian, and entered the protective dome.

“Well, you’ll deal with them yourself,” Ansell said, then muttered something and disappeared.

“Where is he?” Flamislablada was surprised. And then the dome began to flicker and also disappeared.

“Get used to it, mother of dragons,” Arinella grinned, “your father likes to disappear at the wrong moment.”

“What are we waiting for?” Singyamekhvildra said loudly. “Gir Gind Fran Ell Dak Mar,“and she cast an askaldenfirst spell that created a rather powerful barrier dome that doesn’t let physical and magical attacks from either side.

A group of three tukhtaashes, two men and one woman under their dome approached the dome created by Singyama. The protective domes sparkled as they touched.

“My name is Karash Shefta,” said the tukhtaash, who a few minutes ago was in the form of a dragon, but now he was a dark-skinned man with short black stiff hair, a handsome beard, a large nose, full lips and brown eyes.

“We don’t care what your name is,” Arel suddenly shouted, “immediately release the prisoners and get out of this city!”

“Fshakanah!” a curse broke out in tukhtaash language from a beautiful young woman with misty eyes, large eyelashes, and black hair that seemed slightly blue.

“Look at this,” Karash said, pointing to the dead bodies and rocks.

Although the barrier created by Ansel had disappeared, his star, which illuminated the territory, was still in the sky.

“Where is the First?” the tukhtaash-outlander, a thin dark-skinned man of forty to forty-five with large brown eyes and grayish short hair, suddenly asked.

“As you understand,” Karash continued, ignoring his fellow tribesman, keeping his cool, “you will be executed for your crimes against the people of Taashtar. But you can save–”

“Skiv Moor Sem Ren Dak Blut!” Singyama uttered, and two giant swords formed over the tukhtaash dome and began trying to cut it, to break through the protective barrier.

“Eid Nag Blan Aik Kil Ovin!” - Flamisla cast askaldenfirsts spell, and huge blue fireballs began to fall to the ground, leaving melting marks on the rocks and soil, partially incinerating the corpses and finishing off the wounded.

“Min Kan Dil Fan Gels Ifrir!” the tukhtaash young woman uttered the spell. And a huge magical cage formed around the protective dome of the askaldenfirst, and the cage began to shrink slowly, squeezing and shrinking the dome too.

“Do something, askaldenfirsts!” Arinella suddenly shouted. Her annoyance at her own helplessness was replaced by fear.

The two giant swords kept trying to cut the tukhtaash dome, but to no avail, the huge blue fireballs kept falling with such force that the giant rocks that bounced to the side were smashed against other rocks.

Suddenly Ansell appeared just inside the askaldenfirst dome.

“Hmm,” said Ansell. He was surprised and began to cast a spell. Right under the dome of the tukhtaash, a hole-portal began to form, and Arinella saw that behind the portal there was a terrain with volcanoes and orange fiery rivers. And three tukhtaashes fell there together with their dome, and then the portal closed. The magic of the shrinking cage was dispelled.

“Why didn’t you let us kill them?” Flamislablada asked with displeasure.

“I’ve moved them, dear Flamisla, to the planet where Gaaldalksirin is now in his fiery form. I think he’ll deal with them just fine,” Ansell said and smiled slyly again. His smile began to annoy Arinella.

“Don’t call me that, use my full name,” Flamisla said.

Singyama removed the protective dome.

“Well, Arinella,” Ansell winked at her, “come on, let’s try to replace Edelmer, because there’s been some trouble on Malderfir, but I didn’t have time to replace out the details.

At the mention of Edelmer, Arinella’s ears began to shimmer from yellow to white.

“Is he missing?” she asked, suddenly realizing that the northerner was not safe.

“We’ll replace out in a moment,” Ansell said and cast a portal spell. “Please, wait here for us,” he said to the askaldenfirsts.

Flamislablada wanted to protest, but Singyama cast a disapproving glance at her, and she remained silent.

" Very well, father, we’ll be waiting for you,” Singyama said.

And Ansell, Arinella, and Arel entered the portal.