Chapter 24: Laeltilat

Laeltilat and her faithful companion Arlandiel saw dragons. Dozens of dragons flew across the snow-covered desert with interspersed forests and mountains. Hiding behind a stone, they watched as the green dragon with brown lines, burned two travellers with its breath. Stunned and confused, the elves could not move.

“So this is the secret of the Belt of Twilight,” Laylith said.

“We need to get out of here,” Arel said without listening to her.

“Can we go further?” the sudden courage surprised Laylith herself.

She was a brave girl, but not when the danger is so obvious, and death is so close that death can grab you by it hand. But still, something made her show an insane curiosity.

“Are you crazy?“Arel was surprised. “Can’t you see dozens, maybe hundreds of dragons up there?”

“They seem to be talking with each over,” Laylith said, ignoring him, peering into the frosty distance.

“And they’re burning everyone! And even if we go unnoticed by the dragons, this cold south will still take our lives. Though death in a fire is more terrible than ice death.”

“Maybe my father is hiding out there!”

“Do you still naively think that he is alive? That a northerner would leave his pregnant wife and decided to be an exile and live more than twenty years in mountains, talking with dragons?”

Lalith looked at him angrily.

“If you don’t want to go, come back, but I will go!” with these words, the half-elf, watching the dragons, quickly ran to the next stone. Ahead was a forest with tall trees dotted with needle-like leaves, partially covered in snow, but the snow had melted in some spots, forming wide puddles. And it was unclear, did the dragons melt the snow, or did climate change play a role?

Arel, cursing, ran after her.

When they took refuge in this part of the forest, Balardalfiaks just flew to the place of his patrol, and, finding nothing unusual, he again headed along the mountain peaks, looking for some unlucky guests.

The forest provided good shelter for the adventurers. But dragons often flew over it, and the young elves constantly experienced an icy fear that was felt more piercingly than the chill of the frosty mountains. Soon they began to notice some marks on the trees. And Laeltilat decided that it was necessary to focus on them, in case if it was her father who had left marks.

Moving carefully, they finally emerged from the forest and found themselves at the foot of the mountain, where the entrance to the cave was visible. After waiting for the three dragons to fly away, they slipped out and, using a quick run spell, were able to quickly reach the entrance, but it took a lot of strength and energy.

Once inside, they gasped. By the fire sat three strange oldenmessers in some kind of fur skins, two old men and one old woman.

“The time has come,” one of them said when he saw the arqilunians.

The three ancient elves headed towards the Laylith and Arel, and the young elves were already preparing to attack, but the oldenmessers marched towards the exit of the cave, ignoring them.

“Who are you?” Laylith suddenly burst out.

The ancient elves ignored the question.

“Kadoh Dal Him Arokh,” one of the ancient elf said.

A dragon flew in, light beige and huge.

“Piraksimonish, Hret Das Mon Tur Khe Vas For Stun Man Kar,” the elder said to the dragon.

“Al Dar Thos Dor Far,” said the dragon, nodded and took off.

“Did he nod to oldenmesser? Did you see it?” Arel asked in surprise, turning to Laylith. They were hiding at the exit of the cave and watched with caution.

“Doesn’t it surprise you that it can talk too?” Laylith grinned.

The old elf who spoke to the dragon returned to them, he had a long beard, quick green eyes that ran and studied the arqilunians.

“Who are you?” Laylith repeated her question.

“It doesn’t matter, child, it’s time to purify the world.”

“To purify?”

“Yes, dragons will cleanse this world and we will fulfil the prophecy, and from the fire we will be reborn again!” the oldenmesser answered.

“What are you talking about?“Arel suddenly asked, “Are you talking about the mass destruction of the whole living world?”

“Yes,” the old elf replied shortly, and a fake sadness flashed through his eyes.“Gaaldalksirin fulfilled his destiny, but he didn’t know the whole meaning of the prophecy, after all, he was a too young dragon.”

“Who?” The young half-elf asked.

“The dragon who sacrificed himself, destroying our second star, Iglara, a great deed done for the good of Ermir, so the dragon name was Gaaldalksirin. But his name will be forgotten, like yours,” with these words the old elf began to move his hands and said, “Kras Fah Danus!”

The arqilunian were trapped in a cage. Magical bars prevented them from casting spells. Laylith, who reacted quickly, nevertheless tried to cast a spell of three magical orbs, but it didn’t work, and her subsequent attempts were pointless, the cage applied the effect of neutralizing any spells. The old elf turned and walked away.

“They were oldenmessers, but some different,” Arel said, he had already sat down at the edge of the magical cage.

“They want to use dragons to destroy our planet!” the half-elf’s anger reflected in her eyes.“We have to get out of here.”

“The magical prison spell cast by the oldenmessers. Uff, I don’t even know how long it lasts, maybe for millions of years, and how you want to dispel it?” Arel asked.

Suddenly they heard someone land near the cave. Loud footsteps, like a giant stomping, approaching the entrance, echoed throughout the cave. Friends saw how the dragon’s eye was looking at them. The dragon himself could not stick his head into the cave, the entrance was narrow and long.

“I’ll try to help you,” the dragon said in a union language. And without waiting for an answer, he turned around and began to pound the entrance to the cave with his huge tail. The stone vaults began to crumble and fall directly onto the magical cage. The stone pieces completely covered them.

Although the travellers were buried under stones, the magical cage withstood everything. And so they heard someone sorting the stones. The light soon shone through and blinded them, and Laylith closed her eyes.

The dragon cleared the cage from the rubble.

“Are you all right?” the dragon asked.

Laylith, as always, did not show interest in the question.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Ulzardaldalor,” the black dragon said, “but you can call me Ulli.”

“Do you want to eat us?” half-elf asked.

“And why should I do it? You’re an arqilunian with northern roots.”

“Hmm. Do you know our races?”

“And you don’t seem to know mine,” Ulli grinned, “but if the memory of your ancestors was erased, and my family was already forgotten, then I will answer you, I am a dragon!” and with these words, Ulli spread his wings.

Arel, who had been silent all this time, decided to speak up.

“Why do you want to save us?” he asked suddenly.

“My kin is obsessed with prophecy. Of course, the story is rather boring, but I’ll tell to you. Many billions of years ago, this planet was inhabited by barzandakors, the ancestors of dragons, who bear little resemblance to us both in appearance and behavior. The barzandakors possessed incredibly powerful magic, they could create stars. We can say that they were gods even in our understanding, although objectively they were demigods, because you cannot kill a god but you can kill a barzandakor if legends are true… I digress.” Ulli made a growling sound and continued. “The world was evolving, new creatures appeared, but the barzandakors were not satisfied with something in Ermir. They reshaped the landscape, created rivers, seas, mountains and destroyed them, creating them anew. They had only one star, which name is lost forever. And so they decided to create another one. The cataclysms that followed these events are described in legends by many ermirians. Among the tonnebeards, for example, the gods danced on the southern side of the Belt of Twilight and their stomping caused a cold snap. Among the sand elves, the goddess Vozoth, the mother of threads, as they call her, weaved frost from the sand and covered the majestic mountains of the Belt of Twilight with endless darkness. It was dark here when Iglara and Silenta moved in different orbits,” the dragon sighed. “And so Gaaldalksirin woke up, and, guided by a prophecy, decided to destroy Iglara. Gaaldalksirin was the oldest sleeping dragon, while was the youngest one. Oldest because of an ancient dream, and youngest, because he was young,” the dragon paused. “We saw how he flies, or rather, we saw a point in the sky, but we felt him. The prophecy says, ‘The name of the last Gaal of the Ksirin clan, lost in time, will flare up with the star and both of them extinguished forever. The awakened ones will bring fire, and the flame will revive us.’”

“What do you mean ‘us’?” Laylith asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” the dragon replied, “but those three oldenmessers whom you saw, are our guides to your side of the Belt of Twilight, which was also called the Wall of Ghosts in ancient times... But I don’t want to destroy the world, I don’t want to fly and burn everything around. Besides, no one can say for sure who will be revived. Will it revive our ancestors, the barzandakors, or will it destroy all life on Ermir? I don’t know. My brothers blindly trust Taewan Rosat, Tola Dalzol and Sephron Ultrakt.”

At the mention of the old elves who imprisoned them in a magic prison, Arel winced, and fire flashed in Laylith’s eyes.

“And now with dragon’s help, they’re going to burn the world?” Arel asked.

“Yes, I’m afraid so. Few of us who have decided to abandon this madness!”

“How many?” Laylith asked.

“Six. There are six renegades,” Ulli replied.

“No, how many dragons flew to destroy Ermir?”

“Three hundred forty-two,” Ulli looked surprised himself when he said that number.

Suddenly Laylith sat down near the magic barrier and turned away from Ulli, meeting Arel’s eyes. A tear came out and ran down her cheek.

“You can’t save them, child,” Ulli said.

The half-elf restrained herself as best she could, her friend didn’t shed a tear.

“There is only one way,” the dragon continued, “We must find the Portal of the Worlds, it is hidden in a mountain on your side of the Belt of Twilight. When we find it, we can move to the Dragon Empire, which we haven’t done for millions of years, and ask the emperor to give us a dragon army to fight my kin.

“Aren’t they on the side of your relatives?” Arlandiel asked.

“We’ll find out,” Ulli said with a smile.