Chapter 10: Dragons

Farum landed on the ashes of the elven capital. The trees were scorched to the ground, many houses were burned down. The smoke had already cleared, and the ash had settled, but when the dragon landed, it lifted a giant swirl of ash into the air. Ulli landed nearby.

“And we wanted to burn Ermir too,” Farum said.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t, we could do it and there is no problem!” Ulli replied.

“You don’t care about ermirians or creatures?” Farum asked

“No, you and I, Farum, we are ermirians, we are dragons, and the rest only prevented our kind from prospering.”

“Maybe you’re right,” the golden dragon said uncertainly, “but such devastation, destruction of life... I don’t think I want any part of it.”

“Brothers are flying!” suddenly shouted Chekwan, circling with Irkir in the sky.

Six dragons flew up to them, they were Mirdar, Armale, Fayroar, Duvarl and Hafron with Releks.

Mirdartomonis landed first and raised a huge pile of ash into the air.

“Farum, Ulli, we met Hafronsilorush and Releksdalfiaks. What they told us doesn’t make sense! If it’s true, but I can’t accept this truth, then...” Mirdar hesitated.

“Speak!” Farum shouted.

“We were created. And the First are not some divine beings, but outlanders from other planets! Foreigners, invaders!”

“What?!” Ulli exclaimed, “What are you talking about, brother?!”

Hafron landed, and so did the rest of the six. The ash rose, and the dragons completely enveloped their bodies in a grey haze.

“It’s true, brother,” Hafron said, “we were created by the First. Created for the false struggle. The purpose of the outlanders is to destroy the living, or at least to destroy intelligent beings, to extract a valuable mineral, which turned out to be abundant on Ermir.”

“What is this another fairy tale, a new version of the prophecy?” Farum was surprised, “I’m glad that you have returned your voice, but what you say is impossible to accept!”

“There is no prophecy, brother,” Releks put in. “A prophecy is a fairy tale, an invention so that we can be easily manipulated. It is likely that somewhere there are races similar to us, which the First takes as an example and made copies from it. And yet we are not absolute puppets, our creators cannot force us to do anything. I’ve learned how false mothers were created, and already in the process of their creation there was a manipulation, it was as if they were enchanted to obey and fulfil their tasks, but we’re different! We are live-born dragons, we came out of our mothers, that’s the truth, brothers! Unfortunately, our mothers were made for–”

“For what?” Ulli interrupted.

“For a false fight, and as Hafron already said, for the destruction of the living, for the sake of comfortable extraction of an expensive mineral,” Releks repeated.

Chekwan, who continued to fly in the sky, shouted again, “Brothers are flying!”

“The old snunorfs made it clear to us that we must unite with everyone, including falsalvgudinas.”

“What?! No, not just false mothers!” Ulli growled sharply. “They must all be destroyed!”

“They are creatures just like our mothers, their enmity is fiction, don’t you understand, Ulzardaldalor?” Releks asked.

“Not only Fresta wounded me, but also the falsalvgudina has stabbed her sword in my back! I cannot close my eyes to this!” Ulli remarked.

“He asked us to call him Frestavis, Ulzardaldalor,” Armale said.

“If he is ashamed of the name Vis Dalor, and wants to be just Dalor, does not interest me much, he will always be Vis Dalor, and he will never become Dal Dalor!” Ulli replied.

“He’s not ashamed of it!” Armale remarked, “He is proud and emphasizes it, deliberately separating himself from Dal Dalors,” Armale insisted.

“Brothers, now this conversation is less important than what we have learned,” Farum put in, and at that moment the last group of dragons landed, and Chekwan with them.

“Balardalfiaks, Piraksimonish, I’m glad to see you brothers, you’ve survived, I see you found your brothers. Greetings, Beliksdalfiaks, Ashneer and Halicksimonish. I see, Ashneer, that you have suffered much in the battle.”

“I’ll live,” replied the light yellow dragon with burnt parts of the head, neck and wings.

“But where are the rest?” Farum asked, “Fernir, did you find anyone else?”

“No, Farum,” Fernir replied.

“We must now fly after the sleeping brothers to the Wall of Ghosts,” Ulli suggested.

“Wouldn’t we rather fly to the Ikhagatbers?” asked Hafron, “They will show you what they showed us, and you will see the truth. Words cannot tell you what you will see, brothers!”

The dragons looked at each other.

“All right,” Farum agreed, “but if I think they’re lying, we’ll kill them!”

Several dragons besides Hafron and Releka nodded approvingly.

“What is going on?” Balar was surprised, referring to Piraksimonish.

“We landed together, brother, I have no idea,” the light beige dragon replied.

“I’ll tell you everything in flight,” Farum said and took off.

All the other seventeen dragons took off after him, and they headed northwest.