A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Book one: The outlanders (Part I-IV)
Chapter 12: Arinella

Laylith wasn’t the only one seeking to get behind the Belt of Twilight. Arinella had similar goals. Edelmer... Every time the name popped up in her head, she felt a feeling of inexplicable joy and sadness at the same time. It’s hard even to confess your love to herself when it hurts, but it is also impossible to hide sensual joy when the image of a warrior pops up in her head…

Arinella and her friend were on the border of Farderland and Kaushmanashtoon. They arrived at a small camp of the tonnebeards.

“Darfairick, old friend,” tonnebeard turned to the Darfairick, “we haven’t seen each other in what, fifteen years?”

They hugged each other, nearly tangling in their long, braided beards.

“Yes, Hemrockhever, many winters have passed, old wounds have healed… Um, this is Arinella,” the dwarf said. The arqilunian made a standard half-lateral bow as a sign of greeting, since the dwarfs by their height and weight did not have the habit of bowing low, and indeed they rarely bowed, then the short man just winked at her.

“And I am Hemrockhever,” the tonnebeard replied.

“Nice to meet you, my friend’s friend is my friend,” Arinella smiled, trying to understand why she had uttered a hackneyed phrase.

“I’m not just his friend,” the dwarf said, ” we’re cousins! Darfairick hasn’t said anything about me, not once? Even not about that I’ve got a longer beard?”

“No, you are wrong, brother! My beard is longer and thicker than yours!” And they both laughed. Arinella rolls her eyes.

“How long have you known each other?” Hemrockhever asked.

“Since the last eclipse of the stars, when there were two of them, do you remember the last eclipse?” Darfairick put in.

“When was it? Seventy years ago?” Hemrockhever asked.

“My brother, your memory is failing you, it was eighty-three years ago, when Silenta and Iglara, go on each other and covered the half of Ermir with darkness. Many young ermirians were so frightened that they began to pray to the gods, thinking that this was the end of the world, although we know that there were several hundred such eclipses.” Darfairick said.

“We? Only the oldenmessers know that,” Hemrockhever winked to Arinella and broke into a smile. “And you have not accidentally found an oldenmesser scrolls anywhere, or I’d like to hear about the outcome of a future war, their powerful mind must be predicted it, didn’t it?”

All three of them laughed. Many tonnebeards were walking around, dragging either provisions or weapons. A small military camp near the border with Kaushmanashtoon was located in the center of the forest. The largest trees of Ermir grew here, aranisoias, about three hundred feet tall. It had always surprised the forest elves that aranisoias grew exclusively in Farderland. The tonnebeards had settled on this land so long ago that the arqilunians were a little jealous. A little? Perhaps even very much so. The forest elves were ambitious. How was it for them to realize that the biggest trees on the planet didn’t grow in their country?

This was not the first time Arinella had seen aranisoias, but each time she was impressed, the giant trees, next to which the shullebaches or any other tall trees would seem like small tiny plants. Aranisoias stood as if the soil belonged to them as if they were holding back the onslaught of the sky and stopping the wind.

“It’s a long way to the first fortified garrison,” Hemrockhever interrupted her admiration, “but we have an excellent tent camp here,” he added with pride.

“We won’t stay long. We’ll feed the karkhashes, and if you can give us provisions for the journey, we will be grateful,” Arinella said.

Darfairick looked at his cousin and nodded in support of the arqilunian.

“Well,” Hemrockhever was slightly upset, “won’t you spend the night? I can prepare a tent.”

“Sorry, brother,” Darfairick said, “we need to go to the Belt of Twilight.”

“What?! Why?!” Hemrockhever was taken aback. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Arinella thinks that knowledge will prevail in the coming war. And no matter what false or true prophecies we hear or read, they all boil down to one thing, somewhere beyond the Belt of Twilight there is the knowledge that can reveal the secrets of Ermir, help win the war.”

“After we had one star left,” Hemrockhever said, “many tried to get through the Belt of Twilight, which, by the way, should be renamed, for the dazzling peaks of its mountains are no longer covered by the darkness... But nothing has changed since Iglara wandering in the sky with Silenta, no one ever came back. No one. Do you want to disappear into oblivion?” Tonnebeard tried to reason with his cousin and his elven friend.

“We have to try!” Arinella insisted. “We don’t know if we’ll return or not, but we have to try!”

“Your right,” Hemrockhever surrendered and went to get provisions.

Having supplied the cousin and the arqilunian with various food and water, he wished them a safe journey.

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