SWNOVELS Chapter 4: Nulara
Nulara was left all alone. After she and Eldith had left the fishing town, where they felt the most incredible horror of pain, and headed north, on their way they’ve met alone yadonagrish, a creature that looked like a huge earthly butterfly with the body of a snake. In the long fight, Eldith was wounded by acid, which was absorbed into the blood. And Nulara, who had lost her father, her uncle, cousin, despairing of not knowing which of her other loved ones and friends had survived back home on the Larmar Islands, after the attack of dragons, now also lost the only close friend who had always been there for her... Emptiness grew inside, and it nurtured aloofness. All she saw before her eyes, wherever she looked, was a landscape of pain.
Her father was yarlantan, the lord of the Larmar Islands, which formally belonged to Norvinoria, but the larmarians had more contact with Farderland and the tonnebeards who inhabited it because the islands were closer to the border of the tonnebeard country. Therefore, as a young lady, the heiress to the title, she had chambers in the castle at Forsholden, a city in the southwest of Norvinoria. A chamber was as good as the chambers of the Tulvarick VI Molotildar, the king of the tonnebeards.
Helplessness and pain, hatred and anger were all she felt right now. Nulara packed her things... She knew that since her father’s fleet had disappeared, there might have been someone who survived on it because disappearance does not mean shipwreck and death, although it often means something bad. Perhaps the fleet has returned to the Larmar Islands? She realized that she did not want to return to the tonnebeards fishing town, Fishgartard, where the heads of her father and relatives were strung on the spears. If she will return to the town, she will not only experience again the indescribable horror of suffering, but also see the boat on which she has reached the fishing town when the dragons attacked her castle. The boat was the only chance for survival. But it would be unreasonable to sail back on it on the Outland sea because the wind often accompanies those who leave the islands and not those who sail to them from the continent. Especially if you think that despite all the pain, she might be the only heir to become the yarlantan of the Larmar Islands, so risking her own life unnecessarily was not worth it.
The dragons had stopped showing up the last several days. And this was a bad sign for the girl. Where could they fly? They had stopped burning towns, villages, roadside inns and fields. The calm before the storm? Nulara couldn’t wait any longer, she wanted to get home, more even to find out if she could manage the ruins after she’ll kill every living dragon in the world? Yes, she will take revenge on the dragons, but then - won’t she jump off the cliff so that the water will wrap her in a salty blanket and carry her away into the serene distance?
Nulara decided for herself that the only reasonable solution would be to go to Eileenelia, the land of the forest elves, and ask king Aelarnal Ilfelkeer DelRaddik for a few soldiers or officers with argiphones. Argiphons are giant birds that could establish some kind of spiritual and magical connection with the arqilunians, and then serve them as a transport, and sometimes as an aerial combat unit. Travelling on argiphone, whose wingspan reached about ninety feet would be an ideal solution because, in addition to speed and reliability, she could see the destruction of the islands from above, she could notice the approaching dragons, and may also find the lost Larmar fleet.
Nulara left her chambers, taking provisions. The rise of the only remaining star on Ermir, the Silenta, was hidden by a clouded sky. It was raining; the girl moved quietly in her cloak and light leather armor, her grey-blue eyes was full of pain, and dark hair was wet under the hood. Wet road dirt was on her boots. Nulara reached the karkhasharn, saddled the dark karkhash and moved towards the gate. At the gate, the guards exchanged glances, but they obeyed the king of the snunorfs, Ganrikter Chrisskarson II, and Nulara was a vassal of the king, acting yarlantan of the Larmar Islands, which belong to Norvinoria. The guards opened the gates. Nulara galloped along the road going into the dark forest distance.
The journey to the capital of Eileenelia is about three times longer than the distance from Forsholden to the Larmar Islands, but Nulara had made her choice.