Chapter 4 - Chapter 4: Eldheidfilstrama

Eight false mothers, transforming into different creatures, quickly reached the Belt of Twilight and were able to travel freely through the mountains, meeting neither dragons nor ghosts. Finally, they were incredibly lucky, in one of the caves Heidruna found seven sleeping askaldenfirsts.

Turning into grigrattas, which resemble a mixture of earth rats and foxes, they quickly ran into the cave. Then each of the eight falsalvgudinas took on the distinct form of women, copies of the askaldenfirsts. And each held a ghostly sword.

The askaldenfirsts were asleep. Unnaluga, the only false mother who did not stand near the stone heights that served as beds for the askaldenfirsts, looked with joy and delight at her sisters.

"Now you will die, skarkeshuh," Gurilda said with hatred, raising her sword over the dragon's mother.

"Now!" Unnaluga commanded, and six of the seven swords pierced the askaldenfirst chests. But the one next to which Gurilda was standing woke up and dodged sharply, and then took off. The cave was quite spacious.

"Falsalvgudinas!" shouted a grey-eyed askaldenfirst with ash-colored hair at the roots and reddish at the tips. She looked with rage and horror at the bodies and then turned her gaze to false mothers. "You killed my sisters! Eid Ver Gum Sem Kir Alt Lagum," the woman cast a powerful protective-attacking spell, which surrounded the askaldenfirst with fire, without harming her.

The false mothers flew up, instantly felt the power of the spell. Fiery whips flew out of the fire and lashed them, leaving burns. The flame was so powerful that it could almost be compared to the power of Gaal.

The falsalvgudinas rushed to the exit from the cave.

"You'll all die!" the furious mother of dragons shouted, "Slep Stan Og Lak Hal," askaldenfirst uttered the spell, and the cave entrance began to collapse, stones fell and blocked the entrance.

Five out of eight falsalvgudinas managed to get out. Gurilda, Unnaluga and Fristraga remained. They concentrated to take on the complex form of fire elementals. It was their only chance of survival. The askaldenfirst flew up to them, and when the fiery lash whipped Fristraga again, she was already in the form of an elemental with a flaming sword in her hand, and she flew straight through the fire to the askaldenfirst.

The mother of dragons canceled the fire spell and grabbed the fire elemental's neck with her hand, her hand did not burn. Fristraga drove her flaming sword into the askaldenfirst body with force. The other two false mothers flew up and also pierced the askaldenfirst body with their flaming swords. But she did not let go of the elemental's throat and held it tightly.

"Brainless creatures, I am Eldheidfilstrama Brinanderaltid, I am Gaal's mother!" And her hands became red-hot and began to look like as molten metal. She continued to squeeze the falsalvgudina's throat. Gurilda and Unnaluga concentrated and decided to transform into soil elementals. Fristraga transformed back into a woman in death agony, Eldheida squeezed and burned her neck so hard that Fristraga's head fell off her body and rolled over the rocky surface of the cave. Eldheida pulled out three flaming swords from her body and her wounds instantly healed.

The soil elementals had resistance to fire. And Eldheida cast a spell called "dragon's wrath", she turned into a yellow-reddish shape of a woman, as if made of molten metal, and she flew quickly towards Gurilda, and went right through the elemental's body, leaving a huge hole in it. Gurilda wanted to say something, but fell dead, transforming into a woman with a giant hole from belly to the chest.

Unnaluga was terrified and turned into an insect. Eldheida looked around for an enemy. She closed her eyes and listened. She heard melted snow dripping, water flowing somewhere, but she realized that the false mother would try to find a crack in the rubble, and she flew to the cave entrance.

"I'll kill you quickly when I find you, but your sisters will die slowly! You are only a copy of dragon mother, what's your real shape form? Maybe an insect?" and she fell silent, listened, and then folded her hands and released several powerful fireballs, and one of them hit Unnaluga. At the moment of collision with fire, the insect began to take the form of a woman, and the body partially turned into dust, but a part of Unnaluga's body flew off into a dark corner of the cave.

Gaal's mother flew over to see what was left of her. Eldheida spat on her charred leg and then turned her gaze to real mothers. Tears came to her, she watched the ghostly blades stick out from their chests, and she flew up to each to pull them out. Maybe if they were conscious, the ghost blades wouldn't have killed them. But Gaal's mother understood only one thing: her sisters were dead.