A Song of Askaldenfirsts and Dragons. Part seven: Gaaldalksirin
Chapter 6: Dombard

Dombard in Arngalda’s body was walking through the blizzard, he was heading northwest, to where he had left a pile of corpses…

“I’m not going to kill you miserable snunorfs in the capital,” he spoke to Arngalda’s inner self, which resisted yielding to his will. “I didn’t kill your friends, you see, it’s a sign of goodwill and my generosity... Yes, I understand that you don’t want to return to the city, where you were fucked first by the fat man and then by this one with greasy hair and a karkhash muzzle.” Dombard grinned, covering his face from the wind. “I’d fuck you myself, you’re such a juicy girl!”

He reached the Warm Forest and breathed a sigh of relief. Here grew chleppaecandres trees, about thirty-three yards high, evergreen plants with very thick foliage on their crowns, with very wide crowns that formed, you might say, a tight roof, so there was never snow in the Warm Forest, and indeed it was relatively warm inside the forest, but quite dark.

He walked cautiously until he saw a light. He moved between the trees, hiding behind thick trunks. When he got closer, he saw five winged creatures that looked like elves with horns. The horns curled upward in a spiral. They sat near the fire, and the flames seemed to reach out to each of them, and the fire resembled a fiery flower with five petals.

“Ferrassaps!” Dombard was glad that he had guessed, but he realized that it was urgent to get out of this forest and he began to back away. When he thought he had moved away enough, he turned and another ferrassap with a huge red triangular face appeared in front of him.

“Fssh, rrrsh, hssh,” the ferrassap hissed.

Dombard quickly left Arngalda’s body.

“How much pain!” Arngalda said. But Dombard guessed it wasn’t her who spoke. “Would you like me to erase her memory so that you have a more obedient vessel?”

“No, thanks,” Dombard said. “Her pain makes her special. Everyone has their own pain, and I like to savor it.”

“Cruelty and evil are the senseless and impractical qualities of our world,” Arngalda said. Her eyes were glassy, her face expressionless.

Ferrassap and Arngalda, controlled by him, came close to Dombard, and the ghost backed away, surprised by his own fear.

“I see you have important things to do here, we will go with my vessel, we won’t distract you,” Dombard said with a strange smile.

“Go, but remember that they are following you!”

“Who?” But Dombard guessed, and his fear increased.

Ferrassap left Arngalda’s body and headed for the fire. Dombard instantly took up the vessel, then followed him. Ferrassap sat down next to the others, and a sixth petal reached out to him from the fire. Dombard circled around them carefully, and headed at a brisk pace into the darkness of the forest, constantly looking back...

This is how he moved for several more days. He didn’t encounter any more obstacles or travelers on his way. After the forest, he moved along the roads and fields. When, at last, he reached Frostgarstrad, the capital of Norvinoria, Arngalda passed out not far from the city gates, falling into the fresh snow.

Two guards in fur cloaks ran up to her. Dombard left her body, entered one of the guards, drew his sword, and slit the throat of the other. He took Arngalda’s body in his arms and ran to the gate.

“She is not herself, she needs help, she killed him!” he shouted as hard as he could. The guards fussed. He realized that they had not noticed how he had left the body and occupied the other, and how he had killed the guard.

“It’s Arngalda!” said an elderly, clean-shaven man with green eyes and gray hair, looking at the woman in Dombard’s vessel arms. He looked at the guard. “So there is a ghost in Norenbjord!”

Several warriors drew their swords, and about twenty more men and women ran up.

“Again and again,” Dombard sighed irritably in Norenbjord’s body. “Well, yes, I confess,” and he unceremoniously threw Arngalda onto the paved snowy road, the snunorfs close to him jumped back.

Dombard glanced around at the warriors, then looked at the road, at the houses.

“Is that all? Carlfrig took almost the entire army with him,” Dombard said.

“Get away from him,” they heard a loud voice. And from the house, which was nearby, walked an elderly man with brown, slightly crazy eyes, a narrow elongated face, and a graying beard, his dark grayish long hair gathered in a ponytail.

The snunorfs parted. Arngalda began to regain consciousness and, looking around, jumped up sharply. She realized that the sword and sheath were not on her, but the dagger was hidden behind her fur armor, and she drew it.

“Honey, have you finally regained consciousness?” Norenbjord asked, smiling.

The gray-haired snunorf with the brown eyes stepped closer.

“I ordered you to stand back,” he yelled at the soldiers who hadn’t moved far enough away from the ghost. And they obediently retreated a few more yards, forming a large semicircle. The brown-eyed man looked at Norenbjord. “Ghost, you have already done a lot of evil, why have you come again? Take Norenbjord’s body and get out!”

“No!” a woman screamed. A woman in fur armor ran out of the house where the brown-eyed man had come from. She ran up close to Dombard, and stood in front of him with her sword, covering Dombard with her back.

“Ah, Tarragorad take you. I already forgot that he is your brother,” the brown-eyed man said.

“Jonwulfter, please,” the woman turned to the brown-eyed man.

Dombard, ignoring those present, took and walked around the woman, and stood in front of her with his back straight to the brown-eyed man.

“Oh, indeed, you look alike,” said Dombard in Norenbjord’s body, examining the snunorf woman with the gray-blue eyes. He turned his back to her and faced the brown-eyed man.

“You’re fucking her, aren’t you? I’m reading Norenbjord’s mind, and he’s shocked. Explain to me, Jonwulfter, how did you manage to hide it in a deserted city where a couple or dozen of you left? And how did you manage to forget that they were brother and sister, eh?”

“I’m not going to answer to you, you disgusting creature!”

“Yeah, that’s how it is,” the ghost said calmly, and then drove his sword into Jonwulfter’s stomach with all his might that the sword pierced the armor on both sides and the bloody end came out the other side. Jonwulfter fell. Dombard put his foot on the brown-eyed man to pull the sword out with force. “It wasn’t me!” Dombard shouted to the soldiers. “It was Norenbjord, because of his personal dislike for your konungtan. When he learned that he was fucking his only sister, he got very angry, and did what he did. But I didn’t want to!” Dombard laughed. “All right, maybe I slightly distorted the truth about my desires,” Dombard laughed again.

The soldiers were at a loss, knowing that if they attacked him, they would all die. And Dombard understood that. Suddenly he realized that Arngalda had gone somewhere. Then he saw her crawling away. The ghost left the snunorf’s body, and entered her body. He ran up and snatched a clean sword from Jonwulfter’s sheath.

“Shall we dance?” the ghost said and began to count the northerners. “There will be twenty-two dead idiots,” the ghost said, shifting from foot to foot and playing with his sword.

The soldiers’ faces froze in grimaces of fear. Suddenly they all darted off, running. Only Norenbjord and Ingarna(his sister) remained beside the ghost.

“How could you?” Norenbjord asked her.

“Not now, little brother!” she replied.

“Run away, I’ll hold him off!” he said.

“I will not leave you!” Ingarna protested.

“Who else is there?” Dombark asked. He saw a man trying to hide among the houses. He turned to Ingarna, “Watch the body of my tired bitch, if she escapes, your brother dies.” And Dombard thrust his sword into the snow, left the body of Arngalda and, entering the body of Norenbjord, drew his sword, and then ran at full speed after that man.

The man was hiding behind a small house and wanted to sneak in through a window, but Dombard spotted him.

“Well, well, well! What a surprise! It’s Haemner Hochdeforthskar!”

“Have we met?” Haemner wondered.

Dombard ignored the question and stepped out of Norenbjord’s body and entered Haemner’s. “Don’t go far, or I’ll kill your sister,” the ghost said to Norenbjord and patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s go!”

They returned to Arngalda and Ingarna, who were standing at the gate in a fighting posture, already wanting to start fighting. Arngalda held a dagger in her hand, she turned, and her eyes met Haemner’s.

“Nooo!” she dropped the dagger from shock and fatigue and hunger, and fainted again.

Then a snunorf appeared from somewhere, it was a handsome snunorf with brown hair, glassy greenish-blue eyes, and a light reddish stubble-beard.

“I’m a healer, stand back!” he said, ignoring Dombard who was bent over Arngalda.

“A healer, huh? What took you so long?” Dombard asked.

“And who are you?” the healer asked, examining Arngalda, and then noticing the konungtan’s body nearby. “What is going on here? Where are the guards? Who killed konungtan Jonwulfter?”

“Wow, so many questions,” the ghost stretched out with a smile.

“She has no strength, she is dehydrated and exhausted,” the healer said.

He patted her cheeks, she regained consciousness without understanding what was happening, and the healer opened a flask of water and moistened her lips. Then he took out a piece of dried meat and gave it to her. Suddenly Arngalda saw Haemner’s familiar face. She instantly jumped up and ran up to Ingarna and hit her in the face, drawing her sword, and then tried to cut Haemner’s head, but Dombard dodged and jumped away.

“Honey, you’re playing completely wrong!,” Dombard shouted, and the ghost left the rapist’s body and entered Ingarna’s body as Ingarna ran up and grabbed Arngalda by the hair, turning her around and slashing her back in the face. Blood gushed from Arngalda’s nose and she lost consciousness again. Dombard left Ingarna’s body and took over Haemner’s body. “I’ve had enough of you. Here’s the deal: you,” he turned to the healer, “will come with me. And you,” he glanced at Norenbjord and Ingarna, “are to leave the capital with the rest of the northern cowards. If you come back, I’ll kill you quickly but painfully!”

Brother and sister ran to the exit of the city gates. Dombard in Haemner’s body took Arngalda in his arms and carried her to the nearest house. The healer followed him.