After the dragon hunt, the days passed calmly in Hegyfok, but so calmly that after barely a week, Rahul didn't even know what to do with himself. He was literally bored to death. He didn't feel like doing anything, and even Citar didn't help his situation, because the boy was as bored as he was, if not more. So they usually spent their boring days together and traveled the countryside with Citar's border guard team.
"At least I can see mountains." Rahul sighed on one of those occasions.
"Just wait until we go to the Karrabata shooting, you will see places that will make your jaw drop." He was comforted by the Bolacsuk boy.
"Are you sure about that?" Rahul asked, but he only got a pat on the back. "And when are we going to this shooting?" He asked.
"We should leave on the weekend to get there on time." Citar shrugged, but with this at least he achieved that Rahul had something to look forward to in the coming days. As the boy predicted, during the weekend the Bolacsuk tribe really took the lands of Madüjawr and set off for the Karrabata shooting.
In the beginning, they traveled on roads that Rahul already knew, since they had taken them when they were trying to get to the Heginjülin, so it was only later that the sight began to become exciting for him, when they crossed the territory of the Koál tribe and reached the territory of the Vojk tribe, where everything glowed red. Rahul had never seen lava before in his life, and here one bumped into it step by step, and into black rocks and snow-white trees. The whole thing was like entering a fairy tale world.
This red fairyland was followed by huge mountains as Rahul learned that they had reached the territory of the Zaukán tribe. The mountains here were much higher than the ones Rahul had climbed to get to Madüjawr, and the energies were different, one could breathe much easier among the snow-capped peaks.
Their path eventually led to a valley where, like in the Heginjülin, a large camp was set up. As soon as the tribe took their quarters, Rahul and Citar immediately approached the Athamanas to reunite with their friends. The team enthusiastically welcomed both of them, that is, until Razvan wanted to discuss something exclusively with the Athamanas. That's why Rahul left the yurt and set off to explore the camp for himself. And when the sun went down, he spent the night among the Bolacsuks.
The competition, known as the Karrabata shooting, began the following day. Rahul was really surprised when a completely average-looking man dressed in brown clothes gave a speech in front of the participants lined up side by side at the opening ceremony. Naturally, Rahul asked Cita why it wasn't a tribal chief who spoke, and he first got a chuckle in response and only then a normal explanation.
"At the shooting, the one who delivers the opening speech is always chosen by a lot. Anyone can sign up for it and those whose name is drawn will even receive a monetary reward." This information did surprise Rahul a little, but he found it quite ingenious. Finally, after the speech, the competitors were allowed to go on their way among the mountains.
"So what are we going to do now?" Asked Rahul, who was walking beside the calmly walking Citar.
"Now we are out of the observation of the tribes for five days, so we run into the team in the valley and go for a hike." The boy explained with a blade of grass in his mouth, which he had been chewing since they left.
"Isn't this a competition?" Rahul asked, but Citar just grinned.
"And what then? We're going to a more exciting place." He stated and after that it didn't matter what Rahul asked, he refused to answer him. That is why Rahul soon gave up questioning so that they could proceed in silence until they ran into the team.
"Alright boys, now we'll go as usual. Stay close to each other." Razvan gave the order, then he grabbed Rahul's arm and set off among the mountains at the head of the team.
"Hey, Tapló leader! You don't have to drag me, I can go on my own." Rahul elbowed him on the other side before he let him go.
"I just don't want our chüvigh to fall off the cliff for me. How would I explain that to the bosses?" Razvan smiled mischievously at Rahul, who laughed at that.
"I can take care of myself." He chuckled, then walked past Razvan, watching the scenery. The group went on like this all day, until the sun reached its setting, when they set up camp in a small cave to spend the night there. Behind the campfire, they placed their blankets in a row, where they planned to spend the night. However, since the evening was still young and the team enthusiastic, they just sat around the campfire and talked for a while.
"Speaking of which! Rahul! You haven't even told us about yourself! Tell us what the chüvigh empire is like and why you came to Madüjawr?" Benkó asked the sudden question, almost leaning into the fire in his curiosity.
"Really Rahul! Tell us!" Several people got excited, making Rahul feel a little uncomfortable but in the end he just sighed and picked up a piece of wood from the ground and started poking the fire.
"I don't have much to tell you. There are no mountains beyond the Karrabata, fields stretch as far as the eye can see. There are small forests and rivers that run into the sea."
"You saw the sea?!" Suk leaned closer excitedly.
"Yes." Rahul looked at him with a smile, then looked back at the fire with eyes shining with nostalgia. "To tell the truth, the village where I grew up is not far from the sea, you barely have to walk for ten minutes to see it. My parents died when I was young, so I grew up as an orphan in the village. To be honest, for a long time I thought I would never leave that place, until that day." His mouth pulled into a grimace.
"What happened?" Achilleus inquired curiously, as he was munching on the rest of his dinner.
"Strangers ransacked the village." Upon hearing the statement, the Athamana team straigthened as one, as if they had asked him something they shouldn't have, but Rahul was just staring at the flames, so he didn't even notice that the boys froze around him. "It was barely a year and a half ago. A month after my birthday." He told them. "It was a day like any other. I took care of the little ones, taught them to read and write. We couldn't do much because of the winter. At this time, the village gathers in the evenings and the old people tell stories, the children love it. I remember the moon had risen a long time ago when we heard the crackling of fire. I was among the first to rush out to the commotion. Figures in black were everywhere and the fields were engulfed in fire." He closed his eyes, but then he felt a hand on his back, which made him look towards its owner. Razvan put his hand on his back and now looked at Rahul with a regretful look. Their eyes locked on each other for a long time, but they didn't say anything, and the team watched the scene between their boss and the boy they referred to as a rookie in silent silence.
"I'm sorry." Whispered Razvan, which caused his team to look at the couple with open mouths, who of course did not notice anything from the scene. However, to their greatest surprise, Rahul only smiled faintly and shook his head.
"Actually, I'm a little grateful to those strangers. The old people said they were from the East. That's why I set off for the Karrabata to see for myself what's here. I really didn't expect to find friends here instead of savages." Rahul finally said and looked at the silent team. The tension in the cave could almost be cut before the leader spoke.
"Enough talking for today. Thanks for sharing this with us Rahul. But now everyone it's bedtime, tomorrow we have a long journey." He said and settled down on the blanket to lie down. And the team followed his example. The small team woke up almost at the same time the next morning and after a quick breakfast they gathered their things and were on their way again.
"Something is following us." Teveli suddenly spoke after an hour of walking, but instead of stopping, the team just kept walking.
"Not something, somethings." Corrected Razvan, when a very grumpy Etele appeared next to Rahul, and threw sparkling glances behind the team.
"Something my ass?! There's a fucking bunch of demons following you!" He growled, causing Rahul's feet to stuck into the ground and his eyes to widen.
"Demons?!" He groaned, and all the members of the team, except the boss, looked at him in surprise.
"Demons? What would they be doing here?" Teveli asked in surprise.
"Yes demons." Razvan also nodded. "They follow the competitors." He explained.
"Those damn Chüvighs must have sent them to us." Citar said angrily, but the next moment he was already looking regretfully at Rahul. "I didn't mean you Rahul." The boy argued, but Rahul just raised his hand and waved. He really couldn't imagine that the inhabitants of the land he came from would have sent the demons, but he couldn't rule out the possibility either, since there were many parts of the Itaguyn state that he had no idea about.
"It seems that we won't miss out on shooting this year. So guys, put on the armbands, but instead of marked ghosts, we're shooting demons. Rahul do you know what a demon looks like?" Razvan turned to the boy.
"Leave it to me, I'll help you identify them." The ghost relative patted Rahul on the shoulder.
"You don't have to worry about me." Rahul smiled encouragingly at Razvan, who just nodded. So finally Rahul tied the ribbon that he got yesterday and which is used during the shooting for the hegins to see the ghosts they have to shoot on his arm.
The team got rid of the demons that were following them as quickly as possible, then they moved on with tense attention and when they saw a group of demons they all shot them down, but sometimes even a ghost suffered from their demon hunting.
"Your mother fuckers!" An unknown voice shouted at one point, then a boy in a yellow dress came out from behind one of the piles of rocks, who looked over the team, then his eyes stopped at Suk. "I knew it was you! Don't interfere with my hunt, you hear me?! I'll tell on you at home." He looked at the team again, then turned around and stormed off. Rahul turned to his friend in yellow with a questioning look, but the boy just waved.
"Don't bother with him, Izmen is always like that." With this, the team continued on its way, running into several similar cases. This is how Rahul met Buga, the son of the chief of the Koál tribe, and Bonifác and Mangha, two members of the Zaukán tribe. As well as Namarek, the son of the chief of the Motumisz tribe, and Opus, a member of the Bokló tribe, but these last two, when they saw the team, unlike before, did not accuse a boy belonging to their own tribe of sabotage, but a member of the opposite tribe. Thus, when the next individual stepped out from the shadow of the rocks, Rahul was already expecting the accusations, but to his greatest surprise, something completely different happened than before.
"Hi, Wandi!" The boy, who looked barely twelve, nodded, and the aforementioned nodded towards him.
"Hi, Sotu. Good luck with your hunt." Said the boy, when the little child straigthened himself out and then bowed.
"Thank you sir!" He said, then hurried away.
"This is new! How was he not nervous?" Rahul asked, and Wandi smiled, which looked quite spooky on his snow-white face.
"Karrabata shooting is not a challenge for our tribe, our practice range is much more difficult." Said the boy, but Rahul received a more in depth explanations from the team boss.
"The Vojk tribe usually just nominates the mandatory two people, one adult and one child, in the competition. Their adult competitor is usually not even active, but the child must be at least in the top ten. Ever since Wandi reached sixteen, he has always volunteered as an adult competitor to come with us, and until he reached the age, we always divided his arrows among ourselves, and on the first day we shot as many ghosts as we needed for first place and then continued our journey. Which, by the way, would be better do if we want to reach the next cave before sunset." Razvan explained, which got the team to nod and take the mountain roads again. Finally, just like the day before, they set up their little camp in a cave and started talking again, but this time it was Rahul who questioned the team and not the other way around.
"Tell me something." He asked looking at the team. "Why is it bad that you hunt as a team?"
"Because the tribes hate each other!" Achilleus and Benkó answered him at the same time, before both of them were hit in the shoulder by Suk and Citar sitting next to them.
"What now?" Benkó pressed his arm to get rid of the ache.
"We were right." Continued Achilleus.
"Why?" Rahul asked.
"Everyone wants power over all of Madüjawr." Suk started.
"Therefore, there is usually competition between the tribes." Citar waved.
"If it is not the summer "peace" period, then they are able to jump at each other's throats." Teveli continued.
"But they also compete in peace." Wandi noted.
"That's why every tribe looks down on those who team up with members of another tribe. Especially us, since we are all from different places. That's why we have to meet in secret. Power struggles for control over Madüjawr are dangerous." Razvan finished the line.
"But the bosses have no idea that we entered the game together." Citar grinned, and everyone looked at him with angry eyes, making the boy put his hand in front of his mouth.
"I don't know anything and I'm just a chüvigh anyway, your internal affairs are your business." Rahul flashed an answering grin, which managed to make the team boss laugh.
"If we don't talk about anything like this anymore, we might as well go to bed. We must reach our destination tomorrow." He said and stood up, but Rahul stopped him.
"We are goin further? We have already gone far off the other Hegins. Will we make it back in time?" He asked, but Razvan just smiled sweetly at him and leaned closer to his face.
"Don't worry, we'll get back in half the time it took to reach our destination. If these idiots want you to come with us." He looked at the team with an angry look, then looked kindly at Rahul again. "Then you better trust us."
"Don't get me wrong. It wasn't my idea to come." Rahul also leaned closer and looked seriously into the eyes staring at him. "I know you don't trust me, but I don't mean harm Tapló boss, so don't suspect me." He hissed between his teeth.
"It wasn't even in my mind." Razvan straightened himself out, then waved to the team and went to sleep. Rahul, on the other hand, was lying on the blanket resting next to him, he didn't take their earlier little skirmish very seriously, and he was terribly tired anyway, so he fell asleep very quickly.
The next morning was spent in the same way as the day before, but today they walked happily through the mountains for long hours, and forgetting the tensions of the previous night. Rahul managed to immerse himself in the conversation so much that he didn't even notice where he was going and if Razvan hadn't grabbed his shoulder he would have walked into an abyss. When he stood firmly on his feet again, he blinked widely and looked at the landscape in front of him.
"This... What is this?" He groaned with great difficulty and in his uncertainty he took a half step closer to the boy holding his shoulder. Razvan just answered him with a kind smile on his face, squeezing his shoulders a little.
"Welcome to the Valley of Floating Rocks, Rahul."