"That's good." Rahul nodded and then grimaced. "And what does that mean?" He asked, when he found himself facing surprised looks. "Let me guess, I should know, huh?" He rolled his eyes. "I don't know, could we move on and could someone explain what is going on now?" He let go of the stone and stood up, while moving his arms, which he managed to pull a little.
"It means that the young master's soul magic is already at a higher level without practice than most of my hegin's after several years of practice." The chief spoke, and Rahul blinked at him incomprehensibly. "It is a crime to leave such power unused. Citar!" Hearing his name, the boy immediately stepped forward.
"Yes, chief?" He bowed to the man.
"I entrust young Rahul to you, train him! By the time we leave for the Heginjülin, I want him to have skills that won't embarrass our tribe." The man gave the order.
"As you wish, chief." Citar bowed again, thanks to which he was soon left alone with Rahul. "Big-headed monkey." Citar rolled his eyes and then turned to Rahul. "Don't take him seriously, his voice is bigger than his abilities." The boy waved and then started towards the door. "But he is right, you should study a little. I'm guessing you've never studied hegin martial arts before?" He asked, while Rahul started to giggle.
"For most of my life I thought hegins were just fairy tales, what do you think?" He stuck out his tongue, with which he managed to make the Bolacsuk boy laugh.
"Then come! I will introduce you to your fairy tale world." He patted his shoulder and then led Rahul out to the training yard, where a small group of young people were practicing dueling.
"Will I practice with them?" Asked Rahul curiously watching the young people, but Citar just shook his head.
"You will practice with me." He declared, then put his hands on his hips. "First we'll warm up, then I'll see what we're working with." The boy grinned, and then he did the warming up with Rahul by his side. Half an hour later, they were standing next to each other practicing the movements of the Bolacsuk tribe, which Rahul enthusiastically imitated from Citar. Thus, their whole day passed excitingly.
Over the next few days, Citar began to train Rahul, as was their custom. Fortunately, the boy learned so quickly that Citar had only seen this from one person before, the leader of the Athamana. After a few days, the boy belonging to the Bolacsuk tribe already envisioned a bright future for the newcomer he had trained, but these dreams suddenly fell to dust. Rahul's ability to learn quickly disappeared from one moment to the next when Citar asked him to move his sword like he did on the moonwalk.
"I don't understand you Rahul. I know you can do it, I saw it with my own eyes, so why did you always screw it up today?" The boy finally asked Rahul desperately, when they were walking towards their room in the evening. Rahul's feet rooted to the ground at the sudden question, then he started giggling and put his hands on his hips.
"You should kwon something about me, Citar." He said, suddenly serious, then waved and turned away. "If I don't feel like doing something, I can't do it." He declared with easy simplicity, then left the hegin in his room and went into his own.
"Your little friend didn't know about this ability of yours yet." Appeared the ghost relative with a laugh in the room holding his belly. "He will learn that you only perform when you feel like it." The man laughed, then wiped his eyes, just out of habit, since he hasn't had any tears for a long time. "But seriously, why didn't you feel like using your sword today?" He finally asked, crossing his legs and settling on the ground.
"The last time you taught me how to use it, why should I suffer with it again if I already know how to use it?" Rahul shrugged and sat down on his bed. "And besides, Ghost Bell doesn't like me using him unnecessarily. He was stubborn all day today." He rolled his eyes.
"Like you." The ghost relative stuck out his tongue at the boy, and Rahul laughed.
"That's for sure." The boy nodded. "Grandpa?"
"Yes?" The ghost rolled his eyes.
"You know, I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I'm curious. What is the highest soul magic a hegin can achieve?" He asked, and his relative smiled kindly.
"Táltos seven stars." Came the answer, which made Rahul blink at his relative. "What are you looking at me for now?" He tilted his head to the side.
"How do you know?" Asked Rahul, when the ghost relative straitened.
"Finally, you asked it. My son, that's because I grew up as a hegin." He winked at Rahul, but this only confused the boy, who was already struggling with conflicted thoughts, more.
"But, if you were a hegin, then my family is one of the hegins. I wonder when we left Madüjawr?" He asked the question, but immediately shook his head. "Whatever. Grandpa, what do you know about the Heginjülin? Citar said that we would leave for it in two days, but no one told me what it was or where it was." The boy sighed, before his relative took his hand to his chin in thought.
"How can I say it so that you can understand it easily?" He asked, then snapped his fingers. "It's like a fair. Hundreds of people gather in midsummer for a three-day celebration. There's lots of food, drink, lots of vendors, contests and women."
"Contests?" Rahul tilted his head to the side and blinked curiously at his relative.
"That. At the Heginjülin, all seven tribes gather and compete in various skill. The winner gets rewards and fame." The ghost relative stared in front of him thinking for a minute and then continued the story. "At the Heginjülin, the tribes' grown-up youngsters are presented to the other tribes, and then there is also the level measuring of the twelve-year-olds." He said in a calm voice.
"What do they measure?" Rahul asked, while his relative grinned.
"What is the highest level they can reach in their lives. At least they were doing this when I was alive. A lot may have changed since then, although based on how enthusiastic everyone is about it, I think the competitive part is still there." The man chuckled. "You, on the other hand, should go to bed, I have a feeling that your dear friend will try to get you to use your sword well at least once tomorrow." He waved.
"As if I could do anything for the sake of the case, if Ghost Bell doesn't want to cooperate, then my efforts are in vain." The boy shrugged his shoulders and went to sleep anyway. The next day, as predicted by the ghost relative, Citar wanted to practice using the sword again with Rahul. "If I do it right once, will you leave me alone?" Rahul asked before he started the first attempt.
"Yes." His friend declared, and the boy nodded and took out his sword.
"Do you hear that Ghost Bell? You only need to do it once." Rahul smiled, then he simply closed his eyes and began to concentrate on the vibrations of the sword, and after a minute he pushed the basket off the head of every dummy that was placed out. "Did I succede Citar?" He finally asked after putting away his sword, hands on hips and grinning.
"How did you do it with your eyes closed?" The other snarled, before the boy started to giggle.
"It's easier to focus your energy when you can't see anything." Rahul shrugged. "So now that I've done it, what's the plan for today?" He asked excitedly, and his friend held his chin and began to think.
"Let's go down to the city to look around, tomorrow we're leaving for the Heginjülin, we need some relaxation. Well, what do you say?" The boy asked, and Rahul smiled at him excitedly.
"Sounds good, I haven't been in the city since we came back from the moonwalk anyway." He agreed to the idea.
"Then it's decided." Citar clapped his hands and then looked around. "Now we hurry to get off before anyone notices us." He winked at Rahul and grabbed his arm, only to have them run through Hegyfok a few minutes later, and then down into the city, where they soon successfully blended into the crowd of people. Up in the castle, the hegins did not need to know that the two boys were not training, but enjoying their last day off before the big trip. Before the journey that taked Rahul further into the magical world of the hills, Madüjawr.