"Swearing?" Rahul blinked in surprise at the old man.
"Yes." He nodded and folded his hands in front of him. "I usually say this when someone is getting on my nerves." He suddenly looked at the team, but the boys just grinned at him. "I don't even know why that idiot student of mine taught you this." He grimaced, which looked quite comically on his bearded and mustached face.
"Your student? Did you know my father?" Rahul opened his mouth as he understood what the strange-looking man had said.
"Yes." The man nodded and then waved to the team. "Well, come if you're already here." He announced, then started towards a small terraced house. "Put your asses down!" The man gave the order in a grumpy voice, and the Athamanas immediately took their seats next to a long table, on small cushions placed on the floor, in a meditation pose.
It seemed that even though the man grumbled at the team, he was already expecting them and prepared to accomodate them. Rahul sat down next to Razvan with some reluctance when he grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the ground. So the boy couldn't do anything else but blink curiously at the man, who was going towards some kind of small oven.
"Your father is my student." The man explained as he took a large bowl from the top of the tiny oven and placed it in the middle of the table.
"The Master's famous wine!" Benkó's eyes sparkled as he raised the small glass resting in front of him and held it towards the man. The man shook his head, but with the help of a ladle he poured everyone's drink.
"This will make you really strong!" Citar grinned and immediately took a sip of the drink.
"Don't worry, it's not poison." Razvan smiled kindly at Rahul, so the boy timidly took a sip of the drink, but almost spat it out and began to cough as the strange drink gnawed down his throat.
"Master Chá's booze is still the best!" Achilleus hit the table happily.
"Silly child, I already told you that I am not Master Chá. I have a name, idiots." The man grumbled.
"But we don't know what the master's name is. So Master Chá remains." Suk also grinned, while the man looked at the team with a grumpy look.
"My name is Mo Ching! Idiots." As he said this, the team laughed at the same time, except for Rahul and Razvan. "What are you fools laughing at now?" The man growled and his head started to turn red, before the team fell silent and looked at the man with open mouths.
"Master Chá say that you were only joking!" Teveli swallowed a a big one.
"Why would I joke! This is my name. Mo Ching, I don't know what's wrong with it." He looked at the boys with piercing eyes.
"Mócsing?!" Citar snorted.
"Yes, what's wrong with it?" The master blinked.
"The fools laugh because the Master's name sounds like the word in our language that means food cut into small pieces." Razvan explained, which made the man's face turn white.
"You and your strange language." The man shook his head.
"Don't be mad at us Master Mo." Wandi nodded.
"The master is your fathers idiots! I have only two students in Madüjawr and neither of them are you." He points at all of the Athamanas.
"Two? Who is his other disciple besides Rahul's father?" Citar snorted.
"He!" The master pointed to Rahul, but the boy just looked at him sadly. "Is something wrong my son?" Master Mo put his hand on Rahul's shoulder.
"It just occurred to me that he's never coming back." He muttered to himself.
"Is my stupid student dead?" The master blinked in surprise, and Rahul nodded.
"Even when I was little, I was in town with the old ladys when our house caught fire. My parents died in the fire." He muttered to himself. To his greatest surprise, the man suddenly started speaking in that strange language again, and when he looked up at him, tears appeared in his wide-open eyes, and then he took a deep breath.
"Your father, he was a very talented student." The master said very slowly. "Talented, but irresponsible and childish. An unmanageable clown." The man muttered as he raised his glass to his mouth.
"I agree with the old man. Your father really was like that." The ghost relative appeared behind Rahul, laughing.
"I'm not old!" The man's hand tightened on the glass.
"No one said you were Master Mo." Benkó blinked in confusion.
"Damn, the old man hears me!" Etele jumped.
"I'm not an old man!" The master hit the table. "And yes, I hear you silly ghost!" He growled. "But I object! The old man was my master until he died last year. I was just a baby in Athira's time, he was already hundreds of years old by then." The master looked angrily into his glass, and Etele stood next to Rahul and tapped him on the shoulder, and when the boy looked at him, he started mouthing, which roughly meant: 'So he's a fucking old man!'
"Master Mo is already that old?!" Achilleus opened his mouth.
"Old is your grandmother! I only have an advanced golden core." The old master straightened himself out.
"What?" Rahul blinked, and Razvan looked at him with a smile.
"A type of soul magic. This is what the Cháns call soul magic. It roughly means that Master Mo is as strong as a táltos tree star hegin." He explained, and Rahul nodded.
"What is chán and why did you call him that?" He inquired further.
"Because these bastards refused to ask my name." The master frowned. "I recommend you to get out of my territory ghost." However, Etele's answer manages to make Rahul speechless for the first time since he didn't understand anything of what his relative is saying, but taking from the master's face, he said something that calmed the man, who finally just snorted.
"I went to look around." Etele announced and disappeared.
"So what is chán?" Rahul looked at his table company.
"We call that people living beyond Karrabata to the east, who live in Chájna." Citar waved.
"Did you start all foreigner nations names with 'ch'?" Rahul raised his eyebrows. "Chüvighs, cháns... Do you even have names that don't start like that?" He rolled his eyes, and Citar grinned.
"Of course, we call the people living in the south Deliöthandi." He giggled.
"Öthandi for short." Suk says. "But someone likes to flaunt that he knows their full name." The boy stuck out his tongue at Citar.
"Master Mo said that he knew my father, so my father, was he in Hegin?" Asked Rahul in surprise, whose shock caused the information to reach his consciousness a little slowly.
"Of course he was! A real bad boy." The master shook his head disapprovingly, which seemed to be his habit.
"Speaking of students! We await an explanation from Master Mo! What is it that we here have been scrambling to be your disciples for years and you accepted Rahul as his disciple without a second thought?" Benkó leaned forward, but with his question he managed to make Master Mo blink again, and then his face turned tomato red.
"Do you screw with my trees every year so that I would accept you as my students?!" He grabbed the water and immediately jumped to his feet. "You will get something for later! But at least I know what your punishment will be this year." He pulled his lips into a smile, and the Athamanas swallowed hard. "You all stay here on your asses while I take my student away for a bit! Rahul, follow me!" He waved at the boy, but he looked worriedly at his companions.
"Go, we'll wait for you and we won't have any trouble." Razvan encouraged him, which was enough for Rahul to get up and hurry after the old man. "Master Mo, I want to talk to you when you come back." Razvan added, then turned his attention to his glass.
"Of course, of course you will!" The bearded man spoke back, then marched into the small house, with Rahul in tow.