Blinking curiously, Rahul followed Master Mo through the small house. After they got to the backyard, the master led the boy to a cave that gaped on a rock wall. Rahul was hit by a strange smell in the cold air. At first glance, the cave looked slimy and dank, definitely not something you would want to enter. However, as the bearded man marched in without a second thought and didn't look back, Rahul couldn't do anything but follow him.
"Do you know why the place where I live is special?" The man suddenly asked in the dim light of the cave.
"Because the rocks are floating?" Rahul timidly tried to answer, to which he received a satisfied hum and a nod.
"And did the beasts tell you why the rocks float?" The man asked in a monotone voice.
"No." The boy declared.
"I could have guessed." The master shaked his head. "The rocks are floating around my house because the energies of the place are connected with the energies of another place, where this phenomenon is completely normal. Do you understand?" The question comes and Rahul remains silent for a few moments.
"Is it like a wave, it hit the shore because it also waves far on the sea?" The boy asked back, which made the chán man stop and turn towards him with a surprised face.
"Yes. It's exactly like that." Said the man. "Now get ready to see something that very few people see." He continued in a serious voice. "The cave at my house is actually a space-shrinking gate."
"A What?" Rahul blinked at him with raised eyebrows.
"A gate with the help of which you can cover long distances in a short time." The master explained, then took Rahul's shoulder and continued on his way. "Unlike the hegins, our people do not have tribes, but clans. I am one of the leaders of these clans." This information really surprised Rahul. "Welcome to the land of my clan, young hegin." The master finished, then pushed Rahul's shoulder a little and left the cave.
Rahul found himself on a cliff. The sight of the place was very similar to what he saw when he arrived at the Valley of Floating Rocks. Only here, trees covered in flowers grew on top of the rocks, among which several red-colored roofs peeked out. There was a sweet, fruity scent in the air, and when Rahul looked down from the cliff below his feet, he was surprised to see green fields in the distance. And when he looked a little further away, he saw snow-covered mountain ranges.
"Come!" The boy heard the master's voice, and he immediately turned to the man, who was walking towards the edge of the cliff. Rahul followed his leader, who was walking behind with hands clasped behing his back.
"Where are we going, master?" Rahul asked curiously, while the man smiled at him.
"To my other house." He stated when they reached the edge of the cliff, where in the air above nothing stood a square wooden board with wheels on two long iron chains. "Come on!" Rahul was encouraged by the master, who stood on the board without any fear. However, it wasn't that easy for the boy to get himself to step on something floating above nothing. His eyes stared down into nothingness and his palms began to sweat.
"I'm here, I'll take care of you!" He suddenly heard it next to his ear, but just as he had realized that he heard Etele's voice, his body was flooded with cold and against his will he stepped on the board next to the chán man. The structure suddenly began to move under their feet and slowly took them to another floating rock, where after Rahul's feet hit solid ground, Etele left his body.
"We're almost there." Master Mo spoke simply, and Rahul nodded. The man led Rahul among the trees covered with pink flowers, and Rahul who looked at this colorful wonder of nature with sparkling eyes. The house, they finally reached, looked almost exactly the same as the one they came from. The only difference was that instead of a solid wall, there was some thin material stretched over a wooden frame at the entrance of the building.
The house was also simple inside. On the right hand side was the same small table as the one they were sitting at before. On the left side of the wall was a huge shelf, on which many scrolls rested. On the far side of the room, but on the back wall, there was an open door beyond which Rahul could no longer see. Finally, opposite him was a small table on which a scroll was spread. Master Mo walked over to the shelf on the left and stroked his beard and stared at it for a long time, humming once or twice.
Rahul was slowly starting to feel that he couldn't stand still and just stare at the other's back, when Master Mo suddenly moved and took three scrolls from the shelf, then turned towards him and handed them to him. At first Rahul just blinked at the objects, then looked up at the man with a questioning look.
"Oh, I almost forgot." The master raised his index finger, then turned around and left Rahul alone. Of course not for long, as the boy barely blinked three before the man returned with a square shaped transparent glass plate with a slim shiny frame. "Sit down." Master Mo gestured towards the table on the right side of the room, and Rahul, as before in the Valley of Floating Rocks, took a seat.
"Can you read?" Came the next question.
"Yes." Rahul gave the answer, thanks to which the master smiled.
"Perfect, then put them down first." He pointed to the scrolls, and Rahul put them on the table, and Master Mo put the small glass plate in front of Rahul. "And now..." He picked up a small bottle from the edge of the table, placed it in the middle of the table, and then took off the top. "Reach into the dust and use your index finger to draw the mark I'm showing you on the glass." The man said, and when Rahul pressed his finger into the strange red dust, he began to draw a winding pattern in front of him, which Rahul tried to copy every step of.
"Perfect. You will now be able to read the scrolls. I want you to learn them by the time we meet next." He looked straight at Rahul, with undisguised seriousness in his eyes.
"Pff... If Rahul really wanted to, he could learn it by tomorrow." Etele suddenly laughed, whom Rahul had completely forgotten about in the meantime. However, now he gave the ghost a grumpy look.
"Really?" The master raised his eyebrows, then a faint smile appeared on his lips. "In that case, want it really bad, you won't leave here until you know the whole thing." He stood up suddenly. "I'm going back to Madüjawr to calm the beasts down. Don't worry, nobody will bother you here and you won't get hurt. My apprentices don't usually come here, if you get really tired you can lie down in the back room." He said all this in one go.
"I hope you will succeed. See you tomorrow, my student!" He said, but he didn't even wait for Rahul to say anything and just hurried off, leaving the boy alone in an unknown place with a lot of scrolls, a lesson and an annoying ghost. Rahul stared at the door of the house for a while, then slowly turned to Etele, who jumped back with wide eyes when he saw the boy's murderous gaze.
"I swear to God, I'll strangle you." He hissed between his teeth.
"Your god can't hurt me and neither can you. I'm dead." The ghost stated the obvious, but Rahul's eyes only became more serious after hearing his words.
"That won't stop me from trying!" He hit the table, which caused Etele to squeal.
"But Rahul!"