"Rahul! Pull yourself together, today you are participating in a ritual!" Citar appeared at the boy's room in Hegyfok, just two days after the tribe returned from the Heginjülin. Since it was still early in the morning, the Bolacsuk boy found Rahul in bed, who only sat up suddenly when he called out.
"Citar for the love of all things holly!" Rahul growled, clutching his heart. "What the hell do you want at dawn?" He asked, stroking his hair and yawning hugely.
"Don't be grumpy Rahul." The boy patted his shoulder. "I'm taking you to a special ritual today, but if you take too long we won't be able to hang out! So let's go! Pull yourself together! See you at the gate in ten minutes!" With that, the Bolacsuk boy turned the corner and left the clueless Rahul alone.
"I already said that something is wrong with your friend's brain." Etele appeared in front of him with folded arms.
"He is more normal than you." Rahul muttered, then got dressed and hurried out to the gate, where Citar was already waiting for him, who pressed a bag into the boy's hand. "What is this for?" Rahul asked.
"For you to not die of hunger!" Citar winked at him, then started down the mountain.
"So where are we going?" Rahul asked as they walked down.
"This is my annual ritual. We are looking for a dragon!" Said the other boy enthusiastically, which only achieved that Rahul stopped for a moment and looked at him in confusion, then ran after him.
"Why are you looking for a dragon?"
"To make an alliance with it. Your griffin is considered a miracle that is true, but a dragon..." Here he looked up at the sky and continued in a dreamy voice. "Well, that's something."
"Alright." Rahul rolled his eyes. "Wait, shouldn't we have told someone we were going out?" He suddenly remembered, but Citar just waved.
"There is no problem if they haven't heard from you for a day. If they are not hearing from you for two days, then you will be copying the books for an hour, if they don't find you for three days, then ypu copy for a day." He shrugged.
"What was the longest time you ever copied?" Rahul wondered, and he had a hard time understanding how his friend could take this thing so easily.
"One day." It grinned.
"They didn't find it for three days? What were you doing for so long?" Rahul frowned, but Citar just laughed.
"I wasn't gone for three days. At first I only got half a day's punishment because I beat up the chieftain's arrogant kid, but then he had the nerve to tease me while I was copying, so I sent him to Fene and got another half a day for that." The boy chuckled.
"Is it such a big deal if you send someone to Fene?" Asked Rahul, who didn't understand what was the big deal about this, when his ghost relative seemed to have a mania for scolding him like "Go the Fene and in there to the third tree on the right."
"Big enough. Fene is a mystical place where, in theory, everything that sets foot will perish." Citar explained.
"I understand." Rahul nodded. "Where do you usually look for dragons?" He asked as they turned off the road onto a path that led south.
"At Sárkányhát, of course." The Bolacsuk boy snapped playfully at him immediately.
"Oh, mighty Citar, would you explain to this ignorant chüvigh what the Fene that Sárkányhát is? Because I don't think it's a dragon's back." Rahul folded his hands in front of him, which made Citar laugh out loud.
"A valley beyond the southern mountains. Rumor has it that dragons used to live there in the days of Athira." Citar started the history lesson.
"Who is Athira?" Rahul blinked at his friend, he had never heard that name before, but the boy said it with a surprising amount of respect, so he must have been a big man.
"He was the one who introduced our tribes to the lands beyond Karrabata mountains more than a thousand years ago. We owe everything we know now to him. He is our most famous ancestor, he ruled demon armies and had an invincible weapon, the God Whip." Citar explained enthusiastically, and Rahul slowly got the feeling that this Athira must have been some great hero who could be a role model for every young child today.
"Good. Okay, that's enough for now. Tell me, where should we go now? Just because the trail ran out." Rahul stood still.
"There!" His friend led the boy on. Poor Rahul soon lost track of where they were going, the trees and streams were all the same everywhere, the only change was when they started descending the mountain. Then they stopped for an early lunch, and then continued down into the valley, which was that certain Sárkányhát.
"Citar, I don't want to interfere, but I think we've already passed by this rock once." Rahul scratched his head when they went a quarter of the way past the same rock that resembled a spread out cow.
"Umm... Maybe..." The Bolacsuk boy grinned.
"Citar, don't tell me we got lost." Rahul growled at the boy.
"Ok." His friend nodded.
"So where are we?" Rahul raised his eyebrows.
"In the forest." Citar answered.
"And where should we go?" Rahul asked.
"Well, not where we came from..."
"And where is that?"
"Not where we're going?" Citar grinned desperately.
"We are lost, aren't we?" Came the question.
"We just don't know where we came from and where we're going." Citar waved.
"So we got lost!" Rahul shook his head.
"I didn't say it." Citar raised his hands, and Rahul literally jumped at the boy's throat, but just as he was about to strangle him, he saw a figure among the trees.
"Who is that?" He let go of his friend, who glanced at the stranger.
"I don't know, but if there is someone here, then there must be a village near by. Let's go get help." The boy recommended and the friends set off towards the stranger, but no matter how close they got, the stranger always moved away from them, until they lost track of them at the foot of the mountain range, next to a cave.
"Damn it! We lost them, now how will we find our way back to Hegyfok, we will have to climb the mountains at the end." Rahul growled and hit his fist on the rock wall next to the cave entrance.
"Certainly not today! Let's sleep here in the cave and then tomorrow we'll climb up and around.... Fuck! What the heck?!" Citar squealed and backed away to the trees, pointing towards the cave, while Rahul curiously turned towards the enterance.
To the boy's surprise, the head of a huge lizard-like creature stared at them from the black cave. Rahul had never seen such a creature in his life and was so frightened that he couldn't even shout, his eyes just widened and he looked strait at the creature.
"Who dares to disturb my peace?" A human voice came out of the creature's mouth, which made Rahul open his mouth. "Answer me, human!" The creature roared.
"I'm Rahul and I'm sorry, it wasn't intentional, we just got lost and we want to get back to our tribe." Rahul mumbled, and the lizard creature leaned closer to him, which only managed to make Rahul back away next to Citar, who was clinging to him. More and more of the lizard appeared.
"A dragon." Citar whispered, but he was literally shaking.
"Were you the one who touched the wall?" The creature looked at Rahul, who swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you for freeing me from my captivity. I had been locked in the valley for hundreds of years."
"Are you the legendary dragon?" Citar asked in a trembling voice. "Every year we come here to look for you, but we never found you." The boy muttered.
"Each year? Are you talking about the back massage? It is pleasant when someone presses the sore points on the back." The creature nodded slowly, making Citar open his mouth.
"I trampled on the back of the legendary dragon every year and didn't even know about it?" He got upset and in an instant his trembling self became a thing of the past.
"Don't be angry little human. Until I was freed from my captivity, you couldn't even know about it. And you, young boy, since you saved me, you are my new master." He lowered his head in front of Rahul.
"Accept it immediately! A dragon wants to make a contract with you!" Citar pushed Rahul, who thus fell on the dragon's nose.
"Thank you?" Rahul muttered. "What should I do now?" The boy looked at Citar as he stood up again.
"Give him a name!" Citar grinned.
"There is no need I have a..."
"Vanne!" Rahul said happily.
"Name..." The dragon finished.
"Wait! You have a name? What is it?" Citar blinked at the creature.
"Only my master could have heard that, you stupid human boy." The dragon closed his eyes.
"Well. Ok, we have a contract, or something like that and what now? I can't walk around everywhere with a dragon." Rahul put his hands on his hips.
"You don't have to, why what are you doing with your griffin?" Citar raised his eyebrows.
"I have no idea what he does when he isn't with me." Rahul raised his hands.
"Don't worry master." Came the voice of the dragon, and the two boys turned towards it, but instead of the huge creature, they found a dragon barely reaching their knees. "I will always be with you, just say my name and I will appear." The dragon explained.
"Rahul imagine I invented a new...." Etele appeared out of nowhere and started to explain when he saw the dragon. "Well look at that! Hello! Who are you? Wait..." He looked questioningly at Rahul, then at the dragon and started laughing, ignoring Rahul, who was shooting disapproving looks at him, and Citar, who was looking at the dragon.
"You fucked up!" Etele pointed to the dragon while holding his stomach and laughing. "You're trapped again! You got out of my prison for nothing! He is my successor!" Laughed the ghost relative, before a supernatural roar left the dragon's throat.
"Feather-headed easterner!" He yelled as Etele's hands clenched into fists.
"I like this, I'll use it." Rahul chuckled.
"Rahul!" Etele scolded his relative, but the boy just grinned at him.
"I knew I had chosen a good master." The dragon nodded.
"Traitors!" Etele dissapeared grumpily.
"That was amazing." Citar grinned. "I have no idea where that ghost came from or what you all just said, but it was amazing." He put his hands on his hips.
"I usually talk to that ghost and we just made fun of him together. But we have a little problem, we still don't know how to get back to Hegyfok." Rahul shook his head.
"Leave it to me, master." The dragon spoke again in human language, and with the wings protruding its back the dragon rose from the ground and then again took its original enormous size. "Climb up." He gave the order.
"In the name of the ghosts! We will travel on a dragon!" Said Citar enthusiastic, and after Rahul he climbed onto the back of the dragon, which rose with them over the trees, then over the mountains and over the mountains, then not far from Hegyfok, so that no one could see him, he descended into a clearing. So in just half an hour they made the trip that took them hours this morning.
"We're here already, Master, but now I'm going to have rest, I haven't flown so much in a long time." The dragon spoke and his form became small, then he climbed onto Rahul, laid his head on his shoulder, and hung his tail down on the boys back, then suddenly disappeared from sight and Rahul no longer felt his weight.
"This is how a real soul creature behaves." Citar patted Rahul on the shoulder.
"Where did he go now?" Rahul asked.
"He's in the Shadow World. You are the link that connects him to our world, so if you call him, he will be able to appear anywhere." Citar explained. "Come on, if we hurry, we'll get back to dinner and it won't even be noticed that we've left." He grabbed Rahul's wrist and started dragging him back to Hegyfok. Rahul seemed to be running around all day today and he was slowly starting to worry that he would run around even in his sleep once he could finally go to bed.