"This is amazing!" Rahul blinked at the sight before him. The valley that lay before him was not really a valley. Huge rocks with eyes floated in nothingness as far as the eyes saw. Beneath them a great depth, in which mist loomed, so that one could not estimate how far away the ground might be. Vegetation grew green on the huge rocks and the bigger rocks were connected by chains made of human-sized grains. Around the big rocks, smaller rocks were floating, which were not held in the air by anything.
"We reacted the same way when we saw it for the first time." Suk giggled loudly and patted Rahul's shoulder, but immediately took his hand off when his boss gave him a piercing look.
"And how do we go on?" Rahul asked, looking for a way forward with his eyes, but found nothing.
"We jump, of course." Suk shrugged.
"Do you see what is not below us?" Rahul asked pointing to the fog.
"There must be ground somewhere, but by the time you get down you will be as flat as if a dragon had stepped on your head." Achilleus laughed.
"No big deal Rahul, just follow us." Citar encouraged him and, ignoring the surprised boy, rushed to the edge of the cliff. "I went ahead, boss, see you upstairs!" He shouted back before he pushed off and hit the ground on the nearest small rock floating in nothingness.
"Follow him, we'll meet on the biggest rock." Razvan gave the order, and the boys started jumping on the rocks one by one, as if they were frogs. The sight was really humorous, but Rahul did not laugh. He knew that he would soon have to follow the others' example, but just the thought made his stomach cramp and his palms start to sweat.
"Hold on!" That was all he got before a strong arm wrapped around his waist and pushed him off the cliff. Rahul's eyes narrowed as he realized that he was speeding through nothing and in fear he clung to Razvan like a baby koala to its mother. If he hadn't been so surprised, he might have screamed, but he just gritted his teeth in fear. "Don't worry, I won't let you go." He heard Razvan's voice next to his ear.
"I recommend it, Tapló boss. If I die because of you, I will haunt you for the rest of your life." A desperate cry broke out from Rahul, but he only got a chuckle in response.
"Then it's better if I don't risk it." He heard the low voice and almost had a heart attack from the terror, when one of the hands holding his waist released him. However, before he could say anything, a hand landed on the back of his head and gently but firmly held him. Rahul was surprised by the movement, then without thinking he tilted his head forward, so that his face rested on Razvan's shoulder, which in a split second became as hot as it had never been in his life, and as a result, he squeezed the boy, who literally had his life in his hands.
Rahul didn't know how long it had been before he finally got solid ground under his feet again, but as soon as it did and Razvan released him, he fell to the ground. He shighed a huge one as if he had run a marathon and opened his eyes in fear, then swallowed and looked grumpily at the leader of the Athamana.
"I almost had a stroke because of you, Tapló boss." He muttered, then he struggled to get up from the ground with trembling legs. "But thank you for bringing me up." He muttered under his breath.
"You're welcome." Razvan stepped next to him, then continued towards the interior of the forest around them. "Come, let's find the team." He waved to Rahul, who immediately joined him.
"Boss! Well here you are!" Benkó shouted enthusiastically.
"Yes, we are here." Razvan nodded as they reached a clearing, where the team was already waiting for them with grins on their faces.
"It's one thing that we are here, but what are we going to do now?" Asked Rahul, who by now had successfully gotten over his terror of a few minutes ago and tried not to think about the fact that he was standing on a floating object.
"We shoot." Teveli grinned and took out his bow.
"For what?" Rahul blinked before Razvan grabbed his shoulders and turned him in one direction.
"Do you see those trees over there with the signs?" He pointed over Rahul's shoulder, the boy looked in that direction and in the distance saw a couple of strange small signs nailed to some trees. Although it was hard for him to imagine how Razvan, who sees the energies, could see the trees, but probably some vibrating shapes with black spots on them, which are the boards.
"We'll shoot at them." Citar announced and to confirm his statement he already fired one shot. The team immediately followed his example.
"Come on Rahul! I know you shot just as well as I did at Heginjülin, it's a bigger challenge, give it a try." Razvan encouraged, as he also took out his bow. Encouraged by this, Rahul also repeated the movement, then started aiming and fired. For the next few minutes, the howling of arrows filled the silence, when a strange voice was heard shouting strange words, reviving an old memory in Rahul.
Little Rahul was barely three years old when his father dropped his shovel on his own feet while tending to the garden, when little Rahul scared him. His father said the same strange words, then looked at Rahul in surprise, raised his index finger to his mouth and said only one sentence.
"Don't say a word about this to your mother." Since little Rahul had no idea what his father had said before and since he always asked him to do this, he just nodded and soon forgot about the incident.
Now, however, the strange words were not associated with his father's face, but with an old, thin-faced man with a long beard and mustache, a small part of his hair tied in a bun, and wearing a strange long-sleeved, almost floor-length dress.
"Damn kids! Has it been a year again?! Are you here to spoil my air again?! What have you done with my trees?!" The old man shouted, while the team gathered around him grinning and pulled the arrows out of the trees.
"Calm down Master, we didn't do anything wrong!" Citar giggled.
"You didn't do anything wrong! My poor trees." The old man grumbled as Rahul approached one of the trees.
"Forgive us sir, let me heal them." He said in a calm voice, then closed his eyes and remembered his father's words, which he said when he had to heal a plant. Rahul now repeated these words and when he opened his eyes he was satisfied to see that the tree was healed. At which he smiled widely, which quickly turned into incomprehension when he saw the team's astonished faces.
"Where did the young man learn this?" The old man asked, and Rahul scratched his neck and answered with a smile.
"From my father, he always did this when he healed a plant."
"That useless student of mine." The old man grabbed his head, then shook it and continued with a desperate smile on his face. "From the beginning, the part that goes like..." He repeated those few words at the beginning of the speech. "Feel free to leave them out."
"Why?" Rahul blinked at the man in surprise and from the shock he didn't even understand the rest of what the man said.
"Because that's just swearing." The man looked away.