All the people of Madüjawr knew that the most dangerous place they could find themselves in was the territory of the Zovárd tribe. An endless swamp, with willow trees, dead ancient oak branches sticking out of the swamp water. One wrong move and you're dead, one wrong stroke of the oar and you'll never get out of the endless swamp again. The Cemetery, as the place was called, was not the most heart-warming neighborhood where one could find oneself.
The young Suk began his life in one of the villages built on the palanquins of this Cemetery, until one day the chieftain Zovárd Urias found him and decided to take in the boy, in whom he recognized his long-dead brother. The chief of the tribe, even though he was the young man's uncle, still raised little Suk as his own son, so the little orphan soon became one of the most important people in the tribe. The child that everyone knew would follow the current chief in the chieftainship.
"Golden, black-tailed viper, or golden cobra venom?" Young Suk asked with a wide grin on his face, one morning, when, as usual, he sniffed his glass before breakfast. And the chieftain laughed out loud at the question.
"Today it's dragon cobra." Little Suk got the answer, and he nodded and simply drank the contents of the glass. Among the Zovárds, it was customary to drink poison in small quantities so that their bodies could get used to it. They did this so well that if one of the hegins survived a poisoning, they always said 'Your grandfather was a Zovárd too, wasn't he?'
That day with the dragon cobra venom was special, at first it was just like any other ordinary day. Learning, training, eating, resting. But something happened in the evening that fundamentally changed the life of the eleven-year-old Suk. In the evening, he was walking the corridors of the chief's house when he overheard an interesting conversation.
"Do you seriously want to marry my daughter?!" The woman's voice shouted, in which the young Suk recognized the voice of the chieftain's wife.
"Don't panic, she don't have to right now. Just thought I'd bring it up so we could talk. Suk would be a perfect choice." The chieftain's voice was heard.
"Why do you care more about that child than your own son?" During the woman's question, little Suk crept closer to the door and peeked through it. The chieftain's wife stood before the harsh chieftain with her hands on her hips and her face was red with anger. Suk knew she didn't like him. Which was not difficult to notice, since the chief's wife did not hide how much she hated Suk, who, according to her, had a bad influence on her innocent daughter and son.
"This has nothing to do with this. Lelle my dear, Illia would also benefit from this." The tribal chief encouraged his wife.
"You will not marry my daughter to a street child!" The woman shouted, and the chief slapped her.
"Don't you dare call my brother's son a street kid again." He growled at the woman, but she pulled away and grimaced, not caring about her red face from the slap.
"As far as I know, you killed your brother and hated him! Then why are you raising the furrow?" The woman hissed, while the chief crossed his arms in front of him.
"Do you think the child's name is Zovárd Pont? I think not. He is not my brother." The man shook his head. "If you don't want him to be our daughter's husband, I have a better idea." The chief suddenly smiled. "I will adopt him as my son and he will become a perfect chieftain!"
"What?!" Two voices shouted at the same time, and the people in the room turned in surprise towards the door, where young Suk looked at his uncle with wide eyes.
"This is not how I wanted to tell you, but I think it doesn't matter now." The chief sighed. "What do you think about the idea Suk?" The man asked with eyes shining with hope.
"You killed my father." Suk muttered to himself. "Which really speaks more of him than you, he should have expected it. I would even look over this, but..." Here he looked up at his uncle. "I will not be your puppet!" He declared, with which he managed to get the chief of the tribe to take an irritated step towards him and slap him too.
"I don't care what you think! No matter what, you will follow me and be the perfect chieftain. Now get out of here!" He growled at him, while little Suk grunted while he turned arount and started walking down the corridors to his room.
"What a perfect dream, this way I might even be able to kill you." The boy muttered to himself, then raised his eyes to the ceiling and the next time he looked ahead, he was already in a familiar room.
The brown wooden walls, the table and the chairs meant a place, which was only occupied by the multitude of children dressed in different colored clothes. Children's council, or the place where the children of the chiefs go while their parents are talking and they are still too young to participate in the conversation of the elders.
Ever since Suk joined his uncle's family, he always went to these discussions along with little Izmen, the son of their chieftain, which ended in the fact that the other tribes were also aware that even though Izmen would have been the rightful heir, his uncle considered Suk more important.
Sometimes this was even pointed out to him, he usually let such things slip by his ear, but that day, when he was told for the third time that he would be the next Zovárd tribal chief, he couldn't take it anymore and overturned the table cursing in anger. However, the children just continued to talk.
"I've had enough!" Suk stood up again, and Razvan, dressed in red, blinked at him.
"Is something wrong?" He asked, making Suk roll his eyes.
"Oh, yes ther is! I remember this day. You should have recruited me to Athamana today." He said seriously. "You should have called me aside when I overturned the table and asked what was wrong with me." He narrowed his eyes. "But since you didn't do that, it means I'm dreaming." He folded his arms in front of him and closed his eyes. "However, since you didn't immediately slap me and beat me to a blue-green pulp, this means that, contrary to what I thought until now, this is not one of my perfect dreams."
"What a perfect dream?" He suddenly heard a voice that shouldn't have been at the children's council. He opened his eyes in surprise, only to find himself facing the Athamanas.
"Did you dream again that your uncle tortured you, raped you, poisoned you, etc., so that you could cut his throat with a peace of mind?" Teveli asked now with half-raised eyebrows and crossed arms.
"Unfortunately not." Suk grimaced.
"The what?" Citar was horrified.
"Zovárds." Benkó waved.
"But it would have been a perfect dream. How much easier it would be..." Suk thought to himself as those moments from many years ago flashed back before his eyes.
"I will not be your puppet!" He heard his own voice, and then saw his uncle kneeling down in front of him with pleading eyes and holding his shoulders.
"Don't say things like that. That's not what I meant. I just want you to be the perfect chieftain." The man explained, but Suk knew that according to the hegins, the 'perfect tribal chief' was his uncle, and he would not be like his uncle.
"No!" He shook his head before his uncle let him go and stood up.
"It's fine, I'm not forcing it. One day you will understand that I want your good, then you will stop opposing. Go to sleep Suk, you had a long day." He smiled at Suk and turned away.
"But seriously, why do you have to be so weird?" Suk was startled by Citar's voice, but in the end he just shrugged.
"I don't know what you mean, you are the ones who are all weird." He grinned.
"Oh no, he started again." The boy Bolacsuk rolled his eyes.
"Enough boys. We rather figure out where we are and where the boss and his partner are. Now that we're all here, maybe we'll finally figure something out." Teveli stopped the quarrel in its infancy and managed to get the team to start brainstorming.