"What do we need children for?" Citar scratched his head.
"We can't go to the playground without the little ones. They will end up being mad at me in the end." Rahul giggled as he waved to the hegins and searched the village to look for the children. So soon, with a whole troop of children by their side, they were moving up the hills further and further away from the city, until a sight appeared before their eyes that none of the hegins had seen before.
"How much water!" Benkó opened his mouth.
"Is this the sea?" Teveli asked curiously.
"That's right." Rahul nodded and hurried after the running children. As the team reached the shore, they noticed a strange little building not far from the shore, apparently floating on the surface of the sea.
The building was in ruins, with ropes hanging from it in several places, here and there with a wooden pole between two ropes. In several places, small handholds were carved into the wall to help climb to the top of the walls. A row of platforms led to the building, and as soon as they got closer to the see, they saw that the half of the place closer to the shore, which at first looked like a ruin, was only a ruin in appearance, since the walls, windows, and small tunnels were all reinforced.
On the far side of the building, all the arches were closed by pallors, that was the place where the children could not play. Well, it's not as if the outside part wasn't enough for the little ones, where all kinds of adventures could be played out, thanks to the small labyrinth-like walls between the thick partitions. The pallos leading from the shore ran through the largest arch, then ran around the inner walls in a place that in its better days might have been a garden, but today was more of a swimming pool.
"Does the prophet live here?" Suk scratched his head.
"They say back there among the ruins." Rahul shrugged.
"Then let's see." Razvan started towards the back part on the planks, and the team followed him closely, while the children occupied the front part and started playing.
"Where can you get in there?" Achilleus turned his head.
"There is a section on the side where the boards are already loose." Rahul continued to lead the team and led them to the back of the building. "This is my second time here. Once the head of the village brought us here together with everyone, theoretically someone saw a stray dog coming in and we wanted to look for it, but in vain." He said as they went deeper and deeper between the walls.
"There's no one here." Benkó frowned.
"I think you young gentlemen are looking for me." At the sudden sound, the team immediately turned around, only to find themselves facing an old man.
"Are you the prophet?" Teveli asked in a barely audible voice.
"Exactly." The man nodded.
"Dear Sir, we would like to ask you for a prophecy." Razvan began, bowing politely.
"A prophecy? But I already gave a prophecys to those two at your gathering." The old man gestured in the direction of Rahul and Citar.
"What?" The two boys blinked at each other, then at the man.
"Yes." The man nodded. "Well, if that's not enough for you, I'll give you one more." He pursed his lips as his eyes turned white. "The invasion of the bandits from the east will be stopped by the warlord from the west, and several families will be reunited, albeit completely by accident." He said in an otherworldly voice.
"This does not make sense." Achilleus scratched his head.
"Eastern prophet, don't expect much from him." Benkó shrugged.
"He doesn't even have almond eyes like Master Mo." Suk rolled his eyes.
"You think that I appear in my true form here in the west, you fools." The prophet grumbled under his breath, then started in the direction from which the team came.
"Where are you going now?" Teveli asked surprised.
"Home." The man looked back at the children. "Now why do you look like that? You didn't think I lived in such a shabby place, did you?" He frowned.
"So he's not a real prophet..." Suk whispered, and the man looked at him angrily.
"I haven't lived here for fifty years, I only came here because I knew you would be here." He grumbled. "You have two options, either you believe my prophecy or you don't, which one you decide is up to you." He turned away from the team and headed outside again. The team suspiciously followed the man and when they got outside, to their greatest surprise, the children were no longer in the building.
"Did the kids leave us here?" Citar blinked.
"It's not usual..." Rahul began, when the children rushed to the team with terrified looks.
"Rahul! Rahul! Rahul! The riders are here again."They screamed with tears in their eyes as Rahul's eyes widened.
"To the damn life. What day is it?" He asked, but he didn't really expect an answer, he just stroked the children's heads. "Excuse me guys, I have to take care of something." He said in a nervous voice and hurried out on the pallets to the shore.
"They are a day early." The old man grumbled, as he followed Rahul to the shore, and he was followed by the group of children and the hegins.
"Ah, young handsome men, which of you wants to be a soldier?" A horseman asked with a grin, dressed in a blue and white, from the horse company of ten people. Rahul's hands were clenched into fists and he was about to step forward when the old man stood in front of him.
"Neither of them." He spoke in a deep voice, and the soldiers just stared at him for a few moments before the eyes of the one who had spoken before widened.
"Oh, yes, of course, then none." As the man said this, Rahul's eyes opened wide and he even opened his mouth. "Forgive me, sir, that is I want to say, sir, I want to say... Blessed be the Onegod." Here he turned to his team. "Boys, we're going home!" And with that, the whole horse troop galloped off.
"Rahul, what was that?" Razvan stepped next to the boy and put his hand on his shoulder.
"The beginning, the first Tuesday of a normal third month..." The boy began and tried to collect himself. "The end..." He muttered. "I have no idea, this has never happened before. Usually at this time, they try to take young people of the right age as soldiers, and if they don't succeed, they take our crops, in the name of taxes." He explained. "But it was never before that they left so easily, uncle..." Rahul turned to the old man, who no longer had a cool place.
"He's gone!" Benkó shouted at the same time as the children.
"I feel like this has already happened." Citar grabbed his chin.
"He also disappeared when we were at Heginthingy." Rahul thought aloud.
"At the Heginjülin." Suk helped him out with a chuckle, but the boy just waved.
"Even back then, I felt as if it had already happened." Citar shrugged. "So now that we got a prophecy, we lost a prophet, Rahul's village was saved and everyone is here, what do we do?" He asked, while all the members of the team looked at each other.
"First of all, it will be best if we take the children back to the village, then we should say goodbye to the locals and then it will be safest if we go home from Rahul's home. We're not going to scare all the chüvigs there." Razvan told the plan, and everyone started nodding. "Rahul?" Razvan turned to the aforementioned questioningly.
"It's fine by me." He shrugged. "All right, children, come out from behind the rock. I know you want to play hide and seek with the hegins, but now is not the best time." Rahul called, but he only got giggles in response. "All right, I'll call Vanne and you can ride on his back, how does that sound?" That was enough for the children to surround Rahul in a split second. "You are unsalvageable." The boy chuckled, and the people next to him broke out in soft laughter.