"But how did he summon the daimon?" Inepta grumbled under his breath.
"For the love of the ancestors!" Etele rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what I did. I summoned it as I did with the others I began to draw what came to mind on the ground. Like this!" He bent down and picked up his wooden stick, which he had been drawing with for the past three days, and then began to draw a circular pattern on the ground. However, before he could finish the pattern, the enemy general, who from then on became his Tapló leader, stepped directly on the sign.
"I don't think you want to summon that." He said in a serious voice and and his face dropped a little.
"Why not?" Etele blinked.
"Judging by the pattern, it would have been a fire demon." The man put his hands on his hips.
"A what?_ Etele's eyes widened, but the man just continued as if he hadn't noticed that the táltos had spoken.
"You still have to learn which sign belongs to which demon and daimon, but if you succeed you will be more powerful than most. You have an innate ability to summon." The general nodded and then clapped. "Alright then, let's pick up! The farther we get before sunset, the better. We're already too late." He looked grumpily at Inepta. "You should have just gone past the village."
"What?!" Etele opened his mouth, turned towards the man.
"They should have just kept going." The general shrugged. "They shouldn't have taken the village."
"But I wanted to." Inepta folded his arms in front of him. The other two men looked at him angrily.
"What did I tell you about the occupations?" General Csito shook his head disapprovingly.
"That I shouldn't do it." The táltos lowered his head.
"So I worked for nothing?" Etele ran his hand over his face.
"Yes." General Csito grinned. "Come on. We have to go." He said seriously and turned away from the yurt village, but he had barely taken two steps when a huge thump was heard. And when he looked back, he only saw that his new companion, Etele, was lying on the ground with his eyes closed and panting deeply. "Three days, is just three days. It's a wonder he made it this far. Inepta get someone who can bring him along. We have wasted enough time, I want to go further."
Following the orders of General Csito, Inepta went back to the army and after finding someone who could handle Etele, the general's troops left behind the yurt village, the inhabitants of which seen the last of their táltos, the good-for-nothing Svihák.
The next time Etele regained consciousness, he was lying on a comfortable sheepskin bed. He heard the sound of people moving in the distance and if the patterns decorating the walls of the yurt had not been completely unknown to him, he would have thought he was at home. That's how he knew that wasn't the case. He sat up and stretched.
"I haven't slept this well in a long time." He sighed.
"Of course you didn't, you were knocked out for a week." He suddenly heard a voice that made him jump on the bed.
"May the spirits chase you across the steppes with deer, so that you may rot, Tapló leader!" He sweared. "You gave me a heart attack." He put his hand on his beating heart.
"It's your fault for not looking around. Well, pull yourself together, eat something." He pointed to a part of the yurt where there was a small table. "Then get your ass out. I have a lot to do with you. I have to introduce you to everyone and start teaching you as soon as possible. Who knows when I will need your skills." He declared, then left the yurt without a word.
"He has a good attitude." Etele giggled before getting up to start a hearty meal.
After his meal, his new life as General Csito's right-hand man began. As he promised, the man introduced him to everyone, and as soon as they had some time to rest, they also started Etele's training. The latter went very quickly and successfully thanks to the young man's skills. Etele soon became everyone's good friend and the general's confidant. He summoned demons daily and helped with daily chores around the camp. In this way, the months passed calmly in General Csito's team.
"Hey, Svihák, I heard that you and the Witch are a couple. Is this true?" General Csito sat down one day next to Etele, who just rolled his eyes. The Witch was the most feared of the female members of the camp. No one dared to get close to her and no one knew why General Csito took her under his wing, what was certain was that the woman was always surrounded by terrible dark energy.
"Just a relationship of interest. I didn't want everyone on my neck, she didn't want everyone on her neck either. I do this, she does that. Then, if they ask, yes, we are a couple and then they leave us alone. Anyway, I don't need to be near her, I'm just fine with it." Etele shrugged.
"You are something." General Csito laughed. "And how is the summoning going?
"I managed to summon a thousand demons today." Said the táltos, as if this would have been nothing.
"Alright, then I want to see how you do it tomorrow." The general grinned.
"Wipe that "I did someone good yesterday" expression off your face, otherwise I won't tell you what rumor I heard." Etele pulled his lips into a half smile.
"Oh, isn't it something interesting?" General Csito rubbed his hands together.
"Oh, it is." Etele grinned proudly. "You know what a turul bird is, right?"
"Sure, I saw one this morning too." The general rolled his eyes.
"I thought you weren't able to see in the mornings!" Etele scratched his head, which only resulted in the Tapló leader giving him a smack across his neck. "Now, why?"
"Don't be sarcastic, Svihák!" He rolled his eyes. "Rather, out with it, why do I need to know what a turul bird is?" The man asked.
"I'm talking, I'm talking." The táltos raised his hands. "So I heard that there is a rumor among the locals about the mountains we are going to. That's why I looked into the matter a bit. It turns out that they say that there was an ancient turul bird living in the mountains back in the time of the gods, which laid a single egg there on the mountain. According to legend, the egg will only hatch when the stars are aligned again as they were when the ancient turul laid the egg." The táltos explained enthusiastically.
"And you..." The general was about to start, but Etele raised his hand.
"The best is yet to come." His big eyes sparkled with excitement. "They say that if you are present when the egg hatches, you will become the owner of the turul, you will be blessed by the gods and you will be able to use the power of the turul."
"And you believed that?" General Csito raised one of his eyebrows, and Etele waved.
"Of course not, not even a word." He snapped at the General, then became serious. "However, when I was on my way back to the camp, the village's táltos stopped me."
"What did he want from you? " Came the suspicious question.
"All he said was "The turul is waiting for you and your master." and he pressed this piece of leather into my hand and then left me with a straight face." He took out a piece of leather from his small belt pouch and gave it to the general. On the piece of leather was a picture of a mountain range with a drawing of an egg, and a path of tiny lines led to the it.
"What if it's a trap?" General Csito looked carefully at the small map.
"It's not." Etele noted.
"How do you know?" The general looked at him suspiciously.
"Why do you think I summoned so many demons today?" Etele rolled his eyes. "I sent a couple to look around the marked place." He continued.
"Did they find anything?" The general tilted his head to the side.
"What do you think?" Etele smiled evilly.
"An egg." General Csito also smiled.
"Exactly, an egg." The táltos nodded, and the other man stood up immediately.
"Then what are we waiting for?" He asked, getting Etele to stand up as well.
"For you Tapló leader! Let's head to the mountains and get that egg!" He extended his hand towards the man.
"Show the way!" General Csito shook the outstretched hand and so the pair set off towards the mountains.