Not long after, when the sun had already set on the horizon and the shining crown of the mother moon lit up the landscape, General Csito and Etele already walked the winding paths of the mountains and almost reached the hiding place of that certain egg.
"Speaking of which, Svihák." The general addressed Etele.
"Huh?" The táltos turned his head towards him.
"Tell me, do you know if the stars are in the same position now as they were when the turul laid that egg? If we just hiked up the mountain only to find an egg that won't hatch, I'm seriously going to skin you." General Csito grumbled.
"How should I know that? What do I look like to you, a seer?" Etele rolled his eyes.
"Start begging the ancestors to make that damn egg hatch." The leader looked at his táltos with piercing eyes.
"Oh, gracious mother earth, protect your innocent child from this madman who wants to skin him alive." Etele intervined his fingers and bowed his head.
"You're really an idiot." The general smiled.
"As far as I know, you didn't force me into your service because I was normal." The táltos scratched his head.
"You're absolutely right!" General Csito laughed.
"See. I know a few things." Etele pulled himself out. "We're almost there." The táltos suddenly became serious.
"According to the map, we just have to go up this path." The general nodded. And the pair continued silently on the mountain road. Their attention was focused on their surroundings, since one can never know what dangers threaten a hegin in the wilderness. After a few minutes, the two men reached the place indicated by the small map. "There is nothing here." The general noted in a suspicious tone.
"The demons said there was a cave-like place here..." Etele muttered under his breath as he began to map the place by the light of the moon and stars. "There." He pointed to a flatter rock that was leaning against the mountainside, thus creating a cave.
"Let's see if the demons told the truth." The general smiled faintly as he approached the small cave with Etele by his side. However, the pair did not have to go long to find the reason for their arrival, because at the entrance of the small cave, just under the protection of the flat rock, in the middle of a strange stone nest, there was the legendary egg. The egg itself was much larger than any bird's egg the two men had ever seen. Taking a closer look, Etele guessed that it must have been about the size of the head of General Csito standing next to him.
"We found it." Etele grinned as he knelt next to the nest.
"Yes." General Csito agreed and knelt down next to Etele. "Didn't the shaman say by chance what to do if we found it?" The man leaned closer to the egg to take a closer look in the dim light.
"I told you what he said. I don't know any more than that." Etele folded his arms in front of him. "In any case, we have two choices." He squeezed his neck. "One, we stay here and wait to see if it hatches tonight." He looked at the egg, which showed no sign of wanting to hatch. "Two, we take it with us and get out of here."
"We definitely have to stay here for tonight. It would be dangerous to go down the mountain in such darkness. Even if we could see in the moonlight, the mountains are home to many wild animals and it would be better not to come into contact with them." The general shook his head.
"So we're stuck here on this damn cold mountain for the night?" Etele's eyes widened, and the other man nodded. "Hooray!" He sat down on the ground and leaned against the rock wall.
"Don't be like that, Svihák. It's not that bad." General Csito settled next to him.
"It's not that bad. I'm stuck up here with you." The táltos closed his eyes, but with his words he only achieved that he was punched in the side.
"Know who you're talking to, Svihák! I'm still your boss." The general rolled his eyes.
"Did it ever stop me?" Etele pressed his sore side.
"No, that's exactly the problem." The man snorted. "Did you hear that?" He suddenly pulled himself out and his eyes began to search the darkness.
"What?" Whispered Etele, but he also looked at their surroundings with narrowed eyes, with one hand reaching into his pouch so that if necessary he could pull out his bag of stone powder, with which he could draw the summoning circle of the daimons on the ground.
General Csito was about to open his mouth when they heard a soft knocking sound. They looked at each other with a worried look, the voice stopped, and then it was heard again, this time a little louder and as if it was accompanied by the sound of stones being moved on top of each other. And the strange sound came from the right side of the pair, directly from the direction where the cave was, and where...
"The egg." The two men whispered at the same time, and at the same moment, as if they had become excited little children, they almost fell through each other and went closer to the egg. They could see well in the pale blue light of the moon, so they saw that thin black lines now appeared on the previously smooth egg.
"It hatches." Etele grunted, as he earned himself a smack from his boss.
"Congratulations. You had to think a lot about that, right?" The man remarked, but before Etele could retort, another knocking sound was heard from the egg, and this caused the paor to hold their breath and watch the miracle of birth in front of them.
The black lines on the eggshell became thicker and more and more of them appeared, slowly covering the upper part of the egg. The knocking sound got louder and louder, and with a pop, as if a stone had been thrown into a wooden bowl, a black beak broke through the top of the eggshell. General Csito and Etele swallowed a huge one at the same time, and Etele in his excitement he even bit his thumb nail.
The little beak suddenly disappeared into the egg, then it broke out again, not far from the hole it had first punched, and then it repeated this movement two or three more times, until a head emerged from the egg together with the little beak, the egg at the same moment fell to pieces and tumbled down into the stone nest. The newborn turul bird appeared before the eyes of the two hegins. The little bird opened its eyes and looked directly at Etele, as if it could see him right to the core.
"Táltos four stars." It chirped with which it managed to get the mouths of General Etele and Csito to open at the same time. "Táltos seven stars." The bird continued as it now looked up at the general.
Then it clumsily opened its wings, which at that time didn't even have a feather on them, stood up trembling on its feet and headed straight for the two hegins sitting next to each other. Of course, this scared the two men for the first time, but since both of them were on their knees, they had nowhere to escape from the attack. However, instead of attacking, the little bird began chirping and rubbed its head first against the general's face and then against the táltos's face.
"Riki! Riki!" It beeped.
"Do you think..." Etele began, blinking at the general in confusion.
"Yes, I think that's his name." Csito nodded.
"Riki." Etele giggled.
"Ricky." General Csito smiled.
"Riki!" The bird chirped again, then shook itself and its bare body was suddenly covered with golden sparks, and when the sparks faded, brown feathers covered the bird's body, and the pale white light of the moon was brightly reflected in its eyes. "You are my masters." Said the bird, as it shook itself, then lowered its head, as if bowing to the two hegins. "Riki, at your service."