"Umm... Csito?" Etele whispered, trying not to wake the bird sleeping in his lap. The two men were still on the side of the mountain, but neither of them was sleeping.
"Hm?" He heard the general's voice.
"Do you know what the love of the forefathers is that táltos four stars?" He asked and scratched his head.
"A level, but you're not there yet." General Csito said seriously.
"What?" Etele turned to his friend and blinked at him with big eyes.
"I've been thinking about this for a while." The general started. "We call all kí users táltoses, but there are differences." He explained.
"Sometimes they're not even small." The táltos rolled his eyes.
"Exactly. That's why I came up with a system into which we can categorize kí users." Here the man scratches his neck. "But maybe it's more correct to say that I want to revive it, I didn't really make it up." He looked up at the sky.
"What do you mean?" Etele looked questioningly at the person sitting next to him.
"I stumbled upon it by accident. It could have been an ancient grave, the river no longer flowed over it. There was an iron chest with rice paper in it and written on it with red paint." The general told me.
"Couldn't it have belonged to the chás?" Etele scratched his neck.
"I thought so too when I saw it, but the writing on the paper was our runes." The man said seriously. "It was a story about the stars and the gods. It would be quite complicated to explain, maybe I'll show you one day. The point is that the text describes a system into which users of kí can be classified. At the bottom of the system is the shaman's apprentice one star, and at the top is the táltos seven stars. There are four main categories in ascending order of strength: shaman's apprentice, shaman, solomonar and táltos. These can all be divided into seven parts, the seven stars." The general poked the pebbles with his hands.
"Good, I think I understand that." Etele nodded. "But how do you know which level I belong to?" Etele frowned.
"With something like this." The general took out a pendant and threw it towards Etele, who caught the small stone, which suddenly turned red, pulsated seven times, then changed to orange, pulsated another seven, then turned yellow, before pulsating seven times again and changing to white it flashed two more.
"What does that mean?" Etele blinked at the stone in his hand.
"Táltos two stars." The man nodded. "Although the táltos part was not surprising. Your eyes are pink, the physical difference on the body is a sign of the born táltoses." Csito smiled.
"But Riki said..." The táltos began, looking down at the bird in his lap.
"Táltos four stars." Csito finished for him. "I think he told you what level you can reach." The general held his chin.
"Why, can it be changed?" Etele was surprised.
"Naturally. How do you think people can become stronger? That's equivalent to getting a star." Csito closed his eyes.
"I see, so according to our bird, I'll be táltos four stars. Good." Etele frowned. "By the way, are we now parents?" He turned up his nose.
"Why would we be?" The general looked at him suspiciously.
"Here is this chick that has no parents and we are its owners. We have to take care of it, that sounds pretty parenting to me." Etele crossed his arms.
"You're right..." General Csito muttered slowly, then raised his index finger and poked the táltos. "However, when we return to the camp, if possible, don't mention this." He lowered his hand. Etele's eyes widened and he shivered.
"Now that you say that..." He looked down at the bird in his lap. "It would sound pretty stupid." The táltos said.
"Let's be silent like the mountain peaks." Csito suggested, extending his right hand towards Etele.
"Like mountain peaks." Etele nodded and accepted the hand extended to him.
This is how the two young men became the owners of the legendary turul bird and became its parents. Returning to the camp, everyone was amazed by the majestic bird, which from that day on was always near either General Csito or Etele. And as the months slowly passed, the bird's shape had already grown to be a sign of General Csito and his team. If they saw the turul bird somewhere in the sky, they knew that General Csito was nearby.
What few people knew was that the bird loved to fly long and far away from its parents, from the two hegins, with whom it also talked about their potential power. Sometimes he disappeared for two or three days, so that he could bathe in the water of the clear sky above the clouds and only then returned to the camp. On one such occasion, Etele just stomped into Csito's tent with clenched fists and simply threw himself on the ground next to the general without a word.
"What's wrong with you again, Svihák?" The general looked suspiciously at his táltos.
"I..." Etele began, but could not continue. "I..." He tried again.
"What, have you been cursed?" The general's eyes widened, but he only received a cold look in response. "So no, but then what?" Csito leaned closer to his friend curiously. The táltos muttered something under his breath, and the man rolled his eyes. "Svihák, if you don't open your mouth properly, I won't be able to hear what you're saying." He frowned.
"I will be a father." Finally, the táltos prodded him, which only made his boss blink at him.
"Didn't you say that you and the witch..." The Tapló leader began the question, but he didn't really know how to finish the sentence himself. Etele simply pulled the headband over his eyes and started growling, then gritted his teeth and finally pushed the headband back onto his forehead and slammed his fist into the ground.
"Such is my fucking luck." He hissed between his teeth. "Once." He raised his index finger. "I slept with her only once" He shook his finger in front of his boss. "The fucking night I took her as my wife." He turned not only his eyes, but also his head. "And that woman managed to get pregnant." The man pressed his palm to his forehead.
"Congratulations." General Csito announced, and his táltos literally jumped at the man scratching his face with ten nails.
"May the ravens gouge out your eyes! You know who you should be kidding with Tapló leader!" Shouted the táltos angrily, but the general just laughed and jumped away from the other.
"Don't be so nervous Svihák! I'm sure you'll be a good dad!" The general laughed as he jumped up to avoid the attacks of his táltos.
"Me?! Did you seriously put me in a sentence with the word responsibility?" Etele frowned at which the general put his hand to his chin.
"Now that you say it like that... You can't even hadle Riki, mom!" He grinned, and with his statement he managed to get Etele to jump to his feet as well.
"Who did you call mom?!" He pointed at General Csito with a glowing look.
"You, mom!" The general laughed and ran out of his tent.
"Stop immediately, Tapló leader! I'll catch you! I'll skin you! In the name of the forefathers, I say that I will skin you!" Etele ran after him, not even bothering with the soldiers who were staring at them.
"What's going on here?" One of the recruits asked, when their general ran past them laughing with a cursing táltos at his heels.
"Ah, nothing special." One of the soldiers who had been in the camp for a long time waved. "The boss probably riled Etele up again." He shrugged. "Don't bother with it, they do it all the time." The soldier returned to cooking lunch.
"Tapló leader!" The táltos' cry echoed in the camp.
"You won't catch me, Svihák!" The general's laughing voice answered. Yes, life was just like that in this camp.