In the following days, Rahul got to know the southerners' closest base, Öbcsderdin. After taking him and his companions to this walled fortress, the team of his captors disappeared. So there was nothing to do, Rahul had to adapt to the local conditions, the heat waves, the reddish walls and the rather strange "training".
However, to say that Rahul had a hard time adjusting to the situation would be an understatement. On the other hand, it was an undeniable fact that the ötandi soldiers conducting the "training" did not expect what Rahul gave them. This may also be why the soldiers training the prisoners nervously stood in front of Öbcserdin's leader today and presented him with their concerns about one of the new recruits.
"He is just a northern kid. What could be wrong with him?" The man shook his head.
"But sir, he can handle the smoke like he's always been doing it." One of the soldiers repeated, for the twentieth time during the half-hour conversation. Needless to say, the leader of the fortress was already very tired of the nagging of the two soldiers.
"Okay, if this kid is so special, take him to me, let him show me what he can do." The leader announced. At this, the two soldiers immediately pulled themselves out and headed for the recruits' quarters, leading their leader.
"Gereltek!" One of them called out before Rahul got up from his bed and approached the soldier with a bored face. When he said his name for the first time, the ötandis couldn't pronounce it, so he decided to call himself by the name his mother called him, it was at least similar to the words they used and could say.
"Yes?" Rahul asked in a serious voice.
"The leader wants to talk to you." The soldier nodded towards the leader, who had even more colorful clothes than the average ötandis.
"I am at your service, sir." Rahul bowed politely. He was now a prisoner of war, and he had no plans to get on the bad side of his captors. Even so, he was pretty pissed off by that crazy daimon king yelling at him every night as if he had nothing better to do than fuck with Rahul.
"My people say you are talented, young man." The leader remarked and took out a pipe. "Why do you think this is?" Hearing the question, Rahul just snorted.
"I don't know. They didn't ask for anything hard." He waved.
"Really?" The leader tilted his head to the side, and when Rahul nodded he smiled. "Can you show me what you know?" The question came, and Rahul sighed.
"Naturally." He agreed, and half an hour later he found himself on the training ground facing the puppets. The leader was standing on a platform not far from them, and next to Rahul was one of the teachers.
"Hit that dummy with smoke." The teacher gave the order, but Rahul just looked at the puppet with a grimace. "Is something wrong?"
"It will not work." Rahul shook his head.
"Why is that?" The teacher blinked, while the boy rolled his eyes.
"It's too close, it will fall into small pieces." Rahul said it clearly.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, young man. This course is difficult even for our most skilled newcomers. And northerners like you almost never make it this far." The leader remarked, and Rahul had to try very hard not to grimace.
"Okay, then let's look at it differently. Is it okay if it falls into little piece?" He asked the question, and the teacher standing next to him looked at him angrily.
"Don't be full of yourself, boy" He declared, and Rahul sighed.
"I'm not." He shrugged.
"You know what, young man, if you really break the doll into pieces, then I will fulfill one of your requests." The leader laughed, and Rahul looked at him suspiciously, but when he didn't see any sign of deciet, he grinned.
"I want a proper lunch. I want toporcsi and laklit." He stated, but the adults just blinked at him.
"What?" The teacher asked.
"What you ate in the morning with the other teachers." Rahul explained.
"Those are our traditional dishes..." The teacher started in surprise.
"They looked delicious." Rahul shrugged and took a deep breath. "I would stand further away if I were you." He said before he held his hand towards the nearest torch.
The moves came to him as they always do. He didn't even have to think. The steps and hand movements were in his bones. He could almost feel his mother's guiding hand on his wrist, heard the laughing voice that always praised him when he was clever. A smile played on Rahul's lips as the smoke rose from the torch and moved towards the puppet like a huge black cloud. It was all a moment and the target fell to the ground in small pieces and the smoke slowly faded away.
Öbcsderdin's leader and the other ötandi soldiers looked at the scene of destruction with open mouths, and then at Rahul, who just folded his arms in front of him and looked at the place of the dummy with a frown. Controlling the smoke is the technique that is unique to the ötandis. Never before had someone who wasn't one of them been able to use their technique so skillfully, so naturally. Especially not someone who came from the Northerners, who were always much harder to train because they either had no talent whatsoever, or that talent was already broken.
"Young man, I think that Öbcscerdin is not the best place for you. You abilities are too exceptional to be wasted here. I'll recommend you to the solos. Tomorrow you'll leave for the front line. Today, however, you gets your lunch. Give him what he asked for." The leader stood up from his seat and did not look back at Rahul when he left the place. Rahul, on the other hand, looked after him with an uncomprehending grimace, then back at the puppet and back to the departing leader.
"You call that exceptional?" Rahul asked under his breath and turned back towards the puppet's place. "I was much worse than the last time I tried to do this." He scratched his neck, grimacing.
"Don't be hard on yourself, you just got out of practice. You didn't do it with your mom's box, you did it with that crappy torch." Etele appeared next to him with his arms folded in front of him. Rahul glanced at him but didn't speak. However, he didn't even need it, the ghost knew what he was curious about and just grinned. "They are getting closer. I think you can talk to them tonight, they will be so close. Let's say if they really send you somewhere ancestors know where, then the others will have to figure something out very quickly. A team of hegins can't just shoot around in the territory of the southerners. Based on what we have here, the southerners are in the middle of a war if they see them."
"Then it's really better to warn them." Rahul agreed with Etele, but his serious mood quickly disappeared when his stomach rumbled. "But now I have a nostalgic lunch waiting for me." He rubbed his hands together and started back towards his accommodation.