A face-warming wind and the strange smell of the lava-covered countryside greeted Wandi as he began to regain consciousness. He faintly felt that something was wrong, but quickly put it down to the deoriented feeling left over from his morning dream. Soon, he heard the bell ring every morning, which signaled the time of awakening at the Vojk tribe.
True to his habit, he got up with a big stretch and after a quick wash of his face, he went out with measured steps into the corridor of the chieftain's house to go to the dining room. Where, as every morning, a young lady was waiting for him, who immediately smiled when she saw him.
"Good morning my darling! Come eat." Shee said and pated the chair next to her, before the boy hurried over and after giving a kiss to the woman's cheek took a seat.
"Good morning, mom! Where is dad?" Wandi asked as he looked around the room, but did not find the chief of the Vojk tribe.
"Preparing for today's classes." The woman said simply. And Wandi suddenly didn't understand what that meant. He didn't ask any more questions though, he had learned from a young age that asking too much was indecent. So he just finished his breakfast, not paying much attention to what he was eating.
"I'm going to find dad. Have a nice day mom." Wandi bowed before the woman and left the dining room with slow steps. He adjusted his steps to his breathing, so his gait became calm and steady. As he walked through the tribe's territory, he never once turned his head to the side, even if he heard someone passing by on the other side of the garden.
"The chieftain can be proud of his son, how clever he is at such a young age." He heard it from somewhere, but he didn't even bat an eye at the remark. He is a member of the chieftain's family, he must set an example. Everything he does has to be perfect.
The corridors passed him by as if they weren't there until he arrived at the classroom where they used to start their days. He stopped at the door, as he should, and waited. Soon, more young people arrived and slowly ten of them were already standing in front of the door. Then, just as the sun reached the top of the mountains, the door opened.
"Athira's blessing on the sun, the earth and the tribe. Praise his name!" The ten children spoke at the same time, and the man standing in the hall nodded.
"And may his fame never fade." Answered the chief. "Come inside." He gestured towards them, and the small group entered the room at the same time as if on command. However, none of them went more than a few steps. They just stood in a line, stretched out and looking straight ahead. "Today is a very special day in your teaching." The chief began.
"We already talked about why our tribe has to be exceptionally careful with other tribes and what the consequences are if we don't follow the rules. However, just talking about something may not be enough for you to understand its importance. Therefore, today we will travel to show you what we would become if we were not bound by our traditions." He explained, then walked to the table in the middle of the room.
On the table stood a small tower made of finger-length clay bricks, three next to each other, on top of that three more in the opposite direction from the previous row, then another row in the same direction as the bottom one, then in the opposite direction again and so on until the tower was reached ten floors. The tribe's apprentices already knew what this thing was.
The hegins used this to travel to distant places, and it was called the Seven Mile Tower. Depending on the level from which a person pulled out a clay rectangle, it was possible to travel different distances. The uppermost to the closest, the lowest to the farthest. The kí-powered travel method was activated when the extracted brick was placed on top of the tower in the opposite direction from the last level.
The big advantage of this structure is that it can take several teams to different places at the same time, as long as the tower stays together. The disadvantage is that it is tied to time, so if the team that traveled does not build another seven-mile tower, thus neutralizing the original one, as a result of which the brick representing them is returned to its place, then exactly one hour later the seven-mile tower will take the team back to the starting point.
Usually, each moonwalking team had a seven-mile tower, which, unlike the clay tower used in cities, was made of hot ice, so if it was their turn to use it, the seven-mile tower they were left behind would simply melt away as soon as it lost the kí that powered it. The Bokló tribe traded in seven-mile towers of hot ice like this, and now the head of the Vojk tribe was using a clay version of this to take the group of students to a place where he had to pull a brick from the lowest level.
The room around the children trembled from the seven-mile tower, and at the moment when the chieftain placed the brick on top, a faint red light emanated, which surrounded those present. The children are in the company of the chiefs in a few moments found themselves on a rock wall. They were all silent as they surveyed the place around them.
There was a battle going on in the plain below their feet, the clothes of the participants and their fighting style were completely different from what the children were familiar with. One side fought as if they were dancing, their movements light but deadly. And the other... The other was wild and deranged, a fighting style that exuded killer instinct just by looking at it.
"Watch them carefully. The people fighting on the right are the chás, and the people on the left are people like us." Said the tribal chief, and the children nodded at the same time. "Do you see how their common sense suppresses instinct? No system, no sense. They are like a pack, or a flock of startled chickens. It's just raw power and instinct, not power used judiciously." The man explained.
"Probably none of them will live as long as your parents." He frowned. "Spend this one hour observing their fighting style, then we'll analyze it when we get back." He finished, while the children nodded together and silently watched the fight under their feet. Before the hour was up, the battle was over and the chás were victorious.
"Our tribe made an alliance with the great Athira. He and the elders of our tribe at the time created the system of rules by which we live. Thanks to our rules, we won't be such animals!" Said the tribal chief with folded arms in front of him.
"That's why it's important to be aware of all seven hundred rules and to follow them all. As long as we follow the rules, we and the residents of Madüjawr will be safe." He sighed, and as he finished the sentence, the team was surrounded by red light. And the next moment they were back in the classroom.
"Now copy the rules from four hundred to five hundred." The man gave the order, and the students took their seats in a row at the tables that stood in front of the largest wall of the room, on which the rules of the tribe were engraved and the many students began to copy them. Wandi calmly copied the text as he always did until he got to rule 432, when he frowned.
"Is something wrong?" His father stepped next to him.
"Yes." Wandi answered and pointed directly to the problematic rule on the wall.
"I don't understand what the problem is, my son, there is no error in the inscription." He got the answer, and Wandi's lips twitched and he pressed the writing stick so hard that it broke in two in his hand. "Son?"
" You are not my father and this is not real!" Wandi took a deep breath and simply stood up. "I don't know who you are and why you're messing with me, but rule 432 doesn't have the word 'the'! So..." Here he drew his swords and pressed them straight to the throat of his father's figure. "Tell me what you want right away!" He ordered, while the man in front of him smiled, then began to tremble and disappeared in a huge flash of light. Wandi put his hands in front of his eyes and closed them so they wouldn't get hurt.
"Wandi! Thank the spirits, at least someone is here!" He heard a new voice and when he took his hand away from his eyes, he found himself in a cave swimming in sunlight, and in front of him stood a familiar figure with a relieved smile on his face.
"Citar?" He asked and when the other nodded, he looked around. "Where are we? How did we get here?" He inquired, but the Bolacsuk boy just shook his head, with a regretful half-smile on his face. That was all Wandi needed to understand. They had no idea where they were.