The next morning, the team woke up to rooster crowing. This was not to the liking of many, including Rahul. However, what was there to do, once you have to get up, you have to get up. Their breakfast was spent in a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere and after a conversation with the tribal chief, led by the Wandi, the Athamanas set off to visit the Vojks' training ground.
"Is that what I think it is, Wandi?" Citar asked enthusiastically when he saw the obstacles.
"Yes it is." The danovus boy nodded. "It was converted specifically for you. It's still a challenge for an average hegin, but the elements that only a danovus can do have been removed from it." Wandi explained.
"You don't mean to say that we should go through this, do you?" Rahul's eyes widened.
"I'll go ahead, the last one to reach the end is a swamp snail!" Citar called out and ran to the track. The team didn't need more to be like the little kids and follow.
"They've lost their minds!" Rahul shook his head.
"The course is not as difficult as it seems." Wandi noted. "If you want, I'll tell you what to do. Citar cheated anyway, he had already done the course once." Vojk boy shrugged his shoulders.
"You would help immensly." The chüvigh traveler nodded, then started to the training field based on the instructions of the danovus.
The Athamana team spent most of the day practicing that particular track as quickly and accurately as possible. The result was a team of sweaty boys. So it's no wonder that when Razvan decided that training was enough for the day, the whole team enthusiastically rushed to the hot tub to wash off the day's fatigue.
"Ah! Here are our guests." The Vojk chief appeared at the door of the room designated as the sleeping place of the Athamanas just as Benkó, who had been bathing the longest, returned.
"Good evening, chieftain. Why did you seek us out?" Razvan asked, while the man looked at his son.
"I just came to tell my son not to miss the funeral. Your uncle says that you can invite your friends if you want. We will meet at the spring after sunset." Said the tribal chief, then turned around and left.
"A funeral? I thought danovuses couldn't die." Suk tilted his head to the side.
"We can, just in a much more difficult way than humans." Wandi said with a faint smile on his lips. "I hope you will come with me to the funeral. Since he offered, I think my uncle would like you to be there. He's always been a weird monk. He always brags that he saw Athira himself when he was young." The boy sighed.
"I lost the thread. Whose funeral exactly are we invited to?" Citar scratched his head.
"To my uncle's." Wandi said.
"But didn't your dad say that..." Rahul started, but somehow he couldn't put his thoughts together.
"We danovuses die differently than you humans. We decide when we get bored with our lives and then we leave for the Shadow World in a big celebration. Since this is rare, it is always a big event when someone wants to organize a funeral for themselves." The boy shrugged.
"Many things went through my mind when we entered Éjifény, but a danovus funeral was not among them." Achilleus grinned.
"So you came?" Wandi smiled.
"Of course we are going. This is an unmissable offer." Citar was also enthusiastic.
"Not to mention that probably none of you will live until the next time one of them wants to die." A new voice spoke.
"Grandpa, are you back?" Rahul asked surprised.
"Yeah, even I haven't seen one, I'd be stupid not to watch it." Etele grinned.
"Not sure the tribe will be happy about that." Wandi shook his head.
"I won't be in the way and I won't show up if they really don't want me to." The ghost rolled its eyes.
"I would appreciate it." The boy Vojk nodded, and Etele just waved and his figure disappeared.
"The sun is about to set. When are we leaving Wandi?" Teveli asked curiously.
"Now. Come after me." Said the danovus boy, then he started in front of the group to lead them to a huge clearing, on the edge of which was a spring with a beautiful waterfall. There are white flowers around the lake, and members of the Vojk tribe gathered in the clearing.
The Athamanas stopped behind Wandi at an empty edge of the clearing and watched curiously what was happening before their eyes. Not much interesting happened until the sun went down, except that the crowd grew a little. However, when the shining celestial body appeared on the horizon, the main character of the evening arrived. You could tell who he was by the fact that he was dressed in white.
The team watched with almost bated breath as the danovus man, who looked barely forty, walked to the shore of the lake with a broad smile on his face, then bent down and washed his face in the water. Meanwhile, the other danovuses started speaking in a language unknown to the hegins, as if they were reciting some kind of nursery rhyme.
The danovus, who was about to die, washed his face three times and he touched his forehead to the ground three times. Meanwhile, the moon had risen, casting a faint bluish-white light over the clearing, lit only by a few torches. Finally Wandi's uncle sat down among the flowers, turned his face to the sky and closed his eyes.
"Are you ready to join our ancestors in the Shadow World?" A danovus, also dressed in white, who had just stepped in front of the other man spoke up.
"I'm ready." The answer came, and the questioner just nodded.
"Cover your ears." Whispered Wandi, and the team covered their ears as one, not really knowing why. However, they were lucky, because at this very moment the danovus standing in white raised his hands, and the chest of the danovus on the ground rose. And then, accompanied by a huge roar, a nail flew out of Wandi's uncle's chest, then another roar erupted from the man's throat and another nail appeared, and so it went until the fifth nail. The man sitting on the ground was panting and sweating by the end of the process.
"Goodbye, my friend." The standing danovus bowed his head in front of the dying man, and everyone repeated his gesture, including the Athamanas.
"May Athira protect you." Wandi's uncle whispered, then lay down among the flowers. "I'm going home." He said before closing his eyes. The clearing was silent as they looked at the man lying among the flowers. Only Citar moved and grabbed Wandi's shoulders, his hands clenched into fists and his eyes glistening with tears. The danovus boy was at first surprised by his friend's move, but in the end he just smiled and continued to watch silently.
All the members of the Athamanas were already slowly starting to think about what would happen now, when at the edge of the clearing above the lake appeared orbs glowing in a pale greenish-blue light, under which something black was floating. The small spheres became more and more numerous, and then surrounded the figure lying among the flowers.
"Say googdbye to him." A thin voice came out of nowhere, which caused the present danovuses to step next to the dead one by one and say a few words to him.
"What are these spheres?" Rahul asked quietly.
"They are Transparents. Harmless spirits that help souls cross into the Shadow World along with the red butterflies, they say that if you see a red butterfly they are also nearby." Teveli explained.
"Harmless..." Etele repeated the word, but his voice could hardly be heard in the wind.
The ghost, however, was no longer in the clearing in his mind, but in the wilderness beyond the Karrabata mountains, in the company of his old team. On an occasion when, on Csito's order, Etele summoned the certain daimon that caused the táltos to become a member of the camp.
"General Orchidea. Everyone calls him that. He is the daimon king's right hand, the second most powerful daimon, he has been seen to destroy entire armies. Some say he was a brutal killer in his life." One of the recruits chatted, but General Csito interrupted.
"This is not true. He's just a Transparent incarnate. Am I right, General Orchidea?"