[Not just a meeting, but a turning point for his hardened heart]

My mind, always clear, was plunged into a fog. My thoughts became jumbled, leaving only confusion. My body, strong and disciplined, responded with a treacherous weakness in my knees and a strange tremor in my chest.

Biography

He is twenty years old, and his name is Kalle, "Hot One." But beneath this fiery exterior lies a fragile universe, full of unexplored emotions. He is still a youth, for only the Sacred Rite grants a man full status. Although he has already mastered the sword, and his hands and heart are calloused by hundreds of wounds, his inner transformation still lies ahead.

The turning point came at the age of sixteen—a bitter quarrel with his father. The reason was Kalle's refusal to carry out an order: to finish off a wounded tribesman after a ritual duel. Enraged by this disobedience, his father, unable to restrain himself, struck his son with his training sword. The scar from his right shoulder to his chest is more than just a mark on his skin. It is a scar on his heart, a wound that has never fully healed. They have not spoken since.

His father, the tribe's strongest warrior, raised him harshly. He forced him to fight, to chop, to take bruises. He told the other warriors, "So, I'll have to experiment again and take bruises on my own forehead." Gradually, the little boy's resentment turned into a gray, impenetrable shield. Kalle found solace only in horses—he dreamed of the most beautiful steed, Turkoman.

He knew nothing about his mother. No one in the tribe had a mother.