The Heritage of Humankind: Tales from Kyerrion

It took the whole day to build the fence around the small femehan camp. When the work was done, Krezagon and the other workers rested around a bit and some went elsewhere. Krezagon idled around, standing and watching what ey had accomplished. Ey had taken down many of the trees they had used, and cleaned up pretty much all of them. Ey knew it was good work and ey had been fast at it as well. Of course ey had heard no praise from the others and was even insulted because of being good and useful, but Krezagon did not care anymore. When ey was done watching, ey turned to go eat and get some rest in eir tent and ended up face to face with the captain.

Krezagon was fairly surprised, and the captain had a small smile on eir face. "Your work is excellent, soldier. I haven't seen anyone take down and clean trees that well and that fast." Krezagon was flabbergasted and had a very strange expression of joy and amazement on eir face, which made em look at least eight years younger. The captain smiled a bit wider. "Take this." Ey held out a knife. "It's a very good quality knife and you deserve it."

Krezagon took the knife with an appreciatively slow gesture and held it appropriately. Ey was so amazed ey had slight trouble expressing eir gratitude, but managed. "Thank you very much, captain." Eir face twisted into a wide smile. After looking at each other for a short moment, the captain moved away again, walking past Krezagon. Krezagon pretty much shook and ey decided to go and walk to eir tent. Ey started walking and bounced with pretty much every step, and ended up waving the newly acquired knife around like it was the best tool of art rather than a construction tool or a weapon.

In eir tent, Krezagon felt euphoric and examined the knife closer. It was indeed very good quality, with an extremely durable blade, very sharp edge, fine handle and the whole of it was easy to use, perfectly balanced and neither too light nor too heavy. Krezagon admired it for some time before eir stomach reminded em that ey was starving.

Krezagon went to eat, and after that was done, returned to eir tent and realized that Tegafel was still gone. Ey spent some time looking for em, but did not find em. Eventually ey asked the guards, and while the first few either really did not know or care or were just being mean to Krezagon, ey did find out that Tegafel had been imprisoned because of some murder thing. Krezagon was shocked and could not believe it, but eventually the information settled and it was not impossible. Ey asked some more questions and ended up listening in on the conversation between the captain, sergeants and some other people with a rank higher than that of a normal soldier.

The homehans had quite strong evidence that Tegafel had indeed killed a homehan. The femehans were not very conclusive—on the other hand Tegafel was impaired and the incident smelled like a set-up. Nevertheless, it was not impossible for Tegafel to have done it and there was quite a clear motive as well.

Derekl kept on expressing eir opinion in a vehement manner. Ey had little or no doubts that Tegafel had done it, and the others were not concerned or stubborn enough to argue against em too much. After a while Krezagon had had enough. Ey kept thinking that ey might be executed for speaking against people of higher rank than emself, but ey figured that if anything would be worth risking it, it was Tegafel's life.

Krezagon stepped forth from a shadowed place to where the discussants could see em. The people first only glanced at em, but they all turned to look when Krezagon spoke: "Excuse me, soos! I wish to speak for my friend, Tegafel Darrelter."

There was a short moment of silence. Derekl looked fairly furious. The captain went: "And what do you have to say for your friend, ankod?"

Krezagon frowned at being called an ankod—as if it made any difference at the point. Obviously it did for the others, but it should not have. "Tegafel is not a violent or vengeful person. I spent some time with em after the homehans released em and I saw no indications whatsoever about em wanting revenge, despite the sadness and the nightmares ey had. Also, ey was in no condition to kill anyone. And ey certainly did not display any interest in the homehans."

"Trying to cover up for your buddy, are you, Shynderfolter?" said Derekl. About half of the people snickered.

"I am merely stating the fact that ey could not have done it. Ey did not do it."

"You've probably been listening to us speak for a while. You know that it isn't impossible, even if it sounds unlikely. Maybe ey just saw a chance," said the captain.

"Don't bother explaining it to that nutwit, sogewa," said Derekl to the captain. Ey turned to look at Krezagon again. "Your inane utterings are just as useless as you are."

There was a moment of silence and Krezagon thought that ey was expected to leave now. It did not seem like the others were angry at em about speaking up, save for Derekl. However, there was no consensus and Krezagon thought that eir speaking up had not helped. "Tegafel did not do it. I am not going to stand by and watch a friend and a fellow soldier get executed because homehans set em up. It's real nice to solve a cold-blooded murder of an innocent person by murdering another."

Derekl was angry. Ey got up, shouting: "Insubordination, Shynderfolter!" Ey walked straight up at Krezagon, who took a step back. Derekl smacked Krezagon across the face. Krezagon was about to defend emself all the way, but knew what would follow from that, so ey did not. Ey stumbled a bit before turning back at Derekl. "Go haul your USELESS self to your gzoozing tent! This is a closed discussion!"

"Tegafel did not do it!" Derekl smacked Krezagon again, this time quickly enough that Krezagon might not have been able to dodge or block. Ey stumbled a bit more, but turned back again.

"Ey did not do it!" Derekl aimed a low right straight to Krezagon's stomach and made the ankod cough, gag and double over with pain. Krezagon was tempted to take out eir knife and stab Derekl with it, but controlled emself—even though eir hand had not been too far from the knife. Krezagon straightened emself, holding eir stomach and looking at Derekl, and said quietly: "Ey didn't do it." Krezagon had not noticed that while ey was bent over, Derekl had taken out eir own knife, and now as ey had spoken, Derekl slashed Krezagon with it. "Yaaagh!" Derekl had slashed Krezagon across the chest and through eir skin. The wound bled and Krezagon clutched it with eir other hand, staring at Derekl. Ey took a step back, angry, confused and scared.

Krezagon was quiet for a short moment, but just as Derekl was about to start ridiculing em and calling em a coward, Krezagon said: "Ey didn't do it."

Derekl violently grabbed Krezagon by the arm ey was holding over eir stomach and pulled em closer. "So maybe YOU did it, you useless piece of meat! Though I don't think you're really meat either, because even meat alone is more useful than you! Any kind of meat!" With that, Derekl slowly stabbed Krezagon rather deep in eir arm and made a large, deep wound.

"Iiiaaaaargh!" Krezagon shook and did all ey could to not start fighting. Ey heard some shuffling in front of em and behind Derekl. Derekl suddenly let go of Krezagon, and Krezagon took three steps back, now holding eir chest and arm.

The captain turned at Krezagon. "Your opinion is heard. Go to your tent, ankod."

Krezagon would have wanted to say many things, among them the fact that eir wounds needed to be tied, but the captain obviously waited for em to leave. "Yes, sogewa," mumbled Krezagon and walked away, still shaking.

Krezagon went to eir tent and tried to stop the bleeding, ending up tying eir wounds a bit shoddily with the bandages ey had. Ey thought ey should wait until the discussions were over and then ask the medic to stitch the wounds better. Ey walked around a bit, very nervous, worrying about Tegafel and rubbing eir stingy wounds. Eventually ey settled down to lie on the ground to watch the sun go down. The weather was slightly cloudy, but the sun could be seen and it going down made the sky quite colorful. Torches and other lights were lit in the camp.

Krezagon lay on the ground for a fairly long time before anything happened. What did happen was footsteps coming closer, and when Krezagon turned eir head to see what was coming, ey saw Derekl, walking angrily toward em. The ankod became agitated immediately and startled before getting up.

Derekl did not even call for attention. "You useless piece of rotten wood!" Ey kept on slinging insults while ey grabbed Krezagon by the wounded arm and made the ankod whimper. Derekl pushed Krezagon around, trying to make em fall and did not let em run away. Krezagon fell down a few times. Ey tried to escape as well, and after ey had almost succeeded, Derekl caught em more firmly and grabbed eir crotch.

"Silence, prosht!" Derekl groped Krezagon and ignored the ankod's pleas to stop. Krezagon's crotch a bit and stuffed eir hand deeper. Ey was holding Krezagon's arm with eir other hand, but let go and instead grabbed the ankod's buttock.

Krezagon was very disturbed. Ey did not dare to do anything to Derekl in fear of getting executed, and ey stared getting slightly tearful. "Soni, please stop," ey asked.

"No I won't! I don't even see how you care! It's not like this would FEEL like anything to YOU, you useless slave!"

"You're just saying that." Derekl squeezed Krezagon's crotch, making the ankod grimace in pain and suppress a groan. The nikod let go of Krezagon's behind and smacked em in the face. Krezagon stumbled a bit and Derekl let go of em, but caught em before ey could even try to run. After a few insults and some shaking, Derekl grabbed Krezagon's shirt and pulled down forcefully, tearing it off.

Derekl discarded the torn cloth like it was air and grabbed Krezagon by eir hair. Krezagon could not help but bring both eir hands to hold Derekl's arm to prevent injury, but ey did it in a way that was not restricting the nikod, since it was more likely that Derekl would punish em worse if ey did. Derekl pulled off the bandages as well and pressed eir other hand against Krezagon's chest. "You know, I've heard that even the sexes who don't have breasts can sometimes breastfeed children. But you can't, because you're completely useless. What for do you even have nipples? I know! They're a some sort of mockery to your monument of total uselessness!" The nikod squeezed one of Krezagon's nipples between eir fingers, making the ankod scream.

"Please let me go!" Krezagon shook and again did all ey could to keep emself from attacking Derekl.

"You want to go, do you?! Not so fast, you prosht." Derekl looked around and yelled at the first people ey saw: "Hey! You three! Come over here." The two nikods and one nigekod jogged over while Derekl grabbed Krezagon's arms. "Hm... okay, you, go get a whip. Let's go over there." The three soldiers were obviously quite delighted in getting a chance to partake in some torture. Krezagon put up a namely resistance while the two soldiers and the sergeant dragged em to the edge of the camp where there was an almost vertical rock formation. Once there, the two soldiers grabbed Krezagon's arms and even restricted eir legs. Now Krezagon might have not been able to get away even if ey had to, so ey went fairly quiet. Ey stared at Derekl, scared. Derekl stepped very uncomfortably close to Krezagon and then moved both eir hands to grab the ankod's behind. Krezagon made a desperately uneasy face, and Derekl obviously enjoyed it. Ey continued groping Krezagon's private parts until the soldier who ey had sent to get a whip returned. Derekl moved some distance back and instructed the two soldiers to do the same. Krezagon could not help but submit, so ey pulled down eir suspenders, moved eir hair to the front and was about to turn. "Don't turn, Shynderfolter!" One of the soldiers laughed. "I'm going to whip your useless corpse from the front." The soldiers were fascinated.

"You better cover your useless face, you prosht!" Derekl prepared to fling the whip.

Krezagon agonized for two seconds before ey covered eir face completely with eir arms and tensed eir body. When the first whiplash came, ey screamed and bent. As soon as ey had straightened emself, the second whiplash struck em neatly in the wound Derekl had cut earlier. It also went across Krezagon's nipple, which was that much more painful. Krezagon screamed again and stumbled because of the pain. It took em a bit more time to get upright and ey tried to delay it, but did not risk Derekl whipping em totally randomly like the nikod threatened, so ey straightened again and the whip struck em on the lower belly. Krezagon whimpered and heard that Derekl walked toward em again, having handed the whip to the third soldier. The two other guards came to Krezagon as well, and this time Krezagon put some more resistance in being restricted but did not hurt the other soldiers.

Derekl held Krezagon by the chin and saw the few tears that the ankod had in eir eyes and face. "Gzoozing coward of a child! Weren't you taught that soldiers don't cry, prosht?!" Krezagon jerked eir head away and let out a sob disguised as a cough. Derekl quickly grabbed eir hair and pulled on it. Krezagon grimaced and tried to do whatever the sergeant wanted. Ey listened to yet another list of insults and profanities, and Derekl thought it would be a great idea to pull open the wound on Krezagon's chest as well as the whiplashes.

After eir wounds had been through some more violence, Krezagon was shaking fairly much. Ey was leaning eir head back in order to prevent the others from seeing just how badly ey was weeping. Derekl had gotten bored with pulling on Krezagon's wounds, so ey pulled on the ankod's hair again and got eir final bright idea. "You know, hair that long is just about as useless in the army as you are." Derekl turned to the one who was not holding Krezagon. "Do you have knife?"

The nikod reached to eir belt, but noticed that ey did not have one. "Sorry, I don't. I left it in my tent, soni..."

"Hm well. Take this," said Derekl and handed the soldier eir own knife. "Now, cut eir hair off."

The soldier grinned widely and got to work. Derekl's knife was not exactly in the sharpest condition, so it took fairly long to get Krezagon's hair short. It did not even succeed too well, since hair could not be cut very short with such a dull knife. Krezagon's scalp just hurt, but it was not the kind that would make em groan, so ey kept quiet, though tears certainly fell down eir face. Eir hair was the only beautiful part of eir body.

After the cutting was over, Krezagon had a bad headache and a terrible haircut. The other soldiers laughed, and Derekl spat out some more of eir unoriginal insults. Finally, Derekl just spat at Krezagon's face and the guards let em fall down on the ground. They walked away.

The sergeant further insulted Krezagon, tore eir shirt, whipped em from the front and cut off eir hair, all of which took quite a while. No one either noticed or cared.

Krezagon spent some time crying on the ground, but got up eventually and went into the infirmary tent. The medic was not there, so ey turned the light on, sat on the ground and wept some more.

Eventually the medic saw the light and came to the tent. Fronsel looked down at Krezagon, seeming expressionless, but then just helped the ankod up, cleaned eir wounds, stitched the one on eir arm and bandaged that as well as the one on eir chest.

Fronsel held Krezagon's shoulder while the ankod just drooped eir head. The nigekod mumbled at no one: "This is just ridiculous..." Ey turned to look at Krezagon and now focused on the torn hair rather than eir beaten body. "You know, I could cut that hair of yours a bit more properly. That just won't work..." Krezagon was quiet. "Would you like that?"

Krezagon was a bit surprised to hear the medic asking, but managed to say: "Yes, I would, sonige." Eir voice was somewhat weak and coarse. Fronsel picked up scissors and a small cover with which ey covered Krezagon's shoulders. Having done that, ey spent some time making Krezagon's hair look fairly decent again. Krezagon managed to enjoy the gentle way in which the medic touched eir head.

Fronsel finished eventually and stood still for a moment. "It's a shame, really... you had nice hair. Then again, it will grow back of course."

Krezagon sighed and nodded. They did not say much more. Fronsel left off again and Krezagon had a small snack before wandering off into eir tent. Ey did not have a shirt anymore and ey did not know whether ey could go ask if ey could get a new one. Ey fingered eir knife and thought about Tegafel. The captain and the others had said that homehans were planning to execute Tegafel at noon, but they had seemed adamant about getting it delayed until a thorough investigation had been completed. Krezagon thought ey would just follow the situation, and if it seemed like Tegafel would be executed, ey would fight and do all ey could to free em. Ey wanted to sleep and forget what had been done to em.

15. (Krezagon) Will I die? 3110

Krezagon could not sleep, however. Ey was in pain and very depressed, so ey kept on playing with eir knife. However, ey heard some footsteps outside and it sounded like they were getting closer. Adrenaline raced through Krezagon's body and ey put the knife away and stayed still, as if sleeping, so as to seem very calm and non-offensive. However, doing that did not prevent Derekl from opening Krezagon's tent.

"Wakey!" the nikod shouted. Krezagon startled and looked up, afraid of what would follow. Derekl smirked and said something to what seemed to be another person outside the tent. Having done that, Derekl stuffed emself into the tent.

"Right, and this is your camp. Ha!" Derekl proceeded to hurt and humiliate Krezagon. The sergeant put em through some considerable mental and physical violence. Ey pulled the blanket off Krezagon and grabbed the ankod's shoulder. Ey then loomed over Krezagon, pressing down on the shoulder. "I'm guessing not much people have been in this tent. It smells like... you. Pew..." Krezagon had no idea what the sergeant thought ey was doing. Krezagon just lay still and did not say or do anything. Derekl grabbed em by the chin. "Got your hair cut, huh?"

"The medic." Derekl did not answer anything to that. Ey fingered Krezagon's throat, which obviously made the ankod nervous and worried. "Soni, could you leave?"

"What? I just got here!" Derekl grabbed Krezagon's wrists and moved emself over the ankod. Krezagon was startled and scared. Derekl enjoyed seeing eir expression. Krezagon looked away. "Embarrassed, eh? How's this feel for you? Confused?" Krezagon was quiet and did not look at Derekl. "Answer."

"Hah! Disrespectful!" Derekl snickered. "Shows what you know! Useless ignorant child!" Derekl pressed eir genitals against Krezagon's crotch, making the ankod wriggle. Krezagon felt very uneasy. Derekl was delighted. "And how do you like THAT?"

"Disrespectful ey says! Do you expect respect? For someone as utterly useless as YOU?"

Derekl was slightly taken aback, but in an amused manner. "Not useless, eh? Hah hah! As if! You're the epitome of uselessness! You can't do ANYTHING!" Derekl pushed eir body down harder and squeezed Krezagon's wrists so hard that it hurt. It was not too much of a pain, though, so Krezagon just grimaced.

Derekl laughed and tried to kiss Krezagon, who just kept turning eir face away. "Stop turning away!" Krezagon left eir head sideways. "Turn your face this way." After Krezagon had done that, Derekl kissed em. "Have you ever done that before, huh?"

"Ey didn—" Krezagon could not even finish saying it before Derekl had punched em on the face. Ey let out a slightly muffled scream.

"Heh, imagine that! Double the uselessness! How does it feel like anyway? Is it just nice to get touched a little, eh?" Krezagon just stared at the nikod. "Huh?" Derekl smiled evilly and started stroking and fondling Krezagon's face and neck. Krezagon frowned and looked away—the stroking should have felt nice and it would have, had the circumstances been different. Of course that fact made it worse when Derekl inquired more: "So, how's it feel like."

Derekl laughed. "Figures!" Derekl spent a moment prodding and poking Krezagon's head, which felt unpleasant and embarrassing. "Say, when exactly did you realize that you were never going to be anything but a useless crazy prosht?"

Derekl laughed once again. "Still in denial! You're crazier than you tell! But at least you haven't completely lost it, like some... Where I'm from, there was this useless ankod nutwit that was completely groshjed up. When ey wasn't in prison, ey sneaked around at night, stole paper and ate it. Ey tried to mutilate children twice and that was when ey was executed. I got to hang em myself! And the world was immediately a better place!"

Krezagon was desperately angry. Ey did not want to talk or explain, but ey also wanted to tell Derekl that crazy and useless was not what ankods were. "I've met two ankods before. They were both gardeners, they weren't crazy at all, just sad because so few accepted them. They did honest work and did it well."

Annoyed, Derekl poked Krezagon in the eye lightly, making the ankod protect eir eyes, and then leaned on eir chest with one elbow. Krezagon shouted in pain, afraid that the elbow would crack eir ribs. After it was fairly clear that Krezagon's ribcage was tougher than the pressure created by Derekl's elbow and a part of eir weight, Derekl started explaining, with devotion, what exactly Krezagon was missing since the ankod could not have children and how useless it was. Krezagon just listened and felt bad. When Derekl was done, ey asked: "So...?" Krezagon was quiet. Ey did not want to say anything. "Hey, you prosht! Speak when spoken to!"

Krezagon was suddenly struck silent, but then figured that there was no way out of it. "...You'll beat me anyway."

"Yeah, right." Without saying anything more, Derekl sat on Krezagon's stomach and started pounding em. After a while, the nikod stopped and looked down at the bleeding ankod.

"Then hm..." Derekl had forgotten why exactly ey had started beating Krezagon and it took a while for em to remember. "So tell me how do you feel about being so gzoozing useless."

Krezagon just made something up that ey thought would please the sergeant. "I don't think about it most of the time. When I do, I'm sad..." Ey realized that it was actually true up to a point. "But I'm not useless. I'm good at what I CAN do! Even the captain said I'm good." Krezagon started sounding defensive.

"Hah! Hah! Either you totally imagined that because you're a nutwit, or then that gewakod just pitied you so much! Or you're a big gzoozing liar!" Derekl laughed and pressed Krezagon's head down at the ground.

After a moment, Krezagon thought to ask the nikod leave again. "Soni..." Ey did not finish the plea, though, since ey figured that if ey asked, Derekl would just stay that much longer.

Derekl slapped Krezagon on the face and then moved off of the ankod. Glaring at the half-naked body in front of em, ey grinned and said: "Take off your pants." Krezagon knew better than to resist by now, so ey just complied. Derekl moved eir hand to Krezagon's crotch and groped em a bit. Krezagon just tried to not care. Eventually Derekl moved close to eir feet and wanted to see what ey had between eir legs. Again, Krezagon complied and mostly wanted to lose consciousness. Ey leaned eir head back and covered eir face with eir hands.

Some time later, Derekl got bored with playing with the ankod's crotch. Ey lay on top of Krezagon again and held em by the wrists. Krezagon was very sad. Derekl enjoyed it and kissed Krezagon again. Krezagon did not even try to resist this time. Derekl seemed amused and said: "Have you ever tried to have sex?"

Derekl amused emself by groping Krezagon a bit more violently. Krezagon had a hard time not resisting, so eventually ey brought eir hands to push the nikod by the chest. Ey did not push Derekl off, though, and the sergeant did not seem to mind too much. After a moment, Derekl stopped groping Krezagon and held em by the shoulders before lying down next to em and simultaneously turning em to eir side as well. Krezagon had a chance to turn away, so ey did and turned eir back at Derekl. Derekl grabbed Krezagon's shoulder but eir attention was momentarily drawn to the very ugly, long since healed gash on the ankod's back.

Krezagon could not wait anymore. Eir voice faltered a bit and ey said: "Soni, could you please leave me alone now?"

Derekl let out a short laugh and pulled a finger down Krezagon's back to eir crotch before hugging the ankod to emself. Derekl moved eir other hand to Krezagon's crotch again from the front, and after having gotten bored with it, started fondling Krezagon's face again.

"Getting angry now, are we?" snapped Derekl and tried to turn Krezagon around again, but Krezagon finally put up some resistance and Derekl failed. Instead, Derekl started beating Krezagon's arms and back furiously. "You insubordinate prosht! Getting all resisting now are you?! I could have your useless corpse executed!" Derekl lay on top of Krezagon's back and looked at the ankod's face. Krezagon was weeping. "You're crying?! You cowardly BRAT!" Derekl tried to turn Krezagon again, and succeeded this time, because Krezagon's arms were hurting. They ended up lying on their sides, facing each other. Derekl was holding onto Krezagon's other wrist and squeezing eir ribcage with the other. Krezagon was holding the front of Derekl's shirt.

"Tortured!" Derekl spat out, mockingly. Ey kneed Krezagon in the crotch and the ankod screamed. "There's some reason for you to cry about, you useless piece of rotten wood!" Krezagon tried to curl up and rub eir crotch, but Derekl would not let em. Some tears ran down eir face. Derekl tore off most of the bandages, shouted some more insults at em and eventually shouted angrily: "For once you can thank the gods and your ancestors that you're an ankod, because otherwise I'd rape your gzoozing useless corpse!" Derekl hit Krezagon on the hips and rear end while twisting eir hurt arm. Krezagon whimpered and tried to suppress all the sobs. However, after a few spanks, Derekl's eyes lit up, ey stopped hitting Krezagon and instead took eir face close to Krezagon's. "You know what? I CAN rape your useless corpse. And I will do it!" Krezagon whimpered and did not think Derekl was serious. Derekl twisted Krezagon's arms a bit and then held them with one hand while ey dropped eir trousers and took out a condom. Ey took eir face close to the ankod again and whispered suggestively: "See, a gogenjin isn't the only hole that's big enough for screwing..."

Now Krezagon figured what Derekl meant. "WHAT?! — No! No! Soni... please! Please! No!"

"Shut the groshje up!" Krezagon continued pleading and trying to turn, and when ey almost succeeded, Derekl hit em in the mouth with the hilt of eir sword. Krezagon felt a tooth come loose and screamed because of the pain. Blood flowed from eir mouth. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Krezagon managed to cry quieter, and in the meantime Derekl set em into a position. Krezagon was on the ground on eir knees and arms, with Derekl behind em.

It took some time for Derekl to get eir goninjin into Krezagon, and when ey did, Krezagon cried and trembled in pain. Derekl had eir way and tore Krezagon's back while ey was at it.

When Derekl finally came, ey clawed Krezagon's shoulders, sinking eir nails into the ankod's flesh. Krezagon screamed louder and fell down as Derekl crashed on top of em. Derekl lay there for a while and did nothing, all the while Krezagon cried and tried eir best to suppress it since ey did not want Derekl to beat em one bit more. Derekl discarded the used condom somewhere in Krezagon's tent, turned and shoved the ankod around a bit, groping, and gave a final tearing strike at Krezagon's chest before getting out and leaving.

After a long time, when Derekl finally seemed to be done, ey came up with yet another atrocity. Ey hit Krezagon with the hilt of eir sword, knocking out a tooth, and raped em. Then the nikod finally left.

Krezagon cried for several more minutes and tried to sleep, but the pain was intolerable. Ey got up, wrapped emself in the dirty blanket ey had bled on and and wobbled off toward the infirmary tent. Expectedly, the medic was not there, so Krezagon lit the little lamp in the tent, sat down, curled up and cried some more.

It took some more time since it was very late, but the medic finally made it to the tent. When ey saw Krezagon, ey stopped dead in eir tracks, went pale, suppressed an exclamation of surprise and was momentarily quite confused. Ey then grabbed the lamp and took it down with em while ey crouched next to Krezagon and lifted the blood-stained blanket.

Ey was speechless. "In the name of Koimel..." ey whispered eventually. Ey was still pale and touched Krezagon's head with a shaking hand. "I'll... I'll take care of you..." Having said that, the medic left for a while and came back with water and a soldier who ey told to start heating water in a cauldron. Ey took out the bed in the tent and took in a bench that was lower than the table and two chairs in the tent. Ey then got some of eir tools and substances before having Krezagon lie on the bench. "I'll take care of your head and face first... it's more efficient to work from top down." Ey examined Krezagon's head and noticed the bad injury on eir cheek. Krezagon flinched when ey touched it. "Uh... are you... did you have a tooth knocked off?"

"Yeh," mumbled Krezagon. A bit of blood dripped down when ey opened eir mouth. "It's... not completely... it's still hanging by some thread."

Fronsel grimaced. "Uh... I'm going to pull it out." Ey took a pair of tongs and Krezagon just opened eir mouth. It took some stretching and groaning, but eventually Fronsel could see the loose tooth and get the tongs around it. Ey then pulled it out quickly, making Krezagon cry out in pain and bleed fairly profusely from eir mouth. Krezagon held eir mouth for a while and swallowed all the blood. Meanwhile, Fronsel fixed a drink of some kind. "I'm sorry... Uh, here. This is a drug that will make you numb and groggy and you won't feel the pain anymore." Fronsel helped Krezagon up and then had em drink the thing. "It'll take a while for it to work... But put this in your mouth where the tooth was and bite it down. It'll suppress the bleeding." Krezagon did as ey was told and squeezed out a few tears of pain when the small mass of cloth pressed against the hurting gum.

Fronsel spent some time cleaning up the blood and tying the wounds on Krezagon's face. Ey was still pale and seemed to be extra careful with eir work for whatever reason. When ey was done with Krezagon's face, the ankod was already pretty numb. "Are you feeling better now?"

Fronsel moved on to Krezagon's upper body. There were no new wounds on the arms, so the medic settled for cleaning them and tying up the older wound again. Krezagon's shoulders and torso took some more work, but it was done eventually. Krezagon's legs were not wounded, so Fronsel just washed the blood that had flowed down off of them. That was when ey noticed that Krezagon seemed to be bleeding from eir rear as well. "Wait a minute... are you...? You're bleeding... from..."

Krezagon took a slightly exaggerated and uncoordinated look at eir crotch and saw the thin stream of blood that mixed with the water that dripped along eir legs. "I... Derekl... ey... ey ...raped me."

Fronsel's mouth and eyes opened quite wide. "...R-raped? Raped you?... But... but you... it's not... isn't it...?"

It took a while for the realization sunk in and the medic shivered with disgust. "By the GODS!" shouted Fronsel.

"Um? Sonige?" came a voice from the outside. It was the soldier who had been obeying whatever orders the medic had given em.

"Yes, oh... uh, I'm... I'm fine." Ey turned back to Krezagon and was quiet for a moment. "Um... Wait a moment..." Fronsel searched for something and eventually wetted a little piece of cloth material with some liquid. "Here... uh, just hold this where you're bleeding... it will help it get cleaner and stop the bleeding. I'll go get your clothes... they're in your tent, right?"

Fronsel was a bit confused for a short moment, but left. Ey went to Krezagon's tent, taking a bucket of water with em. The tent smelled of blood. Fronsel moved out Krezagon's waterproof blanket and eir trousers and then spent a few minutes cleaning the tent. Fortunately Krezagon had mostly bled on eir other blanket and the tent was fairly easily cleaned.

The medic headed back then and had Krezagon dress up before covering eir upper body with a small blanket. They exited the tent and Fronsel instructed the soldier to move the tent a bit so that it would be on dry ground. Fronsel led Krezagon to the inventory and had em wait a moment while ey went to get the person who was responsible for the inventory.

The inventory caretaker was fairly disgruntled, but shut up and went pale at seeing Krezagon. After that, ey pretty much just handed Krezagon one of the better shirts in stock and gave em a new blanket as well.

They went back to the tent and Fronsel helped the soldier move the rest of the tent. When it was done, the soldier left.

"You can sleep in the infirmary tent's bed... I guess it's more comfortable than your tent. I cleaned your tent a bit, by the way," said Fronsel.

"Well, let's go in." The two went in and Krezagon was a bit slow in getting horizontal. After that was done, however, ey fell asleep as soon as ey had gotten into a comfortable position. Fronsel then just settled for covering eir body with the blankets and went back to sleep.

16. (Krezagon) I dreamed 4077

Krezagon woke up somewhat late in the morning. Ey had not been disturbed and the bed was comfortable. Ey was hurting a lot, though, and did not want to move. Ey slumbered for one more hour and when ey next regained a relatively conscious state, ey smelled food. Ey painfully turned in the bed and saw a very decent portion of breakfast sitting on the chair. Krezagon smiled somewhat weakly and got up, setting the breakfast on the table. Ey spent a while taking care of the small wounds the medic had not been able to bandage and finally removed the small piece of cloth from eir mouth. The place where the tooth had been was not an open wound anymore, but the cloth pulled a scab out of eir cheek, making it bleed a little. Ey did not care about that and instead sat down to eat.

After having eaten, Krezagon went outside and slowly walked around a bit. The fresh air made em feel better and ey went to inspect eir tent. First ey wondered who had been there, but then recalled that the medic told to have cleaned it a bit. Krezagon was happy and rearranged eir stuff back the way it should be. Ey got eir shoes, went to get eir new blanket from the infirmary tent and took it to eir own tent.

Krezagon walked some more and ended up lying on the ground, relaxing. However, once ey was immobile, the events of last night started getting to em and ey became rather sad. Ey tried to keep the tears down, but did not really succeed.

People started doing work in the camp—it seemed like they were building rudimentary houses now. Krezagon probably should have gone there and helped, but ey was not really in a condition to do anything, so ey just rested. The noise of the working blocked out many sounds and when Krezagon noticed that someone was standing next to em, ey startled fairly badly and sat up. The one who had sneaked up to em was the captain.

Before Krezagon could really do or say anything, the captain crouched next to em and said: "Krezagon, right?"

Krezagon was slightly surprised. "...Yes, sogewa." Ey did not look at the captain.

"Well... yes, yes I am." Krezagon turned eir face away and a few tears dropped down. The captain did not do anything for a short moment, but then put eir hand on Krezagon's shoulder. Ey also took eir other hand to Krezagon's chin and gently turned the ankod's teary face toward eir own. Krezagon eventually lifted eir gaze as well and actually looked at the captain. The gewakod was not exactly formally dressed—eir shirt was open and eir captain's headpiece was missing. The captain looked somewhat sad and let go of Krezagon's chin.

Krezagon turned eir face away again and was quiet. Ey did not really know what to think of this discussion. Just when the captain was about to say something, ey said: "I suppose even a fairly miserable life is better than death or a life in prison where torture is expected, sogewa..."

The captain rubbed Krezagon's shoulder a little bit. "Yes, I suppose so. When Derekl hurt you after you had defended your friend, I saw that you almost took your knife. You had a lot of chances to restrain em."

"Did ey... You know, Fronsel said something that Derekl had ...raped you. Ey didn't tell me... uh..."

"How Derekl did it?" Krezagon sniffed. "Everyone has a crevice there where a goninjin will fit... or would fit..."

The captain was fairly shocked. Ey did not say anything for a while. "I'm... I'm amazed." Ey fingered Krezagon's shoulder for a while and then got up. Ey said very decisively: "Derekl will be punished for this and everything else ey's done to you. Would you like to be there when I tell em that?" Ey offered eir hand to Krezagon.

Krezagon was now amazed as well. Finally there was some sense of justice in the world. "Y-yes, captain." Krezagon took the captain's hand and the gewakod pulled em up. They walked to the captain's tent, where the captain told one of the guards to get Derekl.

The captain closed eir shirt, got eir headpiece and had one of eir assistants dig up contracts, but Krezagon did not pay too much attention to that. Krezagon waited eagerly to see Derekl's face when ey would be told ey would be punished for what ey had done. It took a few minutes for Derekl and the guard to get there. The captain had Krezagon stand on the side and said: "Do you have to be told to stand to attention, Derekl?"

Derekl quickly produced the attention stance and greeted the captain. "What is the ankod doing here?"

"Do not ask questions. You will be quiet unless I explicitly ask for you to answer." After an ominous pause, the captain continued: "You have tortured soldier Krezagon for your own sick amusement. That is a punishable deed and as of now, you are stripped of your sergeant status and subject to imprisonment. If you resist, you will be brought before a court and sentenced to serve a fitting time in prison for your crimes. If you do not resist, you will be punished and demoted to the rank of a regular soldier."

Krezagon grinned with happiness. Derekl's face was worth the pain that still ran through eir body.

At that point, Derekl jumped right at Krezagon. As soon as the captain saw it, ey said: "Restrain the prisoner, soldier." The whole thing was over in two seconds, with Krezagon having the nikod face down in a wristlock and sitting on top of em. The captain smiled surprisedly. "Excellent work, soldier." The guards arrived. "Guards, take prisoner Derekl, strip em and tie em to a log. You will stay with em to guard em. Punish em if ey speaks even one word." Krezagon got off of the nikod and the guards took em away. Derekl was completely furious.

Krezagon smiled widely, and the captain obviously noticed it. "Your and eir faces were brilliant. Say, would you like to come up with some punishments for Derekl? I thought that would be only fitting."

"Come present your thoughts by tomorrow at the last then. Preferably today, though."

"Understood, captain." Krezagon was about to turn and leave, but seeing the light outside as well as the mention of tomorrow made em think of Tegafel. Ey went nervous. "May I ask about one thing?"

"Oh, yes. Actually, it went a bit weird... the homehans sent a message early in the morning, saying that ey had escaped from the prison cell. The homehans are thinking that a falangezka helped em escape. They have no idea how, but they don't know about far-walkers anyway." Krezagon looked fairly astonished. "At least that means ey won't be executed so soon. I didn't really believe ey had murdered that homehan anyway. But why would a falangezka help em?" The two looked somewhat confused. "Well, it's not that immediate problem anymore. If you have no further questions, you may leave."

Krezagon went outside and walked around happily. It seemed like Tegafel was at least somewhat safe, Derekl had just been disgraced and imprisoned and Krezagon had some new, decent equipment. Krezagon eventually ended up watching Derekl at the place where ey was tied down. Derekl attempted to insult Krezagon, but was struck silent by the guards. Krezagon just smiled. While ey was there, ey started thinking about punishments and came up with the best idea ever. Ey was unsure of whether the captain would approve of it, but figured that it would be worth a try.

At some point, the medic came to the place where Krezagon was sitting and smiled at seeing Derekl restrained. Ey touched Krezagon lightly on the shoulder and Krezagon turned toward em. "Are you feeling better now?"

Krezagon managed a small smile. "Yes. I'm still hurting, but my spirit is feeling good now." While saying that, Krezagon turned back to watch Derekl.

Fronsel smiled. "Yes, I can see." Ey was quiet for a while. "Come find me when you want your bandages changed. Some of your wounds were bleeding rather badly, so the bandages might need change more often than once in a day."

The medic left and Krezagon sat still for some more time before ey thought that ey was content with the punishments ey had come up with. Ey got up and went to the captain. The captain was arranging some papers with an assistant. Krezagon greeted em.

"Since ey was so gleefully making me feel bad about not being able to reproduce, I thought it would be only fitting to have em suffer the same fate. You know my so-called family name, captain? I got it from the squad I was born in. They had suffered some torture in the hands of karangals and nakrans..."

"You know, that is disgusting, but a delightfully fitting punishment for Derekl." The captain grinned. "Quite novel, I must say. Anything else?"

"Well, other than that I thought a thorough whipping and some wounds on eir face and hands would be fine."

Krezagon shivered. "Uhm, I don't really like that. And I figured ey would still be useful as a soldier one day. Or then a slave. Though maybe ey could use to lose a finger or a toe..."

The captain seemed quite content. "Sounds fine. You know, I thought you'd come to me with a huge list of atrocities but instead you had a great new idea and a little of the usual stuff. You're decent and..." The captain stopped that short. "Anyway, the team that you're a part of, you people from Ailanihi, you're without a sergeant now and you need a new one. I could have one of my sergeants to take charge or divide you into other squads, but I think you'd be better off with your own. I thought I'd promote the gewakod, but ey's too young for that. Actually most of them are a bit too young for it except that square-faced nikod, but I don't really think ey'd be a good sergeant. I've seen em glaring at the homehan eikods and ey always asks for border guard duty." Krezagon made an amused grin. "The main point is that I don't know the squad. So I'm asking you: which one of you would be a good sergeant?" The captain smiled. Krezagon thought for a while, but the captain spoke again before ey could say anything. "How about YOU?"

"Yes, you. Do you think you would be up to leading a squad? Or one third of it, in this case."

Krezagon thought about it for a while. Ey was either the oldest or second oldest of the squad and had seen much action during eir life. No one had ever even considered that ey could be promoted. Maybe the captain suggested it because the others were fairly clearly unfitting sergeants, but then again ey could have just given the job to someone ey knew would do a good job, even if that particular person would not know the other soldiers. Krezagon shook the thoughts off for the moment. Ey knew ey was able to do it and wanted the chance. "Yes, captain, I'd be happy to take on the job. I believe I will do fine. Better than Derekl at the least."

The captain smirked. "Good, sergeant Krezagon!" The captain walked to eir desk and took out a paper. Eir assistant was pretty much staring at Krezagon with an open mouth. "Yrtel, I appreciate you catching flies in your mouth." The assistant shook a bit and closed eir mouth. The captain modified Krezagon's contract to indicate that the ankod was now a sergeant. "Hmh... your signature is missing."

The captain looked at the contract some more. "And this is not a proper name for a person, either." The captain pointed at Krezagon's so-called family name. "As long as I'm making changes, I might as well authorize a name change. You don't have any other documents of yourself, do you?"

"Well then, let's change this name of yours! Do you need some time to think up a fitting one?"

Krezagon thought for a moment. When ey was younger, ey had often dreamed of having eir name changed and had come up with some alternatives that ey would have wanted. However, that had been a long time ago and Krezagon had since tried to get used to the idea that eir name was not going to change. Ey did remember some of the criteria ey had had for eir name back then, however. "No, captain. I used to think about it when I was younger, I should remember one..." The captain approved and instead started copying the current contract, leaving the name field empty for now. Krezagon tried to recall eir thoughts and eventually said: "Korielter."

The captain smiled a bit and wrote Krezagon's name on the contracts. "You should sign them."

"Yes, captain." Krezagon stepped toward the desk and was about to grab the pen when ey suddenly stopped. Ey seemed hesitant.

The captain figured that Krezagon wanted the assistant gone. "Could you step out for a moment, Yrtel?" The assistant left and the captain turned to look at Krezagon, curiously.

"I... I can do almost anything else with my right hand as well, but writing... I can't."

The captain was quiet for a moment. Ey obviously doubted emself and eir decisions now. "You know, I watched you cut down those trees yesterday and didn't realize it. But you do use your left hand more." The captain looked a bit troubled. "But whatever. I didn't really believe those tales about left-handed people being proshts or crippled anyway. You are smart to hide it, too." Ey offered the pen at Krezagon's left hand.¹

"Thank you, captain." Krezagon took the pen and wrote eir names on the contracts, quite neatly. Ey also saw the name of eir place of birth: Erionteh, in the county of Rageš, in the nation of Gekkyila. Ey stared at the piece of text for a while—Krezagon had not even been born in Kervanela.

"T-thank you." Krezagon was quiet for a moment, while the captain put down something in a book. What Krezagon saw, it seemed to be a listing of things that had been accomplished in the camp. When ey was done, Krezagon started: "Captain, I'm... I'm really grateful for all this stuff... everything that you've done for me here. I thought I would never make it even this far. Thank you so much."

The captain smiled and got up after having arranged eir papers into a pile. "You're welcome. People have told me that I'm great at reading other people. You're smart, loyal to your friends and superiors, obey commands and you have great self control. I saw no reason why I shouldn't reward that or take advantage of it. And well, it's not hard to guess that you've been through some serious groshje. Being compensated feels fairly nice, doesn't it?"

Krezagon smiled fairly widely. "Yes, it does. Thank you, captain." Ey made a honoring genuflection one rarely saw used in the army—it was much more common among royalty and the likes.

The captain was a little flattered. "Great manners as well." Ey grinned and gave Krezagon's shoulder a single light pat. "Let's go get you sergeant bracers. And some shoes," the captain added as ey glanced down and saw what rags Krezagon had on eir feet. They left the tent.

Krezagon walked after the captain, smiling very widely and having a great mood. Ey was a person who lived in the present and only gave thought to the future or past when explicitly thinking about them, so ey was happy and did not think that this would probably be the best thing that ey would ever experience with respect to the army.

The person responsible for the inventory looked at the captain and Krezagon fairly curiously. The captain just went: "A pair of sergeant bracers for em. And shoes." The nigekod stared at the captain for a while, then seemed to forget what ey was supposed to do, turned at the shelves of stuff, and finally turned back at Krezagon and went: "Um... show me your old shoes." Krezagon took eir shoes off and put them on the counter. The nigekod stared at them for a while with an amused expression. "Um... okay, it was about time. Heh..." Ey picked out sergeant bracers from a small box and then shoes from a row. "Try those on..."

Krezagon put the shoes on. "These are a bit too snug..." Ey gave them back to the nigekod.

The nigekod looked at the captain for a few seconds before putting the first shoes back and taking out another pair, which was slightly different—they were better quality than normal shoes.

Meanwhile, Krezagon had put on the bracers and grinned widely at seeing them around eir wrists. Ey then put on the next pair of shoes, and they fitted. "These are good."

The captain looked toward the working soldiers. "Hm. I don't know where the rest of your squad is, but I suspect they will come for dinner at some point. Tell the cook and eir guard to inform them where to meet after it so you can disclose the news. Tell me the time as well, I want to see their faces, and it might be a good idea in case they have some mutinous thoughts." The captain flashed half a grin. "And if the cook won't believe you, just brandish those bracers and make em call you... um... soan?"

"About time it was used more often then. Dismissed," said the captain with a farewell gesture. Krezagon responded and the captain walked away.

The inventory caretaker was fairly astonished. "Well, this whole thing's some blessing in disguise for you..."

Krezagon glanced at the nigekod. "Yeah," ey went, remembering that now ey did not have to use the titles of people of lesser or equal rank. Ey figured ey would do it anyway—it was nice when someone displayed respect, and if it was someone with a higher rank, it felt fairly tingly. "Thank you for the equipment, sonige." The nigekod smiled with some confusion and Krezagon walked away.

Krezagon walked around a bit and got some disbelieving looks as well as comments about eir sergeant bracers. Ey even explained the reasons to one of the soldiers who had held em yesterday and told that the nikod should go and watch what kind of punishment Derekl would receive for eir crime. Some time later one of the two other soldiers hurried toward Krezagon and apologized, almost panicking. Krezagon enjoyed the pleading and finally said that ey would hold no grudge.

The ankod walked to the place where ey had been whipped and found the spot where ey had stood. There was still a little blood on the ground as well as the long strands of hair. Krezagon looked at the hair for a moment and then picked it up. Ey moved away from the place and started twining the hair together until it formed a thick string of some sort. Ey was happy with it and hung it around eir neck.

Ey went to talk to the cook, telling em to give the instructions to the rest of Krezagon's squad to meet at a specified time and place. Having done that, Krezagon walked around a bit more and lied on the ground.

Not too long after ey had lain down on the ground, Krezagon remembered that ey should get the bandages changed, so ey did just that. The medic was fairly astonished at seeing sergeant bracers on Krezagon. Krezagon just grinned.

"Except what with the wounds," grinned the medic and started unwrapping the bandages. "Your back has bled a lot... It'll probably hurt to pull these off."

The medic took off the bandages, cleaned the wounds and rebandaged them. After that, Krezagon wandered around, had dinner and when it was time to inform eir squad of the change of leader, ey went to get the captain, talked with em and eventually the two left for the meeting place.

The five soldiers were gathered together, and when they saw Krezagon and the captain walking toward them, they eyed the pair a bit before lining up. Krezagon hid eir arms behind eir back.

The captain spoke: "Attention!" Everyone, including Krezagon, stood to attention. Krezagon, however, kept eir arms behind eir back. "Now, you may already know that Derekl was imprisoned. That left your squad without a leader, so you need a new one." At that point, the nigekod glanced at the older nikod while all the nikods glanced at the gewakod. The gewakod, then again, looked somewhat astonished and glared at Krezagon. "Smart one," said the captain with a grin and pointed briefly at the gewakod. "Krezagon Korielter is your new sergeant." The captain paused for a moment to look at the faces of the rest of the squad and was very amused. The faces of the others ranged from shocked to aggravated and disappointed, save for the young gewakod, who half grinned with schadenfreude. All of them were quite dumbfounded, however. The tall nikod was about to speak, but the captain made it first: "Mutiny is punishable by torture and imprisonment. Disrespecting your superior is punishable by demotion and whipping. Refer to your superior by eir appropriate title." The captain smiled smugly and finally added: "Don't do anything stupid. Dismissed." Ey walked away.

The squad stood there, fairly stupefied, for a longish moment after the captain had left. Krezagon brought eir hands to eir hips and looked at the others, grinning. The gewakod started fidgeting a little, and after noticing it, the tall nikod said, disbelievingly but not hostilely: "Um... this is a joke, right? A really big joke."

"The captain said something about not being fit for the job of a leader..." They all stared at the older nikod for a while. Everyone knew ey was not the leader type.

"Better get used to it. Come to think of it, I haven't heard you using a title there while speaking to me."

The tall nikod went slightly pale and was quiet, not knowing what to say. The gewakod noticed it and whispered: "Say 'I'm sorry, soan'."

The youngest nikod looked somewhat curious. "Was your name changed or something, soan?"

Krezagon glanced at em a bit dismissively. "Because ey beat me, that's why. In case you hadn't noticed," ey went and pointed at eir cheek. "Anything more?" The others were quiet. "Dismissed, then." Krezagon smiled and walked away.

17. (Tarkavinel) Was it a mistake? 2005

"Okay, that's about it." The prison boss spoke calmingly to the brand new guard as ey signed the working contract. "You know the routine. Guard Greenel will help you a bit with some practicalities. Off you go!"

Darret nodded and left the prison boss's room with the older nikod. "It was 'bout time I got to be on th' right side of this thing." Ey waved eir new shortspear around.

"Don't get too comfortable with it." Greenel was obviously bored to death. "If ya do a lot of malpractice, the boss'll just throw ya back in an' well, ya know how those people end up."

"Anyway, you'll be feeding 'em. Just give each of 'em one portion an' no more. One exception though. See this cell? There're two people there but the other one's always hiding. So ya leave two portions."

"Right." Darret peeked into the cell and saw a gewakod whose right leg was missing. "Errrhhh..." They continued the round.

The next day, Darret left the gewakod with two portions of food. The following days, ey forgot it. After a week, an odd smell caught Darret's nose in the cellblock. The place always smelled of waste and excrement, but this kind of smell was uncommon. Ey did, of course, recognize it since it was obvious.

"Oh really?" remarked Darret's supervisor, sitting in eir chair. "Then go find the body."

The two guards walked down the hallway, checking the cells and making a bad ruckus so that the inmates got animated enough to display their liveliness. They came to the cell where the one-legged gewakod was.

Greenel looked at Darret, very disappointed and managing to look a bit angry, though ey honestly could not have cared less. "Ya gastin' idiot of a prosht! What'd I tell ya?! Two people in th' cell! Leave two portions! Ya've been leaving just one haven't ya? An' now that crazy gekod prosht killed that one because ey wasn't getting eir food. REAL NICE. WELL DONE. Groshje, ey's been dead for a few days! Ey hasn't even been moved! An' you didn't notice anythin'? What're ya, blind?"

"Ey's got one gzoozin' leg! I didn't even know ey could move! An' where th' groshje is that gekod? Gekod? You're a bloody prosht yourself!"

Greenel started walking toward the supervisor's spot, Darret walking worriedly and angrily behind em. "That one-legged gewakod is dead. This gzoozing stupid prosht forgot to feed em."

The supervisor stared at Darret, eir expression going reticent. "Right. Okay, Darret, now tell me why the gast I shouldn't lock you up in that cell where ey died?"

Darret did not reply. Ey thought that everything ey would say would just make it worse. Then ey thought ey could just claim that the gewakod had taken both the food portions and that was why the gekod had killed em. "I... I DID give them two portions." Ey made emself sound very reserved, as if ey had great difficulty saying it because of eir own emotional state. "Ey... that gewakod must've... kept 'em for emself an' that gekod killed em 'cause of that."

"Right." The supervisor did not give any sign of acceptance or disbelief. "Now you two proshts go an' get that filthy body out of there an' take it to the first left wing exit."

Greenel took the cell key and the two left. "Darret, ya gasted bastard." They shoved each other right back to the cell. The prisoners were yelling garbled words and they honestly did not care why or what. Greenel shoved the key into Darret's hand and Darret opened the cell door, looking around for the gekod, holding eir spear at the ready. But honestly, how much could one little gekod—a gekod on top of everything for stars' sake—do?

Darret screamed. While ey and Greenel were with the supervisor, the gewakod's somewhat rotten chest had been torn open and several of eir ribs had been broken off. Darret heard a gargled scream behind em, felt something hard go through eir throat and during the last two seconds that ey lived, ey heard a gekod's voice say: "None of you deserve nothingness." The inmates yelled and shouted.

"Well. Tell me what happened." The jinhaliare, an ambassador and advisor, stood outside the prison with the prison boss. Ey did not want to go inside because the building was too small for em; ey was huge, even for a jinhaliare. Ey had just come from the nearby city, Aolkheine, to check out the situation.

The prison boss shivered in the rain. "Yes, soo. Um, the... the inmates... most of them said that one of the killed guards forgot to give the gekod and eir cellmate enough food. So the gekod killed eir cellmate, and when they went to take away the body, ey attacked, killed all eleven guards on eir way an' ran away."

"And somehow you managed to miss em with bows, too." The prison boss shook eir head. Ey was helpless. "Useless prosht."

"Right. Let's leave." Ey looked at the femehan far-walker who was traveling with em. The prison boss went back inside, relieved that ey had seemingly got away with eir so-called mistake. The jinhaliare and far-walker went into the wagon with which they had come to the place.

The far-walker spoke to the driver: "Back to headquarters." Ey wrapped eir plump body in a blanket. "Soo Drengþ, do you really think that the gekod really went north?"

Drengþ, the jinhaliare, thought that the nigekod far-walker was just annoying em. "I don't need your opinion on that."

At least ey could be polite and respected Drengþ's will even though ey did not know it. Ey was not stupid. Eventually Drengþ got curious, however, and asked: "You may share your opinion now."

The far-walker was quiet for a moment, but then said: "As you know, I studied the gekod's mind and found some memories of falangezkas. I'm quite sure that ey knows that falangezkas are eir only chance of getting out of this with minimal harm for em. Thus, I would say that ey's heading south, to their areas."

Drengþ scoffed. "Really." Ey was quiet the rest of the trip. The far-walker was right nevertheless, and Drengþ had not really even doubted it. A tracker had found the gekod's scent and trail leading south of the prison. Taking along a jinhaliare tracker, Drengþ left with the intentions of catching the gekod.

Two jinhaliare far-walkers had been on the way to interrogate em and draw every piece of information from eir brain—the femehans and their far-walkers had not been able to to draw anything out of em by any means. Despite eir resilience to far-walkers, they had still managed to reproduce an authentic torture scene and the gekod had not broken even when eir limbs had seemingly been removed one at a time. Ey had not even screamed. In fact, the only thing ey thought about was that it was such a miserable and contemptible thing to be happening and that ey wanted to die and start anew in the Spirit Plane. Most people would have already died of terror, shock and loss of will to live, but the gekod seemed to be unable to die like that. Eir body would need to be broken and killed if it was to ever let go of eir spirit. Drugs did not yield results either, even though they did make em see things and seemingly believe that ey was with the rebels and safe. Ey would not speak even then. Very surprising was the fact that no one had been able to manage to extract a fact as simple as the gekod's name.

Drengþ and the tracker Jennəft ran after the gekod for seven days. They were in the forest when they saw em for the first time. The gekod of course ran but the jinhaliares were faster. They all came to the edge of a cliff with a river flowing far down. Without thinking twice, the gekod jumped down. Drengþ ran to the edge and barely distinguished the gekod's face, twisted into an ecstatic smile.

The jinhaliares swore for a short moment and started climbing down. Seeing how the river flowed, the rocks in it and the overall composition, the jinhaliares figured that it was possible that the femehan was alive. They did not find a body, so they started combing the river downstream. After several hours of work, they finally noticed a thin stream of blood and the source of it turned out to be the femehan. Ey was only barely alive, but alive nevertheless. Relieved and yet inconvenienced to find em alive, the jinhaliares reluctantly patched up the femehan and set camp.

The femehan was unconscious for almost a day and the jinhaliares became more inconvenienced by the hour. However, ey did wake up finally and ate and drank without trouble. The jinhaliares found it very strange that ey had jumped off a cliff to an almost certain death, and still ey agreed to eat, even though not eating would end eir life right then and there. Ey did not reply any of their questions, no matter how much they yelled and how badly they threatened. Then they raped em and did not ask any more questions.

They spent over a week on the journey to a specific place and it was not the prison nor Aolkheine, the city close to it. Once they arrived, they got on a wagon and were taken away. The femehan was always kept restrained and the jinhaliares kept on raping em—ey might just as well create some new offspring for them if ey was not going to be otherwise useful.

Drengþ and Jennəft took the femehan gekod to a distant and badly kept femehan village at the edges of some nation whose name did not matter to them. Two jinhaliare far-walkers awaited them there. Once they arrived, Drengþ broke one of the gekod's shins to prevent em from escaping. After that, the far-walkers finally got to work.

Strange as it may have been, even the powerful jinhaliare far-walkers could not retract any information save for the gekod's name: Tarkavinel Airahankio. They broke em in so many ways and yet ey never managed to tell them anything. The more crazy they made em, the less sense ey made. When they finally gave up, Tarkavinel was perfectly delusional and had to be restrained at all times. Even after all the torture and hallucinations, ey did not utter one word, though ey did let out gasps, expressing different, limited and uninterpretable emotions.

The jinhaliares left to discuss the situation further. The femehan lackeys in the village were instructed to keep Tarkavinel alive and less harmed than ey currently was. The village was located close to a hiding place of jinhaliare assassins, so the jinhaliares could keep an eye on em—they did not want to bother with taking care of em. After all, though an extremely curious case, Tarkavinel was not important to them in the least as long as the information in eir head could not be retrieved.

Against everyone's expectations, in a few weeks Tarkavinel started regaining eir sanity. However, since ey did not speak, eir caretakers only noticed it after ey had started staring intently at anyone who raped em. The staring bothered them and they blindfolded em since they had been told that ey should not be permanently harmed.

18. (Krezagon) Mind the journey 3567

Krezagon took part in the meetings of the other sergeants and slept in the newly constructed sergeants' lodge. Ey had not felt that happy in a long while and it showed; ey smiled pretty much all the time. Ey still continued crafting bolts and doing woodwork, but now other people followed it and Krezagon taught them. However, that only lasted for four days.

The homehan and femehan teams that had been sent to retrieve Tegafel and the falangezka came back and had failed. It was decided that it was not worth the effort to use that much resources to find the wakod, but the captain thought that the mystery should be solved. Ey presented the issue in the meeting of sergeants and asked if Krezagon would like to take on the special project. Krezagon agreed, and the only reason was not that ey wanted to see Tegafel again. The other soldiers had a slightly hard time accepting em, so it would be easier to do work just among a small team.

Therefore, the next morning, the captain sent the team of six people off to its extended mission—it might take several years and the captain left the time limit mostly to Krezagon's discretion with the note that if it looked like it will last more than four years, it might be reasonable to just abort the mission. However, finding Tegafel was not the only thing the captain wanted Krezagon to do, and in fact the pursuit was just an excuse for another, more discreet mission. The captain wanted Krezagon to gather information about jinhaliares as well as the femehan rebels; what they seemed to be doing, where and why. Krezagon was not supposed to keep record of it or even really think about it to not seem too suspicious, but rather gather some vague ideas and share them when ey got back.

"Attention!" Krezagon's squad had gotten fairly used to em by now and they stood to attention without thinking twice. "We will be leaving on a mission to retrieve Tegafel Darrelter and the falangezka who apparently helped em to escape. It might take several years... anyway, we'll go from town to town and ask for sightings of the two. Of course we'll act as messengers and investigators while at it to maximize our functions. We'll be given food and shelter from any local army camps or mayors within Kervanela. I plan on getting an international permission so we can cross borders as well. Any questions about the mission?" The soldiers were quiet. "Anything else?"

The soldiers were a bit quiet again, but then the tall nikod, Soripel, went: "Which one of us will have to sleep in your tent? ...Soan."

Krezagon was taken aback and was a bit miffed that they had to ask. Ey did not know what to say, though, and when ey was about to say something, the gewakod, Riyhneon, said: "I will."

"If the rest of you insist on being discriminative cowards..." mumbled Riyhneon suggestively, crossing eir arms on eir chest. The others did not care, though they were a bit miffed at Riyhneon's insults. They all were quiet.

"Go get your equipment. Let's meet at the camp entrance in sixteen minutes and we'll divide the stuff equally between us. Dismissed."

The soldiers dispersed, packed their gear and moved to the camp exit. Once there, they distributed some of the things slightly differently and went to get a few things that they were missing. Krezagon ended up with the heaviest pack and everybody noticed it. However, only Riyhneon seemed to care.

"Mh... soan... your backpack seems like it's the heaviest. Don't you want to give some of that to us?"

"I could, but it's more efficient this way. Because I can carry this amount just as fast as you can carry that amount," grinned Krezagon and pointed at the packs. "Let's see how well we fare and optimize our loads when we're sure of how fast we can move. Now, is there anything else, or are we free to go?" The soldiers were quiet, so they left.

They had thought that the falangezka and Tegafel had headed south, so they left for Adenelihe and Elienhini. The trip took five days, during which nothing much happened. Krezagon and Riyhneon did not bother each other while sleeping, just like they had thought—though the others were not quite as subtle or understanding about it.

In Elienhini, they were resupplied and received information that some other traveler had seen a falangezka and a limping femehan wakod on a road to Ierþeine, though the two had not been seen in Elienhini.

Krezagon and eir squad left for Ierþeine. They arrived there one night and ran into problems right away. Krezagon had barely made it to the entrance to the local military office with Riyhneon and Leitsel, the nigekod, when the captain spotted em from a distance away and immediately started yelling something about em being an impersonator or something of the sort.

"Right! You ankods won't be promoted except in your dreams! You probably killed your sergeant and took eir bracers! And you, why are you obeying em? Brainwashed by an ankod far-walker, I bet!"

"Throw em in a cell, guards! And em too!" said the captain and pointed at Leitsel. "And restrain em!" Ey pointed at Riyhneon.

Leitsel was about to start fighting with the two guards who grabbed em. "Leitsel, DON'T!" shouted Krezagon. "We're worse screwed if —" A guard put eir hand over Krezagon's mouth. Ey did not resist being taken to the cell and hoped that Riyhneon would manage to explain their purpose. Ey and Leitsel were stripped of their armor and weapons and were thrown into the same cell. The guards locked the door and were about to just leave them there. Krezagon took out some papers and waved them between the bars. "Hey! Wait! I have the official documents saying that... we..." The guards just ignored em and left. "What gzoozing proshts..."

Leitsel sat on the hay and looked very annoyed and disappointed. "I KNEW this was gonna happen..."

Krezagon looked after the guards for a moment before turning at Leitsel and glaring at em, disappointed as well. "So that's how highly you think of me?" Leitsel looked away and was quiet.

Krezagon made two more failed attempts to get the attention of the guards while they walked by. After the second one, ey just sat down next to Leitsel, frustrated. After a moment, ey looked at Leitsel. "Mhmh... could you try to get their attention?" Leitsel fidgeted a bit. "Well, they could be just... ignoring me because..."

The next time a guard came by, it was to give the two some water and food. They first took the food and then Leitsel said: "Hey, how long do we have to be here? It's obvious that —"

Leitsel almost growled at the guard, but instead just turned away and started eating. After eating, Krezagon and Leitsel tried to sleep.

Krezagon was woken by someone calling eir name in eir sleep. Ey startled, sat up and saw someone peering in through the bars. Some words formed in eir mind again.

"Don't speak, people will hear it. Just think. I'm a far-walker." Krezagon was confused. "My name is Taikehel Reþender. I'm living in this town and I noticed you were imprisoned without reason, so I thought maybe you'd like some help?" Krezagon wondered about the person's motives. "Well, I'd just like to help you. Okay, and I'd like you to take me with you. I don't really like it in this town and I can't travel alone. I'm not that good at surviving. And not too many people want me along and caravans are rare." Krezagon wondered why ey needed help from em—after all, a far-walker could influence anyone's mind and it should not be too much of an effort to make unfriendly travelers friendly enough to travel with. "Okay, it's because you're an ankod... like me. I've never met another one." Krezagon's eyes got a bit wider. Ey wanted to see the far-walker clearer. Ey got up and walked to the door of the cell, looking at the person there. Ey could not see too much detail, but the lamp from further down the hall gave enough light to see most features.

The far-walker was very thin but slightly taller than Krezagon and ey had fairly complicated clothes on em. Ey had a scarf on eir head and fairly chiseled facial features: sharp cheeks and chin, slanted eyes and somewhat narrow head. Ey was younger than Krezagon, but not more than eight years at the most. Ey smiled. "You look just like a soldier. I'm too used to seeing farmers and sellers and other far-walkers." Krezagon wondered if the other far-walkers were as thin as Taikehel. Taikehel grinned. "We're mostly fragile... many have potential and power in their bodies, but few in their minds. I chose to train my mind."

Krezagon made half a smiled and whispered: "How would you help? I'm not sure I want to do anything... well —"

"Could you just think to me? I wouldn't want to deal with people who are awake."

"You did fine before. Well, you can learn to do it better but I understand you." Then Krezagon thought exactly the idea "Just like this?" and Taikehel replied: "Yes, just like that." Ey smiled again.

Taikehel was a bit quiet—ey was not used to being so strict with the law. Ey had cheated and stolen to get by and felt no remorse. "Well, I could make the captain just let you out..." Krezagon did not approve of that either. Taikehel was quiet for another moment and then came up with something Krezagon likely would not mind. "I could just influence eir mind so that ey'll easily believe your papers are real and legit and so on. How's that?" Krezagon was a bit suspicious of it, but thought that it would not do anything bad in the long run—eir papers were legit and the captain was just being a prosht.

"So you will take me along with you?" Krezagon wondered what ey could contribute to their search party, and Taikehel immediately replied: "You're searching for something, right? I'm real good at that and I can notice if people lie. I can also detect far-walkers nearby so I would notice the falangezka." Krezagon was disturbed by Taikehel just talking about their mission like it was completely familiar to em. "...I'm sorry, I'm just used to... you know. If you'd like, I can just not do it and ask you instead, but it's slower."

"Yes, I'd like that. This whole thinking thing goes way faster than speaking anyway. It gets a bit too fast for me."

"Yes, so... I'll be around and stalk the captain and 'suggest' to em that ey accept your papers without hassle. I'll of course stay hidden or otherwise inconspicuous, no one will know of it. Will you meet me later then?"

"I'll look for you. Maybe that proves I'm good at searching too." The far-walker grinned. "Let's meet again." Ey left Krezagon standing there, and Krezagon stayed up for a little while before going back to sleep.

In the morning, the guards came and took Krezagon's papers. Half an hour later, they were released with a few shallow apologies and restocked. Krezagon did not see the far-walker anywhere, so ey and Leitsel went to meet the rest of their team. Krezagon was a bit unsure about whether Taikehel knew that ey had planned on leaving right away. As far as ey knew, Taikehel might keep them waiting for a long time. The soldiers packed their gear.

"Ey came there at night and only woke me up. Nothing happened so I didn't bother to wake you up."

"Why? Did ey want to set you free from the prison like what happened to that Tegafel, soan?" said Leitsel with a smirk.

Krezagon grinned. "Heh, actually ey did. I told em no, though. That would've been against the rules and besides, we hadn't done anything."

"Ey hadn't, but you know, homehans are too stupid to try to investigate," said Krezagon with a shrug.

"Ey wanted us to take em away from this town. And ey wanted specifically to talk and come with me since ey's never seen another ankod before."

"Yeah." The others were quiet. "Well, I can't really come up with a reason why we shouldn't keep em along."

"Well, we're on a search mission, surely anyone with far-walker abilities would contribute a lot to it. It's easy for em to make up for it. Not to mention that ey can just calm down people and prevent stuff like this stupid prison trip from happening." The others muttered fairly affirmatively.

"But ey's not enlisted with the army, and can't be. Ey won't get free supplies from us," said Leitsel.

"I guess ey'll be able to pay for it." They were quiet. "So, does anyone have any more concerns or are you okay with em coming along?" The others nodded, and then Riyhneon turned eir head toward the town, seeing an ankod walking at them. The others turned to look as well.

Taikehel walked up to the team and made an official greeting genuflection. Riyhneon, Soripel and Poutnel snickered—they were not used to manners. Taikehel did not care. "Greetings, people." Taikehel's voice sounded childish, like Krezagon's, but it was better controlled and slightly higher-pitched. Ey had slightly more practical clothes on now and ey looked fairly graceful. "I have excellent timing. My name is Taikehel Reþender and I asked to come with you."

"And I see no reason why I should deny it. Welcome," said Krezagon and made a military greeting gesture without standing to attention. Taikehel seemed slightly amused and smiled with half a mouth. "I am Krezagon Korielter." Taikehel sensed the hesitation about eir name, but stopped emself from reading Krezagon's mind further.

"Where will ey sleep?" asked Soripel. Taikehel had a small bag of personal items and nothing even resembling a bedroll, much less a tent.

Taikehel sensed the concern. "I was hoping to be able to share a tent with one of you."

Taikehel knew it was true, so ey started coming up with alternatives: "Would any of the tents fit three, then?"

"Hey, who's the mobile meat shop here, Soripel?" said Krezagon. "Maybe you should apologize."

Krezagon made a face and turned back at Taikehel. "Well... I and Riyhneon are the smallest and there's a little space in my tent. Maybe you would fit there." Krezagon looked at Riyhneon, who did not seem disgruntled about it. "Then again, maybe we should do night watch shifts. Those grents were close to surprising us a few nights back."

Taikehel sensed that the soldiers agreed on that and was the fastest to react. "That sounds just fine. Well, shall we go?"

Krezagon stood still. "Wait... We get our food and equipment from the army, but you won't. Do you have money to pay for your food?"

"Yes, I do," said Taikehel. Ey had hesitated since ey could not keep on paying for very long if ey got no chance to earn any money, but no one had noticed—mental hesitation for a far-walker was nothing to an other-walker.

"We'll hunt sometimes, I don't think we'll be charging you for that. You don't look like you eat much anyway." Taikehel made a somewhat uneasy grin.

Krezagon noticed within an hour that the far-walker was in terrible condition. Ey had no endurance at all and ey breathed heavily all the time. After three hours, ey had to stop.

Taikehel lay doubled over on a soft patch of grass. Krezagon sent Riyhneon, Soripel and Freppet, the youngest nikod, to hunt for something and then went over to Taikehel. The far-walker did not turn to look at Krezagon. "I'm really sorry. I thought walking couldn't be that hard... I really thought that." Krezagon's practical side peeked in and considered that they should just leave Taikehel. "No, please... please don't leave me here. I won't make it alone."

"You're way too slow for us. You're carrying practically nothing and get exhausted in three hours. We can walk the whole gzoozing day with our loads."

"It's a far-walker thing. I make my body last longer just by sheer force of will. Block pain, force muscle movement and so on."

"Wow." Krezagon did not know whether ey should be amazed at what the far-walker could do or the fact that ey had gotten completely exhausted in just an hour of walking.

Taikehel was a bit quiet. "I... I suppose." Ey sensed that though Krezagon was thinking practically, ey did not want to just leave Taikehel, mostly out of principle, but there were other things as well—Krezagon was fairly happy to have another ankod around, Taikehel's far-walker abilities were indeed useful and ey did not want Taikehel to feel useless.

"We'll just move slow for now then. I suppose your abilities will cancel the downsides of that some day. You'll gain more endurance by the day anyway, I suppose soon enough you'll be able to keep up, at least without a load. I'll take that bag of yours, I suppose it's a fairly lot of weight for you."

Krezagon got up and walked over to where Leitsel and Poutnel were sitting. "Leitsel, you have a bit of medic's training, right?"

"Could you rub Taikehel's legs a bit? I hear that eases the pain and relaxes the muscles a bit."

"You're the medic now. Go do your job." Leitsel hesitated for a bit, but then got up and went to rub the far-walker's legs.

"I have to ask," said Krezagon quietly with half a smirk. "Why were you so interested in homehan eikods?" Poutnel stared at em for a bit and stayed quiet. Taikehel tried to not laugh.

After about an hour, they continued walking. Taikehel was in bad shape and they did not advance much before it was time to sleep. Taikehel was put through some stretching and ey used eir abilities to relax eir body. The soldiers set up night watch shifts and did not take Taikehel into account, since the far-walker would need all rest ey got. They also arranged it so that one of them could always sleep a full night.

Taikehel crawled into Krezagon's tent after em and settled down to lie. Krezagon just lay still on eir stomach, watching that Taikehel did not do anything strange.

"You're not too used to having other people in your tent, are you?" asked Taikehel with a bit of a smile.

Krezagon glanced at the far-walker. "Really?" Ey wondered how Taikehel was able to smell the blood.

"I have a good sense of smell... but... why —?" Taikehel received a violent mental flash of Krezagon bleeding in pain. Ey shut up quickly. "I'm sorry." Krezagon did not answer.

The next day was worse for Taikehel, since eir muscles were terribly sore. However, after that, it started getting better, though the continuous strain was not very good for em.

Some days passed and they arrived at the next town. They spent a full day there so that Taikehel could rest, and that ey did. Ey took a bath and even did a few lie-detection jobs for the townsfolk. Tegafel and the falangezka had been seen there as well, so the team was content.

They started moving again. The next town, Edenþerne, was almost two weeks away. The team received some messages to be taken to their destination. It was said that the route there had become slightly dangerous, since some homehans had been seen there.

19. (Tegafel) Do you have a bad feeling about this? 4127

Tegafel looked sadly at the falangezka who was now combing eir hair. Ey was sitting waist-deep in a river and they had just managed to clean all of Tegafel's wounds once again. The water looked a bit bloody and small streams of blood flowed from the wounds, only to be mixed with the water a meter away from their source. Availon was on eir haunches.

The scenery at the bank of the river was pretty: the lands were clean and green, plants and trees were growing happily and the air felt warm. They heard some birds making noise in the trees. Availon was sweating and Tegafel occasionally took a handful of the cold river water to eir back.

Availon was taken aback mentally, but did not show it. "I had no reason not to. And I thought you might have wanted to live in this world a while longer."

Tegafel was quiet for some time while Availon continued combing eir hair. Tegafel liked the feel of it. "That just doesn't sound like much of a reason."

"Tegafel, you are a unique person like everyone else in all of Gomania. I would have saved and helped almost anyone, yes. Then I learned that I like you as a person. I accept you as you are and that I'm glad to be with you. I would like to continue doing that, but if you don't, we can go our separate ways."

"You don't really even know me. I haven't told anything of myself to you an' I haven't really thought about it either. Have you went that deep into my mind or what?"

"I wish that as well." Availon stopped combing Tegafel's hair and instead immersed eir own body in the water and sat down next to Tegafel. Availon's hair looked very funny when it was flat. "I don't know how I could gain your trust." Tegafel immediately thought the answer to that: ey wanted to see that Availon was humane. However, that was not something one would just tell another person. Availon seemed too omniscient and omnipotent to Tegafel. "I would like to teach you how to protect your mind from far-walkers."

Availon taught Tegafel how to raise mental barriers, how to distract far-walkers and how to push them out. Other-walkers did have their edge: disorganization. If far-walkers could not make heads or tails of someone's mind, ey was safe for a while. Fear usually helped to keep the mind disorganized.

"When I was a child, I lived in a place east of here. It was so far to the east that day broke out sooner there than here. When there is morning here, there it would already be noon."

"How is that possible?" asked Tegafel, unsure of whether ey could believe Availon.

"I don't know, but it's not important. I lived there with my parents and siblings. I was seven years old and about this tall." Availon held eir hand at the level of eir navel. "That summer the jinhaliares came to my home. They killed most of us and drove the rest away because they couldn't catch us. Some of my siblings died."

Availon was quiet for a while. "I wish there were peace between us." Tegafel did not speak, so Availon continued: "I asked the same from my alhem. Ey told me that the jinhaliares wanted the living space, even though they weren't very well adapted to the environment. It was too cold for them, like this climate is sometimes too hot for me." Tegafel glanced at Availon and saw that ey was sweating again. Eir shirt was wet.

Availon gave Tegafel a glare and started shouting in a fairly affronted manner: "I've tried all my life! Ever since they drove me out of my own home! They don't listen to a word I say! I hoped you would have been different! That you would have listened to reason!" Availon withdrew into eir own mind: something that far-walkers tended to do when angry and emotionally disconnected from their current link to the rest of humanity.

Tegafel thought it was odd that ey thought it strange that ey did not sense Availon's presence too clearly. Then again, ey was glad that ey had managed such a reaction out of the falangezka because manipulating a far-walker in their own mind-game was an achievement by itself and a piece of proof of Availon's humanity. "Do you hate them only because they destroyed your home?"

"I'll speak to you now! Or are you saying you don't like me as I am? Because that'd jus—"

Availon was quiet. Tegafel had only reinforced eir capability of logical deduction. Ey realized that what made em angry was because ey was acting on eir impulses. But who said eir impulses were wrong? All those ey had killed definitely did not approve of eir realization of eir impulses, but no one could say if they were wrong. It took a while, but Availon eventually said: "No, I don't." Ey smiled at Tegafel. "I don't hate them only because they demolished my home. But that is a part of it."

"Well... yes. I came to femehan lands two years ago to explain how big a mistake you were doing by forming an alliance with jinhaliares."

Availon was not going to tell Tegafel that the falangezkas had been driven out because the envoy team had been accused of cheating. "They drove me away. But I came back."

Availon went silent again. Tegafel was getting way too nosy. Ey considered wiping the whole conversation from the femehan's memory, but figured that ey could try to explain emself. Tegafel might accept it and then no harm would be done, and if ey did not, Availon could still wipe eir memory. "Yes. I came back to kill all the powerful jinhaliares that were keeping up the relations here. And I admit, some powerful femehans who upheld the relations." Having heard that, Tegafel seemed to be unexpectedly cool.

"So you've been running around killing our leaders? In Adenelihe, I heard a rumor... That the whole royal family of the nation of Tarakiila had been killed. Is that true? Did you do that?"

Tegafel was quiet for a moment. "Do you understand how ridiculous this sounds? You're an assassin, a soldier going on a personal war to prevent potential nationwide wars."

"Is it not better to kill a few war-mongering people than to send countless of innocent soldiers to die in a war?"

"I... agree. But I'm a soldier, I joined the military an' it's my purpose to go to war."

"Why did you want to join the army? Do you want to go to war? Did you enjoy being beaten to pulp, seeing your friends die, getting raped in that filthy cage?"

Tegafel felt cornered and a little insulted, but ey was quite sure that Availon did not mean that so personally. "I wanted to get away from a personal war. You probably know that anyway. I don't really want to go to war. An' I wanted to prove that... that wakods can be soldiers too. That having kids isn't my only purpose."

"Personal reasons are usually moral. People just should not draw in people who don't wish to be drawn in."

"Sometimes the needs of lots of people conflict with those of a big bunch of other people."

"...No, I don't think it's wrong. But I don't think killing our leaders is right, either. If I was an important femehan leader and supported the alliance with jinhaliares, would you kill me?"

"...I... I don't know." Availon was quiet for a moment. "I met some femehan leaders who I did not want to kill even though they supported the alliance. I didn't kill them."

Tegafel thought for a moment and became depressed. "I can't, I think." Ey thought for a moment. "I want to go back... to Adenelihe... an' find Krezagon and have them sort out that misunderstanding..."

"So you will just go back to the army and fight for them? Let yourself get ravaged by enemies?"

"What else? I could stay in the next village an' do what, get ridiculed, married off to some trash an' made to have children? Or go with you, be a rebel and betray the military, my nation an' all femehans? They'd crush my spirit! They'd take away the only thing that I could ever claim as my own!"

After Availon had said that, Tegafel smacked Availon straight across the face with eir fist. Ey saw the surprise in Availon's eyes and watched as the little falangezka fell on eir back, whimpered and started bleeding from eir mouth. "You're gzoozing right I couldn't, šarkeli. Why won't you crush my spirit?"

Availon tried to regain eir composure. "I-I don't want to. That... is a really h-horrible thing to do to anyone."

They walked for two minutes and Availon tried to clean the blood from eir face. Then Tegafel sat down on one side of the road and started crying. Availon sat on the other side and cried as well. They cried and sobbed there for an hour while the weather remained unchanged: sunny and warm.

Eventually they stopped weeping and looked at each other as if seeing the other for the first time. They both were unsure and scared of the other and themselves.

"Tegafel... Can I trust you to... not kill me?" asked Availon with a quiet voice that was faltering, surprisingly.

"Can I... trust you to to tell the truth and keep away from my mind?" asked Tegafel in a teary tone.

"I will not tell you lies. I can promise to not read your mind to the extent that it is possible..."

They got slowly up, picked up their bags, left and did not speak a word. Night came and they stopped walking, ate a little and started getting ready to sleep. Tegafel crawled into the tent and lay down. Availon entered after em and sat in front of em for two minutes, thinking.

Eventually Availon said: "I... I will sleep outside." Ey went outside and lay down under a tree. Tegafel was somewhat glad of it.

The night was cold and the morning chilly, or at least Tegafel thought they were. Ey did not see Availon shiver. When Werden climbed higher in the sky, the day became warmer and Availon started sweating again. The temperature rose higher than yesterday and even Tegafel noticed that Availon was very uncomfortable in the heat. They walked slower and Availon drank a lot of water. Tegafel thought about eir options for eir courses of action.

Tegafel could stay in the next town and learn how to cope on eir own. Ey did not want to start arguing with other femehans about how ey did not want to have children. Ey did not want to spend days explaining what had happened with Availon. Ey was afraid that far-walkers would probe and rape eir mind and still consider em a traitor.

Ey could turn back and head back to Adenelihe. Ey was not sure if ey could make it there on eir own since ey was not in a good condition and was very unsure of eir fighting skills. Ey felt a bit uncomfortable about leaving Availon alone, because when Tegafel was around, Availon seemed to be preoccupied with taking care of em, and Tegafel might actually be able to prevent em from killing more femehans.

Tegafel could stay with Availon. Ey could either go along with em or plan to betray em. Planning to betray a far-walker while in eir company was a direct invitation to mind-rape. Tegafel convinced emself to not do it, but did think—consciously even—that if ey ever got the chance, ey might do it. In reality ey of course wanted to betray no one and was depressed because Availon probably would not give up eir mission.

Eventually, Tegafel concluded that the best ey could do for now was to stay with Availon and try to prevent em from killing any more people. Ey also fleetingly thought of giving up life with other femehans altogether and eventually follow Availon to wherever eir home was, and though the thought of leaving "home" was disturbing, almost as disturbing was that Tegafel almost wanted to do it. At least the falangezkas would not force Tegafel to have or take care of children. Ey would probably be appreciated just as a person. Still, living as the only other-walker among far-walkers would be very uneasy.

Availon went a bit quiet. Ey was aware of the general issues that Tegafel had been thinking about, but had kept eir promise and tried to not read eir mind. Ey did not want to know why Tegafel wanted to come with em. "I... Thank you."

"...I don't know yet. I had not thought about it much yet. But I don't want to kill much more people. I don't want to set myself or you in that great a danger."

"Well, no, I'm not." Availon thought quietly for a moment. "I still do need to think about what I could do..."

Tegafel started thinking about Krezagon. Ey wanted to meet em and be with em, but that did not seem very possible or desirable since if Tegafel somehow reached Krezagon, ey would inevitably reach the army as well. Ey doubted Krezagon would agree with anything ey was doing at the moment. Ey did not want to tell Krezagon any of this or draw em into it.

They traveled the day and at night, when they had eaten and started setting themselves to sleep, Availon asked:

"I don't mind." Availon crawled into the tent. "I do wonder a bit why you want to sleep here though, since you're so hot anyway."

They slept together and were somewhat wary of each other, but did eventually fall asleep.

"I think I would like to travel to the largest femehan nation we can find and see what they are planning to do."

"Tegafel, information is power. The head of an organization or empire is the organization's most powerful and resourceful member. When there are far-walkers and assassins around, any wise and intelligent person will not reveal where is the primary place of operations and who is leading and keeping everything in order. I think the most intelligent thing to do is to not have any supreme leader of everything. We falangezkas are like that. You aren't."

"Well... uh, that does make sense, but why are the jinhaliares boasting everywhere how powerful their main nation is and how great their Emperor is?"

"Also, jinhaliares have enough far-walkers, strength and land-mass around that alleged supernation to keep away almost anything."

"You don't do war." Tegafel stated it as someone would state the current, perceived weather. Then ey grew aggravatedly confused. "Why don't you? You could stop them!"

"War is immoral. Jinhaliares' wars don't concern us directly. They can't kill us off. They can't handle the southern climate. They can do nothing with most of our lands."

"An attack on a community every 14₈ years is a smaller bother than a war encompassing every single person."

"I think someone did in a falangezka high council once, but it wasn't even taken seriously."

"I thought we could go northwest to the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean and travel north across it. When I was in Fetormana, I got the impression that north of it resided another really big nation."

"But... Fetormana is east of us. Or southeast. Shouldn't we turn around and go through Kattormala, if that big nation's north of Fetormana?"

"No. I... I just ran through it. We were almost caught red-handed in Fetormana. We crossed the Watery Mountains last winter because we were in such a hurry to get away from there."

"Yes." Availon remembered Johəlta's death and the song Tarkavinel had sung. A few tears dropped from eir eyes and even Tegafel realized that ey should not push Availon to tell about it. The thought of Tarkavinel made Availon progressively sad for reasons ey could not grasp and after a while ey had to stop and cry for an hour. Tegafel was confused but did not disturb Availon.

Eventually Availon managed to get emself together. Ey was not about to start walking yet, however. "There's something wrong with me. A week or so before I met you, I became excessively depressed and discomforted. I don't know why. This feels almost similar, but not quite."

"I... I don't know. I was thinking of a... one of the rebels with whom I crossed the mountains."

"I could not have sensed anything like that. That rebel's spirit was unreachable... if I hadn't spent so much time with em, I'd have sworn ey was dead. Maybe ey was nevertheless."

Availon spent another half an hour sobbing before ey was ready to get up and travel again. They took a distinct turn off the road and headed west now.

"Once we reach the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean, we will travel north. Then we'll come ashore and continue east. Then... I think we can travel along the Great River, but I'm not certain. But we will eventually reach the nation. We might have to cross mountains..."

Tegafel felt a bit sorry for Availon, em being so far away from home and not even having anyone of eir own race to talk to.

They walked for a long time and thought of their own things. Tegafel mostly concentrated on what would happen if they got caught and was quite worried. Ey did not wish or intend to betray other femehans, but ey did not think the others would necessarily see the things that way. It worried em considerably.

They stopped somewhat earlier that day, since walking off the road was fairly exhausting. They ate and started setting up the tent.

Availon was quiet for a moment. "I don't know. I would think that even femehan far-walkers know that even if people think about a lot of things, it doesn't mean that they would do it. You wouldn't betray your people. But you would have collaborated with me."

"There's a very effective way around it, though. I doubt you would like it much."

Tegafel indeed did not like the idea much, but also did not say no right away. "What kind of modifying?"

"First I would make very slight and small changes, to make you not want any part in what I'm doing. Then I would make more obvious changes to make you accept what I'm doing and work for my goal. Then, if we're caught, the femehan far-walkers would of course examine your mind, and they would find the obvious changes I made. They would unravel the modifications and deduce that I had only brainwashed you to do my bidding. I'm nearly certain that nothing more would be done to punish you after that, you might even be compensated."

Tegafel still did not vehemently oppose the idea. "But then... I'd go on believing that I did not want any part in this thing with you? What if they find out those modifications too?"

"They would have to assign several very skilled far-walkers to do that. I'm very good at this and I trust my abilities. And yes, you would go on thinking that you never wanted to execute my mission with me... but in the case that they kill me, that would probably be best anyway."

Tegafel thought for a moment, seeing the logical chain of events. "Yeah... yeah. But... they would kill you?"

"I don't know... They might. Or they might not... I don't think they would want to anger falangezkas. Of course they wouldn't know that killing me wouldn't really anger the others..."

"I'm able to hide parts of my mind under layers and layers of blocks. Far-walkers always have several of them in their minds. True, I can't access the information either, but I can dig it out eventually. I'm much more skilled than regular femehan far-walkers; I'm quite sure I'll be fine."

Availon went silent. "Well... Uh, I've set my mind to self-purge if skilled jinhaliares dig too deep. There is a chance that it might not work, but most likely it will. It's really bad if things come to that... but at least the information will not fall into wrong hands."

"You'll have time to decide. However, the sooner I make the changes, the more believable they will be. But I doubt it will make any difference until we have finished our trip on the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean, at least.

20. (Krezagon) I flow 3808

Krezagon's squad traveled for five days on the road to Edenþerne without much happening. On the night of the fifth day, they gathered around a fire to roast some meat they had hunted.

Taikehel was uncomfortable in eir dirty clothes. Ey was used to being more or less clean and the amount of sweat, dust and dirt was getting to em. "Are we traveling near a river?"

The soldiers glanced at em. "River?" said Krezagon. "We have enough water and these fruit trees grow all around here."

Taikehel, then again, was fairly horrified. Eir mouth was wide open and that made the soldiers laugh a bit more. "In the name of Tragsiel! Do you NOT bathe?!" Ey glared at them and replied to emself before they had the chance to say anything: "It explains the smell... oh grent turd..." The far-walker shook eir head, burying it in eir hands.

"Yes I do! Let's head for a river if there's one nearby! I'll show you all how good it feels to be clean for a change and not smell like age-old shoes!" The soldiers smiled slightly mockingly.

"Have you been sniffing me while I sleep?" exclaimed Taikehel in a humorous manner and they laughed.

In the tent, Krezagon performed eir usual evening ritual of silent meditation. Taikehel figured that ey should finally ask what for Krezagon kept on doing it.

Krezagon was lying on eir stomach with eir hands clasped together and leaning eir head on eir hands. Ey turned at Taikehel. "I... uh, nothing."

"I respect your privacy, but please don't lie at my face..." Krezagon did not want to talk about it even so much as to say the fact that ey did not want to talk about it. Ey soon went horizontal and faced away from Taikehel. Taikehel looked at eir back for a moment before lifting a hand and touching eir shoulder. Krezagon was slightly surprised but did not react. Taikehel sensed that Krezagon wanted em to continue touching. Taikehel thought Krezagon looked very lean and defined, and compared with eir own, thin and wimpy hand and forearm, it was a fairly humorous sight.

In the morning, Krezagon woke up and realized that eir and Taikehel's legs were fairly mangled and the far-walker was snuggling right under Krezagon's arm. Krezagon was amused and slightly embarrassed and tried to move away from Taikehel. Taikehel woke up and though ey knew what had been going on, ey did not say anything.

Taikehel looked at the others. "Water! Can't you hear that water running?" Ey paused for a moment and the others were still quiet. They did not hear. "It's a river! And we're going there right now!" Taikehel took several steps into a few random directions before getting off their path and heading into the forest. The others followed, since they had no reason to not go to the river—and if Taikehel really did hear it, it could not be that far.

"Taikehel, be careful. Rivers are dangerous places." Krezagon was rightfully concerned—wild beasts often visited lakes, ponds and rivers. However, at their current location, the river was fairly rapid so it did not contain dangerous animals and was not very popular, at least during the day.

As soon as Taikehel got to the shore, ey started taking off eir clothes. The soldiers glared at em and ey turned to look at them. "What? Come on, undress already! You all are desperately in need of a bath." The soldiers just stood there and Taikehel decided to let the realization sink in.

Finally Krezagon dropped eir backpack to the ground and started taking off eir armor. "Well, you gotta try everything once..." The nikods looked fairly nonchalant, but Riyhneon was uneasy and Leitsel downright hostile.

Krezagon stared at them, half-dressed now. "Why not? Listen, if I'm not ashamed of my gzoozing 'useless' body, you don't have much point to be. I want to try being clean for a change, don't you?"

Taikehel glanced at Krezagon. "Leitsel is just annoyed at having breasts, but Riyhneon has some complicated feelings... but essentially ey's scared." Krezagon looked at Riyhneon fleetingly and continued taking off eir clothes. "Hey, don't leave your clothes behind. They should be cleaned as well. You know, there's not much point in bathing if you're going to stuff yourself in dirty and sweaty clothes afterwards." Krezagon went into the water, dragging eir clothes along with em. Taikehel looked at em in a slightly evaluative manner. "See, we can wash all our clothes first and then wash ourselves while we wait for the clothes to dry. Shouldn't we also wash the blankets? Maybe it's just me, but some of them are gzoozing stinky."

"It's not just you," said Krezagon with a smirk. "Smell this." Ey shoved eir trousers at Taikehel's face.

"Stench weapons are forbidden in this part of my pond!" shouted Taikehel and shoved the pants aside.

The nikods were fairly amused and cooperative and followed Krezagon's example, going into the water and starting to clean their dirty clothes. Leitsel and Riyhneon backed a bit, but eventually went a bit further up the stream, behind some rock and started getting on with the bathing thing.

After the ankods and nikods were finished with their clothes and blankets and had hung them to dry, they started washing each other in the river. Taikehel and Krezagon pretty much enjoyed rubbing each other. When they were mostly done, the nikods started watching the two ankods.

"You know, it's funny... you two are so similar, because you're ankods," said Soripel. "But still you're so gzoozing different."

Soripel grinned. "See, you're muscly and scarred ...kinda scrawny though, and ey's all skinny and smooth. You look funny together." The nikods snickered a bit and Krezagon grinned.

Taikehel led Krezagon off the line of sight of the nikods, making sure that they did not care about it. Once alone and up to their chests in the water, Taikehel took Krezagon's hands and leaned against a rock, pulling Krezagon on emself. Krezagon pretty much just blushed.

Krezagon smiled and turned eir face away. "I... spent two and a half frindos lusting after a wakod who didn't want to have sex."

"Yeah... so you're not used to it." Taikehel was immobile, waiting for Krezagon to do something.

Krezagon did not do anything for a while, but then ey let go of the far-walker's hands and touched Taikehel's shoulders instead. Ey did not want Taikehel to touch emself, though, so Taikehel respected that. Ey spent a while stroking Taikehel's arms and shoulders. Krezagon was thinking of how Taikehel looked, but did not really have words or intention to say it. Taikehel encouraged it by speaking first: "You're really well-formed and strong-looking, Krezagon. Even with the scars and missing teeth... they kind of give you that soldier thug charisma."

Krezagon blushed again. Ey tried to come up with a good word to say, and after Taikehel had just had all the choices like "pretty", "beautiful", "skinny", "slim", "weedstick" and the reasons for those words sent into eir mind, Krezagon merely mumbled: "You're... graceful. So graceful..."

Taikehel smiled, touched Krezagon's face lightly and said: "Thank you." Krezagon's face kept its blush for some while and ey fingered Taikehel's shoulders. "Hey, if you're not used to this emotional business, don't mind it. Just do what you want to do, it's not like I wouldn't tell you if I didn't like it."

"Oh." Taikehel stroked Krezagon's hair a little and kept on smiling. "That's alright." Krezagon took a step back and spent a while floating around in the cold water, losing the blush from eir face. Taikehel was slightly disappointed, but did not show that.

"Maybe I should check on them... can you uh... can you make sure the others won't come there?"

"Yeah. Control is a good thing to have." Taikehel went back to the nikods while Krezagon half swam and half walked to the rocks.

Krezagon climbed over the rocks and first saw Leitsel, who was grouching near the shore and playing with the bit of sand that was there. Riyhneon was sitting in the water and leaning on the rock Krezagon was on.

"I just don't like the way they make fun of my breasts. It's plenty enough that Poutnel tries to touch them."

"Hey, if they make fun of them, feel free to report it so I can punish them." Leitsel was quiet. "Just go over there. If they're being annoying, ask Taikehel to do some far-walker trick to make them do something embarrassing instead. I don't know, but I've always wanted to see a bunch of nikods rubbing their cocks against each other just because it would be such a hilarious sight."

Leitsel's face twisted into an amused grin and ey looked fairly cooperative. "Alright then." Ey got up and walked over to the other part of the river. Krezagon and Riyhneon heard some speaking, but could not make it out.

Riyhneon was still quiet. Krezagon slid down and sat next to the gewakod in the water. There was actual sand in the bottom, so it felt nice to sit down.

Krezagon was quiet. They started talking about cleaning instead and Krezagon instructed Riyhneon on how to rub off the dirt and dead, loose skin, after which ey helped to rub the gewakod's back.

After they were done, they sat down again and thought there quietly for several minutes.

Eventually Riyhneon said that ey was tired of the others asking for em to make love with them, but it was not that much of an issue since Krezagon slept with em now. Riyhneon did want to make love too, but rather with Krezagon than the others, even though Krezagon was an ankod. They lay on the ground and kissed each other, but were startled because of the noise the others made.

Eventually Riyhneon spoke: "I'm just... rather tired of the others asking me to have sex with them. They've even grabbed me a few times." Krezagon frowned. "That's a reason why I rather sleep with you, you know. You don't 'accidentally' wake up with your hand in my crotch or anything," said Riyhneon with half a grin.

"Yeah." They were quiet for a moment. "Hm, I guess that's one lucky part being an ankod, right? People don't even try doing anything like that to you. Well, except Derekl..."

Krezagon let out a short and slightly uneasy laugh. "I don't know. I suppose, kind of. But it's bad too, since everyone just thinks I don't want sex. Or can't have any."

"...Well, sometimes." Another short pause followed. "Did you actually know that I'm able to have sex?"

"Um, I kind of suspected... because, you know, I have undeveloped parts in my crotch that are... sensitive, so why not you?"

Krezagon smiled slightly surprisedly. "Wow, that's smart." Riyhneon smiled a little. Krezagon lifted eir hand and stroked the gewakod's hair. Riyhneon fidgeted and then leaned closer to Krezagon, settling emself so that the side of eir hip was touching Krezagon's hip and eir other shoulder was over the ankod's chest. Krezagon was slightly surprised, but decided to just hold Riyhneon's shoulder and lean back on em.

They sat there close to each other for some time. Riyhneon thought about things and started feeling better. Ey thought about how Krezagon was so safe—the ankod was fair, competent and not sex-crazed. Riyhneon went fairly smiley and turned eir body so that ey could hug Krezagon. Krezagon was a little confused first, but moved so that the hug was accomplished more easily and then hugged back. Not too long after, Riyhneon started feeling like having some "safe sex". Ey snuggled eir face against Krezagon's and kissed the ankod after a while.

Krezagon was still confused, but went along with it. However, after they stopped kissing, ey said: "I'm a little confused here."

Riyhneon fidgeted a little. "Well, see, after all those requests for sex I've been a bit scared to submit to it at all... even when I'd like to do it too. Besides, they're more rough than I'd like so it's just... mh, awkward, maybe?"

"Well, I... I don't see a reason why I wouldn't," said Krezagon with a slightly surprised smile.

Riyhneon smiled and they continued making out. After a while, Krezagon stood up, lay down on the shore and pulled Riyhneon down on top of em. They continued fondling each other until they heard some ruckus from the place where the others were. They were momentarily startled.

"Umh... maybe we should do this some other time," said Krezagon, smiling slightly uneasily.

"Yeah." Riyhneon smiled and snuggled at Krezagon's chest a little before getting off. They rinsed the sand and dirt off their bodies.

"Yeah. Maybe you get to tell them to lay off already," said Riyhneon with a bit of a smirk. They walked on the shore and around the rocks to go where the others were.

The others were playing a some sort of game and eventually they all ended up playing it.

After they were done with games and started feeling like they should get out of the river and continue their journey, they realized some of their clothes still weren't dry, so they settled for lying in the sun for a change. Taikehel, then again, rather wanted to spend some time alone with Krezagon. They went further from the others again and lay down on a patch of grass. Taikehel still felt ey should talk.

Krezagon was mentally startled and became confused. "You... don't you know that?"

"I'd like to hear it from you. The issue with other-walkers is that you might think everything and anything without really being serious about it. I do have some difficulty knowing one stage of seriousness from another sometimes because your thoughts aren't nearly as organized as we have to keep ours." Krezagon was quiet. "So, please tell me?"

"What do you want to hear?" Now Taikehel was quiet. Ey came up with a reply but did not express it and waited until Krezagon spoke again: "I do think I like you. I don't know you that well yet... Can I ever know a far-walker?"

Taikehel grinned a bit. "That's a good question... Can we ever truly know anyone? What is one's true self? We are all affected by others from the moment we're conceived, is that influence a part of our true selves? Is the mimicking of others to establish a base of polite behavior and standard body language a part of our true selves?" Taikehel sensed that about half of that went over Krezagon's head and stopped speaking. "You can know of me what I show to you. I have no need to hide anything." Ey lied fairly happily since Krezagon likely would not approve of em breaking the law like ey had done. However, lying to other-walkers was an integral part of a far-walker's life for there were several things that other-walkers could not understand about how it was like to be a far-walker. This fact did not mean that Taikehel had a good reason to lie, however—ey mostly just wanted Krezagon to like em and trust em.

"But you can always know me better. You can even know me better than I do myself because you'll have at least my and your perspectives to me..."

"That's... true. But it's difficult. I doubt I could really accomplish something like that." Taikehel suddenly realized why Krezagon was so reserved with em—Krezagon was afraid of em. Ey could control Krezagon in a way that no one else could. While it was true that other soldiers and sergeants had controlled Krezagon's life as well, Krezagon had known that it was possible for em to fight back and flee if the unthinkable happened. With Taikehel, ey was completely helpless. However, since there was nothing Krezagon could really do, it would just be best to realize that and stop worrying—whatever happened, Krezagon would either not know or not care that ey had been controlled as far as Taikehel liked em too. Ey could not fake or hide eir liking which again meant that there was no need to worry.

Taikehel gradually and carefully suggested that idea to Krezagon, being glad that Krezagon seemed to go to the conclusion almost without eir help. Krezagon's fear pretty much went away and ey grinned at emself. Ey would be fine, whatever ey did. Ey felt like making love to Taikehel, so that is what they did. Ey raised emself a little and looked at the far-walker. Ey lifted a hand and started stroking Taikehel's face and body. Taikehel sensed that Krezagon wanted to do all the touching for the moment, so ey kept eir hands down and enjoyed the pleasure.

After a while, Krezagon got on top of Taikehel and the far-walker started touching Krezagon's back and sides. Krezagon was slightly amused at the fact how lightly Taikehel touched em, but figured that the far-walker really was that wimpy. They got excited and were about to start rubbing their genitals against each other when Taikehel stopped for a moment and pushed Krezagon aside a bit.

"No. When I get more excited, I sort of lose control of my abilities... I'll read your mind a little and read all your pleasure. I'll add my own to it and then reflect it back to you. We'll be sharing the whole thing, pretty much. It's... more intensive for you." Taikehel did not mention that even other feelings and memories might be shared.

"Really?" Krezagon wiggled a little and was fairly curious. "I want to try that." Having said that, ey continued fondling Taikehel.

They continued making out, kissing and rubbing each other's crotches. At reaching climax, Krezagon felt like a channel was opened to eir mind and Taikehel had then turned eir brain upside-down while making sure that ey would register every bit of pleasure they felt. Krezagon had mental flashes of Tegafel and Taikehel. Ey was momentarily completely out of it and when ey came to, ey was grabbing Taikehel's shoulders, with eir nails sunk in the far-walker's skin. Taikehel was holding Krezagon tightly as well. They both let go and lay there, regaining their composure.

Krezagon wiggled and kissed Taikehel fairly affectionately. Taikehel pulled eir hands along Krezagon's back. Krezagon snuggled eir face against Taikehel's neck and noticed that ey had actually made a few scratches on the far-walker's skin. Ey felt awkward and on the other hand wanted to mention it and on the other hand did not. However, ey did not have to, of course. "It's okay, Krezagon," went Taikehel. "That happens. I don't know if you noticed, but I clawed you as well..." The far-walker grinned.

Krezagon was amused and noticed that eir shoulders were indeed stinging a little. "Well, good to know you can do at least a little damage," ey said with a wide grin.

The two ankods lay there for a while and thought. Krezagon wondered why ey had had the flashes of Tegafel and Taikehel. Tegafel ey could explain due to em having been the first and before this the last person with whom ey had had sex, but ey could not figure out why ey thought of Taikehel and had the idea in eir mind about the far-walker being lax with the law as well as the vague feeling that ey knew what far-walkers were taught about other-walkers. Ey was confused, but tried to process the information before trying to figure out why ey knew it. Krezagon thought that Taikehel was not a very obedient person—the far-walker was used to deceiving people with eir abilities, even stealing if ey was not able to make money by using eir far-walker abilities. However, far-walkers were taught to respect the privacy of other-walkers; they were told that reading the minds of people who could not defend themselves was immoral and wrong. Krezagon agreed with this teaching since ey was fond of eir privacy. Still, if violating the privacy of an other-walker a little was necessary to survive or so trivial that it was just a convenience to everyone involved, was it really that wrong? Krezagon did not think so. Ey mulled over those thoughts for a few moments before being satisfied and starting to wonder why ey had suddenly realized them.

Taikehel of course noticed it. "Maybe I should've told this too... sometimes this sharing of pleasure and thoughts results in us sharing some of our other thoughts as well. I think I got to know your impression of Tegafel and... you got some info about my training, right?"

Krezagon felt amused. "Pretty awesome." Ey was thinking vaguely that it had been slightly creepy, though, but did not say it.

"You shouted out so loud that the others heard it, heh. Want me to erase that from their minds?"

They cuddled for a while before getting up and going back to where the others were. They packed their stuff and started moving again.

In the evening, they set camp. Krezagon and Riyhneon went to sleep in the same tent and had sex with made love to each other. Taikehel was jealous but accepted eir place—intelligent other-walkers could never really trust far-walkers. It was a healthy trait.

21. (Krezagon) Is living fighting? 4965

In the morning of the eighth day of their trip, Krezagon's investigation team and the far-walker started moving once again on their way to Edenþerne. After midday, somewhat close to evening, they encountered tracks that looked like they were left by homehans. The femehans moved off their path and attempted to stay clear of homehans. They slept an uneasy night and were extra careful while on guard, but nothing happened.

They traveled for four more days without problems. Before the midday of the thirteenth day, they were taken by surprise and were attacked by a group of five homehans. They fought fairly bravely, and with Taikehel's help they would have won—but the far-walker was knocked unconscious during the first seconds of the fight. One by one, the soldiers were taken down until only Krezagon was left, and even Krezagon was no longer a match for the three homehans still standing. Ey was beaten senseless and half-conscious. The last thing ey remembered doing was weakly screaming while beating the back of a homehan because one of them had called Taikehel a corpse.

Krezagon remembered just vague flashes of the homehans throwing em around and poking em before throwing em in a cell. When ey woke up properly, ey heard Leitsel crying uncontrollably. Eir arms were tied behind eir back and eir legs were tied as well. Krezagon opened eir eyes and looked around. Leitsel was screaming and shivering, facing away from the others. Poutnel seemed half-conscious; ey had been somewhat badly wounded in the battle. Soripel seemed to be in a lot of pain, but kept emself from crying. Eir arm was broken. Freppet seemed to be in the best condition, but even ey had several wounds from the battle. Krezagon could not see Riyhneon or Taikehel anywhere. Ey wiggled upright and sat on the ground. Ey was beaten, bloody and wounded. Freppet and Soripel glared at em. They were all naked and tied up.

"I pretty much only have a broken arm and some surface wounds, soan," said Soripel, gritting eir teeth. "Poutnel has bad wounds... ey's lost blood but I think the bleeding's stopped for the most part."

Even the others were quiet for a moment, but eventually Soripel said: "They... um... mutilated eir breasts."

Krezagon looked aghast and failed to find any words to say. After a moment, Freppet said: "I just have a few wounds..." It was fairly ironic that wounds that normally would have been considered serious or bad were pretty much the least of their concerns.

Eventually Krezagon spoke again, quietly and faltering a little: "How about... how about Riyhneon? And Taikehel?"

"I heard the homehans say Taikehel was dead, soan... They didn't even take em along. They just left em where we fought..."

"Well... first just us four were here, the homehans threw Leitsel in later. Other than that, no..." replied Freppet.

They spent some time trying to escape their bonds and gnaw them off. Leitsel eventually stopped screaming, but continued sobbing and was mostly half-conscious as well. At some point, the homehans suddenly opened the door of the cell and threw in Riyhneon who was bleeding a bit from pretty much everywhere and crying. The homehans also noticed that their prisoners had been trying to gnaw their ropes, so they chained Krezagon, Riyhneon, Freppet and Soripel separately to the wall by their bonds. They did not seem to have any shackles, just chains, and did not have enough of them for all of the soldiers.

The homehans left again. Riyhneon just cried and would not reply. Krezagon thought for a moment, and after concluding that the four of them really were not able to get close enough to each other to gnaw on each others' ropes, ey turned eir attention to Leitsel, who seemed to be still responsive.

"Leitsel? Are you able to move? You need to come over here and gnaw off my ropes." Leitsel lied still for a while, sobbing, and after Krezagon had asked a few times more, ey sat up slowly and painfully. When ey turned toward Krezagon, the ankod saw the result of the homehans' mutilation. Leitsel's breasts still looked like breasts and it seemed that besides blood, not much flesh was lost—it was probably possible to stitch and bandage the wounds so that the breasts would look almost like they had before. Leitsel was slightly dizzy, but after a few meters of squirming, ey made it next to Krezagon. Ey lay down for a moment and spent a while shaking, breathing and sobbing before starting to bite and gnaw on Krezagon's ropes.

Leitsel was eventually able to weaken the rope enough for Krezagon to be able to snap it by pulling on it. Having done that, Krezagon untied Leitsel's arms and legs and had the nigekod lie down on the ground. The ankod untied eir legs then and moved on to the others, first untying Freppet, who could untie someone as well—Riyhneon still seemed unresponsive and Soripel had a broken arm. Freppet untied the other nikod while Krezagon worked on Riyhneon's ropes. The gewakod was still crying, and after Krezagon had untied em, ey just collapsed on the ground and curled up into a ball. Ey ignored Krezagon's questions and commands and Krezagon decided to leave em alone.

Krezagon started untying Poutnel and trying to come up with a plan. After concluding that it was impossible to get out of the cell through any other way than the door, they decided that they would attack the first homehan that walked in—it was the best choice they could get, most likely. The door was barred from outside and they could not get it open.

It took some hours, but eventually a homehan came in, opening the door. Being the biggest one, Soripel immediately jumped at the homehan, grappling em as well as ey could with just one arm. Krezagon and Freppet grabbed the homehan's weapons, a knife and an ax, and stabbed em dead. The homehan had managed to shout for help, and Krezagon saw two more homehans running toward them. However, there was some more shouting as some other homehans elsewhere called for help. The two homehans were momentarily confused, but decided to take care of the escaped prisoners. Fortunately the door to the cell was narrow and both of the homehans could not get in. Freppet swung the ax at the homehan, cutting off eir right arm. Krezagon, then again, stabbed the homehan in the stomach. The homehan fell, starting to scream, and Krezagon quickly cut open most of the homehan's torso. Meanwhile, Freppet hacked at the other homehan, keeping em from harming the two femehans.

There was a moment's suspense while the remaining homehan considered whether to attack or not, but before ey could really decide, sounds of fighting and shouting came from somewhere and ey was further confused. That gave the femehans the window of opportunity and they attacked the homehan. Freppet cut the homehan's neck and ey died. Krezagon looked down the corridor and saw a pale, skinny figure in a dramatic action stance. The figure started running toward em and ey saw that it was Taikehel.

"Taikehel!" Krezagon was obviously relieved and happy to see the far-walker alive. Taikehel had head trauma and was bleeding slightly from the side of eir head—ey had tried to bandage it but had not succeeded too well. Ey also seemed slightly confused. "The... I thought the homehans killed you..."

"I just made them think that. Great that you're alive too... I was worried I was too late."

"I think I've taken care of all that were here. But we have to move out now. I'm not in good condition... I could faint."

"We... Poutnel, ey's unconscious, ey lost too much blood. Leitsel... they mutilated em."

Taikehel went into to cell and saw the condition Leitsel, Riyhneon and Poutnel were in. Ey blocked and suppressed Leitsel's pain and conditioned Riyhneon to not care about anything except commands given to em. "You'll have to carry Poutnel."

"We need to find our equipment and clothes and tie up our worst wounds. We can't move quickly or far enough if we don't," said Krezagon.

They were under the ground, but the place was not very big. The rooms and corridors were large enough for them all to move about, since homehans were larger than femehans. They saw some unconscious homehans on the way—they had gotten a taste of Taikehel's abilities. Krezagon and Soripel killed them all for good. Taikehel did not approve of the killing, but did not get a chance to argue since ey was too busy keeping Leitsel's pain and Riyhneon's sanity in check while monitoring for any new homehans.

When they arrived to the room where their equipment was stashed, they ran across a homehan who had just arrived. Taikehel struck em slightly confused before Krezagon slashed eir throat open with the knife. They proceeded to tie up each other's wounds and the capable ones packed their stuff as well as they could. Freppet was carrying Poutnel, Soripel and Leitsel could not carry even a full load, Krezagon was also wounded and Taikehel was not very strong. Riyhneon was actually in the best condition now that ey had been bandaged—eir wounds were mostly superficial. They managed to make do with the equipment distribution and left off.

The small homehan dungeon seemed like a makeshift base of sorts—it seemed in no way official, and it made Krezagon feel better for reasons ey did not understand yet.

The night was coming and after a few hours of painful, exhausting, fear-fueled and very forced traveling, the small group stopped moving. Riyhneon, while being the one whose physical condition was the best of them all at the moment, was thoroughly torn mentally, so Taikehel told the others that it was best if Riyhneon went to sleep right away and got a perfect night of rest—ey would be needed tomorrow. Having done that, ey said the same of emself and went to sleep. Leitsel lost consciousness soon after they had stopped, and Poutnel had been awake only briefly. Freppet was relatively awake while Krezagon and Soripel were not as much. However, since they were the only ones up, they had to take care of things. They stitched and tied up both Leitsel and Poutnel, after which they stitched up each other and finally also fixed Soripel's arm properly. After that, Freppet went to sleep—also eir strength was very much needed tomorrow. Soripel was certain ey would have trouble sleeping due to the pain, so ey stayed up and kept watch. Krezagon's strength would also be very much needed, but Soripel would not be able stay up through the whole night, so the ankod had to keep watch as well. Fortunately Krezagon was used to it; ey would handle the wounds, stress and tiredness better than anyone else.

When the morning came, everyone was still sleeping. Krezagon had been keeping watch since the wee hours and was still very tired and hurting. Ey was also fairly numb, so it happened that ey fell asleep and flopped down on the grass.

Soripel was the next to wake up—a broken arm was painful and incapacitating but under the circumstances relatively unstressful. Ey looked around, and seeing Krezagon fast asleep, eir heart immediately found its way to eir throat and ey made a quick but thorough look around before figuring that they were still fairly safe. Ey then went to wake up Krezagon. Soripel shook Krezagon by the shoulder.

"You fell asleep, soan. —" Krezagon sat up immediately, obviously just as alerted as Soripel had been, and looked around. "I looked about. It seems we're good."

"Urh..." Krezagon got up and sat down on the fallen tree ey had been sitting on to keep watch. Falling asleep while keeping watch was bad. Soripel started digging the bags for rations. Meanwhile, Krezagon spent some time thinking.

Since the homehan dungeon had been such a shoddy piece of work and had not seemed official, Krezagon finally consciously realized that they had most likely been a band of homehan criminals. Ey figured that they should have thought a little bit before they went and killed the homehans, but it relieved em a bit that they were probably wanted also by other homehans. Ey wondered if ey really was that bad a sergeant to have eir team mutilated and beaten like this, but thought that it would have happened anyway. Most likely, without em and Taikehel specifically, they all would have just been killed. Ey had some trouble defending emself for falling asleep while on watch, but the fact was that ey was very tired and hurt—pretty much anyone else would have fallen asleep as well.

Krezagon noticed that Taikehel woke up. The small exchange of thoughts over the mindlink they shared was fairly obvious when one was thinking. Soripel started waking up the others as well. Poutnel and Freppet were feeling better, Leitsel was much worse and while Riyhneon was better physically, eir spirit was still pretty much broken. Ey started crying fairly soon after waking up. Krezagon went to em and consoled em. Riyhneon pretty much curled up into a little ball when Krezagon hugged em and asked that Krezagon would never let go. Taikehel asked Krezagon if ey would allow the modification of Riyhneon's mind so that the gewakod would not remember what had happened but Krezagon denied it. However, ey did agree to Taikehel attempting to speed up the mental healing and helping to push the memories away.

They ate some rations. Leitsel was hurting badly, but Taikehel was able to block the pain. They spent some time fixing their stitches and bandages, but eventually they were ready to go. Leitsel could not carry much anything due to the extensive wounds on eir chest and Poutnel was weak from blood loss. Soripel, while having a broken arm, could still carry a full load, as could Krezagon, Freppet, Riyhneon and Taikehel. They left.

It took the small squad four days to reach Edenþerne. They should have been there much earlier, but their wounds made things much worse. However, they were lucky that they were not attacked once during the last four days. The blood-stained and weary group raised quite a lot of attention in the town. The guards at the town gates sent for some soldiers from the close-by military camp and had the squad wait while the soldiers came. They sent for a doctor and then took the squad and Taikehel to the military camp.

At the camp's gates, there was one sergeant who first hesitated about who to address but then addressed Krezagon: "Um... I haven't seen such a beaten group in... well, ever. Do you need immediate medical attention?"

"Well... I think so... yes." The sergeant looked at Taikehel. "Ey's not a soldier is ey?"

"No, ey isn't. I request that ey be allowed in the camp temporarily, though, even if just for a moment. As long as it takes me to explain the situation..."

Taikehel was told to stand outside the camp while the sergeant took the squad to the medic and one soldier took Krezagon to the captain. Luckily Taikehel was able to maintain contact with the others in order to suppress Leitsel's pain and keep Riyhneon's sanity in check.

The captain was a fairly old gewakod. When Krezagon came in with the soldier, ey just glared at the ankod. Krezagon stood to attention and greeted the captain, after which ey idled, confused, since the captain did not speak.

The captain was still quiet for a moment before ey recalled the correct procedure. "Ease. Callen, dismissed." The soldier left. "I am captain Herkel Fremmani."

"I was given a mission by the captain of Adenelihe to acquire a fugitive. We were attacked by a large group of homehans four days ago. None of my team of five people was killed, but we are in bad condition at the moment. The sergeant by the gate had the others taken to the medic."

"Five people? With you added it makes six, but I was told there were seven of you."

"There is one extra person traveling with us, sogewa. Ey is a far-walker who asked to travel with us in exchange for eir abilities, and I allowed it."

"Yes, sogewa. Ey has proved to be very resourceful for the purpose of our mission and I think that without em, we wouldn't have gotten away from those homehans."

"Let me see the papers of your mission and yourself." Krezagon dug out the slightly bloodstained papers and handed them to the captain. The captain spent some time looking over the papers. Krezagon felt frustrated and down. "These seem to be good. Anyway, some time ago we noticed some homehans around here and there were rumors that they had attacked travelers. We sent a message to the nearest homehan community and just a few days ago they replied that they were not really aware of this other homehan group, but that if they had been attacking travelers, they were probably not exactly legit. We were just thinking about what to do about the issue." The captain paused and looked Krezagon over. "Well, seeing how badly you're wounded... What did you do to the homehans?"

"We were first captured by them, but with the far-walker's help, we were able to get out without too much problems. We were in slight panic and killed all homehans we found."

"Hm, good, good. It seems you solved the problem for us. Well then, I suppose you can give a more detailed report later, you don't look too good. Is the rest of your squad hurt as badly as you?"

"Um, two are slightly better, three are worse. The far-walker is almost unharmed. Oh, b—"

"Go to the medic, I'll have some space prepared for you so you can rest properly. What?"

"The far-walker, ey was not allowed inside the camp, sogewa... I would like to request permission for em to stay here, at least for one night. Ey has been very helpful since two of my team were hurt very badly and they wouldn't have been able to come this far if ey hadn't blocked their pain with eir abilities."

"I see. Well then... Callen! Go with Krezagon back to the gates and bring the far-walker in front of my office. Dismissed."

The two went to get Taikehel, after which Krezagon went in again and the captain gave em a piece of paper that authorized Taikehel's presence in the camp. Having done that, the two ankods were taken to the medic as well.

The medic was really busy. Ey was currently preparing Leitsel to be properly stitched up and the others were pretty much just washing themselves. Some time later a doctor came from the town with two assistants and while ey and one assistant tried to fix Leitsel's breasts, the two others started taking care of the other soldiers. Taikehel pretty much just cleaned emself, since eir little wound was almost healed already. They all got clean clothes as well, save for Taikehel, who had eir own clothes.

Once most of the team had been patched up, they were taken to a building that was apparently the sergeants' lodge. Only Leitsel was still being operated on and could not yet join them. In the lodge, there were a few sergeants eating—food had been brought there.

"Good night," said one of the sergeants, a very strong-looking, middle-aged nigekod, addressing Krezagon and eir team. "I hear you'll be sleeping here. A couple other sergeants went to sleep with their squads, so you'll all get a bed. Even that um... civilian or whatever you are." The nigekod eyed Taikehel a little and the far-walker grinned. "I'm Noitrun Mikpeler."

"I'm Krezagon Korielter... this is my squad, Riyhneon, Soripel, Freppet and Poutnel. Leitsel is still with the medic and Taikehel here is a far-walker."

Noitrun went on and introduced the other sergeants. "I have to say you were lucky to get away from those homehans alive. I was once imprisoned by just a few escaped homehan prisoners and even though there were more of us than them, they killed most of us, incapacitated most of the rest and were only taken down after more people came to help us. How'd you do it anyway?"

"Well, let's say it was mostly mind over body. I'm sure we'd still be there if ey wouldn't have helped us," said Krezagon, waving at Taikehel.

"Hm, I guess so." Noitrun looked at Taikehel a little confusedly—the far-walker seemed so frail and it was hard to wrap one's brain around the concept of mind being so powerful like that without having any experience of it. "Well, maybe you people should eat some. There's even some good and fresh stuff from the town."

The group sat around the tables to eat. Riyhneon wandered off and lay down on an unoccupied bed, though. Once Krezagon had noticed it, ey went over to the gewakod.

Riyhneon sniffed. "I know. But... that doesn't make me feel any less sick." Riyhneon curled up a little and started looking more and more like ey was about to cry. Krezagon leaned on the bed and took Riyhneon's hand, after which the gewakod pulled on it, drawing Krezagon on the bed. Having done that, Riyhneon curled up even more and started sobbing against Krezagon. Krezagon just tried to be comforting and held the young femehan carefully.

Some of the sergeants eyed Krezagon and Riyhneon. "Hey, you two!" yelled Noitrun. "Come eat!" Riyhneon wriggled and Krezagon glanced briefly at the others, but they did not move.

"I... I think Krezagon is just really worried about em, sonige." Freppet looked down at eir plate while speaking. "I think the homehans raped Riyhneon really bad."

"Crybaby, eh? That just reinforces my view that gewakods shouldn't be in the army." The three gewakod sergeants looked fairly annoyed, but did not say anything. Freppet glanced at Noitrun but said nothing. "I mean, seriously. Homehans and the rest of those perverted two-sexed things just rape anything with a gogenjin and anyone who's raped is traumatized forever. They'll be useless. Why should we give them the chance to do that in the first place?"

"Yeah, just gewakods, so conveniently." Freppet could not really counter that with anything that would not have sounded just as extremist, so ey stayed quiet.

Soripel eyed the sergeant a bit. "Maybe they'd rape anyone else if we didn't have gewakods with us, though." Noitrun eyed Soripel back. "Well, I've heard... things."

Poutnel grinned a little. "Yeah, even Krezagon was raped, and by one of our own kind." The others were struck silent, even Taikehel, who had not noticed it coming due to being tired and focused on eating. The far-walker started to laugh nervously, though no one else thought it was nervous.

However, Noitrun spoke before Taikehel managed to stop eir laughing: "What? The... the ankod over there was RAPED? How?"

"You do not want to think about that." As soon as Taikehel had said it, most of the people did think about it and went slightly green. "Eh heh heh! Um... so, you got a nice city around here, this Edenþerne. Does it have any bathhouses? How about any need for far-walker services?"

After a bit of silence, one of the gewakod sergeants answered: "Yeah, there's this bathhouse near the south gate of the town. I hear it's good and there's this nice spring with mineral water and all." Ey paused for a moment. "But um... I don't think they'll let an ankod in." Taikehel's expression went fairly annoyed and ey stayed quiet.

"Poutnel, you might want to keep comments like that to yourself in the future. You're really not that tactful, are you?" notified Taikehel to Poutnel, after which the nikod felt a little bit of embarrassment among eir feelings of ignorance.

The people continued eating and Taikehel kept on blabbering some inane and useless chitchat that kept the minds of the other people away from the uneasy issues. None of the soldiers really enjoyed it and they rather thought it was annoying, but thought that it was just their superiority over non-military people. Taikehel of course sensed it and adjusted eir chitchat accordingly.

Krezagon got some food for Riyhneon and emself and they ate on the bed, away from the others. When they and the others were done, it was time to sleep. Riyhneon was tired and scared and insisted that Krezagon sleep with em. Krezagon did not want to do that in front of a whole lodgeful of strange sergeants, but was eventually convinced that Riyhneon's sanity was worth more than eir uneasiness. However, when they started getting comfortable, Noitrun coughed behind them and they both startled. Riyhneon flattened more against the bed while Krezagon turned to look at the nigekod.

"Could I speak to you? Privately. I was waiting that you'd leave em but it seems like you won't."

Krezagon was dead tired, but ey did not have any real reason not to agree to talking. "Uh, sure..." Ey turned to Riyhneon. "I'll come back then." Having said that, Krezagon followed Noitrun outside. "So, what is it?"

"What?" Krezagon was somehow astonished by the nigekod's choice of subject, followed by wondering why ey wanted to bring it up in the first place and got to feeling annoyed at Poutnel for having said it. "Poutnel said that, didn't ey? Ey's really not the smoothest stone on the beach."

"Yeah. I just thought it was kind of extraordinary. I mean, no one would ever think of having any kind of ...sex with an ankod, right? The one who did it must've been a real witchbroom."

Krezagon looked inconvenienced and felt a bit embarrassed. "Ey was. As far as I could tell, ey had some grudge with ankods because of one case in eir home town. If it was true."

"A nikod called Derekl Turinel... Ey was the sergeant of my squad before me. The night ey rape— After that night, the captain of the camp came to get me and then punished em." Krezagon paused and Noitrun was about to speak again, but the ankod went first: "It... it's weird that it was probably the worst night in my life and it led to so much good and what I'd probably call the best day of my life."

Krezagon casted a short glare at Noitrun. "It hurt, okay? Would you want to talk about how it felt if someone did it to you?" Ey looked quite irritated now.

"Well, sorry." Noitrun drawled the letters so that it sounded somewhat sarcastic. "It's not like I'd ever let that happen to me."

"Oh really? I'm by far strong enough to fight back anyone. I might be more scared if I was as weak as you."

"As weak...?" Krezagon sighed exaggeratedly and continued speaking in an irritated tone, though it took away from eir credibility: "I'm strong enough to fight off YOU. The only reason I didn't back then was because I would've gotten executed. No one would've believed me because I'm an ankod. I had to be so badly violated before somebody cared enough."

"Fight off me, eh? As if. Maybe you'd be a bit snakier if you weren't hurt, but no match."

"Is this really why you wanted to talk to me? So that you could insult me? What's wrong with you?"

"Go sleep." Noitrun waved eir hand at the door, and Krezagon went in after three seconds. Noitrun followed. Krezagon was angry, irritated and tired, brushing off Taikehel's telepathic query with strong enough emotion that it made the far-walker flinch. The ankod cuddled up with Riyhneon and eventually fell asleep.

Some time later, Leitsel was brought in, stitched up and unconscious. Ey was placed on a bed and left sleeping.

22. (Tegafel) I will not like it 3400

Availon and Tegafel spent two and a half weeks getting to the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean. They were not in a hurry and Availon wanted to teach Tegafel how to survive in the wilderness. Ey noticed that Tegafel did know how to survive, but the problem was that ey did not trust emself, gave up too easily and usually did not want to try anything new that might be unconventional but save eir life. Availon then tried to help Tegafel overcome eir psychic barriers. The vague feeling of discomfort that Availon had been suffering lately lingered, but seemed to lessen.

When they reached the ocean, Tegafel was speechless. Ey had never seen such a large body of water and had a hard time wrapping eir mind around the fact that it over two thousand kilometers long. They arrived at a large port city whose name was Lookialeini. It was a femehan city, but a lot of toppenrans and toppendas lived there. There were a lot of tiffs between the races in the city, but somehow they still managed to get along profitably enough without completely splitting the city into three parts.

Availon and Tegafel spent a few days in the city just sightseeing and grew a bit closer again as they had some fun with each other.

One day, they were sitting outside an inn, drinking some juice and Availon was explaining something about how falangezkas' drinks were always cold and enjoyable—even though people usually wanted their drinks warm in the winter. The weather was again depressively warm for Availon who was sweating so much that ey seemed shiny all over.

A femehan nikod was listening in on them and staring at both Availon and Tegafel, mostly out of curiosity. Tegafel did not notice em, but Availon said eventually: "Well, hello there, persistent bywatcher."

Tegafel looked confused and turned eir eyes to where Availon was looking. "What?" Seeing the nikod, eir good mood dropped and ey started looking inconvenienced.

The nikod was taken by surprise a bit. "Oh... Uh, sorry, didn't mean t' stare. But... y'know... a falangezka an' a wakod!" Ey smiled sillily in eir astonishment. "Uh... I'm Gertkeret Halliener. Nice to meet ya."

The nikod seemed excited and moved eir chair to their table. Availon was curious, but Tegafel did not seem very approving. "Really sorry about the staring. Uh, what're you doing in here? Or never mind, that was a stupid question. Umm, so, you're not from around here, right? Where from?"

"Well, I'm obviously from the south. So far in south that the longest winter night lasts a frindo there. It was also so far in the east that when it was noon there, here would only be morning."

"Wow! Amazing!" The nikod did not really believe Availon, but pretty much anything falangezkas said should be awed anyway. "You speak Femen great."

"I've been in your lands for some time now. And Tegafel has helped me too." Tegafel glared at Availon a bit for lying, but did not say anything.

"So you're not from Malaana? Cool." Gertkeret eyed Tegafel's wounds a little, wondering whether ey should ask where ey had gotten them.

"Yeah. I was born in a village bit to the west but I came here when I hit teenage. Didn't wanna spend my whole life in that backwater place, heh. Umm, so, are you jus' passing through or are ya planning to stay?"

"I was thinking of sailing the Great Ocean to the north and get ashore in ...Trarikkola."

"Just for the sake of it. I like traveling. Technically speaking I'm a diplomat but I have not felt like working lately."

"Well, you're a far-walker, there's always a job for you." Gertkeret glanced at Tegafel and smiled. "And you too..." Tegafel gave Gertkeret a look, but missed the nikod's point.

Availon knew well what Gertkeret had meant. "Indeed. Here in your lands I can always get money by doing something that is worth no money in my home, and yet priceless. Has anyone ever talked to you in your mind?"

"How I do that can't don't know how just like this how can possible ey hears it anyway so what is it how... Um, how?"

"I almost made sense of your thinking just now." Availon grinned a bit. "Try to concentrate on a single sentence."

Gertkeret grinned back. "Like this? Like this? Like this? Like this? Like this? Like this? Like this? Like this?"

"Heh, concentrate and don't concentrate! Interesting! Interesting! Interesting! Interesting! Interesting!"

"Yeees." Availon was very amused and covered eir mouth with eir hand. Eir cheeks hurt from grinning. "You'll probably be better at it if the conversation goes faster."

"So let's quicken it. I would like to tell you that I knew what you were thinking about when you said that there would always be a job for Tegafel as well."

"I do. Tegafel is not like that, however. Ey did not understand your suggestiveness, and be glad that ey didn't, because otherwise ey would be very mad at you."

"Tegafel doesn't like to have sex with anyone and everyone. I ask that you do not suggest that to em."

"Sure. I did wish that I would get to have sex with em though. Sex sex sex..."

"You thought about your ship as soon as I said 'sail'." Availon grinned somewhat triumphantly.

"Ah-ha! Tricky thing ya! You're right, I do have a ship, or I'm a sailor on one. I'm the navigator." Gertkeret was proud of emself.

Tegafel had been watching the docks while Availon and Gertkeret had practiced mind-speaking and now turned eir head to look at the nikod. "And you just happen to be going to north and to Trarikkola in a few days?" ey said unenthusiastically, in an unfriendly manner even.

"Well... we're fishers, not running a passenger boat. But since ya asked so nicely..."

Availon was not very happy at Tegafel's remark. "Do passenger boats travel there often?"

"Well, we go pretty much wherever we want to! That's the great part of being a fisher, we can go wherever we want to, we're jus' running after the fishes! Heh, running, get it?"

Availon let out a laugh, insincere though it was. "If it's possible, we would like it if you took us to Trarikkola."

"Alright! So, shall I meet ya here tomorrow at the same time, then? I'm sure we've made a some sort of decision by then."

Tegafel sat quietly for another moment. "Do we have to go with em? I don't like em. Ey was suspicious."

"Yeah... but... I don't like em. An' besides, ey an' eir crew'll probably be all over me an' ask me to have sex with them."

"It doesn't change the fact that I know they want to do it anyway." Availon thought then that Tegafel should move to live with falangezkas or karangals and was not too far from suggesting it. Ey restrained emself and instead just looked sympathetic. "I hate that it bothers me so much."

"Hi!" There was another nikod in eir company. "This is my ship captain, Dasdenu Guilttin." Gertkeret eyed Tegafel's walking stick a bit; ey had not noticed it or eir limping yesterday.

Tegafel was still not feeling very friendly toward the sailors. Ey made a military greeting gesture without standing to attention. "Tegafel."

The two nikods could not help but stare at Tegafel for a moment. Tegafel ignored them and stared at the docks.

Availon drew their attention away from the social awkwardness. "I asked Gertkeret yesterday if you could take us to Trarikkola."

"Yah. I just wanted to see ya myself." Dasdenu eyed the two for a moment. "We have no problem going to Trarikkola, so I don't really have a reason to say no. What can you pay for tha trip?"

"I have some money and you can ask me to use my far-walker abilities at any time you wish."

Dasdenu looked at Tegafel inquiringly. Tegafel was busy ignoring them and did not notice.

Gertkeret tapped eir ship captain's shoulder and waved eir head fairly frantically. "That's plenty enough, isn't it? I mean, a personal far-walker, that's just awesome! Right?"

"I have common falangezka knowledge about engineering and can contact a friend who knows more. I'm unsure of whether the knowledge is very useful, though, so I would rather not use it as payment for the trip."

"Well well, it doesn't sound bad." Dasdenu looked at Tegafel again. "Hey kid, Tegafel, is somethin' wrong?"

Tegafel turned to look at the ship captain. "Um... well... I've never been at sea before an' I'm... I'm just suspicious."

Tegafel's expression lightened up a little and ey grinned. "Oh, I have experience of that."

"Well, goody then! We thought of leaving today at evenin'. Much less traffic at that time. Is that fine with ya?"

"Tha ship's docked in front of Leirrel's clothes shop. Be there by afternoon. Bye." Dasdenu left with Gertkeret behind em. Gertkeret waved.

Tegafel and Availon went to the docks in the afternoon. People were busy as some ships were coming in. People unloaded stuff, loaded stuff, moved stuff and just ran around in general. Tegafel did not like that either; ey wanted it done like in the army: in an efficient and orderly manner.

"All that scuttling around makes me sick." Availon did not even bother answering anymore. They walked to the ship parked in front of the clothes shop. Availon waved at the people aboard.

Gertkeret noticed them. "Hey!" ey yelled. "Come aboard!" Availon was fairly excited and quickly moved to the ship along the plank, Tegafel following em. The rest of the crew turned to them. On the ship there were seven people besides Gertkeret. They all pretty much stared at the two.

"Greetings to all of you." Availon greeted the crew. Tegafel mumbled something resembling "hi" and gazed off into the sky. Ey thought that there was something wrong with them if they stared at a member of their own race more intently than a beautiful falangezka. However, the crew did not stare at Tegafel in particular. "I'm Availon, and this is Tegafel."

"Sure you know my name!" stated Gertkeret with a big smile and then pointed to the crew one at a time: one geniwakod, one nigekod and five nikods. "Here are Nakkadeni, Sertel, Fəntun, Sawinun, Ederpel, Bennaet and Trentro. Dasdenu is still taking care of business with Daffinil and Tylheon. Daffinil is eir amige, and Sertel here is Tylheon's aminige."

"So, come on under th' deck, I'll show you where you can sleep." The ship captain's cabin was reserved for Dasdenu and Daffinil while another personal room was for Sertel and Tylheon. The rest of the crew slept together in a common sleeping space, and Availon and Tegafel would sleep there as well. They set up their hammock beds and went to the deck to idle.

"Oh, icebreakers. They're nothing... well, actually they are something compared to this ship, but this ship goes much faster with good winds. Icebreakers move slowly an' carefully an' crash all th' time. How about you, Tegafel?"

Dasdenu, Daffinil and Tylheon arrived eventually, and toward the evening, they detached from the port and sailed north. Tegafel and Availon were not expected to do anything, so they spent their time sitting at the bow of the ship, watching the water. Tegafel found that ey enjoyed the motion of the ship and watching the bow split the water was surprisingly exciting. Availon, then again, was quiet and sat still, looking at the sky. They had something to eat at sunset.

When it was almost too dark to continue sailing, Gertkeret came to Tegafel and Availon again. "How ya feeling? Not too nauseous I hope?"

"I'm good!" replied Tegafel. "You know, I really liked watching the water go, an' I like how the ship sways an' goes up an' down..." Hearing that, Availon started shuffling around, poked eir head between the safety fence and vomited fairly violently. Gertkeret snickered and Tegafel stared at the falangezka with eir mouth open in surprise. Though being sick enough to throw up was not exactly a positive thing, Tegafel was happy—Availon was not a perfect creature after all.

"Was it the food? Or have ya been feeling fishy for a longer time now already?" asked Gertkeret light-heartedly.

"Fishy? Ah-karþorsna!" Availon convulsed again and tried to calm eir sickened body. "Sii miag tohga! My stomach! Aaah! Tohga!"

Tegafel started looking less happy and more worried. "Um, Availon? Are you going to be okay?"

"Don't worry, seasickness doesn't last forever!" said Gertkeret. "At th' most until we reach Trarikkola, heh. An' if it was the food, well, ey's rid of it now." Availon looked miserable; eir small body twitched a bit and ey looked like ey might throw up again. The sickness showed on eir face. "Availon? Here, have some water." Then ey vomited again. "Uh, sorry. Here." Availon sat up onerously and used most of the water to rinse eir mouth.

When ey seemed to be done, Tegafel put eir hand on eir shoulder. "Are you ready? Maybe we should go sleep."

"Uh. Yes." Tegafel helped Availon down on the main deck. "I hope I don't faint or start retching. Uhghm..." They walked under the deck to find two crewmembers lying there. Tegafel prepared Availon's bed and then lifted em into it.

Gertkeret came down with a vat. "Here. Come on, lean a bit over th' hammock so I can place this properly... Okay, right. Let's hope you won't need that." Availon lay on eir back, looking quite nauseated. Gertkeret went back up.

After sixteen minutes, Tegafel was fast asleep while Availon grew more and more squeamish. "Tegafel? Tegafel? Please... Tegafel, wake up! Tegafel, wake up! Wake up! Please!" Availon turned in eir hammock, convulsed again and fell with a thud.

Tegafel carried Availon back to the main deck. Gertkeret turned to look at them. "Hey! Huh, is ey sicker?" ey sounded more worried now as well.

"It is this gasted motion of the ship! It makes my stomach turn around! Even the wind strikes at my stomach with intentions of churning it!" yelled Availon.

Gertkeret came next to Tegafel and smiled. "That doesn't sound too bad! If ey was really sick, ey wouldn't be yelling around." Ey grinned at Availon and shuffled eir hair. "How ya feeling?"

Even Tegafel sensed that Availon was being less than honest, though ey obviously felt terrible. Ey held Availon like ey would a child, and for once it did not disgust em. "Do you want to go back to the bow? Or somewhere else?"

"Well, if ey's at the bow, ey won't be in the way. We'll be quitting for the day soon though, ey can't stay here too long."

"Cold!" shouted Availon and convulsed again but managed to not retch on Tegafel. "You have not felt cold."

"Um, I think ey'll be fine. Falangezka, you know. They eat ice an' stuff." Tegafel snickered and Gertkeret did too.

"Well, I guess ey can sleep there then, if ey can. Th' safety fence's not that wide-holed, but ey might still drop. We're gonna need to tie em to somethin'."

"Right. Well um, you can get the stuff for that, right? I don't even know where stuff is kept..."

"Heh, yeah. Ya take em to the bow." Gertkeret went off and Tegafel took Availon to the bow.

"I don't remember when I last would have felt this bad..." Availon sat now, dangling eir legs and leaning on the banister.

Tegafel pulled eir hand across Availon's back. "Sorry... You seemed so excited about it..."

A short moment went and Availon convulsed. "Tohga!" This time Tegafel did not ask what it meant, though ey wanted to know. Gertkeret arrived with some stuff.

"Okay, rope is hard an uncomfortable, so I'm gonna tie you with these rags and then tie th' rags with th' rope to th' pole, okay? Where ya want it? Around yer belly?"

Gertkeret laughed. "I'll tie it around yer chest, okay. Tegafel, could ya move a bit?" Gertkeret climbed behind Availon, tightened the rags around Availon's ribcage and then tied the rope to them. "I also brought you a blanket, jus' in case it does get cold for ya. Gonna tie that up too..." Ey spent a few moments attaching the blanket and Availon to the mastpole. "The rope isn't long enough for you to come down th' deck, but you're a far-walker anyway, you can just wake us up an' call us to untie you. Here's some water." Gertkeret smiled. "Is that fine?" Availon nodded.

They were quiet for a moment while Availon settled into a lying position. Tegafel stuffed some of the blanket under and over Availon's bare legs. "Will you be fine?"

"Alright... I'll go back inside." Tegafel returned to eir hammock and though it was not a good thing that Availon was suffering, ey could not help but be relieved. The other crewmembers came in before Tegafel fell asleep, and Tegafel was reminded of the barracks. They slept.

23. (Tegafel) Or will I? 4936

Morning came and the two crewmembers, who had been sleeping before Tegafel had went into the cabin, got up and started preparing the ship for sailing again. Availon had not slept at all at night and was fairly passive now.

Tegafel climbed to where Availon was and petted em for a short moment. "Are you all right now?"

"No. I still feel awful and now I'm dead tired as well." Availon's face did not look so pretty anymore; ey looked ill and old, even. Tegafel stroked em for some time as the crewmembers got the ship ready.

They ate breakfast and Availon was given something to drink, but not to eat. Ey managed to not throw up while the liquid was being processed and moved along to eir intestines. Tegafel asked if ey could help with the ship or the fishing and the others then taught em to handle the ship and the fishing equipment. The winds blew quite favorably so they sailed far and set up a weir to catch fish before night.

"No. Two days ago I was sure I would be sick... as sick as Availon is, but then it didn't happen." Tegafel grinned. "I like it here. Sailing is nice."

"Well, I don't think people could stop you from becoming a sailor if ya wanted!"

"You could maybe even join us. We have enough people now but maybe eventually we could get another ship an' start doing some serious fishin'."

"Hmm." Tegafel smiled and wanted to think about taking up the profession but ey had already told Availon that ey would travel with em. Tegafel did not like breaking promises and ey could not know for sure how it would be like to be a sailor for weeks, for months, for years. Then again, ey could probably stop any time and begin any time. There would be plenty of time to try it after ey was done with Availon. "Maybe I'll try it one day. Now I need to help Availon... I mean, I do have a lot of time an' all."

Gertkeret smiled a little. "Yeah..." Ey eyed Tegafel's arm, wondering again where all the scars had come from, but still refrained from asking.

Tegafel suddenly sensed a vague feeling of happiness in eir mind, and since Availon was the only far-walker ey knew, ey turned eir head quickly toward the falangezka. "Uhh?"

Tegafel walked to Availon who was sitting up up and dangling eir legs over the edge of the deck. Ey still looked really sick but ey was smiling. "Availon, I just felt something, was that you, or...?"

Availon smiled quietly for a moment before saying: "Yes. I was following... a friend of mine. I impregnated em about two hundred and sixty days ago and ey gave birth just now. The children are alive and in good condition..." Tegafel looked surprised, and Gertkeret, who had heard the words, was fairly elated.

"That's great!" the nikod exclaimed. "Good luck to them then! Hey, I hear you people are immortal, is that true?"

"They say the oldest falangezka lived to see three hundred years... but most of us die around two hundred and forty."

"Wooow! Most of us don't live to be a hundred, or even seventy... Say, how old are you?"

Both the femehans looked fairly surprised; the child-sized Availon was now older than either of them would probably ever be, still looked almost as young as they did and would live long after they had died. That thought was morbid. Availon ignored them and instead shared some thoughts with Gaoveel, who was very happy despite being in pain.

Tegafel finally managed to say something: "Congratulations... yes... uh, good night." Ey and Gertkeret left and went down to the sleeping space.

"You got that morbid idea of em still being all young an' careless long after we've passed, too, didn't ya?" said Gertkeret.

"Yeah... Makes me wonder a bit about what's the point in any of it anyway." Ey immediately thought that the purpose was to have children and leave the world to them, hoping that they will do better, but ey immediately rejected it. Ey was not just a birthing machine. Ey was not just a slave to children. Ey decided that everyone made eir own purpose or goal, be it the eternal cycle of life and death or something else entirely.

"Uh, thinking about that makes me depressed," mumbled Gertkeret from eir hammock eventually.

"Make yourself your own point or be without. I don't think it really matters..."

Gertkeret was quiet for a moment. "...I guess. That kinda makes sense, ya know..."

Tegafel smiled, not that Gertkeret could really have seen it. "Well, good night."

Availon had managed to sleep during the night and was not so tired anymore. However, now ey was both hungry and feeling ill, which was a very bad combination. Ey managed to eat a tiny portion of food without vomiting but felt very sick until the food advanced from eir stomach.

The day was very warm—the night had been cloudy and now Werden shone radiantly above the people aboard the ship. Availon stripped all eir clothing and stayed at the bow either resting or pulling up water to splash on emself. The femehans walked around in shorts, though Daffinil and Sertel kept their shirts on. Tegafel was a bit shy and would probably have kept eir long trousers and shirt on if Gertkeret had not talked em over it.

Tegafel was holding a rope attached to a net they were using to catch some fish and sweating so much that ey would have needed a constant supply of water. Ey was near to having a sunstroke.

Gertkeret walked to Tegafel with Ederpel in eir company. "Hey, Tegafel, ya look really um... dizzy, would you let em handle that rope for a bit?"

"Uh, sure." Tegafel handed the rope to Ederpel and noticed that Gertkeret was carrying a bucket of water.

"Uh... okay." Gertkeret grinned, lifted the bucket on eir shoulder and emptied it over Tegafel's head before Tegafel could say anything to decline.

"Ya did need it!" Gertkeret put down the bucket and spread eir arms. "People in better condition than ya are have died 'cause of sunstrokes." Ey smiled and Tegafel eyed em for a moment but said nothing. "Come on, sit in th' shade for a while an' drink somethin'." Ey gave Tegafel a bottle of water.

"As if it wasn't before th' bucketful! I bet you're too sweaty to know th' difference?" Tegafel was too busy drinking to answer. "Listen, why don't you take off yer clothes? It would help..."

Tegafel eyed Gertkeret and then turned eir eyes away. "Wouldn't that read like an open invitation to rape me?"

"Bah, they all know by now that you're not like that. An' Tylheon goes around without a shirt, ya can too."

"C'mon, we won't GLARE at ya! Sure, we might glance or look, but so what? People tend to do that. An' you are pretty, ya know that right? People usually like looking at somethin' or someone that is pretty."

"Really... I don't care what in me you're looking at, I care about that you are looking at me."

Gertkeret could not really answer that, so instead ey went on after a while: "C'mon, jus' wear shorts an' know that even though we might look at ya, we won't be doing that with thoughts about raping or anythin'. Please?"

Tegafel sat quietly for a minute. "Well, fine then. I bet I'll have to put my clothes back on after half an hour."

Tegafel just walked away inside the ship and emerged approximately two minutes later, now wearing only shorts. Gertkeret could now see why Tegafel was limping. The other crewmembers just glanced at Tegafel if even that, since they had other things to do, but Gertkeret, then again, kept on staring Tegafel's badly healed wound on eir thigh. Tegafel's umbrage piled up in eir mind and ey turned on eir heels and walked back down. Gertkeret noticed then what ey had done and ran after Tegafel. Ey caught the wakod in the sleeping room.

"Tegafel, please. It was just 'cause... I... I wondered so much why you limped but I wasn't sure if I should ask ya. An' then I saw that wound..."

Tegafel knew ey was being unfairly touchy and irritable, but ey also could not know whether Gertkeret was being honest. However, now ey could find out. "Availon? Could you tell me... if Gertkeret is lying."

Tegafel almost smiled a bit and decided to give Gertkeret another chance. "Well, uh."

"I'm sorry, I haven't seen many people with that much wounds, really. Would ya come back up, please?" Gertkeret smiled.

Gertkeret seemed fairly delighted and opened the door of the room for Tegafel. Tegafel walked back up, Gertkeret after em. The only time ey heard about the way ey looked was when Daffinil became a bit alarmed about the condition of eir wounds and then complimented eir face.

When night came and the others went to sleep, Gertkeret asked Tegafel to lay with em on the deck since the air was still warm but the clouds were gone and the stars could be seen.

"You know, I've been quite far to th' north once. There it was rather hard to see th' stars because the sky was colored green-blue... that same color Chrimd is."

"That too. At least I made it. But it's not nice not seeing th' stars when lookin' up..."

"I agree... Though, I have always seen them if I looked up on a cloudless night."

"Good. There's no point in going so far north that you couldn't see them anymore."

They lay there for a moment and started identifying stars that people had given names to—stars that were unusually bright or colored or in a strange pattern. They realized that they called them by slightly different names and had even some different constellations. Then again, neither of them was really into astronomy and they did not know much about the stars.

"Well... I guess... Well, one thing is that I don't like it if you ridicule me because of them or... or if you ask something else bad related to them."

"Well, yeah, but only so that I can avoid those ones... because I really don't want to offend ya or anythin'."

"Mh. Well, one question I don't want to hear is 'how does it feel like to have them?' at least. And if you belittle me just because I'm a wakod."

Tegafel exhaled and held a small pause. "Well, I don't know how closely you noticed but when you brought Dasdenu to see me and Availon, I made a military greeting gesture."

"Oh yeah, we noticed. We were kinda surprised even but I don't think ya noticed that."

"Really? Wow." Gertkeret nearly said something about wakods not being fit for the army, but remembered that that was one of the things Tegafel specifically said ey did not want to hear. "So you've been in real fights too? Or even war?"

"Ah, right. Wow, you've probably taken part in more fighting than I ever will... well, unless I go sign up, heh. Maybe." Gertkeret happened to not think about what Tegafel was doing here with a falangezka if ey was supposed to be in the army.

"Yeah, probably... But I don't know, if you have no reason to go to the army, I think you probably shouldn't."

"Well, it's no big thing, I guess. As long as you don't make fun of it... I just, you know, wanted to get away from my family, they were such proshts..."

"Ah... yeah, I can understand that. Well, my family wasn't jus' a pile of proshts but I can imagine well enough so... yeah."

They stopped talking and after lying there for a few more moments, got up and went to sleep.

The next day the sailors went to get their weir, sailed to the eastern shore and went to a town to sell their game. Availon ran straight to the docks, then to the ground and fell face down, holding on to the grass and shouted something in Falan. A few townspeople were a bit freaked out, but Tegafel and Gertkeret's laughing relieved them. Tegafel knelt down beside Availon and stroked the little body.

"Stable ground!" exclaimed Availon. "I'll never go on a ship anymore! Except maybe an icebreaker, those are nice..."

Tegafel grinned a bit, but grew a bit more worried when ey realized that Availon might actually be meaning it, which meant that they would not be sailing with the fishers anymore. "Oh... really? Do you want to continue on foot?"

"But... you just got into it!" went Gertkeret. "We were supposed to take you all th' way to Trarikkola..."

Tegafel looked depressed. "But... I was just starting to like it..." Ey went quiet and started wondering if eir having fun was really more important than Availon's health. Availon was quiet as well. "I... well, I suppose that if you do feel —"

"No, never mind, Tegafel. We can continue sailing. It's time that you had some fun too."

"Great!" said Gertkeret. "By the way, I've heard they might have some medicine to prevent seasickness or something. I'll look into that. Ya should eat a bunch as soon as ya stop feeling bad, then we'll wait until ya can't throw up anymore an' then we'll leave again, is that okay?"

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Availon was quiet. "Well, will you go eat soon?"

"I need to lie down here for a moment. You can go back to the ship if you like, I'll be fine."

Tegafel walked away, leaving Availon lying in the grass. Ey bought a lighter shirt and went back to the ship, only to find Daffinil and Tylheon stark-naked, lying on the deck in the sun. Tegafel blushed a little and stared at them.

Tylheon noticed Tegafel. "Hi." Ey grinned. Daffinil twitched a little, glanced at Tegafel and settled again.

"Lying in the sun. It feels comfortably warm an' makes it sort of tickle under the skin."

"I think it also makes yer skin darker." Daffinil spoke to Tylheon and grinned. Eir own, black skin could not really get any darker—in fact, it was probably getting lighter, since Tegafel thought ey was the grayest gekod ey had seen. "D'you want to give it a try?"

"Well, no, but you should. But I guess it doesn't matter much if you don't take your pants off. An' you can go to the helm if you don't want people to see you."

Tegafel smiled a bit uneasily but said: "Hm, well, I guess I could give it a try..." Ey took a few hesitant steps and climbed to the helm. Ey took off eir shirt, lay down, put the shirt over eir eyes and managed to fall asleep in the warmth and fresh sea-air.

Eventually the others returned to the ship and Gertkeret came to wake up Tegafel. However, before ey did that, ey took some time to stare at Tegafel—eir face, eir wounds, eir proportions, eir breasts, eir legs. Gertkeret then picked up the shirt that had fallen from Tegafel's face and dropped it on eir chest. "Hey, Tegafel, wake up."

Tegafel grinned a bit. "Oh, really. My back disagrees a bit..." Ey rubbed some spots that had become benumbed and pulled on the shirt.

They spent another two days at the sea hauling nets and setting and unsetting weirs before going back, this time to a town that was again a little more to the north. Availon became seasick again, but this time just did not eat anything extra and managed the whole trip without vomiting or even retching.

The night after they had left the second town, Gertkeret asked Tegafel with em outside to look at the stars again. This time they went to the aft to watch Frindwed which was nicely visible.

"Hm? That it's a huge lump of rock circling us? And that we can see it now because Werden shines on it but not on us."

"I don't know. I guess it makes sense, but other explanations make as much sense."

"To the umm... left. But it disappeared way before it even got near the horizon."

"Well, I heard that Tarakiila's monarch has an amulet made out of a fallen star."

"Cool. I heard a thing once that jinhaliares use a fallen star to make rebelling far-walkers really sick."

"Yeah..." They were quiet for a moment. Gertkeret shuffled around a bit. "Listen... um... I have a gift for you."

"Ya know, a gift." Gertkeret smiled at Tegafel's surprised confusion. "Here." Ey held out a short sword in its scabbard. Tegafel's eyes went quite wide and ey could not help but stare. "You know, 'cause... 'cause I saw yer stuff an' I noticed you only have two small knives... an' since you've been in the army, ya know how to use these an' I just got this impression that wherever you an' Availon are going, it's gonna be a bit dangerous. So I bought this for you."

Tegafel was still speechless for a moment, but eventually ey took the sword, holding it carefully and examining it superficially. "Uh... I... Th-thank you, but um... don't... don't swords cost a lot? How could you —"

"I had enough money saved anyway. I didn't know what I was gonna use it for anyway." Gertkeret smiled.

"You're welcome." Tegafel lay back and examined the short sword meticulously, slowly and finally repeatedly. It was not any cheap souvenir or a standard basic weapon that army units usually had. However, it was not much better than the army's weapons—it was shinier, sure, and tastefully decorated, but not any sharper or better balanced. "Do ya like it?"

They lay there for a few moments, not speaking. Then Gertkeret got up and offered Tegafel eir hand.

The sailors spent a few more days hauling weirs and taking fish to a few port towns. Gertkeret spent some more time with Tegafel, getting to know em and asking all kinds of things about em and eir family, making sure that ey never went overboard or if ey did, ey apologized and shut up immediately. Tegafel eventually could not help but wonder whether it was just a very complex and patient way to get into eir pants.

It was night again and Tegafel was sitting at the bow with Availon. Ey was rubbing the falangezka's shoulders. "Availon, I keep wondering this thing..."

"You know, Gertkeret. Ey gave me that sword and is acting so friendly... an' I just wonder if... if ey's just doing it so ey can get to have sex with me."

"But you have to know, it'd have been in eir surface thoughts because ey's been with me so much an'..."

"What?" Availon was a little surprised by the question, but replied nevertheless: "If these people were falangezkas or maybe even karangals, I would have had sex with at least a couple of them already."

"Yes—wait, you have heard of them. They are slightly smaller than I am, I can easily have sex with them. It's not a big thing."

Availon shrugged. "Half-breeds are not possible. What does it matter even if you had sex with an animal, as long as it's enjoyable for all parties involved?"

"Koimel! How could y— I can't b— ...What?" Availon was quiet. "You said you'd lie and then you said you had done it?"

"But..." Tegafel got up and took a few steps but returned then. "Availon, please tell me the truth and don't lie. You swore you would."

"...No, I have not had sex with an animal." Tegafel stared at Availon for a moment and walked away.

Under the deck, Gertkeret and the other sailors had just settled to sleep, but as soon as Tegafel came in, Gertkeret got up again.

"Hey, Tegafel. Are ya going to sleep or would ya like to go outside for a moment again? I..."

After a moment, the two went to the aft of the ship once again. Gertkeret had a bottle of some drink in eir hand and two mugs in the other. Ey poured some of the liquid into the other mug.

"Well, yeah, but there's so little of it in there that you can barely taste it. This is jus' wine. I thought that you wouldn't like strong kondlo, but I don't know..." Tegafel took the mug a bit hesitantly and sniffed it while Gertkeret poured emself a mugful too. "Um, would ya have liked it strong?"

"I don't know, the last time I drank any was when I was seven or something, because I nagged my parents about it. Then I didn't like it an' then I realized that people could use it to manipulate me..."

"...Oh. Um, I jus' wanna say that I'm not trying to manipulate ya or anythin'. Besides, that small an amount of kondlo won't affect ya anyway, I doubt it would even affect a kid, or a toppenran." Ey made an effort to smile carefreely.

"Mh. Okay..." Tegafel took a few sips of the drink. Ey did not taste any kondlo in it, nor had ey smelled it. The liquid did not taste like juice, but had a similar tint to it—it was just older, more adult.

"You know... I... asked Availon earlier to find out whether you were being so nice to me just because you wanted to have sex with me. But ey wouldn't do it." Gertkeret was quiet, which was somewhat unlike em. "So I'm just asking you."

"I... uh. I'm not doing this just to get into yer pants." Ey paused for a moment. "But I... I wouldn't decline if you... if you." Ey pulled eir hair back with eir hand, smiled uncontrollably and let go, the hair falling back to eir face. "Uhh. I suck at explaining, don't I?"

Gertkeret was quiet again. "Why does anyone do anythin' for another person? We're pretty social things an' we need to rely on each other... an'... uh."

Gertkeret spent another moment being quiet. "I... I didn't, don't. I just wanted to, I mean, you to be happy."

Tegafel spent a moment trying to figure out how Gertkeret could benefit from making em happy and came to the conclusion that seeing and making other people happy was the benefit: ey wanted to see that, ey wanted to achieve that. Eir was the ideal of a perfect social creature. Tegafel imagined em fulfilling every desire ey could think up and ended up getting sexually excited. Then ey grew embarrassed and tried to get rid of the excitement.

The night after the next, when the sailors were going to sleep, Tegafel spoke to Gertkeret:

This time Tegafel decided the spot and they went to the bow. Availon was asleep on the left side of the equipment box behind the small front mast, so the two femehans went to the right side. They sat on a pile of looped rope and drank the bottle empty. Tegafel thought about Gertkeret being eir personal pleasure slave again and got excited. This time Gertkeret noticed it, but ey did not say anything. After they were done with the bottle, they half laid and half sat inside a coil of rope right next to each other.

Tegafel turned eir face at Gertkeret and looked at em until the nikod did the same, after which they kissed. Gertkeret was very quiet. "We can make love have sex if you want to," said Tegafel quietly and added: "If you have a condom."

Gertkeret naturally agreed, and so they made love to each other there, in a coil of ropes under a blanket.

Gertkeret ran a finger across Tegafel's thigh quickly—ey did not want to seem overeager by starting to grope right away. "Yes... I'll go get one. Ya know, Dasdenu an' Tylheon have some... they won't mind. Please wait." Gertkeret ran off and returned soon, carrying a blanket as well. They settled on the pile of rope and under the blanket and tarpaulin. Tegafel held Gertkeret rather mechanically while they kissed and worked up an excited state. Gertkeret was slightly unsure of how ey should touch Tegafel. "Mhh. Could you... tell me what you'd like me to do?"

"Alright." Gertkeret smiled and got to work, brushing Tegafel's body in all the right and sensitive places. "Won't Availon notice this? I mean, we're right next to em an' ey's a far-walker."

Eventually the two femehans got out of their clothes, continued stroking each other and pushing each other's buttons. They performed intercourse, were satisfied and fell asleep in a bundle under the covers.

They woke up some time before sunrise because Tegafel's leg had poked outside the covers and was cramping. After a few painful moments and trying to rub it warmer, Gertkeret suggested another method to get it warm, and so they had sex again. They managed to still fall asleep and only woke up when the other sailors got up.

When they woke up, the other sailors had already risen. Tylheon, Dasdenu and Availon were looking at them and smiling. Availon seemed rather sickly, but there was no sign of it in eir voice when ey said: "Score, Tegafel."

"Oh, I'd call that even," went the ship captain, grinning. Availon waved eir arms and laughed.

24. (Krezagon) Win a fight 3867

During the next few days after their arrival in Edenþerne after the homehan attack, Krezagon's squad just rested, trying to regain health. Their superficial wounds healed fairly well and fast—Krezagon, Freppet, Riyhneon and Poutnel quickly regained their condition. Leitsel, then again, was very slow to heal, which was quite understandable. Soripel recovered quickly enough, but of course eir arm would need plenty of time to heal properly. Riyhneon's psyche was still shaky and Krezagon did eir best in trying to support the gewakod and help em have some trust in the world again. Taikehel of course did eir part in helping to defragment Riyhneon's mind, but did not tell about it to anyone, doing eir tricks in hiding. They were allowed to sleep in the sergeants' lodge the whole time they stayed there. Taikehel was allowed to visit the camp but otherwise had to stay in the town. Of course, that fit better for em as well.

The other sergeants really did not look well at Krezagon and Riyhneon sleeping together. Krezagon received many comments about that and sat that much more with just Riyhneon, trying to make em feel better. Eventually, as ey gained strength, ey started coming back at the others and they on their behalf started to not care so much anymore.

After a week or so, most of Krezagon's squad was in pretty good condition. Even Riyhneon had started to regain eir sanity. One morning ey was training with Krezagon on a clean batch just behind the sergeants' lodge. The sergeants usually used the place just for that; inventing new fighting styles, talking, making out or just otherwise spending time. Noitrun, who usually was not seen early in the morning, came there. Krezagon and Riyhneon stopped moving and talking and looked at the nigekod.

"Ah, you're here." The two did not reply, for it was not a question. "If you teach em, no wonder you were so badly beaten."

Krezagon stood up. "Excuse me? Didn't I hear you saying that when you fought homehans, most of you were killed?"

"Except not. Femehans may not be as strong as homehans, but we sure as heck aren't as stupid."

Noitrun just gave an amused half a smile and rolled eir eyes. Having done that, ey took a step toward Riyhneon, who barely had the courage to stay put. Noitrun patted em on the head and ey turned to look down. "Why don't you train with me for a while?" Riyhneon raised eir head ever so slightly at Krezagon.

"Why don't you let em reply?" replied Noitrun back while moving eir hand along Riyhneon's head and neck to eir shoulder. Riyhneon shivered, took a step back and went behind Krezagon.

Noitrun, while not really amused anymore, did not seem angry either. Ey put eir index finger under Krezagon's chin and lifted the ankod's face a little. "You little smart-ass!" ey said with a grin. "This is probably that far-walker's work, isn't it? Ey's keeping up an open mental communication channel just for you folks."

Krezagon pushed Noitrun's hand away firmly and swiftly. "What does it take for you to stop belittling and patronizing me and my squad?"

"Ha, it's not my fault if you misunderstand or don't want to take up on useful advice."

"Is that really what you think you're doing?" Krezagon wanted to howl with laughter, but ey honestly was not amused at all. "Maybe you really should think at least a little."

Now Noitrun grabbed Krezagon by the neck and lifted em up. Krezagon did not even seem too alarmed. "And maybe you should stop those insults right at the source, you prosht."

Krezagon, however, signaled em to be quiet and instead used eir left hand to squeeze the sides of Noitrun's hand together so that the nigekod had to let go. "I do not appreciate being called a prosht. Especially by someone who's obviously below me in both intelligence, fighting skills and other skills."

"Please, don't make me laugh. You may have learned a few nifty tricks, but that's all there is to it. You wouldn't stand a chance against me."

"Oh, sure you'll win—at least if you'll consider being alive after a fight a victory! Ha ha! You little poser! Shall we fight at, shall we say, noon?"

Riyhneon was a little uneasy. "Krezagon, are you sure about that? Ey's... ey's so big and strong too, probably... and ey has to have something to back up all that bragging..."

"I'll be fine." Krezagon seemed still a little angry toward Noitrun. "Let's go have breakfast."

After breakfast, Krezagon assembled eir squad and gave them an actual exercise. Riyhneon and Leitsel were supposed to watch Krezagon and note down every single mistake ey did during the fighting, while Soripel, Poutnel and Freppet were supposed to watch Noitrun and note down eir mistakes. Two resident sergeants got interested in the exercise as well and recruited a couple of soldiers to watch for mistakes as well. In the name of fairness, they also assigned two people to put down things that the combatants did well.

When noon came, around 20–30 people gathered in the lands, loosely forming the battle arena. The rules were no weapons, no breaking limbs on purpose and the fight would be stopped if someone shouted stop. The weather was suitably cloudy and cool.

The contrast between Noitrun and Krezagon was quite silly—Krezagon was skinny, scarred and relatively short while Noitrun was big, muscular and heavy. According to Taikehel's intelligence, other than Krezagon's squad, no one believed Krezagon could have even a chance at winning.

The duel started and Noitrun noticed soon that ey had badly underestimated Krezagon. No matter what ey did, Krezagon could counter it, dodge it or get over it. The only places where ey got decent blows through was when Krezagon turned to protect parts of eir body that had been hurt in the fight against homehans. Krezagon, then again, did not even start with full effort, but added it gradually as Noitrun started responding to em. Ey had assessed Noitrun's strength level correctly and got quite a few blows through, but Noitrun's heavy body absorbed a rather large part of them now that Krezagon could not exactly only aim at vulnerable and fatal spots. At least the nigekod would be very bruised for a few days.

At one time, Noitrun managed to pick Krezagon up by eir thigh and the ankod smacked Noitrun straight in the head, causing em to let go of Krezagon and fall. Krezagon came down, got up and was about to jump right back at the nigekod, but Noitrun was slow and Krezagon hesitated. Noitrun did clear eir head and the fight continued, though Krezagon's hesitation puzzled a few people.

Finally, when Noitrun was about to deliver one of eir powerful strikes, Krezagon turned as if trying to dodge a blow to a sensitive spot and the nigekod managed to knock em down. Seeing eir chance, Noitrun jumped on Krezagon, pressed down a leg, caught an arm and squeezed the throat. Krezagon pulled on Noitrun's arm. Breathing heavily, ey asked: "Stop?!"

Krezagon, after figuring that ey was not strong enough to remove Noitrun's hand, replied: "Stop."

Noitrun grinned very relievedly and shouted: "Hah!" Ey then rolled off of Krezagon, lay on the ground for a couple of seconds and got up, feeling very victorious. "There you have it. No chance. You were a bigger nuisance than I thought, though, I'll give you that."

Krezagon just grinned at em sarcastically. Taikehel knew that most of the people who had watched them now thought that Krezagon might have had at least a chance. Riyhneon came over to Krezagon and helped em up while most of the people said some short praises to Noitrun. A few even looked approvingly at Krezagon.

Riyhneon seemed to have something to say, and as soon as other people were far enough, ey whispered: "You... you had at least two chances to win em... but you..."

"I know. Taikehel will tell you why I didn't do it." Then Taikehel shared eir information with Riyhneon:

"The people weren't accepting of Krezagon's chances. They'd have denied eir winning and called hoax if ey had won. But now they saw that Krezagon's a good opponent and could even win, so the next fight..."

Riyhneon smiled a little and looked tired. "I used to love fighting when I was younger. Now it's just, well, I guess it became less fun when other people started winning me."

Krezagon grimaced. "I never won a fight when I was young if the opponent was bigger. It took me time to learn how to fight."

Most of the others had left or gone further, but one sergeant now approached the two. Ey stopped in front of Krezagon and looked confused and disbelieving. Ey spoke quietly: "You had a chance to win the fight. And when Noitrun hit you and the fight ended, you could've evaded it. Why... why didn't you take the chances? I know you saw them."

"What would've happened if I'd won?" asked Krezagon. "How would the others have taken it?"

The sergeant was about to speak, but stopped and contemplated. "...You're right. Mh... well, too bad. Noitrun really could have used a good beating."

The gewakod grinned back. "Well, you're right again. I suppose I mean that eir ego should get a beating as well."

The gewakod looked at Krezagon curiously and smiled. Ey said honestly: "I would like to see that."

"In a couple of days. I've been in a worse condition anyway." Krezagon grinned again. "Now I get proper food. Who knows, maybe I won't look like a scrawny old soo the rest of my life like I thought I would."

They both smiled and started practicing some stretching positions with variable success and some suspicious closeness. It was only suspicious because other people could see them, however, and most did not even notice it since they were too far, practicing something and focusing their attention on something else than them. Who noticed them were a few idle sergeants, Noitrun in particular.

Noitrun strolled toward the two from the front of the sergeants' lodge. "Hey you." Ey came to them and the two stood up straight. "I stopped believing that was just stretching about twenty minutes ago." Ey did not sound amused or much like anything for the moment.

"You're sexless, smart-ass! Don't try to think that this is some private mating ritual for you or something. Private it certainly isn't!"

"Stop with that gzooz already! Go stretch somewhere else and leave the mating rituals to people who can actually mate!"

Krezagon was angry enough to consider punching Noitrun in the face and the nigekod obviously expected that since ey barely even realized that Riyhneon had hit em and knocked em to the ground even after ey was already on the ground. Krezagon was a bit surprised and held Riyhneon.

Noitrun got up. "What the groshje was that! You can't seriously like that uilumiji pawing you all over! It's disgusting!"

"Do you have any idea how safe it makes me feel to be able do things with someone who can't ever rape me?!" shouted Riyhneon.

Noitrun sighed exaggeratedly frustratingly. "Aioii you gewakods! You shouldn't take up a profession where you'll be raped!"

"You're a gzoozing prejudiced child who should go out there and try the real world for a change!" shouted Riyhneon and a tear fell down eir face. Noitrun seemed very surprised, but amused as well.

"No no!" said Noitrun. "Go on, Riyhneon. What was that, are you calling me a child? You're a gzoozing TEEN! I'm 36₈ years old! Don't dream, jigewa!"

Noitrun grabbed Riyhneon's other arm and pulled em back toward emself. "Oh no, I want to he—" Riyhneon smashed eir head against Noitrun's chin and Krezagon grabbed Riyhneon's upper body. Two sergeants ran toward them from the direction of the lodge.

"I'll see how much you cry when I shove a log up your ass! Or a sword! Because that's really what you need! An' to get your genitals cut off!"

The two sergeants restricted Noitrun, who was about to grab Riyhneon by the neck.

"You'll be punished for that!" shouted Noitrun. Krezagon had covered Riyhneon's mouth with eir hand.

One of the sergeants holding Noitrun said: "No ey won't." Noitrun stared at em. "We did see that. You provoked em on purpose."

Riyhneon had settled down enough and Krezagon let go of em, apologizing. Having done that, the ankod said to Noitrun: "You just had to provoke me too. Why did you have to do it? Or forget that, I don't want to know. I just want you to leave me — us alone."

"Provoke this, provoke that. I could say that what you did out here was provocative."

"Then why don't you tell it to us in a civilized manner and ask us to stop because it disturbs the peace of your spirit?" Krezagon glanced past Noitrun and saw the captain walking toward them. Eir eyes went a bit wide and the others turned to look as well.

"Attention!" said the captain and the five people stood to attention. "So, I was told there was something of a tiff here." Captain Herkel Fremmani stared at the five for a moment before indicating the gewakod sergeant. "Senenon, tell me what happened."

"Yes, captain. Krezagon and Riyhneon were stretching on this spot and it seemed like it wasn't just stretching, so Noitrun went to speak to them. I didn't hear everything but it ended up with Riyhneon hitting Noitrun because Noitrun insulted Krezagon."

"Then uh, Noitrun insulted Riyhneon because of the raping thing and ey started shouting back, and when Noitrun pulled on eir arm, ey hit Noitrun on the chin with eir head. Then we went to pull Noitrun away and Krezagon held Riyhneon. Then we uh, argued about if ey would get punished."

"Well well. Noitrun, try to contain yourself. Do not mock people who have been raped."

"If it bothers you to watch them stretching, I give you my full permission to turn your eyes away." The captain sounded annoyingly patronizing and waited for a time that seemed very inconvenient to pretty much everyone else. "Now go, Noitrun, dismissed."

"Riyhneon, try to ignore what ey says and has said. Ey may be big and strong... but no one here agrees to having sex with em because of eir views, if that's what you can call them."

Riyhneon stared at the captain with wide, young eyes and ey forgot for a moment that ey had ever been raped.

"You two, good acting. Krezagon... try to control your libido. Dismissed." The captain walked away.

The two sergeants stared at Krezagon, who was pretty much as flabbergasted as they were. Then the three laughed, stopped laughing and left on their own ways.

"Riyhneon, are you alright?" asked Krezagon as they walked. They were heading to the edge of the forest around the camp.

"I want to cry." Riyhneon walked with a slouch, eir face hidden by eir hair. Krezagon led em to the edge of the forest and they sat down. Riyhneon spent the next half an hour weeping while Krezagon comforted em.

"I guess. Mostly because of you." Ey was quiet for a moment. "I really shouldn't have shouted at em. Why did I... not that ey didn't deserve it, but I could've gotten punished." Ey shivered.

"That's why I tried to keep you off em... At least the captain understood. I wonder if ey's ever been raped an' in a similar position." Riyhneon was quiet. "Could be. Do you want food?" The gewakod nodded. "Let's go eat."

At night, the people started gathering in their sleeping places. Krezagon settled Riyhneon in their bed and then walked over to Noitrun. Noitrun glanced at em curiously but annoyedly.

Noitrun was taken by surprise—ey really had not thought that Krezagon might have wanted to fight again. "...What?"

"Hah! You may be a good squirmer, but you can't squirm forever. Sure, if you want another beating." The nigekod grinned.

"I can squirm longer than you can keep hitting. At least I studied your style of fighting and didn't underestimate you. Mark my word, you will lose the fight." Krezagon stated it as ey would state a fact and walked over to Riyhneon. Noitrun laughed after em.

Three days later, the people set up the fighting place again and assigned others to watch the fight. The rules were the same. The fight started and Noitrun obviously wanted it to be over soon. Ey got a few more blows through than previously, but did not manage to get Krezagon down. Krezagon, then again, had to tire out the nigekod since ey did not want to just hit em over the head and be done with it in ten seconds. This time, however, Krezagon did not hold back eir blows and delivered quite a lot of them.

Noitrun breathed heavily as the two circled each other momentarily. Ey said accusingly: "You held back last time."

Krezagon smirked aggravatedly. Noitrun expected em to attack or otherwise do something rash, but Krezagon just grabbed eir crotch instead—a very obscene gesture, especially if done by an ankod. Most of the audience gagged and laughed a bit.

"That's gzoozing obscene!" shouted Noitrun. In a few seconds, they were hitting each other again.

Krezagon realized that ey did have a problem: how to restrain Noitrun once ey had em. Usually Krezagon just incapacitated or killed eir enemies, but now that would not do. The troubling part was Noitrun's size, for the nigekod could move and get up without much trouble even if Krezagon was latched onto em.

Finally Krezagon managed to get both of Noitrun's hands behind eir back and then wrap eir legs around the arms so as to not let Noitrun move them anywhere. With eir one remaining limb, Krezagon grabbed Noitrun's throat and squeezed.

"You'd be dead now if this was to the death. You lost." Krezagon squeezed Noitrun's throat harder and pressed eir fingers against the blood veins on the nigekod's neck. Noitrun still refused to call stop. Krezagon looked a bit puzzled and looked at the captain.

The captain smirked. "If ey refuses to lose gracefully, ey can lose eir consciousness too as far as anyone cares." Krezagon grinned and continued holding Noitrun's neck. After a short moment, Noitrun swayed, dropped onto eir knees, fell down and fainted.

Krezagon let go soon and stood up, facing the bulk of the audience. A few of them started clapping and cheering and eventually most of them had at least clapped a few times. Krezagon became exhilarated and ey actually jumped into the air a few times. Then Riyhneon walked to em and hugged em, though not as intimately as ey could have.

The captain grinned, walked over to Krezagon and patted em on the head. "Good job, you." A few people doubted the honesty of the fight but did not voice their thoughts very loudly. They seemed mostly disappointed and left soon. Most were glad to have witnessed a good fight and some were happy for Krezagon as well.

"Attention, Noitrun!" said the captain. Noitrun stumbled upright and stood to attention, but seemed like ey might faint again. "Accept your loss and don't make such a big deal about it. Be happy that you still have room for improvement." Noitrun was about to speak, but the captain lifted two fingers to eir face to silence em. "I expect you to be mature about this. If you go speak to the ankod, it better be to congratulate em."

Noitrun pretty much boiled with anger. Ey then just walked away with a few people who had been strongly on eir side, saying how ey had been tricked.

Krezagon stretched with Riyhneon for a while and then eir squad went to eat. For once, all the soldiers were proud to be on Krezagon's squad.

"How have your wounds healed? I was thinking we could leave soon if you felt like it."

"My arm's still broken, but if we waited for that to heal completely, we'd be here a dang long time, soan." Soripel grinned a bit.

Leitsel spoke next: "Mh, well, I don't want to use my arms much, but I can walk as well as before, soan." The others said they were good to go as well.

The next morning, Krezagon, eir squad and the far-walker gathered their things and left Edenþerne and its military camp, heading to the Forest Mountains. The general of Edenþerne had granted them an international permission, and they finally replaced one of their two-person tents with a three-person tent.

25. (Tegafel) How bad do you feel? 4159

The femehan sailors reached Trarikkola and one of the large port cities at the coast of the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean. Gertkeret was noticeably fairly sad and wished that Tegafel would come back one day and take up a profession as a fisher or sailor.

Availon and Tegafel left straight to east. The terrain was slightly more covered with undergrowth here, but the trees were mostly the same. There were more toppenrans and toppendas around, but otherwise the place was just as would be expected from a femehan nation. The weather had started getting colder, but it was still often fairly warm and occasionally hot and especially humid, which did not make Availon feel very comfortable. They did not get a new tent since the falangezka tent was by far the best tent they could have in winter, and it was not bad in summer either.

Availon soon regained eir healthy state and looks. Tegafel felt easier and happier around em now—ey knew Availon was human, as flawed and crazy as anyone. Tegafel also grew more and more convinced that Availon did not know how to do anything except manipulating people and looking omnipotent and omniscient. At least Tegafel knew how to fight and now also how to sail. And ey could survive by emself, but that was not a particularly unique skill.

They traveled for a few days, and Availon started having very disturbing dreams. Even Tegafel saw them due to Availon being a far-walker. In the dreams, sometimes even Tegafel did unspeakable things to Availon. They were devastatingly upsetting, and Availon's mental health deteriorated. Eventually the night came when ey did not dare to even sleep anymore.

One night Tegafel and Availon were sleeping together in the tent, like they usually did, and Tegafel was having a particularly sex-filled dream. First ey had sex with Roinynin, then with Krezagon and finally ey made all eir friends pleasure em, long deceased or not. And when that was not enough, ey turned to Availon and forced em into having sexual intercourse. Availon's goegen tore open and ey bled and cried.

Availon sat up in the tent, all sweaty and nearly screaming. Tegafel was startled as well, but ey was still feeling sexual pleasure and eir goninjin was swelled, standing up under eir trousers. Availon did not see it but ey knew it. Ey whimpered.

Feeling a bit bad, Tegafel gave up and settled again. Ey fell asleep soon. Availon was not calmed so easily, but was eventually able to fall asleep. Ey did not sense Tegafel dreaming, at least yet.

In the morning, Tegafel was excited again and Availon felt violated. Neither of them could remember anything, however. Availon was uneasy. They did not talk much during the day, and when night came again, they both wondered whether they would fall asleep.

They slept and dreamed and this time the dream did not even start out with Tegafel's friends, it started with Tegafel chasing Availon. Tegafel was a faster and more durable runner, ey just played with the falangezka, only barely letting em get away before almost catching em again. A few times ey poked eir goninjin into Availon and then released em again. Availon was quickly losing eir will to get away. The dream went on for a long time before Availon gave in. Tegafel pressed em against a rock face down, held em by the hands and hair and raped em from behind. When ey reached climax, they both woke up.

Availon jerked upwards into a sitting position, screaming, and then curled up into a ball and bawled. Tegafel felt pleasure before starting to feel bad, inconvenienced and uneasy about what just had happened. In addition to that, ey had to clean up the mess in eir pants.

Availon startled, shivered and shouted no before Tegafel's fingers even made contact. Ey swayed a little, crying and hugging eir legs to emself. Tegafel stared at the bare back for a moment before deciding to go outside. The air was cold and the wetness of eir trousers did not make things better at all. Ey grimaced when the cold, moist fabric came into contact with eir sensitive parts and then spent some time trying to rub the cloth dry. Ey was cold but did not come up with enough boldness to go back into the tent with Availon.

When Tegafel was just about cold enough to finally go back into the tent, Availon came out instead and immediately walked straight away from Tegafel. Tegafel waited a bit more but went back into the tent eventually, warmed up emself and fell asleep.

In the morning, Tegafel was not sexually excited at all. Ey came out of the tent and saw Availon some distance away, under a tree, half-crying. Availon looked miserable; after all, ey had spent the rest of eir night crying there. Figuring that Availon probably still wanted to be alone, Tegafel took down the tent and packed it, performed a few more morning rituals and started making breakfast. Availon did not move. Finally, when the food was done, Tegafel said:

"Would you like some breakfast?" Ey stood there, waiting for Availon to move or say that ey did not want it. However, Availon did nothing and eventually Tegafel merely put down Availon's portion and started eating. After a while, Availon got up hesitantly, walked unstably toward eir portion and started eating it.

Availon finished eating. Ey glanced fleetingly at the femehan and said: "Please don't talk to me. I couldn't bear it." It was fairly clear that ey was not angry or malicious toward Tegafel, but that ey just could not handle it emotionally. Tegafel thought ey understood it. They continued walking. Availon was tired and they held fairly long breaks.

"Why can't you just stop it?" asked Tegafel at some point during the day. "You're a far-walker, you should be able to."

Availon slept the next night alone outside. Tegafel remembered no dreams, but Availon still felt tired and violated in the morning. Ey almost remembered eir dream, but not quite. Ey did not explain anything of it to Tegafel.

The next night, they slept together again and dreamed that after Availon had given up running away from Tegafel, the femehan thought it was too easy a victory and proceeded to cut off or mutilate Availon's limbs, sensitive places and sensory organs. Then Tegafel raped em again.

They both jolted up this time. Tegafel was disgusted, disturbed and yet sexually excited. Availon shrieked in horrified panic and almost thrashed the tent but ended up curling up into a ball and bawling again. Availon did not sleep that night.

As they advanced slowly the next day, Tegafel thought about how ey had wanted to make up all the injustice that Krezagon had been subjected to. Ey was quite certain that it was not eir fault if Availon got abused, mutilated and raped in eir dreams, but ey was also certain that ey did not want it happening. Ey tried to think of any ways to make it stop and did not really come up with any. The group of two did not make it far that day. Availon could not sleep. Ey sat awake in the tent and watched Tegafel. Tegafel had no dreams about sex.

They did not even start walking the next day. Availon was not in a condition to travel, for far-walkers were rather dependent on sleep. Ey tried to sleep during the day but could not.

The next night they settled in the tent again. Availon managed to finally fall asleep along Tegafel.

They woke up in the night once again. Tegafel had had no dreams and Availon merely twitched and started crying.

"Availon? ..." Tegafel tried to touch Availon, and again the falangezka flinched and whimpered, not wanting Tegafel to touch emself. Tegafel was frustrated. Ey touched Availon's shoulder nevertheless, however lightly. Availon seemed to become even more upset. "Availon, I don't know what this stuff is, but it's obviously not my fault. I didn't even have a dream now." Ey grabbed Availon's shoulder and turned em toward emself. Availon put up a little resistance but felt too helpless to really prevent Tegafel from doing it. "I'd honestly never do those kind of things to you, or to anyone. I'd protect you." Tegafel pressed Availon against eir chest and the falangezka did not resist. Ey grabbed Tegafel's shirt with eir hands, buried eir face in Tegafel's chest and sobbed. "You're safe with me..." Tegafel was reminded of the few days after Availon had helped em escape the prison—Availon had been so comforting, so stable and reliable. Tegafel was not a far-walker, but by now ey knew ey was not completely helpless either. Ey continued holding the little body, and eventually Availon calmed down. Tegafel grew bored and fell asleep.

In the morning, Tegafel woke up because Availon had startled and started moving. However, Availon did not start crying or even sit up. Ey turned to look at Tegafel.

"In a way... I... I was having a nightmare, but this time you came in it later and saved me."

Tegafel was a bit flattered. "I didn't have a dream." Availon smiled weakly and pressed emself closer to Tegafel.

They traveled a small distance that day and talked about the reasons for Availon's nightmares.

"No. Of course I've had the few occasional nightmares and some about my youth, understandably, but not anything like this."

"Is there anything that's different now that wasn't back then?" Availon looked fairly contemplative, but said nothing. "Maybe all that killing is getting to you or something."

"Why? Is violence and murdering really a thing you get used to doing? Can you do that without feeling anything?"

Availon felt slightly amused, but did not want to smile. The issue was not funny at all. "I doubt that too. But I don't know what it is."

Night came and they settled to sleep again, this time nearly cuddling. Availon did indeed feel safer that way, and Tegafel was happy that eir comforting worked. Neither of them remembered any dreams.

The next night started out similarly, but this time they dreamed again. The very beginning of the dream was similar to Availon's nightmares; this time two jinhaliares chased em and caught em, but Tegafel came in between and killed the jinhaliares, saving Availon. Then they figured that the best thing to do at that time was to make love. have sex, so they had sex—no raping, forcing or even anything unpleasant; everything they did felt awesome. Just as they were about to have an orgasm, they woke up with a gasp.

Tegafel's thigh was over Availon's legs and eir goninjin was pressing against eir hip. Tegafel was embarrassed and moved a bit so as to not touch Availon. Availon was excited as well, but Tegafel did not notice.

Availon turned back at Tegafel and hugged em. Tegafel was not very receptive. Availon turned eir head a bit upward so they could see each other's faces. Tegafel looked slightly confused. Availon snuggled closer to Tegafel and only stopped after ey felt Tegafel's swelled goninjin against eir thigh. Tegafel was about to move away again, but Availon grabbed eir head and kissed em.

Tegafel had some controversial feelings about the kissing: on the other hand it felt nice and they were fairly close friends, but then again, Availon was of a different race and considerably smaller as well. Ey kissed back for a short moment, but pulled away.

Availon was quiet for a moment, looking away, but then ey looked into Tegafel's eyes and said: "Please."

"Race doesn't matter, Tegafel. Neither does size, unless your goninjin is too big to be enjoyable for me. But it's not obligatory to perform intercourse while having sex."

"I know how femehan reproductive organs are supposed to be like. I haven't secretly spied you or anything though," said Availon, a bit amusedly. Tegafel made half a grin. "But if you don't want to, for any reason, let's not do it. It's not... we should only do it if we both want to."

"Aren't you hasty now," giggled Tegafel and pressed Availon's lower back with eir hands. They kissed then and continued fondling and stroking each other. Tegafel's thoughts mostly trailed to the mythical qualities of falangezkas—here ey was, having sex with an intelligent, wise, beautiful, graceful and compassionate creature capable or supernatural deeds. Of course ey had not witnessed Availon doing anything supernatural, but ey did not exactly question it right now.

Tegafel sucked on Availon's nipple, making em shiver, when ey felt the falangezka's crotch pressing against eir side in a new way, and ey realized that ey had never seen how a falangezka's reproductive organs looked. Ey released Availon's nipple and gave it a hard rub with eir finger, which made Availon twitch.

Availon wiggled and answered: "Of course." Ey sat on Tegafel's chest and displayed what ey had between eir legs. Tegafel had of course seen some of it when they had taken a few baths together, but now it looked quite different. The whole genital area was swollen and fairly deeply colored. Availon, like all the falangezkas, did not have pubic hair, but ey did have some light fuzz all over eir body and also in eir crotch. Tegafel could see Availon's goegen fairly clearly, and the goinens around it were even more noticeable. The two goinens directly above and below the goegen were bigger and longer than the others. They wiggled a bit as Availon sat there, and when Tegafel poked them with eir finger, they twitched and tried to wrap themselves around eir finger. Tegafel snickered a little and Availon pressed emself closer to Tegafel's hand. "Can you put your finger in?"

"My... uh? Oh, sure..." Tegafel moved eir finger closer and poked the mucous membranes for a moment while Availon's goinens tried to poke eir hand. Availon twitched a bit, but tried to keep still. Tegafel eventually pressed eir finger into Availon's goegen—it was mucous and hot.

"Ohhh... ohh." Tegafel squeezed one of the twirling goinens with eir thumb and Availon twitched, gasping slightly.

"I've given birth. I'd be surprised if it didn't fit." Tegafel removed eir finger and for the first time, managed to notice the stretch marks on Availon's belly. Ey had certainly been pregnant. Then Availon kissed Tegafel again before sucking on eir nipple.

Eventually they decided they should perform intercourse as well. Since Availon was much smaller than Tegafel, Tegafel lay down on the blanket and spread eir legs as Availon settled on top of em. Availon spent a few moments getting their genitals properly settled, but when ey finally pressed emself against Tegafel, their organs interlocked, at least mostly. Tegafel wriggled as ey felt Availon's goinens wiggling and brushing inside eir gogenjin.

They moved about, kissed and stroked each other until they reached climax. Tegafel was completely lost in the feeling of extreme pleasure, and after it could only gawk at how it had felt—after all, ey had not had sex with a far-walker before. Ey was totally spent, but Availon still clung to em and would not pull away from Tegafel. When Tegafel figured that the last spasms of eir orgasm were over, Availon had eir second orgasm and pulled Tegafel along. Tegafel grimaced in pain and pleasure, pressing Availon's ribcage against eirs.

They lay there for a long moment, breathing and resting. Tegafel started soon being full of questions, however. Availon ran eir fingers across Tegafel's face and started replying: "Sorry, I forgot you hadn't had sex with a far-walker. I should have explained it before. I... when we have sex, our minds connect. For far-walkers, sex isn't intimate just physically, it's intimate mentally too. Mostly it means that we'll be sharing the whole experience. It just happens, I can't prevent it. I hope you weren't too weirded out?"

"No, I... I just wondered why it felt like that." Tegafel did think that it had been a bit creepy, but the extra pleasure had been worth it.

"And yes... I also forgot that you only have one orgasm. We have two, the first one prepares the release of the sex fluids and the second releases them."

"Well, doing it with you, the first one. But if it's with another falangezka, I'm not really sure. I guess they both feel just as good, but sometimes one of them is better and I don't know why, though." Tegafel pulled a blanket over their bodies and they cuddled there for a few moments until they fell asleep again.

They woke up a little embarrassed, but after they got over it, Availon actually felt like doing it, so ey asked if Tegafel would like it as well. Tegafel eventually agreed with em, and so they made love to each other.

Availon and Tegafel had sex somewhat regularly after that. Availon had a few more nightmares, but they faded eventually and stopped coming. It was the brink of autumn and the leaves of the trees started getting yellowish as the days grew shorter and air colder. They made it to the Great River and paid for a ride on a riverboat. Availon felt slightly seasick again, but the river was somewhat better for em—the traveling was either smooth or rough and the visual always agreed with the feeling.

One day Tegafel was sitting on a bench and watching the river banks go by. Ey was again thinking about what ey was getting into and looked contemplative. Then ey thought about sex and progressed to miss first Roinynin and then Krezagon. Roinynin was dead, Krezagon probably not. Tegafel wanted to be with Krezagon. Ey heard someone speak from eir right:

Tegafel turned to look at the speaker and saw a plump middle-aged or older gekod smiling at em. "Uh, hi."

"...Maybe..." Tegafel had to think a little. Ey did not want to think that maybe ey would never find Krezagon since the army did not keep soldiers in the same place all the time. "...Maybe next year."

"Well, that's good. It's usually not nice to travel all alone. You're a comely young wakod, you know that? Graceful, strong and pretty. But the scars —" Tegafel turned eir face away. Ey really was not too sure which had been worse: eir complimenting eir appearance or mentioning the scars. "Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned that. Sorry." The gekod put eir left hand very lightly on Tegafel's right shoulder. It did not feel repulsive.

"Oh, fresh adult! You look a bit older, really. Not that that was a bad thing, it isn't. Ah, I remember when I was fourteen, those were the times, ah yes... Well, say, you don't look like your spirit's feeling any better yet. Would you like a backrub?"

"Ah, I'm not calling you one. Of course I wouldn't have minded a bit of action, but it's your call now, isn't it? You don't have to lie with every person you meet." The gekod spoke lightly and smiled, though Tegafel had a little trouble not starting to scream at em, even though ey was essentially of the same opinion as Tegafel. "I'll rub your back if you want to. I hate to see such a young fine kid looking so depressed, you ought to look a bit happier afterward!"

"Alrighty then!" The gekod got up and petted Tegafel's hair shortly before starting to rub eir back. "My name is Firennil, by the way. You?"

"Well, nice to meet you, dear Tegafel." Ey kissed the top of Tegafel's head. "Now just relax and enjoy." Ey kept blabbering something about the weather, food and some other similar little issues, and Tegafel just went "mm-hm" all through it. By the time Firennil finished, Tegafel was so relaxed that eir bones seemed rubbery. Ey was also smiling a little. Firennil sat next to em. "There you go, got an adorable smile out of you!"

Firennil petted eir hair a bit while smiling at em, after which ey patted Tegafel's belly. Tegafel was so numbly relaxed that ey did not react to it. "Have you had children? You don't look like you have."

Tegafel let out a laugh and pondered a little whether ey should upset the poor gekod in a terrifying manner. "Mmh... I don't feel responsible enough to take care of children yet."

"Uh." Tegafel looked down at eir thighs. "This is getting a bit too personal. But thanks for the rubbing, it felt really good."

Firennil was a little disappointed, but Tegafel naturally saw none of it. "Oh. Well, you're welcome." Ey sat quietly next to Tegafel for some time, but eventually left.

Tegafel was just about to leave when somebody grabbed eir shoulders from behind. "Well, I'll be! It's a wakod! Wow! Never really thought I'd see one of you around!" Tegafel had barely time to turn to look at the offender, an annikod just old enough to have a few wrinkles on eir face, when ey immediately pressed eir face against Tegafel's and kissed em. Tegafel hit em on the shoulder and ey backed away. "Oh sorry, where are my manners? I'm Nurintol Derrərer an' it's a pleasure to meet you."

Tegafel was burning with rage and could barely control emself. Gritting eir teeth, ey did manage to say: "Go away."

"What? Come on, couldn't be that bad." Ey smiled widely and offered Tegafel a hand, not trying to pull em—yet.

"Aioii. Are we sensitive today? Come on, I'll kiss that attitude out of you." Nurintol took a step at Tegafel, with the attempt to grab eir arm. Tegafel stood up and drew out eir knife. The annikod, as well as the others, gasped a little and stopped. "...What the groshje?"

For once, Tegafel enjoyed the negative attention. "Leave me alone. I mean it." Tegafel tried to step past Nurintol.

"You gzoozing brat! Do you have any idea how dangerous those are? Give me that, now." Nurintol tried to grab Tegafel's knife-holding arm, but Tegafel grabbed eir arm first.

"No, it's my knife an' I DO know how to use it! Unlike you! Now leave me the groshje alone! Every one of you! I'm not a gzoozing whore!"

"What a load of gzooz!" The annikod tried to get eir arm free, but Tegafel would not let em go. Other people started looking like they might interfere, so Tegafel called Availon in eir mind.

Just when Tegafel had been told a few more times to let go of the knife and Nurintol, Availon appeared in the view of the group. All the people stared at em, including those who had seen em before. Availon walked toward Tegafel in a graceful manner and the two people in eir way immediately gave way to em. When ey reached Tegafel, ey offered eir hand and said: "Could you come with me to the bow, Tegafel?"

Availon also told Tegafel what to reply, so the wakod went: "Sure, anything beats being HERE." Having said that, ey led Availon back.

At the bow they both laughed at the expressions and feelings of the people when they had seen that Tegafel knew a falangezka and seemed to be the more dominant one in their relationship. At least Tegafel was not bothered by the others anymore.

26. (Krezagon) The world is smaller now 3272

According to Taikehel, the falangezka had been seen in Edenþerne and ey had headed to the Forest Mountains, so that was where Krezagon and eir squad went. Climbing the mountains was hard work and since none of them had really climbed on mountains before, they were quite slow.

"This is ridiculous," said Krezagon one night after a day of slow moving. They all were tired and fed up with being afraid of heights. "We can't climb. We suck at this." The others just sighed affirmatively.

"We need help, really..." mumbled Soripel. Ey had a particularly hard time climbing because of eir broken arm, but ey had managed and having to use eir arm made it heal a little faster—as long as it was not taken to extremes.

Poutnel seemed contemplative, against all odds, and said: "Don't those karangals live in the mountains? Could we ask help from them?"

Krezagon felt a little enlightened. "Yeah. You know, yeah. We could ask help from them. But why would they help us? I don't know if they do anything with our money..."

"Well, they're small, so maybe they can use our... well, your strength!" said Taikehel. "Either way, I would suppose that it doesn't hurt to ask."

"They're small people who live in the mountains. They have reddish skin and yellow eyes and I think they like to wear hats." Having said that, Krezagon went a bit sour. Thinking of karangals and nakrans reminded em of how ey had gotten eir original name.

A few more trivial questions about karangals was asked and answered. Then Taikehel tried to locate a community by using eir far-walker abilities. Ey found none.

They advanced slowly and Taikehel kept on examining the areas mentally to find a community. Eventually ey found one, and the investigation team headed there. The karangals they met were quite cooperative and gladly exchanged some climbing equipment and advice for physical work and a couple far-walker services.

After a day of traveling and using their new equipment, the team stopped to sleep. Riyhneon had slept with Krezagon for a few weeks now and Krezagon started feeling that Taikehel might want to sleep with em again. As ey settled down with Riyhneon, ey petted the gewakod's hair for a short moment and said:

Riyhneon was quiet for a moment, thinking, but said then: "You don't want to sleep with me?"

"Ehh. I don't feel I can trust them too much. Because... because anyone... with a gowanjin or goninjin could..."

Krezagon was quiet for a moment. "I suppose so, but I'd swear it." Riyhneon smiled a bit and moved eir hand along Krezagon's arm. Krezagon held Riyhneon's head in eir hands. "You feel hot..."

Krezagon was a little taken by surprise, but now that Riyhneon had asked, ey certainly felt like having sex. "Sure, I'd like that." They hugged and kissed each other, and Krezagon tried to be extra careful when touching Riyhneon's private parts. Riyhneon did not seem to be at all bothered.

Right after they were done, Krezagon was breathing heavily and snuggling eir face into Riyhneon's neck, and Riyhneon was twitching and giggling. Krezagon started getting amused too.

Krezagon smiled and kissed Riyhneon. "I'm glad you liked it." They spent a few more moments petting each other before falling asleep.

When they got up in the morning, Leitsel and Soripel eyed them fairly curiously.

Soripel tried not to smile, and Leitsel said: "We heard um... some shouting last night."

Now Leitsel was quiet, trying not to twist eir face too much due to grinning or disbelief. "It sounded like... you were having sex. But that's not right, right? You can't... do that, really."

Both Krezagon and Riyhneon grinned, the ankod more so. "Really, heh." Ey sounded rather obviously sarcastic and enjoyed seeing the others' expressions of uneasiness.

Leitsel tried to argue back by pretending to not notice the sarcasm, replying: "Really... good. But... uh. What was the screaming, really, soan?"

Leitsel and Soripel squirmed in their uneasiness. They both looked down, and Leitsel mumbled: "That's not possible..."

"Hmph. I suppose you can believe that if you wish." Krezagon said it in a serious tone, but grinned at Riyhneon.

They sat quietly for a moment. After a while, Poutnel and Freppet came out of another tent and sat down with the others.

"I heard you scream last night, soan," said Poutnel. "It sounded like you were having sex! Ha ha ha!"

The others fidgeted and Krezagon scoffed. "What do you think it was if not that?"

Poutnel looked at Krezagon with a rather stupefied expression, and Krezagon smiled smugly. "So you um... actually had sex with um..." Poutnel looked at Riyhneon.

"Why'd you have sex with EM but not me?" asked Freppet bitterly and relatively quietly from Riyhneon, though obviously the others heard it too. Riyhneon went instantly sad and looked down.

Poutnel still stared at Krezagon. "Are you really saying that you can have sex?"

"What do you think?" Krezagon got a moment of silence before the answer, and ey knew even before that that ey should not have told Poutnel to think.

"Riyhneon doesn't have a goninjin or waninjin to put into you! And how could getting screwed in the ass not hurt, anyway?"

"Not like that, you prosht..." Krezagon was annoyed enough to call Poutnel names, but ey had not intended to. "Sorry. But seriously, I do have sensitive bits in my crotch and touching them is plenty enough."

Freppet, Soripel and Leitsel had pretty much covered their faces with their hands, and only Poutnel was ignorantly staring at Krezagon. "You're kidding, right?"

Poutnel was quiet again and after looking at the others and seeing how they had reacted, imitated them. Krezagon looked at Riyhneon and started petting eir neck. Riyhneon glanced at Krezagon and signaled that ey wanted to go off for a moment.

Krezagon got up. "Freppet, get some breakfast." Ey then walked a bit further, Riyhneon following.

Taikehel came out of the tent ey had slept in and said: "Ah, I was wise to miss this. What's for breakfast?"

"I picked some fruits," said Soripel and pointed at the pile next to eir sitting place.

"Oh." Freppet wondered for a moment whether they needed anything else, but decided that they should eat meat as well, so ey dug out some dried meat.

"Oh, I know what you're saying. Let me tell you, we ankods have bits that are just as sensitive to pleasure as yours. We can have sex and orgasms, but not intercourse. So what? The pleasure bit is the best part of it anyway! I once had sex with a niwakod far-walker, and it was so awesome that we pulled in some of the other far-walkers too and it was a mass-orgasm! That was gzoozing awesome! I would like to do it again. Say, would you four like to try it? It's awesome even if you aren't far-walkers, it's enough that one is. I'll draw all your pleasure from your minds, combine it and send it back! There isn't anything better than that! How about it?"

"Freppet is too bloody impulsive," ranted Riyhneon once ey and Krezagon had walked far enough from the others.

Krezagon held eir arm around Riyhneon and sighed. "I didn't think that could have gone that bad."

Krezagon fidgeted for a short moment. "You can still sleep with me, I don't mind it at all. I was just thinking that Taikehel might want to sleep with me too."

"Ah... yeah..." Riyhneon looked down for a moment, but said then: "Maybe we three could sleep in that three-person tent? Well, except maybe if you want to have sex with em too... heh."

Krezagon smiled slightly surprisedly. "Well, that could work. I could have sex with em somewhere else anyway. I'm kind of fond of my own tent though. I wouldn't like to leave it to the others..."

Taikehel of course would have wanted to sleep with just Krezagon, but ey still declared that it was perfectly fine for em if Riyhneon also slept with them.

After one and a half weeks of traveling, the team reached a larger community of karangals. They asked whether Tegafel and the falangezka had been seen there. The answer was vague, since falangezkas were not that rare there. Even femehans traveled there often enough and since the karangals did not bother with the different sexes, they could not say for sure if they had seen Tegafel. The last falangezka they had seen had been a pregnant one, called Gaoveel. Krezagon was happy with that piece of information, as were the others, but Taikehel noticed that Gaoveel had been there earlier than ey thought would be possible for a pregnant falangezka and a limping femehan to travel. Ey did not voice eir concerns, though. It was also unlikely that Tegafel would have gone unseen if ey had in fact been there.

They traveled yet another half a week, reaching the next community of karangals. This time also Krezagon was convinced that they had lost the falangezka and Tegafel; Gaoveel was not the one they were looking for. No one in the mountains had seen Tegafel. After a while of thinking, Krezagon deduced that they had erroneously thought that Tegafel and the falangezka would go to the Forest Mountains. Instead, the two had went either to Tarakiila or Gekkyila. Because of the rumor that a falangezka had killed the royal family of Tarakiila, Krezagon figured that a falangezka probably would not go there if there was another choice. Krezagon also felt some unconscious pull to visit the nation in which ey had been born.

One night they were normally conducting their evening routine, and Krezagon had just left for a moment when Soripel declared: "I gotta go too." So ey went, but instead of minding eir own business, ey went to find Krezagon. When ey found the ankod, Krezagon was taking eir suspenders down. "Soan?"

"Yeah." Soripel fidgeted. Ey waited while Krezagon went still a bit further and then came back a while later.

Soripel looked a little sullen. "It's just that... well. We all know you an' Riyhneon have sex an' I really don't wanna know how you think you're doing it, but I mean, it's so damn unfair! I mean, you're an ankod an' you're the only one Riyhneon agrees to have sex with!"

Krezagon had seen something like this coming from far away, but now that it hit em, ey was still a little surprised. Ey stared at Soripel for a moment, and then said: "So? It's not like it's any different for you now, I know Riyhneon didn't have sex with you before." Krezagon waved eir hand in front of eir face.

"Yeah but..." Soripel was quite annoyed and did not come up with anything smarter to say. "It's just unfair."

Krezagon eyed Soripel for a short moment, not as annoyed as ey thought ey would have been. Ey had an idea and smirked at it shortly. Ey took a step toward Soripel. "Well, too bad you feel that way. If it would make you feel better, I can have sex with you."

Soripel startled badly. "What! No way!" Ey backed up a few steps. "Ew! Don't make jokes like that!"

Krezagon grinned amusedly. "It wasn't a joke." Soripel just stared at em. Krezagon waited, but Soripel did nothing, so eventually ey just started walking. "Let's go back." Soripel followed but did not come to the campsite right away, ey stayed in the forest for a moment. Ey was somewhat reserved with Krezagon from that moment on.

The investigation team finally made it down from the mountain range. Exhausted and fed up with having to climb, they all were very happy to reach the first town in the nation of Gekkyila. During the second night, some of the soldiers decided to go get themselves thrashed at a tavern. Krezagon, Freppet and Riyhneon had never been in one, Poutnel and Soripel were fairly experienced bar-customers and Leitsel did not generally like getting thrashed, but came along nevertheless. Taikehel did not want to come and instead just did some work.

Freppet and Riyhneon listened to Leitsel and did not drink too much kondlo. The three of them mostly socialized with each other and the other people in the bar. Krezagon, however, miscalculated eir ability to handle the stuff and drank too much. While Poutnel became fairly passive and delusional when drunk, Soripel got bolder, dumber and more active.

The barkeeper had not wanted to let Krezagon into the bar in the first place, but was eventually convinced by the soldiers as well as Krezagon's own manner and proof of eir sergeant status. The other customers had not been happy about it either, but eventually cared less as they started drinking more.

Even though the quality of their conversation deteriorated, they also got more colorful and less honest. Soripel and Krezagon got into a competition about telling their most interesting army experiences. Krezagon was older and definitely more experienced, thus managing to produce a larger amount of believable stories. Soripel tried to get Poutnel on eir side, but the old nikod was too deep in eir empty mind to say much of value. Soripel eventually gave up and started a more unfair topic.

"Bah!... I... who cares if you're the only one who gets to screw Riyhneon anyway? At least I can have children! An' I can go buy myself a whore if I want! You can't, ha ha ha!" The people in other tables started at them more intently, but then again, lots of things had been said and they were not that interested anymore.

Krezagon let go of eir mug of kondlo. "Hah! Who wants to have children? Kids are just a bunch of eternal nuisances! An' who cares if you can get a whore! Who'd want them anyway? All you get from them is diseases!"

"You still suck because you can't have kids! Only a lunatic wouldn't want children!"

"Ha! HA!" Krezagon shouted angrily. "Why aren't you home with your family making a bunch of brats for yerself!"

"I gotta be something so I'll be respected an' stuff an' my kids can look up to me! I don't need to have kids right away! You then again are way too old already!"

The other people in the bar seemed more interested now; a bar-fight was always a good distraction and good entertainment.

"Hey you soldiers!" shouted the bartender. "Behave yourselves!" The audience immediately gave a disappointed answer and instigated the two soldiers more.

After a few comments more about how much Krezagon sucked, Soripel let go of em and instead smashed at the nearest table.

"Shut up, you gzoozing horks! Ey doesn't suck! Krezagon is the best fighter I've ever seen! Ey can beat homehans an' big nikods single-handedly!" Eir retort certainly silenced the audience.

"I told you I beat six of them because you wouldn't have believed me if I'd have told the truth!"

They started grappling again, ran into some furniture and people's chairs and tables, but did not really cause any damage. Eventually they ran into the edge of a table near the wall and fell down with a thud, not getting up anymore.

The night went on and the bar started emptying. Riyhneon, Leitsel and Freppet tried to wake up the others, but were unsuccessful. A few other people had fallen asleep in the bar as well, and the bartender said that it's fine if they sleep there, as long as someone keeps an eye on them. Therefore, the three soldiers stayed in the bar, watching the sleeping ones.

In the morning, Soripel woke up to an annoying feeling of nausea and breathing difficulties. Eir body was ridiculously heavy and stuck. Ey tried to move, but could not, and then started shouting.

"Help! Somebody! I'm paralyzed! I can't move!" Ey was panicking, but soon heard laughter from above emself. Then ey felt movement and fingers, heard some groaning and noticed that Krezagon was wriggling on top of em. "Gah! Get off me! Get off!"

"Agh! Get away from under me!" Krezagon and Soripel shoved each other a bit and then ended up lying next to each other. "Ahh... my head... it feels like my brain is at least two sizes too big for my skull."

After some moments, the other sleeping drunkards had been awakened and they were offered a hangover shot as well as a cup of coffee, save for one who could not pay and instead started wobbling away.

"Aioii, ankod. It's a hangover shot, it will make you feel a bit better!" said the bartender.

"It's true. I've been drunk enough times to know!" stated Soripel as ey downed eir drink and grimaced as in pain.

Krezagon eyed Soripel fairly disbelievingly, but did eventually drink eir shot. They spent about half an hour clearing their heads with coffee and then left.

27. (Krezagon) How much smaller? 2626

The small team went on its way, trying to find any information about Tegafel and the falangezka. They still did not even know the falangezka's name. In towns and villages, they heard no recent rumors of a wakod or a falangezka.

About a week later they were in a forest once again. They were about to settle down for the night and Krezagon wanted to go hunting for a change.

"Who wants to go hunting with me?" Usually the soldiers announced their willingness by just speaking, but this time Soripel just raised eir hand behind the others.

"M—" started Freppet, but Krezagon had started speaking simultaneously with em.

Freppet gave Soripel a look, but they did not care that much. Soripel and Krezagon went into the forest.

The two spent some time sneaking around. After about sixteen minutes, they had not sighted a suitable prey yet. Soripel huffed frustratedly and plopped down on the ground, sitting.

"We have enough food anyway. They don't care if we go there an' say we didn't find anything."

"So you just wanted to go with me because you wanted to talk? Couldn't you just have asked me to talk? I could've sent others to hunt."

"I just didn't." Krezagon looked somewhat disapproving. "Huh? Will you tell them, then?"

"No! I don't understand you but I do respect your wish." They were quiet for a moment, and Krezagon sat down.

"I... I had a little ankoddin when I was a kid. Eir name was Jirkon. Ey was about a year younger than me. I played with em a lot because there weren't much other kids around nearby an' my younger koddins were too young. They were like over two years younger than Jirkon. Ey was a little thin kid... kind of like Taikehel, but shorter. A lot shorter. But I don't know, we were just kids then. Our parents were poor an' we shared a room. I really liked playing with em even though I was taught too that ankods were stupid an' useless... I was a kid so I didn't really care. Of course I always called em stupid an' everything an' when we fought, I always won unless ey threw things at me or slammed a door in my face. Then my parents punished em. They didn't punish me as hard, probably. I don't really remember." Soripel had not looked at Krezagon while telling eir story. Now ey turned eir face away even more. "I was eleven years old or so... One day we were playing nice, neither of us was angry or crying. It wasn't unusual really. Then my relem came in an' said that Jirkon needs to come with em. I asked where they were going and when they come back, but my relem wouldn't reply. Then ey took Jirkon away. I spent an hour or two playing by myself an' then I went to the kitchen. My alhem was there, sobbing. Ey told me to go back to my room, but I didn't go, I asked em what was wrong and sat next to em. Ey didn't answer. I felt bad an' I asked when relem and Jirkon will come home. Ey still didn't reply and it made me so sad to see em cry. So I went to my room an' cried too." Soripel stopped and buried eir head in eir knees for a moment. "I thought it sucked so much to cry. I hadn't cried in a long time. Then relem came home and Jirkon wasn't with em. I asked where ey was and threw a fit or something because they wouldn't reply to me. They were dead silent and it freaked me out a lot. Jirkon didn't come home. I think about four days passed an' ey still didn't come home an' my parents wouldn't tell me where ey was. I looked at the empty bed when I tried to sleep an' cried. They hadn't touched it or anything, it still looked like Jirkon had just gotten up from it. They hadn't even taken away the blanket or given it to my next oldest coddin. I cried there an' then I snapped an' went to eir bed, tore the hay mattress apart an' mushed up the blanket into a ball an' then slept crying an' curled up around it. My parents were pissed at me and finally took eir bed away. I only figured out years later that my parents had sold em into slavery. We were that poor. I never even went to look for em even though I wanted to. When I was old enough, I just thought that ey was a stupid ankod and I shouldn't care about em at all!" Ey buried eir head in eir knees again.

Krezagon was mostly speechless. Ey had no clue what to think about Soripel's story. Therefore, they just sat there for a long moment. Eventually Soripel lifted eir head again and looked into the forest. Ey had not looked at Krezagon since ey had sat down. Krezagon got bored and stood up, saying: "Let's go back." Soripel stood up as well, but slowly. Ey did not start walking when Krezagon did, though. Krezagon turned back and looked at the nikod, who was staring at em. They stood there for over a minute. Krezagon then walked right toward Soripel and stopped right before em. They stared each other in the eyes and then Soripel turned eir face away, looking fairly grievous. Krezagon put eir hand on Soripel's shoulder, and again they stood there for a long-seeming moment. Then finally Soripel lifted eir arms and moved them over Krezagon's shoulders. Krezagon leaned forward against Soripel and hugged em as the nikod held eir arms on Krezagon's back.

They spent a few more minutes looking for prey but found nothing, so they returned.

Krezagon and eir team spent another week walking through Gekkyila. They found no trace of Tegafel and any news about falangezkas were over a year old. Krezagon was frustrated once again and thought that the two must have gone to Tarakiila. Now the mountain range of Forest Mountains was between them and Tarakiila, and they would have to cross the mountains. Sailing the Southern Great River of the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean was not feasible, since the river penetrated the mountains and so went effectively underground. No one seemed to know for sure what kinds of things could be in and along the river inside the mountains.

In southern Gekkyila, near the Great River and the mountains, the investigation team stopped advancing for a while and Krezagon tried to figure out what they should do. They went into the army camp of the town of Šeneilen, though Taikehel stayed in the town again. Krezagon's status and rank were once again questioned.

The lieutenant of Šeneilen was a middle-aged nikod who stared angrily at Krezagon. Ey had told Krezagon to stand to attention and now spent a long time staring at eir papers and bracers. Ey even neglected to tell eir own name. "Seriously, what is this? An ankod sergeant? This can't be right!" Krezagon did not say anything to that. "This is just ridiculous. But fine, whatever! You're gzoozing harmless anyway, what do I care if you bunk here for a week as long as you do your chores. Fine. An' don't come crying to me if the other soldiers won't like you."

Krezagon was quiet for a moment while the lieutenant stared at em. "...Acknowledged, soni." Ey then took eir papers and left, and the lieutenant did not seem to even notice that ey had not dismissed Krezagon like ey should have. Krezagon went to get eir food and the other soldiers nearly caused a scene, so Krezagon decided to get eir food later. Ey also figured that since the others seemed to be this hostile toward em, ey probably should not spend too much time with eir own squad, for their sake.

Having eaten, Krezagon went to the sergeants' lodge. The four sergeants gave em mostly disbelieving looks and one genikod said to some other sergeant: "I told you!"

An old gewakod sergeant stared at Krezagon and walked right up to em. "What is this? Who are you?"

Krezagon stared back and spoke sternly: "I am sergeant Krezagon Korielter and I and my squad will be staying here for a week or so."

The gewakod stared at Krezagon intently and seemed to be more deep in thought than eir words revealed. "You're an ankod! Who'd promote YOU?"

Krezagon glared back, tightened eir mouth and walked away, near to some unoccupied bed.

"The captain understood my skills and talents and took advantage of them." The four other sergeants laughed a bit. Krezagon grimaced at them. "If you're going to do nothing but mock me, go gzooz yourselves!" Ey then flopped down on the bed and covered eir face with eir hands. Ey heard a couple of mocking words but did not care about them.

Though the sergeants questioned em again about a few things, they were not really serious and Krezagon mostly ignored them. On eir fifth day there, however, the gewakod sergeant, Havyrmeon, came by eir bed after ey had settled to sleep.

Krezagon sighed frustratedly and turned around. "What?" Havyrmeon was leaning on the edge of the bed and nearly looming over Krezagon. Ey was fairly tall and big, even—when standing, Krezagon was over a head shorter than ey was.

"Is your real name Shynderfolter?" The genikod at the eating table burst something out of eir mouth.

"See, I was a member of this squad that used to sometimes handle tiffs between karangals and nakrans, who mutilate each others' genitals. There were quite a few people in my squad who also got their bits mutilated." Krezagon was aghastly surprised and Havyrmeon seemed to feel schadenfreude. Ey grinned and continued: "Some of them are still here. But that's beside the point. See, about three decades ago I gave birth... to an ankod. And I named em Krezagon. Everyone in the squad told em eir 'family name' was Shynderfolter."

Krezagon was still quite angry. "So... what, you're... saying that you're my alhem? What a real nice way to tell it..." Krezagon had pondered and fantasized about meeting eir parents, but this was hardly eir idea of a good meeting. Ey felt bad and would rather not have met this person.

"Ah, such indiscipline!" said Havyrmeon and slapped Krezagon's shoulder. Krezagon startled and stared at the gewakod in helpless anger and confusion. "You were better behaved as a kid. In a way. I'd never have believed that you or any ankod would come this far. But I guess I did something right in bringing you up!"

"All you ever did was discourage me! I was so miserable that I wanted to die when I was young!"

Hearing that, Havyrmeon's expression changed to angry and ey smashed Krezagon's bed. "Your life may not be worth much, but it's more valuable than death! Where have you lived to value yourself and others so little? In Fetormana? Another one of those over-populated places where people don't fight against winter every year and go to stupid, meaningless wars?" Krezagon was quite astonished, though still angry. "Your second winter..." Havyrmeon did not finish that.

"Nothing. You and the other kids almost died then." Havyrmeon brought eir face right in front of Krezagon's. "Keep this in mind, you stupid CHILD. Every life is valuable, even yours. Even a crazy ankod's." Krezagon nearly growled back, but ey was smart enough to see that ey had just acted rather childishly, and the person in front of em was eir own alhem, who had shared a sensible piece of wisdom. Ey turned eir face away. Havyrmeon smiled pompously. "Well, at least there's some discipline left in there." Ey took a hold of Krezagon's chin, turned the face so ey could see it and then spent a short moment assessing Krezagon's face and scars. "An' you don't have that stupid long hair anymore. It looked gzoozing stupid." Ey then huffed amusedly, let go and left.

A day before Krezagon and eir squad would leave again, Krezagon went up to Havyrmeon, who looked at em fairly condescendingly.

Havyrmeon turned away dismissively. "Your relem's been dead for a long, long time." The answer emptied Krezagon's mind. Havyrmeon lifted eir feet up.

Havyrmeon laughed. "Nice try! You're not part of my family. Everyone here will know you as Krezagon Shynderfolter."

"That if anything is an immature attitude! And my name was officially changed anyway, it's Krezagon Korielter!"

"Ha ha." Havyrmeon grinned smugly. "Official business means pretty much nothing to you. To ankods. Have a happy rest of your life, ankod; my little kid!" Krezagon glared at the gewakod for a short moment, angry and barely controlling emself. Eventually ey just walked away.

The next day, the investigation team left Šeneilen. They were going to cross the Forest Mountains and go to Tarakiila.

In Šeneilen and some other towns, Krezagon had naturally heard about the falangezka nation called Hoiffetane-Tii. Now that ey had decided to go over the Forest Mountains, ey planned to visit the place. Ey had no clue whatsoever whether the falangezkas would help, but ey thought it would be a unique chance to actually see a large community of falangezkas.

The investigation team traveled over the mountains. The moving was easier now that they had some experience, more information, equipment and an actual goal. Walking along ridges and the hills of valleys was not very hard either, and there were plenty of them around. Also the undergrowth and forests were thinner than in the leaf-tree forests the femehans were used to. Pine trees were prevalent in the area. They all rather liked moving through the nature and providing only for themselves. They saw plenty of all kinds of mountain-related wonders on their journey.

One specifically striking place was the epic chasm that reached into the depths of the mountains. In the evening they saw nothing but endless distance when looking into it, but in the morning, after the fog had cleared and a cold wind had begun to blow, the air of the chasm cleared and they could see its bottom: a part of the Southern Great River of the Great Lake-like Forest Ocean. They could see all the way to the other side of the chasm and the distances boggled their minds. They wondered how they would cross the Great Chasm, but in two days' time, they realized that the mountains created a bridge between the two sides of the Great River. Indeed, the Great River only penetrated the mountains in the depths and it was a long way down.

28. (Tegafel) I have a bad feeling about this 2228

Availon and Tegafel spent over two weeks traveling the river upstream; the boat was somewhat like a bus, it zigzagged across the river, taking people over and along it simultaneously. When they reached the great curve of the Great River where the river turned sharply southwest, they left the riverboat and started traveling by foot again. They reached the steppe in a few days. Tegafel had never seen large areas of land that would not have been a forest originally and was rather wide-eyed. Ey was also curious about all the animals ey saw; in the meadows, a lot of animals did not run away at the first sight of another creature like in forest areas. Availon was also curious since ey had not been this far north before, so the animals were different and there seemed to be more of them.

Availon and Tegafel were only a few days into the meadows when a strange incident happened. Tegafel was away hunting some animal for food—they usually ate plants, but meat was nice to get at least occasionally. Availon, in the meantime, was setting up the tent and preparing a fireplace to cook the meat. However, as ey was gathering dried branches from bushes and the rare trees, ey sensed the presence of two vile creatures. Ey looked up and saw two jinhaliares some distance away. They noticed Availon as well. Availon was terrified. If they were both far-walkers or if the other one was a strong far-walker, Availon would be done for if ey could not find Tegafel in time. And even Tegafel was no match for two jinhaliares.

Availon screamed, dropped the wood ey had gathered and ran into the direction where Tegafel had went. The jinhaliares ran after em, shouting to em that ey would be less severely harmed if ey gave up now. Though Availon was nimble, the jinhaliares reached em fairly quickly due to their size. One of them had ran beside em and stopped em while the other prevented em from turning back. Availon was panicking but managed to try to prevent them from seeing em by using eir far-walker abilities. One of them was relatively easy to distract, but the other one was a far-walker as well, and though ey was not a very powerful far-walker, ey could for now see through Availon's tricks. Availon was too distracted by eir fear and Tegafel's abilities to save em to stop the far-walker jinhaliare. Availon spent a few moments circling and dodging the jinhaliare, but eventually the big creature got a strike through, hit Availon in the stomach and knocked em to the ground. The jinhaliare grabbed Availon by the throat and was about to smash eir face in when the other jinhaliare's head dropped to the ground in front of em. Looking up, the jinhaliare holding Availon saw Tegafel starting to run toward em, but ey could not stop Tegafel before it was too late. Tegafel ran eir longsword through the jinhaliare's chest just as ey let go of Availon. Availon rolled on the ground, away from the two. The jinhaliare screamed at Tegafel who was quite demoralized by it. Ey let go of eir sword and the jinhaliare punched em in the face. Tegafel had fortunately managed to sidestep enough so that the hit did not shake eir brains too much, and since the jinhaliare was strangely confused, Tegafel took eir chance and tried to cut deep into eir arm with eir short sword. Tegafel soon got the upper hand and proceeded to mutilate the jinhaliare just short of dying. The jinhaliare screamed again and eir right arm was rendered practically useless—many of the muscles were cut. The jinhaliare continued thrashing about and though ey got some blows through to Tegafel, they were not very serious, while Tegafel's sword-slashes were that much more devastating. Eventually Tegafel had managed to mutilate both the jinhaliare's arms and had to cut some tendons in eir legs to make em stop moving. When that was done, the jinhaliare lay on the ground, bleeding and in serious pain, obviously trying eir best to control emself somehow.

Availon seemed to be fairly paralyzed. "Y-yes, I think so. I... I was just badly startled. Really badly. I thought... that I was going to die." When Tegafel lifted Availon's arm, it shook uncontrollably. "Please kill that one as well. I feel very uncomfortable with em there. I will be fine after some time."

"Shouldn't we interrogate em first? Besides, with those wounds ey'll die in an hour."

"Jinhaliares are very resilient. But... yes, I suppose you are right. But I can't do that now. Can you disable em more and tie em to some tree?"

"Please. It is just a safety measure, but I trust eir healing abilities as much as eir ability to move when wounded. Also, ey's a far-walker, so we need to keep eir mind occupied."

Tegafel realized that Availon was very likely the expert on the issue and did as ey asked. At least torturing the jinhaliare did not feel repulsive to Tegafel—while it was horrid to be tortured, knowing how it was like did not seem to bother Tegafel too much. The jinhaliare did not scream in pain, though ey groaned suppressedly. When Tegafel was done, ey tied the jinhaliare to a tree some distance away from the tent. The jinhaliare was in pain and started to get a little messed up with it.

"Who are you? Are you one of those femehan rebel scums?! Why don't you kill me?!" ey shouted.

Surprisingly enough, the jinhaliare replied: "Drengþ, a spy! And it won't be of any use to you, all the information has been extracted and removed from my mind! Kill me, you hiyrskoori!"

"Hork you! Maybe you should wish that some predator comes and eats you!" Tegafel finished tying em up and left as ey kept on shouting insults and killing requests.

Availon managed to eventually gather emself and move. Ey was still very startled, shook and could not eat much.

Tegafel was a bit concerned about the jinhaliare. "When can you interrogate em? I'm sure that with those wounds ey will not survive a day."

"I can't do it right now. I have to rest a little. But if ey's in that bad a condition, I can just rest a few hours and do it in the night."

They finished eating and Availon went into the tent. Tegafel sat outside wrapped in the blanket and kept watch. However, once eir system had recovered enough, ey grew very tired and after one eyelid-resting session ey did not open them any time soon again.

Tegafel woke up to a vague feeling of pleasure and some sounds. Ey was fairly confounded first, but then saw the empty tent, realized that ey had been sleeping and got another adrenaline burst. Ey ran toward the place where the jinhaliare Drengþ was.

Ey could see from a distance that Availon and the jinhaliare were apparently making love to each other.

Ey could see from a distance that Availon was standing or sitting over the jinhaliare's lap in a way that definitely looked like they were having sexual intercourse. Tegafel could not really believe eir eyes, but could not question it either. Availon moved and wriggled about while Drengþ tried to do eir best to move eir goninjin around.

"Availon! Stop! What are you doing?! Availon, what the gzooz are you doing?!" Both of them ingored Tegafel, even when ey arrived and Both of them seemed to ignore Tegafel and started getting orgasmic just when Tegafel made it to the spot. Ey stabbed the jinhaliare in the chest while shoving Availon off of em. The two shouted. Tegafel pulled eir sword out and went over to Availon. By now, Tegafel could tell that Availon had had eir first orgasm, but the second one was on its way. Tegafel felt the falangezka's pleasure much more clearly now. "Availon, don't! You have to stop it! Don't!" Tegafel grabbed and groped Availon a bit in an attempt to stop eir second orgasm and Availon groaned a bit, but Tegafel failed. Availon's body discharged and ey pulled Tegafel along as well.

After a few moments of recovery, Tegafel said: "What on Earth was that? You people hate each other! Why...?"

"I— I don't know. It's... it was like a dream... I just didn't see anything wrong with it... I-I don't understand." Tegafel could sense the disgust that was building up in Availon's mind. Availon let out a frustrated shout, rolled about and tried to clean emself somehow. then started pawing eir crotch, trying to clean it.

Availon sensed the question immediately. "NO! Half-breeds are not possible! Especially ones between us and them! And ey would need another jinhaliare in order to use me as some carrier!" Availon immediately looked around emself, very concerned that a jinhaliare would spring up and rape em now.

Tegafel got up and went to check on the jinhaliare. Ey was dead now, and after detaching the rope, Availon and Tegafel went back to the tent.

"You told me once that karangals and nakrans make a lot of half-breeds... Why wouldn't it —"

"That is because they are so similar. There is nothing in common with falangezkas and jinhaliares. Our reproductive systems are incompatible, we can't produce offspring." In reality, Availon had no clue about it; ey knew well enough that a long time ago falangezkas and jinhaliares had been of the same race but ey could not even guess what was different now and what was not. There was a good chance that their gametes could combine. However, Availon did not want to even think about it. While ey did not even try to make emself believe that it was impossible, ey was so disgusted that ey prohibited emself from thinking about it.

Tegafel did not even have a clue that the falangezkas and jinhaliares might have been of the same race a long time ago. "Are you sure?"

Tegafel was a bit surprised and taken aback, but figured that it must have been a very disturbing and revolting experience for Availon. Besides, ey had not gotten pregnant from being raped, by other femehans no less, so ey could not really argue against Availon.

The next morning, Availon suggested that they go ahead with the mind-modification. Tegafel agreed, and after a day's travel, they settled in the meadows for a few days and started creating Tegafel's new memories. They did not need to be modified that much, even; Availon merely enhanced the memories of suspicion before the trip on the seaship and then inserted a scene of arguing and disagreement before adding the obvious modification of making Tegafel eir friend. Ey removed the memories of them having sex, but left much of the rest intact. Ey hid the impressions of Tegafel's real memories behind hidden blocks in eir subconscious—those would be hard to find since Tegafel was not a far-walker. Availon modified eir own mind accordingly; ey hid all eir sensitive and important information, eir and Tegafel's real memories and the contacts to most of eir friends behind a series of blocks that would be nearly impossible to breach. Ey created a bunch of new memories and hid the memory of creating those in another hard-to-reach spot. Ey hid a bunch of other, less sensitive information behind breachable blocks.

Availon had been trained at something like this and was not very freaked out by it, but it was still very strange—and justifying some of the things ey had done according to eir false memories was a strain, but doable.

The two continued traveling. They moved out of the steppe and reached the jungle. Availon hated the jungle and they barely moved in there, even though the temperatures dropped every day. They came to the next Great River, the Great River of Jungle Mountains. The Jungle Mountains resided north of Watery Mountains and they were connected by a relatively small range of mountains and canyons that were called the Flowing Passages.

Tegafel and Availon crossed the great river by a femehan boat and arrived at Gaoranola. Many femehans there thought that their nation was the biggest femehan nation of all, and those who did not think that way believed that it did not make a difference either way, because the bigger nations were so far in the north that there would not be any sense in knowing of some bigger nation anyway. Some people were of the opinion that Fetormana was way bigger, and Tegafel even spoke to one person who firmly claimed that Kervanela was the center and head of everything. Availon wanted out of the jungle, so they headed straight forward and ran across the northwestern parts of the jungle mountains. If anything, that encouraged Availon and they spent a week climbing the mountains up and down before they made it to another side where the terrain was plain leaf-tree forest again. They traveled a bit further southeast and reached meadow-lands again. Then Availon started figuring what ey could do here to break the alliance.

29. (Krezagon) Whose world is this? 4015

Krezagon's investigation team had traveled for nearly a frindo by now, and they had not run across many creatures. They had seen some karangals and nakrans, but had not bothered them. Two femehan mountain climbers were overly cautious about winter and gave them extensive and excessive descriptions about the dangers of winter in the mountains.

One night Krezagon and Riyhneon were by themselves in the thin forest, kissing each other. The other soldiers liked it better if they did not hear Krezagon shouting. Krezagon had an annoying feeling that they were being watched, but figured it was just due to eir mental link with Taikehel. However, after ey and Riyhneon were done and had started pulling on their clothes, ey spotted a faint glow of light blue on a rock, between the trees and behind some branches. Ey stared in the direction and in a blink, made out the surprised face of a falangezka.

The falangezka smiled, got up and stepped into view. Ey was wearing a headpiece of some sort, light clothing and some pads that vaguely resembled armor. Ey seemed somewhat more curvy and muscular than the femehans would have expected. A couple of small weapons were hanging from eir belt, and eir backpack seemed to be rather full. Ey spoke in common Gomanian: "Greetings to you. I thought too highly of myself, being too certain that you would not be able to see me. My apologies for intruding your privacy." Krezagon and Riyhneon just stared at em with their eyes and mouths wide open. The falangezka sensed their astonishment and merely waited for them to get over it.

Eventually Krezagon spoke, uncharacteristically choppily: "Uh... eh, who are you?" Ey of course knew common Gomanian, but ey had some trouble speaking it for one reason or another.

"My name is Vaalejo Vannteliki. I am a hunter." Ey made a greeting gesture used among falangezkas, but the femehans recognized it as well.

Vaalejo was a little amused but more inconvenienced by the manner in which the femehans seemed to treat em, so ey jumped down from eir rock and walked up to them. Ey was considerably shorter than they and seemed quite a lot like a child now. Krezagon and Riyhneon seemed rather confused. Vaalejo decided to drop eir official manner of speech as well. "Well, good to meet you. I see you've never met a falangezka before, have you? Have you even seen one before?"

Riyhneon shook eir head, but Krezagon replied: "Um, a long time ago... I think um... at least over ten years ago. I can't remember..."

"Ah, good. Well, would you like to tell me what brings you into these areas? I haven't seen much femehans here before."

"...Oh? Um, okay. Eh, sorry, I just... um. Erh, we're just um... looking for a... a person? You know, another femehan. A wakod. Limping one."

"Really? Anyone else?" Vaalejo of course sensed that they were also looking for a falangezka.

"Can't say I'd have seen them specifically. Are you planning to continue searching here?" Krezagon thought so, but did not say it. "Well, if you are, I suppose I could bring your message to the council that handles the issues brought to them by you other people. That was a circular description!" Riyhneon kept eir confusedly scared expression, but Krezagon flashed a rather furtive smile. Vaalejo smiled back. "Heh! See, we falangezkas don't really buy that 'nation' thing. The only reason there's supposedly a nation of us in here is because the leaders of your nations requested it. We have no leaders, but we do have a council that looks into 'foreign' affairs. That council is just the right place to ask."

"Thank you." Vaalejo was surprised, even if unnoticeably so, that Krezagon had managed to talk so clearly. "Do you... um, do you require that we do something for you in exchange for this information?"

Vaalejo had not expected such a statement, but produced a reply quickly: "No. However, I am on the hunt right now and have not yet found my prey. If you wish, you may assist me and then I will personally guide you to the council."

"Good. Am I right if I assume that you're about to go to sleep? If it doesn't bother you, I can come and sleep near to wherever it is that you sleep."

"Um, yes. Uh, you can sleep there with us if you wish..." Krezagon went quiet and they all waited for a moment; the two that Vaalejo would start moving and Vaalejo that the two would actually dress up. Vaalejo looked down and the femehans almost automatically followed eir line of sight and finally realized that they should put the rest of their clothes on as well. After they were done, Vaalejo smiled.

"After you, please." Vaalejo waited until ey actually saw to which direction they were going and started then following the femehans.

They came to the campsite very soon, and Leitsel, Soripel, Poutnel and Freppet started gawking pretty much exactly like Krezagon and Riyhneon had done. Taikehel's eyes were also quite firmly fixed on the falangezka, but ey managed to not look like a simpleton while staring.

Krezagon started talking, first to Vaalejo: "Uh, this is my squad... or the rest of it, I mean. Leitsel, Poutnel, Freppet and Soripel. And Taikehel just travels with us." Ey turned at the other femehans and continued: "This is Vaalejo... um... ey's a falangezka."

Vaalejo smiled and felt quite embarrassed [myötähäpeä] for emself. "Greetings. I'll guide you to the falangezka council that handles the issues of other races. I'm hunting right now and Krezagon—" Vaalejo actually felt a surge of joy of being recognized from Krezagon, and thought how useless it was. "—suggested that you could help me before I take you to the council."

Freppet bounced up. "Yeah! Uh, we can do that!" The others nodded without questioning. Taikehel did not react; ey could not really contribute to it either way.

"We're having some night snack before going to sleep... do you want some, too?" asked Krezagon from Vaalejo.

"Yes, please." Vaalejo was rather certain that the femehans' food would be of obviously inferior quality compared to eir food, but ey was hungry enough not to care, and wanted to make the femehans feel better. While the femehans prepared the food, Vaalejo read their minds.

Riyhneon felt somewhat down. Ey had not approved of being watched while having sex and was now embarrassed as well, though ey thought that ey should feel better since Vaalejo had already apologized fairly profoundly. Ey also felt mentally inferior to Vaalejo, and it annoyed em because ey knew ey was intelligent and happened to not consider that Vaalejo was probably even older than Krezagon.

Freppet was rather hyper and eyed Vaalejo fairly intently, trying to take in every physical detail and occasionally becoming annoyingly aware that the falangezka might be reading eir mind. Ey also felt inferior, but to em it was the natural order of things.

Poutnel struggled with the fact that ey thought Vaalejo looked pretty but was an akkod.

Soripel was somewhat angry that a little child-like thing like em was a hunter and an otherwise powerful person. Nevertheless, Soripel thought Vaalejo was pretty as well.

Leitsel stared at Vaalejo and pretty much just felt astonished at the fact that a falangezka had even bothered acknowledging their existence.

Krezagon wondered if ey had really seemed that stupid while talking; even though Femen and common Gomanian had nearly similar pronunciation and writing style, the differences were big enough—or too small—to confuse em. Ey was also worried whether Vaalejo would respect em as a person and the leader of the group. Ey did not know how falangezkas would treat a person incapable of reproducing, but thought that they would not really respect a trait like that either. Ey thought it was frustrating.

Vaalejo even read Taikehel's mind—eir quick surface thought scan was inconspicuous enough to go unnoticed even by far-walkers. Taikehel felt annoyed that the others were so taken by the falangezka, even though ey too was exercising eir eyes and staring excessively. Ey did not like that Vaalejo was probably a better far-walker than ey was.

Vaalejo was not very pleased, but ey had promised the femehans ey would take them to the council. With that thought in mind, ey set up eir tent some distance away from the femehans and slept when they did.

In the morning Vaalejo got up and performed eir morning routine before going to the femehans' camp. Krezagon was there waiting, since ey had wanted the last watch turn. Vaalejo walked gracefully among and over the rocks and between the trees and bushes. This time ey was wearing just eir undergarment, having declared it unnecessary to wear anything else for the moment. Krezagon stared at the small figure as it came towards em, wondering how a person of a different race could look so attractive. The falangezka had breasts, and even though they were small, they were obvious. Eir hips seemed to be wider than Krezagon's, despite the fact that ey was otherwise considerably smaller. Krezagon had never heard that falangezkas might have breasts.

During the time that it took for Vaalejo to walk to Krezagon, the ankod never turned eir eyes away from the falangezka. Vaalejo said nothing, even though ey found Krezagon's thoughts slightly disturbing, though flattering. Ey sat around the fireplace with Krezagon, not right next to em but not opposite from em either.

Krezagon took a little time to answer. "Good morning." They sat quietly for a while. "Um... I thought... an' um, I'm sorry if this sounds intruding or something... it's personal, I guess, maybe... but... I thought falangezkas didn't have breasts?"

"Oh, they only swell while we're breastfeeding. I have three one-month-old babies at home to be fed."

Krezagon gawked even worse than before. "Oh... but um... you don't look like... did you really give birth a month ago? An-an' you're so young..."

Vaalejo took a moment to reply. "I'm forty years old. My oldest child is twelve years old." Krezagon continued gawking. "My parents said it was about time I gave birth to triplets."

Krezagon went suddenly even paler. "Oh— I-I'm sorry, I uh... I'm sorry." Ey buried eir head in eir hands and was so upset ey could have cried.

"Krezagon, don't mind it. Babies are frail and the cold climate tends to get to them. I don't mind. It is sad, but it is a fact we have to live with."

Vaalejo figured ey could ask a similar question and make Krezagon think about children a bit as well. "I know you can't have children of your own, but did you ever plan raising some?" Of course Vaalejo sensed immediately from Krezagon's mind that raising children was out of the question as well, but ey waited for Krezagon to say it. Ey had wanted to make the ankod a bit squirmy, but ey saw now that the question had been more insensitive than ey had intended.

"They wouldn't let me. I can't even bring up kids." Krezagon did not really want to think about it. "Except... except maybe if... if I lived in some town and someone gave birth to an ankod and would want to kill em... maybe then they could allow me to raise em... but I couldn't feed em. Ey'd just die anyway."

Vaalejo was quiet for a moment. "...I'm sorry, I didn't know femehans are like that. Are all femehans like that?"

"I heard that in the north all ankods are either slaves or in prisons. A least I can be a soldier or a gardener..." Krezagon wallowed in self-pity and started feeling very upset.

Vaalejo knew ey had picked the wrong topic to talk about and thought that it would have been better if ey had not pursued it, but ey also did not see it bad enough to make Krezagon forget it altogether. Eventually ey just sincerely stated: "I'm sorry." Krezagon acknowledged it but did not reply. Ey was quiet for a while and then got up and walked away.

Vaalejo waited for someone else to wake up. After Soripel and Poutnel had gotten out of their tent, ey went after Krezagon. Ey found Krezagon weeping at the edge of some small cliff. Ey was leaning on a tree and occasionally looked at the small view that lay out in front of em. Ey glanced at the falangezka but turned quickly away, thinking very contradictorily about what ey wanted Vaalejo to do, what ey wanted to feel, what ey was feeling in the first place and how awkward it was that Vaalejo knew what ey was thinking. Vaalejo just walked next to em and touched eir hair, and after Krezagon got over the shock of the falangezka actually touching em, Vaalejo petted eir hair for some time. Then ey crouched down and turned toward Krezagon, took eir face in eir hands and looked into the ankod's eyes, though Krezagon had not wanted to face em.

"Krezagon, I am sorry. Even though I'm a far-walker, I did not know that the topic would be so insensitive. I can understand your situation and I apologize for everything that I said that hurt you."

Krezagon had no idea how to react to the apology, since ey had very rarely if ever faced them. The first thing ey thought of was to question it. "How could you understand it? You've never... you've never been through all this injustice."

"I understand that I hurt you unjustly and wish I would not have done that. Well, if you like, I can just erase it from your mind. Would you want that?"

Krezagon thought "no" for a while before saying it: "No. I don't want far-walkers messing with my mind."

Vaalejo was a little surprised. Ey had not thought Krezagon would not even know what ey would want. Ey went silent, and even Krezagon noticed that ey was speechless. "Um... did you ever want to see a falangezka community? We don't usually let any femehans in, and even karangals or nakrans in very small groups. I could take you around, but your squad would need to wait elsewhere." Krezagon did want to see other falangezkas, but did not want to leave eir squad behind, but could perhaps trust the falangezkas enough. Ey was unsure, sighed and said nothing. Vaalejo was quiet for a while, waiting for Krezagon to say something, but when ey did not, the falangezka continued: "Well, please tell me if there is something you would want."

"Well, maybe you could brainwash all the femehans to not think that ankods are crazy and useless..." Of course Krezagon knew it was too much to ask.

"I'm sorry." Vaalejo hugged Krezagon for a moment and very discreetly made em feel a little better. Krezagon felt up the falangezka's back with eir left hand since ey did not have anything else to do.

The group ate breakfast and then started moving, searching for tracks. A little before the night, they found some and decided that they would sleep a bit further and follow the trail more closely tomorrow.

The next day, they saw the creature that Vaalejo was after. The femehans had never heard of it and had this far just listened to whatever Vaalejo had told about it without processing the information much. The falangezka was after its fur, which was a beautiful thing and intended to make a bed out of it for eir babies. Ey also wanted a few bones so that they could be made into tools or other utensils. The animal was not that big, but it was easily the size of two femehans and very strong.

Soon after they had seen the creature, it ran away into a cave, pushed a large boulder in front of the entrance and Vaalejo was very disappointed. Ey explained that the animal dug a cave for a home and specifically kept a boulder near it for this purpose. Now it would make a new tunnel within a day or two, emerge who knows where and it would be lost.

Vaalejo laughed bitterly and mockingly, making Krezagon feel insulted. Then ey gradually stopped, starting to realize that ey was in the company of six strong femehans. Ey seemed honestly flabbergasted. "Are... are you serious? Are you able to move that thing?"

"Sorry. Krezagon, I'm sorry I laughed. I —acted stupidly. I would be so grateful if you could try moving that boulder."

Taikehel, who was idling around further away since ey could contribute nothing to the hunting, made an uplifting remark to Krezagon. "Whoa, you totally caught that falangezka with eir pants down. I wish I could feel eir mind more clearly. I bet ey's embarrassed as heck."

Krezagon grinned triumphantly and then started issuing orders: "Freppet and Riyhneon, go take down two trees we can use as levers. The rest, go find some rocks for support points." Ey then went to examine the boulder, trying to find out where they should try to push it. Vaalejo stood around, fidgeting with eir bow.

It took barely an hour for the femehans to move the boulder. Taikehel joined them but mostly spent eir time bragging to Vaalejo. They then went into the cave. The entrance was small, but deeper it was big enough for Krezagon and Vaalejo to walk side by side. They walked first with their bows ready, since they were easily the best archers of the group. Leitsel was behind them with another bow, and Freppet walked close to em, carrying a torch. They advanced slowly, but reached the creature soon enough. Indeed, it was digging a new tunnel, but turned around and attacked once it noticed it had been followed. Vaalejo and Krezagon immediately shot at it, hit it in the head and made it fall down, dead.

"Haivalofier skiize!" shouted Vaalejo, completely exhilarated. Ey nearly jumped up and down and spoke some more: "Thank you, all of you!" The femehans' sense of accomplishment grew even bigger when Vaalejo's feelings got to them, and they too felt fairly awesome. They dragged the animal's body out of the cave.

Vaalejo was preparing to skin the animal when Krezagon had a new idea. "How far is your home, exactly?"

"If there are no difficult cliffs to climb, we could just as well bring the whole thing with us. I bet you hadn't thought about that either!"

Vaalejo definitely stared at em in astonishment, and then bounced up. "You are right! Oh, koorhamo! Thank you!" Ey was quiet for a while and then said a little amusedly: "I'm not as dim as I seem, really... I just have trouble remembering that I'm not the strongest person around now." Ey grinned a bit. "I'm most likely one of the strongest falangezkas in my community."

Krezagon smiled at em and then asked eir squad: "Can we use the levers we just used on that boulder to carry that thing?" After a short inspection, they decided to cut a few more branches and constructed a carrying device. In the meantime, Vaalejo let the blood out of the animal's corpse to make it lighter and removed some unneeded internal organs as well. They left soon, heading for Vaalejo's home.

The group reached their destination in the evening. The femehans had already before that seen some falangezka buildings and a few of their inhabitants staring at them. Now they faced a rather large building that did not look much like the other falangezka buildings; it was bulky, sturdy and simple while the others had been fairly lithe and intricate. Vaalejo and two people from the bulky building asked them to place the carcass of the creature on a strange moving platform, and after they had done so, they pushed the thing inside the building and were gone.

While a few falangezkas were staring at the femehans from afar, one solitary figure appeared walking on a path and headed straight for them. Krezagon focused eir attention on that one, and the falangezka soon made eir way to them. Ey was considerably smaller and thinner than Vaalejo and had more clothes on as well. Ey positioned emself in front of Krezagon and greeted them.

"Greetings, femehans. I am Afaihel Nevelhieli, a member of the council who handles 'foreign affairs'. Vaalejo explained to me that you are looking for someone and wish to receive more information. I will thus take one or two of you to the council to present your issue. We can go there now, but you are probably tired; it is quite fine if you rest for the night first."

Krezagon was a little speechless first, but then managed to say: "Um, well met. We are in fact tired, so if we could meet the council tomorrow, it'd be great. Where could we sleep?"

"There is a zaila a short distance from here. I can take you there." Afaihel sensed that the femehans did not know the word, so ey continued and explained: "Zaila is a kind of common building complex where travelers can sleep and receive food. Many also live there while for example waiting for their houses to be built, or otherwise spend time there. It is sort of like a common marketplace of yours, I suppose, expect that most people are not selling anything." The femehans were satisfied with the explanation, but Afaihel happened to think of yet another thing. "However... the zaila, like everything else here, is the proper size for falangezkas, but not you. I am fairly sure that even the tallest of you can fit in without feeling too uncomfortable, but we have no beds that would be fit."

Krezagon had an immediate solution to that: "We do have our own bedrolls... I'm sure it'll be fine if there is space on which to spread them."

"Excellent. Follow me, please. Vaalejo will most likely come see you after ey has finished." The femehans followed.

The zaila was fairly typical falangezka architecture, but the femehans still thought it was fairly exquisite. The whole thing was built into a cliff like many other buildings, and the complex consisted of many interconnected houses of several stories. The houses were mostly built out of wood, but some metal, clay, stone and even string had been used. They were painted green, violet and blue, though some decorations of magenta and red were visible. The roofs of the houses were very tilted and sturdy. Trees grew on the yards as well, and the femehans did not know that trees that large would not normally have grown in conditions such as these. It was still obvious that some gardening had been performed here even though not nearly as orderly as femehans usually did.

Afaihel did not walk far, but guided the femehans into one of the nearest houses. There they were shown a few rooms in which they could sleep, the dining hall and other things worth seeing. They slept the night warily but soundly.

30. (Tegafel) What is done is done 2147

Availon and Tegafel traveled around Gaoranola for nearly two weeks, trying to come up with something to do. Having investigated issues enough, Availon figured that Gaoranola's ruling council and the main generals were sympathetic toward the alliance, so something needed to be done. They settled in the main city of the nation. There were a few jinhaliare ambassadors and advisors around, and Availon soon figured out what to do with them. Ey spied some information about their schedules and the places of visiting.

Availon conditioned one of the not-so-well protected generals to attack one jinhaliare visitor. The general attacked, the jinhaliare killed em and the femehan soldiers killed the jinhaliare. Ey screwed two more femehans similarly and created quite a bit of chaos around the big city. One femehan diplomat survived the attack and was thoroughly questioned and mind-probed. Availon, then again, tried to find out more ways to screw the interracial relations over.

One thing to do would be to modify the minds of the people in the ruling council, but they were nearly constantly guarded by femehan far-walkers, and if Availon came close to them, ey would be uncovered instantly. However, there was a way and Availon took the chance.

Ey searched for any person who would need to repay a favor to the chairperson of the ruling council and then sent Tegafel to the chairperson as the repayment. Slavery was was a well-fueled institution in Gaoranola, and even Availon figured that a good-looking whore who could perform bodyguard duties would be a fairly good asset. Ey had to have Tegafel learn to walk without limping, though, and try to hide the huge scars that distracted from eir beauty. Ey then slapped another made-up set of memories on Tegafel's mind—it was very crude, but would do in this situation, since Tegafel would very likely only be scanned enough to find out that ey was not a traitor or far-walker. Availon conditioned em to sneak around the chairperson's residence in the night and let em in.

One definite problem was Availon's far-walker abilities—nearly any far-walker might be able to sense em sneaking around. Therefore, Availon stole a certain device from a far-walker prison; it was constructed in a way that it blocked a far-walker's abilities. Availon felt extremely uncomfortable wearing it, but did not have any other choice.

The night came, Tegafel let Availon in and they sneaked around. Tegafel was fairly mindless and did not give cues even to far-walkers. As expected, the chairperson summoned Tegafel into eir bedroom to have sex with em. Availon could not get in so easily since the place was guarded, though most of the guards were of course outside preventing people from getting in in the first place. Eventually Availon made it in, however, and spent some time in hiding and shadows while trying to think up what to do and watching how Tegafel and the chairperson conducted their complicated mating ritual.

Having sex did not require any rituals or much anything, but people of high caste liked to have them whenever possible. Tegafel had not been raised in higher castes and certainly had not ever taken part in any such ritual, but ey knew about them nevertheless, having heard stories about them and been taught about them.

Eventually Availon crept up to the bed while the two femehans were distracted and then touched both Tegafel and the chairperson and made them stop their actions. Ey could still use eir far-walker abilities via touching, though it was very inconvenient and weird. Ey started feeding their minds with more ritualistic love-making while trying to modify the chairperson's views about jinhaliares and the alliance.

After a long time and when Availon was nearly done, the door was kicked in, soldiers rushed in with three far-walkers and started threatening Availon. Tegafel was quickly subdued and restrained. Availon removed the device on eir head and was immediately attacked by more than three far-walkers. Ey lost consciousness.

When Tegafel woke up, eir head ached terribly. Ey felt ridiculously violated and humiliated, even much more so than when the homehans had raped em. Still, eir body was fine; nothing had happened to it. Ey was very disturbed and started crying. Two persons came to em soon and consoled em. One of them was a far-walker who apologized and asked if ey could remove the disturbing feelings, since they had been caused by far-walkers poking eir mind anyway. Tegafel did not want eir mind poked anymore, but could not resist consenting. The far-walker took away the pain and the feelings of violation. Tegafel still cried a little and the other person hugged and consoled em.

After Tegafel was done with eir crying, ey looked around. Ey seemed to be in a hospital of sorts, but it was a private room. Everything was clean and neat. Tegafel's body had been washed and ey had some substance covering eir scars. The substance felt nice and cooling. The far-walker was a niwakod clad in vaguely hospital-like clothes. The other person was a gekod, and ey seemed to be a nurse or a doctor.

"Yes, I'm sure. We'll explain everything if you think you're ready to hear it. My name is Vimmoal Neehinneder, and I'm a doctor at this hospital. We are in Korrankola, the capital of Gaoranola."

The far-walker spoke next: "I'm Skarre Terekiler, and I'm a specialized nurse here."

"I'm... Tegafel Darrelter." The two smiled and offered Tegafel some water before they started explaining Tegafel what had happened, starting from the very beginning.

According to them, Tegafel had been saved from execution by Availon back when ey was in Kervanela and imprisoned by homehans. Tegafel had been so shocked and startled that ey could not think rationally. Availon had helped em to regain eir sanity and had then started to sweet-talk em into joining eir dangerous and immoral mission. Tegafel had of course considered it, mostly to keep an eye, any eye, on Availon—eir thoughts were expected and certainly not punishable. Tegafel had not agreed with Availon, so the falangezka had modified eir mind to make em accept eir mission by enhancing Tegafel's agreeable thoughts about it.

Then Tegafel and Availon had sailed to Trarikkola and traveled through a couple of nations to Gaoranola. Tegafel remembered the trip on the seaship and riverboat and the walking across the meadows, jungle and mountains. What ey did not remember was Availon's nightmares, the sex they had had and the surprise attack and sex with the jinhaliares—and of course the mind-modification.

They also explained what Availon had done to em and others in Korrankola, which was what Tegafel was mostly clueless on. Tegafel grew very angry at Availon and Skarre had to restrain em a bit to stop em from getting up and going on a rampage to find the treacherous falangezka. Tegafel calmed down and the two people left em alone for a moment to eat and think about the issues.

Tegafel was extremely angry at Availon. Ey remembered treating em like a friend, like a companion, trusting eir advice and helping em. Tegafel grew furious and ey cried again. Skarre came in later and helped Tegafel overcome eir anger and other feelings. Ey also explained what would be done to Availon.

Trained far-walkers would dig as deep into Availon's mind as they could and reveal everything ey had done. They would mentally torture, trick and break em. They were also going to do some physical damage, but only superficial, and they did not want to even consider killing em because they were afraid that the other falangezkas would not like that. They also did not want to cause any serious physical damage because Availon seemed to be pregnant and the torturer had flat out refused to torture em when ey had first seen em. Tegafel wondered about the pregnancy, but could not make any more sense of it, so ey let the issue be.

Tegafel went once to see Availon in the prison and was fairly happy to see a mistreated, naked and huddled body restrained and crying on the filthy floor of a cell. Availon's hair had been cut off and ey had an X-shaped wound on eir face. Tegafel shouted out some insults that made Availon cry worse. Ey left then, but the image of Availon's slightly grown belly haunted em for a long, long time.

Tegafel spent a couple of days at the hospital being treated, mostly for eir mental injuries. The gekod doctor insisted on treating eir scars as well, covering them with the cooling substance that was supposed to make them better and less visible. Tegafel did not resist.

One of the people in the ruling council decided ey would shelter Tegafel at least for as long as would be required for the judges to decide on the matter with em and Availon. Tegafel did not really care about the issues and instead did something quite radical for em: ey played around and along with the councilor's genikodda who was well on eir way into adolescence and was rather interested in Tegafel. The councilor had originally planned to seduce Tegafel emself, but agreed that the wakod was a more fitting companion for eir children, what with being still quite young and all, so ey did not object and was instead happy for eir genikodda whose virginity Tegafel took in a dark room after a few glasses of wine.

The following day they all celebrated the young genikod's passage into adulthood.

Two weeks after Availon and Tegafel had been caught red-handed, the investigators of the case concluded their job. Availon was considered a traitor on all sides though the definition of "traitor" barely fit em, what with em not being affiliated with anything that could really be betrayed from the femehans' perspective. Ey would have been further tortured and executed, but the femehans did not want to anger other falangezkas and killing a pregnant person was a bit over the top even for them. Therefore, Availon would be swiftly exiled and marked with the traitor's marks that included the X-shaped wound on eir face and altogether six cuts on eir chest and forearms.

Tegafel was effectively pardoned since whatever ey had done was quite clearly the result of Availon's brainwashing. Nevertheless, the judges and the ruling council could not be sure that all of Availon's conditioning was gone, so they wanted to exile Tegafel as well. Tegafel did not even want to stay in Gaoranola, so ey had no problem with the decision, especially since ey was promised an escort to take em to the border of Fetormana and the Flowing Passages.

Tegafel was given all the things that ey and Availon had had with them, and whatever ey did not need, ey gave to Availon. The tent ey kept for emself. Tegafel and the escort left soon. A far-walker came along and set a few triggers in Tegafel's mind that would make Availon flinch in disgust if ey tried to use eir far-walker abilities on the wakod. They took Availon along as well, planning to send em off into the Jungle Mountains when they would reach them. Tegafel, the far-walker and the carriage driver sat comfortably in the wagon that was pulled by a horse-like animal, and Availon had to walk, jog or run. Ey was only pulled barely inside the wagon the few times when ey collapsed while walking.

They reached the mountainous area in a few days. The carriage driver knew where ey was going and they stopped at the edge of a steep cliff that continued as far as their eyes could see. All the femehans felt fairly evil as they tied Availon to one end of a rope and started lowering em down the edge. It took a bit more rope than they had thought, but when Availon finally touched the ground on some ledge, they threw the rope over the edge, laughed and left. Availon would not be coming up from there again, and according to the carriage driver, ey could go nowhere except away from Gaoranola that way.

The carriage continued on its way and the three people reached the river that separated Gaoranola from the nation of Fetormana. Tegafel was told that ey could go east to Fetormana and spend the winter there, or ey could go west and cross the Flowing Passages. The trip should be easy along the river, and Tegafel should make it to the other side before winter. Tegafel waved the two goodbye and headed west.

31. (Krezagon) What was done? 4116

In the morning the seven femehans relaxed and played around until Afaihel came to see them. Ey sought out Krezagon, who was sitting around with Riyhneon.

"Good morning, sergeant Krezagon Korielter. Would you now wish to meet the council that handles foreign affairs?"

"Ah, good morning, Afaihel... I... yes, I'm ready to go. You said... who can I bring with me?"

"You can come alone if you wish, but if one of your people wants to come, ey can."

"Umh. I would be so uncomfortable around all those far-walkers..." Ey spoke in Femen, not wanting Afaihel to understand, but realizing it was a rather futile attempt.

"Eh, yeah." Krezagon replied in Femen as well, also thinking that it was useless. "I think I will be. Hm... maybe Taikehel would like to..." Krezagon reached out with eir thoughts and Taikehel touched em back. "Would you like to come with me to meet the council?"

Taikehel met the two outside, and with that they were off. Vaalejo came to see them after a few moments. With em was a short and apparently rather young falangezka. Ey waved at Afaihel and spoke to the two femehans:

"Good morning, Krezagon and Taikehel! This is my oldest child Maolen. Ey wanted to come see you."

Maolen twisted eir mouth in a bit of a grin and asked something a little enthusiastically from eir parent. Vaalejo let out a snicker, answered and spoke to the femehans again: "Heh, maybe you would find this a little flattering. Maolen just asked why you had so pale skin, since most femehans are dark-skinned. Ey thinks you look pretty with pale skin." Krezagon and Taikehel both smiled somewhat surprisedly and thanked Maolen before they went off again.

It took them four hours to walk to the place where the council members were. Krezagon wondered why they could not just have handled the issue with far-walker abilities, but did not want to bother Afaihel by asking. Taikehel did, however, and Afaihel said that communication was still easier face-to-face, and the council would need to be sure of their motives and reasons when another falangezka was involved. Scanning for such things over a great distance was difficult.

So they walked. Krezagon and Taikehel were interested in all the falangezka buildings and people they saw and asked a few questions about them. Afaihel replied dutifully but was quite a lot more interested in explaining things about plants and made quite a few detours to pick out some plants and fed them to the femehans. Taikehel could not really have cared less about the plants, but Krezagon saw the usefulness and tried to learn and remember what ey could.

The falangezka council members had gathered into a building. Krezagon did not think that it was a regular building in which people lived, but it was not a mayor's office or the like either. Ey was also sure that it was not specifically a building for the council of foreign affairs, because it was just as falangezka-sized as the rest of the buildings—they would have built it bigger so that members of the bigger races could fit in better otherwise. Ey had no idea what the building's purpose was, and ey did not want to ask. Taikehel, once again, did not care.

Krezagon had expected the council to consist of at least sixteen falangezkas, so ey was slightly surprised when ey was only faced by three people. One of them was rather old—this far Krezagon had not seen a specifically old-looking falangezka, but ey did not look special. However, compared to many old femehans, the falangezka elder seemed to be in relatively good condition.

The "meeting" was quite informal in Krezagon's opinion, since ey was used to the idea that femehans did things like this with rather strict protocol, even if ey had not previously taken part in them. However, the informality helped alleviate eir mind and the falangezkas were happier. Krezagon told them their issue, after which the falangezkas talked for a while and said that they did not know anything, but that they would look into it and that Krezagon should come back after a few hours. Krezagon spent the time well and walked around the area. Taikehel tagged along, though ey would rather have wanted to have sex with Krezagon now that they were alone, so to speak, or then talk to a falangezka and ask how ey could better eir far-walker abilities. Unfortunately, ey was too proud or insecure to ask the falangezkas to speak with em.

The falangezka council eventually summoned Krezagon back and revealed much of the plot to em. The falangezka who was traveling with Tegafel was Availon Gandeheilei, while Gaoveel, the falangezka they had erroneously followed earlier, was the last falangezka who had been in Availon's company. The councilors obviously did not explain what it was that Availon was doing—the results of telling that would be troublesome or hurtful to one or all parties involved and convenient to most likely no one. They would leave Availon to worry about explaining emself to Krezagon if they were to ever meet. According to Gaoveel, Availon had not come south at all, but had headed north and was planning on heading to the largest femehan nation.

Krezagon was fairly inconvenienced by the information, or the imprecision of it. Taikehel and the falangezkas knew well enough that no nation really held the title of the biggest femehan nation, but they had not assumed that Krezagon was aware of it as well. Nevertheless, the fact that ey knew it was barely news. The falangezkas assumed that the largest femehan nation nearby was Fetormana or one of the nations north of it.

Afaihel took the two ankods back to the zaila where the other femehans were. During the trip, Krezagon thought about what they should do, and did not come to a conclusion. Ey talked more about it with the other squad members, and eventually they decided they would just continue east, go through Tarakiila's southern parts, pass the area just south of Watery Mountains and enter Fetormana.

The next day, the investigation team left. Nearly two weeks passed and they eventually reached leaf tree forests again, and not too soon after that, saw where the Great River entered the depths of the mountains. They met femehans from the nation of Tarakiila and were told more vividly about the horrible tragedy where nearly all the members of the royal family had perished.

They reached the shores of the Great River. Riyhneon, Freppet and Soripel insisted that they travel across the River to the island that lay in the middle of it, and so they traveled there to satisfy their curiosity. They traveled east through the island and then crossed the Great River again, coming back to Tarakiila. The areas here were ambiguous—they did not particularly belong to anyone. Communities of homehans and femehans lived there, some quite ignorant about the larger schemes of things. Indeed, the area between the Watery mountains and the Great River was harsh and no nation particularly wanted to declare itself the owner of such an obvious waste of resources.

There, among the leaf-forested wasteland, Krezagon and eir squad came across a backwater femehan village.

The buildings in the village were terribly shoddy and they wondered why no one fixed them—there were plenty of trees around and they were not of inferior quality. Only a few people were out, and they seemed to be idle and in bad condition.

Krezagon told Freppet to ask for the general information they needed. Freppet walked to the closest loitering young nikod.

Freppet was fairly confused and went: "Uh... how about an um... the mayor's office?" The youth slowly pointed down the street and Freppet followed with eir eyes, but did not see anything special there, just a few more shoddy houses. "Um, which one..."

They walked toward the other houses and kept their eyes open for a sign. The few older people outside stared fairly intently at them. After backtracking once, they noticed that one building had a very worn and old sign that barely had any visible letters left, and it most likely read 'mayor'. Krezagon knocked on the door, waited, knocked again and waited some more.

Eventually the door opened, and behind it was an annikod youth. "Who are y—! Get out!" With that, ey slammed the door shut and the soldier squad was dumbfounded. Taikehel said that the youth was just discriminating ankods, but that now ey was having second thoughts because they were soldiers, and ey had went to get eir relem, who was the mayor.

Then Taikehel suddenly stopped and said: "The mayor's amiwage is a far-walker. I don't think ey's in eir right mind, but I'm not sure. I won't do anything except shield your minds now." Krezagon looked a little alarmed and nodded.

After some waiting, the door opened again, and the same annikod was behind it. This time ey opened it more and stood partly to the side, with one hand behind eir back. The mayor, a past middle-aged scrawny nigekod was standing some distance away, also with one hand behind eir back. The wagekod was behind em, peeking and apparently scared.

Krezagon raised an eyebrow and answered: "We're soldiers from Kervanela. We're on a mission to acquire a fugitive."

The mayor stared at Krezagon. Ey obviously did not want to talk to an ankod. "Ugh, so? What's Kervanela anyway?"

"...Never mind. Is there a place here where we could sleep? We can do some work in exchange."

"...Right. Goodbye." The annikod youth slammed the door again. "What a strange village. I suppose we just better move on. Let's try to find a shop, though."

The soldiers walked around for a while looking for a shop, but did not find any. They were fairly puzzled—where were these people getting their food from?

While they stood around trying to solve the food puzzle, a jinhaliare walked from behind a building toward them and shouted in common Gomanian: "Who are you? You're not from this village!"

The femehans were obviously quite surprised, but Krezagon gathered emself and said: "We're soldiers from Kervanela. We're on a m—"

"What are you two?" asked the jinhaliare, pointing at Krezagon and Taikehel. "I thought toppendas had fins and stuff?"

The jinhaliare looked annoyedly puzzled. "Why does your voice sound like a child's? You look much older!"

"Other femehans' voices change, don't they? ...Wait, are you again one of those new sexes I haven't heard about? Geez, what is it with you... Isn't one enough?"

"A femehan wakod ...a gray-skinned, limping femehan who looks a little like em." Krezagon pointed at Riyhneon. "And a falangezka who was traveling with em."

"Um... they actually went much further north but we only found that out a while ago. We're circling the Watery Mountains from here and heading to Fetormana then."

"I bet ey's allied with some stupid femehan rebels and that other femehan you're looking for is a rebel! You aren't rebels, are you? You better be able to prove it!"

Krezagon was a little taken aback, but dug out the international permission paper ey had been given and showed it to the jinhaliare. The jinhaliare looked at it, but even Krezagon noticed that ey did not understand its purpose even though it was in common Gomanian.

"Hrmhr... right... fine." The jinhaliare gave the paper back. Ey then turned and started walking back.

After a moment of silence, Taikehel said: "Freghert. Ey's not a far-walker, but ey's been trained against far-walker abilities."

"I don't know, and I don't know jinhaliares nearly well enough to risk using my abilities on them here like this."

"We should find out what's going on in here. This place looks awful. Something has to be badly wrong."

"You don't need to take part in it. Let's go in pairs and ask the people what's going on. If any jinhaliare tells you to leave again, leave and go back to the edge of the forest where we came from. Let's meet there an hour or so before sunset."

"Krezagon, this is insane. What do you think you're doing? We need to leave before they kill us."

"I'm pretty sure I know more about jinhaliares than you do. And what, they'd kill us? We're in an alliance with them!"

Krezagon stared at Taikehel for a moment. "Let's go." Ey wondered a lot why Taikehel did not just make em go back to the forest right away, or modify their memories somehow. Ey did not dare to say anything about it, thinking that maybe Taikehel was too scared or busy to think about that or even reading eir mind about the issue—or something else.

They all got back to the edge of the forest by sunset and shared their findings. Some hunters and the jinhaliares occasionally brought game and other food to the villagers, and some people did cultivate the land, but very shoddily. The village was not really managed except by the jinhaliares, who the femehans did not dare to oppose. The femehans were either slaves, bastards or masters, and no one seemed to know why or even do anything about it, even though the slaves were more than able to overthrow their masters and obviously were not happy with their situation. Some jinhaliares lived in a few houses at the edge of the village. However, they had only seen Freghert.

Krezagon was fairly intrigued by the mystery. Ey could not figure out why the jinhaliares were here in the femehan village, apparently terrorizing the people. Freghert had not seemed like ey was on top of things either. Krezagon decided that they should keep an eye on the village for a few days at least.

For five days, the soldiers spied on the villagers who for the most part wondered whether Krezagon's squad was there to get back the "weird soldier" they kept as prisoner. They were also quite irked at the fact that Krezagon seemed to be the sergeant and thought that it was some sort of hoax. The villagers wished the soldiers would go away and not anger the jinhaliares. Taikehel refused to listen in on the mayor or jinhaliares' minds, because ey did not want to risk it. The others also did not risk spying the far-walker wagekod, who would most likely be able to reveal them.

Most villagers were unhappy about the jinhaliares oppressing them, but apparently had been long ago beaten into submission and forced to be passive. There were three jinhaliares in the village, but there had been more before. The soldiers managed to listen in on them as well, and they were mostly annoyed at having to stay there, though the reason for their staying was left unclear. Krezagon thought that their superiors had assigned them this "mission", but ey was still puzzled as to what the mission was. The jinhaliares also complained about the weird soldier and wondered half-heartedly what to do about the annoying femehan soldiers who were snooping around. They were worried that Krezagon's squad might be an official army unit, and that gave also Krezagon a reason to worry. Why would they be worried about about the legal army and keep a femehan soldier as prisoner?

On the morning of their seventh day there, one of the idle youths in the village came to the edge of the forest to give them a message. It read, in Femen, that the soldiers should come meet the mayor and the jinhaliare so that things can be sorted out. The note described the place as well, and it was the spot were the jinhaliares' houses were located. Krezagon did not really know what to think of the note, but Taikehel was quite sure that it was just a stupid ploy to get them there so the villagers could catch or kill them. Nevertheless, when Krezagon decided to go, ey came along. Before that, however, they moved their stuff to a new spot, a place where they would run through if they had to escape. Rain started pouring down when they were on their way and they were soaked.

One young, scrawny femehan was outside in the yard shared by the three houses where the jinhaliares lived. When the soldiers arrived, ey mumbled that ey will go inside and inform the others that they had arrived. Not too soon after that, some villagers and jinhaliares ran out of the houses, attacking the soldiers.

Krezagon ran to em, shoved em a little and snapped: "Take care of the far-walker and run away!" Krezagon barely had time to cut down the mayor who was attacking em when Taikehel told em that the wagekod far-walker was in a house, protected by a couple of archers. Krezagon ran into the house, knocked out the archers and killed the far-walker. There ey saw a dark hollow in the floor, and in the follow nothing, until at second glance ey made out the dark figure of a femehan. Then ey was attacked from the back and ey had to fight a large jinhaliare. Ey managed to kill the jinhaliare and joined the others outside, first by piercing a few of the enemies with arrows. Taikehel had ran.

Some of the villagers were there to fight with the jinhaliares, but other than the mayor, they were fairly lousy opponents and fell soon. The jinhaliares, then again, were much harder to fight—no one in Krezagon's squad had faced them before and they were quite intimidating in addition to actually being good fighters. Poutnel fell at some point, and when the fight was mostly over and everyone was tired, the last standing jinhaliare managed to slice off both of Freppet's arms before Riyhneon could finish the jinhaliare.

For a fairly long moment, they stood still, listening to the rain and Freppet screaming in horror. The rain mixed with the flowing blood, coloring the whole area that much more morbid. Then Riyhneon went to Freppet and tried to calm the nikod down, but the only thing Freppet would say was that ey wanted to die.

Krezagon seemed a little shifty, and after a while walked to Freppet and asked, restrainedly and not looking at em: "Are you sure you want to die?" Freppet quietly confirmed it once again. Krezagon did not waste more time and cut open the veins in Freppet's neck.

Riyhneon was rather shocked and could not say anything. Ey sat there and buried eir face in eir hands. Soripel and Leitsel stared at Krezagon.

Krezagon went over to Poutnel, who was only barely alive. Ey had lost a lot of blood and had a deep-looking wound in eir stomach. Krezagon spent a short moment trying to wake em up. Poutnel did still wake up. "Hurgh... K-Krez... I can't see."

"I'm n-not hurting... it means I'll die. Right. You... you're... it's okay." Having said that, Poutnel closed eir eyes and tried not to breathe anymore. After a moment, it was evident that ey had succeeded. Krezagon held eir face until ey was gone.

After a fairly long, ominous silence, Leitsel stared shouting. "This place reeks of death! Did they even make it to the spirit plane!? Where's Taikehel? We need to leave! I can't stay here a moment longer!"

Krezagon stood up and answered. "Shut up! You're a soldier! People die! We're alive and we should stay that way!" Ey glared at Leitsel, who did not shout back. "Gather yourself. You've been through this before."

After yet another moment of silence, Krezagon continued: "Let's go get that soldier they were holding prisoner. Ey was in that house, I think." Soripel and Leitsel followed Krezagon, but Riyhneon stayed where ey was, looking at Freppet's corpse. Krezagon looked at em and tried to decide whether it was better to leave em be for now, or take eir eyes off the corpse. Eir decision was that it was better to distract the gewakod. Krezagon walked to em and said: "Please don't dwell on it now. Ey's dead, that can't be changed anymore."

Riyhneon stood up rather violently and walked past Krezagon, pushing em roughly while passing em. "Because YOU killed em!" Riyhneon walked a bit further and covered eir face with eir hands again. Krezagon let em be.

The ankod went inside the house where the dark figure had been. However, now the hollow was empty. The room was messy and fairly full of stuff and furniture and the bodies of the archers were on the floor. The whole place smelled filthy.

"I don't know..." Having said that, Krezagon looked to eir left and saw the dark figure again. Ey almost missed it and had to turn eir head again. The figure was standing against the wall and holding a dagger. Krezagon grabbed the figure by the wrist almost instinctively, surprising it. Krezagon pulled the figure out of the shadows and was faced by a scarred and fairly mutilated femehan gekod who seemed only a little younger than ey was. The gekod hesitated for a moment and Krezagon managed to twist eir arm behind eir back.

"What the..." Soripel and Leitsel had not seen the gekod at all and only had time to act when the small battle was already over.

"We're not here to hurt you. We'll let you go. Actually, I guess you can come with us if you wish." Krezagon let go of the gekod, who still took a step back into the shadows and became quite concealed again. Ey kept a combat stance of some sort. "You're a soldier, right? So are we. We don't really know what was going on in here, but they attacked us when we were investigating things..."

Krezagon looked at Soripel and waved eir hand in front of eir face before turning back to the gekod. "Do you wish to come with us?"

They waited for a long time, but the gekod did not reply. They all just stood there.

The gekod still did not answer. Krezagon continued: "It's okay. You don't need to say anything." Krezagon signaled Soripel and Leitsel to go outside, so they did. Ey offered eir hand to the gekod. "Will you come with us?"

After a few long seconds the gekod took a step forward. Krezagon could not force emself to smile now, so ey withdrew eir hand and went outside into the rain. The gekod followed. Riyhneon stared at em for a second, but then they started running. No one said a word.

32. (Availon) Rationality does not work that way 2310

Availon had been confused and broken for a long time by eir recollection. Ey barely cared about what happened to em and had been constantly crying. After the femehans had left em, Availon cried for two hours before eir mind started clearing up, though ey had enough sense of future to create a vague mental connection to Tegafel and the others—it was enough to track them with effort and would likely not be noticed. Now the violent thoughts were gone, now no one wanted to hurt em, now no one was there to insult em. Crying did em no good. Ey started to gather the pieces of eir intelligent mind, and by evening, had them in some sort of order. Availon conditioned emself to be goal-oriented and started climbing down, using the rope the femehans had more or less unwillingly given em. Ey traveled as far as ey could and settled to sleep.

After some hours of nightmares, ey woke up and scanned a large area of the mountains using eir far-walker abilities—ey would need help from karangals now. Ey did not really find anything definite, but thought ey could vaguely sense some sort of population south of em, so south ey went. Once ey had gotten near the bottom of the canyon, traveling turned out to be fairly easy and ey reached a community of karangals by evening.

Availon was ridiculously relieved to sense the place and the people, but was then overcome by fear; what if the karangals would also consider Availon a traitor? After all, they were bound to do some sort of cooperation with the femehans and Availon could not figure out which way they would sway. Ey stopped eir climbing short, curled up and started crying. After about half an hour, ey heard a karangal shouting to em in Kralan. Availon moved and the karangal switched to common Gomanian. Ey asked whether Availon needed help. Availon admitted that ey did and soon ey was thrown a rope. Using it, ey climbed the final cliff up to the edge of the karangal village. Three young people stood in front of em, looking at em in a bit of awe and more confusion. Tears fell from Availon's eyes.

"P-please... I... I seek a place to rest... for a few days," ey said, eir voice faltering. Ey could barely keep emself from breaking down. The young karangals looked concerned above anything else. One of them took Availon's backpack and the two others took eir hands and guided em through the village to a relatively magnificent house. They fetched the owner of the house and explained the situation in Kralan. The owner replied something and then spoke to Availon in common Gomanian:

"Please, come in. Do you want to rest, eat or get cleaned up first?" Availon nearly burst into tears and then started crying quietly. The older karangal took eir hand and said: "You can rest and clean up in a bath. We'll prepare one for you." Availon took off eir shoes and the karangal walked em through the house while giving orders to some younger karangals. "My name is Verko-Merra and I'm the elder and ruler of this village."

"I-I'm Availon Gandeheilei... A-and thank you for allowing... allowing me to rest here."

Verko-Merra led Availon into a bathroom that had a bathtub in it. Even though karangals were fairly small, the tub was big enough for Availon. Verko-Merra had Availon sit on a bench, commanded someone to help Availon undress and then held eir head comfortingly. Ey raised a curious eyebrow when ey saw Availon's belly. "Are you pregnant?" Availon blocked the question from reaching eir conscious mind and did not reply. Ey could not handle the issue at the moment. Verko-Merra did not push the issue and instead issued some more orders while figuring out Availon's body temperature. Three karangals had started heating the somewhat complicated system that formed the bathing tub. The system comprised some sort of fireplace on the floor, a tub-like metal sheet over it and another, more tub-like structure over the first one. It seemed to guarantee that the actual tub would not get too hot.

After a few moments, the bath started getting ready and Availon went into the tub. Ey was immersed in warm water and was relaxed and half-asleep in a minute. Ey vaguely felt some careful and light hands on eir body, washing em and stroking em. Availon fell asleep.

Verko-Merra woke up the falangezka after ey had slept close to two hours. Though still tired and weak, Availon felt better and enjoyed it while two karangals rinsed and treated eir body. Some substance was put over eir wounds and then they were tied up, even though they did not bleed. Availon was given eir clean set of clothes and some extra clothes as well. Availon was too tired to wonder why being this warm felt this good—usually ey would have been sweating. Ey was then directed into a dining hall, where food was served. Many karangals were there as well and they all welcomed Availon. Availon felt instantly better—the positive thoughts of the people were a very effective antidepressant. Ey got a bit more social and talked despite eir tiredness, though not about eir wounds or why ey was there in the first place. The karangals were considerate enough not to ask.

After they had eaten, Availon was directed to a bed that had been prepared for em earlier. It was warm, soft and clean and Availon fell asleep almost as soon as ey had settled into it.

When Availon next woke up, it seemed to be afternoon. Ey rolled around in the bed, enjoying every comfortable sleeping position thoroughly, until someone came into the room.

"Ah, you are awake. Do you feel better now?" asked the karangal. Ey was also somewhat old, but not as old as the ruler of the village.

"The others are still sleeping, but I can get you something to eat if you like."

"I would appreciate that, thank you. I can eat a small snack now and then wait until the others wake up."

The karangal nodded and led Availon into the kitchen. Availon helped to prepare eir own breakfast—karangals could always appreciate help when it did not require giving advice and explanations.

"I'm Korrakra-Harje. I'm Verko-Merra's partner." The karangal smiled at Availon. Availon responded and started eating. "Do you wish to share why you are here?"

"I... hm. I would like to think that through myself. My mind is quite messed up, still, and I doubt I could give you a coherent report. I would like to tell of my travels at night, if that would be proper."

Korrakra-Harje told Availon a few more generalities, after which Availon went back into eir room and lay down to rest and go through all what had happened. Ey found all the mind-blocks ey had created before going to Gaoranola and now started undoing them. They were fairly tricky things, even for em, but ey had created them emself and could eventually bypass them. Many of the things made more sense now, though it did not make the memories of torture and interrogation any better. Ey also felt very guilty for Tegafel, whose emotions of betrayal ey still remembered. Ey had not thought that Tegafel would react so strongly.

Availon spent some more time organizing eir thoughts and trying to figure out what to do now. Thoughts of the future and especially Tegafel made em somewhat depressed, but the feeling passed somewhat when ey joined the karangals again.

Late in the night, Availon started explaining eir situation to Verko-Merra, Korrakra-Harje, a social worker and some very smart engineer. The social worker mostly managed the inventory and distribution of goods among the people and the number of people and seemed to work as a psychologist as well—the village had no far-walkers. The engineer was Verko-Merra's grandchild and was mostly there because ey wanted to be there.

"I've been traveling around the Forest mountains and Watery Mountains for nearly three years now. I'm a diplomat and negotiator; I came here to urge the femehans to break their alliance with the jinhaliares. It did not really work out well this last time..."

"They are going to start going to war eventually, and that will result in the loss of countless of lives. They might even start threatening areas like this where they can't live."

"I would not know, but the jinhaliares are not exactly known for their excellent choices in picking the areas where they war."

"But don't the jinhaliares mostly have some grudge with your kind? Why would they attack us? And femehans don't tend to arrange attacks into places where they know they can't live."

"You are right. But still, wouldn't it be better if there were no warring at all?"

"Yes... So, previously I mostly spent time trying to kill off important jinhaliares who were residing in femehan nations. I did that when I went to Gaoranola, but then as I attempted to modify the minds of their ruling council, they discovered me and you can see the result."

"I see. Well, at least you aren't dead! I'd have thought they would kill you or mutilate you."

"They assumed that the other falangezkas would take too harsh a revenge if they did so."

"I had another person with me, a femehan called Tegafel. Ey was exiled as well, but they decided to escort em all the way... Me they just threw down a cliff. I made em think that ey worked willingly for me, but the other femehans unraveled that and now ey feels nothing but contempt toward me."

Availon wanted to tell them that Tegafel had allowed it, but did not want to risk it. "I regret that I did it..."

Verko-Merra nodded approvingly. "Well, you're quite an adventurer. What are you planning to do now? Go home? Though I doubt you'll make it in that condition, unless there's a falangezka community nearby. Or if you use one of those airships of yours." Availon looked down at eir slightly swelled belly and knew well enough that soon ey would not be able to travel. "Why on Earth did you let yourself be impregnated?"

The karangals went silent. "Oh... I'm... I'm sorry." They had not really thought that a falangezka could be impregnated against eir will—an accident could of course have happened, but Availon did not have a partner along and had not said that ey would have had a partner before.

Availon sensed the shock and wanted to alleviate it. "It's alright. I'm not quite sure how it managed to happen. It did not feel wrong... though I would like to not go into details about it."

After a small pause, Availon continued: "I suppose I'll try to find Tegafel and make things well between us again."

"No. There is something else involved... but it is very complicated as well. But I do fear that Tegafel would not accept me again..."

"I would be surprised if ey did. But I wish you well nevertheless. I assume you are planning to leave?"

"I'm not sure... I'm barely able to travel and no doubt I will need some equipment."

Availon instructed the karangals to build a small hot-air balloon; it came out similarly as the one ey had had constructed last winter. In return, ey mostly shared information, since ey did not have anything else to give. The karangals were satisfied with information on how to better their insulation techniques. The balloon was prepared rather quickly, and Availon left in two days. Ey did not really use the balloon much—it was a climbing tool above anything else.

Availon used eir abilities to track the femehans and though ey would have traveled faster by following them by road, ey was fairly certain that ey would not have been able to move fast enough to catch up with Tegafel, so eir chance was to try to cut in front of em.

Ey was a little worried when the femehans reached the border of Gaoranola and Fetormana, since if Tegafel went to Fetormana and not the Flowing Passages, Availon would not be able to reach em. Ey was also quite sure that the officials of Fetormana had not yet forgotten eir doings there and might even be able to recognize em. However, Tegafel headed to the Flowing Passages.

Availon faced plenty of difficult spots but easily overcame them with eir balloon. Ey also followed Tegafel, who also had an easy journey along a river. However, the femehan became to a halt soon when ey came face-to-face with a waterfall. Availon could tell that ey thought eir escorts had lied to em. Tegafel did not turn back though, and instead started climbing up the cliffs beside the waterfall. It took Tegafel a long time to do that, and Availon nearly caught up with em then.

1 Femehans consider being left-handed a sign of mental retardation and incompleteness of body. In most femehan communities, left-handed people are just scorned, but in some they are hunted down and killed. Yet in some communities it is just a bit more than a curiosity. Nevertheless, most left-handed people learn to use their right hand instead or then just try their best at hiding it.
Interestingly, falangezkas are predominantly left-handed and could not care less about which hand a person wants to use. Most karangals are also left-handed and playfully mock right-handed people, while nakrans are mostly right-handed and mock left-handed people.

The Legend of Planet Kyerrion

Tales from Kyerrion

14. (Krezagon) I suffer 3098