[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.20

Krezagon's squad traveled for five days on the road to Edentherne 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."

"No... I meant for bathing."

Krezagon made a stupefiedly amused grin. "Bathing?"

"Do you bathe?" said Leitsel.

"What does that mean?" said Riyhneon. Pouttel laughed.

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.

"Do you want to bathe?" asked Krezagon.

"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.

"I kind of wondered why you smelled so good at first..." went Krezagon.

"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, what are you doing?"

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.

Krezagon fell asleep and Taikehel soon after.

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.

They traveled for a day and nothing happened.



The next day, as they were walking, Taikehel stopped suddenly.

"Wait! Do you hear that?"

The others were quiet. "What?" said Krezagon.

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 nicods looked fairly nonchalant, but Riyhneon was uneasy and Leitsel downright hostile.

"I am not getting naked here!" exclaimed Leitsel. Riyhneon fidgeted uneasily.

Krezagon stared at them, half-dressed now. "Why not? Listen, if I'm not ashamed of my gzoozzing '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 gzoozzing 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 nicods 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 ancods and nicods 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 nicods started watching the two ancods.

"You know, it's funny... you two are so similar, because you're ancods," said Sorifel. "But still you're so gzoozzing different."

Taikehel knew what Sorifel meant, but Krezagon did not. "Huh?"

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

Taikehel led Krezagon off the line of sight of the nicods, 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.

"Hey, I know you like me..."

Krezagon smiled and turned eir face away. "I... spent two and a half frindos lusting after a wacod 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."

"See, that's a problem because I'm not sure what I want."

"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.

"Where did Riyhneon and Leitsel go?"

"They went behind those rocks there."

"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 nicods 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.

"Would you join the rest of us?" asked Krezagon.

"No," said Leitsel. "I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"I just don't like the way they make fun of my breasts. It's plenty enough that Pouttel 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 nicods 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 gewacod in the water. There was actual sand in the bottom, so it felt nice to sit down.

"How about you?"

Riyhneon was uneasy. "Mhm... I... it's kind of complicated."

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 gewacod's back.

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

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.

Krezagon made a small grin as well. "I could talk to them."

"I don't know... it's okay when I don't sleep with them."

"Well, they still ought to stop, right?"

"Yeah." They were quiet for a moment. "Hm, I guess that's one lucky part being an ancod, 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."

Riyhneon was quiet for a moment. "And uh... you... want it?"

"...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 gewacod'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 ancod'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 ancod 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 ancod 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?"

"Oh."

"But uh... Do you want to do it with me at all?"

"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," replied Riyhneon, seeming just as disturbed.

"Maybe we could do it in my tent tonight... if you still feel like it."

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

"Will you come over there with me?"

"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, do you like me?"

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 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.

"Listen... Do you know what it's like to have sex with a far-walker?"

"Mhmhm... isn't it the same as with anyone else?"

"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 ancods 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?"

"I suppose." Krezagon was slightly inconvenienced.

"I'm sorry. Does it bother you?"

"...I don't know. Not that much, I guess."

"Well... How good did it feel?" Taikehel grinned.

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?"

"Oh?" Krezagon was inconvenienced, but said: "No."

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 each other. Taikehel was jealous but accepted eir place—intelligent other-walkers could never really trust far-walkers. It was a healthy trait.