[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.21

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 Edentherne. 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 not 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. Pouttel seemed half-conscious; ey had been somewhat badly wounded in the battle. Sorifel 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 Sorifel glared at em. They were all naked and tied up.

"How badly are you wounded?" Krezagon asked.

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

Hearing the others speak, Leitsel attempted to control eir crying.

"Leitsel? What happened to you?" asked Krezagon. The nigecod did not answer.

Even the others were quiet for a moment, but eventually Sorifel 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..."

"And we haven't seen Riyhneon after we were taken here," added Sorifel.

"Has... has anyone been here?" continued Krezagon.

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

"Have you tried to open your ropes?"

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 Sorifel 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 ancod 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 nigecod lie down on the ground. The ancod untied eir legs then and moved on to the others, first untying Freppet, who could untie someone as well—Riyhneon still seemed unresponsive and Sorifel had a broken arm. Freppet untied the other nicod while Krezagon worked on Riyhneon's ropes. The gewacod 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 Pouttel 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, Sorifel 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... I uh... Are there more homehans? In here?"

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

Taikehel went into to cell and saw the condition Leitsel, Riyhneon and Pouttel 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 Pouttel."

"I can do that if you help em on my back," said Freppet. Krezagon helped em.

"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.

"The stuff is this way," replied Taikehel and started moving.

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 Sorifel 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 Pouttel, Sorifel 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 Pouttel had been awake only briefly. Freppet was relatively awake while Krezagon and Sorifel 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 Pouttel, after which they stitched up each other and finally also fixed Sorifel's arm properly. After that, Freppet went to sleep—also eir strength was very much needed tomorrow. Sorifel 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 Sorifel would not be able stay up through the whole night, so the ancod 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.

Sorifel 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. Sorifel shook Krezagon by the shoulder.

"Mh... m-hm... uh?"

"You fell asleep, soan. —" Krezagon sat up immediately, obviously just as alerted as Sorifel 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. Sorifel 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. Sorifel started waking up the others as well. Pouttel 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 gewacod 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 Pouttel was weak from blood loss. Sorifel, 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 Edentherne. 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?"

"No, but it would be very welcome."

"Are you in a good enough shape to explain your being here to the captain?"

"Yes. May my squad receive that immediate medical attention you spoke of?"

"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..."

"Ey will need to stay outside the fence. Ey isn't that wounded, right?"

"Right. Alright, please take me to the captain and my squad to the medic..."

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 gewacod. When Krezagon came in with the soldier, ey just glared at the ancod. Krezagon stood to attention and greeted the captain, after which ey idled, confused, since the captain did not speak.

"Well, that's a sight! An ancod as a sergeant!"

"Um, yes, sogewa."

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 am sergeant Krezagon Korielter."

"So... why are you here, and in that condition? How's your squad?"

"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."

"A far-walker, really?"

"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."

Krezagon and Callen went out.

"Far-walker?"

"The one who wasn't a soldier."

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 ancods 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 nigecod, 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 nigecod eyed Taikehel a little and the far-walker grinned. "I'm Noitrun Mikpeler."

"I'm Krezagon Korielter... this is my squad, Riyhneon, Sorifel, Freppet and Pouttel. 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 gewacod.

"Riyhneon?" asked Krezagon. "...Are you okay? Will you come to eat?"

"I... feel sick. I don't really want to."

"You should..."

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 gewacod 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 gewacods shouldn't be in the army." The three gewacod 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?"

"I don't think all people would be traumatized by it, sonige."

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

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

Pouttel 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 ancod 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 Edentherne. Does it have any bathhouses? How about any need for far-walker services?"

After a bit of silence, one of the gewacod 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 ancod in." Taikehel's expression went fairly annoyed and ey stayed quiet.

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

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 nigecod.

"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?"

"One of your soldiers said that you were raped."

"What?" Krezagon was somehow astonished by the nigecod's choice of subject, followed by wondering why ey wanted to bring it up in the first place and got to feeling annoyed at Pouttel for having said it. "Pouttel 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 ancod, 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 ancods because of one case in eir home town. If it was true."

"Who was ey?"

"A nicod 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 ancod 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."

"Um... how did it actually feel... like?"

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."

Krezagon looked even more irritated. "You wouldn't have a choice."

"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 ancod. 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?"

"No, but obviously you're too stubborn to not be insulted or something."

"I'm really tired."

"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 ancod 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.