[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.24

During the next few days after their arrival in Edentherne 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 Pouttel quickly regained their condition. Leitsel, then again, was very slow to heal, which was quite understandable. Sorifel 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 gewacod 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 them 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 nigecod.

"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?"

"We fought other femehans."

"Even more reason."

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

"What the gast is your point?"

"You shouldn't be training them to lose or die."

"I am not!"

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.

"No." Krezagon spoke instead. "Ey doesn't want to."

"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.

"Ey didn't want to do that either."

Noitrun, while not really amused anymore, did not seem angry either. Ey put eir index finger under Krezagon's chin and lifted the ancod'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."

Riyhneon managed to speak: "Let go—"

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 nigecod 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."

"Wanna bet?"

"Hah, I don't want to crush you like an insect."

"That's at least a lie."

"Well, yes it is, actually. Do you honestly want to fight against me?"

"Yeah. And I know I'll win."

"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?"

"Sure."

"Fine." Noitrun walked away, laughing a little.

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 Sorifel, Pouttel 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 nigecod would be very bruised for a few days.

At one time, Noitrun managed to pick Krezagon up by eir thigh and the ancod 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 nigecod, 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 nigecod 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..."

"Next fight?" went Riyhneon at Krezagon.

"Yeah. Why not?"

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."

"You don't think ey got one?" asked Krezagon with a grin.

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

"Oh, I plan to give em one."

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

"You will." The sergeant kept on smiling and walked away.

"Are you well enough to fight another time soon?" asked Riyhneon.

"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."

Riyhneon looked a little better. "Maybe you should stretch your body a bit."

"Do you want to help me?"

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.

Krezagon was not feeling too cooperative. "Well I'm sorry if it bothers you."

"It's not about that. It's just indecent."

"So you admit it bothers you. Since when is closeness indecent?"

"Since it happens between the two of you."

"You're not part of it. Why don't you mind your own business?"

"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!"

"If it isn't a mating ritual, why the heck does it bother you?"

"Because you don't act like that."

"So I should make it more clear that it is a mating ritual?"

"Stop with that gzoozz 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 nigecod 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 gewacods! You shouldn't take up a profession where you'll be raped!"

"You're a gzoozzing 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.

"Riyhneon, don't —"

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

"See how much YOU cry when you're raped!"

Krezagon pulled Riyhneon by eir hand. "Don't say that to em!"

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!"

"Riyhneon, shut up! Be quiet!" shouted Krezagon over Riyhneon's threats.

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."

"Defending another gewacod, sure! Ey hit me twice and I did nothing to em!"

The other sergeant, a nicod, spoke as well: "You did provoke too much."

Riyhneon had settled down enough and Krezagon let go of em, apologizing. Having done that, the ancod 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 gewacod 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."

"If I —" began Noitrun.

"No. Quiet. Continue."

"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."

Noitrun gritted eir teeth a bit. "Yes, sogewa."

"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."

"Yes, sogewa." Noitrun walked away.

"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.

"Do you feel better?"

"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 gewacod 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.

"Say, how about a rematch in a few days?"

Noitrun was taken by surprise—ey really had not thought that Krezagon might have wanted to fight again. "...What?"

"A rematch. So that I can win too."

"Hah! You may be a good squirmer, but you can't squirm forever. Sure, if you want another beating." The nigecod 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 nigecod 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."

"Maybe."

"Why?"

Krezagon grinned. "Winning wouldn't have been any good."

"What?"

"If you don't understand, you're better off not trying to figure it out."

"You're a nutwit."

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 ancod. Most of the audience gagged and laughed a bit.

"That's gzoozzing 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 nigecod 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.

"Kill!" ey shouted. "I have won." The watchers stared.

"No you haven't!" said Noitrun while trying to futilely free eir arms.

"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 nigecod'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.

Noitrun also woke up soon enough. "Ugh... what..."

"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 ancod, 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." Sorifel 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.

"Well then, should we leave tomorrow already?" The others approved.

The next morning, Krezagon, eir squad and the far-walker gathered their things and left Edentherne and its military camp, heading to the Forest Mountains. The general of Edentherne had granted them an international permission, and they finally replaced one of their two-person tents with a three-person tent.