[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.26

According to Taikehel, the galanfetzcan had been seen in Edentherne 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 Sorifel. 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.

Pouttel seemed contemplative, against all odds, and said: "Don't those garandals live in the mountains? Could we ask help from them?"

Freppet looked confused. "Garandals?"

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."

"What are garandals?" went Freppet.

"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 garandals and nacrans reminded em of how ey had gotten eir original name.

"Do they have sexes?"

"They're accods," replied Taikehel.

"Ew," went Pouttel.

"Do they have far-walkers?"

"Not much."

A few more trivial questions about garandals 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 garandals 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 gewacod's hair for a short moment and said:

"Riyhneon... When do you think you could be ready to sleep with the others?"

Riyhneon was quiet for a moment, thinking, but said then: "You don't want to sleep with me?"

"Oh... no, I didn't mean that."

"Ehh. I don't feel I can trust them too much. Because... because anyone... with a gowanjin or goninjin could..."

"They won't."

"You can't know that..."

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..."

"Well, yes, I... Will you, uh, have sex with me now?"

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.

"What's so funny?"

"I'd forgotten that you shout."

"Oh. Heh..."

"Why do you shout, anyway?"

"I don't know. I can't control it really."

"I feel like shouting, I guess, but I don't. Or I hold it or something."

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 Sorifel eyed them fairly curiously.

"What?" said Krezagon.

Sorifel tried not to smile, and Leitsel said: "We heard um... some shouting last night."

"Oh?"

"It sounded... weird?"

"Weird how?"

"Well, you. It was you, right? Soan?"

Krezagon held a short pause. "Yeah."

"Uhm. So... why did you shout?"

A short pause followed again. "Why do you think I did?"

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 ancod 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?"

"Aioii. If you touch your wanjin or genjin, don't you feel pleasure?"

Leitsel and Sorifel 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, Pouttel and Freppet came out of another tent and sat down with the others.

"I heard you scream last night, soan," said Pouttel. "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?"

Pouttel looked at Krezagon with a rather stupefied expression, and Krezagon smiled smugly. "So you um... actually had sex with um..." Pouttel looked at Riyhneon.

"Shut up, Pouttel, it's not like that's possible. Hmph!" said Leitsel.

"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.

Krezagon looked firmly at Freppet and snapped: "Freppet, shut up."

Freppet turned eir head down as well. "I-I'm sorry. Uh... um."

Pouttel 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 Pouttel 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 Pouttel 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, Sorifel and Leitsel had pretty much covered their faces with their hands, and only Pouttel was ignorantly staring at Krezagon. "You're kidding, right?"

"No!"

Pouttel 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 Sorifel 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.

"Taikehel, are —" started Pouttel, but Taikehel did not let em finish.

"Oh, I know what you're saying. Let me tell you, we ancods 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 niwacod 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 gzoozzing 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?"

The others looked down extremely uncomfortably, and Taikehel smiled to emself.

"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."

"Mh, well. I didn't really expect any better."

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..."

"I don't think I would either."

"But that's not so important. Let's sleep in the three-person tent next night."

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 garandals. They asked whether Tegafel and the galanfetzcan had been seen there. The answer was vague, since galanfetzcans were not that rare there. Even femehans traveled there often enough and since the garandals did not bother with the different sexes, they could not say for sure if they had seen Tegafel. The last galanfetzcan 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 galanfetzcan 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 garandals. This time Krezagon was convinced that they had lost the galanfetzcan 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 galanfetzcan would go to the Forest Mountains. Instead, the two had went either to Tarakiila or Geckyila. Because of the rumor that a galanfetzcan had killed the royal family of Tarakiila, Krezagon figured that a galanfetzcan 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.

The investigation team started traveling to west and down from the mountain.



One night they were normally conducting their evening routine, and Krezagon had just left for a moment when Sorifel declared: "I gotta go too." So ey went, but instead of minding eir own business, ey went to find Krezagon. When ey found the ancod, Krezagon was taking eir suspenders down. "Soan?"

Krezagon was a bit surprised. "Eh? What?"

"I need to talk..."

Krezagon eyed a bit impatiently behind Sorifel. "Now?"

"Well, yes."

"Can it wait until I'm done?"

"Yeah." Sorifel fidgeted. Ey waited while Krezagon went still a bit further and then came back a while later.

"So, what was it?"

Sorifel 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 ancod 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 Sorifel 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..." Sorifel was quite annoyed and did not come up with anything smarter to say. "It's just unfair."

Krezagon eyed Sorifel 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 Sorifel. "Well, too bad you feel that way. If it would make you feel better, I can have sex with you."

Sorifel 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." Sorifel just stared at em. Krezagon waited, but Sorifel did nothing, so eventually ey just started walking. "Let's go back." Sorifel 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 Geckyila. 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, Pouttel and Sorifel 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 condlo. 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 Pouttel became fairly passive and delusional when drunk, Sorifel 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 slowly, they also got more colorful and less honest. Sorifel and Krezagon got into a competition about telling their most interesting army experiences. Krezagon was older and thus managed to produce a larger amount of believable stories. Sorifel tried to get Pouttel on eir side, but the old nicod was too deep in eir empty mind to say much of value. Sorifel 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 condlo. "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!"

"How would you know anything about that!?"

"Because I'm not deaf!"

"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!"

"Am not! I'm just 32₈ years old!"

"But you can't ever have kids! Ha!"

"Watch your mouth or I'll make you too incapable of havin' any ever!"

"Ha ha! You're not doin' that!"

"Maybe I will! Like Derekl!"

"You're not!"

"I'll fight you!"

"You won't!"

"I will!"

"I can take you on! I've watched you, I know how you fight!"

"No you don't!"

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.

Krezagon and Sorifel got up and started grappling. The audience was excited.

"Show that arrogant ancod eir place!"

"Ancods can't fight!"

"Come on, smash that shorty!"

"You suck, ancod!"

After a few comments more about how much Krezagon sucked, Sorifel let go of em and instead smashed at the nearest table.

"Shut up, you gzoozzing horks! Ey doesn't suck! Krezagon is the best fighter I've ever seen! Ey can beat homehans an' big nicods single-handedly!" Eir retort certainly silenced the audience.

"Yeah! I beat TEN of them in a single fight! Didn't even stand a chance!"

"No, six!"

"Ten!"

"You lie!"

"I told you I beat six of them because you wouldn't have believed me if I'd have told the truth!"

"Oh yeah?! I can beat YOU!"

"You can't!"

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, Sorifel 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 Sorifel 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."

"I can breathe!"

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.

"What? More to drink?" said Krezagon. "I don't feel well enough to drink this."

"Aioii, ancod. 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 Sorifel as ey downed eir drink and grimaced as in pain.

Krezagon eyed Sorifel fairly disbelievingly, but did eventually drink eir shot. They spent about half an hour clearing their heads with coffee and then left.