[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.27

The small team went on its way, trying to find any information about Tegafel and the galanfetzcan. They still did not even know the galanfetzcan's name. In towns and villages, they heard no recent rumors of a wacod or a galanfetzcan.

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 Sorifel just raised eir hand behind the others.

"M—" started Freppet, but Krezagon had started speaking simultaneously with em.

"Sorifel?"

"...Yeah."

Freppet gave Sorifel a look, but they did not care that much. Sorifel 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. Sorifel huffed frustratedly and plopped down on the ground, sitting.

Krezagon was momentarily confounded. "What...?"

"I..." Sorifel looked away and did not seem to be getting up.

"Yeah?"

"I want to say something."

"Okay?"

"Will you sit down?"

"Will it take that long?"

"It will."

"What about the hunting?"

"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 didn't want them to know."

"Why?"

"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 ancoddin when I was a kid. Eir name was Jirkeon. 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 coddins were too young. They were like over two years younger than Jirkeon. 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 ancods 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." Sorifel 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 Jirkeon 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 Jirkeon 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 Jirkeon 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." Sorifel 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 Jirkeon 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. Jirkeon 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 Jirkeon 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 ancod 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 Sorifel's story. Therefore, they just sat there for a long moment. Eventually Sorifel 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." Sorifel stood up as well, but slowly. Ey did not start walking when Krezagon did, though. Krezagon turned back and looked at the nicod, who was staring at em. They stood there for over a minute. Krezagon then walked right toward Sorifel and stopped right before em. They stared each other in the eyes and then Sorifel turned eir face away, looking fairly grievous. Krezagon put eir hand on Sorifel's shoulder, and again they stood there for a long-seeming moment. Then finally Sorifel lifted eir arms and moved them over Krezagon's shoulders. Krezagon leaned forward against Sorifel and hugged em as the nicod 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 Geckyila. They found no trace of Tegafel and any news about galanfetzcans 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 Geckyila, 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 Ceneilen, though Taikehel stayed in the town again. Krezagon's status and rank were once again questioned.

The lieutenant of Ceneilen was a middle-aged nicod 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 ancod sergeant? This can't be right!" Krezagon did not say anything to that. "This is just ridiculous. But fine, whatever! You're gzoozzing 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 genicod said to some other sergeant: "I told you!"

An old gewacod 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."

"Korielter...! Where did you get THAT name?" scoffed a geniwacod at the back.

The gewacod stared at Krezagon intently and seemed to be more deep in thought than eir words revealed. "You're an ancod! Who'd promote YOU?"

Krezagon glared back, tightened eir mouth and walked away, near to some unoccupied bed.

"Seriously!" continued the geniwacod. "Who promoted you?"

"A captain in Ailanihi."

"Ailanihi?"

"It's in Kervanela."

"Kervanela? Are you a foreigner?"

"No. I was born here."

"Oh, huh? Really? So, why were you promoted?"

"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 gzoozz 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 gewacod sergeant, Havyrmeon, came by eir bed after ey had settled to sleep.

"Hey, ancod."

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 genicod at the eating table burst something out of eir mouth.

Krezagon was angry and confounded. "What?" ey snapped and sat up.

"See, I was a member of this squad that used to sometimes handle tiffs between garandals and nacrans, 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 ancod. 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 gewacod in helpless anger and confusion. "You were better behaved as a kid. In a way. I'd never have believed that you or any ancod would come this far. But I guess I did something right in bringing you up!"

"You had nothing to do with that!"

Havyrmeon just grinned. "Aioii."

"All you ever did was discourage me! I was so miserable that I wanted to die when I was young!"

"And somehow you still managed to gather that boldness from somewhere."

"Well not thanks to you at least!"

Havyrmeon brought eir face right in front of Krezagon's and went: "Stupid CHILD." 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. 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 gzoozzing stupid." Ey then huffed amusedly, let go and left.

Krezagon was still angry and felt quite insulted and even violated.

A day before Krezagon and eir squad would leave again, Krezagon went up to Havyrmeon, who looked at em fairly condescendingly.

"How about my relem? And larem, if I have one?" asked Krezagon.

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.

"What's your family name?"

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 ancods. Have a happy rest of your life, ancod; my little kid!" Krezagon glared at the gewacod for a short moment, angry and barely controlling emself. Eventually ey just walked away.

The next day, the investigation team left Ceneilen. They were going to cross the Forest Mountains and go to Tarakiila.

In Ceneilen and some other towns, Krezagon had naturally heard about the galanfetzcan 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 galanfetzcans would help, but ey thought it would be a unique chance to actually see a large community of galanfetzcans.

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.