[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.4

Nothing remarkable happened for some time—Tegafel got the hang of training, eir fellow soldiers softened up toward em a little and though the food was not nearly as good as it had been at home, ey enjoyed not being bossed around and questioned by eir parents. Ey heard a few rumors that eir parents had been at the draft office inquiring about em, but no one really confirmed that and Tegafel did not care enough to go ask anyone who would really know.

Of course, as the other soldiers started getting used to em, they also started testing eir limits. Most of them Tegafel just let go by, but the hitting-on attempts by the geniwacods did not go quite as smoothly.

Tegafel was sleeping in the bed of the other geniwacod, Fairani, since ey had said ey would be elsewhere that night. Fairani came back, however, and instead of asking Tegafel to climb to eir own bed, ey just climbed on top of the wacod. Of course Tegafel woke up in the process.

"Uhhmm... hey... what? Hey!" ey whispered.

Fairani smiled. "Hi."

"Uh..." Tegafel stared at the person on top of em. "...Do you want me to move now?"

"Heh, not really. I'd have waken you up for that." Tegafel was quiet, and Fairani thought that the absence of "no" meant "yes," therefore attempting a kiss. Tegafel turned eir face away. "What's wrong? Don't you like me?"

"I don't like this activity."

"What? But it feels good! And it's not like we'd be condemned for it or something."

"I don't want to get pregnant."

"That's why I have condoms. See?" Fairani produced a proto-condom to show.

Tegafel frowned. "But I don't... I just don't want to."

"Have you ever even tried?"

"No."

"How can you know then?"

"I can't, but I doubt it would feel good if I got to it with this attitude. Now please get off me. I'll go to my own hammock."

Fairani saw that ey was about to be brushed off and ey wanted to get at least something out of lying on top of Tegafel, but the last thing ey wanted was to wake up the whole squad because of the issue, and it was better if Tegafel would still like em even somewhat, too. "Well... How about just one kiss, then? Just a small one."

Now Tegafel was quiet. Fairani was fairly literally lying on top of em—the design of the general hammock meant that eir back was bent, but that did not seem to be bothering the geniwacod. Eir arms were outstretched beside Tegafel's head and Tegafel was doing eir best not to try shoving em off since that would probably lead to both of them dropping on the floor. Tegafel did see the small kiss as a quick way to get the situation over, so ey replied, obviously with slight reluctance: "Ehm, fine then."

Fairani smiled and pressed eir mouth against Tegafel's. Tegafel did not do anything, but ey thought that it was a medium kiss and not a small one. After it was done, Fairani lifted eir head but did not get off. Tegafel felt something pressing against eir crotch and then just tried to forget it.

"Will you get off, please?" Fairani got off then, and Tegafel followed, climbing up to eir own bed. Ey settled in the hammock and lay quietly with eir eyes open, somewhat shocked over what had happened. Ey listened to Fairani breathe, and as soon as ey thought the geniwacod had fallen asleep, ey heard eir voice:

"Tegafel... I'm sorry if you wished that would not have happened." They both fell asleep some time after that.

The first half of the next day was free time, so they woke up lazily and many stayed inside for some time. However, once they noticed that the day would get very warm, people started going outside. As usual, Nehinou, the other geniwacod, did some whoring for a small price, and the nicods and nigecods were pretty happy and content with that. Especially those who had previously been in all-ni(ge)cod squads were having fun—they were nearly always saying stuff about how they had to play around with each other, which always caused instant yuks.

Instead of whoring, Fairani tried paying attention to Tegafel. "Would you like it if I just held you? Or petted?" Tegafel was quiet. Ey did not really know what to say—back in Ailanihi ey probably would have told such people to go screw themselves, but here ey would not rather do that, even if just to preserve good relations. Tegafel was standing by a window with Fairani behind em.

"I'd rather not..."

"How come? Have you had some sexual traumas when you were small or do you dislike touch? Or are you just scared?"

"No. I'd rather not talk about that."

Fairani was quiet for a moment. "Then... why couldn't I touch you a little?"

"I'd just rather not."

"Could I just pet your back?" Tegafel did not reply anymore. Ey was annoyed and wanted to go outside. Fairani, however, again interpreted the silence as an affirmative and started stroking Tegafel's back lightly. Tegafel felt uneasy, but did not make em stop or move away for now. Fairani grinned and started gradually getting more physical, but not going to extremes. Tegafel did not really notice anything.

After some time Tegafel thought ey would finally go outside. Ey gave Fairani an indifferent glance and moved away. Fairani was fairly turned on, but Tegafel did not notice that. Fairani moved on to whoring then, while Tegafel went outside and walked around a bit, spotting a figure far away near to the edge of the forest. Ey had seen the figure from the window as well, but nothing much was distinguishable. Tegafel did not care about it more than that, though, and instead paid attention to the four nicods who were lounging at the side of the barrack building.

Ey started walking around a bit more and unknowingly moved toward the indistinguishable figure—eir subconscious was curious and wanted to be satisfied. As ey came closer, ey noticed that the figure was pale-skinned, coming close to looking like a toppenda without fins. When ey got closer, the figure eventually looked up, and Tegafel realized that ey had been staring at an ancod. Tegafel stopped dead in eir tracks and went somewhat pale emself. The ancod seemed to be making arrows or bolts. Ey stared back at Tegafel for a moment, but turned back to eir current stick fairly soon. Tegafel continued walking about and circled the area a bit, glancing at the ancod every now and then, as if keeping tabs on em. The ancod glanced back occasionally, but kept on making the bolts.

Eventually Tegafel noticed that eir squad started to get organized for the training and ran off, leaving the ancod sitting there.

After the training was over and the people were sitting around and eating their meals, Tegafel asked the others about the ancod.

"I saw an ancod way over beside the forest behind the barracks while I was walking around in the morning."

"What?" said Julta.

"I've seen em once too..."

"Twice."

"An ancod? Here?"

"Yeah, that's Krez," said Nehinou.

"Krez?"

"That's eir name."

"What's ey doing here?" asked Julta.

"Probably same as the rest of us, duh," said Nehinou.

"I heard once someone say that ey was born here. Or just in some squad, probably not here. Been with the army eir whole life."

"I've only ever seen em near the forests making bolts or cutting down trees for that... Probably all the bolts and arrows we use are made by em."

That created a disturbing image in the minds of the people, but they laughed that off.

"No wonder they suck."

"Does ey even eat anything? I've never seen em here."

"Well, they're all crazy anyway. Probably eats grass and small bugs."

"Wouldn't be surprised, ey's so scrawny."

"Is ey really crazy?" asked Tegafel.

"Are there ancods that aren't?"

"Well, ey does an okay good job at the bolts. Probably a total nutcase besides that."

"Yeah, there must be some reason that ey's always secluded an' all."

"Maybe it's because you treat em so badly if you see em," said one anwacod.

After a bit of silence, someone said: "Shut up, it's not like you anwacods would be much more useful."

"Well, at least they got a nice hole in their crotch! And aren't total nutwits. Unlike some."

The anwacod was obviously not too pleased, ey was smarter than that. Ey did, however, know how to survive. "Whatever. Anyone want a bit of this glorious hole then?" ey said as ey got up from the table. A few nicods followed. Tegafel shivered. Ey did not approve of the way many of the people here seemed to be selling their bodies. Of course, in the army environment, it seemed like it was the norm. Only a few non-regular soldiers abstained from it, probably due to having a family.

"How much do YOU charge anyway?" asked one unfamiliar nigecod from Tegafel.

"What?"

"How much money do you want for sex? I've never seen you do it, so it must be ridiculously high."

"Well, yeah. It's about infinity at the moment." Tegafel was a bit snappy.

The nigecod was quiet for a moment. "So... you don't... you don't?"

"No."

"What a waste!" Tegafel went red with anger now. "I'd give you fifty, hear it... FIFTY gemmies!" Some heads turned at the tables now, to look at Tegafel and the nigecod. Tegafel twitched and barely suppressed the urge to start whacking the idiot.

"Whoa, calm down," said one nicod from Tegafel's squad.

"Hey, that's unfair," said Nehinou aggravatedly. "You barely give four gemmies to me!"

"Yeah, but obviously you enjoy it too. This one doesn't seem to. An' I wanna try, because I'll probably never see another wacod," the nigecod went on.

"Well, that's true," said Julta.

"So how about it?"

Tegafel got up very angry and snapped, almost shouting: "I don't even need the MONEY!" Having said that, ey stomped away.

"Heh... Ey's one of a kind, I say," said Fairani suggestively. "Ey really doesn't want to do sexual stuff. Tried last night and ey was as cold as a dead tree in winter. Didn't even care when I caressed em this morning."

"Oh really? I bet you claim ey's a virgin too, eh?"

"Well, if I had to guess, yeah."

"That's some hot piece of meat."

"And it's still unfair that you'd pay em fifty when you just pay one to us!" exclaimed Nehinou.

"How about this," started Fairani, "you pay us both twenty-five and you can have us both at the same time."

The nigecod looked fairly excited about the idea. "That sounds pre-e-e-tty good..."

Tegafel stomped around for a moment and the others left em alone, though ey heard some comments about "wacod hysteria". The rest of the day went fairly well. Tegafel tried spotting the ancod, and though ey would be clearly distinguishable because of the pale skin, Tegafel caught no glimpse of em.



The next day was even warmer than yesterday and consisted of more excessive training. Tegafel almost forgot about the ancod, but in the evening, ey actually saw em walking when ey happened to glance out of the window. A few people from eir squad noticed eir staring, and after seeing that the ancod was outside, got excited and went out to play around with em. The ancod tried to leave, but the four nicods shoved em around, finally hit em to the ground and were about to start beating em a bit—so the ancod ran away toward the forest. One nicod started chasing em and the three others broke eir bolts and threw them on the ground. After that they called the chaser back and returned to the barrack.

"Damn smart-ass ancod! Sure showed em too!" bragged the big nicod, Poretel. Most of the others snickered with em, but some showed fairly long faces. Fairani seemed indifferent, but Nehinou commented snappily:

"Stupid proshts." Tegafel shared the disgust and nodded, feeling sorry for the ancod. Ey moved back to the window to watch if the ancod came back. None of the others did and did not really seem to care about Tegafel either, of which ey was fairly thankful.

After about sixteen minutes, Tegafel saw a little light lit near the forest. It was almost indistinguishable, but it gradually came closer and eventually Tegafel saw the ancod. Ey walked toward the general place where the nicods had started harassing em and apparently looked for eir bolts. Ey seemed to become slightly twitchy when ey found them and saw that they were broken. Ey set the light-source, apparently a candle, in the snow and started gathering the broken bolts, saving the few ones that were not broken. After ey was done with that, ey took the candle and stomped away toward the other barracks.

A short time after that someone close to the door thought ey heard a thump, but saw nothing when ey opened the door, so it was closed again.

Fairani walked over to Tegafel. "Keeping an eye for the ancod, eh?"

"Yeah..."

"Seen anything?"

"Yeah... ey came back and gathered the broken bolts and left. Just a few minutes ago."

"Hm. Probably better that you didn't tell them." Fairani walked back. Nehinou had followed the conversation and looked still fairly disgusted.

The evening went on and many played some small games, since they had a few free days ahead of them. Fairani continued trying to be friendly with Tegafel and finally managed to find out that Tegafel did indeed like it when someone rubbed or stroked eir back, shoulders and arms. Later yet they went to sleep.



In the morning, the sergeant Neret came to the barracks and woke everyone up with eir yelling. After a few generalities, ey got a bit more specific: "Poretel!" Poretel raised eir head from eir hammock. "What's this?" Neret showed a bag that contained the broken bolts. "This was just outside the door. You know, I thought that useless piece of meat of an ancod was lying when ey complained about you, but this kind of backs em up." Poretel was fairly speechless. "Now, I honestly don't care what you do to that nutwit smart-ass, but just don't break the bolts. At least they're half-decent, unlike their maker."

"Uh, yes, soni."

"I'll give you some punishment for that when your free days are over. I'll divide it among the four who did it if you confess. Enjoy your free time!" Neret threw the bag outside and left.

Nehinou grinned at Poretel in a way that obviously indicated just how much schadenfreude ey was feeling due to the issue.

People started playing and going outside to walk and such. Not much happened. The temperature kept rising but it seemed like it would rain tomorrow.



Tomorrow was indeed cloudy and rainy looking, but the rain did not seem to want to come down just yet. The temperature was ominously warm. Tegafel walked around the training fields and grounds, occasionally with someone else and brushed off the same nigecod that had offered em fifty gemmies for sex.

At some point, Tegafel spotted the ancod again. This time ey was in a totally different place, on the other side of the camp and even further from the barracks than last time. Tegafel walked around for some time and eyed the ancod every now and then. The ancod was wearing a fairly dirty worn and torn shirt whose hem and sleeves had been torn away ages ago, weary pants that barely stayed up with the suspenders and some lousy excuses for shoes. Eir clothing was disturbingly light, considering the time of the year, but then again, the days had been ridiculously warm lately. Tegafel saw that the ancod was worn and scrawny but seemed to have quite strong muscles. Ey was fairly old, but did not seem middle-aged quite yet. Tegafel could not really tell what was going on in the ancod's head, since ey just sat still on eir spot and carved bolts.

Eventually the ancod had had enough and snapped: "What the groshje do you want? Why do you keep bothering me?"

Tegafel was taken aback. "Uh... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Sure you didn't mean to, of course. How stupid of me, really. Now will you gzoozz off."

Tegafel took a few steps closer. "You know... I rather want to apologize for what happened the day before yesterday." Now the ancod looked up with a bit more interest, but ey still seemed sullen. "They were on my squad... I wanted to stop them."

The ancod turned back to eir current bolt. "Why didn't you?" Now Tegafel was quiet. Ey did not want to admit that ey just was not up for it because ey was uncertain of emself and fairly certain that ey would have probably gotten just brushed off. "Thought so. You breeder-folk are all the same. What matters is what you have in your pants or under your shirt and whether it's ...useful. And what a bunch of COWARDS you are!"

"That's not true!"

"Oh really? Tell me why ancods are treated so badly then?"

"Maybe because you're crazy and angry like that!"

"Angry, eh? You think this is anger?" The ancod turned at the bolt again and finished it. "And for the record, I'm not crazy. I don't even understand where that stupid assumption comes from. I've met two ancods before and they were less crazy than I."

A moment went by and the ancod got halfway with the next bolt. Tegafel spoke again: "I am sorry, you know. I would try to stop them the next time."

"You must be pretty sure that there won't be a next time, so I guess it's good."

Tegafel eyed the ancod a bit weirdly; it almost felt like ey was reading eir mind. Since ancods had by far the most far-walkers among them, it wasn't impossible that ey would be one, even though usually far-walkers were taken apart from the others to train their unique abilities. Tegafel guessed that the ancods were not too wanted even in those places. "Are you a far-walker?"

The ancod let out a small huff. "I wish I was."

"May I ask why?"

"Because then I'd likely be somewhere else. Probably with some other far-walkers and I hear they're usually pretty nice to each other." The ancod sighed. "Why couldn't I have been a far-walker? Maybe it would be better if I was really crazy too, though. Maybe then I wouldn't care or understand so much..." Ey mumbled a bit, then went quiet again and finished a bolt.

"Mhm... Uh, what's your name?"

"Krezagon, sogewa."

"I'm a wacod."

Now the ancod twitched and looked up fairly surprised. "Uh... uh, you are. Whoa. I really thought, um... that you were a gewacod." Tegafel actually smiled. "Sorry."

"That's okay."

"Uh... what's your name?"

Tegafel thought Krezagon seemed a bit different now, but it was probably because of the misunderstanding. They usually threw people off their feet. "Tegafel Darrelter ...soan." The word "soan" sounded strangely unnatural to Tegafel, it was not a word one was used to.

Krezagon smirked. "No one calls me soan... it sounds weird..."

"Actually no one's called me sowa either yet... it sounds pretty much as weird."

"Yeah... what are you doing in the army anyway? I thought you wacods aren't too welcome here."

"Well, maybe I'm a revolutionary. Besides, I could ask the same from you."

"I was born in a squad. I'm maybe not too welcome, but it's the only life I know, and what I've heard, I'm pretty okay here."

"Yeah..." They were quiet for a moment. Krezagon finished three bolts. "What's your family name? I don't think you said it."

"Mhm... I don't have one as such... My parents said I don't need one because I'll never have children to pass it on to and no one wanted to have me as a part of eir family anyway."

"But don't you have to have something for the contract?"

"Yeah."

"So...?"

"I was named after the squad I was born in. It's not my real name."

"What is it?"

Krezagon was a bit silent for a moment. "I really hope you're not going to babble this to your stupid squad."

"No..."

After a short pause, Krezagon said: "Shynderfolter."

Tegafel glared at the ancod. "What the..."

"The squad had a reputation taking part in some skirmishes between garandals and nacrans. Guess how those two stupid races torture each other? They mutilate each other's genitals. Seriously. So some people from my squad got some bad blood between them, got caught and had their bits mutilated. So the soldiers killed all of them they could before their far-walkers got to business and drove them away. Later they sent more people in to kill them off. I don't actually know what happened, but after that the squad was known as the shynderfolter squad. They thought it was a perfect family name for all ancods when I asked them about it."

Tegafel felt fairly angry and apparently Krezagon noticed it. "Those were some inconsiderate..."

"Yeah." After a pause, Krezagon continued: "You're actually fairly nice. I'm sorry I snapped at you. I suppose part of it was because I thought you were one of those gewacods who have their heads up their asses. But wacods are almost as shunned as us ancods... so... I suppose it's nice to know I'm not that alone. Maybe you'll feel better when you know that you could have it worse, too."

Tegafel said nothing. Krezagon continued making bolts, and eventually Tegafel ended up sitting next to em. It started to rain and a thunderstorm brewed, and Tegafel was about to leave when Krezagon got up, but the ancod had only done it to pull a cover over the bolts.

"Don't you go in even when it rains?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I'm unwelcome."

"But... couldn't you even go to a shelter? I mean..."

"Well, sometimes I do. You have free time now though, so the shelters are probably occupied anyway. I'm better off sitting here by myself. You should go in, though."

Tegafel sat back down. Krezagon glanced at em a bit curiously, but said nothing. The rain made them wet and slightly cold, but the temperature was still unexpectedly warm.

"Where do you sleep?"

"I have a tent. I just move it around every now and then."

"In the winter too?"

"Yeah... well, if it's really cold, I get to go to the sergeants' lodge. They let me sleep on the floor but won't let me in the beds, even though there are always some free."

"Huh? That's stupid..."

"Yeah..." Another moment of silence followed. "You know, maybe you should go. You might get sick if you're not used to this. I used to."

Tegafel fidgeted a little. "Can I come back to talk to you some time?"

Krezagon looked at em. "...Yeah. Yeah, you can. I'd like that." The ancod smiled, and it looked like ey had not done that in a long, long time.

"I will come back then, some time. When I have free time. Are you always making bolts around here?"

"Most often, yeah. I don't train so much."

"Let's see again, then." Tegafel got up.

"Bye... and... thanks for talking to me."

Tegafel left and walked back to eir barrack, where some others were as well, more or less wet. Tegafel took off some of eir clothes, which caused another miniature rampage about em not selling eir body even for a high price. Naturally Fairani wanted to touch em that much more. However, this time Tegafel just ignored them and did not let Fairani touch emself.