[Veltzeh]: 39.The Heritage of Humankind.Tales from Kyerrion.5

Hey pal, life ain't all bad. It's free.On the "streets" lifestyle, Shadowrun 4th edition



Tegafel met Krezagon fairly often after their little introductory chat and they became friends, fairly close at that. Tegafel's chance to nullify eir contract came and went, and ey stayed in the army. Not much happened, save for Tegafel's development in the army. Ey even gained some muscles and started looking fairly engaging. Krezagon often eyed em fairly dreamily, but always hid it when Tegafel turned to look at em. Krezagon taught em to make bolts and handle bows and crossbows masterfully as well, or as masterfully as could be done without having excessive experience. Tegafel preferred swords, though, and did not spend much time practicing with bows.

It was another bunch of days for free time. This time it was a bit longer, and some who were from around Ailanihi went home to visit old friends and family. Tegafel, however, did not. Instead, the sergeant came to the barrack one evening and took Tegafel with em. Fairani had a slightly concerned expression on eir face, even though the others were smiling or grinning. Tegafel thought that it meant bad.

Neret took Tegafel to the sergeants' lodge and in there to a smaller room that had just a bed and some closets—it looked a bit like a room where ill people were taken to be healed. Neret closed the door and grabbed Tegafel's shoulders lightly, after which ey hugged em. Tegafel got quite uneasy.

"Uh, soni? What's going on?"

Neret stroked Tegafel's arms and nuzzled eir hair. "Hm, I thought that was obvious. I want to sleep with you. Take your clothes off."

Tegafel startled badly. "But uh... uh... I... I can't... I won't. I don't want to..."

"What, you don't want to feel pleasure? Nonsense! Now take off your clothes!"

"But I..."

"Silence, soldier! Clothes off!"

Tegafel sobbed and started shaking. Ey took off eir clothes slowly while thinking that now it would finally happen. Ey started wondering whether it had been such a good idea to come to the army after all, that the townsfolk might have been a bit more friendly. Ey remembered eir alhem then and how ey had told Tegafel to submit to someone's will when finding a partner or having sex, and figured that this was a similar case with the exception that ey was truly commanded to do it. Maybe this was better after all, since ey was just obeying and ey had no choice in it. That did not make the idea of raping any better, but perhaps it would be easier to accept.

Tegafel lay down on the bed and rested there, tensed, tearful and worried. Ey was always afraid of becoming pregnant. After a short moment, Neret came next to the bed and looked down at Tegafel. Ey was now naked as well. Ey settled emself on top of Tegafel and stared down at the wacod's face. Tegafel looked very worried and still shivered.

"W-will I become pregnant?" ey asked shakily.

"No, I have a condom. Don't be such a coward, you'll become pregnant some day anyway."

"I don't want to! I hate kids!" Tegafel squeezed eir eyes shut and grimaced, forcing a few tears out of eir eyes.

"Is that the only reason why you're such a prude with the other soldiers, eh?"

Tegafel turned eir face away and tried to keep emself from crying out loud. "I... I... it's my body..."

"Hmph. Turn your face this way." After Tegafel had done that, Neret pressed eir mouth against Tegafel's and kissed em. Tegafel felt terrible and shook even more. Ey had to break away from it because ey could not breathe through eir nose much, since the tears had gone up there as well. Ey sniffed and some more tears fell down eir face as ey tired to turn it away somehow without breaking the direct order of turning eir face Neret's way. Neret was slightly hesitant. "...Open up your legs now."

Tegafel did as ey was told. "Will it... hurt?"

"Hurt? Why would it hurt?" Neret pressed eir genitals against Tegafel's soft crotch and Tegafel startled again and whimpered.

"Aih! I-I've heard that it hurts... at least the first time... uhmgh..." Tegafel wriggled a bit, trying to somehow get away from Neret's genitals and failing miserably.

"What? Are you serious? This is your first time?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Don't you wacods usually have sex the first day you hit teenage?"

"I've never... met other wacods... I-I don't know... I didn't want to... I-I hated the way my alhem t-tried... to make me have sex," mumbled Tegafel. Ey was shaking pretty badly now and ey had some serious trouble keeping eir crying in control. Ey wanted to cry out and let it out of eir ribcage, but ey was scared of what Neret would do if ey wept. One should not weep in the army.

Neret, however, did not do anything for a while. Ey just stared at Tegafel's teary eyes and felt the sobs and whimpers being suppressed down in eir lungs. Eventually ey said: "You know, screw this. I'm not going to rape a little kid virgin because of this. Even I'm not that indecent." Neret got off of Tegafel and instead lay next to em, wrapping em up in the cover and hugging the little shaking body.

Tegafel was in shock, but got somewhat integrated in a few minutes. During that time, Neret only hugged em and stroked eir shoulders very lightly. "Well, maybe you just lost all trust you had toward me. That's not good, but I suppose I can't blame you. You probably hate me now, too. Do you want one of the other sergeants to come here to comfort you or take you back to the barracks?" Tegafel could not speak then. "Or maybe I'll just hold you for a bit more then."

Several more minutes went by. Tegafel's breathing got calm and regular again and ey started getting responsive. Neret noticed it and moved a bit closer to Tegafel, placing eir other hand on Tegafel's head now. "Listen, I'm really sorry about this. I honestly wouldn't have even tried if I'd known that... you really don't do this stuff." Tegafel managed a somewhat shaky nod before breathing a sigh of relief. It took a few minutes and ey finally fell asleep. Neret was unsure of what to do, but eventually just decided to stay where ey was. Ey would get to literally sleep with Tegafel anyway.

In the morning Neret woke up first, to see a cute wrapped up Tegafel sleeping. Ey was not exactly proud of emself right then, got up, pulled on eir clothes and went to the sergeants' lodge. Two of the other sergeants were up already, and they asked em:

"Had good sex with the wacod, eh?"

"Seriously, that was one of the worst things ever I went through."

"Oh? How so?" asked the gewacod.

"The kid's never had sex before and ey cried so much I just couldn't do it to em."

"Doesn't that prove your moral compass is still working at least a bit?"

"Ey cried eh?" said the other sergeant, a nicod. "What a cowardly crybaby! A nearly adult wacod who hasn't had sex! You should've popped that little thing."

"Shut up. That's exactly the kind of stupid thing you'd expect from a nicod like you," the gewacod went on. "Is the kid okay?"

"Ey cried and didn't talk much after that. Ey fell asleep so I didn't bother doing anything else except the same. Ey's still sleeping there."

"Want me to handle that?"

"Hm... I don't know... I suppose it'd fix up the kid a little if ey saw me being nice to em again."

"Yeah."

Neret drank a bit and went back to the room where Tegafel was. Ey sat on the bed and watched the wacod until ey woke up. Of course Tegafel had managed to totally wrap emself up in the cover by then.

"Are you alright?" asked Neret while touching Tegafel's shoulder.

"I... I suppose."

"And I'm sorry. I won't do it again. ...Unless of course you want to," ey added with a smile. Tegafel replied with a slightly uneasy smile-like thing and started unwrapping emself from the cover. Having done that, ey lay on eir stomach on the bed for a while. "Anything you'd want me to do to make you feel better? ...I heard you like stroking on your back or something, would you like that?"

"Y-yeah... stroking and rubbing..."

"I'm good at that. Just lie there." Neret rubbed and stroked Tegafel's back and shoulders for a while and Tegafel got fairly euphoric. "Feel better now?"

"Mmmmm... Yeah..."

"Maybe you should go and eat now. Still have a few free days." Tegafel started getting up and Neret handed eir clothes to em. "I can go outside if you'd rather dress up alone."

"Well, you've already seen me naked plenty of times," said Tegafel, trying to sound carefree but not really managing in that. Neret petted eir hair a bit and then got up and turned. Tegafel dressed up and Neret took em outside.



Tegafel walked around a bit and eventually went to eat. As usual, ey ended up eating with some people from eir squad and they started bombarding em with inquiries.

"So, how'd you like Neret? Is ey really as harsh as Nehinou claims?" asked Poretel.

Nehinou exclaimed: "I'm telling you, ey has a dick the width of my wrist and longer than your span. It's INVASIVE."

"What? It's bigger than mine?"

"By far."

"You're a gzoozzing liar!"

"Am not!"

"Shut up," said Julta.

Fairani still looked a bit concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... I guess," replied Tegafel. Ey did not want to speak of what had happened.

"So mind telling us just how invasive eir little dickie is?"

"It was huge, right?" added Nehinou.

"I suppose," said Tegafel.

"You suppose? How can you not feel that log inside your crotch?" said Nehinou with an amusedly stupefied face. Eir grin disappeared, though. "Unless ey... didn't do it."

"...So Neret didn't screw you?" Julta went.

"Uh, no... but it was close."

Fairani looked slightly surprised. "How'd you avoid it?" Tegafel looked at eir food and did not say anything. Ey continued eating. "Tegafel?"

"I'd rather not talk about that."

The others were a bit quiet after that, and when they started talking and asking again, Fairani told them to leave Tegafel alone. Tegafel finished eating and Fairani came along with em. They walked around a bit without talking, but eventually Fairani just got too curious.

"Would you tell me what happened with Neret?"

"Mhm." Tegafel thought about it for a bit—the only downside in telling about it was loss of face and credibility because ey had cried, and though Tegafel really could not have cared less about it, the others thought it important. A soldier did not cry. Preferably even when tortured, but it was allowed then. Tegafel thought that maybe it could be seen as torture. "I cried..."

"...That's all? Nehinou cried too, but that didn't help."

"Well, ey saw that I was shocked and believed that I hadn't done it before."

"Really?" Fairani seemed to be contemplating a great deal for a while. After a moment ey took a light and hesitant hold of Tegafel's shoulder and turned the wacod to face emself. What happened after that was quick and half-violent: Tegafel ended up lying on the ground with Fairani on top of em, the geniwacod pressing eir crotch against Tegafel's. Tegafel's face immediately twisted into crying mode and ey was completely tensed and still for a whole of two seconds before ey started whimpering and shoving and pushing the geniwacod off of emself. Fairani got off and sat still a meter away while Tegafel curled up into a ball and started sobbing.

"How could you! I thought you... were my friend!" cried Tegafel, shaking again. Fairani looked somewhat helpless and nervous. Ey did not know what to do. "How could you... how could you... how could you..."

"I... I'm sorry." Fairani moved closer to touch Tegafel's shoulders, but the wacod just flinched and sat up in a defending position. Fairani hesitated and did not know whether ey should try again.

"Why did you do that?" asked Tegafel between sobs.

"I... it was a test. I wanted to see what Neret felt."

"A test?! You did that because you wanted to test me?!"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have."

"Stay away from me! I don't want to be near you anymore!"

"I will never do it again! I will never touch you again unless you want me to!" Tegafel sobbed. "Now I know why Neret backed off, though. If you ever want to know, ask me." Another moment went with Tegafel sobbing and Fairani trying to come up with anything nice to say to em. "Tegafel, I promise I will never do that again. You can ask me for anything and I'll do it. I'll rub your shoulders and stroke your back." Tegafel just shivered and did not reply. Fairani was getting a bit desperate. Ey lay down on the ground, sprawled eir limbs and spoke quietly: "I'll lie here an' you can do whatever you want to punish me. I won't report it to anyone or anything. Just do what you want... beat me with a stick or something..."

Tegafel huddled on the ground for yet another long moment while Fairani lay on the ground, waiting for something to happen. Eventually Tegafel got up, and Fairani followed em with eir eyes, seeing what ey was doing. It seemed Tegafel was looking for a stick. Fairani turned eir face upward and wondered whether this was such a good idea after all. Ey saw Tegafel walk near em, carrying a broken branch about as thick as eir upper arm. Fairani closed eir eyes and grimaced, trying not to tense eir body too much, but that did not really succeed.

Tegafel knelt beside the geniwacod and swung the branch at eir ribcage. It struck em with a fairly sharp thump, smacking em across the chest and the misplaced tip making scratches on eir face. Fairani whimpered and twitched. Tegafel swung the branch again and this time hit em squarely on the chest. This time it made a bit of a cracking sound, and Fairani had tried to lift eir arm so the sharp splinters at the tip tore eir skin fairly badly on eir arm.

Throwing the branch away now, Tegafel turned around and flopped sitting on the ground. Fairani got slowly up and groaned very slightly with the pain. Ey stared at Tegafel's back for a moment, thinking whether to walk away or try to talk some more. Ey then compromised that and slowly walked behind Tegafel, touching eir neck. Tegafel startled, but did not withdraw, so Fairani spent some time rubbing and stroking eir back.

Eventually Fairani spoke again, softly and quietly: "It's because you react like a child. The people here may be overenthusiastic about having sex, but no one wants to rape a child." Fairani paused. "I suppose that's why ancods can't marry. They're overgrown children." Another longish moment of silence followed.

"Are you alright?" asked Tegafel, sounding a bit sobby.

"Yeah," lied Fairani. Ey lied some more: "Well, my arm has little tiny wound but nothing else."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I asked you to. I'm sorry." Fairani still petted Tegafel a bit, but got up after a while—the bleeding and pain in eir arm was not getting any better and eir ribcage was hurting more than ey thought it should. "I'll leave now. I hope you'll start feeling better... and forgive me." Fairani walked away.

Tegafel sat around for a short moment, then started walking around nervously and eventually ended up looking for Krezagon. Ey spent over an hour searching for em, and could not find em. Ey went and sat, waiting, on a branch in one of the distant places where the ancod usually sat. Another hour passed and nothing happened. Ey started getting worried, and in this state that only made em that much more anxious and nervous. Ey got up again and left, starting to look for the ancod again.

Eventually Tegafel saw a glimpse of light skin in the forest and quickly moved toward it. Ey found Krezagon shoveling dirt into a little hole. Most of the snow had melted. Krezagon looked up. "Hey."

"Hey..." Tegafel was tired and leaned on the trunk of some tree.

Krezagon guessed that Tegafel had been looking for em. "Sorry... I've been swinging my ax around in the forest all day. I hope you didn't look for me long." Ey finished filling the little hole.

"I did..."

Krezagon looked at Tegafel, but ey did not really have anything to say to it, so ey changed the topic a little: "You have a free day, right? Do you want to come to the wood-chopping place or should we go nearer to the camp?"

"Let's go into the forest..." They turned and started walking deeper into the forest.

Krezagon eyed Tegafel a bit worriedly. "What's happened? You look so weary and down." Tegafel did not reply, so Krezagon did not push the issue.

They got to the wood-chopping area and Krezagon got to work. Ey had taken down three smallish trees and now continued hacking them into pieces.

Krezagon chopped up two of the trees before taking a longer break. Ey sat next to Tegafel and drank from the waterskin ey had. After a moment, ey lifted eir other leg over the log they were sitting on and lay down on it, with eir knees toward Tegafel.

"Whuh. That's hard work," mumbled Krezagon. After a bit of a pause, ey said: "Are you feeling talkative yet?"

Tegafel sat idly for a moment, but then sighed and looked down. "...My sergeant almost raped me last night."

Krezagon's eyes opened a bit wider and ey sat up, but did not lift eir other leg on the same side again. "I wish I could say that was rare..." Ey eyed the wacod for a moment. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know." Krezagon lifted eir left hand and massaged Tegafel's right shoulder. "Also... this morning, after I'd eaten and told Fairani about it, ey... 'tested' me by knocking me to the ground and looming over me like ey was gonna rape me."

"What?"

"Ey said ey wanted to test to see what Neret felt."

"Like... the way you act when faced with a sexual act?"

"I guess... Ey said afterward that I reacted like a child."

"Hm... well, I guess that sounds about right. But I don't think that was worth it..."

"I've been feeling like crying ever since last night," Tegafel muttered with a few sobs.

Krezagon had not yet witnessed Tegafel in a tearful mood, so ey was slightly at a loss. Usually they managed to have some sort of fun even when one or the other of them was sad or angry. "If you feel like crying, then cry. I won't mind. It's lunacy to keep it all down inside you if you feel that bad." Tegafel started shaking and sobbing in ten seconds. Ey buried eir head in eir hands. "You can cry out loud if you want to. No one will hear it here." And Tegafel cried.

Krezagon slightly petted Tegafel's back while ey cried and waited patiently for em to be done. Tegafel still breathed heavily and unstably with a few sobs in between, eir eyes and nose red from the crying, but at least ey was lifting eir head and staring up into the sky or to the trees.

After some time, Krezagon asked: "Would you like a hug?"

Tegafel turned to look at the ancod, and after two seconds worth of pondering, nodded. Krezagon wrapped eir arms around Tegafel's shoulders and pressed eir head lightly against the right side of Tegafel's head. Tegafel squeezed eir arms around Krezagon's ribcage and half hid eir face in the ancod's long, pale hair, not even smelling any of the sweat due to having a snotty nose because of the crying. Ey squeezed out yet few more tears.

They huddled there for some minutes before starting to let go of each other. Tegafel looked relieved and Krezagon smiled. Tegafel's right hand dropped down to Krezagon's hip, while the other withdrew back to eir own lap. Krezagon's hands slipped down to Tegafel's elbows.

"Are you feeling better now?" asked Krezagon, still smiling.

Tegafel nodded. "Yeah. Much."

The corners of Krezagon's mouth crept a little higher and ey lifted eir hands back to Tegafel's shoulders. "I'm glad."

Tegafel too lifted eir hands again and moved them to hug the ancod again. Ey drew em closer and actually moved eir arms around this time, creating some touch friction. Krezagon was slightly surprised in eir mind, but imitated Tegafel and stroked and hugged the wacod.

After a moment, Tegafel let go just slightly and Krezagon did the same, so that they ended up facing each other, with their noses merely a centimeter away from each other. Few seconds passed while Krezagon thought that the situation looked like Tegafel might kiss em, though ey could not really imagine em doing it since ey was so negative about anything resembling a sexual act. Tegafel, then again, for the first time in eir life, felt like kissing, but did not know whether the ancod would approve of it. Ey did not really even know how to kiss, though the few more or less forced kisses had taught em approximately how it was like.

"Krezagon... Would you mind... if we kissed?" ey then finally asked.

Krezagon was slightly surprised, but mumbled: "No... not at all. I'd walone to."

They looked at each other for two more seconds before proceeding to kiss. They did it slowly and carefully and stopped after five seconds. Yet a few quiet seconds followed, finally broken by Tegafel's words:

"You're... missing teeth."

Krezagon stared at Tegafel for two seconds before proceeding to laugh. Ey squeezed Tegafel's shoulders and hugged the wacod to emself while trying to not fall over from laughing. Tegafel could not help but laugh along after a while. They laughed for some time, after which Krezagon just said: "Yeah. I've had a few knocked off some times in the past." Ey then grinned in a way that showed all eir teeth, and Tegafel could see that ey was missing three teeth on the left side and one on the right.

They spent most of that day cuddling, touching and kissing each other. Tegafel had felt a bit weird realizing that ey had actually become so fond of the ancod since ancods were pretty much the scum everyone stepped over—even wacods, who tended to be scum to the other sexes. Ey had tried to brush it off, but ey knew that with Krezagon, ey would never have to worry about becoming pregnant. Ey did not even think that ancods as such were capable of sex or any kind of sexual pleasure save for what nice feelings touching in general produced. Krezagon, then again, was just happy to have a friend and such a close one at that. Whatever ey fantasized about when ey was alone ey did not share.