These stories are copyrighted to V. E. Lehkonen.
To view a story, click on the link. Stories marked with an asterisk (*) are unfinished.
Links in Finnish lead to stories in Finnish. / Suomenkieliset linkit johtavat suomenkielisiin tarinoihin.
Please read the PlanetSide introduction first.
I'm writing a story of the Tzhagane species. The Tzhagane are a genderless, wigned species that live on the mountainside of the planet. They are technologically rather advanced, as can be seen from the story.
Enjoy the English gender-neutral pronouns! Presenting:
he/she = ey,
her/him = em,
her/his = eir,
hers/his = eirs,
herself/himself = emself.
(Obviously from the plural third person pronoun set. Note the alphabetical order.)
Don't stop reading if it looks weird first! You'll get used to it.
| Chapter one | Introduction of the main characters and the mystery. |
| Chapter two | The mystery deepens while a funny incident reveals something undefined about Kale. I think. |
| Chapter three * | Is it suggestive? |
| Chapter four * | The history of the Tzhagane! |
It was morning. The sky was mostly clear. Far in the west, over at the ocean, it rained.
A lonely figure, a member of the Tzhagane species, flew silently through the empty space under the few clouds, performing magnificent acrobatics in the air above the deep canyons that stood in the water. The tzhagane's figure was slender and eir light blue skin was smooth for the most part, featuring a dark pattern or two around eir body. The hair covering the most part of the creature's head was magenta in color and its flowing caused by the flows of air did not disturb the thin, long ears that were currently pressed along the creature's head. Ey wore little clothes: only a simple pale green top that covered most of eir chest and a loose pair of shorts of a deeper green on eir lower body. Eir form was graceful and eir wings moved flawlessly through the air, taking the small body wherever they wanted.
Soon, another creature of the same species joined the performance. Though they looked more or less the same, the second one was smaller and had indistinctly different but darker patterns on the body and eir hair was bluer in color. Eir clothes did not considerably differ from the clothing of the first tzhagane, but eir top was slightly different in design as well as in color: the top was dark blue. Together, they flew more or less like light blue flashes of lightning in the bluish cyan sky, their smooth aerodynamic wings that were also blue barely moving as they glided through the air.
As it was, the genders of both tzhaganes were undeterminable; an out-worlder would have been utterly confused about a thing that is most mundane for every tzhagane: the fact that everyone is the same gender. An androgynous species, every normal tzhagane can carry offspring and fertilize others. While the laws of nature and chromosome conjugation induce variation within the species so that a person who is used to distinctive genders is likely to deduce that a certain individual tzhagane appears male while another should clearly be female, the physical and mental traits often associated with a certain gender by the members of a dioecious species are not associated with a certain gender among the Tzhagane since there is no such thing as another gender. There are other species on the planet, other animals like the Tzhagane; most of whom do have two genders. Only few of the known species that inhabit the area are hermaphrodites like the tzhaganes. Thus, the tzhaganes know that there is another way, but as it is, the most intelligent species happen to be monoecious, so the common fact for them is that having two distinct genders limits the development of proper intelligence. The external characteristics of an average tzhagane are as ambiguous as might be expected: the figure is slender, the hips are as wide as the shoulders, the musculature is slim but efficient and while the breasts are not exactly developed, they are softer and fuller than a general male breast, with the nipple sticking out effeminately.
Thus continued these two strange creatures their flight between the canyons. Very suddenly, a much bigger, colorful and frightening bird-like creature of the Pheen species joined the two tzhaganes, hunting them. This pheen was bright green and yellow, and had it not been hidden in a dark shadow between two small cliffs, the tzhaganes would have noticed its presence from far away. As it was, the pheen flapped its large, fully feathery wings frantically, trying to catch the two tzhaganes into its frightening talons. The two light blue tzhaganes dove in the air, the pheen after them. The two flew into a deep canyon, with barely enough space to glide between the rocks with their wings stretched back. The great bird gave up and did not follow the two into the canyon.
The tzhaganes were coming to the water-filled bottom of the deep canyon. The latter one of them would not make it without help.
"Kale!" ey yelled to the other one. The shout echoed in the canyon for a while. At the last moment Kale, the first tzhagane, took the other one's hand and the deep rocky canyon ran to its end. The wings of the second creature touched the ice-cold, clear water. Kale, flapping eir gray-blue wings once, twice and thrice, lifted both of them away from the water, using the blowing wind from the canyon. The second one let go of the other.
"Zhaanno!" said Kale, turning around. "Are you okay?" ey continued telepathically, speaking to the other through eir thoughts. Zhaanno got back to flying.
"Yeah."
"Let's go home."
After making sure the pheen was not in sight, they flew off to east, where the sun would rise in a few hours, making twists and turns as they went. They arrived at a relatively peaceful side of a mountain, where they caught sight of their home. Another tzhagane, this one wingless, was standing in front of the manufactured cave entrance. The form of this creature was otherwise also distinctively different from the two others; ey looked clearly tougher, even older, and while eir complexion was the same color, the patterns on eir body were remarkably lighter and formed clearly different figures on eir skin.
"Look at that", said Kale to Zhaanno. "Theri's there again. When will ey learn? Standing out visible like that isn't going to shield em from the pheens an' the rest."
"Ey's just trying to annoy us."
"It's stupid. Especially without wings when ey can't fly away!"
The tzhagane called Theri waved at the two while shouting to them out loud: "Hey you!"
Kale replied telepathically in the same tone: "Hey shut up!"
"Hey get inside!" Kale and Zhaanno landed on the rock Theri was standing on.
"You should be inside – –"
"Well, I don't bring pheens to our home doors!" Theri went inside. The two others took a glance behind them and saw the vicious pheen flying at them. They ran inside and closed the heavy sliding door. Theri was rather frustrated. "I don't understand why I should stay in when you're bringing pheens home like that."
"You don't want to die just half a year before you'd get your wing implants, would cha?"
"Kale. I. CAN. Take. Care. Of. Myself."
"Ha ha. Couldn't when that huge hrollt came an' almost fed you to its cubs... Or back then when we were kids, when your wings got torn..."
"Do I have to be perfect or something?"
"Well, you wouldn't care if y' were dead."
"Come on!"
Suddenly a terrible shriek came from outside, followed by anxious shouting and telepathic cries of help. Theri, Kale and Zhaanno opened the sliding door, peeking out through the cave's doorway. They saw the big pheen driven away by other tzhaganes, their parents. Shortly after they saw a bloody little figure on the ground and another climbing up from the rocks. The bloody one was dead; they did not sense any telepathic signals from eir brain or find any function inside. It was Kale and Zhaanno's little sibling, Khaza.
"And do any of YOU have any idea why that pheen was here?" asked Kale and Zhaanno's parent, Raqeidan.
"They did it!" Theri exclaimed.
Kale looked a little hesitatingly at Theri and then at Raqeidan. "Uh..."
"You are supposed to distract the pheen! Guide it far before returning!" exclaimed Raqeidan in a very ordering tone.
"We did! It must've followed us from a distance... We're sorry..."
"Don't apologize to me. I can get new kids. Apologize to Lairei..." Raqeidan looked at the other small tzhagane, who was now halfway up from the rocks, crying on the ground. Kale and Zhaanno could not do anything; they did not know what, or how. "Always so innocent, you two. Just go back inside an' get ready. We'll hit the mines in an hour."
"But... but..."
"Kale, I know it isn't nice. Get over the fact that even you can't protect everyone." Raqeidan grabbed the body of the slain child and flew a bit further from the caves, throwing the body into a canyon. Theri's parent walked over to the crying little child, carrying em away, inside another cave. Kale and Zhaanno walked back to their cave. Theri followed them.
"That was just swift, wasn't it?" Theri asked sarcastically after ey had sat on a couch.
"Theri, it's not funny!" Kale answered. "Khaza just died. It's not fun." Zhaanno did not speak, instead ey walked away to get something to eat. Theri looked at Kale and did not speak until Zhaanno had stopped walking. Kale sat on the same couch Theri was sitting on.
"Who cares if one stupid kid dies? Even i– –"
"I do!" snapped Kale.
"Why do you?" Kale was quiet. "Ey was a kid. Kids die, y'know? I almost died, y'know? Who cares, if one kid out of ten dies? Who cares if every other kid dies? No one. An' nor do they. They're dead by then. An' I'm sure you should know our medical center couldn't handle the pressure if we were going to try heal every sickness one or two kids are sensitive to. It's better to let the weak ones die before they reproduce and make that sickness spread to everyone. The– –"
"Yeah, an' isn't it just so ironic that I let you who allowed to have your wings ripped reproduce with a kid who'd have died four times if not for me. Who's the better one of us here?"
"You missed the point."
"There's no crettin' point!"
"Don't swear, babyling. Now we're getting to the point. We're already older. We've become knowledgeable enough scientists. They'd have to train an' teach a kid specifically to replace us now, wouldn't they? We are something now."
"Khaza could've been something!"
"It didn't look like it. It doesn't look like it now! Almost anyone can be replaced. And definitely a kid of whom no one knew if ey'd ever be something. Ey didn't show signs of not being replaceable." Kale pressed eir head on eir legs, covering eir body with eir wings. "Don't get me started on your harmful views that could drive our species into the oblivion of people who care about every dweening invalid to cross their path. Our birth rates would drop, even from the lousy point where it's now, an' we'd die out completely!"
"Maybe we wouldn't!"
"Maybe we would! At least this way we won't, we know that. And we know that we'll thrive because most of the weak ones are weeded out."
"But it's unfair! Khaza should've lived an' I should've died! It was my fault!"
"Yeah, well, it just seems you're lucky, kid." Theri lifted eir legs and put them on Kale's back, using em as a leg support. "Let's hope that quality and not your stupid views get passed on to your offspring. If you'll ever have any." Kale threw Theri's legs off emself, knocking Theri to the ground. "Angry are we?" Kale rose, but sat back down almost immediately. Zhaanno tried to calm em down telepathically from the kitchen. Theri got up from the floor and sat next to Kale, trying to calm em down as well. "I'm sorry." Through their telepathic connection, Theri soothed Kale, trying to make em feel better.
Soon Kale was back to normal, or as normal as ey could be. Theri let go of em, saying: "Well, is your gear ready?"
"Almost."
"The pre-investigation report said that the boulder is really big. It's made of some material we've never seen before. An' there's something weird connected to it..."
"I haven't heard there was something connected to it..."
"They didn't know it then. They don't know how long the thing is, but it's long. Really long. I don't know."
"Sigh... It'll just be another lump of traston touching some diamond-thing. Those metal-miners wouldn't recognize a traston when they held one in their hand." Kale leaned over to a shelf, grabbing a wood-looking round piece of something. As ey held it, it steadily transformed to look and feel exactly like eir skin. Ey put it on eir head and soon there was really no telling where the strange substance was, as it had transformed into eir hair. Kale shoved it off eir head and it splatted on the floor, transforming into a round stone.
"Trastons aren't bigger than two meters. This is at least twenty or something."
"Maybe they grow bigger down there?" Kale took the piece of traston from the floor. After it had transformed into skin, ey ripped it in half. It wiggled a bit, but then reformed to form two skin-like balls.
"Well, maybe... I don't know. But it'd still be weird." Kale put the two balls of traston next to each other, so that they were touching. After a bit of wobbling, they became one again. Kale ripped it in half again. "Stop that. You'll hurt it." Theri grinned.
"I always wondered what it'd do if I did this..." Kale put the other piece on the couch and it turned into the fabric the couch was made of. Keeping the second piece attached to eir hand, ey placed it next to the first one. For a few seconds it looked like nothing happened, but then the both pieces of traston started wobbling. They squeaked as they became one again, jumped upwards and fell on the floor, becoming a stone. Kale and Theri were laughing their lungs out.
Zhaanno came to them to see what they were laughing at. After ey saw what happened, ey was also laughing like crazy.
"I didn't know it could squeak!" laughed Theri. "Or jump for that matter!" They laughed yet for quite some time, before Kale said:
"Okay, it's funny... but we have to go. An' well, we don't even know when we'll be back. Well, is your gear ready?"
"Never readier. Hey, I don't do those 'morning flights' y'know..."
"Mine is ready", replied Zhaanno.
"Okay. So... I'm the only one who's missing one thing. Where have you hidden my scanner?" questioned Kale.
"Y'know what?" asked Theri, looking a bit accusingly at Kale. "K– – Lairei stole it. I saw em playing with it just before you brought the pheen around. It's probably down in the canyon now." Kale stood there for a while, dumbfounded, getting angry and then walked out hastily. Theri flipped eir hand to show that ey thought Kale was nuts.
Zhaanno did not reply, but just looked at Theri. "You shouldn't push em that far. – –"
"I lied to em y'know. It was Khaza who took it."
"Oh. Well, I'm sure that little incident was because of that. Ey doesn't like it when eir siblings get killed. That's probably the simplest reason for why ey's so eager an' ever so effective protecting me... Today was yet another day that I would've died if it wasn't for em", Zhaanno went on calmly.
"Heh... no offense, Zhaanno, an' I do like ya... But what are you worth if you can't take care of yourself?"
"Same worth as you, losing your wings in a stupid fight with another kid with a knife?" Zhaanno snapped playfully and still calmly.
Theri mock glared at Zhaanno. "Why you, you little worthless piece of..." Theri ran at Zhaanno and grabbed eir wings, twisting them a little so that they would not be hurt when ey pressed Zhaanno against a wall. "...hrollt droppings." Zhaanno just smiled, saying nothing and wrapped eir arms around Theri's chest. They kissed each other, Theri holding on to Zhaanno's wings and Zhaanno touching Theri's back. "What, ya wanna carry me today?"
"Hah... Kale could maybe do it, but I'm too small. I think my parent'll do it, and give eir gear to Kale... and I'll carry yours... as always..." Zhaanno touched the scars on Theri's back. "Mmmhhh... You never really told me... What really happened?"
Theri stroked Zhaanno's wings and replied: "Well... You remember Larise, right? You know we hated each other... It was really nothing more than a fight at first, like usual. I had no idea ey'd brought a knife this time. Ey knew I was a better fighter an' evaded me until ey got my wings. It. Really. Hurt. Ey kept cutting them, an' I thought ey wasn't going to cut them so bad that they'd have to be removed... But ey didn't know when to stop. Ey left me there then, and Kale took me to the medical center. They amputated my wings an' I just waited until they let me out. You know Larise was getting whipped every ten days for doing it, well, I sure didn't think it was enough! An' since ey didn't have wings to start with, I just took a knife, went an' killed em. I thought ey deserved it... An' you know the rest, I spent the next few months crying because of all the whipping an' flaying... I sometimes wonder if it really was worth it. I suppose not. But it's too late anyway. At least I'm still here." Theri smiled at Zhaanno and kissed em again. They kept on making out until Kale returned.
"HAH! I found the damn scanner! It isn't even broken much, just needs a new power source and a new screen." Ey saw Theri and Zhaanno making out, not really listening to, and much less caring about what ey was saying. "Well, thanks a lot for your attention, you mentally challenged body worshippers", ey said, heading out again.
"Theri, you really keep annoying em..."
"So what?"
"What are you, jealous?" Theri did not answer, but stopped kissing Zhaanno. "Fine..." Zhaanno picked up eir gear and went outside. Theri came soon after em and closed the doorway of their cave by reaching inside from a window and pushing a button, and watched as the slide door closed the doorway. Theri then pulled down a metal cover for the window, and went after Zhaanno to their parents' cave.
"What, you're ready already?" asked Raqeidan. "Good kids. We can get going then. Bye everyone! We'll be back in twenty or thirty days, I'm guessing." Raqeidan got eir gear and walked outside. "So, you all have your gear now? And you've got a new screen an' power source?"
"Yeah", Kale replied.
"Alright. Here you go", Raqeidan said, giving Kale eir gear. Theri dumped eir gear on Zhaanno, grinned and climbed on Raqeidan's back. Zhaanno just smiled.
Raqeidan spread eir gigantic dark blue wings and glided off the rocks with ease, eir children following. They flew to the east, toward the area of high mountains, forests, and many cold, narrow rivers.
The metal mining site was in a deep, steep valley between high mountains. As the edge of the known world was getting nearer, there was not much water around anymore, just lots of rivers that led to the center of the world. It was an endless cycle of water; the water at the great ocean in the center of the world vaporized, traveled to the edges as clouds and rained down there, from where it then flowed back to the center in rivers.
As wings were not really an advantage while working in the mines, a big part of the tzhaganes without wings became miners, especially near the edge. Still about only one in five of the miners did not have wings, because not being born with wings was not common and it was gradually getting rarer and rarer all the time, most likely because the non-winged ones were usually most vulnerable to the predators. However, because of the fact that every tzhagane could give birth, their population remained steady, increasing as much as the resources let.
Kale, Zhaanno, Theri and Raqeidan arrived at the mouth of a constructed tunnel that would lead to the strange boulder. Most of the miners in that area were in the tunnel, and only the surface drill operators and a few others were on the ground. One of the seemingly idle youths talked to them.
"Hey! You're the science team, am I right? I'm Yeriki, the assistant leader for Tzheigeri", the youth said, performing the usual greeting ritual by raising eir wings up in the air and showing the backs of eir hands. The youth looked at Theri, as if asking where eir wings were. Theri glared back as ey responded to the greeting by showing the backs of eir hands. The others did the same as Yeriki.
"I'm Raqeidan, the science team leader. They're my assistants. Where's the leader then?"
"Ey's down in the mine... They're digging there to see more of that whatever thing it is. Please follow me." Yeriki fell off the edge of the tunnel, starting to float down to the bottom. The others followed.
The tunnel cave at the bottom was very large; it even connected two original mining tunnels. The strange boulder and the thing connected to it had been dug clearly visible from the rest of the soil, though that was still being worked on.
Tzheigeri, the tall, relatively dark-skinned and even more dark-winged leader of the metal miners was there to meet them.
"Hey!" said Tzheigeri, lifting eir wings up and showing the backs of eir hands. Raqeidan responded, but this time the youths stayed back.
"What's going on?"
"We're trying to dig out more of that boulder. I know what ye're going to say, and let me just remind you: That is NOT a huge chunk of traston. I know what traston is like. Otherwise, it's gotten kind of strange around here. The gravity field isn't functioning the same way here as on the surface, and that's been messing up our drills an' making the tunnels collapse. And that thing there isn't like any material we've seen before. It's smooth, almost perfectly elliptical, an' it seems to be blocking the way to the thing behind it. We have some short-wave scanners here, and from them it would seem like that thing is hollow. The surface is harder than anything we've ever seen before, but there seems to be nothing inside. My guess would be that the thing blocks the entrance to a tunnel. Then again, I have no idea why it's there in the first place, why the tunnel would be blocked or where the tunnel goes."
"Pheen droppings!" said Theri. "Come see my gravity scanner! This place is so wrong!" Raqeidan and Zhaanno looked at it, while Kale and Tzheigeri only glanced at it. Kale took out eir own scanner and started recalibrating it.
"Yes", continued Tzheigeri. "That's what our scanners do too. We can't do anything to it though or draw conclusions from it. Well?" Ey turned to Kale.
"Dang... Look at this", Kale said. "I recalibrated my scanner. It seems like the gravity field would have changed remarkably. We don't notice it much but the scanners can tell the difference. See, when you look up, it seems as if this tunnel was tilted, but when you're at its entrance, it's vertical. An' still this tunnel is straight." The others were quiet.
"Well", continued Tzheigeri. "How can ye explain it then?"
"Uh... I can't."
Tzheigeri looked at Raqeidan, who turned eir palm upwards to show ey did not know more. "Well, what then?"
Raqeidan seemed nonchalant. "Let's find out more", ey said happily, pulling out a couple of more scanners from the gear pack.
They studied the strange boulder and the hollow tube attached to it for several days. Raqeidan spent most of eir time talking to Tzheigeri and only came every once in a while to check that her children were working. Theri notified that if Raqeidan had spent even half of the time ey used for screwing Tzheigeri to actually study the boulder, they would have been out of the cretting mine in three days – not in front of Raqeidan or Tzheigeri, of course.
Zhaanno, being the social creature ey was, was more interested in asking the metal miners why they wanted to be metal miners. As a reply ey got more questions: Why was ey a geologist when ey could have had a great career as a psychologist? Why did ey care? Would ey want to take one of the metal miners to the center? Why did ey live in the center? Sometimes Theri had to save Zhaanno's behind from those metal miners who were more interested in working alone than being asked annoying questions by an outsider.
Kale did not care even that much, and was in fact the one who did the most work around. Thus it was only natural that ey was the one who the metal miners thought to be the ideal target of casual harassing. They advanced discreetly, being friendly and asking questions about eir work. Kale fell for it, ey liked explaining eir work to those that did not understand what ey was doing. The metal miners had chosen one of them to seduce Kale and placed bets on whether Kale would go for it or not.
It happened to be that Kale was using a sophisticated short-wave scanner and a radioactivity scaling equipment to determine what was inside the large assumed tunnel. A small group of metal miners was standing around em, listening but for the time, not understanding the methods and theory Kale was talking about. The one who had been chosen to trick Kale was a rather fine looking person slightly older than Kale and knew more about science and theory than the average metal miner. This person, called Zaiyaki, stood up and moved behind Kale to see Kale's screens and data better and to ask more interesting questions.
As Zaiyaki went on and kept asking eir questions, Kale was flattered because of the fact that one of the metal miners actually knew something more than the obligatory facts. Of course, in reality, the other metal miners were gathering all their own knowledge and channeling it to Zaiyaki for em to use. As Kale explained more about the equipment, Zaiyaki complimented em of eir knowledge.
After some time, most of the other metal miners left, as the working time was mostly over. By now, Zaiyaki was sitting left of Kale, and the whole of Kale's workstation had been set up left of the boulder, so that on Zaiyaki's left there was just an endless amount of dirt. As soon as Zaiyaki had made sure not too many were watching and was certain that Kale knew the place to be mostly empty as well, ey made eir move.
Zaiyaki moved eir upper body so that ey faced Kale's left side and gently grabbed Kale's left wing using eir right hand while laying eir left hand on Kale's thigh. Zaiyaki smiled innocently.
Kale immediately looked at em, a puzzled look on eir face. "What...?"
Zaiyaki moved eir face closer to Kale's and whispered, stroking the soft feathers on Kale's wing: "Would ye like to... sleep with me?"
Kale turned eir head away and looked at the screens that were still showing the data that was being stored on the hard drives of Kale's scanning equipment. However, ey did not pull away from Zaiyaki's touch. Kale was too clueless.
Zaiyaki rubbed Kale's back a bit as well as stroked eir thigh, wishing that Kale would warm up to em. Ey was waiting for a response from Kale, but Kale was too confused to answer, so they sat there numbingly long before Zaiyaki realized that waiting for an answer was rather futile. Ey then finally said: "Well...?"
Kale turned eir head a little, but did not look straight at Zaiyaki. "I... don't know."
Zaiyaki smiled and was quiet for a moment before continuing calmly. "Come on then, it won't do any harm at least." Ey kept sitting there quietly, watching how Kale turned off the equipment. When that was done, Zaiyaki pulled a little further from Kale and looked at em.
"I... guess I could", Kale replied shyly and smiled a little uneasily. Ey could not possibly understand what was going on.
Zaiyaki smiled. "Do ye want to sleep here or up in the surface?"
"It's the same..."
"Then let's sleep here. I'll get my bedroll." With that, Zaiyaki stroked Kale's hair a little and bounced out of Kale's sight. Kale sat there, dumbfounded and doing nothing. Ey had not even moved when Zaiyaki came back. Zaiyaki spread the bedroll on the ground and saw Kale's bedroll under Kale's scanning equipment. Ey made use of that and put their both plastic covers next to each other, spread eir own bedroll on it and was about to use Kale's bedding as a blanket. Ey looked up at Kale and said, smiling: "C'mon, come down." Saying that, Zaiyaki sat down on the bed ey had just made. Kale fidgeted down from the screens and sat down next to Zaiyaki. Zaiyaki smiled and pulled Kale down with em as ey lay down. Kale did not resist and even allowed Zaiyaki to pull em close so that their whole bodies were touching each other. Kale could not help blushing, but still ey did nothing.
Zaiyaki was starting to feel like Kale would allow anything ey was going to do. Still, ey played it safe and went on cautiously. After a bit of cuddling ey whispered: "Ye... wouldn't like to make love, would ye?"
Kale was confounded. "No, I... uh..." Ey did not continue and Zaiyaki did not push em further, yet.
However, after a good silence Zaiyaki went on again: "Come on, it'll be really fun." This time Kale answered nothing, just smiled. Zaiyaki felt like ey could just go on, so ey reached eir hand under Kale and pulled a wing from behind Kale, turning em on eir back. Thus Kale was lying on eir back, eir wings spread all over that part of the floor. Zaiyaki rolled over Kale, staring to kiss em.
At the very moment, Theri had been wandering around, trying to find one of the rare lifts that would take em back to the surface. Ey was amusedly confounded at finding one of the metal miners – a very good-looking one at that – making out with Kale. Theri thought it would be a real miss to not let Raqeidan know, so ey fastened eir search. Once Theri had found a lift, ey went up and looked for Tzheigeri's office, where ey knew Raqeidan would be. Having found it, ey knocked on the door.
Tzheigeri's voice said: "Don't come in! Who is it?"
"Theri."
"What's the matter?" came Raqeidan's voice.
"One of the metal miners is rubbing on Kale." Theri heard some shuffling and in a short moment, Tzheigeri opened the door. Ey was bare-chested and had the strangest smile on eir hardened face. Theri could swear ey saw Raqeidan stepping away from eir line of sight while pulling a top on.
"Ey wouldn't happen to be this neat, lean, good-looking fellow with light purplish wings, would ey?" asked Tzheigeri with the wryest voice.
"Um, yes", replied Theri a little amusedly; Tzheigeri's tone was very strange.
At that moment, Raqeidan emerged from behind Tzheigeri, wearing eir top. "I would've believed it if it was you, Theri, but I don't believe that of Kale until I see them." Raqeidan's tone was also slightly evil, even if amusedly so, and Theri actually wondered if ey should have just let the metal miner have eir way with Kale.
The three went down to the mining tunnel and saw Kale and Zaiyaki. Raqeidan was thoroughly amused but knew better than to hurt the feelings of eir child by laughing out loud. Tzheigeri, then again, knew better of Zaiyaki and easily guessed what was going on. Ey left Raqeidan and Theri a little further and walked up to the couple. Both were only wearing their shorts by now, and Kale was about to lose eirs already. However, noticing that Tzheigeri was walking toward them, Zaiyaki stopped whatever ey was doing to look up at Tzheigeri. Kale, then again, did not even let Tzheigeri have a chance to say anything, but threw Zaiyaki off emself, got swiftly up and ran. Tzheigeri could not even think about doing anything when Kale was already gone. However, Kale stopped in front of Raqeidan and Theri and blushed, but continued eir run nevertheless, finally flying out through a tunnel, trying to tie the belt of eir shorts.
"Ever the person of instant responses of running away", Theri said amusedly, looking after Kale.
Tzheigeri started speaking to Zaiyaki. "What did ye think ye were doing?"
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Zaiyaki started picking up eir bedding.
"That's what ye said the last three times!"
Zaiyaki stopped for a while and had to face the fact that ey did not have anything to say to that. "I'm sorry." Ey finished picking up the bedroll.
Tzheigeri grabbed Zaiyaki's bedroll and looked at em menacingly. "If ye keep distracting others like this, I'll have ye kicked out of the mine."
Zaiyaki looked at the bedroll and then defensively up at Tzheigeri. "It wasn't distracting. The working time was way over and I just asked if ey wanted to... ye know."
Now Tzheigeri found that ey did not have anything to say to that. And after all, ey was the one who had spent half of the day in eir office with Raqeidan, doing something else than discussing the boulder or the plans it would change. Tzheigeri threw the bedroll at Zaiyaki, resulting in the spreading of the bedroll so that Zaiyaki had to reassemble it. "Get out of my sight", Tzheigeri said calmly, and Zaiyaki obeyed.
"The common whore?" asked Raqeidan playfully.
Tzheigeri turned at em, starting to walk to em. "I'm sure they made a bet again. Will the stranger agree to get laid or not. I wonder what they'll think the result was", Tzheigeri said and laughed. Ey grabbed Theri's hand and took off, flying up and out from the tunnel. Raqeidan picked up Kale's top and bedroll and followed. When they got to the surface, Tzheigeri put Theri on the ground and left for eir office again.
Raqeidan stopped for a moment to speak to Theri. "Can you find Zhaanno an' tell em to calm Kale down or something? The poor kid's probably shocked."
Theri chuckled a little, but replied: "Sure."
"Good." With that, Raqeidan handed Theri the top and the bedroll and left after Tzheigeri.
Theri reached eir mind to find Zhaanno sleeping in their usual sleeping place, near the miners' sleeping boxes. Theri left then, to walk toward the place, while talking to Zhaanno.
"What? What is it?" asked Zhaanno, a little groggily.
"There was a small incident... Raqeidan wants ya to go an' talk to Kale."
"Where is ey?"
"I don't know. Find em." With that, Theri drew back into eir own mind and continued walking.
Zhaanno cursed, ey had unwillingly been drawn into issues that were not eir business at all in the first place. Still, Zhaanno got up and located Kale through their mental link. Kale had gone rather far, but they all knew moving about at the edge was not dangerous because there were nearly no predators and any of them could not fly. Still, Zhaanno was instinctively very alert as ey flew toward Kale.
Kale was sitting on a rock, looking up at the night sky and turned eir glare at Zhaanno as ey came into view. Kale looked frustrated but otherwise fine. Ey was not wearing a top, however, and as the nights at the edge were colder than what Kale was used to, ey was shivering, trying to wrap eir wings around eir body. Zhaanno knew better than to start asking what exactly had happened. Ey landed on the rock and proceeded to sit down next to Kale, wrapping an arm around Kale's cold upper body.
"Are you okay?" asked Zhaanno after a moment of silence.
Kale pressed eir head against eir little sibling's shoulder. "Apparently so." They were quiet for yet a moment.
"Will you come back to sleep?"
"Yeah." With that, they simply got up and flew back to the sleeping boxes. The event was not later discussed seriously, though Theri now had an extremely sensitive issue to tease Kale with.
When Raqeidan, Kale, Zhaanno and Theri completed their studies, they still had not found out much more about the boulder, the assumed tunnel behind it or the reason for the gravity field changing. It would also take a long while before the boulder would be wholly exposed from the ground.
Raqeidan, Kale, Zhaanno and Theri left after their preliminary investigation and let the research team take over until the miners would be ready to do something to the boulder. They flew back home and continued with their usual lives.
Zhaanno and Theri had been planning on having children in the near future, as soon as Zhaanno would be mature enough. Now their plans had been postponed somewhat, as Theri would be the first one to be tested with artificial wing implants.
Centuries ago, the medical experts had managed in performing the first wing transplantation. A few years ago, the technomedical expert teams had succeeded in implanting artificial wings on a tzhagane's back, but at that stage they were yet not designed to work. The reason was that the tzhagane originally had not had wings, and they would of course need to build the nerves to control the wings. Thus, when they were going to seriously try implanting the artificial wings, they would need someone who had lost eir wings. It was Theri's chance.
In many ways, Theri was an ideal object for the experiment. Ey was strong both physically and mentally, would need the wings but would also be replaceable if something went wrong. The only downside was that it had already been quite some time since ey had lost eir wings. It would take very long before ey would be able to use them efficiently.
Kale was the odd bird of the family. Ey was intelligent, strong and capable of almost anything except social commitment. Ey replaced eir inability in that area by being over-protective about eir family, which was also why ey lived with Zhaanno. Eir two other siblings had died earlier, and ey blamed emself for their deaths. Ey could have saved them if ey had been good enough. When Zhaanno was the only one of eir siblings still left, Kale could not ever leave em from eir sight. Even though ey often could not stand Theri, with whom Zhaanno had fallen in love with, near em, ey was able to put up with it because of Zhaanno. Eventually even they became closer.
However, things were soon going to change for Kale.
Approximately forty days after they had visited the mining site, Kale received a written message from Tzheigeri. Kale had been doing stuff ey usually did when there were no special cases like the boulder, like studying the vibrations of the ground.
The printed-out message read:
Greetings, young Kale.
You impressed me with your skills and intelligence back at the mining site while you were there. You are very skilled and have a lot of potential, and I would like to congratulate you. Please also tell Raqeidan and your team that we haven't been successful with the strange boulder, but that we will be ready to continue with it after the winter, with your guidance.
From one issue to another, your parent told me about you back then. My first impression was that you were much like my own child Geariyo, but I soon noticed that was not the case. However, I think that you might like em. Ey began as a metal miner like many others who are born here, but ey was more interested in the theory and science, like you, I assume. As ey is currently without a job and applying to the school of science, I thought I could just as well send em to visit you. Ey could also use a place to stay there near the ocean.
Geariyo will be yours now. Please, take care of em. Ey should arrive there on the 329th.
Tzheigeri
Kale was nothing more but confused. Why was Tzheigeri doing this? Kale did not really have time for any extra activities like this. On the other hand, it would probably not hurt to have another person assist in the chores.
However, Kale was rather nervous about Geariyo coming. Ey could guess why Raqeidan had talked to Tzheigeri about em and why Tzheigeri had sent eir child precisely to Kale. Of course Kale did not have anything to say to it, but a newcomer – whether ey be this kid or someone else – would be rather difficult to handle.
After two days, Geariyo arrived. Kale saw em flying toward their cave from the east. Geariyo was almost as dark as eir parent was and otherwise also rather similar. Ey was still smaller though, and as of now, ey seemed to be as tall as Kale. Kale looked at Geariyo's clothing. It was very strange, nothing like what those who lived near the ocean had and quite different from the miners' clothes also.
"Hello!" yelled Geariyo.
"Hello." Ey landed on the rock Kale was standing on. They scanned each other, visually and telepathically. Geariyo looked like ey had been through many hardships. Eir ears were ripped, ey had many scars on eir body and face, and ey only had three fingers on eir left hand. Ey was smaller than Kale. The patterns on eir skin were lighter than the rest of eir skin.
After performing the common greeting ritual, they were quiet for inconveniently long.
"Can I have some food?" Geariyo finally asked.
"Sure." Kale went into the cave and to the kitchen, Geariyo following. Geariyo left eir pack in the doorway. Zhaanno, wherever ey was now, had made some food. It was actually just the normal food from the food supply center with few spices in it. "If it tastes weird, I can get it unspiced." After giving Geariyo a plateful of the stuff, ey took one for emself. Geariyo looked at the plate for a while, then tasting it.
"It's okay." They both ate the food. Kale took the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.
"You should always put your dishes in here. We take turns with turning it on and emptying it. Now it's my turn. We mark them on the list here." Kale pointed to a list above the dishwasher.
"Okay."
Kale was quiet again. Ey looked at Geariyo's left hand. "Uh... What's happened to your hand?"
Geariyo quickly lifted eir left hand up. "It was an accident." The hand was missing the index finger. The other three fingers looked fine. "I was twelve. I was using a big drill to do a hole on a small piece of wood. I had to hold the piece like this..." Geariyo showed that the drill had been right between the index finger and the thumb. "Well, it slipped... an' my finger was gone." Kale looked at the hand, thinking that it must have been very painful. Ey had no idea what to say to Geariyo, though. Ey stretched out eir hand, taking Geariyo's hand in eirs.
Geariyo was slightly confused. Ey looked up at Kale. "Uh... what can we do around here?"
Kale let go of Geariyo's hand. "Well... Uh, now, if you're not too tired, I could take you around the place an' show where the food supply center is. And the science education institute."
"I'm too tired. I just flew all the way from my home to here with my stuff."
"Okay." They were quiet again.
"Where do I sleep?"
"Um... in my room."
Geariyo looked at em with a questioning look on eir face. "Don't you... have a spare room?"
"We have two rooms, the kitchen lab an' the general room, an' there are already three people living in here."
Geariyo was quiet, somewhat shocked. There were not as many predators near the edge of the world than there were near to the middle. The people there could always move into and build new places of living and since the homes were made of mostly wood, extending the current home was also a possibility. With caves forged into rocks it would take too much effort.
"Y'know... Theri will be gone in sixty days. Then I can sleep in Zhaanno's room an' you can have mine."
"Okay." They were quiet for a while again.
"Why did you come here?"
"To study science. I don't want to be a metal miner."
"Why did your parent send you specifically here?"
"I don't know. Ey said you were good, decent people. Where's yer parent, ...Raqeidan, was it?"
"Ey lives in the cave next to this one."
"Does ey have more space?"
"Yeah, but the cave's filled with little kids. Me, Zhaanno an' Theri are the oldest ones an' we got bored of the hassling so we forged our own cave here."
"Oh." The idea of sleeping in Kale's room sounded far less uncomfortable now.
"Ya know..." Kale was about to tell why ey thought Tzheigeri had sent Geariyo specifically here, but could not figure out how to express it fluently. "Never mind."
"Eh?" said Geariyo with a questioning look. Kale did not say anything, so Geariyo let it be.
Kale continued after a while. "What exactly did ya came to study?"
"Astronomy."
"An' your parent sent ya to a couple of geologists?"
"Maybe I'll study geology then!" Kale was quiet, looking at Geariyo. It crossed eir mind that ey probably should not have said that. "I know I don't want to be a metal miner. What kind of scientist I will eventually be doesn't matter, I'll be happy to just be one." Geariyo looked at Kale rather fiercely, and Kale stayed silent.
Geariyo walked away into the hall room and looked out through the window. "Why do ye live here? I mean, near to the center of the world?"
"Why not?" asked Kale, following Geariyo.
"Why not? Why NOT?" snapped Geariyo. "Don't ye have any idea how many predators there are in here compared to the amount of predators near the edge? Our ancestors should never have come here. Now I have to leave my home an' live in constant danger just because I want to study science."
Kale was quiet for a moment. "You know, you're right." Geariyo turned to look at em, giving em a curious and somewhat astonished look. "I don't want to live here an' watch my little siblings get killed. I'm going to apply for a transfer so I can work at the edge." With that, Kale went to the other side of the room and picked out a stack of papers tied together with a string. Geariyo was too confounded to utter a single word.
However, just as Kale was about to open eir mouth to announce something, Geariyo began: "Y'd just leave yer home like that? An' go alone?"
"Why not? YOU did, an' after all, ya were the one leaving to the wrong direction. I should've done this ages ago. It would've saved me so much trouble." Saying that, ey remembered how ey had saved Zhaanno's life twice after they had graduated as geologists. If Kale had left as soon as ey had graduated, Zhaanno would not be alive anymore. The thought of that was rather unbearable, and ey stared blankly at the papers in front of em.
Geariyo was somewhat helpless. Ey was used to having a strong effect on people and emself, but this went over even eir scale. As Kale stood there thinking about Zhaanno, Geariyo remembered pieces of the history and evolution of tzhaganes.
The accurate history of the Tzhagane reaches up to 6000 years into the past, when almost all of the organized tzhaganes were still living near to the edge. Before that they were known to have moved somewhat around at the edges without doing much.
They had lived a nomadic life; some had settled down in valleys where some fertile land was found. As the size of any community was determined by the size and fertility of the valley, no community could ever grow big enough to fulfill any other purposes than keeping alive the tzhaganes who lived in it. If the amount of people grew to uncontrollable amounts, the land was overcultivated and destroyed, eventually destroying the whole community. Some people heard horror stories of such cases, then believed them or not and tried to evade such a catastrophe in their own way. Every attempt to grow a community too big ended disastrously. Eventually all tzhaganes knew that, accepting it. Some people always wandered around, some stayed in valleys or founded small enough communities in the mountains. Most of the wanderers that left the areas they originated from never came back and never were found. One of the discouraging factors was the issue of predators. There were very few predators at the edge of the world, and even those that could kill a tzhagane easily did not prefer their taste, leaving them alone. The tzhaganes, often living in only very few numbers, did not disturb the menu of their superior predators. Nearer to the center of the world the predators were much more efficient and terrifying, and could even fly, unlike the ones at the edge. That and the fact that no one knew what there would be to be achieved in the center were the primary reasons why the tzhaganes did not bother to leave the edges. Thus were things 6000 years ago.
During the next two millennia the tzhaganes had discovered rudimentary science and technology. Most of their research was done in curiosity more often than due to need. The only achievements of science they needed were in the lines of architecture for their homes, machines for cultivation and harvest and small devices to help with the chores of everyday life. Everything else they studied out of curiosity, and everything that could not be used for the three things mentioned were forgotten or only used to do further research in the hunger of knowledge. Eventually, a group of brave tzhaganes dared to venture to the center, properly equipped and ready to face the predators. It took several decades a century, two centuries, but eventually they managed in creating a successful community. They eventually found other tzhagane communities settled in safe valleys near the center. They had no use to conquer these communities, as, if left alone, they simply continued their life in the valley, not particularly caring what was going on elsewhere. Some did not even know if there was an "elsewhere" in the first place.
Nevertheless, the movement of big groups of tzhaganes to the center allowed the establishment of great systems and institutes. The tzhaganes protected their fragile buildings with force fields and assured their survival by being fast and cunning, making their predators lose interest in hunting down a small, fast piece of meat that did not taste good nor was very filling. The fittest survived and it was fine for the tzhaganes.
That kind of lifestyle had gone on for millennia, with an occasional revolution and an attempt to create something extraordinary. However, the majority of people never really caught them. They might have played along for a decade or two, but eventually they always realized that peace and quiet was the way to be. Everyone created or decided about eir own excitement, entertainment and pain and everyone knew that. There had only ever been four major movements that had tried to change the world as the tzhaganes knew it. The first one, the literal movement of the people from the edge to the center had succeeded, the other three had not. Soon after it was clear that the center of the world was the place to be and the network of communities had grown too large to control, the Institute of Jurisdiction was founded to maintain a sense of common law and language – over a thousand years after the first successful explorers had settled in the center. Much later, when it became necessary, the Food Supply Institute was founded as a subdivision of the Institute of Jurisdiction to control the fair distribution of food to all tzhagane communities that knew of the Institute of Jurisdiction. After the Food Supply Institute, the Educational Institute was founded to assure fair education to the people. And finally, the Medical Institute was founded to assure fair health care and scientific studying. After that every issue that became a problem has been assigned to one of the existing Institutes.
The second great movement, the first that failed, was the conquering of the whole world. A large group of tzhaganes wanted to explore and conquer the whole world and make every tzhagane community aware of the Institute of Jurisdiction. However, the group was too small. They traveled far, kept their contacts to the Institute of Jurisdiction and told every ignorant valley community about it, but eventually, nothing happened. The group eventually settled in a valley and built a working community far away from any other communities, but like the ancient magnificent dreams of creating an all-knowing omnipotent empire, the community crushed under its own size. There were and still are very vast undiscovered, unknown areas around the world where the tzhaganes could go, but do not because they have no need to do that. Of course someone always leaves and eventually a new community might be founded, but when there is no need for more, they do not go further. Some of the most curious ones have gone around the world; most have never come back, those who have never had anything of particular interest to show or tell. It is a foreign land that will be inhabited when the need arises. It is a mystery of other communities that will join the wide commonality of the Four Institutes when and if they so desire.
The third great movement had been the invention of a universal religion. Most of the people went for it, others were converted and those who did not agree were tortured and killed. Unnecessary moral codes were created, people were hunted because they did not believe. Even then, eventually everyone realized that it did no good to believe in something trivial and make a big issue about it. It never changed how much food they got, it never made the predators go away. The only thing it did cause was the bitter anger of the tzhaganes who had seen the corruption of a false ideal from the beginning. Thus faded the religion and the superficial moral codes and unwritten rules of behaviour went forgotten.
The fourth failed movement was the invention of weapons. Even the ancient tzhaganes had weapons: axes, saws, shovels, gardening tools. Near the edge they were used to either scare and drive away predators and creatures that loomed over their food crops, or to kill off the odd harmful tzhagane. The predators never posed such a threat that the tzhaganes would have wanted to wipe them out completely. Even as they moved nearer to the center, they noticed they still had the advantage of speed. And before anyone thought that killing off all of their predators might be a good idea, the idea of food chains and ecological balance was found. Soon enough everyone knew that hunting down and killing an entire species just because they were a threat to the tzhaganes would likely upset the whole ecosystem. In addition, it was admittedly easier to run away and be cautious than to sit down and think how in the world it would be possible to eliminate an entire species. Most of the predators were also very intelligent, some of them even having a language the tzhaganes nearly understood and some ideas of abstract thought. Thus it did not help to kill the predators, as revenge was unavoidably imminent. However, as the technology advanced, some tzhaganes noticed how effective some devices would be against their predators. The weapons were promised to guard everyone from every enemy tzhagane could think of and the people stopped caring about the ecosystem. Soon effective firearms were being manufactured and every tzhagane was promised to get one. The dealing of the firearms began first from the center and never spread from there. When the people got their hands on the weapons, surely many of the predators were killed and the death rate went down. Then became the conflicts between people, and since they now had a very simple and effective solution within an arm's reach, they did not bother to take it to the Institute of Jurisdiction but solved their problems by killing each other. Soon the murder rate grew absolutely ridiculous. When approximately half of the people around the center were dead, the remaining tzhaganes refused the firearms and disassembled them. Of course, a few of the weapons were hidden or kept just for the sake of it, but over a few centuries the usage of the firearms went down so much that eventually the few firearms that had not been disassembled were considered some sort decoration or ancient museum artifacts.
The history of the Tzhagane had not been filled with wars and conflicts, but times of peace and revolutions of discoveries. Most of the tzhaganes hoped those times would continue, some hoped for a change, some just hoped for anything to happen. But as they saying went, everyone created or decided about eir own excitement, entertainment and pain and everyone knew that.