The Next Morning
In bed, Stoneback Free Laborer’s Clinic, City of Wi Kao, Planet Gao
Associate Fiin of Stoneback
Fiin opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. Even that hurt. He groaned unhappily and sniffed the air, then froze; Tyal was there. A white-hot flash of dread welled up in Fiin but right at that moment, someone nuzzled at his right paw. Fiin painfully tilted his head down and looked, then raised his eyebrow in confusion. Tyal had his head resting on the bed and he keened very quietly, eyebrows and ears set in deep concern.
Fiin stared at him for a moment. He didn’t know what to say.
Tyal broke the awkward moment by flattening his ears and reaching up with his paws to just above Fiin’s hips, which was the spot he had squeezed the hardest the day before. There were deep claw punctures (now sealed and healing) and the muscles beneath were crushed so hard they would need surgery if they weren’t soon put back into place. So, Tyal massaged exactly where he knew Fiin needed it most. He protested at first in natural fear, but the pain relief that came with the forceful loosening and repositioning of his screaming muscles…
He grumbled happily before he knew what he was doing.
The Stoneback—no, his Brother—chittered in an amused tone, then grumbled ruefully and huffed by way of further apology.
“Awful way to end a day, huh?”
Fiin didn’t have any kind of verbal answer but he duck-nodded feebly in place. He was still coping with deep pain and paralyzing confusion, though he had to admit Tyal clearly knew exactly what he was doing with his paws. The sharpness of the pain just seemed to melt away under his touch, replaced with a dull, much more tolerable ache. He continued to knead and massage where he had so terribly crushed the smaller male the day before.
“How do you know how to do this?”
“My most bestest Cousin is a sports therapist in Clan Openpaw. He wasn’t smart enough for the full Rites in medicine but he is a Father-named natural with this kind ‘o thing. He taught me the basics so I’d stop pestering him, heh.”
Fiin hissed in sharp pain as Tyal found a particularly nasty spot, then relaxed as the tension released. “Ow,” he panted weakly. “Guess he couldn’t teach you a gentle touch, huh?”
Tyal grumbled deeply, “Sarry friend, ‘gentle’ ain’t really a word I’m good with. If he were here I’d give ‘em a call, he’s much better at this than me.”
“Where is heARRGH!”
Tyal pressed down along Fiin’s ribs with quite literally breathtaking force, stretching the fascia underneath. “He’s on Cimbrean,” he said without missing a step, “Doin’ an exchange with a ‘chi-ro-pract-or’ or something like that. He wants ‘ta study human anatomy, maybe see if he can learn anything neat!”
He released, and Fiin panted angrily. “Take it easy!”
“Nope, gotta get this done while you’ve still got relaxants in your system. You don’t want surgery, do you?”
Fiin shook his head sideways.
“Didn’t think so! I’ll be quick and get it over with.” And he was, and Fiin once again bore immense pain under Tyal’s paws.
It was a long, awkward while as he attacked each knot of agony, with Fiin spasming then exhaling in great relief as they progressed. A quick flip over onto his belly with some trepidation, then more suffering, then sweet, sweet release as his back finally relaxed. Tyal made short work of it then flipped Fiin over again and attacked his limbs. That took much longer and hurt even more. He began to suspect pain would be a constant in his new life as a Stoneback and Fiin could already imagine his fellow Housemates chittering in laughter as he mewled in helpless surrender to the monster working him over.
Fiin felt it was time for some humor, if for no other reason to distract from the pain. He chittered weakly, “Do you beat up every recruit like this?”
“Nope! Most of ‘em freak out a lot sooner than you did.”
“…Really?”
“Oh yeah.” He worked out a particularly evil knot along Fiin’s outer right thigh with a disturbing amount of force. Fiin hissed, arched his back, then slumped back down when the knot released. He panted in exhaustion.
Tyal gave a sly little look, “But they weren’t such big wimps afterward, either.”
“That’s not fair! What was I supposed to do, just sit there and take it? I’m surprised I lived through that torment! Were you trying to tear me in half?”
“Nah. If I were trying I’d have succeeded.”
Fiin gulped. “…I believe you.”
“Oh, relax! It was just a joke. I mean, I could,” he flashed a slightly dominant little grin, “But I wasn’t gonna do anything that stupid. It’d be a waste!”
“You could have made a mistake! Look at you, you’re huge!”
“Hey, give me some credit! I’ve been doing this for years and I know my own strength. Besides, you did exactly what a Stoneback should do. Fight back. Why would I wanna break someone that rare? You didn’t succumb to the pain, little one. You fought towards your mission and that’s what matters.”
“Not that it did me any good,” grumbled Fiin.
“You sure about that, Associate Fiin?”
Fiin had to admit he didn’t have a good answer to that. So he grumped instead, then winced as Tyal went to work on his footpaws. Even my feet hurt! How did he manage that? Fiin groaned in pain as Tyal leeched the last of the hurt out of his legs, then sighed in exhaustion and threw his head back. So tired.
Tyal padded up to the head of the bed and sat on his haunches next to Fiin. The Stoneback snuffled his big ‘ol snout towards Fiin’s head, ears still back as he continued his apology. Fiin finally gave in, rolled his eyes, and they sniffed each other in proper greeting.
“There, happy? I forgive you.”
“Don’t be sarcastic! And I ain’t apologizing anyway, don’t get that idea in ‘yer head. I’m sympathizin’ ‘cuz I know how bad it sucks.” He paused, then quietly, “I kinda wish ‘ya didn’t need to hurt so hard, that’s all.”
“…Sorry, sir.”
“Stop that, I work for a living! Call me Tyal, or Brother Tyal if you insist on being formal, ‘kay?”
“…okay.” Tyal shook his head in amusement. A thought struck Fiin right then. “Do all Stonebacks go through this?”
“Yup! It’s a little different for everyone ‘cuz we’re tryin’ to scare the shit outta ‘ya.” That particular human turn of phrase was becoming very popular; it had a wonderfully satisfying sound. “But the bit that’s always the same is we’re testing for honesty and focus. For most males, best way is a death threat and pain. And, well…you literally crashed yourself into the perfect setup and I took advantage.” Fiin cringed at that. “Hey, not your fault, but that’s how it goes. Anyway, rather than set up some situation like we usually do, I decided to test you then and there. Happy little accidents like that make for a better test.”
“‘Happy.’”
“Maybe not the best word…” Tyal chittered in amusement, “Okay, maybe that’s a little disrespectful, too. But yeah, I hadta do it right then and there to protect you. And anyway I knew you’d pass, I could smell your honesty the moment I stepped out of the car. The air was thick with your truth-stink.”
“Gee, thanks…”
“Hey, don’t knock it! You lived and you passed, and now you’re a brand new Stoneback. That’s a good thing, ain’t it?”
Fiin paused and asked with trepidation, “Would…you have really killed me if I had lied?”
“Yup.” Tyal said it without hesitation. There was an awkward pause.
“…Right. Um, are you hungry?”
“…Yeah. Ow.” The dull aches in his loosened and repositioned muscles were growing stronger. He suddenly felt ravenous.
“Okay. I’ll go get you some food and maybe painkillers, be right back.”
Tyal bounced out of the little room, leaving Fiin alone with his thoughts. Mostly they were preoccupied with the exquisite symphony of pain playing itself across his body. He looked around, found the display remote, sat up a little and grunted with effort, then gave it a press. He asked for cartoons and got them.
Then he slumped back onto the bed, exhausted. Tyal had really worked him over. Fiin didn’t know it was even possible to hurt in so many ways.
And the less said about his shoulders, the better.
But none of that distracted from the central question gnawing at his mind. He pondered, and at last simply stated it out loud: “So…now I’m a Stoneback. What happens next?”
“You eat!” Tyal returned carrying a ridiculous amount of food. “And you eat big, little one. You’ve got the fight in ‘ya but, well…let’s be honest. You ain’t really representin’ Stoneback size and strength. No offense,” he offered as Fiin struggled to form an objection, “It’s just, y’know. You gotta heal, and you gotta grow, and both of those mean you gotta eat. Plus, how old are you?”
“…uh, nineteen soon. Is all that food for me?” He eyed the pile warily.
“As much as you can eat, yup. I’ll eat the rest. And that’s good, it means you still have time to grow! You’re gonna have to work really hard, though. You’ve only got a few years before you’ll slow down, so eat up!” Tyal opened a container and placed it next to Fiin. It was a large pile of peshorkie dumplings filled with a rich, savory mincemeat and herbs from the northern plains, and it instantly made Fiin drool. But it was only one plate of food and Tyal was busy opening the rest—
“Just this one platter could feed me for almost a week!”
“Sure could! That’s the thing about the Gao. We have this habit of eating just enough food to get by, y’know? Good survival technique back when food was scarce. But Stoneback figured out a long while ago we could eat and grow a lot more than most. The other, smaller Clan stock just ain’t got the capacity like we do.” Tyal paused, “Well…okay, t’be fair about it, Straightshields and Highmountains can eat big too. And the Emberpelts I guess, but even still. Nobody can do big and strong like we can, heh. Me? I’m one of our clan Studs and we’re big enough we make most Humans look weak. And Daar is way stronger than me, too!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Well, most humans, anyway. There’s a rare few that make even Daar look downright puny from what I heard.”
“Really!?”
“Scary, huh? He’s already, like, the biggest and mightiest Gaoian to ever live, and before we met the humans he was the strongest, baddest being in the galaxy. But now he says he had his tail handed to him by a human that was a little smaller but way, way faster, and who moved and fought like Myun wished she could. Imagine that! And now they’re teaching him stuff, and he’s teaching them, too. He didn’t give me details but hey, if everyone learns new stuff that’s good, right?”
“Daar was beaten?” Fiin was having trouble keeping up.
“Yup. He’d never confess that to me unless it were true, y’know. He knows I’ve been thinking on maybe Challenging him someday, when he gets older.”
“Wh—then why would he tell you?”
“That’s ‘cuz the Champion is responsible to the Clan, not his ambition. One day he won’t be smart enough or strong enough to be Stoneback, and one of the younger Studs—maybe me, if I’m good enough—will Challenge him and take over. Not anytime soon though. He’s in his prime and last we fought, he swat me around about as easy as I did you. Think on that for a moment.”
“…He seemed so friendly.”
“He is! It was just a play fight. But hey, I got more scars!” he gestured to a particularly impressive one down his right flank. “Anyway, part of his duty as he sees it, anyway, is to keep close friends with us Studs. There ain’t much we don’t share with each other. Our Clan is honest with each other no matter what and nobody is more Stoneback than Daar. You understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“…Fiin. What did I tell you?”
“…yes, Brother.”
“…I’ll allow it. Anyway. Here’s some pain relief,” he handed over a couple of pills, “And eat up! You gotta heal and grow. You gotta grow a lot.”
Fiin swallowed the pills and grumbled a bit. “Not that I’ll ever catch up.”
“Sure you will! I looked up your pedigree while you were asleep and you’ve got Stoneback, Highmountain, Emberpelt, and Ironclaw purebred stock back to your foresires and foremothers. That’s an impressive lineage! I’ve got a feeling you’ll do just fine. Now EAT, and lemme tell you a story.”
Fiin pulled the tray of peshorkies over to himself and picked the biggest one. It was dripping in broth and fat and it smelled so good! He popped it in his mouth and savored it, eyes closed in pleasure. Tyal snuck one off the tray for himself while Fiin wasn’t looking, then opened another tray.
“What storyth youf gonna tell?”
Tyal swallowed before answering. “The First Story, about how Stoneback and the modern era came to be. It began before the days of writing…”
Fiin listened and ate, and learned the tale of the Gao.
History class was a lie.
11y 10m 21d AV
Apartment, Delaney Row, Foltcha, Cimbrean, the Far Reaches
Melissa
“He’s coming back?”
“Yes!” Niral squeaked happily and wiggled into her pillow. “I got his message this morning! It won’t be for a while yet, but there’s some research he wants to do on Human networks. He didn’t really give details but…he’ll be here a while!”
“Hmm,” teased Melissa, “It’s about time you had a cub, too!”
“H—hey! That’s a little soon, don’t you think?”
“I dunno, that big Daar fellow seems to move fast. Didn’t he just arrive?”
“Well of course he’s already seduced someone, the uncultured Kwek-brain.” Her snort of contempt transcended all boundaries of language and idiom. “No doubt she saw a recruiting poster of him in some ridiculous pose.”
“Wait a second,” laughed Melissa, “Daar? On a recruiting poster? Why?”
“He’s the Champion of Stoneback and he really is the ultimate example of a stupid, flexing lout. Here.” She fetched her tablet, “See for yourself.”
“Oh…oh my!” Melissa couldn’t help but giggle. The picture showed Daar in a high contrast photo designed to highlight his many scars and cast very dramatic shadows across the rolling topology of his body. His mouth was opened in a sort of half snarl, half pant expression of aggressively playful manliness, and the background was filled with all manner of unmistakably boy-centric and hypermasculine imagery. But the best part was how he stood posing ridiculously in a taut, full-body flex. He was on all fours like Melissa had only ever seen Daar do, and his left arm (foreleg?) was curled up into an impressive shape, bulging all the way from the wrist up to the shoulder.
Melissa burst out laughing.
“Oh! Oh that’s so…what does the text say?” She giggled as she asked.
“The top just says ‘Stoneback’ in their corporate branding. It’s in that really chunky ‘strong’ font that males seem to like, because males are weird, I guess.” She chittered, “They made it look like metal plating, too.”
Melissa nodded, “Right, like an advertisement for a Ford truck back in the day.” She read along the bottom. “What about this? That looks more like regular Gaori but I can’t quite read it…”
“It’s in a very old-style phonetic system that only ancient Clans use so you don’t see it much. It says ‘The Strong are Few,’ I think. They’re using some really old language there. And the rest is a infosphere node address.”
Melissa couldn’t get over the visuals on the poster. They seemed exactly like something a ten year old boy would dream up in a bad Photoshop project.
“Oh, man what a corny poster! But you and I aren’t the target, are we?”
“No, obviously not. But that right there is basically everything that’s wrong with Stoneback! They’re crude, un-cultured—”
“Farmers, builders, world-class tradesman and civil engineers…”
“…Yes, fine, they’re all of that to forestall the rest, but, just…” she sputtered, “LOOK AT THAT!”
Melissa chuckled and shook her head, “Oh girl, don’t get upset. So Daar’s not your cup of tea, then. Has he been pestering you?”
“…Well, no. He’s been unfailingly polite, actually.”
“Has he been pushy or unwelcome, anything like that?”
“No no, he’s kept his distance!”
Melissa raised an eyebrow. “So lemme get this straight. He ain’t your type, he’s left you to your peace, and some of the other females like him and seem pleased by it all. So not to be rude, but what exactly is your problem?”
“…” She flopped back on the cushions. “I dunno. I guess it’s irrational.”
“He’s a boy, you don’t need to be rational! And you went for Meereo pretty quick as I recall…”
“He’s different!”
“He’s an Anubis sex god nerd-boy.” She waggled her eyebrows to Niral’s chittering protests. “And a Champion. We seem to have a lot of those traveling through here…”
“Well, Cimbrean is important to our mutual interests in trade and diplomacy.”
“Well said. But you’re dodging the point and I won’t let you!”
“No, no…I get the point. I dunno, he just…something about Stonebacks and him in particular just doesn’t ‘do it’ for me.”
“Ha! Well, fair enough. But he’s gotta have some charm if he’s so successful.”
“Oh he does. I’ll admit he is really easy on the eyes, and on the nose, too. Actually, maybe a little too pleasing…and then there’s the Clan history.”
“What history?” Melissa stood up to go get some warm beverages. Niral was easy to get on a roll about the Gao—especially their history—but the payment was always a mug of hot chocolate.
“Oh, that would be the bit where Stoneback created the Clan of Females.”
Melissa stopped in her tracks. “Wait, what?”
“Yes! Why else would we tolerate them?”
“Okay. You need to tell that story from the very beginning.”
“When I get my drink!”
Melissa nodded and busied herself while Niral got comfortably situated. The human returned with two big, steaming mugs, then settled herself in as well.
“So.”
“Right! So, okay. This story starts over a thousand years ago…”
Brother and Stud Tyal of Clan Stoneback
“The first bit ‘ya gotta know is how the bloodlines happened. Remember the stories they taught in the crèche?”
Fiin swallowed his seventeenth peshorkie. That one was made of a meat he didn’t recognize but it was incredibly rich and flavorful, and Tyal noticed.
“Like it? I had ‘em sneak a couple ‘beef’ peshorkies in the mix.”
He licked his chops and enjoyed the afterglow for a moment. “From Earth?”
“Cimbrean, actually, part of their agricultural offworlding project. A whole planet for growing food! We’re also looking at raising some Naxas out there, see how they take to the environment, y’know? I’m told Humans really like the meat and they’re super excited for the pelts, too. There’s this whole cottage industry around knitting, I guess…anyway. You didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh!” Fiin reached for another dumpling. “Yeah. Something about how, uh, there was a population bottleneck, and then an adaptive radiation, I think, and the two breeds evolved, then later teamed up?”
“That’s only a little true. It’s what we can get back from the archeology…but here’s what we know, and this is really old knowledge. It ain’t secret but we don’t talk about it with just anyone, got it?”
Fiin duck-nodded and popped the morsel in his mouth. It was Kwek. Yum.
“Okay. So, our Clan has oral histories going back really far. We’ve got them going back to when we were all brownies and before the breeds separated.”
“…You’re serious.”
“Oh yeah. You’ll be getting the full story from our Loremaster when we can arrange it, but he’s doing research at the moment and can’t be disturbed.”
Fiin didn’t pick up on the hint. “Okay. So we have actual stories and we remember when we were one breed. What happened?”
“Well…”
Sister Niral of the Clan of Females
“Just ‘tween us girls? The Females and the Stonebacks go way back.” Melissa curled up around her pillow and nursed her hot chocolate, ready to listen. “You are of course aware of our gender imbalance.”
“Yeah, it’s the defining feature of your culture.”
“Yes. It puts us females at a disadvantage and encourages violence and conflict, and it cheapens the value of the males. We only advanced when we found a way to ‘balance the unbalanced,’ is how Grandmother used to say.”
“I had thought about that. What you have now is…well, it works. I can’t say it’s perfect but then, what society is? We certainly have our share of problems.” Melissa pondered her chocolate. “You mentioned the Stonebacks. How are they involved in all this?”
“Well, they helped us gain our freedom.”