Post Human Ch. 01

He handed me an envelope, containing a lot of money chips. These small, thin chips were made from some material introduced by the Sikatis. It was very light, but incredibly durable. Humanity was not capable of producing this material, all that existed was salvaged from the supplies of the occupying forces. It couldn't really be used for many practical purposes, due to a lack of know-how. Because of the limited supply and the fact that it was hard to forge, it served as the most widely accepted form of currency in the world.

The tribe didn't use any money. Goods and services were traded directly, or distributed by the leaders. Therefore I had no income and no real savings to finance my future endeavors. I had only a vague idea about the value the gifted chips held, but I was absolutely aware of their significance if I really went to Berlin.

"Wow, I... I don't know what to say. This is amazing. Than you so much."

Wilfried grinned. "You will need it. Sooner than you might expect. In two, maybe three days I will be visited by a former student of mine, who works at the Academy in Berlin now. I wrote him a letter in which I mentioned you and your intentions to join the Academy. He wants to meet you and is willing to help you getting settled in the city as well as guide you through the approval process."

"Really?" My gloomy mood vanished in an instant. That was more than I had hoped for.

"Really. He will not stay for long, so if you want to depart with him, you will have to be ready soon. Unless you need more time..."

"Are you kidding? I would depart right now if necessary."

Wilfried chuckled. "That's what I thought."

I thanked him about a thousand times. We spent much of the remaining afternoon chatting about the academy and what would await me in the weeks and month to come. After thanking him another thousand times, I said goodbye and departed in order to get back to the village before dusk. With my spirits drastically elevated by present and the fantastic news, I didn't even mind enduring the rest of the proving day ceremony.

When I came close to the crowd in the center of the village, which was still celebrating exuberantly, I was called by a familiar voice.

"Teo! Where you been?" The voice's owner, a guy by the name of Kovo, was also one of the candidates for becoming an adult today. Kovo was the absolute embodiment of a Fortis. Standing at almost two and a half meters he was pretty much as big as they get. His stature fit the size and was equally impressive: A towering mountain of bulging muscle. An evenly distributed tan darkened the naturally lighter skin tone on his upper body, indicating that he rarely wore cloth above the waist. His rough, unrefined facial features gave him a brutish look. Even as someone who knew him for as long as I can remember, I had to admit that he looked really intimidating. But even among the Fortis, looks could be deceiving. I have hardly ever met a person as kind and good of nature as Kovo. He was incredibly popular within the tribe and got along great with everyone. In his own way he was just as unusual as me, given the fact that his personality was as far away from the Sikatis' ideal soldier as possible. While he enjoyed fighting for fun, he would never truly hurt anyone on purpose.

I shrugged in response to his question. "Went for a stroll."

The giant approached me with a broad smile. Once he was in arms reach he gave me what was certainly intended as an amicable pat on the back. With his freakish strength it almost threw me off my feet. If he did that to a Callidus, it could easily break a few bones.

Among the tribe Kovo was closest to what I would call a friend. Despite the fact that we hardly shared any interests and spent very little time together, we had always enjoyed each others occasional company. We also made quite a good team. With my brain and his brawn few things seemed impossible. He had learned to make use of my wits early on. The advantage of having a friend of his dimensions in a society which highly valued strength and fighting skills had always been obvious to me as well.

"Drink!" Kovo demanded and pressed a bottle of transparent liquid into my hand. The content was not hard to guess: Flash. It was made from Fortiota, but instead of using the rather complex procedure for making Fortiamin, parts of the plant were used for creating a common, distilled liquor. The result still had some of the effects of the performance enhancing drug, but was less potent, less dangerous, could be consumed in larger amounts and was better suited for recreational use.

Feeling quite festive at the moment, I didn't hesitate and took a big gulp. Flash was just as disgusting as Fortiamin but in a slightly different way. The bitter flavor and strange aftertaste were still there, but less intense, partly overshadowed by the pungent burn of strong alcohol. I shuddered as the stuff seared my throat. Kovo expressed his delight with a bellowing laugh and gave me another forceful clap on the back.

"You look happy," he observed while I handed the bottle back to him.

I couldn't really tell whether it was just a statement or an inquiry into the cause for my elation. It didn't matter, I simply had to tell someone: "I am. I will go to the Primus academy."

Judging by Kovo's facial expression, he wasn't sure whether he should be happy or sad about it. He simply asked: "When?"

"In a few days."

"So you are really leaving," he realized with a solemn expression. I was surprised how much that seemed to bother him.

"Yes," I admitted, feeling almost guilty about it.

"I will miss you," he admitted.

"I will miss you too big guy."

"All the more reason to celebrate today!" he declared, his downcast attitude gone within the blink of an eye. "All the more reason to drink!" He took a sip from the bottle and offered it to me again. There was no refusing it.

So we drank and talked until it was time for the feast. Kovo asked me many questions about that ominous academy I had mentioned so often lately. He knew next to nothing about it, about the cities or even what lay beyond the valley he grew up in, so his questions were rather basic and simple. Despite that I found that there were quite a few of these questions I could not really answer. It made me aware of how little idea I really had about what was to come.

The announcement that the feast was about to start was a welcome distraction from that train of thought. Kovo and I made our way to the table reserved for the proving day candidates and picked seats next to each other. What followed was a meal which could only be described as vastly excessive by anyone not familiar with Fortis dietary habits. The sheer quantity of various kinds of food was ridiculous. Our subspecies was known for an enormous appetite in everyday life already, but when we celebrated, it reached a whole new level. Half the village had been involved in preparing all the dishes. The mouth-watering smell of roasting beef, pork, mutton, chicken and turkey was omnipresent.

Only now I realized how unbearably hungry the long, eventful day had left me. With tremendous appetite I grabbed whatever food I could get my hands on. The atmosphere within the tribe had been quite lively all day already, but the feast gave the general mood another significant boost.

Once the main assault on the dishes had subsided and people were full enough so they could wrest part of their attention from eating, the Supreme Mother made her entrance. It was time to announce the results of the proving day tests. There were three parts to it: First of all she had to reveal whether someone had failed to prove his or her worth entirely and would be banished from the tribe. It was not really a surprise when we learned that everyone had passed, but it was still cause for exuberant cheering and celebrating.

Next was the assignment to work categories. Having successfully reached adulthood, each tribe member needed to be committed to a useful profession. The Sikatis had also made this kind of classification, but the types of professions were different now. There was no real need for soldiers, gladiators or bodyguards around here. Instead the village required practical, productive jobs. There were four main work categories: The largest of those were the farmers. With the enormous need for food, there was plenty of work for people dealing with agriculture and livestock. The strongest individuals were assigned into the category of the laborers. Those became woodcutters, construction workers, carriers, butchers and the likes. The most skillful people became crafters. Those worked as smiths, tailors, cobblers, potters, glass blowers and in similar crafts. The last category were the caretakers. They raised and educated children, assisted in childbirth, cooked and kept the village in order.

Most tribe members had already been working one or more trades for years and would be assigned accordingly. The official decision in the course of proving day was mostly just a tradition and formality. I hadn't really been involved in any specific profession yet but it was still easy to predict what I would be assigned to. The crafters were clearly the best fit among the available options. The Supreme Mother was obviously of the same opinion. No more surprising was Kovo's classification as a laborer.

The last and most anticipated part was the ranking. Based on the candidates' performances in the tests, the Tribe Mothers had rated them and compiled a list from best to worst. Apart from having a strong influence on the future status within the tribe, that list was of little consequence. In the past the ranking had also had been used to decide who would get to breed with whom. The compulsory breeding groups had been abolished for quite some time though. Nowadays everyone could choose their own mates. Nonetheless, the ranking was regarded as very important by many.

I didn't really care about it. Or so I thought. Yet when the placings were announced I found myself waiting impatiently for my name to be mentioned. To my great astonishment I had made it unexpectedly far up in the list, considering my known shortcomings. With only nine men in front of me, I was above average. Even more surprising than the ranking itself was the fact that I felt quite pleased about it. The rational part of me knew that this number, derived through a completely subjective decision based on arbitrary criteria, had little meaning and no real impact on my future life. Still there was that Fortis part of me which delighted with pride. Maybe it was amplified by my great mood, my comfortably filled stomach and the alcohol coursing through my body. Whatever it was, it felt good enough to abandon reason for the night and just celebrate.

Of course Kovo had made first place. Reason enough for him to call for another bottle of Flash.

A while after the official part was over, people started leaving the feast. Not all of them went to sleep yet. There was still one more tradition this day had to offer: The Wrangling. For some it was the most anticipated one. Those who couldn't await it were already assembling at the fighting pit. Long torches placed around the arena were being lit to illuminate it.

At some point Kovo decided that it was time to join them, so he dragged me along. The slope was already filling up with spectators but the arena was still empty. They were waiting for the rest of the candidates to show up, urging us to step down into the battlefield. There wasn't much choice for me but to descend into the pit with the others. Everyone remained at the outer perimeter of the ring at first. There was an obvious hesitation, a reluctance to be the one to start the event. This was the only part none of us had seen in the years before. Non-adults were forbidden from watching the Wrangling. We all knew what it was about though.

The Wrangling was supposed to start as fighting. Not a serious fight, more a playful wrestling as adolescent Fortis would often do for fun. The objective of this struggle was to conquer a person of the opposite sex to copulate with. In this endeavor an aspiring suitor had to prevail both against potential competitors as well as the mate of desire. In most cases it was men fighting over women, but the other way around was also a common occurrence. The confrontations were intended to be more of a friendly competition but could still get quite rough.

Once a male and female engaged, it became kind of a violent form of mating dance. The person who initiated it, the one trying to do the wooing, needed to prove his or her worth by showing fortitude in combat. The level of interest into the coupling determined how hard the one being wooed fought back. If he or she was highly attracted to the admirer, resistance would be minimal, making it indeed more dance than combat. If the person was uncertain about it, he or she would put up more of a fight, requiring the aspiring mate to earn the honor. If someone didn't want a certain partner, he or she would use full force and fight back with all means. Suitors were supposed to take the hint and back off. Although the concept of consent was somewhat peculiar in the Wrangling, as it was in Fortis culture in general, this was not supposed to escalate into rape and the tribe would intervene if someone overstepped the boundaries or there was a risk of serious injury.

By general human standards it was a bizarre tradition of course. For a culture which was strongly based on strength, struggle and dominance, it was quite symptomatic. Like so many other customs this one also had its origins in our time of slavery. Back in the old days any form of sexual relation was strictly forbidden for those who hadn't passed proving day yet. The purpose of this rule had not been the protection of minors, but preventing the spread of unsuitable genes. Those who hadn't been confirmed to possess the proper qualities for carrying on the Fortis gene pool were under no circumstances allowed to breed.

The strictly enforced abstinence had left hormone-plagued teenagers frustrated until they could finally vent their sexual ambitions after passing the proving day tests. The Sikatis not only allowed, but encouraged that the day ended with an orgy. Only a few days after becoming adults, many Fortis would be assigned to different parts of the world or even to wage war on other planets. Many of them would not return. Therefore it was very welcome that they spent these days begetting the next generation of loyal subjects. In the much larger communities of that time, the new adults were split into breeding groups based on rank and let loose on each other. With the men being affected by an urgent need to copulate, far too much testosterone in their bodies and a limited amount of time to live out their sexuality, violence was inevitable. Their desperate struggle to get the most attractive mate was pure savagery.

Compared to those original Wranglings, our derivative of the event was tame and gentle. In our tribe, sexuality was not prohibited for non-adults. Some still pledged to remain chaste until their proving day, in honor of old traditions. Few of them kept their promise. Fortis matured early and had a tremendous sex drive.

There were not many virgins left. I was one of them. Not out of respect for some stupid traditions but rather due to lack of opportunity. The fact that I had spent a very large part of my youth in the school in Zusammenkunft made me an outsider among the young people in the tribe and the fact that I was a Fortis made me an outsider among the young people of the other subspecies I went to school with. I lacked the confidence and boldness required to woo someone from my own people and I was also too clumsy in social matters to prevail in the more complicated relationships found among the other subspecies. Torn between those worlds, I had spent my years in an unintentional abstinence.

Nevertheless I had already decided that I would not participate in the Wrangling days ago. In a petty self-deception I had told myself that I didn't want to be part of it, that it was a barbaric atrocity not befitting of my more sophisticated nature; that it would only degrade me and that I wasn't attracted to Fortis girls anyway. The truth was that at least a part of me wanted to participate very much, but I was too scared and nervous to admit it. The fear of failure, rejection and humiliation were too strong. So I was determined to stay at the edge of the arena, remaining passive and thereby signaling that I had no interest to participate.

Most of my peers clearly didn't share my attitude. There was an undeniable eagerness in their eyes and their body language. They were just waiting for someone to make the first move. Eventually someone did. A tall, dark-skinned woman by the name of Malia swaggered into the center of the arena, were she gracefully turned around in a full circle, casting a challenging glance at the men around her. She was high up among the females in the ranking which made her a desirable target for many, but it also meant that she would not be an easy conquest. Not deterred by by this circumstance, two guys almost simultaneously stepped forward to try their luck. The first one approached Malia directly, the second one took a course to intercept him. Smashing into one another they tumbled to the ground. Malia cheered them on while circling the pair provocatively.

Now that the Wrangling had officially started, more candidates moved towards the center of the ring. Some just strolled in casually looking for a suitable opportunity to engage with someone, others immediately charged at a specific person, having picked the target of their desire up front. A few pairs had already arranged their coupling before the event and just waited for an opportunity to get to each other without interference. They still staged a mock fight for the benefit of the spectators, less violent and more aesthetic than others.

Despite my reservations I had to admit that there was an undeniable appeal to the spectacle. The strange mix of passion, intimacy and violence had an exhilarating effect. While it was currently more of a brawl than an orgy, the sexual tension was absolutely tangible. Like a weird kind of foreplay, the common struggle elevated the participants' arousal and set the mood for what was to come as they were starting to sweat and pant in desperate anticipation. An intentional shedding and tearing of cloth, revealing more and more skin amplified that buildup.

I realized that against my will and intention the scene started to spark my excitement. The all to familiar response of my body was not very welcome. Trying to shift my focus away from the center of the pit, my gaze inadvertently locked onto a girl pacing the outer perimeters of the arena. It was Kira the redhead who head been first in line at the beginning of the proving day tests. She looked somewhat disinterested and indecisive. The fact that she had moved away from the border of the ring signaled that she was basically available but keeping her distance to the main action she seemed reluctant. I believed to remember that she had been close to the bottom of the ranking. That was not surprising. When it came to size and body mass she was definitely on the lower side for our kind. Her body was more lean, her muscles not as prominent, her features more delicate than the average Fortis female. To many, those traits were a significant downside, which explained why she didn't have many suitors fighting over her. To me it made her way more enticing than most others.

I knew her well enough to be aware that her looks were deceiving. What she lacked in physical attributes she made up for in character. She was as proud, headstrong and quarrelsome as any Fortis I knew. Which meant that she would not be an easy conquest or someones consolation prize. Anyone who wanted her, would have to earn the opportunity. One of the candidates found that out for himself when he approached her. Probably thinking her easy prey after he had been quickly defeated when fighting with two guys over some other girl, he jumped her with little caution. Despite her inferior strength, she successfully evaded his attempts at grabbing her and even managed to make him stumble and fall to his knees. Dissuaded by her surprisingly vicious resistance, he tried his luck elsewhere, leaving Kira to herself once again. I found it hard to stop watching her.