If I open my eyes and I see the ceiling of that cell again I'm going to just tear my own foot off, I thought once my mind was awake again, I'm sure I could just put it back on afterwards and reattach it with the way the accelerated healing effect works. I couldn't feel much of anything around my arms or legs, so I assumed that I wasn't bound, but I could have just been bound for such a long time that the input stopped registering. On a more positive note, there was no indication of damage to any part of my body that I could feel. No severe pain, I thought dimly, I’m not in perfect fighting shape though.

I popped open my heads-up display and saw that my red bar had refilled, as had much of the purple. Assuming purple is immediate physical stamina, I must not have been out for very long. My blue and green bars had fallen dramatically however, and the sub-bar of the green which I assumed was hydration was dangerously low. Probably from synthesizing all the blood I lost, I thought, it's not like the matter is coming from thin air. Resigning myself to my intended course of action in the case that I was captured again, I opened my eyes. Bright light stung them for a moment, then they focused on wooden boards above me.

I sat up and found that I had been laying on a bed of some sort while I was unconscious. The blood and gore, which had nearly covered me before I was darted, were washed away with a faint remnant of the smell clinging to my skin. My filthy pants were gone and replaced with some kind of loincloth-type undergarment. Beneath me were woven sheets made of a of thin fiber, possibly from an animal, atop what felt like a straw-stuffed mattress. The frame of the bed was a simple wooden construction held together with nails, sturdy enough that it did not creak as I moved around.

Wherever I was, it appeared to be a sort of single-room cabin. The bed I was on was in one corner with a wall to my right. Directly across from the bed, placed against the wall, was a table with a bucket on top of it, and a chair in front. To my left was the door, and in the far corner was an iron and stone stove of some kind. Plopped in the middle of the room were more clothes on top of a woven mat with a simple concentric circle pattern. The walls and floor were made of the same kind of wood that the ceiling was, and the windows beside the bed and the door were shuttered.

I stood up and stretched, checking my range of motion. Everything seemed fine, so I walked to the pile of clothing. In the pile was a long-sleeved shirt with simple front buttons, some pants made of leather, and a pair of shoes, all sized to my proportions. What a kind reward, I thought sarcastically as I put on the clothing, it only took a week before they realized I wasn't a wild animal. I walked in my new outfit to the table and saw that the bucket was filled with fresh water. Without thinking, I raised the bucket and began gulping it down as quickly as I could, only stopping when I almost vomited it up from taking in too much.

There was a knock at the door and I spun around to face it. No weapons, I thought as I scanned the room, I guess I could throw the bucket if I need to. Someone pushed at the front window's shutter from the outside but failed to open it because it was barred, and I heard displeased muttering. Finally, the door swung inwards to reveal the face of the guard Mpahray, scowling at me from across the room. When our eyes met I saw his hand twitch and move towards his sword, but he thought better of the action and restrained himself. Only one guard? I questioned, They can’t possibly think he could take me alone.

“Don't you savages know that it's rude to not aalzay the door?” he snapped.

“Knock harder,” I replied, “I thought the noise was a little rat trying to get in. Looks like I wasn't far off.” Mpahray scowled and rolled his eyes, but showed no signs of physical hostility. I was about to assault him anyway to steal his equipment when he spoke up.

“Your npahbeylz has been requested in the village leaders' hall,” he said formally, “follow me.” From outside the door I saw the other guard, whose name I hadn't been paying enough attention to remember, peek in at me. Their hand was also ready to draw a weapon at a moment’s notice, like Mpahray's. There might be more hiding nearby, I thought even though I couldn't see anyone else, still, I can't appear weak.

“And if I don't?” I deadpanned. It was a direct challenge, and the best way to determine the nature of my situation.

“Just shut up and follow me,” Mpahray hissed. “Stop making my job harder.” Perhaps it’s best to just play along for now, I considered, they could have just killed me while I was unconscious, but they didn't. That means they probably think they have some use for me. I put the bucket down on the table and allowed him to lead me out of the cabin, shutting the door behind me as I emerged into daylight. It's morning, I noticed, I must have been out for half a day. Looking around, I could see that I had been placed into a cabin on the northwest side of the village near the outskirts. The center of the village was downhill from my current location, making the walk easy. Mpahray and the other guard were silent as we moved, though the other guard kept trying to sneak glances at me by pretending to look at something to our side and then moving their eyes when they thought I wasn't paying attention.

We passed by the next house and I saw something that gave me pause. Two humans were sitting outside on a bench, both wearing long robes which covered their legs and sporting long hair. One of the two looked bloated, and the other was holding a human infant to its chest. At first, I was simply puzzled, but then I froze in shock as I realized what I was seeing. Are those humans female? I gaped, are they viable, fertile females in that kind of form? As if to confirm my question, Mpahray noticed that I had stopped and turned around with a snide “What, you've never seen a keryaal before? How'd you get ngehpl then? From a tree or something?”

Warbreed females did not look like the creatures I was observing. Technically, warbreed barely even had “females” at all. Originally warbreed humans reproduced using machines that would periodically shuffle around their genome templates, birthing soldiers by the hundreds with minor appearance changes for identification. Such machines were made by the creator humans, but once they went extinct the knowledge of how to service and maintain them was lost. Slowly but surely, all the machines broke down and fell into disrepair, threatening the warbreed with extinction due to the raids of our forces and their own tendency to in-fight.

At some point, however, a warbreed “genius” managed to bring one of the machines back online and even access some of its core logic. Using this tool, he created a creature which was genetically compatible with warbreed and could reproduce, allowing their species to continue. Calling this creature a “female” was a bit of a stretch though. In reality, it was a twisted abomination, almost three times the mass of the average warbreed in adulthood due to the massive internal organs it needed to sustain its many wombs, and all but immobile because of its malformed skeleton. Its genes were so destructive that fully one quarter of its children would die before their first year, and another half of those that remained had some degree of physical abnormality from being born from two mismatched genomes that were barely compatible.

However, the remaining half of the children birthed were full-blooded male warbreed or physically indistinguishable from them, and around one percent of the children were “females” themselves. Those children with physical abnormalities who were still mostly healthy were referred to as “pseudofemales”, since their forms often took on traits that resembled “females” such as enlarged hips, enlarged breasts, duplicate organ sets, and extreme genitalia variation. Pseudofemales were mostly used for guard, logistical, labor, and command work since they usually lacked the pure physical stamina and combat drive to be soldiers. Females were nearly always used as commanders since their deformities left them unable to perform physical labor even though their minds were no less sharp than the males. The only major psychological difference between them for command purposes was the tendency for cruelty, of which the females had an excess.

The creatures I was looking at initially resembled pseudofemales, but upon closer inspection the differences couldn't have been more apparent. There was no unevenness to their symmetry, there was no patchy half-beard or bald spots on their head hair, their proportions weren't exaggerated to a degree that impeded movement, and they weren't engorged from having extra vestigial organs. There were no growths beneath the skin from latent cancers triggered by improper cell replication, nor were there any telltale signs of metabolic disruption. Indeed, they looked as natural as any of the humans I had seen so far. The one whose abdomen was swollen glanced at me, and then the other did as well. That one is pregnant, I observed, I wonder what the litter size is.

“Stop staring,” Mpahray ordered, breaking me from my trance. I looked back to see him holding the handle of his sword and looking angry. Behind him, the other guard was also alert and ready to draw.

“Those are women,” I said, using the English word. “Women, right?” I repeated the statement as a question, using the Uwrish word keryaal instead.

“Yes,” Mpahray replied, “and if you make any trouble or cause one to yoyztaapao I'll cut your jhoyt off myself.” The guard behind him looked away when we met gazes.

“Why are they outdoors?” I asked. “Shouldn't they be kept somewhere safe?”

“Suwlahtk is plenty safe, aside from you being here,” Mpahray snapped. “It's not like they're incapable of defending themselves either.”

“Foolish,” I muttered, “if I wanted to wipe you out I would abuse your lack of caution and target them directly.” The second guard stepped forward, now quite angry looking, and glared at me.

“That's enough!” they exclaimed. “Keep your eyes to yourself and follow us you beast.” The guard's voice wavered in defiance of their determined expression. Sounds younger than Mpahray, I thought, very clean face too. Maybe an adolescent apprentice?

“You heard shay,” Mpahray snorted, “keep walking.” The guards walked off and after sneaking one last glance at the women outside the house, I followed behind them. Half a minute went by as I was caught in my own thoughts, then a detail of our conversation jumped out at me. He used a different pronoun, I realized.

“Wait, you're a woman?” I asked, looking at the guard beside Mpahray who I now remembered was named Dayvao. Mpahray burst out laughing but kept walking, clearly amused by my ignorance. Dayvao didn't react and carried on walking as if I hadn't said anything.

“I told you,” Mpahray chuckled, “you look like a maolihzhjh geydhyaal in that uniform.” I saw Dayvao straighten up and become tenser, then she shot a look at Mpahray who began laughing again. I observed her face closely, looking for differences between hers and his. There are no major facial hair follicles at all besides the eyebrows and eyelashes, I noticed, and the nose is a bit smaller, as is the chin. That could just be normal genetic variation though, probably. Dayvao saw me looking at her and quickly looked away.

“And I told you, only an idiot would think I was a boy,” she countered. “It appears you have the same level of intelligence as the beast back there. I can see why you get along so well.”

“Ooh, saezmao,” Mpahray mocked, “maybe we ought to go to the znawpoydh area after this and work out some of that tension with a good fight?” I watched as Dayvao slumped her shoulder and crossed her arms in front of her. What is this social interaction? I wondered, It's so strange. They're both being aggressive, but their tones suggest that no violence will come from it. Were the two of them warbreed it would have been likely that they would already have arranged a time and a place to duel.

“If you want some new scars to show your kaes, sure,” Dayvao replied. “You should remember that I managed to beat you last time.”

“Oh that doesn't count,” Mpahray scoffed, “you were using a training spear and I only had a training sword.”

“You're also older, more experienced, and taller than me,” Dayvao countered. “It was a fair match-up.”

“I'm barely taller than you,” Mpahray retorted, “this time we're both using training swords.”

“No objections to the older part?” Dayvao mocked. “You're getting rusty on the ngaalmay old man.” The vocal ranges of these two differ, I noticed, assuming this Dayvao is an adult, female voices could be pitched higher than the males. I do recall something about that from the virtual training with creators.

“Excuse me,” I interjected as we walked through town, “what are the physical indicators... uh, signs that you can use to tell if someone is a man or a woman?” Along with Mpahray and Dayvao, several of the townspeople who had been not so subtly observing us all looked at me with varying degrees of confusion and amusement.

“Are you serious?” Mpahray deadpanned.

“Yes,” I replied firmly. Dayvao put a palm to her forehead in an apparent display of displeasure. “You all look like men to me,” I clarified, and Dayvao scowled in my direction while Mpahray howled in laughter.

“Oh I can't tell you that,” Mpahray gasped out between laughs, “it would ruin the only fun part about dealing with you.”