X HAYX OF VANON

Vanon was a small planet near the curvature of HanderlettDeeFa in the Torovan dimension, as are FX6FEE and a trillion other planets. It was a really small planet, one of twenty orbiting the minor planet QuantumDeeFa. Nothing extraordinary about it, except that Hayx, later nicknamed Hayx of Vanon, was born here. Everyone knew him by that nickname.

You could tell anyone you wanted and no one would know who he was. Hayx The Shambas? I don't know him. But that Hayx of Vanon, he's a good guy. Actually, he was quite popular, because he was always singing, but not so wildly. He always sang to whoever he met. Not that he was always clucking, no. But after he'd been with you for a while, he'd come up with a song that made you laugh long after Hayx himself had disappeared with your gohrams. The good thing was, it worked for everyone.

Whoever he sang it to laughed, and whoever he told it to laughed too. But that's all. Nobody else laughed any more. But everybody talked about it. It was Hayx that amused me again. Where's he from? Yeah, from Vanon. I'll have to go there one maefee. It'll be fun. But the opposite is true. Vanon is anything but cheerful. Here's how it is. Even Hayx of Vanon isn't a happy guy. He didn't even think he was singing happy songs. He was always kind of sincere, that's all he cared about. He just sang and went about his business, with your gohrams in his pocket, of course.

So this is true Vanon - not cheerful at all. It's a small planet and quite a pleb. If you didn't want to be born somewhere, this is it. You'll never be anything, never look anywhere, never experience anything. How did Hayx do it? He was kidnapped by Bedenbur hunters, the very ones who deliver Tchmeaydian little birds, and they're from Bedenbur. Every now and then they kidnap a kid, which is convenient. For all sorts of things. Not just for hunting the Tchmeaydian little birds, of course.

It's not for nothing that Hayx of Vanon was burned by the Kraysleevad and his nose was eaten off by the sniff slide for theValen tobbacco. He was abused pretty badly in his youthdom. Now he's a bum and a cochmeene distributor. Nobody missed him. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief there on Vanon when the burden was off his shoulders, and so it was with Hayx. He just disappeared and his parents were relieved they didn't have to support him. Making a living on Vanon, nothing much. AGohram was paid in the whole of Moushramee, with a few exceptions, and then you exchanged dals and prgals, barter was nothing special either, and on Vanon you earned the gohram in a week or two and you didn't get much out of it.

So The Shambas could drink salt water in the morning and in the evening and eating a boheey. When Hayx disappeared, they could have a little more of salt water, a little more boheey, and a little extra. They had the best time the maefee Hayx disappeared, they got Bedenburg's Tchmeaydian little birds for him. They kidnapped him? Yeah, that's what they say, but it's not true. You know it. You sell the baby, you get the birdies. Good deal.

I don't know what The Shambas would say if they knew what atrocities the Bedenbur hunters were going to do to Hayx. He was never spoken of again, not a word was spoken, and when Hayx returned to Vanon quintans later, he found no one in his birth nest. When he made inquiries, someone said that perhaps someone had recruited them for the hunting of the Moreian Beauties. If so, he'd never find them, he thought. He felt no resentment.

He first woke up on SmayrzHanderLoo. That's the last planet from which Vanon can be seen. But Hayx was chained to a pipe somewhere in the hold of a daribo, so he had no idea where he was or what he was doing there. He woke up for the second time in Zakos at Hakwena curvature. His head was splattered across space-time.

He woke up for the third time in Bedenbur. Now, it sounds like he took a nice nap, but the truth is, it took some time to get to Bedenbur. And the moment he woke up was when he came back to his body for a while, after being sniffed with theValen tobacco. This third awakening was pretty hard, he had multiple burns on the back of his neck, his head was tingling, his eyes were bulging and shriveled at the same time, he was bruised from the chains to the point of horror, so that when they kicked him out into the light, he was lying limp as a sack and shaking.

This was no holiday. I guess a space tourist visiting Bedenbur would feel a little differently than Hayx did. He'd admire how nice it is, listen to the birds singing and move on wherever a mokana takes him. Hayx has spent many light cycles here, entire quintans in fact. When he escaped, he was no longer the youthdom. Coincidence helped him get there, but who would believe it? Behind every coincidence is a providence. Catching the Tchmeaydian little bird, it was so routine for him now, there was no danger of it escaping, he caught it in the palm of his hand, listened to it for a moment, and then put it into the net, when the timespace gate opened and sucked him and the Tchmeaydian little bird in and spat him out on guess where, FX6FEE. Since all the slaves in Bedenbur were registered, the providence had to start a fire too to destroy any trace that he ever existed.

And so something exploded, glittered, and burned down the prison fort. Higher powers were at work. He sold his Tchmeaydian little bird to the first person he met, and thus came into a larger fortune. It was one thing to buy the Tchmeaydian little bird for food, but a live one! The Tchmeaydian little bird! It doesn't happen to many people to see one.

And for a hundred gohrams, he could've done that! He got some cochmeene, reduced the quality, sold it for a lot, and had two hundred, then he stole something and joined the snoopers for a while, and somewhere around here he started singing his songs. But who would know, it was just the higher powers trying to retune their brains to higher frequencies. Well, things happen without our knowledge. Everyone thought the same thing about Hayx at first. Just look at him! But some people who've been through something hard knew.

And so it was that Hayx of Vanon became friends with ArtFork.