Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (42 page)

Chapter Thirteen

The members of the pack gathered on the hilltop around
the fresh mound of dirt. Soon after sunrise, they had straggled back to the
cabin one by one. After all had returned, they carried the yellow wolf to the
sacred burial grounds of the pack and laid her to rest with other fallen
wolves. Nikki had caught snatches of conversation from other members and
realized her feelings about Sara were shared by many. The consensus seemed to
be that Sara’s time as Alpha had last much longer than it should. Most believed
she had not been a good female alpha, and some even suspected she had some part
in Misha’s attack, though none seemed to have any evidence to back that up. For
them, it was just a feeling.

For Nikki, who had heard the conversation in the
stairwell, it was much more than that. It was justice. For Misha…and for
Rachel. And for all of the other innocents Sara had planned to slaughter.

She placed a flower on the fresh dirt as tradition said
the challenge winner should, but she did not speak. Instead, Zane spoke a few
words over the grave, and then the pack scattered. Some would return to the
apartment complex due to job or family obligations, while others would stay and
finish the weekend at the cabin. The attitude would not be one of mourning but
of jubilation. Challenges in the pack were just a way of life, and while they
didn’t always end in death, it did happen. Such was the way of the wolf.

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Alien Sex Monster

Skye Eagleday

Shakyo

I had finished the final song
to end the ceremony. It was one of my favorites, celebrating First Man and
First Woman. I dreamed of what it would be like to have been First Woman at the
beginning of this World. I wrapped my drum in its deerskin cover and put it
away. The last of the worshipers filed in to enjoy the feast. There would be
fresh deer tonight. I looked forward to that.

I hummed the Song of the
Rainbow to myself. The lyric “wrapped in a rainbow” ran over and over again
inside my head. I would love to be pulled inside the rainbow’s bright colors.

“Shakyo,” Tibah called to me
from the doorway. “Would you be willing to bless the food, or would you prefer
I should do it?”  I looked up and wished yet again she had more talent for the
spiritual side of things. She meant well, but she would never be truly able to
serve. Still, she could sing the Food Blessing Song. Anyone could.

“I want a few minutes by
myself to finish up. The rest of the women are hungry. Why don’t you go ahead
and sing the Blessing. I’ll be in when I’m done here. Just make certain you
save some of the deer meat for me.” She nodded and turned away. I could feel
the pride swell up within her. That pride would always hold her back. She’d
never grow into leadership. At least she had a decent enough voice for the
songs.

She left me alone and I
returned to putting my ceremonial tools away with the proper attention. I
looked at the sky—the dark of the Moon was the time the Women Ceremonies
must be done, but the Medicine Men had slandered us by calling them Witchcraft.

Each of the women inside
could be killed if the men knew what we had just done. But each of us had been
taught from the time we were first tied to the Moon these rituals were just as
important as those performed by the men.

 “The Women Society keeps the
Sacred Balance of the
Hozoji
—the Path of Life,” my mother told me
right before she died the night of my eighteenth birthday. “Long ago, the Women
Ceremonies were done openly. It was only after the White Man came, our men
claimed all rituals and we had to do ours in secret.”

I heard a noise a few yards
away. It might be a coyote—not the best of omens. Coyote doesn’t have the
best reputation among women. Although since the Stories tell us Coyote was the
one who created breasts for women and the penis for men after Human People were
made by the
Yei
, I will admit a certain admiration for Him. My virginity
was my own, and when I was ready to share it with the right man, I will offer a
prayer of gratitude for Coyote.

I walked towards the sound,
figuring if it was a nosy coyote brought by the smell of the food inside, I’d
frighten it off. I heard a sort of scraping sound, like rocks being disturbed.
That didn’t sound very coyote like. Bears had never been seen in this area. It
might be an owl feeding. Blessed
Yei--
that would be even worse of an
omen than a coyote. Owls are the messengers of Death.

I froze, questioning if
ignorance was better than knowledge. I took a deep breath and told myself ignorance
was never better than knowledge. Even if this was something I didn’t want to
know—that Death was coming—I would deal with it. I would always
deal with it. This is the true role of a woman.

The sound came again, this
time closer. I cautiously slowed, now better able to locate the direction of
whatever was out there. Oh,
Yei
, what if it were Bidziil? The Chief
Medicine Man would kill us all if he discovered what we were doing. It was a
fear we all lived with every time we gathered beneath the Moon. We protected
ourselves by telling the men we were away because our blood was flowing for the
Moon, and no male could be around us because we were too sacred.

But in my heart of hearts, I
always felt if any man would suspect us, it would be the hateful Bidziil. I had
watched him stray more than once from the Beauty Way, but none would question
him because of his position. Then the other men would follow his example, and
our precious world would go even more out of balance. It was why what we did
was so vital.

Without thinking, my hand
touched the sharp Bowie knife tied to the fringe of my belt. I had paid dearly
for it at the Trading Post, but it sliced meat better than anything I had known
before. I prayed to the
Yei
I would not be slicing the neck of Bidziil
in the next few moments.

Nayee

This place seemed familiar. I
tasted the air and remembered a time long ago, even for me. I had known what
the breeze brought me—the plants, the dry soil itself. Not far away a
fire was roasting some sort of meat. But even closer to me was the faint smell
of—yes—it was a human. A
female
human.

Every now and then a human
would summon us. Sometimes it was deliberate and they specifically sought us.
Most often it was accidental. The stars were aligned in the right way. The time
was right. Their minds and hearts pulled us because what they prayed to was
close enough to claim us.

I pulled myself forward with
my forepods. This world had a lighter gravity and I slid in the direction of
the human faster than I had intended, knocking away rocks as I moved.

I accepted this must be an
accidental summoning. In the human world, a formal Call would be from a wizard,
shaman, or witch and they would be surrounded by all their meaningless and
confusing objects, waiting for me with hungry eyes and demands. The fact I had
appeared alone in the darkness meant whoever was out there didn’t know what
they were doing.

That would make it very easy
for me. It always had before.

I continued forward,
remembering the last time I had been in their world.

Shakyo

I could see something swaying
in the distance. My first thought was it was the branches of a tree, but there
was not enough wind. There wasn’t a tree nearby. Again I stopped, trying to
make sense of what I was watching. It seemed a tangle of vines. I again thought
of a tree, but this was like nothing I had known.

It came closer. A very faint
gleam began to spread across it. Dear
Yei
! It appeared to be what my
carefully spun yarn ended up like the time my baby brother had gotten into it.
But this was living yarn? No—it was so large—the size of a bull, if
the bull had thick spiraling vines instead of legs. It
looked
at me. I
could see nothing that I would recognize as eyes, but that sense of
looking
was unmistakable. It moved again in my direction.

The gleam increased to a
glow. Colors played across those swaying vines. They were like
stripes—they were rainbow stripes. Sweet
Yei
? Had I really called
one of the Rainbow Men? In the sand paintings, they were not always as human
looking as some of the other
Yei
. Some of the Stories say rainbows were
sometimes rope. Coyote had lassoed the Water Monster’s children with a rope of
rainbows.

Could this be what the
storytellers were trying to describe to those of us who had never seen what was
before me? Was a Rainbow Man made of living ropes? Two of the vine ropes seemed
to wave at me. I lifted my hand and waved back. I sank to my knees because
truly I was in the presence of the Sacred.

Nayee

She was young for a human.
But I could smell she was ripe. It was the destiny of our people to share
ourselves with humans and all of the other beings across the dimensions that
could summon us. Except the
Bah-tai
. My two primary matingpods curled
tight in protection at the very thought of the
Bah-tai
. Only once had I
been Called to them.

I forced my matingpods to
relax, shaking them to force them to calm. To my surprise, the human mimicked
my movement. Then she knelt down, inviting me to share myself.

My slight earlier arousal at
her fresh smell had sent a shiver of color across my matingpods. I was now
growing more excited and my very being intensified. In a moment I would be
bright enough to cast shadows in her dark world.

I slid closer.

Shakyo

I nearly fainted from my
excitement. We had so many Stories of the
Yei
blessing Human People with
their presence. I began to quietly sing the Rainbow Song again. This Rainbow
Man must have heard the Prayer Songs of our ceremony. Yes—this was the
way it should be—the
Hozoji
—we had asked for nothing, and in
our simple thankfulness of what the Earth Mother and Creation provided, we are
provided yet more.

My Rainbow Man pulled Himself
forward on His front rope ends. As He did, He became brighter. It was as if He
had swallowed the Moon Herself. Such beauty! Colors danced across Him and I
held my breath while my heartbeat boomed in my ears louder than my drum. I
memorized the moment so I could weave the Rainbow Man’s true shape into a
blanket. I sighed because not even the White Man dyes I could barely afford at
the Trading Post could give me anything like the living hues of my Rainbow Man.

As He neared me, I could
smell what reminded me of the air after lightning strikes. In the Stories the
Yei
will often travel on a rainbow. Perhaps a Rainbow Man would travel on
lightning? I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and realized it was
the wavering shadow of my outstretched hand. My Rainbow Man was now casting
light so bright He had brought shadows into the dark of the Moon. Such Power!

Nayee

I did not recognize the
clothes of this one. It seemed as if each time I entered the human dimension
the ones I found there were always clad in something different. Sometimes it
was animal skins and sometimes they would wear elaborately embroidered robes.
Only once had the ones who gathered around me been nude. That had been very
convenient.

I touched her with one of my
probepods, its sensitive tip sliding across the smoothness of her face. I
brushed the silkiness of her hair. It was bound tightly into roundness at the
back of her neck with a woven strip of cloth. I teased at it until her dark
hair spilled out, surprising me at its sleek length. It fell below her waist.

She shook her head and her
freed hair danced across her shoulders. My matingpods began to engorge and
their colors took on their true form. My other three extended and began to
explore her clothing, seeking out how to remove them. There—some sort of
tie. This should be easy.

Shakyo

My Rainbow Man touched my
face with one of His living ropes—this one thinner than the ones He used
to move. It felt like the smooth coolness of a snake. I suppose that made
sense. His ropes moved somewhat like snakes. The rope reached behind me and
tugged at the
tskloh
that held my hair. The
tskloh
came loose and
my hair fell out, still holding its braid. If this is what he wanted? I shook
my hair slowly back and forth, feeling the braid come undone until my hair
spread out.

Oh! Perhaps this was like my
Puberty Ceremony? The morning after I was first tied to the Moon, I was
ritually bathed and dressed. I was told to lie down and Tibah’s beautiful older
sister had come in to symbolically mold my body. Then she braided my hair and
bound it with my first true
tskloh
. Did my Rainbow Man intend to perform
another initiation ceremony? Would I become even more of a woman with His
divine touch?

With this in mind, I watched
him extend more of his thinner ropes and they patted my body, just as Tibah’s
sister had done! His ropes flexed around me and I felt them untie my dress. He
gently pulled my clothing away so the pieces joined the fallen
tskloh
and the air kissed my nude warm body. I lay down facing Him, just as I had been
taught to do for my Puberty Ceremony, although I had been fully clothed for
that. Perhaps a divine ceremony would be the reversal? He would remove my clothes
and then I would be ritually bathed?

I continued to sing the
Rainbow Song, and felt any tension in my body relax as I felt his smooth ropes
gently caress me.

Nayee

Never before have I known one
like this! It as if she has been trained to be mine since her childhood. She
willingly allowed me to disrobe her as I felt her inner peace. Her attempt at
music was oddly pleasant. Normally I didn’t like the human voice. Then when I
had her clothes off, she lay prone before me, in open invitation. I wasn’t quite
sure why she did not expose her birthing slit to me, but I would find it soon
enough. I would honor her and use what was offered first.

I extended my primary
probepod and felt around one of her earholes. Within I could feel the smallest
of hairs resound to my touch. I circled it and her heartbeat sped up. Humans
were so predictable.

Shakyo

Oh, Sweet
Yei
—He
began to twist his smallest rope within my ear! In our language, the word for
orgasm and digging within one’s ear is the same and finally I understood why
this was so! A shiver of ecstasy shot through my body. Another one of his
thinner ropes slid across my hips.