Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (44 page)

The Stories tell us we went
through more than one world to get to this land. Could this be a person from
one of those other worlds? An old Story told of Coyote stealing a Water Monster
baby and bringing it into this world. That was a disaster and many died as a
result. I could not let that happen again.

My eyes adjusted to the
increasing brightness of the two thick vines that it—he?—had pushed
above—his head? I could not see anything I recognized as eyes—or
even a face. I looked past him to the woman who was now kneeling before him.
She moved slightly. Of course it would be Shakyo. What had she called from an
older world into ours?

As I watched he crawled
forward, using his front vines to drag his heavy body towards her. He reached
out some of the thinner vines and started to pat at her the way a young child
will touch a face. Shakyo leaned into that touch. I felt my face tighten. I was
sure that must have been how the Women in the Stories looked when they had
profaned themselves. I knew in my heart Shakyo was about to commit the same act
of breaking the balance.

Shakyo

When I first heard something
outside the secret place where we were conducting the Rainbow Way Ceremony, I
had feared it was a coyote sneaking around, drawn by the scent of the deer meat
we had prepared. But my greater fear was that it would be that damned Bidziil.
The head medicine man seemed to have focused all his sense of blame and shame
on the women of our community and more especially on me. The more he and the
others lost their status and importance as the Whitemen controlled so much, the
more threatened they were.

This only got worse when the
federal agents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs came to round up so many of our
people’s sheep. They called our beautiful sheep the English words “scrub” and
“unimproved.” Then the White Men shot them. You could barely hear the sound of
their gunfire over the weeping of the women and the shouts of our men. Our
sheep mean so much to us. Our word for them means “walking food,” but they are
so much more. They were bred to live in our dry land and are stronger and taste
sweeter than the sheep of the White Men. The sheep of the Whitemen have wool
that is harder to weave than ours.

Whenever Bidziil felt
slighted he tried to find yet another thing to blame on us. I thought of the
time I was at the Trading Post and saw a White Woman scream at her young son.
He cried and then he kicked the dog they had with them. When Bidziil hurt, he
hurt us.

Then I discovered what seemed
to be a tangle of rainbow colored yarn, but it was alive! We had sung the
lyrics “wrapped in a rainbow” and soon this miracle occurred. In our Stories, a
rainbow was sometimes a rope. Were we not told Coyote used a rainbow rope to
capture the baby of the Water Monster? I rejoiced that we were blessed with a
visitation from a Rainbow Man, and although He did not look the way the Stories
described Him, He did however, look like ropes. Perhaps this was just one of
his forms the way our sacred Changing Woman changes in form from child to adult
to a grandmother, but still remains the same.

The women worried among
themselves that as the White Men pushed our world more and more out of balance,
the anger and pain of the medicine men only threw things further out of
harmony. Perhaps our own women’s ceremonies, now forced to be conducted in
secret, had encouraged the blessing of our holy spirits, the
Yei
.

The Rainbow Man had started
to glow so brightly He was casting shadows around him. Then He lifted up two of
his ropes and seemed to wave them at me. I waved back. I must have done the
correct thing because He repeated this movement and so did I. I knelt before
Him because I was in the presence of the Sacred.

Nyee

I was surprised by this human
female. I was accustomed to feeling fear from one in her position, but I did
not sense this from her. I focused on her ripeness and thought of how best to
remove the cumbersome cloth she had wrapped around her soft body. I explored
her with my sensitive probepods, pulling at the cloth that bound her hair so
tightly. It fell away and that sleek darkness of her head slid across her
shoulders as she shook it free. I had never seen a female do this before. It
intrigued me and I felt myself glow even brighter.

Bidziil

The Monster had used its foul
vines to pull off Shakyo’s
tskloh
to expose her hair. I touched the similar
one tied to my belt and wondered if this creature had done the same with
another of our women. Sweet
Yei
, were all of our women spreading their
legs for monsters? That would explain why it sometimes seemed as if the
Yei
had withdrawn their blessings from us after the Whitemen came.

Shakyo

I felt Him pull at my
clothing, taking it away and pushing it to join my
tskloh
on the ground.
I felt the cool air against my naked skin and was reminded of the time I had
gone through my Puberty Ceremony and was massaged carefully so my body would
grow strong like Changing Woman. I grew excited with the idea the Rainbow Man
might now make me even more of a woman if he massaged me. Excitedly I lay down
as I had for my first massage and I felt his ropes slid across me, feeling cold
and smooth like the touch of a snake.

Nyee

This one surprises me again.
She seems so ready and eager but then lies on her birth slit. I hesitated for a
moment but remembered some humans found pleasure in that orifice she displayed
before me. It was useless for my purposes but if this was what she offered me
so willingly I would honor her by accepting it. I circled this back orifice
with the tip of one of my mating pods and felt her jerk. Was it in happy
anticipation of her being accepted to be a vessel to my seed? I pushed into
her.

Bidziil

Abomination! Shakyo was now
naked and allowing the monster to possess her. As I watched with my mouth open
the creature shoved one of his glowing vines into her asshole! Then she
screamed—perhaps he—this must be a he—was too large for her
like a stallion mounting a mare. She reared up and then he surrounded her with
his vines, forcing them into her mouth, her pussy—even her ears while he
seemed to impale her with the one that was still in her asshole. For a moment I
was frozen in disbelief as she tried to scream but the sound was muffled as she
tried to cough the vine out of her mouth.

Shakyo

Precious
Yei!
There is
nothing sacred about this—it is what I was taught to call rape! I tried
to pull away from Him but my asshole burned in pain as He forced Himself within
me! Suddenly all I could feel were His ropes pushing at me, pushing into my
pussy, my mouth and even my ears. I tried to scream but the sound was shut off
by the filthy living rope in my mouth. It tasted bitter and dusty. There was no
blessing to this—only rape!

Nyee

I do not understand. This one
had been so eager and ready to receive my treasured seed and now she acts as if
it not what she had wanted all along. We knew a number of those who Summoned us
were insane by any standards. She must be one of them. Angered I used the rest
of my matingpods on her, filling her wherever I could. She forced one of my
pods from her mouth and screamed so loudly it hurt me. Grabbing her with my
forepods I lifted her fully off the ground as she attempted to twist away from
me. I did not let her go but punished her by pushing more firmly into her,
feeling her juices or was it blood?—seep around the mating pod in her
back orifice.

Bidziil

I spat on the ground as I watched
the monster hold her up in the air as if she were a profane sacrifice. In the
growing brightness of this evil rainbow I could see blood was spilling from her
asshole where he had torn her open. Perhaps I would not have to kill her
because the monster would do the job for me.

Nyee

I did not know how much time
I had before the worlds moved out of alignment and I would return to my own
dimension. I tightened, my primary matingpod pushed even further into her birth
slit. I exploded with the sweet pleasure of my orgasm and success made my
energy spike and I was now so bright she looked away from me. I felt my seed
invade her and filled her so full some of my gift spilled over, mixing with the
bright redness of her blood. This one tore as easily as the other humans I had
experienced. But I had fulfilled my destiny of passing on our young as we
continue to claim our rightful place across the infinite dimensions.

Bidziil

Nearly blind with anger and
disgust I had drawn my long knife and rushed out of my hiding place. Before I
could reach the monster it had withdrawn its vines from Shakyo and she fell
down and collapsed into herself. She was a filthy mess of blood and glowing
monster semen that dripped out of her pussy. I shoved my knife within the
center of the monster, not knowing where its heart would be. I kept stabbing
and slicing and everywhere its glowing juices—for I could not think of it
as blood—blood is for this world—not for monsters—splattered
thickly onto my clothes and skin. Where it touched me it burned the way the sap
of certain trees would and I knew I must wash this off as soon as I could. I
hoped its semen would sear Shakyo’s pussy shut forever.

Exhausted, I fell to my
knees, pained by the traces of the monster on me. Suddenly I saw Shakyo’s nude
body in front of me and she grabbed my knife.

Shakyo

There had been no blessing,
no ceremony! There had only been rape and pain! When He had finished with me He
withdrew His ropes and I fell broken to the ground and looked up to see
Bidziil’s hateful face in front of me.

But he was not focused on me,
but on the Rainbow Man. No, this could not be one of our sacred
Yei
.
Bidziil attacked the
monster
, slicing and stabbing it with his knife
until he was covered in its glowing blood. Even his graying hair seemed to be
on fire with the stuff. The monster twitched its ropes and then stilled. The
rainbow light was slowly fading. Bidziil fell heavily to his knees and almost
let go of his knife.

Without hesitation I stood up
and grabbed the knife from Bidziil’s hand. I thought of all the hurtful things
he had done to us and I saw he was just as much of a monster as the one who had
raped me. I used his knife, strong from butchering sheep I cut into his throat
so deeply I thought his head would fall off. I watched him slide down, the
blood spurting from his wound and I stepped away so the redness would not touch
my feet.

The last of light from the
monster’s blood faded, turning Bidziil’s blood from bright red to a dull black,
but it still kept flowing. Who knew how much blood the old man had within him.
I felt spent—exhausted. I didn’t even feel the bleeding tearing of my
body, barely aware of the blood that trailed down my thighs. I didn’t even feel
the acidic burning of what it had put into my pussy. I even thought of pushing
Bidziil’s knife into where the creature had been. But I had more to do.

I heard a scream and then
another. I turned and saw Tibah and one of the women from the ceremony, their
eyes wide and staring at me. What a sight I must look, a long knife in my hand,
dripping the blood of Bidziil and the monster. I thought of the Mexicans and
the story they told of La Llorona. The Weeping Woman was a monster who had
murdered her own children. I was raped by a monster. Had I become one too? I
needed to murder the seed of my rapist.

“Here is what you will tell
everyone,” I said, my voice steady. “A creature came while we were away for our
Moon Time. We did nothing wrong. We were keeping the Harmony. Perhaps it came
in judgment of Bidziil, for he has wronged us. He did not keep the Harmony.
They fought and they ended up slaying one another.” As I spoke I bent down and
pushed the still warm knife into the unmoving and unresisting ropes of my
rapist, making it look as if the monster had held it.

I stood up. “We heard the
struggle and when we left our Moon Hogan, this is what we discovered.” I swept
my open palm to include the monster and Bidziil. Looking at the two of them I
used my foot to push him back so his head fell into the tangle of the monster’s
ropes as if he were being embraced. If I saw them now, I would believe our
description. I would clean myself and and tomorrow we would go to the White Men
and then this would be their problem. I wondered what they would call the now
dull tangle of ropes. I just hoped it would not fade away when the light of
dawn touched its body.

“I did not think this was any
sort of blessing, but it will be a blessing to walk away forever from Bidziil.
At least our lives should be easier now.” I told Tibah to gather my clothing
and I started walking back to the Hogan. I would prepare a tea of antelope sage
to prevent the monster’s seed from taking root. If it were stronger than that,
then I would use mistletoe. I might not survive, but it would be worth it.

“The Women’s Society keeps the
Sacred Balance of the
Hozoji
—the Path of Life,” I reminded them.
“Sometimes the Balance requires that some must die.” I saw them nod and then I
continued forward. Funny that I had been so looking forward to sharing in the
feast of the deer meat we had prepared. Now I had no hunger at all. But I felt
powerful. Soon I would be clean and purified. Tomorrow I would send Tibah to
tell the White Men where to find the bodies. I looked a final time at the
Bidziil and the creature. I smiled.