Temple of the Moon Monsters
Coyotka and Ksi are copyrighted by Coyotek. His characters are used with permission.
A shiny virtual penny to anyone who can correctly identify the first story (not by me) in which the Moon Monsters appear. HINT: They weren't called Moon Monsters in that story.
A free comission to anyone who can translate Ksi's magical incantation. HINT: It's modern English.
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It was a solid bet that this temple had never before been host to the sort of thing going on within its ancient walls. Buried deep within the Latvian wilderness, hours away from civilization, its recent discovery had been just shy of miraculous: a survivalist, leading a team of tourists who had paid well to get a taste of wilderness living, had come across the place by chance as they explored the region, and while he couldn't explain what the ruined building was, he knew enough to know that someone would be very interested in its location. When he returned to the civilized world, the survivalist had put out some feelers, and it wasn't long before he got a hit.
A well-known university in Poland had snapped up the line, promising a sizeable reward to the individual if he would lead a team from their archaeology department to the site. More interested in the money than in the exploration, he had accepted a massive check and launched into the wilderness with a small group of scholarly types in tow.
There were a few old professors and veteran archaeologists in the team, and of course a couple of students brought along for the experience (and to carry all the equipment), but the most impressive member of the team was doubtlessly its leader, a twenty-something female coyote with an air of adventure about her. While she spent most of her time reading books on the ancient civilizations of the surrounding region, she looked more Tom Raider-ish than one might expect from an actual archaeologist. Short, hip-hugging shorts, a small vest, and a wide-brimmed hat (a fedora, naturally) weren't exactly standard attire for someone who expected to spend months digging through an ancient, buried temple, nor was the .45 resting at her hip, but she was young, and could be forgiven for being a little gung-ho about the whole thing. Her constant companion was a collie, every bit as slim and athletic as she was, though dressed in somewhat less flashy clothing and weaponless, as were the rest of the team. It was an accepted fact that the two females spent their nights making sweaty, quiet sex in their tent, but that wasn't why the collie had been invited along. Nobody was sure WHY, actually, but they were sure it wasn't just because she was sleeping with the coyote.
Once the team arrived, it had taken them no more than fifteen minutes to realize that this temple was nothing like anything they'd ever seen before, and there were some real veterans among the group. There really wasn't much to it, just a worn-out old stone building in the middle of the woods, but it was covered in bizarre hieroglyphics that didn't look anything at all like the symbols and languages known to have been used in the region. If that weren't enough, and for a dedicated student of ancient anthropology, it certainly was, some of the pictures carved crudely in the stonework depicted reptilian creatures, despite the fact that no reptilian civilization, even a primitive one, as this obviously had been, had ever existed in Eastern Europe. There were lizard tribes known to have roamed Central Asia, and some had reached Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, but never had any of them come as far north and west as Latvia. According to accepted wisdom, the ancient Latvians should never have even met reptile-people, much less dealt with them enough to carve their pictures into their temples.
The leader of the band had been the first to discover that, near the back, there was a shadowed archway that lead into a fathomlessly long tunnel, and she, accompanied by her companion, was the first to enter that tunnel. Upon doing, they soon learned that it lead interminably onward, forever into the lightless recesses of underground. Eventually they decided to leave it alone until they had made a thorough examination of the temple itself, reasoning that they might discover some clue to the tunnel's eventual destination that way, or, more importantly, learn whether or not the ancient builders had lined the tunnel with traps.
I hardly have to tell you that the coyote wasn't one to wait patiently while adventure loomed before her like a dark door into mystery. Waiting for the dead of night, while everyone else was asleep, she and her friend gathered flashlights and plunged into the tunnel and pressed onward farther than the party had thus far dared to explore. If there was adventure and excitement, she thought, than she was going to find it!
The females had traveled almost two hours in absolute darkness, lit only by a pair of very powerful industrial flashlights, and while the lack of light was disturbing, they had not come across any kind of danger. Whoever had built the tunnel had been extremely talented, for it held up admirably, without any shifting or cracking, despite the fact that it had to have been thousands of years old. It was also clearly not built for defense, for there were no signs of any traps along the way; luckily, for they would surely have still functioned, even after all this time.
Eventually the tunnel rose upwards quite dramatically, and the pair came into an above ground building with architecture almost identical to that of the temple by which the rest of the team slept, though this place seemed even stranger. It was a massive stone edifice, with an area of thousands of square feet, though most of it actually rested slightly below the surface of the Earth, so that only a small portion would be visible from outside. The place was mostly made of a single, huge room, dominated in the center by a peculiar stone altar. At each side crouched iron cages, cylindrical contraptions with open tops just big enough for a single person to stand, and the bars of these were stained with unwholesome substances. Again, the ancient Latvians were not known to engage in widespread furre sacrifice, but it was clear that something of the sort had gone on here.
Scattered about the room were numerous stone icons, tablets, columns, and statues, all of which were covered in frightening carvings of those reptile-men, and even worse carvings of bloated, distorted monsters with fat bodies and featureless faces tipped with a nest of short, stubby tentacles. The pictures seemed to suggest that these monsters came from a great circular stone in the sky and that the lizard-men worshipped them, and that the monsters had given them great gifts in return for furry slaves. The things didn't seem very interested in taking the reptiles as captives, but they were shown loading up furres of all shapes and sizes into great ship that were depicted sailing into the air, bulging with their awful loads.
"This doesn't make any sense," the coyote had murmured quietly. "How did the reptiles know enough about mammals to work them into their myth cycles, when no mammalian society known ever mentioned them? Even if their civilization predates mammalian civilization, which it surely must, there should be some mention of them in the myths and legends of the surrounding peoples."
Casting her beam about, she had wandered through the antediluvian temple, past gruesome idols, past the stained cages, and up the stairs to the dais on which rested the altar that dominated the room. It was a solid block of spongy stone that seemed to glow faintly with a vague green tint, covered in drawings even more unsettling than elsewhere, drawings that seemed to describe what the lives of the fat, shapeless monsters were like wherever they came from. The coyote lay a paw upon it, and as she did, she felt a terrific cold shoot up her arm. Hissing, she snatched her paw away and involuntarily took a step back, more scared than injured. In that moment of contact, she had imagined that she could see in her mind's eyes a number of things about the creatures, and the thoughts were so horrible and alien that she immediately shut them out of her mind. She shuddered violently, as if freezing cold, though the temperature was quite warm within the stone building.
"Coyotka, are you all right?" The collie turned from staring at a bas relief depicting some kind of baffling religious ritual to look at her friend with concern, and without waiting for a response she padded over to the other female.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just got a shock, that's all." The coyote turned her flashlight to shine on the other, and smiled softly at the sight. The collie was built the same as she was, tall, lean, and athletic, her slim figure poured into a pair of khakis and a tight-fitting button-up shirt, open enough to reveal just a hint of cleavage. A wide-brimmed hat sat on top of her head, and a long silk ribbon dangled sweetly from behind one ear. Stepping forward, she caught the collie in an embrace and nuzzled against her, glad to have the warmth of another person in this forgotten and unholy place. "Thanks for looking after me, Ksi."
"Of course," answered the collie with a smile. "It's what I'm here for, isn't it? There's no telling what kind of trouble you'd get into without me."
Coyotka just smiled gently and tilted her head a little, brushing her lips against the collie's muzzle. Ksi cooed affectionately and returned the gesture, though she planted her lips full against the other's, paw on the side of the coyote's face. Thin arms entwined, warm lips touched, and strong tongues darted out to tickle one another. As the kisses got more intense, the females sank down onto their knees, holding each other close, tails wagging happily.
Maybe it seems weird to get it on in a place like this, and it probably is. But one must remember, foremost, that these individuals were motivated by the desire to explored that which was previously unexplored, and there was virtually nothing more unexplored than the temple in which they were standing. Secondly, one must remember that for some people, it doesn't really matter where they are or what they're doing, when the mood strikes, it cannot be ignored.
I said that it was likely that nothing of the sort had gone on within these walls, and it's probably true that there had never been a pair of females undressing each other there in the darkness, moaning voices small in the unhallowed pitch. The collie's shirt was rapidly unbuttoned and spread open, and Coyotka's slender fingers took hold of one of the perky, fuzzy orbs beneath. Soft lips embraced an erect nipple, sucking at it gently, bringing a moan of ecstasy from its owner. Ksi leaned back, paws on the ground behind her, chest tilted upward, and watched with hooded eyes as the coyote sucked first at one breast, then the other. Slim fingers took one nipple and tweaked it hard, and the collie threw her head back and groaned, a long, low sound that bubbled off the stone walls spookily.
A few minutes passed and Ksi was reclining on her elbows; a few minutes more and she was on her back, the coyote lying half on top of her, licking and sucking at her round tits. The collie had seemingly lost all will to move, and was merely a passive participant, just stretching out and enjoying the attention. Her nipples were perfectly stiff, standing straight up, and as Coyotka bathed and pinched them, it had a similar effect on her body as well. She glanced up at her friend, peering down at her from a thousand dark miles away, and smiled.
Coyotka shifted her body farther down, running her fingertips along the collie's belly, causing the canine to writhe pleasantly in anticipation of what was to come. Gingerly she released the belt wrapped around Ksi's waist, with a flick of her wrist she undid the button of the femme's shorts, with a swift, liquid motion she pulled shorts and thong from their resting place and threw them away, no longer needed.
As soon as the collie's sex was exposed to air, both females began moaning low in their throats, one from the feeling of the warm, slightly pungent air brushing against her most sensitive region, the other due to the intoxicating effect the sight and scent was having on her. Without hesitation she plunged in. The collie gasped as a powerful tongue shot through her outer defenses and pressed invasively into her body, and she felt her back arch upwards involuntarily. The coyote pressed her pretty face to the other's body, mouth open wide, her long tongue snaking as far inside her friend's pussy as it could reach. Pulses of heat struck her face in waves, so intense that it was like standing in front of a roaring fire, causing sweat to appear rapidly on cheeks and forehead. Steaming fluid gushed forth and Coyotka greedily lapped it up, not willing to part with any more than she had to. She felt her own sex quiver and moisten in sympathetic excitement, and she could imagine Ksi tonguing her in rhythm, driving her wild. Her jaws worked quickly, moving up and down, and from the collie's moans it was obvious how much she was enjoying this treatment.
Coyotka's ministrations paused for just a moment as she shifted to lie on her stomach, so that she was directly between Ksi' legs. The collie planted her feet on the ground, knees high in the air, and the coyote hooked her arms underneath the other's thighs, resting her elbows on the ground. With a wink she lowered her head; out snaked her tongue, and flicked quickly across the collie's clit, exposed by a paw pulling at the surrounding skin. Ksi yelped and shuddered and the coyote repeated her action. This time Ksi's back arched terrifically, pressing her sex upwards against Coyotka's maw, and she dug in, lips pursed, tongue flicking rapidly at the tender organ. The collie's body bucked and rolled, she flung her head from side to side, and she clawed violently at the stone floor, unconsciously trying to gouge furrows in the earthen tiles.
Coyotka worked a finger into the cramped tunnel, then another, working them back and forth just an inch or so as her mouth worked its magic farther north, knowing how much the other femme enjoyed that.
It was easy to see the effects of her play; not only was the collie writhing around in ecstasy, but her sex was simply going crazy. It pulsed and fluttered with a mind of its own, heat and moisture churning out in torrents, sucking greedily on the fingers in between its folds, trying to pull them farther inside. The organ was alive, and it was hungry.
Coyotka sat up gasping for air, but before the other could respond, she had shucked off her shorts, one paw rubbing furiously as her own dripping snatch. Ksi knew what she wanted; they were close enough that no words were needed. The collie raised one leg straight into the air and Coyotka mounted it like a stripper's pole, pressing her boiling femsex against the one she had been licking. As she began rocking back and forth, moans from two mouths filled the structure, echoing weirdly off angles and designs that had never witnessed such sounds. A pair of pussies, aflame with lust, ground against one another, and the thick pungent scent of sex even covered the smell of time and dust, which was otherwise overpowering. Breasts jiggled and bodies rocked, ears lay flat against their owners' heads, and tails wagged with great speed. Lithe bodies moved against one another, and Coyotka felt an orgasm building deep inside her, a slow, burning pressure that was quickly crawling towards the surface.
No longer intelligent, the coyote raised her hips enough to lift her sex off the other's, and jammed two fingers into herself, sawing them back and forth as fast and as hard as she could. Underneath, Ksi's paw mimicked the action, and moisture sloshed and spilled all over the ground as the femmes worked crazily at themselves. As the collie's whines reached a pitch that could mean nothing but climax, Coyotka could feel that hers was nearly ready to arrive, and grimaced hard in preparation for the body-rocking orgasm that she was about to endure.
It is nothing short of miraculous that Coyotka heard the soft shuffling sound over the noises coming from her and the collie, but her keen ears did indeed pick them up. Even so, she was inclined to ignore it until a muffled whooshing sound rose suddenly into her awareness, and the coyote ducked just in time to avoid a small, yet very heavy, object that had been hurled with tremendous force at her head.
Ducking underneath the attack, the coyote rolled off of Ksi and reached for her gun, always kept in the waistband of her shorts; it was then that she realized her shorts were no longer anywhere near her, as she had thrown them heedlessly into the darkness. The female glanced around desperately, trying to locate her weapon, when a deep grunt and another whooshing sound reached her ears, and she leaped and rolled to one side with only inches separating her skull and another hurled implement. Snatching up her flashlight, she shined the beam on her attackers, and suddenly froze. Her blood congealed in her veins and her heart missed a beat, for she was looking at a group of beings that had no business being there.
They were reptilian, but their resemblance to any reptile she had ever met or studied was superficial at best. The things were terribly obese, with rolls of fat drooping from solid frames, but from they way they held themselves it was clear that they possessed tremendous physical strength. In the dim light, their scales, so faint as to be almost unnoticeable, looked dusty gray, and their faces were flattened and looked something like a chimp's, except that they had unbelievably wide mouths that extended almost from ear-slit to ear-slit. Some wore curious turbans on their bald heads, but most wore nothing but a small wrap around their waist made of some rugged fabric. In their hands, curiously mammalian, most of them clutched rocks or stone hammers, and leered at the furres menacingly, revealing small, jagged teeth. Perhaps a dozen of the creatures stood threatening the females, and bunched up as they were, Coyotka could think they resembled nothing more than a bunch of old, discolored marshmallows with beady eyes and whitish, disproportionately long forked tongues.
A moment of silent terror passed, then Coyotka was leaping for her gun, paw outstretched and groping blindly for the weapon. Several stones clattered off the floor beside her, and one struck her calf, sending outrageous pain shooting up her leg and along her spine. The archaeologist ignored it, and in another moment she had twisted around on her back, .45 clutched in one paw, flashlight in the other sending a dazzling beam of illumination into the monsters' faces. A sharp retort split the air and one of the lizard-things dropped to the ground, howling ferociously. Another blast felled a second monster, and the rest scattered into the darkness, shouting their fury helplessly as they fled from their would-be prey. Coyotka fired a few shots after them and had the satisfaction of hearing one of the things yelp in pain, then she turned to the collie.
"Are you all right?" Ksi was still spread out on the ground, trembling violently with the fear and stress of the sudden attack. Coyotka knelt down beside her and took the female's paw in hers, and after a few moments of making calming sounds, the collie was able to sit up and reply.
"What were those things?" she asked breathlessly, her body still shaking. "I've never seen anything like them!"
"I've got no idea," replied the coyote. "All I know is that they're definitely hostile, and that they're run off in the direction of our camp. We've got to catch up with them and drive them away, or they're going to come across the rest of the group while they're still asleep."
Ksi nodded, though her distaste for the idea of following those bizarrely shaped creatures down the dark, ancient tunnels was clear on her features. Still, she realized they had no choice, and with the cries of the fleeing monsters echoing in her ears, she got to her feet.
The temple walls were still ringing with the sound of gunfire, doubtlessly never heard within the edifice before, and that surely explains why neither furre heard the shuffling and grunting until it was too late. Glancing fearfully into the recesses of the temple, in the direction opposite the one their attackers had taken, Ksi hissed suddenly between her teeth. Coyotka whirled and threw a beam of light in that direction, and caught a brief glimpse of more fat lizard-things surging into the black temple. She whipped her gun up parallel to the floor, and the furres were greeted by a hail of stones, hurled with tremendous power. Coyotka heard the collie squeal in terror, and then a missile struck her in the temple. The shadows exploded and the ground leapt up to meet her, and she knew no more.
Awareness came slowly, and with a throbbing pressure insider her head. Coyotka squeezed her eyes together tightly and pressed her fists against her temples, trying to shut out the pain, but it didn't do much good. The insides of her eyelids pulsed painfully with every heartbeat and the world threatened to go dark, but very slowly, the pain began to subside. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of misery, the ache in her skull calmed enough so that she could open her eyes and blink gingerly into the semi-darkness.
Coyotka soon wished she had never opened her eyes, for the sights that greeted her were awful enough to turn her stomach. She had been dumped unceremoniously in one of the crude iron cages near the altar, and her legs were protruding from between the bars. Torches had been lit, and in their wan glow she could see numerous grotesque shapes moving about. Near her, across the aisle of steps leading to the altar, she could make out the dim form of Ksi, still unconscious, in another cage. Unlike the coyote, she was being prodded by two of the fat lizard-things, one of which was examining her foot with what may have been a salacious, or perhaps just hungry, expression on its blunt face.
Incensed by her friend's treatment, and forgetting her own predicament, Coyotka tried to leap to her feet, but in the tight confines of the cage, found it possible to straighten only with care. As she did, she shouted angrily at the things molesting her inert friend, causing them to jump upright, caught entirely off guard by the sound.
The coyote quickly regretted her act, as the creatures rushed over to crowd around her cage, leering evilly at her with their unnaturally wide mouths. Paw brushing her hip, Coyotka realized belatedly that her pistol was no longer sitting at its accustomed place, nor was anything else, for that matter: she had been stripped bare before being imprisoned in the narrow cage. With a sinking sense of horror gradually stealing up her back, Coyotka tried desperately to avoid the prodding claws of the reptiles, attempting to make herself as skinny as possible so it would be harder to reach her. This proved to be quite impossible, and although she swatted at the paws coming through the bars at her, there were always more grasping fingers pinching and poking at her body. Horror and revulsion turned to rage, and with a cry, the coyote lashed out with a clenched fist and caught one of the slimy things right between the eyes.
Coyotka immediately regretted this action as much as her first, as the creature's bones were rock-hard, despite the flabbiness of their outer bodies. She snatched her paw back and winced, berating herself for her foolishness, knowing that her act of aggression might motivate the curious beings to violence, and she and Ksi were helpless to defend themselves. At the very least, she was afraid she might have broken a finger or two: her hand was killing her, and by the amused expression on her victim's face, she knew that she had got the worst of the encounter.
Still, the reptiles had stepped back in shock at her sudden attack, and so it had gained her a brief respite from their attentions. An idea flashed into her mind, and just as quickly, she acted on it, knowing she had only a brief moment to put her new plan into action. Leaping upward, the femme scurried up the bars of the cage toward the open top, climbing with the skill and speed of a monkey, rather than a coyote. She surmounted the top in a moment and paused for just a second, crouched on top the cage, gathering her strength for a sudden release of tension in her legs. She would leap over the creatures' heads and make a run for it; if she could reach the camp ahead of the lizards, who, unsurprisingly, didn't move particularly quickly, she might be able together the others and launch a rescue operation for Ksi. It was risky, but it was better than waiting around to be eaten, or sacrificed, or whatever the things were going to do with her.
Coyotka steeled herself for the jump, tensing her muscles as tightly as they could be tensed, waiting for just the right moment to spring over her captors' heads and run for the relative safety of the tunnel. The femme gauged the distance carefully, took a deep breath, and launched herself into the air.
At least, she tried. A split second before the coyote threw herself from the bars upon which she was perched, a terrible feeling of weakness washed over her muscles, turning them to jelly. Rather than leaping spectacularly through the night, she fell straight down and landed roughly on the floor, so dizzy that she couldn't have been certain that she didn't fall up rather than down. The feeling passed as swiftly as it had appeared, but by that time the creatures had crowded around her, gripping her in iron-hard hands and lifting her up, undoubtedly to throw her once more into the cage from which she had just emerged.
Though she struggled valiantly, Coyotka knew it didn't matter, that there was no way to get out of the things' grip at this point. Lifted into the air, she sighed miserably, knowing that she had missed what was probably her last chance at freedom, the coyote resigned herself to whatever the creatures were going to do to her: there was nothing she could do about it any longer.
Cocooned in despondency, Coyotka didn't hear the new voice, raspy and grating, that spoke with an air of authority. Before she realized what was happening, the reptiles had set her down and backed away, bowing low and shuffling backwards, their grotesque voices murmuring gravelly apologies to the being that commanded them. Mystified, Coyotka looked up in the direction the voice had come from, and saw that a new reptile had joined them, one which was even more bizarre and disturbing than the others, for precisely the same reasons.
The creature was old, that was obvious, for its skin sagged off its obscene body even more than the others', its scales had turned softer and grayer, and its shuffling gait was slower and clumsier. Too, its head was crowned with a splendid gold diadem, unlike any she had ever seen before, and a fabulous tabard of deep red hung across its chest. In its right hand, it clutched a staff that clicked and scraped against the floor as if it were made of stone, and its pale white tongue lolled from its mouth like an exhausted worm. With an imperious gesture, it waved the other lizard-things away, and looked down to regard Coyotka with a gaze that looked more curious than malicious, though it was difficult to tell.
"Can you understand me, mammal?" It wasn't easy: the elderly thing's voice was so rough that it was difficult to make out the words, and it spoke a strange bastard cousin of very primitive Latin, but with some effort Coyotka could decipher its message. She nodded, and the creature made a sound deep in its throat she thought was a chuckle.
"I'm glad. There was a time we could speak to your race, but that was a long time ago, and we have forgotten most of your languages."
Sitting on the floor of an ancient and blasphemous shrine, speaking to a fat, gray lizard-man who shouldn't exist, the part of Coyotka that was an ordinary person was horrified beyond belief, and wanted nothing more than to turn and flee. The part of her that was a scientist, however, was intrigued beyond words, and that was the part that quickly took over. The "person" part was exhausted, terrified, and confused, so it was little surprise that it would give way to the "scientist" part, the part of her psyche that was curious, rather than scared out of her wits.
"What are you doing here?" The question was blunt, but in such a situation, she felt that directness was called for. "There's no record of any reptiles living in this region for the past, oh, seven thousand years or so. Where did you come from?"
The ancient lizard grinned, the expression unnerving on its flattened face. "Where did we come from? We were here first, mammal, before your species ever evolved."
"Impossible." Coyotka shook her head. "Nobody's ever found any record of your civilization, not skeletons, not tools, not even the myths and stories of nearby groups. If you did exist when you say you did, there would be some evidence of it."
"Impossible? Phah! Who are you to speak of impossibility?" The creature's voice was full of loathing, as if disgusted to even consider the question. "I stand here before you, don't I? Look around you, mammal: is this temple not older than your civilization? What do you know, young one, about truths that have been hidden from your world for millennia?"
If Coyotka had been an anthropologist, used to studying people, rather than artifacts, she would have been more tactful from the beginning. At any rate, she saw that she had offended her mysterious interlocutor, and as he was the only being liable to give her any answers at all, she decided to try a less antagonistic tactic. "Okay, you're right, I admit that I don't know anything about your people or your history. Please, tell me."
The lizard grinned again, sending a shiver down her spine. "Much better, mammal, much better. It is important to pay respect to one's superiors." The old being looked up and shouted a command in its harsh language, and several of the lizard-things hurried over, bearing two short stone pillars, one of which was placed at the elder's feet, the other near Coyotka, then quickly retreated. The creature took a seat on his stool and motioned for his captive to do the same, and once she had settled down, he began speaking.
"As I said, we were here first, young one. We evolved true sapience well before your kind; we built great cities while mammals were still scraping holes in the dirt to weather the nights. We had a great civilization, oh yes. Perhaps it was not so great as those which came later, but it was by far greater than anything the warm-bloods would create for thousands of years. And we owed our grandeur to the Moon Gods.
The traveled in their great, dark ships to visit us in the early days of our civilization, and they gave us great gifts indeed: medicine, weaponry, transportation, electricity. Yes, we had electricity back then, more than ten thousand years before any furred being learned to harness its power. We grew and thrived with these gifts, and all our benefactors asked us for in return was slaves. Not our own people, no: they wanted the primitive, hairy beasts that were then only learning to walk upright and scratch vague symbols in the dirt."
The story so far wasn't terribly original: Coyotka knew of many civilizations that told variations of the ancient astronauts theory, and there are those in the contemporary scientific, or pseudo-scientific, community that espouse such a concept. Still, the idea was fairly hideous, and given her situation, it's not surprising that the femme felt a considerable level of disquiet creeping up on her.
"We kept our part of the bargain. Once a month, on the night of the full moon, the Gods would visit us at our greatest city, and we would give to them the captives we had collected since their last visit. Hundreds of primitive mammals were loaded into those black ships, never again to set foot on Earth's soil, for the Gods took their slaves back to their home, on the dark side of the moon, from which no one could escape. Generations passed this way, and all was good.
"There came a time, though, that the Moon Gods entered a war with their enemies, and strong as they are, they required allies to battle their foes. The next time they visited our world, they loaded upon their ships not furre slaves, but their worshippers, and spirited my people away to their dark and unwholesome homeland, to wage war for their masters. In the Moon Gods' name, we battled the ghoulish beasts that inhabit the underworld, the great furry giants, and the servants of the hated Sennod, the hoary god-man that hunts our masters when the stars are bright. Yea, for countless generations we served, and we did more than just do battle with our masters' enemies: our women sometimes bore their children, for they desired a race of hybrids, and it is that race which holds you now captive!"
Now Coytoka understood. The reptile-men didn't look much like those in the carvings: the bas-reliefs depicted lean, muscular beings, not at all like the gross, saggy thing that now spoke to her. With their obese bodies, their flat faces, and their mottled hides, these lizard-men looked more like the aliens in the carvings than they did the Earth-born reptiles. These creatures must have found the remnants of an ancient temple, built by an entirely separate species, and built a myth-cycle to explain the differences. It still suggested the existence of an ancient reptilian civilization in a region where none was known to have existed, but isn't that what archaeology is about?
Having decided to learn what she could about the lizards' mythology, Coyotka humored the old creature. "Then what are you doing here, back on Earth? Was there a rebellion, or were you cast from the Garden of Eden for some sin?"
The monstrous old thing looked at her quizzically, apparently not understanding the reference. It wasn't surprising: wherever these things had hidden themselves for the last however many millennia, they likely had never had contact with any Judeo-Christian faith.
"No," he said finally, "No, we were not cast out. After thousands of years, the wars were won, and our masters entered into a truce with their foes, and we were kept by their side to serve them. But as the years passed, the Gods desired more of the furry sacrifices we had delivered to them so long ago, and a little more than two hundred years ago, they loaded a single ship, for not many of us still survived, and returned us to Earth to resume the old ways.
You asked me why no trace of our great civilization has been found in the intervening years, and now I will tell you. You see, so hated had we become by the primitive, furry beings, your ancestors, that during our long absence from Earth, they did everything in their power to eliminate all traces that we had ever existed. They were lead and assisted in this endeavor by the Elder Gods, the puny gods of Earth, the nature gods whom our Gods hate. The Elder Gods showed the hairy ones where to ferret out our secrets and destroy them, how to eradicate our artifacts, how to determine whether any of their own harbored a secret kinship with us, for some of the beasts had learned to worship the Moon Gods. When we returned after thousands of years in space, this ancient temple was the only evidence we could find of our once great civilization, and it is here that we have taken up the old ways."
Coyotka heard Ksi moaning as the collie regained consciousness, and as she rose to help, the old reptile hissed strangely. Immediately, a number of the repulsive creatures emerged from the darkness and surrounded her, moving bafflingly fast for such clumsy things, making escape impossible. The old lizard cackled with glee, hissing a frightful message. "Tomorrow night is the full moon, warm-blood. Tomorrow night, the Moon Gods will come to visit us, and we will offer the two of you as sacrifices. But tonight you belong to my warriors, and they have a very different use for you." The creature cackled again, finding something about it hilarious, and as Coyotka was thrown to the floor, she knew exactly what was about to happen to them.
Although the old lizard showed nothing but scorn for "warm-bloods," his warriors seemed to have a very different appreciation for them. Powerful hands gripped her arms and legs, too strong to permit struggle, even futile struggle, and hungry faces leered down at her. Clawed fingers groped roughly at her breasts and thighs, making her wince with pain, and an iron hand closed around her muzzle, ending her brief attempt to shout insults, the only means available of striking back. Fingers gripped her ankles, and with irresistible force, they wrenched her legs apart, exposing her nakedness fully to the gruesome things. The coyote squeezed her eyes shut as she felt several scaly hands begin prodding at her sex and tried not to think about what was going to happen next.
The answer was not exactly what she expected, though she had been close. A considerable amount of growling and grunting was going on between the creatures, and by the time the femme realized they were arguing about something, they had made up their minds. One of the flabby creatures sat down heavily beside her, and in the semi-darkness she could see the vague silhouette of a truly massive erection protruding from beneath its stomach. Suddenly she was lifted into the air by multiple pairs of hands, and, seeing their plan at once, Coyotka begin thrashing about as violently as she could. They could rape her, there was nothing she could do about that; but she wasn't going to go along with it willingly!
But then, maybe it didn't matter that she was unwilling. The gravelly voice of the old priest began a weird, rhythmic sort of chant, and as the words, which seemed to be all consonants, tumbled over her body, the coyote felt a horrifying fuzzy feeling creep into her limbs, like her whole body was asleep, and she no longer had any control over it. That wasn't true: she had control over her body, she realized, it was her mind that was defying her, ignoring her commands and forcing her to do something she didn't want to do.
The coyote's struggles ceased, and her legs were pulled violently apart, spread widely. Coyotka whimpered sadly as she was lowered clumsily by the things holding her, and grimaced in expected pain as she felt the wide tool press against her entrance. As she was lowered onto the monstrous creature's scaly cock, her only relief, or so she thought at the time, was that at least she was facing away from the thing, her back towards his face. At least she wouldn't have to look at him as he raped her!
Coyotka moaned in pain and discomfort as the hard lizard-dick invaded her; it was enormous, covered in what felt like hard ridges, and was burning hot. With her legs spread open as completely as they could be, she still felt entirely filled, as if nothing else, not even a sliver, could have been stuck inside her exposed pussy. She was pulled cruelly against her rapist's stomach, and he began bucking very gently, working his tool inside her just a few inches back and forth. Even this was awful: the thing felt completely alien, it was too big and too hard, and the lizard's hands were squeezing her breasts roughly with obvious delight. The coyote writhed helplessly in the great creature's lap, wishing it would all be over soon, knowing, however, by the number of lizard-men she had seen, that it would not.
If Coyotka had thought the greatest indignity of the night was to be the invasion of her most private parts by a gruesome lizard-creature, she was sadly and horribly mistaken. She had squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see what was happening, but perhaps if she had not, what happened next would not have been such a tremendous shock. Coyotka felt something hard bump against the tip of her muzzle, and a hand gripped her jaw and jerked her head upwards. Her eyes flew open in surprise, and she saw, wavering before her, another gigantic dick, less than an inch away from her mouth. The sight of it filled her with disgust: it pulsed with an alien life, the flesh, smooth on mammalian beings, was covered in rough scales, and there were tough, scute-like ridges running along the length of it. It pointed at her like an accusatory finger, filling her sight, dominating her vision. She tried to shake her head, but the hand underneath her jaw wouldn't let her. The hand tightened a little, and, mewling pitifully, Coyotka found herself opening her mouth wide, despite the screamed commands inside her skull telling her body to stop.
The clawed hand at her jaw released her, only to grab her by the back of the head and force her forward, shoving the grotesque cock into her mouth. As soon as the grayish member touched her tongue, the coyote recoiled, almost gagging on the noxious taste, but the hand wouldn't let go. It held her fast by the hair, and slowly Coyotka began sucking at the disgusting tool, unable to understand what was making her do it, what was forcing her to acquiesce, even this little bit, to something she hated so much. It must have been the old priest's doing, but how? Did he drug her? Hypnotize her? Had she been brainwashed? Her mind spun.
More of the things crowded around, pressing their nasty members into her paws, rubbing against her fur, leering and gibing at her with those awful, toothy smiles. Her pussy felt like it was going to be torn apart, as the creature inside her was no longer gentle; once his friend had placed his own dick into the female's mouth, the lizard on bottom had started bucking harder, his humongous cock ramming into her sensitive area like a piston with enough force to rip tissue if she weren't so limber. The cock in her mouth slid back and forth, making her gag with each thrust, the awful taste making her want to wretch. She could feel the ridges on the cocks, and though they were small, inside her they felt huge, like terrible razors slicing into her flesh. Once she did gag and wrench her head away sputtering when one of the scutes caught at the roof of her mouth and tore a small laceration, but she wasn't permitted to stop more than long enough to spit out a mouthful of blood.
Her breasts ached, as they were being fondled by a number of hands at once. Perhaps fondled isn't the right word; more like molested. The short, sharp nails dug shallow cuts in her skin, and the tight squeezing was quickly bruising the tissue. She knew her breasts would be sore for days to come, if she lived that long. When one of the things bent down and put a tit into his mouth, she shuddered at the feeling of the long, pale tongue slavering over her body, but when the awful teeth bit down hard on her, bringing dark blood to the surface, a stream of salty tears began to flow from behind her eyelids, and never stopped until she fell asleep later that night. But fate had one more horror in store for the coyote.
A shrill scream cut through the female's consciousness. With the speed of instinct, she recognized the voice, and jerked her head around to follow the source of the noise, and when she saw what was happening, Coyotka screamed as well. Perhaps twenty feet away, Ksi had been hauled up the wide aisle between the cages and bent roughly over, her upper body draped across the otherworldly altar, as one of the monstrous lizards raped her from behind. The collie didn't even seem to be aware of what the creature was doing; rather than attempting to escape, her greatest concern seemed to be trying to push herself away from the weird, luminous rock. Her palms were pressed flat on the altar's surface and her arms shook with the effort, but, injured as she was, she couldn't manage anything close to the amount of force it would take to overpower the hefty reptile that had her in its grasp. Remembering the utter terror she had felt only brushing against the object, Coyotka could only imagine the soul-blasting pain her friend must have been going through, and she screamed in sympathetic terror for the unfortunate femme.
The rest of the night was one of pain and misery, but for Coyotka, none of it could compare to the despair she felt at hearing her friend shriek in absolute, bewildered fear when she had been first pressed against the bumpy stone. Nor did her screaming stop quickly, or even when she was finally dragged, limp and delirious, off the object and thrown onto the floor for more brutalizing.
Awareness came gradually and painfully for the exhausted coyote. She gamely fought her way through a thick blanket of darkness and fear until she emerged, gasping, into the waking world, and instantly wished she had not done so. She was back in the little cramped cage, but this time she was chained to the bars, to ensure there would be no further attempt at escape. Her entire body ached, most especially her breasts, her jaw, and her lower orifices, both of which felt as though someone had gone at them with a 2 x 4. Strangely enough, she had no recollection of being anally violated, but the pain in her backside was ample proof that it had happened. It was lucky, she supposed, that she had blacked out, and thus been spared the additional trauma that would have entailed.
Across the aisle, Ksi was unconscious in her own cage, laying unnaturally still. A flash of panic gripped Coyotka for a moment, but she saw that her friend was still breathing shallowly. Once in a while, Ksi would twitch a little and moan almost inaudibly, but Coyotka couldn't manage to wake her. There was no doubt that the collie had suffered even more than she had, and she could only hope that Ksi's dreams were more pleasant than her own had been. Judging from the miserable sounds she was making, they probably weren't. The only positive detail was the complete absence of the reptiles, whether because they were nocturnal, or simply because the rites didn't commence until sundown, she didn't know. Still, it was a relief to finally be away from those horrible things, even in a situation as dire as the one in which she now lay.
Coyotka spent a while trying to loosen the chains which bound her to the iron cage, but to no avail; they were quite sturdy, and her head swam too much to concentrate on the task anyway. She wondered again if she had been drugged, and hoped desperately that the rest of the team would find them soon. After all, when the team woke up and found that the two were missing, they would begin searching, and naturally they would try the corridor down which they had traveled the night before, knowing that both females had been eager to explore it. The only danger, besides help coming too late, was if the lizards captured or killed them; they were scientists, not soldiers, and wouldn't put up much of a fight. Once this occurred to Coyotka, she realized that even if the others found them in time, there might not be much they could do. They had a few rifles with them, but like I said, they weren't soldiers, and Coyotka remembered with embarrassment how little she had accomplished with her own pistol.
The day passed slowly. The only time Coyotka saw any of the reptiles was when one came in to deliver a lunch of bread, meat, and water, but she felt too bad to eat it, and the thing didn't seem to have any interest in her anyway. Eventually Ksi woke up, but that turned out to be worse than watching her sleep; she spent several hours muttering deliriously about "hairy half-men who dwell upon a darksome plateau" and a "blind captive god held fast by the name of Y'rab" until she fell asleep again without once seeming to be cognizant of her surroundings. This made Coyotka feel even more absolutely alone, and she shivered in darkness for the rest of the afternoon, hoping against hope that something, anything, would happen to save her from the awful fate which seemed more inescapable by the moment.
The sky, or what little of it could be seen through the small windows near the top of the walls, began to darken, and it wasn't long before the room began to fill with the shuffling, grunting lizard-men. Ksi had awoken about half an hour earlier, but had refused to say much, other than allude to dark dreams she loathed to remember. Coyotka feared that the creatures would resume indulging their appetites, and that the collie, in her fragile mental state, would not survive it, but thankfully this was not the case. The reptiles were solemn, subdued, almost grim. Apparently they placed tremendous importance on the rite that was to soon take place, and they behaved themselves like congregants at a mass, standing in orderly ranks, forming an aisle leading from the cages to some unseeable point at the far wall.
It took around twenty minutes for the reptiles to assemble, but once everyone had taken their place, the murmur of the crowd died rapidly down to silence. Somewhere, somebody began piping on a flute, producing sounds never heard by the furres, sounds that were so bizarre, so intensely alien, that it hurt the head just to hear them. The music, if that's what it was, wasn't harsh or shrill, and while the tempo was rapid, and shifted often, that wasn't the source of the discomfort Coyotka felt. The simple fact was that she had never heard those notes before, never heard notes anything like them before, and she felt a deep sense of disquiet as those awful notes assailed her brain. Her mind twisted and cavorted with the alien melody, bending in new directions, twisting her perceptions until what was familiar seemed strange, and what was strange seemed boring in its normalcy. New thoughts emerged in her fiery mind, new ideas occurred to her, new senses were awakened by that monotonous piping. She feared she had gone mad, and as she effortlessly slipped out of her manacles, climbed out of her cage, and began walking purposefully along the aisle formed by her captors, she was certain of it.
The aisle of living bodies took her into a wide tunnel, doubtlessly the one used by the reptilian things to enter and exit the temple without notice. It was perfectly dark, being entirely underground, and if it had not been built with absolute engineering precision to be uniform along its entire course, she surely would have stumbled. Part of her wanted to turn around, to charge back into the temple, fearful that whatever fate awaited them at the end of the tunnel would be far worse than the rape she had suffered already. The rest of her mind rebelled violently at such a thought; if she turned around, that would mean going towards the source of that awful, reedy fluting that had swirled her brain into madness and set fire to her soul. No, she decided, whatever lay ahead, she would face it before she willingly approached that horrible music again.
She finally emerged into the night air beside a lake, though her knowledge of the surrounding area wasn't good enough for her to guess its name. The wizened priest, surrounded by half a dozen attendants, stood waiting for her, and he smiled his gruesome smile as the furre stepped into the moonlight.
"Our sacrifices have arrived. The Moon Gods will be pleased," he hissed, his worm-like tongue hanging from his mouth, twitching slightly. Coyotka, too afraid to speak, glanced over her shoulder at the word "sacrifices" and saw that Ksi had also been borne along the strains of alien music, almost too faint to hear now, and the furres clasped each other tightly, shivering. Ksi had recovered enough to be fully aware of herself and her surroundings, and she buried her face in the coyote's shoulder and cried.
The tearful reunion served to shore up the archaeologist's flagging resolve, and after a few moments of trying to soothe her friend, she turned angrily to the priest, holding Ksi tightly against her. "So now what?" she spat. "If you're going to sacrifice us, where are your knives, or torches, or whatever you're going to use? You take us out here, and then what? Well? Answer me!"
The old reptile laughed, his chuckle like leather rasping on leather. "We wait, warm-blood. We wait for the Gods to arrive, and they will take you away to do whatever it is with you that they do with the offerings we make. I assure you, we will not kill you, but, if the rumors passed down from generation to generation are in any way accurate," again he chuckled, a dry sound devoid of humor, "you will wish we had taken knives to you. Oh yes, you foul, beastly creature, you will long for death years before our Gods anoint you with it."
Coyotka began to respond to the hateful old creature, but before she could, one of those in attendance to the priest cried out and pointed a clawed finger into the sky. All eyes save Ksi's rose to follow the direction indicated by the thing's gesture, but only the lizards seemed to have seen anything, as all but the priest promptly fell to their knees in genuflection. The priest simply nodded his gray head and gazed spitefully at the femmes, his eyes cold with the intensity of his disdain. "They approach, mammals. It will be only a few moments more, and you will belong to the Gods."
"Fuck you!" Coyotka snarled. "We're not waiting around for whatever you have planned. You go to hell, you miserable old bastard!" Furious, she gripped Ksi's arm hard and began marching away, tugging at the collie to induce her to follow. Follow she did, but only for a few steps; then her voice caught Coyotka up short.
"Coyo, look! I, I see it!" The coyote turned to see her friend, like the lizard before her, pointing into the night sky, abject fear and overwhelming amazement mixed maniacally on her narrow face. Coyotka cast her eyes upward once more, but still saw nothing but the stars, twinkling sinister in the black sky, and the pale, bloated full moon looking down on them with fungoid presence. No, there was nothing else to see. Nothing, but...
"No," she whispered, awestruck. "No, it can't be." Now she saw it, too, a black shape, bearing a strong, red light at its front, descending rapidly towards them. As it came closer, it became clear the object was no plane, or helicopter, or anything of such pedestrian nature. It was definitely a flying machine of some kind, but it looked and behaved completely unlike any machine built by the men of Earth. It hurtled silently towards the assembled group at break-neck speed, and it seemed certain the thing would crash into them. As it closed the distance, from the object came the unnerving and loathsome fluting played earlier, growing in volume and weirdness until it every nerve of the assorted group was taut. Panic-stricken, Coyotka could only huddle down and try to shield her friend from the impact, certain that she was going to die. The sound of rushing water filled her ears, and the ancient lizard-thing shrieked to the sky, "Behold! The black galley of the Moon Gods!"
A great splash was heard, and the group was drenched in water that exploded up from the surface of the lake. Only a slow creaking could be heard, and as Coyotka came to the realization that she was not dead, she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the phantom image sitting menacingly upon the lake. It was a ship, all right, an ancient, sea-going ship with strange variations that marked it as belonging to no earthly navy. At stern and prow burned a bright reddish lamp, casting the scene in a weird half-light. No sails billowed from the mast, but rows of oars protruded from the great, dark bulk, and a curious device, sitting upon the main mast, glimmered spectrally in the odd light. Coyotka shuddered and moaned quietly. "This can't be happening. This can't be real."
But it was real. She could hear the boards creak as they shifted, the water lapping at the black hull, the muffled shuffling from inside the belly of the beast. She could smell the unearthly chemicals used to seal the wooden planks and the nauseating foods on which the ship's crew dined. Worst of all, she could see a gangplank being slowly lowered, very gradually, a dark finger probing the stillness with care, five feet wide and made of the same sheenless black wood as the rest of the ship. It slid out from the ship's side almost sexually, maneuvered with grotesque care, until it gently touched the shore, coming to rest a few dozen feet from the furres.
At once the lizards leapt to their feet and rushed at the females, and before the terror-stricken furres could react, they had been seized in the creatures' unbreakable grip. The reptiles seemed exultant, quivering with excitement, while the furres quivered with a very different emotion. Time slowed to a crawl, until a dark shape appeared at the top of the gangplank and began to move towards them. As the thing approached, Coyotka was sure she was going to scream.
For a few moments, the shape was only that, a dark, amorphous shape wriggling jelly-like down the gangplank. As the thing came closer and her eyes adjusted to the peculiar reddish light, she saw that, while there may have been no definite form, it was far more than a glob of jelly that inched its way towards the assembled humanoids on the shore.
The body was shapeless and fat, like a full sack of gel, but it seemed to put forward feet, or feet-like nubs, on which to walk, and when it remembered, it formed a pair of detached flippers from its side to serve as arms. There was a definite outline to the creature - it was not a blob of goo - but that outline seemed to shift liquidly with each movement, as if the thing could alter its body through some unearthly means. It brought to mind an octopus, whose body maintains its shape only through hydrostatic pressure, and can change its outward shape by changing the amount and direction of that pressure. But there is no such thing as an octopus as big as a man, that can walk, or wriggle, down a wooden plank on two legs with a purpose and intelligence as clear as any man's.
But the worst part was the face, because Coyotka had seen that face, etched dozens of times in stone within that awful temple. A fat, rounded head sat atop the body, with no neck to speak of, and no ears nor nose, nor even eyes, and she briefly wondered how to things found their way around. The snout was blunted, and protruding was a mass of fat tentacles, perhaps no longer than six inches each, wriggling like the vipers said to live upon Medusa's scalp. No mouth could be seen, but it could have very well been covered by the tentacles; at any rate, the abomination looked exactly the same way as depicted by the lizards' sculptors. Whatever they were, they had certainly made contact with Earthlings long ago, and their figures, such as they were, had been recorded for future generations to look upon and shudder.
As more of the creatures appeared at the head of the gangplank, Coyotka found she was unable to tear her eyes from the fat, noisome thing in the lead. She would like to claim it was her scientific curiosity that kept her eyes glued on the awful being. Imagine, contact with a real extraterrestrial! What more could any scientist desire? But it was more a disgusted fascination that held her attention: the way the damnable thing undulated and shifted was almost hypnotic, though it made her nauseous as well. Her mind wanted to blot out everything, to go black and be aware of nothing, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the monster. Its presence promised her damnation, but she couldn't look away.
As the noisome things reached the shore, the old priest welcomed them with a series of bizarre signs and gestures, never speaking, though occasionally producing a disagreeable whistle. Coyotka supposed it made sense, as the alien beings, with their oddly shaped orifices, would surely be unable to pronounce any language spoken on Earth, nor could a terrestrial species reproduce whatever kinds of sounds, if any, the aliens must make. Communication appeared to be performed through body language, which must have been largely ritualistic; it was unlikely any true sort of conversation was taking place. More probably it was merely a proscribed greeting, the priest welcoming his gods and introducing the sacrifices, the aliens making short, clumsy gestures to signify their acceptance of the gifts offered.
By the time the ritual drew to a close, perhaps four or five of the creatures had gathered on the shoreline, wobbling silently as the priest finished his genuflections. The old lizard barked something in his own language, and the reptiles holding Coyotka and Ksi thrust their captives forward for their masters' consideration. Now only a few feet away from the monsters, the coyote could hardly breathe. She was rooted to the spot with fear; even if she had been able to form a plan of escape, she would never have been able to force her body to respond. One of the things reached out a loathsome paw to brush against her fur, and the only thing that kept her from screaming was the fact that she couldn't open her mouth to do so. One of the creatures made some kind of gesture to the priest, who beamed in response. "The sacrifice has been found acceptable," he crowed, "and you, warm-blooded scum, bring the Gods' favor upon us for another month!"
Although Coyotka couldn't move, this seemed to break Ksi of her own spell. Eyes wide in stark terror, she pressed herself backward, trying to get away from the appalling monstrosities, unable to do so thanks to the lizards-men holding her. "No, no," she muttered mechanically, "No, we won't. We, we won't! They can't take us! No, God, no, they can't take us! Y'rab nhican dyx torh-dn! Stesde' mheo, amn ed'nou heo! No!" Her voice rose to a shrill crescendo, and with a shriek she threw herself upon the ground, still screaming the gibberish language she had devolved to using. "Stesde' mheo, amn ed'nou heo!"
The shock of her friend's sudden and utter descent into madness was too much for Coyotka to bear; she collapsed onto the ground, her paws pressed to her eyes. Around her she heard chaos as the lizards began jabbering in their guttural language, the priest's voice rising above the rest. "Silence her!" he shouted at the coyote, his voice pregnant with panic. "Silence her, before she calls - oh no! They are upon us! How did - "
The priest's voice rose to a shriek of his own, and Coyotka reflexively snapped her head up to see why. The old priest was no longer standing where he had been: fantastically, he was a dozen feet off the ground in the clutches of some black, bat-winged monstrosity and rising fast. This new creature made no sound, or what sound it made was drowned out by the lizard's screams: it only rose faster and faster into the night sky. Completely overcome by panic, the ancient reptile-man was gibbering madly, pleading with his gods to save him.
Completely baffled, Coyotka looked around her, and the scene was one of chaos never before seen on waking Earth. The black, winged creatures were everywhere, the noiseless beating of their wings blotting out the stars. The lizard-men were running in panicked confusion, flailing helplessly as the dark shapes seized them mid-stride and lifted them bodily off the ground, displaying more strength than could be possible for such thin-bodied beings. The lizards must have weighed close to four hundred pounds each, yet the gaunt devils were capable of hefting them off the ground without assistance, carrying their struggling bundles high into the sky, beyond the vision of those on the ground. Bifurcated tails lashed the air and great leathery wings pounded in rhythm, lifting their owners, and their treasures, into the cold void of space.
Suddenly Coyotka was surrounded by the unidentifiable beings, and watched the rest of the scene in small glimpses between rubbery bodies. The fat, alien creatures, the Moon Monsters worshipped in secret by the ancient cult of lizard-men, fared no better than their devotees against the silent avengers. Long, bony hands grasped the things and carried them off, following the creatures bearing the reptiles seemingly without effort despite the obvious bulk of the monsters. More of the black bodies poured into the great galley and emerged with struggling captives, some the fat, gelatinous Moon Monsters, some hairy goat-men with wide turbans and yellow robes. Finally the shadowy beings began to rend the ship itself to pieces, tearing with supernatural strength at the hull that was strong enough to withstand the rigors of outer space. As the mast splintered with an agonizing sound, Coyotka lost consciousness, the nonsense screams of the collie still ringing in her ears.
It was many hours before Coyotka awoke. Lying in a hospital bed, with clean, starched sheets, the preceding forty-eight hours felt like a dream. She wasn't at all sure it had even happened until she looked up and saw Ksi standing beside her bed, paws folded with worry. Looking at the collie's face, there was no doubt what had happened; no one could wear such an expression unless they had seen something they were not meant to see.
"What happened?" The question was soft, almost whispered, but Ksi shushed her and put a finger to the coyote's lips.
"I called them. I don't know how, but I called them up."
"The, the altar?"
"Yes." The collie shivered. "The Moon Monsters only fear one thing. I, I learned that, when I touched...when I was forced to touch the altar. I learned the words...Please, don't ask me anything else. I, I don't want to remember."
"The tunnel?" Almost too weak to talk, Coyotka's natural instincts were still functioning; above all, she was an archaeologist, and afraid or not, she had a duty to explore Earth's most ancient secrets.
Ksi shook her head. "Gone. Some of the others explored it, and it just leads to a dead-end. Those...things...they must have caved in the tunnel, so we couldn't get back to the temple. I'm glad, Coyo. I don't ever want to go back there again."
"Oh, Ksi." Coyotka reached for her friend and pulled her down to her, embracing the collie gently. "You won't ever have to," she whispered. "You'll never have to go back. I promise."