Shift: NOT a Werewolf Story

Chapter Nine: Connix?

"Hey Lono! Have you seen Connix? I want to go hunting with him!"
"No, Sorry." Lono replied. "I'm kinda busy right now."
Kiela looked at him. "Oh! Sorry!" She said.
Lono was holding onto a rope with all his strength. She looked around and noticed that they were trying to raise a teepee. She also noticed that she had been distracting Lono and Ellil, who had been directing the procedure, had been trying to get Lono's attention.
"Well, see you!" Embarrassed, she took off.
If it wasn't for that stupid fox, She thought crossly. I 'd have seen that and Ellil wouldn't be annoyed at me. It wasn't her fault really, she had been looking for Connix all morning. Where is he?

Circling the teepee, her foot snagged ona low root. She tugged at it crossly, the mid morning heat making her irritable. The stubbon pice of root did not give way. She huffed out loud and without looking at it tied to pull her foot out, but the soft leather laces of her moccasons became tangled around it. SHe pulled hearde, and then suddenly heard a loud groaning and creaking sound. Panic shot through her, and she turned to the the enourmos teepee shudder and begin to lean towards her. Frantically, she tugged harde, but her foot would not come loose. The harder she tugged, the farther the teepee leaned. she heard muffled shouts and saw Elil racing around the teepee's bulk towards her. She glanced down at her foot, and froze with shock. Her laces were tangled arund a thick piece of rope. The piece that was holding up the structure of leather and wooden poles. A snapping sound filled the air, and it was as if the wold slowed down. the teepee shuddered and started to fall towards the girl crouched on the ground underneath.

Kiela's heart lept into her throat as she struggled vainly to free herself. She spotted a large, flat stone on the ground and reached grabbd it. She hacked at the ground around the peg that anchored the rope, and it came out of the ground. She yanked her foot away, shifted and dove out of the way as fast as she could push her wolf body. The teepee thudded to the ground behind her. Elil raced up to her, cursing.

"Silly girl! Could've gotten youself killed!" She barely heard him over the rushing of blood in her ears. All of her sensess felt hightened, and she realised That she could've just died. All of it over at once. Done.

Lono knelt beside her, stroking her wolf head with his hand. "Kiela? Are you okay?" She was amazed at the depth of the worry in his eyes. She looked into his eyes and blinked once, slowly. He sighed in releif. She shifted, and cast her gaze around the people gathered in a circle beside her.

"Im sorry." She said loudly. "That was a bad mistake. I will do my best to help the rest of you raise the teepee again." She knew that it was her only option, but dissapointment wormed itsway into her belly. She wanted to find Connix.

***

Her muscled ached by the time the last rope was secured, and she continued on in the fading light to try and find ConnixThe only place that she hadn't checked was the woods, so she decided that that was as good a place as any. Just as she was about to enter she heard Sky calling behind her. She turned around.

"Kiela? Have you seen Bala? She was supposed to meet me on a fishing trip at the stream an hour ago!"

Worry crept over Kiela. Two shifters missing? That was strange.
"No, I haven't seen her. I'm looking for Connix, have you seen him?"
"No," Sky replied. "This is weird."
"Do you want to come look with me?" Kiela asked.
"Sure!" Sky answered. "Which way?"
From talking to Sky, Kiela learned that Bala was a racoon and that they went on weekly hunting trips together.
"Hey," Sky said. "What if we shifted? You could smell and I could sight!" Kiela shifted and immediately she picked up Connix's scent among two others.
"I smell him." Kiela reported. She wrinkled her nose.
"What?" Sky asked. She had taken to the air and dipped to avoid a branch.
"Oh it's just that I can smell wolverine. I hate that smell."
Ducking behind a screen of ivy, Kiela saw a reddish flash out of the corner of her eye. Turning, she saw Connix walk into view.
"There he is." She whispered.
"Should we call for him?" Sky asked.
"No," Kiela answered. "I want to surprise him." Connix moved off into the forest and Kiela crept slowly behind him. Suddenly, they came upon a large wooden shack.
"What is that?" Sky asked.
"No idea." Kiela replied. Connix entered the building and she followed him.
Inside, the enclosure was lot up by torches, which bathed everything in a reddish glow. They creeped along a long corridor, pausing every few seconds to scent the air.

"I don't like this," Sky said. "Everything is hard and angular. There's no hole in the top for the sky."

Privatly, Kiela shared her inhibitions. everything inside this shelter was strange, and it felt wrong. but Connix had entered, so it mus tbe alright. They continued on.

Up ahead, Sky and Kiela heard voices. A crimson screen blocked the room off from view, but Kiela pushed her head beneath it. Sky did the same. Connix and a girl in human form were standing in the middle if a room, talking.
"Bala." Sky breathed. Behind them was a wooden alter with a lumpy rust coloured cloth in front of a set of stairs leading up to it.
"Hurry up Connix." Bala said in a bored voice. "What did you want to show me?"
"Well Bala," Connix said. "I less wanted to show you something but to tell you something. Have you ever heard of Drisnôk?"
"Is this some sort of joke?" Bala asked. "Of course I've heard of Drisnôk."
"Ah, but have you heard of what happened after he was banished?

"No."

"Of course not. And so I will tell you. He managed to blast through the pathetic defenses that the other gods set up, and he managed to steal a silver statue from Eursa's hall. He stole it, altered it, and bound it to his will."

"That's crazy, Connix. I think you have bees in your brain." Bala scoffed.

"It is not. He is now commanding this shifter to do his bidding. In order to fully rise, he needs a blood sacrifice. And that is where you come in, dear Bala. For you see, I am the servant. And you are the sacrifice."
For the first time since she had entered the altar, Bala looked scared.
"Connix! What are you doing?" She asked.
"I am doing the service of my God." He said. He dropped to four legs and lunged at her before she could move, Needle teeth met in her throat. She twitched. It was that quick. He lifted her, grunting at the weight and allowed her blood to pool on the altar.
"We need to get out of here!" Kiela gasped. Alerted by the sound, Connix turned.
"Kiela, Kiela, Kiela." He chided.

"Connix," She said, forcing her voice to stay level. "You need to stay away from there. You are doing something horribly wrong." She swallowed the bile that was rising in her throat. She tried not to look at Bala's body, picturing Atremis's face. Sky was inert beside her.

Connix acted as if he hadn't heard her.
"You had to come looking for me, didn't you. I never wanted to kill you. Oh well." His teeth were stained red, like Kielas' after she hunted.
But this was the blood of another shifter, not of prey.
Savagely, Sky struck at Connix's eyes, so fast that Kiela didn't even see the blow. But Connix was faster still. He bit deep into the tip of one of Sky's wings. She spiralled out of the air. Kiela lept for Connix, but he stabbed at her eyes with his claws. Turning, he raked his claws across her body. She struggled to stand.
Growling savagely, Kiela slashed his shoulder to the bone with her fangs. Leaping high, she crushed Connix under her and proceeded to cut and slash with her fangs.
Connix reared his head back and drove it into the soft unprotected skin of her belly. Howling, Kiela fell back, the red lines burning like fire. Sky managed to raise to her feet. Connix reared up on his hind legs and with stiff forelegs came down on her left shoulder bone, shattering it. She screamed in pain and reverted to human form. The pain was too much. She lost consciousness.
With a roar of wrath Kiela sprung on Connix. He dealt her a savage blow to the side of the head. She colapsed, dazed, as he picked up Sky's frail body and left.