Behind the three of them was a mysterious new entity. Carolyn was the first to turn, but the others soon followed suit. What they saw was a strange sight sprawled on the ground maybe ten feet from them. The figure had aquamarine colored skin that looked impossibly smooth. They had strange green clothes that seemed to just be a series of fabric draped in odd ways all over them, covering most of their torso and legs. They had an exceptionally long, narrow neck leading up to an almost perfectly oval head with a long forehead that had a small covering of red hair on top. The most inhuman thing about them was the six legs, all seeming to focus around much bigger hips than a human would have. Two were to the side, two slightly forward and to the front, and two mirroring that in the back. Each leg was thick, and clearly strong, but came down to a rounded point with the leg’s joints seeming more like a horse’s than a human’s. Their arms were long enough to easily reach the ground while they were standing, with eight spindly fingers on each hand with an odd protrusion that curved back almost like a horn just above their hands. If it wasn’t for them being on the floor, everything surrounding them seemed to scream elegance and grace.

The figure was rubbing her nose and looked up at Carolyn, Sharon, and Michael all staring at them. Immediately, their cheeks turned a darker green, and they scrambled to their feet, and brushed themselves off.

“So sorry about that,” their voice was soft and melodic, almost like they were singing every syllable. “Much thanks for turning on the lights. I’m not used to running around in the dark.”

“Are you one of…the Ancients?” gulped Sharon as she struggled to speak.

The figure tilted their head as their crystalline eyes shifted colors while looking at Carolyn. “I think, I may need some help understanding why you are intruding here.”

“We’re just looking around,” offered Michael. “We…”

“Silence!” their voice echoed out and cut Michael off as their eyes shifted color peering at Michael now. “Yes, I think I understand. You are the male donor, and this is your harem, yes?”

Michael nearly doubled forward in surprise as he started to try to stutter out excuses and explanations all while Sharon and Carolyn broke out laughing. “No, you see. Well, I mean. It’s just. It isn’t. I mean, we’re not.”

“Curious, my reasoning seems to have broken him.”

“Like, I totally appreciate that.” Giggled Carolyn. “I needed a laugh to like cut through that tension. Anyway, my name is like totally Carolyn, and we’re here to uncover ancient mysteries and stop the apocalypse or something.”

“There is no stopping it…” interjected Sharon as she looked in awe towards the alien figure. “Oh great Ancient one…we are here to…witness the rise…and understand more about…the origins of this book.” She held out the massive book towards the figure.

More dark green colored their cheeks as they quietly muttered, “Ancient? I’m not really that old am I?”

Before anyone could say anything, with graceful movements their long arms extended out and grabbed the book. They opened it and turned through various pages. “Yes, I remember this tome,” they said as they were clearly trying to move on quickly from their little outburst. “A history of the great Triddian. He led our people long ago, and it is said he will return when our need is greatest to bring us victory.”

“I am sorry…so you mean…”

They gracefully put the book back in Sharon’s arms and patted the cover. “Yes, it is simply a fairy tale. Not something reasonable folks put too much stock in.”

“Like hold up a second,” snapped Carolyn. “If that’s like just a fairy tale, where have you all and this place been all this time?”

“Oh that, well you see,” they said as if trying to make it seem like not that big of a deal. “We may have lost track of time. This great rumbling through the crust woke up our defense system, and we rose to the surface.”

“So, you’re saying this was all an accident? You aren’t rising to the surface to do anything? It was just an accident?”

“Well, I mean,” they rubbed the fabric of their odd clothing between their fingers as their eyes glanced away. “Things aren’t always so simple you see. We were distracted, and I doubt anyone else has even noticed we have risen. I just happened to have fallen asleep in the entrance hall here.”

Michael sighed and finally took a look around. The room was well lit now that the glowing words. Filled its walls and ceilings. His torch felt useless now, but he couldn’t bring himself to throw it away. Instead, he kept it held tight like it was his last connection to normalcy.

The entire interior was made of that constantly shifting crystal like the outside. But the glowing green runes helped solidify where everything was. Similar to outside the layout made no sense, almost as if each piece was tossed down onto the planning papers and built where it landed. One thing that really struck him was the lack of anything much besides the walls and a few massive statues. No furniture, no artworks, and no one else. Although, in a few places he could see what looked like pieces of glass colored aquamarine. Oddly enough where they first saw the Ancient one lying on the ground was a bunch of broken colored glass.

“Well like how long were you sleeping? Like millions of years?”

They kept rubbing their fabric between their fingers. “Certainly not! But it was perhaps hundreds of thousands…”

“Well like what woke you?”

Now their other hand began to also play with the fabric of their strange clothing. “Well, it’s a little strange. There was an interesting aura nearby and I thought in my dreams I was trying to grab it, but whenever I got close, I’d trip over a statue of warning and shatter it.”

“Does that mean…that the noises we…kept hearing were…you stumbling in…the darkness?”

“Well you see, it’s a little more complicated than that, but I suppose that is an accurate statement.”

“Like you’re just a big softie aren’t ya?”

“I am not sure how to…”

As they all started to grow more comfortable a loud groaning roared out. As if the earth itself was being ground to a halt and opening its jaws. IT was so loud, it felt like the entire crystalline building was going to come down around them.