A Snowed Abode

Time

The three were inexplicably brought over to this jungle-type of a ruin, where nature took over, but one could still see the influence of whoever happened to live there prior. There was a mixture of architecture, with random stones hewn all around, but mostly in a state of disrepair, along with a bridge that connected a rift in between these two places, separated by a stream. It had a certain vibe to it, like a drum that was ever-present in the background, harkening back from the times when states might have comprised continents, but people still lived underground. What the trio were looking for and where, exactly, they did not know, but they continued on inside, in any case, for if they had a chance to defeat whatever possessed the monarch it would have been here, although that still remained to be seen.

There were statues just in the middle of a bridge (besides some solid, vertical slabs of stone), but they did not seem to have inscriptions, nor was it possible to make it budge. Whether this was due to the ruined state of the place or not, they were not certain, but instead they went to a vertical stone, not too dissimilar from a couple also available in the lofty temple, and what was written, this time, was...

"This desolation, this abomination...
...this decay, greenery which attempts to portray...
...an abyss, but what could have gone amiss to reminisce?"

Now, Pax and likely the other two would agree that this might have been a bit much; ruined architecture, and then somehow on it itself there is some meta-commentary about its own ruination? Well, at any rate... there were also three choices the trio seemed able to make, some sort of code, that if correct presumably something would happen? The answer, 'archetypes', seem to fit in with the above (perhaps the rest will make sense later); the statues disappeared.

As they made their way from one ruin to another, from merely the periphery of their eyes... they could see something... or someone... but they were not quite sure, for based on what the scientists told them... and the fact that, mostly, no one lives in such ruins, or it would not be so ruined as much... they would have thought that there was no one, and yet at the very corner of the limits of their line of sight...

They continued on, anyway, onto some sort of cavern connected to these ruins, a cave which also seemed to be eaten up by greenery; it did not have many meandering paths, and what there was led them to only one path (the other, with a waterfall, seemed blocked by trees as of now)... a path which ended in a corner occupied by... another crystal, but it was smaller than the ones before, and it... made a strange sound as soon as they touched it, whereupon someone immediately seemed come in front of them, somehow...

A giant, it so seemed... about twice the size of the trio, but something seemed odd...

"Who might you be...?" He said, looking upon Pax and the others as if they were mere ants...

"We... are... we do not mean you any harm! We thought these were abandoned ruins!" At this point the supposed nominal peace was more representative of fright, but if the worst was to pass how impossible could it be to overcome this mammoth with three (smaller) people? They previously went up against crow-bats... and the possibility of aggressive large beetles, maniac clowns, and some odd, green-haired people who could seemingly integrate into and utilize a whole castle for their own use, or such... I am simply saying, if Pax did not care to worry about some stranger's food, why is he now worried merely due to size...? Well, I suppose food is much smaller... poison still a possibility, though, and goliaths are not necessarily aggressive, either...

"They are mostly, actually, but they are also our living tombs, unfortunately..." The gargantuan person said (who kind of looked like some office employee, actually...)

"What... why is that?" Pax asked, reasonably curious about this odd state of affairs...

"This was our temperate laboratory from centuries ago, the lone isle, furthest that a crow could fly... but we made a mistake, we were not perceptive enough to our surroundings, and recognized only too late the alterations..." By 'we' he means who, exactly? Perhaps he just has some imaginary friends? Or are they those who we glimpsed earlier? This is such a strange affair, would you not agree? Almost as strange... although could become stranger... than those 'twos' being underground in the castle, and turning out to be researchers who apparently had their ethereal technology stolen... these ones here, on the other hand, are gigantic and apparently free... but also from a laboratory?