Waypoint

Survey Mission 12 part 3: discovery

Mum and Dad,

Every day I learn more about how dangerous this world really is. I nearly killed my team on my first mission because of my own foolishness. I'm eager to learn, and I put that against the team.

I wonder what mistakes you guys made starting out, what you've learned from them. I wish I could hear about them.

Lyra

The group had eaten some of the rations, mixing them with the food they had traded before carefully walking down the hill to the structure.

"This shouldn't be possible," Lyra muttered, "How is it that we couldn't see this on the way here?" Caleb looked up at it, covering his eyes against the sunlight.

"The trees could have been blocking the view?"

"The trees are pretty tall, but they're not that big." Proclus said. "We should have had a better view of it at some point."

They walked in silent thought until they reached the base of the structure. Massive stone steps curved around the egg in a circle, overgrown with moss and small plants. While the steps themselves showed their age with the green growth, scratches and cracks, the structure itself appeared to be completely clean, untouched by the surrounding wilderness. As the group made their way closer, Hota, who had been walking next to Proclus, held out his hand to the group.

"What is it?" Cassie murmured.

"Listen." He turned his head side to side, scanning everything.

"I don't hear anything." Lyra protested.

"I think that's his point." Wallace unfurled a bag, pulling a sling from it and picking up a stone from the ground. Caleb and Cassie also took theirs out while Proclus drew a shortsword. Hota pulled an ax similar to what the tribe woman had while Lyra hefted a crossbow, loading it unsteadily.

Moving closer to the structure revealed it was more than simply oval. It had ridges and intricate designs that yielded to an impressive ancient culture. While oval from a distance, it was more with lines that ran around it, making impressive curves and shapes. While they were rigid and straight in most places, the carvings that curved displayed strange images and symbols in intricate patterns.

It was then that Lyra stopped. Something felt off, and it wasn't the lack of animal sounds in the area. Lyra kept her awareness around her, but couldn't see anything, until she felt it again. A tremor in the ground lasted only a moment, not noticeable as they traipsed towards the structure, but now that she was standing still, she felt it easily. So did Hota, who stopped walking and met her eye.

It was then that they heard a sharp crack, and saw in the distance a tree fall. Proclus made a hand sign to get his team to move, and they sought cover behind trees and large stones that littered the area. Lyra stuck close to Hota, keeping her eyes towards the fallen trees as the ground shook more, the tremors growing in force until something came into view from the trees.

"What in the Mother's name is that?" Caleb whispered harshly.

It was absolutely massive, a gray humanoid that looked to be made of similar material to the structure, and had a larger upper body with longer arms and two curved structures that rose from its back and over its head. It had a round and featureless head that swung back and forth, back and forth, as if searching for something. As it moved closer Lyra heard the sound of stone scraping on stone. In one of its hands it carried a massive staff with a crescent shape at the end, a nearly full circle.

The group watched as it moved into the clearing, where they had just been and stopped.

"Hota, what is that?" Proclus was making a notable effort to keep his voice level and quiet.

"Something we should avoid." Hota said, loosing his grip on his weapon and keeping still.

"You see this often?" Proclus asked.

"No. I did not even know this was here. We have kept our distance from this place, this is the closest anyone has been."

"So this is new territory for you too. Great to have the expertise." Caleb said sarcastically, which earned him a slap on the arm from his sister.

"That thing can't be real." Wallace muttered.

"Well it's real and it's searching for something. Let's just focus on staying out of its sight." Proclus said.

"Can it even see?" Cassie asked. "It doesn't even have eyes!"

"Maybe it heard us?" Caleb prompted.

"We can test out our theories once we're safe, and with that thing lurking around carrying something like that I don't feel too safe, let's move." Proclus stood up partially to sneak away, only to be stopped by Hota forcing him down by pulling at his tunic. Lyra was just about to cry out but felt a hand force her down, immediately followed by something massive swinging right over them. Lyra looked up to see the massive stone humanoid raising its weapon into the air, and stopping just as it finished its ark. Its head began swinging side to side once more, the rest of its body frozen.

Lyra sat up, and realized the earth was still shaking. No, not the earth. She was the one shaking.

"It saw me?" Proclus said.

"And it isn't attacking." Wallace noted.

Without thinking, Lyra picked up a sizable rock from the ground and hurled it in an arc just as Proclus snapped at her to stop. It sailed in the air, and the thing reacted immediately, swinging its weapon at an angle. As the rock fell to the ground at the end of its arc, the massive thing's weapon crushed the ground where the rock had landed.

"Are you insane?!" Caleb hissed at her.

"It can only see movement!" Lyra whispered back. The team glared at her. She had wanted to test a theory that could have gotten them all killed if she was wrong. She realized what she had nearly done.

"I'm sorry," She stammered, "I-I didn't think-"

"There's the issue." Wallace interrupted. "You didn't think that you were in the field, or at least ye forgot. Perhaps you should do well to learn from this one instance, before you get us crushed by a walking pile of stone?"

Lyra apologized again, softly. She should have known better. Would she have, if she had not been given this early graduation to descend from the academy?

"Alright, everyone stay down. Hota, your bola." Without looking, Hota reached back and handed Proclus two stones roughly the size of Lyra's palms tied together by a rope. Proclus held it in two fingers at the mid section of the rope and began twirling it, faster and faster until the moving stone turned its head to him, and moved to swipe with its weapon. Proclus released the stones, sending them spinning in a twirl far past the moving stone, which turned to follow it.

"Now, move!" The team stood and took off towards the tower, Proclus and Hota taking the lead while Lyra and Wallace made up the rear. She had hated the physical training of the academy, and now she regretted never having taken it seriously. She kept an ear out for the moving stone, but heard nothing as they kept running.

As they ran Lyra made sure to note their surroundings. They reached the stone steps that reached up to Lyra's knees and began climbing it. Lyra was last to take the step but stopped as she felt another tremor on the ground, soon followed by another, and another.

"Stop!" Lyra called to the team, who seemed not to feel the tremors. They turned around too late, as Lyra saw the shadow of the moving stone behind them. It was then that Lyra noted that she felt no tremor from her foot that touched the stone steps. Then she saw on her team's faces a look of horror that made her turn-

-And her world faded to black as she saw the moving stone's weapon come crashing down.