Erik had become interested in architecture. He had very rarely been in such a place as the opera house, and he had never been allowed to move freely within one. And so he spent days and nights investigating the building. He discovered old, boarded up stairways and passages and the fastest ways to get from stage to to box to catwalk. Then, he started exploring the basements. He was interested in just how deep they went, and how dank they could get. He'd gotten to the fifth basement, which everyone agreed was as far down as one could go, and was looking idly through some of the dirtiest old set pieces he'd ever seen, when he heard his foot make a rather hollow sound upon the floor.
Excitement gripped him, another basement? Who knew what was down there! He carefully knocked a hole in the floor where he had been standing, and peered down into what looked to be a cave. The floor was close enough that if he dropped through he would be able to return. And so, after carefully arranging some sort of hollow horse body above the hole, he dropped down.
This was extremely different than the rest of the basements, the floors there were wooden planks, but here it was solid, uneven, wet, stone. The passage dwindled rapidly in one direction, and thus he turned in the other, striking off into the unknown.
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When Erik had first discovered the cave and the lake he had been awestruck. That the opera house could support itself when such a massive lake lurked below astounded him. He decided at once that he must discover how it had been done and set out in an instant, swimming to the closest pillar to examine it. But he was unable to keep his small lantern lit in the water and although he could see in darkness, he couldn't see without some small glimmer of light. Thus he discovered the amazingly useful things to be found in the old abandoned prop rooms; and if he managed to distract himself for a week or two building and re-building a small boat for himself, well at least he was well out of the sights and minds of the performers high above.
Deciding to do his surveys properly this time he quickly and quietly crafted a few small tools he thought he would need and gathered some writing materials for writing down dimensions and trying to calculate the weight of the building. Setting out in his small boat, with a larger lantern on it's prow and his tools and materials stashed within, he was able to spend whole days simply measuring the many columns shapes and sizes, humming merrily all the while. That was when he discovered the other side of the lake.
It was simply a sort of large shelf in the wall, with some smaller caves in the back wall. At least he thought so, until he discovered the many, many bones of fish in the small cave right next to the water. But as he examined the pile something caught his eye; something glinting, twisted amongst the bones. It was a long, fine chain, with several shiny beads and rings upon it. It looked for all the world like some sort of memento, the items given by friends or family. Or perhaps it was some toy for a child? For them jingle and rattle and be amused by? He tucked it carefully in a deep pocket and resolved to ask Mme. Giry about it when he saw her later. Perhaps there was a story to this lake, just like the growing legend of the Opera Ghost.
Humming quietly and rather preoccupied with his mental arithmetic he didn't notice a very quiet 'thlap' coming from the general direction of the cave as he measured his next column, though he was toying with the idea of simply moving some of his boat-repairing materials into it, along with the candles, matches, and small package of emergency supplies he had left there because they were cluttering up his boat. He did notice the oddly hissing, keening, wail that echoed and re-echoed from there a few moments later; and nearly fell into the lake in his startlement. Once he got his boat under control, he remained very still, listening for any new noise. After several long moments he smoothly drew his oars and started, as quietly as he could, for the entrance to the Operas' basements.
Quite suddenly he found himself in the water, along with all his tools and some strange thing. It moved so quickly and the lantern had gone out a moment after he saw a dark shape speeding towards him from near his overturned boat. He struggled towards the surface, but he'd shouted when he went into the water, and he ran out of air before he could really understand what was going on.
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Erik had always been a light sleeper. He'd been trained into it at a young age by people throwing things at the sleeping freak and the gypsies who would not hesitate to beat him if they caught him asleep while was supposed to be putting on a show. He'd also found it useful to transition very quietly from sleep to wakefulness; more than once he'd been able to quietly act on information about the towns they'd be visiting next, or who was going to be watching him. Thus when he woke suddenly upon hearing a particularly loud hiss, he did so without any external sign. He quickly decided he must be in the hands of some foul creature for reasons unknown, but very probably sinister.
He carefully opened one eye just enough to see underneath his lashes, and beheld a monstrous sight. There was a creature searching through his things. His boat had been moved to the edge of the grotto and turned over, and the creature was tossing papers into it as it examined each and every single thing that had been in his boat. He watched as it carefully investigated the inside of the lantern with it's tiny dextrous fingers, on it's tiny underdeveloped arms. It's seal-like tail was flapping about, it was certainly agitated about something. It wailed again as it finished looking at all the papers and tools he'd had in the boat with him, before perking up and moving clumsily towards the small stash of items Erik had tucked into a small alcove, in case of serious emergency.
It fumbled along, inching it's back half along to catch up with it's tiny arms. It's smooth, pale skin glistened wetly in the candle Erik suddenly realized was lit! The only light he had used was the lantern, which had gone out in the water. The creature was somewhat intelligent then; he had only lit the candle once, a few days ago, when he'd misjudged the amount of oil in the lantern. It must have been watching him, studying him perhaps?
The creature scrabbled it's way up the wall, clutching desperately at hand holds to try and reach the small hole where the package had been tucked. It was only a few feet off the ground, but the creature was not very tall and it's arms were very short. Erik had a mad idea, perhaps when the creature was unbalanced trying to reach the package, he could rush at it and overpower it . . . somehow. He kept a short, small knife in a pocket of his trousers, mainly for cutting twine and such, but it was the only thing he had brought that might serve as a weapon. Caught without a lasso! How the Daroga would laugh. He moved as quietly as he could to check that it was still there, but the creature turned toward him as soon as he moved his hand. It keened quietly to itself and shlumped over to the cave right down next to the water, where Erik had found the bones and the odd necklace. It reached in and scrabbled about for a moment before turning and shlumping along slowly, something clutched in it's tiny hand. It stopped a few feet away and made, what sounded like an aggravated croak, before throwing a small pebble at Erik's eye.
After flinching, getting hit with the pebble in the eye anyway and shouting a bit, Erik noticed the silver ring held out in the creatures palm. It slowly pointed at the ring with the other hand, then placed both hands on its chest; before holding out the ring again and pointing at Erik with the other hand, tapping the ring several times then making several slashing motions.
It was intelligent! Fiendishly so, dragging him here to search his things and seemingly, retrieve it's stolen property. Erik held up one hand, for patience, while the other slowly crept into the pocket containing the silver baubles. As he pulled it out the creature was visibly relieved, then determined. It held out the free hand, demanding the necklace and it's treasures back. Erik reached his arm out as far as he could, slowly placing the necklace on the ground between them.
It crooned with excitement and pleasure as it grabbed at the necklace and unhooked it fumblingly before sliding the ring onto it and hooking it shut. The creature looked at him measuringly, glancing between the water and himself. It suddenly turned and shlumped along back to the hole where it kept it's treasures and tucked the necklace inside before turning and placing itself bodily in front of the hole. It looked at him, then at his boat, then the far edge of the lake. It stared at him, unmoving; waiting for him to leave.
And leave he did, though he did it very slowly. He very carefully took the candle and used it to first dry out, then light the lantern, then he blew it out and set the lantern in it's proper place on the prow. The little boat had a small amount of water in the bottom, but would still get him across the lake, and the creature had tossed everything he brought with him back into it. His papers were ruined but, really, did they matter?
He carefully got into the boat and set the oars in the water, exchanging one last look with the strange creature before setting to the task of quickly rowing himself away.
A whole new species, or maybe not, perhaps it was some sort of mermaid or siren. There might be a grain of truth to those old tales after all. It was certainly intelligent, that was plain. And they had been able to communicate, after a fashion. In any case, it was obvious that this was much more interesting than architecture.