I still couldn't see Maarten's face, but I knew he was shocked by the way that he relaxed his posture and opened his clenched hand. The floating dark blob expanded a little and assumed a more irregular shape. I heard a faint sigh of relief in my mind.

It was just at this point that I noticed that I jumped to behind one of the Elder Things. The being put a tentacle in front of me, like it was protecting me somehow. "Are you crazy?!" I heard its cavernous voice screaming to him with anger. "It's a shoggoth! Or part of one, since it's too small. Don't let it into your mind. Toss it in the fire before it's too late!"

Van Helsing was much calmer now, and didn't mind the warning. I'm not here to kill things. The goo here said it is sorry. It wouldn't be fair if we didn't at least hear what it has to say. Now, sir He spoke directly to the maybe-a-shoggoth-maybe-part-of-one now you had time to adjust to my mind and language. What are you doing here, exactly?

It was a bit of a shock when it replied not with the weird voice I've heard screaming before, but with a well cultivated mental voice:

Thank you so much for sparing me, young master. I mean you and your friends no harm. I was just curious. I am Hhgr'iac, one of the knowledge gatherers of the marine city of Glrtoc-ië. It is my duty to find, report and guard any new knowledge that can improve the life of my people. I know I should not be outside the city borders, defying the elder's barriers, but I have always been fascinated by the forbidden History of our makers." The green eyes of the creature all focused on the two Elder Things, and we felt that it was fascinated by them. "I am here right now because I decided that everything, even my life, was worth risking to see two of them alive, when the elders always say that all of them are dead.

I couldn't help but feel a little offended by the fact that his "voice" in my mind was becoming too similar to mine. The thing went on:

I was just taking a regular stroll in the tunnels, going to some buildings that I did not record yet, when I saw that mist. Now, mists are not uncommon in the tunnels. The elders often leave trails of mist behind them. The thing is that I knew that no elders would be patrolling that corridor today. I was about to look for shelter when the mist suddenly disappeared and I saw those two… it pointed a dark protoplasmic protrusion to Van Helsing and I and a sled in which the taller one had just covered two of our makers. How could I miss the chance? I, who had carried and buried the ones that one of the elders killed, saddened that I never had the chance to speak to them? Believe me, noble masters, all I wanted was some answers.

Now, telepathy is a weird thing. You can lie through it, just like you lie with your lips, but you can't mask your feelings. That formless blob was radiating scientific joy in its purest form. It could still be a traitor, but it surely wasn't bitter or angry, or in any sort of killing mood.
Van Helsing made a small gesture and the thing floated gently down, finally free. The pilot knelt, looked directly into the most convenient pair of eyes of the thing and said, all serious:

We aren't here in a war mission. I wish you no harm. But you do understand… pardon… Jesus, your name is so unpronounceable that I can't repeat it even into my thoughts!... You do understand that I can't let you go away from my eyes until we are ready to leave, right?

It is only fair, sir.

Great. Now, you need a more palatable name. Can I call you Linus?

Ooooo, what does it mean?

No idea. I just think it sounds brainy. You sound brainy, although I'm not sure you have a brain.

The thing pondered for a second and almost closed all of its eyes, leaving only green slits visible. The dark and slimy body started to shake discreetly as a faint whistling sound could be heard. My mind filled with a child-like happiness.

Oh, my stars, it is so much better than I expected! the whistling sound became a tone higher.
And, huh, what are their names?

It was the point when things became awkward.

Neither the Elder Things nor I were too excited by the prospect of having a small shoggoth (actually, a proto-shoggoth, as Linus corrected us) around, but what could we do? The thing wasn't attacking and it felt wrong to try to attack him without provocation, even with all of his hideousness.

We tried to resume the conversation we were having before the incident, but it was as awkward as you can imagine. Only one of the Elder Things, Tilili, actually participated of it, because the other preferred inarticulate grunts as a means of communication. Tilili didn't like to be called an Elder "Thing", nor an "it". After a little silence, Tilili chose to be called a "she". Not that she had any female sexual organs, it's just that she thought that the pronoun were cute. She declared her partner, Telili, a "he" and asked to be called an Elder "Person".

Personally, I think that she was just fooling around and trying to forget Linus, who was hearing everything and had all of his numerous eyes glistering, like the ugliest of the puppies. Seriously, if he had a protoplasmic tail, he would be wagging it. Me too, to be honest. I was talking with alien organisms with millions of years. It wasn't just Christmas for me. It was all Christmas in one.

During our small talk, Maarten was in the top of the plane, using his binoculars to search something in the mountains that we crossed to get to the city. More precisely, he was paying special attention to the ruins of towers and the caves that were scattered all over the mountains.
Suddenly, he came down to us and pointed to the general direction of a distant cluster of caves. "Can you see that?"

I got the binoculars, but even with that, I needed to squint to see tiny dark specks that seemed to be flying against the sky. "They look like… bats?" I asked.

"Almost" he said, grinning. "They are our ticket out here. I mean, there are passages out of this level of the Dreamlands in the ruins of the city, like I said before, but I thought it was a pity if we left the plane behind. Plus, we could be followed. But if we get to where those things are flying…"

"What are they?" I pressed the point, before I got excited by this idea.

"Nightgaunts!" Ven Helsing answered, triumphantly. "This means that those caves there are linked to Noden's Abyss. I have plenty of experience in navigating there, but if any shoggoth follows us, it will have loads of problems."

I remembered faintly of Carter, years and years ago, talking about nightgaunts. If I could recall correctly, they were bat-winged, horned things without faces that would carry careless dreamers to their demise while tickling them. Lovely. If that wasn't enough, I was a little reluctant to go to a place with "abyss" in the name. Tilili was following our conversation by telepathy and intervened:

Those caverns were blocked in our days, exactly because of those 'nightgaunts', as you call them. No one that was ever abducted by them returned. Do you really think we should go there?
Our elders don't go there. Linus pointed out. Sometimes, one of those nightgaunt things fly above our sea. Since they never bother us, we do not bother them. Sometimes, an elder snatch and eat one of them, if it is alone, but even the biggest elders avoid messing with big flocks.

Another reason why I want to have the plane with us when we escape from here. Believe me, nightgaunts will be the least of our problems. Now that our escape route is traced, it's time for us to destroy that anomaly and get out of here.

I agree, let's burn the shoggoth and go. Tilili said, in a malicious voice. Linus shrunk to almost half of his size in horror. Gosh, he was hideous.

I wasn't talking about the blob guy. Van Helsing admonished her. Then, he talked directly to the protoplasm ball: Prof. Dyer and I aren't from the same world as you and the Elder Thi… People. We call our world "Waking World". Yours is one of the worlds that we call the "Dreamlands", because we only visit it when we are dreaming… or that is what should happen. Somehow, our world and this one got tangled at some point. I surveyed this city in my dreams, and I'm sure that there is an anomaly somewhere around here that is causing the realities to mash.

We have to destroy this anomaly. If we don't do it, other humans from my world will get here. They will want to study here, and, knowing humans as much as I do, I know that they will find your city, Linus, and will be shocked and disgusted by your people. There will be war, and the humans won't hold back on their blows. They don't care about this city and its holiness. Both the humans and the shoggoths will have dark times ahead.

The professor and I came here with an expedition, that we left behind and, hopefully, will need at least two days to get here. We want to destroy the anomaly before that and prevent the worse from happening.

I… see… Linus directed most of his eyes to the dark tunnel from which he had come. Do you have any clue as to where or what this anomaly is?

I feel a strong psychic disturbance from there He pointed to the range of mountains again, but to a point that was much closer to where we were. If that's not the anomaly, I don't know what else it could be. But I have no idea of what it could be.

There is where the temples are. Tilili mused. I don't remember anything that could be so powerful on them, but I agree with you. There is a strong disturbance there, now that you mention it. It wasn't there before we got frozen. Maybe it's something that the river washed from those big mountains beyond the city? Kadath and the mountains that surround it have no shortage of strange things.

I never went to the temples in the mountains. Linus seemed thoughtful. But I know that some elders stay there guarding their entrances. I doubt that they are there to keep things for coming in. It's more probable that they are concerned with what can come out.

"If they are standing in guard of those places, it will be a problem." Van Helsing said out loud, too distracted for proper telepathy. "What exactly are those 'elders', Linus? Can we reason with them like we are doing with you? Can we fight? Or do we have to run and hope for the best, should we meet them?"

It's… complicated. His mental voice sounded embarrassed. See, down there, we don't have much food available. We can grow edible algae, we have our stocks of penguins and fish, but in the end, our society can't handle more than three hundred of proto-shoggoths, like me. The ones that feed enough to reach maturity become true shoggoths. They are too big, and their hunger is endless. We keep them satiated by giving them the newborns that exceed the three hundred limit. That way, we keep them fed and we don't starve ourselves by overpopulation. In exchange, they keep us safe from anything that comes from the tunnels. We have been living like this as far as we can record our history.

Isn't it precious when you discover that the shoggoths are, on top of everything, cannibals? Of course they would be. Of course.

So, we have to run, then. Van Helsing stated calmly. I don't suppose they would listen to you if you asked nicely?

Like I said, I wasn't supposed to be out of the city. If an elder see me here, it will eat me before it asks anything.

Which means we need a plan. Goodness, I miss grandpa so much. I bet he would have a plan already. He would be bossing us right now and we would know that things were going to be fine in the end.
Tilili patted a sympathetic tentacle on his shoulder.

Don't worry, my boy. This situation doesn't need that much thinking. Telili and I can distract the shoggoth while you destroy the anomaly. They had the upper hand when they took us by surprise, but now we'll have one or two 'aces in our sleeves' as you call it.

Her partner nodded, metaphorically. I mean, mentally, I felt like he nodded. In real life, he made some gestures with his head that may or not may be random.

I really appreciate your help, miss. Van Helsing smiled. And you are right of course. I'm not as classy as grandfather when solving problems. The way I see it, we have to get to the point in which the psychic disturbance is stronger and discover the source of it. You two distract the big blob, I explode the anomaly, we run like hell to the plane and we take off to the nightgaunts' cave. Don't wait for me if I don't show up. Prof. Dyer can fly the plane for you. How is it for a plan?

Wait. I interrupted him, trying not to sound like a spoiled child. It means that I'll have to wait you here? Alone? Unprotected? What if some monster comes here and try to eat me?

Going with us won't be safer. Van Helsing pointed. There'll be plenty of things trying to eat us, too.

Yet, I would rather not facing them alone.

He can go with me and Telili Tilili said, with a dash of a maternal mental tone. We won't engage in any real fight, if things go right. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but he doesn't have much of a chance alone in all this ice if things go awry.

Indeed, if I had to get to the Waking World alone, I would freeze to death first. Facing this hard truth, Van Helsing sighed and admitted that it would be better to bring me with them.

As for me, I had this feeling that I had lost the argument either way.

Linus guided us to a broken building that should lead us to the temple. I was being dragged on the sled again, but that time I was sitting in a crate full of dynamite, which didn't improve my courage. I couldn't see anything after we reached the subterranean levels of the ruins, but apparently, I was the only one with such disadvantage. The only reason I didn't panicked when we got to dark tunnels is that the small shoggoth wouldn't stop talking through telepathy and it distracted me. He told us that he would take us to the temples easily, since, as a Keeper of Knowledge, he needed to cultivate his memory. He had to be able to recite all knowledge of his race at a moment's notice, since the walls of their city were already covered in writing and they didn't have somewhere else to write more. Apparently, they didn't have a technology similar to paper yet.

It's made worse by the fact that you only become a Keeper is you contribute with some knowledge. He said, sighing. You should think that living within a enclosed sea, our knowledge would be very limited, but there are always new things to add to the records, and we have to memorize more and more.

I asked about his contribution and he brightened his mood.

Oh, I proved that things always fall with the same speed, regardless of their mass. You just have to put them in a shape that can't glide in the air. I proved it smashing a feather until it was ball-shaped and letting it fall a short distance, side-to-side with a rock. It was a simple demonstration, but I was the first to imagine it. His mental voice had a dash of pride. Then, it became sad. I studied the fall of objects quite extensively, but I only could go as far as to determine that, when the height increases by a unit, their terminal speed increases geometrically. I couldn't find the proportionality constant. Then, I turned to sky observation. It's fascinating! Who would know that our world is round?! But I can't contribute with this knowledge since going outside is forbidden. I would be eaten.

Jesus Christ, I was talking to the shoggoths' Galileo! Sort of.

I was glad that the darkness didn't let me see that Linus was basically a black blob with many eyes. If it wasn't for those telepathy conversations, I would never believe that something as hideous as him would be so brilliant. I would have stomped him the moment he started to do this weird whistling sound he does when he is scared. Maybe even before.

We couldn't keep "talking". Suddenly, everyone became dead quiet. Even Linus' mental voice dropped to a whisper. We are here. The next turn of the corridor will left us at the main temple door. There is a sentinel whose only job is to guard it. If we can distract him, we will be able to enter the temple without bigger problems.

Our group approached that turn in a painfully slow pace. The silent Telili was the one that extended one eye stalk to peer at the shoggoth that he and his 'wife' would have to distract. He let a surprised grunt when he did that.

What do you mean, the shoggoth is not there? Tilili asked, incredulously. No, I don't know how she was able to understand him. Let me see… You are right. There is no sign of it.

At this point, Van Helsing was making some noises, like he was… sniffing something? I couldn't see it in the darkness. I sensed more than heard that he was moving towards the temple. There was an agonizing silence, and then he "said", intrigued: I can't see or smell that shoggoth anywhere. There's no trace of their mouldy smell anywhere but next to Linus. I can't even see or sense normal mould, like I would expect.

The sentinels never leave their posts. I could never enter the temples because of that. There are all sorts of legends about things that haunt them. Linus added, nervously. I don't like it. Maybe we should wait…

We can't wait. Van Helsing said, firmly. The psychic disturbance is definitely stronger here. It's mostly likely coming from inside this temple. I'm going in with the dynamite. You distract the shoggoth if it happens to come back to its post.

I-I'll go with you. Linus said, timidly. Maybe I can be of some use?

We should all go in. Tilili said, and I could feel that she was glaring him. Those temples are older than me. I know them. There are tunnels connecting the altars that we could use to escape, if the shoggoth comes back… If it is not hidden in one of these tunnels, of course.

No one protested and we entered the gaping door. Inside it, everyone gasped. A little light was coming in through a small opening in the rock and I saw something that turned my stomach. The shoggoth that should be guarding this temple wouldn't bother us. There was an indescribable large puddle of protoplasm and a sickly yellow substance staining the floor of the temple. The thing should be letting out a mighty stench. The fact that it was odorless showed us that the shoggoth's dismissal wasn't a recent development.

Linus let out his fear whistling. It is wrong, it is wrong, it is dead wrong. We never found an elder dead in such a way, and these mountains have creative ways of killing us. We should get out of here…

We will, as long as I find the disturbance. All goofiness had been stripped of Van Helsing's mental voice. I could feel on him the same steel I've noticed before. I know it's here, but it isn't coming from any particular place. It seems like it's everywhere. But it's ridiculous. The disturbance can't be just air. It's probably a large object, it should be easy to spot…

He wandered, giving the temple a better look and I followed his example. It was rather bare. Aside from a small pillar in the center of the large room, there wasn't anything there. I could see doors, probably the connecting tunnels that Tilili talked about, and I could see the small window to the outside. The walls didn't form a rectangle, like human rooms, but a confuse polyhedron that I couldn't identify at first. There was the dead shoggoth taking most of the floor and nothing else.

I don't remember the walls being slanted this way. I "heard" Tilili, without paying attention to it. The ceiling is cut in a weird shape, too. Now, where have I seen this shape before…

I noticed something curious. The blasphemous puddle of dead shoggoth and yellow goo should have reached the pillar at the center of the temple, but it appeared to have been diverted by something. There weren't holes or elevations in the floor that could justify that. Only a circle of runes carved in the ground.

It's almost coming to my mind. Tilili insisted. Help me, Telili, which shape this room takes?

I got closer to the runes, being careful so I wouldn't touch them. I had a terrible sensation about them.

Telili grunted something and Tilili nodded just outside my view. You are right. This room is carved almost as a… OH MY STARS!

Now, let me tell you about irony. If Tilili hasn't panicked, if she didn't try to reach me to save me from the runes, if she just calmly informed me of her findings, I would have just stepped back and lots of bad things wouldn't have happened. But because she was so worried about my safety, because she startled me when her bulky body came running towards me yelling "TRAPEZOHEDRON" in my mind, I stepped back from her and right into the circle that the runes were drawing.

My last sane thought was the terrible realization of my mistake. Less than a second after it, I suffered from a splitting headache and I saw inside my eyelids that burning three-lobed eye that will haunt me to the rest of my days.