The sun was already set by the time Rachel and the old man reached the old house. It was a tall, sinister looking building perched high upon an unusually domed hill. Rachel shivered as she looked upon it in the light of a full moon.

"This is an unusual hill," said the old man as they climbed it to reach the old house. "It's not natural."

"My mother's a Caddo indian," explained Rachel as she lit the lantern she brought along. "The Caddos built this mound upon an ancient site where a monster was imprisoned long before the Great Spirit made men."

"Let me guess," said the old man as he opened the door and led a trembling Rachel inside the house. "It sleeps beneath the Earth, in its prison until the stars are right and it can love again."

"You know the Caddo stories? Are you a medicine man."

"I was, but no more. Stories of old ones, godlike being a from the primordial universe abound in worlds all over the Universe."

"You've been to other worlds?"

"Do you believe that?" asked the old man as they explored the dark rooms of the abandoned, old house.

"The others wouldn't, but my mother taught me the Caddo ways. If you were once a medicine man, than the power to travel to other worlds is yours."

"We need to find a cellar," said the old man as they circuited the house again."

"The folks in these parts don't build cellars," explained Rachel as she followed the old man as he opened every door and hatch he came to. "All the clay in these parts makes digging cellars hard."

"But this is a manmade mound, not hard ground," explained that old man as he opened one last door. "There it is! This way, Rachel. Mind your step."

They descended a flight of old, wooden stairs down into a deep shaft. A tunnel exited the shaft, and the old man, inspecting a series of wooden supports in the tunnels, said, "This is a mine!"

"We're a mining town," said Rachel. "But I didn't think it extended out this far."

"Quiet!" ordered the old man as he pulled Rachel down.

Three lumbering figures walked into an illuminated section of the shaft Where some suspended lanterns were hung. The creatures, a little taller than men" turned about and looked upon them. They were made of stone, and eyes of cold rock looked upon the old man and Rachel