Hao Xuan climbed up to the cave where the creature had run into. There was a small platform hidden in plain sight.

It was behind a few big boulders and unless someone knew exactly where to look for, it was highly unlikely anyone could come across it by accident.

"Hmm..." he bent down and checked the tracks it had left behind. There were three long scratches indicating the number of digits the creature had.

Looking towards the cave he sniffed as a peculiar smell lingered at the entrance. It wasn't overwhelming or toxic, just strange.

The cave's entrance was about 5 feet big so he had to bend down to enter. There were more tracks inside, some smaller and some bigger, much bigger than rest. About five meters into the cave it started expanding. With his improved eyesight, he could see much better than before but the tunnel kept twisting and turning.

After fifteen more minutes he started to get worried. If he got stuck here, there was absolutely no way for anyone to even find him.

"I'll return as soon as the tunnel branches off," he said to himself.

This was just a simple scientific and information gathering mission, there was no reason to risk his life needlessly.

Taking a deep breath, he continued once again. The tunnel was now wide enough for a bus to drive through without any issues. Yet it didn't look man-made, but a natural phenomenon.

*Crrrr*

As he was about to give up and turn around, a sharp sound echoed in the tunnel. It was coming from the front.

He took another deep breath and held it in, so as not to make any more noise and warn the creature ahead of his arrival when he got close.

Step by step he got closer to the source of the sound. After taking a turn, the tunnel suddenly expanded into a massive cavern. There was still no source of light there.

As he walked into the cavern, the first thing he noticed were the various statues placed randomly throughout the place.

"So there was a civilization here once, at some point. Maybe they died out?" he thought while looking at the statue closest to the entrance.

It was humanoid and about seven meters tall. It didn't have a head-on its shoulders and its arms turned into serrated blades near the end. He ran his hands along the muscles on its legs that looked extremely life-like.

"Why do I feel like this f*cker is gonna come alive as soon as I turn my back towards him?" he mumbled while squinting his eyes, trying to find anything out of the ordinary.

With a wave of his hand, a blade appeared in front of him. Using its tip he stepped back and poked the statue carefully, fully expecting it come to life and attack him. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

The sword easily broke a piece of the statue's leg and there was no blood or anything coming out from the 'wound', leaving Hao Xuan somewhat disappointed. He thought it would be like one of those movies but guess not.

*Crrrr*

Another round of noises came from the other end of the entrance. Hao Xuan looked towards it and slowly made his way through the maze of statues. All of them were different, some were humanoid while some looked like something out of a nightmare.

One such statue caught his eye, it looked like a giant brain with wooden branches coming out of it. Each branch formed one leg for a total of four. As he got close to it, every single fold of the brain looked like it was moving. He knew it wasn't, but sometimes when you looked at something so lifelike so close up, the mind could play tricks.

*Crrrr*

"Again," he frowned. The noise was coming from the same cavern he was in but he couldn't see it because of all the statues in the way.

About another minute of walking later, he could finally see what was making the noise. It was the same creature he had seen before.

It was bending down in front of a giant humanoid statue sitting on a throne, scratching the ground in front of it.

The creature itself was a little taller than a meter and extremely thin, looking like a malnourished human child. Its neck was much bigger than the rest of its body and there was a long vertical bony fragment coming out of each side of its body where the hands should have been.

There was a sheet of brown leathery skin covering it from head to toe, only that there wasn't any meat on its bones. There was also a bony tail behind it. Its eye sockets looked like they were gouged out but that was probably how it was born. (Pic attached)

Hao Xuan moved his head around to get a better look at it and accidentally stepped on a rock, alerting the creature.

It quickly turned around and faced him. Hao Xuan slowly came out with his hands raised.

"Hey little guy, don't worry, I mean you no harm," with a dazzling smile on his face he inched closer to it.

The creature made a few shallow noises and moved its arms around trying to scare him away, but obviously, that meant nothing to Hao Xuan.

"Hmm?"

He stopped advancing upon noticing something peculiar. The creature backed up a few steps at the start but didn't dare to get close to the statue itself. It seemed more scared of the statue rather than a live and moving threat like Hao Xuan.

"Why are you scared of it?" Hao Xuan mumbled and slowly looked up at the statue he had initially ignored.

It really was too big. A single toe of it was bigger than the entire creature. It didn't have any footwear but there was a single gold bangle around its ankles.

Its hands along with the most of its body was marked with gold engravings. It was a design he had never seen before but didn't look gaudy at all. Instead, it gave the statue an aura of holiness.

Further up, there was actual gold jewelry from around the statues abdomen to all the way to its neck.

As Hao Xuan slowly looked up, his heartbeat started increasing for some reason.

"What..the.....fuc-"

****

Authors Notes:

creature: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/21/1e/c3/211ec31037761ddc8b2d3111c92463f0.jpg

Shortened URL: https://urlzs.com/bvKjK

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