“I had injured myself in these caves, caught in the cave in ahead of us at that. While I was unconscious she fished m out and nursed me back to health. At first I had been horrified, waking to a thing not quiet human and restrainted to boot.

Though I got to know her a bit while recovering and found out, or thought she was the last of her kind of this long lived species. Se was lonely she was the only one of her kind I assumed and couldn't stray far from those ships. T took several weks to recover but she did release me. By then we knew a smattering of half a dozen eords in each others tongue.

“Se was intriguing so I visited her each time I came down her, evntually, well … let's just say our kid actually leaves no doubt in being mine ...”

Harold remenised about the past a little. He flicked his gaze to her, her call of course. “We could rest here, perhaps spend the night then circle back and try to sneak past though the caves are near, they are safe enough I think I haven't checked their condition lately though.”

Kirsty shivered when he spoke up waking up to find himself restraint with an alien peering down at him. That was what terrified her the most about the stories of encounters with grays. They usually ended when someone being strapped down to a table and in most cases being poked and prodded with various sharp objects. Harold didn't say whether that last bit had happened or not but it wouldn't surprise her in it did. She couldn't imagine developing a repoire with a creature that had done that to her. Even if it had only been trying to heal her. Still, she hadn't been there and, who knows, maybe Harold wasn't bothered by those types of things.

He suggested stopping for the night and she gave him a look that clearly said she didn't like that idea. She looked around uneasily. Despite what he said she didn't feel like they were near far enough away from the crash for her liking. Plus, she wasn't forgetting that shit he'd just try pulling on her a ways back. "I'd rather keep going. I don't like it down. How much further is it to the surface?"

He caught that look in her eyes and he didn't blame her figuring that she probably didn't fully understand and would feel much better with all this behind her. Now as she dwelled on being poked and prodded Harold was no more the guinea pig in the situation more so than being put back together. She had saved him though, by the time he would have been missed he would have been dead and had been fortunate that Mimi was close.

“Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled with doubling back either. No, it's not far now just dangerous. Watch your step and if I tell you, don't move, no matter what. Don't scream, don't move don't do anything. A scream is likely to cause another cave in ...”

He left her with that never really explaining what he meant as they moved on, if asked he just warned her to follow suit and listen. He was a veteran of this place though seeing (possibly) a Tommy Knocker rattled him whereas he was thinking back to dealings with Mimi.

Before long they came to a narrow passage, the support beams were rotted and Kristy could see something large about the size of a rat scurrying amongst the shadows, then another …

They were coming and going from one of the passages but so far hadn't bothered with them whatever they were.

Kirsty nodded and followed him in silence. She tried to be as quiet as possible and only stepped where he stepped. When she caught sight of the movement in the darkness beyond she tucked on his shirt and gestured to them. "More Mezz?" She asked in a low whisper.

“No,” he answered holding the lantern out so she could see the creatures better. Ants, giant ants about the size of rats, some bigger, some smaller, the bigger ones were about the size of cats, soldier ants?

“It happened sometime after the crash, they got bigger. They're usually easy to get around though ...”

Docile enough, he braved on having to step over two in the process without stepping on them. He gazed back at her indicating for her to follow.

Kirsty's grip on the back of Harold's shirt tightened when she saw the ants but she resisted the urge to scream. Ants didn't bother her too much in reality but giant dream ants... "Great!" She muttered softly. "Just Frickin' Great! This place just keeps getting better and better..." She took a deep breath and followed Harold over the two ants in their path. She told herself not to think about it. Just keep moving and stop thinking. She'd close her eyes but she needed to see where Harold was stepping so she knew where it was safe to put her feet. All the while keeping a firm grasp on the back of his shirt.

“The queen is as big as a horse, the drones are about child sized though. Mostly workers here, some soldiers. That's it, nice and slow, no noises that aren't necessary, no sudden movements to attract their attention ...”

Te ground, walls and ceiling shook as a slight tremore coursed through the region. Stone chips fell from the ceiling, support beams groaned then all was still once more.

“If the rope didn't come loose I'd just say fuck it, go back and then go the long way through the forest. But we have no choice really, it's down this way or back there past the ships. Yeah, this is turning out to be such a wonderful day, but don't mind that, keep moving.

A ton of ants later they finally could feel that their was a breeze and the air seemed fresher. Te passage forked and Harold veered towards the right where the breeze was coming from. No ants now but off in the near distance was a light, a cave opening!

Kirsty could had done without the information about the queen and would have told him as much but then the tremor hit and she bit her tongue. Shut up and walk! She told herself. She was silent the rest of the journey, only relaxing when she felt the breeze of fresh air hit them. She let out a sigh of relief and finally relaxed her hand to release her death grip on Harold shirt. "Oh thank god!" She breathed softly. They could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally. The danger was almost over.

Almost … Aegir could have done any manner of things to make matters move in unexpected directions and teased a little, the passage caught up with a tremble again, it collapsed the passageway behind them and larger chunks of stone dropped from the ceiling ahead of them. They were barely clear when the cavern collapsed behind them.

The light she had seen was not sunlight but rather a large, yet primitive contraption similar to a spot light. It was night now and the light illuminated an area that just happened to be near her. A short man … insanely short dressed in green clothing and a hard hat was at the edge of a hole looking down at something though as the passsage collapsed he whirled in the direction of the sound and caught site of the pair, he was ready to bolt too …

He was small, much smaller to than a midgit who would have been a giant in comparisson.

Dreams were weird like this... That's the only excuse Kirsty could think of to explain the little man standing across from them now. When the tunnel had collapsed she'd been expecting the worst and again when she realized the light they were seeing was not natural. Still, of all the things she had expected to find in the chamber they were forced to head into, a Fraggle had not made the list. Hell, it was in a completely different galaxy to what she'd been expecting. The looked bemusely at the small man then turned to Harold. "What is he?"

Aegir chuckled to himself in the waking world. Of course her better understanding of dreams allowed her to accept the sudden change easily then most. She had assumed that this wasw a dream after all and so he had tossed in elements where she would not question that too much. He was seeking to have fun with this, to see what, if anything she had changed and thus far she was interested enough to let matters play out which was pleasing.

E had an end game in mind of course, but since that was always adapting to her choices he had only a vague idea how this was going to turn out.

“Well, it was certainl not a fraggle!”

Harold chuckled and walked closer to the hole, peering down. :Wat I thought. Gnomes. Tat you, Zoot? Deal your brother he's still as chicken hearted as ever!”

“What do you want, you large coot! I'm busy!” The voice called up from that hole. It appeared as if this was nothing abnormal here ...

"How do you even know what a Fraggle is?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a skeptical look. Even for a dream this was starting to seem like a weird transition, made weirder by the fact that she could tell it was strange. Usually, you couldn't tell when something was happening in a dream that wasn't right. It usually seemed completely normal.

He called for the little man, a gnome apparently, and she followed him. "I thought gnome wore conical hats, not hard hats." She stated, watching the hole curiously to see if he would come back out. An archeologist who gets mistaken for a wizard, alien crash survivors, giants bugs and now gnomes. What would this dream throw at her next?

“Oh, that is an easy one, because I know him and what he is so I know he is not a fraggle, whatever that is unless it is some kind of secret order” He explained. Flanwicket had taken off soemewhere. But Zoot was in the hole about four feet down, a long wasy for a little guy. He was on a ledge and there was a little pully elevator that went up and down from the surface to the ledge.

Kristy knew that this was a dream, she also knew she wasn't in her realm and while this was not like Alice in Wonderland with how bizzrre things had been she would have to admit that the oddities kept her interested so far.

The gnome got to the surface and looked her over. “Conical hats aren't too safe down there, especially with all those tremors missy, they offer up little in the way of protection. I am called Zoot and you are?”

"Kirsty." She replied, regarding the little man with curiosity. "What are you doing down here?" She asked conversationally. They couldn't be mining... It was dwarves that mined, right? What did gnome's do? She tried to remember. David had been a doctor, right? He healed animals and such. Still, she didn't think that was what all gnomes did. Maybe they didn't have a staple occupation...

She was right. Dwarves were the ones that mined. David was a doctor with his side kick Swift the fox. Brownies were cobblers …

Zoot glanced to the whole then back at the large giantess. He would have offered them a drink though it was obvious that a sip for either would deplete it's contents so not to be rude he didn't drink any of it in front of them.

“Well met, Kristy. Harold, nice to see you again too.” He turned to Kristy though. “I'm getting something for the wizard, he dropped it down here and is too big to fit and doesn't have any magic to shrink down to do it himself I guess.”