"Woahl Thanks whoever you are!" said the high pitched voice. "C'mon let's get out of here" it added. After a bit of noise, two tiny bodies emerged, dusting off their shiny clothing. Stone recognized the helmets they were wearing, these two were the ones in the eagle beak. it was glaringly apparent that they were not male. He couldn't estimate the girls ages either, their size said little girl, their proportions said woman. Neither were as tall as his elbow, and their eyes were more almond shaped. One had their helmet off, exposing a beautiful face, longer pointier ears and even longer golden hair. They recognized him as soon as he recognized them. The sudden shrieks pierced Stone's soul, he couldn't move. The pair took advantage of Stones impariment and ran to the side, into the denser forest. They moved almost slowly, as if they were running under water. The hair gently wafting.

He would want to talk to them eventually, but he was close to the metal eagle, and his first objective was to destroy it. With the girls away, he found he could move again, so he hobbled closer to the hole. It was impossible to imagine that wreckage being fixed.

"Better safe than sorry" he thought, and climbed into the hole. Stone grasped the wings, and ripped them off. The metal offered little resistance, he could hardly imagine it surviving fierce winds. Damage sufficiently done, he climbed back out. His foot was feeling better, so he took off the splint, it must have been a severe break for his foot to take a whole hour to heal.

"DON'T MOVE" said the helmeted girl. She was holding a metallic stick in her hands. The other girl approached from the side, holding a longer metallic stick. Stone didn't think it a good idea to find out what those metallic sticks did, but he recognized a hunt. Often Stone had become the prey of a bear or pack of wolves, the trick isn’t to outsmart them.

Keylin kept her sights on the specimen. The manimal had attacked when they tried to capture him, and had followed them to finish the job. She wondered if this was a matter of territorialism or revenge. The latter was doubtful, since the display of aggression that wrecked their ship would be the revenge.

“This is a textbook example of proto-human irrationality” thought Keylin, mimicking the words of her professor. The manimal slowly reached behind his back, and pulled out a staff, Keylin blinked in surprise, it was Sharkspear, the legendary Yari used by Harrold the great to keep the horde from breaching the gate before launch. Textbooks had high definition photos of the spear, it was unmistakable.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS?" sent Tressile to Keylin's mind. The wreck had damaged her ears, causing Keylin to only be able to receive messages from Tressile. Before Keylin could answer, the minimal planted the spear into the ground, pointy end up.

"WHAT IS HE DOIN-" asked Tressile before being blinded by the reflection. Keylin tried to cover her eyes in time but to no avail, a burst of light pained her eyes, he used the spear like a mirror.

In the moments it took to regain vision, the manimal was gone.

"WHERE DID HE GO?" sent Tressile

"I think he went into the hole" said Keylin aloud.

"THAT ONE IS TOO DANGEROUS ANYWAY, GRAB THE SPEAR, EXTRACTION SHOULD BE IN THIRTY MINUTES" sent Tresille.

"About that" said Keylin

"DIDN'T YOU SEND OUT THE DISTRESS SIGNAL?" Asked Tressile

"Everything happened so quickly, and by the time I could, it was broken, including me" Tressile gave Keylin a calming hug.

"WE DID NOT DEVIATE TOO FAR FROM OUR CHARTED COURSE, IT WILL ONLY TAKE AN HOUR FOR THEM TO REALIZE SOMETHING IS WRONG." Tressile's words were supposed to be comforting, but Keylin felt hollow inside. This survey flight was supposed to be routine, or at the very least celebrated as they discovered likely the only surviving mountain settlements. This discovery, riding on the heels of the habitable earth announcement would have assured her place in a primary branch family. The destruction of their ship the Cryton, one of the last remaining scout ships, eliminated any hope of a promotion. She did her best to salvage the situation, the historians and archaeologists would enjoy the underground cavern.

Life on Luna had become so stagnant and resources so strained that a majority of the residents were now in hibernation. Lunarians had been seeding earth with trees and plants that could absorb the radiation for a few thousand years, had mastered DNA processing, allowing communication between minds. The only requirement for mental link is the growth of antennas on the ears. Most thought the adaptation was cute. In twenty years, the earth systems would be ready for the full return. Keylin snapped back from her thoughts just in time to see the ground collapse beneath her and Tressile.

Stone was surprised to see that the girls fell in slow motion as well. He suspected that they fell at the same rate as anything else, but it seemed more elegant, and wavy. He hoped that they hadn’t moved while he set up the cage. The metal eagle provided plenty of material for the it. As soon as they landed Stone put the lid on. He had debated using cages, the Mountain had rules against them, but how could mountain rules apply to the Lowlands? He had spent a grand total of two hours outside of the mountain and already he had broken tradition and needed advice from the Elders. So he was going to bring the girls to the Elders, and let them sort it out.

The girls seemed stunned by the fall, so he took their metal sticks. The sticks did not inherently seem dangerous, one of them broke in half as he handled it. There was no way he could fly up to the mountain carrying a cage, but he could drag it.