There are some that say it started with a big bang but nobody knew how it would end or that it would come when it did. The signs were warning us for a long time and maybe we could have done something sooner but the clock ran out and the human race was on the brink of extinction.  We sought refuge to the only place we thought was safe and that was underground.

As the years turned into decades, we continued to survive but we were no longer just humans. Our time beneath the surface evolved us into a new species, one that had adapted to its surroundings and connected with the Earth.  A species that learnt how to manipulate the earth’s properties into shelter, tools and healing powers. It was here, digging unimaginable depths and distances that we found the birthstones, minerals that granted each of us our identities. We call our community the Earth Natives.

CHAPTER 01

Long before the men became Armadalus, they were ordinary like the rest of us.  Their day to day lives were lived in ignorance of the damage being done to the planet, or perhaps they were happy enough to turn a blind eye.  Not all were like this of course, many tried and failed to reason with others about the harm we were doing, trying to convince them that climate change was not all simply mother nature’s fault but also our own, we were adding fuel to an already burning fire.  But even though we saw natural disasters every day on the news, heard others talking about weather extremes on public transport, and witnessed constant pollution wherever we went, it still came as a shock to all of us how quickly it changed from day-to-day conversation to an immediate threat on humanity. 

None were prepared for life underground; it was our last resort to hide from the searing heat and we didn’t expect to live for very long.  The years were tough.  Not all survived, succumbing to starvation, fear and misery, but the ones who remained learnt how to harbour their faith and dedicate themselves to survival.  As they excavated underground, built homes and created a unified community, the men began to become harmonized with the earth and it was during this time of acceptance that they found the crystal, a crystal so large that no one would believe it unless they saw it with their own eyes.  The men spent days digging around it, hoping to remove it from its place but when they finally cleared all the earth around it, the crystal remained, floating a foot off the ground.   A vibration was felt in the air surrounding it, almost as if you could touch the moving energy and a vibrant glow shimmered all over it.  The men were hesitant to touch it with their bare hands, afraid of what might happen. The four strongest amongst them volunteered, stepping up to the crystal which when standing in front of it, still stood a metre taller than them.  They slowly raised their hands, looked at each other and nodded their readiness, and finally laid their hands on the crystal. The crystals’ glow exploded into the cave, blinding them and knocking them backwards. A dull pain was felt in their chests, causing them to rub at the ache and coming in contact with a solid, cold surface. As the glow began to ebb, the men blinked their eyes open, adjusting to the changing light and cautiously looked down at their chests.  What could only be described as some sort of stone was now placed where skin and bone used to be.  Marvelling at this impossible occurrence, it took a while before they started to realise that they each had a stone, each one different to the next.  The four men who had touched the crystal once again stepped up to it and laid their hands on it, but this time the light shot directly into the stone on their chests, filling it with power, strength and knowledge.  From this day on, the men began their transformations into the Armadalus, wielding the power of their stones, now recognised as minerals, to continue their battle for survival.  The minerals granted them long-life and superhero-like qualities, but still they were unable to venture out into the sun, confined beneath the earth until the sun had set and the temperatures dropped, it was then that they scouted the lands, searching for food and resources. After many decades, their sole focus to one day live on the surface again faded into a distant dream, they had become content with their way of life underground, but then something unexpected happened, something that sparked hope and a new determination. 

CHAPTER 02

The entrance to the underground bunker had been carved into the rocks’ surface, huge pillars surrounded by even bigger statues of men’s heads with plate armour covering their noses and the top of their heads, stood out front.  It gave off a foreboding sense, warning away those from the outside or from the inside. Laying on the ground in front of the gates, lay a female, huddled in a protective ball, appearing weak and defeated. “What do you think it is?”, Zane asked, not taking his gaze away from the woman who he was spying on from his guard post inside the gates. “Looks like a woman of some sort but I thought they were all extinct?”, replied Mo, second guard on duty tonight. The men continued to watch her, scanning the surrounding area for further threats, but there was nothing to see.  The lush forest and mountain ranges that once stood here decades earlier had all burned and dried out, just like most of humanity.  Rock boulders and barren lands were all that remained to be seen from where the men stood, concealed behind the heavy gate doors, looking out only through a peephole cut into the rockface. 

Hearing footsteps approaching, Zane looks over his shoulder, “Here comes the Commander” he tells Mo. Walking towards the two men, was a giant of a man, arms roped with muscle and shoulders wide enough that if they had any doorframes, you’d wonder if he’d fit through them. Without saying a word, the Commander stepped up to the peephole and looked through it, analysing what lay before him. “Have you seen anything else? Any movement of any kind?” he directed to no-one in particular, never removing the female from his view. “No sir. This is the first sign of life we’ve seen since we went underground and built the gate. We didn’t hear her arrive and only became aware of her when the sun began to rise” Mo replied, looking from Zane to his Commander.  “Open the gate just enough for me to slip out and bring her back in, stand ready”.  The doors of the gate required the strength of both men pulling on a steel chain to open, any normal man wouldn’t be able to budge it but since becoming Armadalus, the men’s strength had more than tripled. The moment the doors open, a blast of scorching hot air hits them, the Commander quickly steps out, lifts the female into his arms and steps back inside.  Mo and Zane rush to shut the doors, collapsing against it once closed. “Fuck me that was hot! No wonder the guys have to wear goggles to go out on raids, otherwise their eyeballs would fry!” Zane exclaims before he realises the others aren’t listening and are focused on the female. 

As the men lean over the woman, her antennae twitch and her eyes flutter open, going wide when she sees them.  Hurriedly she shuffles backwards, her eyes darting all over the place, assessing an escape route while never removing the men from her focus. “It’s okay, you’re okay”, the Commander says holding up a hand as if to warn her from trying to run, “we aren’t going to hurt you, you’re safe here. My name is Mathias, I am Commander of the Armadalus, this is Mo and Zane”, he points behind him at the two men standing idly by, “what is your name?”.  Swallowing audibly, the woman husked out “Kora”, coughing from her dry throat. Mathias unhooks the canteen from his belt, unscrews the lid and hands it to her.  Kora quickly takes it, guzzling the water until she has drained the canteen. Wiping her hand across her mouth she hands it back to Mathias.  “My apologies, I was just so thirsty”, “No worries, we have plenty here”. Mathias holds out his hand to help Kora up, she looks at it, taking in the claws and rough skin before placing her much smaller and fragile hand in it. “Plenty? Here? How?” she asks as Mathias hauls her to her feet, instantly Kora shakes and stretches out her wings. “Woah…” Zane blurts out. Mo quickly elbows him in the side and Zane tries to cover it with a cough. Mathias ignores the two of them “Before I answer that, explain to me how you came to be here and what you are.” 

Kora begins to tell her story as Mathias leads her down the long spiralling chamber, with its sconces of fire lighting the path before them as they descend further underground. “Our people call ourselves the Adants, we, like you, live underground or beneath the hills that we build”, Kora says as she looks at the mineral on Mathias’s chest, the same place and size as hers. “We were out on a routine hunt for food when I got separated from my colony. I was flying, scanning the grounds below me for potential food sightings when a strong gust of hot wind took me higher into the sky”, interrupting her Mathias asks with surprise in his voice, “You do this during the day?”, nodding Kora replies “Early morning as the sun rises just before it gets too hot but with light enough to see, why?”, “We haven’t been able to go out in the sun at all, the temperature is unbearable for us, all of our scout work is done during the night. But continue, how did you end up here exactly? We’ve never seen other life outside of these walls before”.   Kora wanted to ask him more but was starting to get anxious as they continued their downward trek, realising that she was alone with a man in unknown whereabouts, then there was the fact that she couldn’t see much in front of her or behind her with the flickering fire light on the walls.  She started thinking of ways she could use the sconces if things got ugly. “Well as I was saying, the wind took me higher into the sky, it was as if I got caught in some air pocket or current, and I didn’t have the strength to fly out of it so I had no choice but to let it take me wherever it was going to.  And that turned out to be maybe a hundred or so meters from here. When I got my feet on the ground again, I saw the entrance to the cave and was desperate for shade so stumbled my way to it. I must have collapsed then.”

As Kora finished talking, she felt the air change and a colder breeze pass by her.  Up ahead there was an open cave on the left side of the chamber, she could already make out the sparkling of crystals and a faint glow of light. Approaching the new cave, Kora stood still at the entrance, marvelling at what she saw before her. “Incredible, isn’t it?”, said Mathias as he stands next to Kora.  Before them in the middle of the cave, was the giant floating crystal.  “This is where we were minted, where we each received our minerals”.  Kora walked further into the room; on the left side of the cave, the wall was covered with what looked to be drawings depicting the story of what happened to mankind and their time here underground. Kora walked up closer to the carvings, tracing her finger along the wall as she followed the story, stopping when she came to an image of women together with the men racing underground. Looking over her shoulder at Mathias, who was leaning against the cave wall, arms and legs crossed casually watching her, queried “I thought you said there weren’t any woman here?”, “There aren’t, but in the very beginning we all came down here together.” Stepping away from the wall, Mathias walked over to Kora and looked up at the story. “I was too young at the time to remember, like most of the rest of us here were too, but there was a time when the old men would speak of it, almost as if it were a bedtime story.  Legend has it that soon after we gained our minerals, the women started disappearing.”  Following the wall along, Kora came to the section where the story of the minting took place.  In place of the giant crystal was a real mineral the size of your palm, stuck in the wall and glistening in all its glory. Kora took a step back from the wall to better take it all in.  The wall was maybe 5 meters high until it reached the caves roof.  Hanging down from the roof in various spaces were clusters of crystals of all shapes and sizes, sparkling blues, greens, reds and all the other colours of the rainbow winked back at you. Turning around to look at the other side of the cave, Kora asked “Did you dig these caves or were they already here”, “Everything you see, from the front gates where we found you down to the bottom of the bunker, we excavated ourselves.  We made it our home and since becoming Armadalus it became easier to survive down here.  The claws we grew and the tough skin on our backs aided us as did the powers we obtained from our minerals” Mathias explained. Kora glanced at the claws and scales Mathias mentioned “Armadalus? From armadillo? I see it now”.  “And I guess Adant is from the ant?” Mathias returned, walking over to her and touching the antennae on her head, which twitched in response. “Yes, interesting that we became different species, I wonder if that has something to do with why we were separated?”.  “Huh, it’s something to consider. I’ll have to get Morrison to look in to it.” “Morrison?” “Mo, you met him at the gate.  He’s our researcher and man of knowledge”. Smiling and feeling much more at ease, Kora headed into the middle of the room, closer to the pulsating crystal. As she got near it and tilted her head back to try see the top of it, the mineral on her chest started to light up.  Circling the crystal but never touching it, Kora feels such peace and a strong sensation of returning home. “I’ve been here before” she murmurs to herself. Glancing around the cave again as if looking at it with new eyes, she tries to find something to trigger a memory. Spread around the cave are numerous fissures leading into passageways, lined with crystals and carved stones, on the right side of the cave opposite the wall with the drawings, is what looks to be a giant map engraved into the rock. Kora can make out the entrance to the bunker, and the path that they just walked down leading them to this room. The rest of the map looks like some sort of wave or shell.  “Why did you design the bunker like this” she asks curiously.  Coming up behind her, Mathias mentions the Golden Ratio, or in their case the Golden Ratio Spiral, a design that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and nature at its finest.  “It reflects the importance of harmony and proportion, two things that we were vitally missing before humanity almost came to an end.  And everything we do now is dedicated to be in balance with the earth”.   

CHAPTER 03

“Come, you said you were thirsty and there’s much still to see”. Reluctant to leave, Kora took one last wistful look at the crystal before following Mathias out into the chamber. “From the look on your face, I’m taking it that where you live there’s no crystals?”, asked Mathias.  This time descending further into the bunker didn’t fill Kora with fear or anxiety but instead excitement and wonder as to what she will see next. “No, all the Adants carry the minerals like you do, but we live closer to the surface than you.  Our ant side prefers the warmth to the cold, so we haven’t dug tunnels very deep into the ground”.  Rounding a corner, Kora’s antennae picked up new smells a moment before the sound of laughter could be heard.  “If you liked the sacred geometry cave, you’re going to love our sky roots.” The light in the passageway became brighter as they approached the next tunnel, so bright in fact Kora began to question whether they were still underground or not, which was crazy because she was surrounded by dark tunnels and caves. Arriving at the opening to the sky roots, Kora’s mouth dropped open.  The space was huge and filled with natural daylight coming from the ceiling, where there was a massive hole in the caves roof.  Climbing up the walls were vines lush with green foliage, overlapping and intertwining until they reached the opening, where they started to dry out and die.  But inside the cave walls, they flourished and thrived.  Following the vines back down with her eyes, Kora now took in the middle of the room where a giant willow-like tree stood, surrounded by a pool of iridescent water.  Lost for words, Kora could only stare.  The tree was full of life, stretching 20 meters tall and its branches spreading out 10 meters around it, its leaves swaying in the warm breeze and a few tickling the water it grew from. The roots of the tree could be seen through the clear water, thick and strong, some even climbing up and out of the pool stretching to the cave walls.  Sitting on one of these roots, were three Armadalus frozen in spot gaping at Kora. 

“Guys, this is Kora, she has come here from her colony of Adants. Kora, this is Richy, James and Ben”, Mathias says gesturing to each of the men in turn. Not knowing what to say, Richy and James just nod while Ben waves his hand. Kora smiles in return, “Nice to meet you. The water must feel amazing!?”, she says as she walks up to the pool and submerges her hand under, cupping the water and bringing it up to watch as it flows back into the pool. Mathias motions for the men to approach him. They quickly gather up their things and walk over to him, throwing glances at Kora. Ben gawking a bit longer at Kora than the others, doesn’t see the root in front of him and trips over it, tumbling into Mathias who grabs him by both arms, steadying him and preventing them from falling backwards. “Organise a council meeting in the governance room for tonight.  Everyone will need to attend, so make sure to shut the markets earlier today and get the riot squad to do an extra round of the premises”, Mathias orders.  Ben, embarrassed to have almost fallen over, punches James in the arm, who was still chuckling at him. “Will do, and ah, what of the um, ah, woman?”, Richy asks, raising his eyebrows at Mathias. “I’m taking her down to the fountain then the council will decide on what to do but in the meantime give the others a heads up she’s coming their way. If possible, try and get them to refrain from the stares, or at least be less obvious about it".  Richy looked over at Kora again, who was now walking along the stone wall that kept the pool in place, and commented to Mathias “Yeah, that’s going to be hard to do”. The three men said their goodbyes to Kora and headed out of the cave, whispering furiously as they left. 

Joining Kora at the pools edge, Mathias motions to the tree in the middle, “It never ceases to amaze me, providing us with constant hope and a sign of new life”.  Kora, who was now sitting with her legs dangling in the warm water, watching the ripples as she circled her feet round and round, asked rapidly “Are there more trees?  How is this one still alive? And how is this water here?”. Mathias, fascinated with the look of absolute sheer delight and awe on her face, remembered what it was like when he and his men first discovered this place. “It was similar with the crystal, we were excavating new routes trying to locate the safest place to set up a base, a home, when removing the rocks and earth a beam of light shone through a gap.  At first, we were hesitant knowing that the brightness of the light had to be sunlight. But we also knew we were deep underground and the thermal mass quality of the earth surrounding us would control the temperature so we pushed on.  Once we got through, we had to shield our eyes for it was so bright” Mathias recounts, lifting his face and closing his eyes, reliving it all over again. “To have the warmth caress your face and not burn is something we are all very grateful for”.  Opening his eyes, Mathias gestured around the cave, “all of this was here, the tree has grown a lot since we first discovered it, and there has been a lot more growth in the vines and fauna.  It gets greener everyday”. Taking in the moss climbing over the walls and rocks, a few flowers blooming and leaves from the tree scattered here and there on the floor, Kora asked again “but how is this possible? Us Adants are constantly on the surface foraging and we’ve never come close to seeing anything like this”. Mathias briefly explained that the sunlight landing on the tree as well as the protectiveness of the cave walls, meant that the tree had the right conditions needed to prosper, and that when they discovered the groundwater rising out through cracks in the soil, they used rammed earth and the stones to build up the pool walls and surface. 

Kora started to respond but the pool water began rippling a moment before music could be heard, resonating of the walls and vibrating in the ground.  “Come on, let’s go, you can get a drink and join in on the fun before we have our council meeting”, Mathias said offering her a hand up.  Once standing, Kora shook her feet in an attempt to dry them before putting her shoes back on and following Mathias out. 

CHAPTER 04

As they headed towards the sound of music, laughter and rhythmic thumping echoed throughout the hall, and the once quiet and soothing caves were now lit up with livelihood and the hustle and bustle of markets and people going about their day.  The space was about half the size of a football field, on the right side and towards the middle where various stalls selling all manner of things. To the left looked to be some sort of bar with a long piece of wood stacked on a pile of rocks creating a bench top and tall, very rustic looking wooden chairs with men sitting in them, chatting amongst themselves and drinking. Setup by the bar were table and chairs, all handmade and of a simple design, behind them in the corner was a two-man band, one was playing the djembe, an African style drum made from animal skin and wood, beside him the other man was playing a guitar. “What do you use to buy things with?” asked Kora, as they walked into the markets.  “Same things I presume you do, nick knacks, crafts we’ve made, liquor we’ve brewed, tools we’ve welded and so forth.  After many decades you acquire all sorts of skills”, shared Mathias, eyeing up her wings and adding in “although there are many we still wish to obtain”. Heading into the markets, many of the Armadalus men approached Kora, offering her samples of their food, gifting her their goods and trying to make conversation. Others struggled not to gawk and hastily focused on something else when Mathias caught their eye.  

By the time they reached the bar, Kora was wearing a cowboy hat, shoulder pads, sunglasses and carrying three different weapons, shaking his head with laughter Mathias offloaded a few of the items and placed them on the bench. “If they could give you their minerals, I’m sure they would”, teased Mathias.  “I forgot how exhilarating it is to do something different and meet new people. Seeing our diversities and uniqueness” sighed Kora, taking a seat next to Mathias at the bench.  The man behind the bar, registering his new patrons swaggered over to them with a giant grin on his face, “well hello there lassie, it’s been many a year since I’ve seen one as bonny as you”, looking up at the man, Kora first took in the marine hat on his head and then the owl sitting on his shoulder, “Hi! Wow, look at your bird, he’s beautiful”, she gushed, “can I touch him?”.  “Sure thing, he’s a friendly sort”, Willy replied, twisting his body so Kora could reach the owl. “Interesting day I take it, Mathias?” Willy joked as he shook Mathias’s hand.  “One like no other, has Richy and the boys came through here?”, “Aye, not to long ago, telling us to close up shop early today.  Now I see why”, Willy added in, looking over at Kora who was now trying to get the owl to walk onto her outstretched arm.  “Do those work?”, Willy asked gesturing to her wings. Switching her attention to Willy, Kora stood, stretched out her wings and began flapping them until she was hovering off the ground. The room went dead silent, all eyes on her…  More to come soon.