They came without warning.

[DM ~Etho~]

They came without warning.

Five of them, frightening creatures all.

They saw me not; they knew me not.

The five humanoids hovered softly in midair, feeling the air currents of the Prime world they had chosen. They hovered outside of a farm, in the dead of night, two of them restless to destroy it.

The first to speak was a giant, standing over ten feet tall, with chitinous skin radiating all colors of the spectrum. Dressed in finery, this being made no hostile move, but two others flinched at his speech.

"This... event... is not expected. Let's finish this business and be done."

Another, tall and golden, looked to her side, where a third, a malign titan with skin of midnight black, grimaced.

"We have felt it. They are back," he hissed.

The largest of them all, with radiant white scales, crawled on all fours like a dog, scratching at its neck. It then drew itself upright and spoke as a statesman might, an odd sight indeed.

"Of we three, none have anything to contribute. This was not an event of our time, which is but recent."

The gold looked downwards. "Yes."

An incongruous statement, to be sure. The last was a deep crimson, as though of blood, and the smallest by far, perhaps the height of a human. She spoke with a feminine voice.

"And what did you expect? The both of you agreed to this independently. Were you hoping for some unity? Are you insane? Of course she is, but I would not have expected this trespass on my private time from you," she spat at the black.

The gold, the insane one, turned to the crimson, who seemed to grow afraid.

"It is something that we need to know about. Something to be on guard for. If not for all, then for one. I have seen it. I know," said the gold, rather lucidly.

"As have I," croaked the black, "and it is a threat. Remember it. All of you. Only we two have seen them before. Only we two survived. Another is terlen chum."

"Then why warn us?" asked the prismatic one. "Or were you just looking for a change in your life?" This last sounded a threat. "I learned this myself; I came to extract more from you."

The five glanced at one another.

"We are the first to know," said the black softly. "I know you have checked," he spoke now to the colored one, "with the Queen and the Lords. He," gesturing now to the white, "has seen no sign during his travels, at least none that he cares to share."

"No, we are first," said the gold, again sounding lucid. "This... this we shall not share. If anyone makes the discovery, it will next be the lamenti. There is one with us who has assured that."

The crimson took stock rapidly. "Certainly none among us! Not even he," again to the white, "unless there is another here?"

As I watched, the shapes flickered. I could see these giant, froglike men and women, outlined by the most monstrous of shapes. Here a titan, a horned black skeleton. There, an opalescent beast with a malevolent grin. Another, burning with ferocious white light, without fixed form. A crimson serpent with a woman's body, spreading fish fins that covered the moon. The last, a golden ooze with a human brain.

They came without warning.

Five of them, frightening creatures all.

They saw me; they knew me.

And I have screamed.

My scream is the messenger. Their words the message.

And what is coming, I wish never to know.

~Afroakuma