“It doesn’t look like it’s been destroyed, more like it was just abandoned.” Monica’s observation seemed accurate as there was little sign of devastation or that the Aztlans had been pursued through the tunnels by a giant cephalopod. The corridor opened into a larger chamber perhaps 200 feet long with a high carved ceiling. Around the walls the glyphs were interspaced with carvings of pictorial scenes sculpted in splendid detail. The raised stone tableaus showed a level of craftsmanship that would have challenged some of the greatest artisans of today. Beautiful scenes of what the countryside must have been like, displaying heavily wooded forests or fields of low plants like grass. Many were of hunting parties capturing all manner of strange beasts of enormous proportions.

“Aimee, do you recognise these animals?” Matt was touching his hand to some magnificently carved images of great land creatures.

“Wow, they’re perfect. Diprotodon, dromornis, thylacinus. This is a window to our past.” Aimee pointed as she marvelled at the closest thing modern humans would ever get to a living representation of the long-extinct mega-fauna beasts.

“Say what? Dipdo who?” Monica smiled at their enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge of the obscure as Aimee scrutinised another scene of a giant land-based lizard caught by the Aztlans in a sophisticated noose trap.

“And this reptile could be a megalania. These are all perfect images of extinct reptile and mammalian creatures—giant animals that died out tens of thousands of years ago. This one here, the diprotodon was the big brother of today’s cute and cuddly wombat, but it stood as tall as a grizzly bear with claws to match. This here, the dromornis, was a thunderbird. Ten feet tall and over a thousand pounds, they were fearsome predators and voracious meat eaters.”

Aimee stepped in closer to look at more of the fantastic images when Matt spoke. “It’s not uncommon that we should find these. Many early civilisations depicted hunting in their religious and artistic carvings. It’s the closest thing we archaeologists have to snapshots of the flora and fauna of the times.”

“And what’s this one?” Monica was pointing at a creature that looked to have a strong, four-legged body but instead of jaws it had a curving beak and two strong wings folded across its back.

Matt looked at it, looked at Aimee, who shrugged, and then shook his head. “A griffin? Nah, impossible. They obviously included some mythological creatures as well.”

Matt looked again at the strange winged creature. The detail was perfect, right down to the tiger-like striping across its muscled back. He shook his head and moved on to the start of a series of more detailed and royal-looking glyphs. “OK, here we are; it’s the story of Aztlan. Looks like it’s set out in chronological order—now where does it start?” Matt’s lips moved silently as he drew out the meanings from the stone story before him.