Insignificant
The most terrifying things are those which we do not understand.
A small rural village barely even had a name, so it was no surprise that nobody noticed that it had vanished one day, in fact several small towns disappeared one unseasonably warm October. To the inhabitants of these towns, it was something that none of them would ever fully be able to understand.
The sudden loss of power and communication was the first thing that the town noticed that day. The next thing that was noticed was the unusual state of the shadows in village. Despite being morning, the shadows were like that of high noon. After noticing these peculiarities, and discussing it among themselves, they finally realized that the vast emptiness around their village wasn't their familiar fields, but rather a vast expanse of some sort of stone, with some strange shapes out along the horizon.
The entire village held an impromptu meeting and deliberated over the best course of action, half thought it best to stay put and see what is happening, while the rest thought it was best to explore the new surroundings. This argument continued for quite some time, so they didn't notice the tremors at first. When the quakes began to knock people over, it was far too late. As some ran out of the hall, the sky was eclipsed by some massive object, hurtling down toward the village.
"I think I just stepped on something", exclaimed a mouse. "I don't care. We are looking for much more important things than the gum on your boot treads" replied the de facto leader of the search team, a rather abrasive raccoon. This search team came from the slightly larger town of "Unincorporated", which was experiencing rather similar problems to village. The town had sent out a team of five: mouse, raccoon, tiger, wolf, and a rabbit. "I think I see another town off in the distance".
The group moved out of the town toward the largest cluster of things in the horizon. The terrain was rough, cool, and grey, as if the entire world had been covered over with a stucco desert. The first site that the group reached was a series of fallen translucent pillars, some taller than the crew. As they approached the shapes, the wolf and raccoon found it increasingly difficult to travel. A sticky substance surrounded the formation and they had walked into it. Off to the east a new threat closed in upon them. Several great tree-like appendages coated in ropy hairs came together at a multi-segmented body. The creature approached paying no heed to the plight of the wolf or raccoon. The wolf narrowly avoided being pierced and crushed by the claw like legs, and struggled to break free from the mire he was trapped in. The raccoon didn't have as much luck, and was caught in the mandibles of the terrifying creature along with one of the smaller pillars. The wolf and the remaining members of the team ran for their lives, as another one of those creatures was closing in. The wolf had become somewhat separated from the others due to his prior brush with death, making him ever so slightly closer to the creatures than the others. In his panic, the wolf ran straight into a chasm, while everyone else had managed to find a way across. The narrow and deep chasm was unlikely to stop the creatures advance, but the creatures seemed more concerned with the bizarre ruins that they had discovered. The dying wolf's last words were barely audible to the survivors, "This taste...those things...impossible but it must be."
The mouse, tiger, and rabbit were shook up by this sudden turn in events. They couldn't decide the best course of action. The mouse wanted to turn back to town and warn them of the monsters, while the tiger wanted to press on to complete their mission. The rabbit decided he didn't want to be left all alone with such strange things happening, so he decided to stick with the tiger. The mouse on the other hand, tried to make his way back to the town while avoiding the sites of the grisly deaths he had witnessed. The tiger and rabbit continued to the mountains in the distance. The farthest away of these seemed to extend forever and seemed vertical. The mountain was bright purple, and was much rounder than the distant mountains. In fact it seemed like it was a massive laid out cylinder.
A low rumble came far away from any of the surviving crew members. A few moments later another came, more intense than the first. The mouse was the closest to the epicenter of these earthquakes, and each aftershock was worse than the last. Along the horizon the mouse could see something moving, but couldn't determine what it was. All he knew was that it was coming toward him, and the earthquakes were getting worse as it did. The mouse was still far from the town, and tried his best to hide in the uneven terrain. The force of nature before him drew closer with terrible speed, passing directly over the poor mouse. The mouse was spared from being crushed by the moving mountains, but a great wind came forth along with the shock wave. The mouse was tossed about by the fierce wind, but that was not yet the end. Corpses of creatures like the one that ate the raccoon rolled past the mouse, and boulders fell from the sky, crushing the mouse's lungs.
Meanwhile, the tiger and rabbit also felt the approaching danger and tried to hide at the base of the formation that they had found. The surface of the formation was slick with a heavy coating of slime, which had pooled a bit around it. The earthquakes intensified, but suddenly stopped. The tiger and rabbit looked out from the large overhang that they had slid into, and their heart s sank. A series of enormous things with blunt ends descended from the sky. These things, tentacles maybe, grabbed hold of the purple formation and took it into the sky, with two furs in tow.
Feldspar had spent the entire day trying to figure out the notes of his predecessor. The exact nature of what had happened to him was never fully explained, but given the secretive nature of his employer he wasn't surprised. For several hours the salamander had read over the translations of the manuscript kept with the research notes. The strangely warm box in the corner of the loft was from some island in the South Pacific. It was believed to have supernatural properties of teleportation, but the exact mechanism of working it had been lost to time. The writings seem to reference another text that wasn't found with the writings. Frustrated that a 'non-functioning' teleporter wouldn't help with designing his own spatial manipulation device, he decided to slink off to his room to unwind. He made his way to his computer and grabbed his favorite toy. Looking at the floor, he realized he should probably sweep the floor later. He didn't want to attract any bugs.