Barry, now a gargantuan wolf-man, walked quickly between the buildings, towards the domed city.
The beast was there, as big as him, looking at the army who were around the dome.
It raised its head and saw him.
He clenched his teeth and fists, charged forward...
"Let me guess, you think I'm an eldritch abomination that will bring back the Great Old Ones and make mankind fall into face-ripping madness?" asked the creature in a deadpan voice.
Disconcerted, Barry stopped his charge.
"Uh... Yes?" he awkwardly replied.
The being had a long, exasperated sigh.
"Seriously, fuck Lovecraft..." he muttered.

That's REALLY not how I thought it would went, thought Barry.
He and the Deep One (for it was a Deep One) were now sitting on huge-ass cargo containers on the docks, at the suggestion of the "fish", who just ended a long rant about how the late author got EVERYTHING wrong except the names, and even there...
The army followed them there, better safe than sorry...
"So, if I understand correctly, there's nothing correct in all those Cthulhu Mythos?" asked the werewolf.
"NOTHING!" affirmed adamantly the Deep One. "I don't even have the slightest idea of what gave him these ideas, or of how there is that slight resemblance!"
"Then what are you, exactly?!"
"Millions of year ago, I was an inhabitant of the planet... Actually, we didn't have a name for it, it was just "the planet" for us. Pretty similar to yours. We mainly dwelled under the seas, in underwater cities, but we also had some cities on land. Very advanced technology, sweet life... Until the cataclysm."
"The cataclysm?" repeated Barry.
"A series of disastrous volcanic eruptions. They generated so much lava and ashes that not only it hid the sun, but water and atmosphere were becoming burning and acidic. To stay was dooming ourselves to death."
"What did you do then?"
"We created arkships. Giant spaceships that would also work as cities. Driven by state-of-the-art AIs. And we got the hell out of the planet."
"Let me guess," here the werewolf pointed at the dome. "It's one of the arkships?"
"Yup. The Y'ha-nthlei. I don't know exactly how many there were, but I remember at least of the Ahu-Y'hloa, the G'll-Hoo, the Ya' Dich-Gho, and last but not least, the mothership, the R'lyeh."
His serrated mouth quirked up in a smirk.
"And yes, those names are one of the rare things Lovecrap got right."
Barry snorted at the mocking nickname.
"Each of them housed one million of us. They were meant to be generation ships, but they had hibernations zones for everyone in case they were needed. And they got needed. Barely a few years in the journey, a meteor rain fell on us. We got in the hibernation capsules... And next thing I know, I'm woken up and contacted by the AI of the Y'ha-nthlei. And not with good news..."
"What news?" asked nervously Barry.
"You ain't got something to drink? My mouth's dry after all this talking."
"Uh..."
An employee of a beer company who had silos in the zone came to the rescue by telling them to serve themselves with said silos, that were like mugs for them. They did.
(When his CEO furiously called him, the employee replied by signaling that having the world's two giants drinking their beer would be the best advertising ever. He instantly got a promotion and a raise.)
After a few sips - and explanations from the werewolf of what that drink was - the Deep One took back his story.
"The arkships were all so damaged by the meteors that they drifted for a while before all crashing in the oceans of this planet. For millions of years, they stayed dormant, unable to deactivate the hibernation because of the damages. But recently, it got even worse: the Y'ha-nthlei was more damaged than the others, and its protection systems were starting to purely and simply fail. If nothing was done, it would deactivate the capsules, and everyone in them would die."
Barry gasped.
"But all wasn't lost yet. As it made a desperate checkup to find a way to solve this, the AI discovered that the meteors damaged the energy generators of the ship in an unexpected way: one of the hibernation capsules, and the guy in it, had been getting pumped full of energy for all these millions of years."
"You?"
"Yep. That's why I can sizeshift like you. How you do that, by the way?"
"Roughly the same."
"Anyway, it managed to awaken me, explain the situation, and tell me the plan. A simple plan: just grow and get the arkship on land, where it could afford to deactivate some systems like the one protecting from the depths' pressure, thus realimenting the others and saving everyone. But..."
Here, the aquatic being visibly looked embarassed.
"It felt so good, so amazing... I lost myself in it and forgot about the rest."
"I know the feeling," laughed Barry. "So that's why you looked so panicked the following day. You wasted time. Speaking of said day, why did you steal that library?"
"It wasn't a total waste, I saw the planet was dominated by a sentient and sapient species, and they probably would not react kindly to unknown creatures."
"Yeah, probably," admitted the lupine giant.
"So the AI told me to acquire a source of knowledge so it could analyze it and thus better know you and negotiate. I took the library - I'll give it back, by the way - because it looked like our own archives of lore and knowledge. I hit the jackpot. The AI got to work and analyzed all its contents, compiling them, assembling what it found and giving me a quick lesson in your society, language, history, culture..."
"And that's how you discovered Lovecraft?" smirked Barry.
"And that's how I discovered Lovecrap," muttered the Deep One.
The trucker chuckled.
"Once it was done, I took the Y'ha-nthlei to the surface. We knew you humans would be wary or even pissed at us, and with reason, but it was a life-or-death emergency. And beside, you have a saying: "Easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission"." Once this was done, I dove back to the position to make sure something wasn't left behind. And... Well, we're here now."
A silence.
"So, what now?" asked Barry.
"Now, to convince your kind we come in peace and to ask help in repairing the arkship, find the other ones and awake everyone. I'll have to talk to the AI, he'll be much better at that than me. Although..."
"What?"
"You'd like to come with me? You'd see by yourself the truth of it all, and having you as a witness would probably help a lot."
"Not extremely sure the word of a giant werewolf would be a big help here. But I'm in."
"Thank you... Uh..."
"Barry," smiled the werewolf.
"Syssim," smiled back the Deep One.


Art by  SpiderDaSquirrel
Color by  Bulgefan
Colored original here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/55016489/
Barry and Syssim © me
Deep Ones © H. P. Lovecraft