Day 4 – Discovery or Deception?

The man lying beside the first sculpture for scale—Tomás, a local artist and amateur paleontologist—rose to his feet, brushing the dust from his jeans. “It’s ready,” he said with a smirk. The others, a mix of students, volunteers, and curious locals, applauded lightly. But not everyone was convinced.

“Are we sure this is art?” asked Dr. Elena Myles, a visiting paleobiologist. She had been called in by the mayor after rumors of a “gigantic fossil creature” had spread online. “If this were real, it would be one of the largest known aquatic reptiles ever discovered.”

Tomás chuckled. “It’s as real as you want it to be.”

It turned out this wasn’t just any sand sculpture. Tomás had been sculpting detailed, lifelike representations of prehistoric creatures into dried lakebeds for years, using only natural sediment, water, and sculpting tools. This latest piece—an Ichthyosaur-inspired monster—was his most ambitious yet. But something strange had happened.

While preparing the ground for the sculpture, Tomás unearthed a smooth, stone-like object embedded deep in the soil beneath where the tail would be. At first, he thought it was just a rock. But under the light of his headlamp, faint markings—like etchings or symbols—were visible.

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Day 5 – The Hidden Chamber

Intrigued, Tomás and Elena returned early the next morning. With careful digging, they uncovered a square slab—a stone door? As they brushed away the mud, a hollow thunk echoed beneath it.

It wasn’t just a sculpture now. It was a site.

When they finally managed to lift the slab, a narrow shaft dropped beneath the lakebed. They shone their flashlights into the dark. A series of carved steps led into a chamber that had been hidden for what could have been centuries.

Elena descended first, followed by Tomás. Inside, they found fragments of pottery, a bronze tool, and most astonishing of all—a fossilized claw, embedded in a sedimentary wall.

“It’s not from the sculpture,” Elena said, voice shaking. “This… this is real.”

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Day 6 – Viral Frenzy

News spread like wildfire. What began as an art piece went global. Headlines screamed:

“From Art to Artifact: Prehistoric Find Hidden Beneath Sand Sculpture.”
“Accidental Discovery May Rewrite Local Paleontology History.”

Tomás became a sensation—not just for his sculpture but for unearthing a real, undocumented fossil site.

But not everyone was celebrating. A shadowy group known as The Order of the Deep Earth began showing up near the site. They claimed the chamber had been sealed for a reason—and that opening it could awaken something older than time.