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The cover art depicts a woman's sphinx-like stone effigy within a vast cavern, encircled by dwarves, dragons, birds, and a menagerie of other fantastical beings, all of them sleeping. A digital icon presents a Greek temple set against a mountainous backdrop.

♫ March of the Mon­u­ments ♫

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I enter the cor­ri­dor. My old joints ache, but I never fal­ter in mak­ing my daily rounds, lead­ing me through the secret cor­ri­dor deep into Olym­pus, where a hid­den vaulted hall lies. Here, in a seven-thou­sand-year slum­ber, lie elves, dwarves, drag­ons, gnomes, trolls, uni­corns, the roc, cyclopes, cen­taurs, genies, and guardian angels. They are wait­ing out the reign of humans—uncouth, dim-wit­ted, lum­ber­ing fig­ures who cre­ate dis­or­der and sow dis­cord on the sur­face of the Earth.

Some­times, one of the Ancient Beings opens its eyes, think­ing it is caught in a heavy dream. I then sit by its side and sing one of the old lul­la­bies. It won’t be long now, and the age of humans will come to an end. Once they are gone and the right­ful guardians of the Earth have wiped the sleep from their eyes, my ninth life will finally draw to a close. I will walk through the cor­ri­dor one last time on aching paws, lead­ing the way to show them the hid­den exit from which they can descend from Olym­pus.

Mount Olym­pus: Linking Icon