The lurker stirred in the shadows and watched as a large winged shape flew over the grounds with a chirp and a whir and settled in front of the ruined gates of the castle.  A shiver of fear ran through the lurker's body.  This was new, this was unexpected.  This might be danger.  The lurker shivered and sighed, alerting the others hiding in the gloom.

Something opened, and a figure crawled out of the insect shape and dropped to the ground.  To the east, a fat golden moon was rising over the trees, illuminating everything with a filmy, ethereal glow, and the lurker saw a man standing there, pale as alabaster his face and hands, all else as black as the night.  A single strand of night-colored hair divided that still, pale face into unequal parts, hiding one eye.  The lurker sighed again.  His coming had been expected.  The prophecy was true.

The man stood there, staring up at the massive stone structure before him, as if unsure what to make of it.  It was dark and silent, obviously abandoned --- he could not know of the lurkers, of course.  But he would have seen it from the air and been curious.  Perhaps it might have reminded him of ... something.

He roused himself from his reverie and crossed the bridge over the dry moat and through the wooden gates hanging partway from their rusty hinges.  Dry leaves rustled across the empty courtyard in a rising night breeze, clattering and whispering in the language of desertion and emptiness.  He slowly walked to the stone steps that led up to the great, intricately carved wooden doors of the main building, and paused there, staring up at the towers that rose behind and above the roofline.  Crenelated battlements surrounded all, still solid after all this time.  The structure was abandoned and in disrepair, to be sure, but it was not crumbling.

The lurker knew that he might have asked in the village about it.  They would have shrugged.

"It's always been there," they would say.  No one ever came near the place.  It had been empty for so long, the villagers might even fear it was haunted.  Yes, the lurker thought with satisfaction.  By us.

The stranger pushed open the unlocked doors and they gave with a mighty groan, revealing a vast foyer flanked by great chambers on either side, and fronted with a majestically sweeping grand staircase that led to split flights of stairs at the first landing, and topped with an elegant balustrade at the top.  An open corridor there led in opposite directions to different wings of the building.  Moonlight streamed through the leaded glass windows high in the walls.  Cobwebs hung everywhere, and all was covered in dust.  The stranger's footsteps echoed against the gloomy stone, and small creatures fled with rustles and squeaks into the deeper shadows.

The stranger stopped at the stairs and turned, his body tensing almost imperceptibly.  He stood still, as if listening, his right arm partially raised.  

"Who's there?" he said at last, his deep voice resonating in the empty stillness.

The lurker was afraid.  But there was no where to really hide, and no way back now.

"J-just me."  A tiny, frightened voice, almost lost in the vastness of the room; the others in the shadows stirred and whispered among themselves.

The man took a step forward, and something clicked with deadly precision.  The shadows sighed and rustled, sinking back into the gloom.

"Come forward!" he commanded, almost, but not quite, aiming the weapon on his arm.

Hesitant and fearful, the lurker detached from the surrounding shadows and edged forward.  The man lowered his arm when he saw how small and unthreatening she was.

"Who are you?"

"I am no one.  Just a lurker."

"What are you doing here?"

"Like yourself.  Looking for a home."

The stranger regarded her.  "Do you know me?"

"Oh yes."  She smiled.  "We know you."

"We?"  He looked around, peering into the darkness and sensing the others that hid there.

"We are no threat to you," the lurker said quickly.  "But we knew you would come one day.  We knew you would come for us.  You ... and the others."

"You know of my friends?"

"Oh, yes, we know everything about you.  We know that you are the last of your kind.  And that you travel the universe in a great living ship that is captained by an ordinary human much like ourselves, and that you are loved by a woman of great passion.  We know all of it.  Our prophecy told us that you would lead the way."

The man dropped his gaze and considered this.  At last he looked at her again, through the hanging lock of hair, and gave his head a slight shake.  "I do not understand."

"You will lead the way," the lurker insisted.  Behind her, others began to emerge into the moonlight, small, frightened, but full of hope.

"To what?"

"To our home.  We wish to go with you."

"You cannot."

"But... we must!  You are to lead us to our home."

He stepped forward, his eyes sparkling in the moonlight with an unreadable expression.  The lurker shrank back a little, frightened, as did the others.

"You cannot come with me," he said.

"There are not many of us.  We don't eat much.  How will we find our home without you?"

He looked around.  "This is your home."

The lurker blinked.  "This?"

The man shrugged.  "Why not?  It is empty.  No one else wants it.  Do with it as you will."

They looked at each other, all the lurkers, dumbfounded.  This abandoned castle, merely a temporary shelter ... their home?  They began to whisper among themselves.

"No one will take it from us?" the first lurker asked.

"Only if you let them," the stranger said, and turning, walked across the foyer, out the doors, and away toward his moth.  The lurkers followed, stopping at the gate to watch him climb in.

"Wait!" the first lurker called.  "Will you come back to us?"

The man paused, looking at them.  Then he said, "If we are not too far away, I will come now and then to see how you are.  To see what kind of home you have made for yourselves."

With that, he closed the hatch to the moth and it spread its wings and flew away, leaving the lurkers --- who would become the mighty tribe of APEC --- watching, whispering, laughing and crying out in joy among themselves, at having found a home at last.