"Is this place… even inhabited?"
The whisper came from somewhere in the ranks.
Doubt spread like a shadow through the squad, creeping from one wary face to the next.
At the front, Ethan narrowed his eyes, scanning the golden dunes that rolled endlessly ahead.
"Keep moving," he murmured. "There's something… shifting beneath us."
The scouts barely had time to react before a dry, slithering sound rose from the sand.
It was the kind of noise that made your teeth itch—something thick and wet dragging itself just out of sight.
"Everyone, on alert!" Elira snapped.
Even as the words left her mouth, the desert erupted.
A massive tentacle burst from the sand with a shriek of air, slicing skyward like a whip. The stench that followed was sharp and metallic, like blood left too long in the sun.
Shhhhk—
Ethan moved in a blur. A flash of steel carved through the air.
