Outside stretched a valley of scorched sand and broken earth, where the sun blazed without mercy, like it had forgotten how to set.
In the far distance stood the colossal skull of a long-dead godbeast, half-buried in the dunes. Seven hollow eye sockets stared blankly at the heavens. Bones. Jagged and sun-bleached. jutted from the ground like broken spears around its base.
A flock of pale-winged scavenger birds nested in the hollows of its cranium, feathers stained with dry blood. One of them let out a shriek and took flight, the others following, disturbed by something unseen.
Below the skull, in the shallow basin of the valley, lizard-like creatures moved on two legs, hunched and sinewy. They tore at a carcass. its limbs stretched wide, half of its skull caved in. A few snapped at each other, fighting over gristle and cracked bone. Others chewed without pause, red dripping from their jaws.
Then, one froze. Its head twisted unnaturally to the side.
