The dune split before she reached the top.
The sand shoved outward from below, as though the surface had finally been reminded that it was only a surface and had taken offense too late, and something forced its way through the hole.
It was a worm. It was also enormous.
Each segment of its body was wide enough that she could have parked the truck on it and still had room left over. Its surface was pale and scaled where it broke into open air, catching the sourless light the way wet stone does.
It was already moving when it emerged, body curving out of the sand and back in again thirty meters ahead, the whole thing in one continuous motion, like a problem that had somewhere to be.
"What in the actual fuck," Nyx said.
She said it with genuine appreciation.
