POV: CRAWLER

  I slowly moved down the pillar to the sand below. Images of a threat closer than the imps flashed through my mind, a ball of twisted shadows. It had stopped us from spreading before, and now I will tear it apart. Reaching the pillar's base, the plates of my tail grate against each other calling out to skitters and worms alike, a promise of hunger and danger. No words were said, but they felt the meaning of the call, and the giant worms around the pillar slowly stirred, moving toward the twisted shadow. Skitters crawled over me and each other as I moved to our target. Opening my mouth, miasma flowed into me; it tasted so different compared to the flesh of imps. As we neared the edge of the black sand and miasma, my mouth closed to keep the trapped miasma inside of me. The white sand beyond the pools was soon stained black as the worms moved under the sand, leaving trails behind that I and the skitters traveled along.

  I knew the worms would turn back and try to eat me if they didn’t get their feast, but the twisted shadow should have grown stronger since it last attacked. Their near-endless numbers should be enough to satisfy them while I will take the heart of it. I closed my mouth as we left the miasma; the constant feeling of it fading felt wrong and made the skitters restless. If the worms felt anything, they didn’t show it as I could make out 5 distinct trails in the sand. Some of the bigger worms turned back before we left the miasma, but this number should be enough. Behind were smaller worms that followed, hoping to get some scraps from the giants.

  Walking across the trails and further away from the pillar had some skitters going back along with some smaller worms. The more segment skitters followed along across the other trails, and none of them had returned yet. I understood the smaller ones, as it felt wrong to leave their home for this empty place where enemies could constantly attack, but this was the only way to grow, to eat good. I barely remember being a worm, but I knew the blood of my enemies had brought change, allowing me to stand up to even the giant worms. They could eat me whole, but I could tear them apart from the inside before I died, and they knew it, too.

  Finally, the black ball was in sight, hovering over the white sand. Under it was a massive pool of thrashing shadows. It hadn’t changed from the last attack, but it had grown in size or very least brought all the twisted pools under it. We didn’t see any coming here, making it harder to find it besides following the direction it originally was. Some of the worms were slowing down, making several skitters on their trails climb on top of me. ‘As if I could save them.’ I thought before focusing on the ball. It wiggled like something inside was trying to escape, and as the worms got closer, the wiggling grew faster. The pool underneath it was the same, but the sand around it shook as the taste of imps flowed out of it. The slow-moving worms charged the pool as some sand flew in the air as spiders jumped out of the sand.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  3 worms ignored the spiders and charged into the pool, feasting on it while the rest fed on the spiders that failed to stop them. Hunger pangs filled my mind as I watched the worms feast and the skitters charging to eat some spiders despite the risk of the worms. I held myself back the best I could as I watched the ball in the sky as specks of flame appeared and faded along it. ‘In the images, the ball attacked before we could reach the pool, but now it's simply staying there watching the worms eat it. Why?’ That thought was the only thing keeping me from attacking myself, and the larger skitters were the same.

  The flames pulled to the center of the ball, releasing a wave of heat that stopped the worms and skitters underneath it for just a moment. The skitters that had survived the spiders and worms crawled toward me as the worms surfaced, lifting themselves out of the sand and trying to reach the ball of shadow. Before any of them could get the ball of shadow, the flames inside it shrank, and a wave of light cut through all of us. The pain cut through me as I felt the light eat away my shell, making me collapse. The light finally faded as soon as it came, allowing me to see several smaller skitters dead, larger skitters rolled up in balls, and worms writhed in blue flames as they returned under the sand. In the pain, my legs had failed me, dropping me to the ground and leaving me twitching as I struggled to control myself to stand up. My body under the shell struggled to reform to fill the empty shell.

  The flames from the worms had spread to the pool, burning the spiders until they were just puddles on the sand, and the ball of shadow had shrunk to half its size. The ball of fire was missing from its center and it had stopped wiggling. I got back onto my legs as the larger skitters unrolled from their balls, and I started to move forward. The worms underneath attacked the pool again and I saw a faint trail of darkness flowing from the pool to the ball as it struggled to stay in the sky. It bobbed up and down as the darkness was fed into it, and probably in time, it would return to its previous size, but as I reached the rim of the pool, I released the miasma I had inside of me all at once.

  The miasma flowed out of me, spreading and slowly dissipating until it touched the trail of darkness. The trail darkened as the miasma thickened around the trail and quickly climbed up to the ball of darkness. As soon as the miasma reached the ball, it was engulfed in blue flames. I watched as the ball finally fell to the sand away from the pool and the worms. I moved toward it as the skitters joined the worms on the feast of the pool with the worms. The ball fazed through the sand without disturbing it leaving behind blue flames as it burned.

  With the worms and skitters busy eating away the pool I followed the burning ball of shadow as it tried to run under the sand but with each step I took was another piece burned away from the shadow. Eventually the fire burned it down enough that it stopped running and tried to fight the flames that were eating at it. The tendrils on my front dug into the sand and wrapped around the wiggling thing as it burned. It shunk down to half my size and my tendrils crushed it down until it could fit inside of me. It fought but that only made the flames surge adding extra flavor as I devoured the ball of tasty twisted shadows.