It didn't have eyes.
That was the first thing Arthur registered. The head, if it was a head, was a flat dark disc ringed with layered segments that opened and closed like something breathing. No eyes. No nose. Just the mouth at the center, circular, lined with rotating teeth that caught the light and threw it back wrong.
It was tall enough to clear the canopy.
Okay, Arthur thought. Okay. That's a worm. That is a very large worm. Great island. Love it here.
'ARTHUR—'
He was already moving.
The head came down fast and hit the ground where the three of them had been standing and the impact threw loose earth in every direction. Arthur hit the ground rolling, came up on one knee, heard Kreasial's sharp exhale to his left and Theodore's boots hitting soil to his right.
The worm pulled back up. Reassessing. The segment rings around its mouth opened wider.
It felt them. Not saw. Felt. The aetheric fields in the air.
Roz. Arthur didn't say it out loud. Just thought it.
