Adventure of Tarran 1

The dragon-bone spear shrieks in the grit. Ash jumps. From below, the ground splits as a blind worm bursts upward, vast and pale, its ringed maw tasting the air for dragon essence.

Tarran stands over the collapsed warden, the torn apparition thinning above her. The Cultist recoils in her grasp as the worm coils toward the glowing throat-scent it hunts.

The new worm turns its blind head toward Tarran, spined body heaving through ash. It opens wider, not striking yet, but ready to lunge for the spear, the glow, or anything near it.

The Cultist goes rigid in Tarran's grip as the worm's shadow falls over them both, and the spear keeps trembling like a song begging to be swallowed.

Tarran snaps down on the worm's exposed flesh, and the ringed maw jerks wide with a wet shudder. Ash sprays outward as the body bucks under her bite.

The Wound-Eater convulses, then collapses inward, its long shape vanishing in gulps of jaw and throat. The glow at Tarran's throat flares brighter, held fast.

The remaining coils whip free of the split earth, but the monster is already failing, dragged down by Tarran's swallowing hunger.

The dragon apparition shivers overhead, its torn edges thinning into smoke, while the dragon-bone spear lies forgotten in the ash.

Silence returns in broken breaths, and the smell of salt, blood, and scorched earth hangs around Tarran as the last of the worm disappears into her.