Xrgl the giant purple worm wasn’t always purple nor was it giant. Hell, it wasn’t even always a worm. At one point, it was merely a worm egg. Bound to its mother’s lower abdomen, it belonged to a species of giant pink worms that traversed the world eating anything in its path, digesting it and evacuating mulch in its wake like an unstoppable train of god. Xrgl came from a lineage of worms that had created forests and canyons and rivers. It was as proud of its family as its little worm brain allowed. Xrgl enjoyed its time in its mother’s egg sac. While it could not see shapes, the flashing lights that peeked through the trees dazzled it.

  But there was a dark period. Xrgl and its tribe of worms were unknowingly traveling through an endless stretch of blackened tree trunks and ashen skies. Worms navigated through sensitivity to light, so for the rest of Xrgl’s gestation, Xrgl was in darkness. For whatever reason, Xrgl’s brain was bigger than that of the average colossal worm. It was able to feel something no other worm could possibly feel. Depression. It was able to experience limited emotions, and even developed a disturbing attachment to its own mother. So much so that upon its birth, it followed behind her wake closely (It would have been a normal attachment for say a mammal, or higher-level reptile, but for a worm, it made the other worms give it the side eye. (You can obviously imagine how hard that is for a worm to do, given their utter lack of eyes. The vermin side eye looked more like the cranking of its head toward the subject it was side eyeing, making sure the other worm saw, and then turning again back toward the direction of the people place or thing it was eating to turn into mulch. (This was lost on Xrgl, and remembered its place among the other worms fondly))).

  Xrgl was happy until its mother died. This lead to a greater depression than any colossal worm had ever experienced, beating the record set by Xrgl themselves, a few years back when they encountered that long burned down forest. Their mother died by the hands of a famous monster hunter who’s name Xrgl could not pronounce because they did not have vocal cords.

  It caused Xrgl to turn blue, which, because of their naturally pink complexion, caused them to turn purple. Xrgl was a worm, they could not stop moving. They needed to eat what was right in front of them. Even if the thing in front of them was their own mother’s carcass. But for some reason it could not bring itself to do that. But there was many ways Xrgl was not like the other giant worms. It felt things. It cared for its mother. It was purple and not pink. Xrgl did something no worm had ever done. It turned around. It jetted back the way it came and started eating everything on its way back. It encountered worms here and there, but Xrgl was moving one way and the big worms were moving in the opposite direction. The time between them passing was too short for the worms to properly give them the vermin side-eye, although many still tried.

  Xrgl had no clue where it was going. And for the first hundred or so miles, all they saw was the same thing they had been seeing. Destruction. Or decay. Or detritus that had been eaten by their mother, them, or other worms. But as the road stretched, it started to pass by the changes the worms had made. Little sprouts popped up. Trees that had taken the place of the worm droppings they had left behind. As he encountered the shapes of trees and forests, Xrgl was careful to trek around them, or if there was no space, under them. Its presence was not going unnoticed. It would change the direction of underground rivers as well as create the perfect spaces for such underfolk as burrowlings or duergars or even ne’er-do-wells to hide in.

  Eventually Xrgl the worm became known by the underfolk as a great savior. A great creator of escapes. Xrgl could not know the effect it had, because going back in the opposite direction was as much running away as going in the forward direction. Soon it had entered a dense forest. The dazzling shapes of its youth reached it again, unknowingly in the spot that had once brought it great pain. The burned down forest from its time in the egg sac had reformed, in part thanks to its mother.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Xrgl felt the presence of someone right in front of it.

  “STOP.” Xrgl did not have ears. How could it hear somebody give it a command? It did not have language. How could it comprehend what the creature wanted? But there the presence was, giving it a command. It was like the creature had chosen to enter the worm’s thoughts.

  “Allow me to show you what the worms had wrought. For only a brief moment, you will see.”

  The creature put his hand on Xrgl, and Xrgl felt a change all around its body. Eyes sprung up out of the head. Then eyes rippled all along the worm’s long tendrilous body. Sprouting big and small in bunches and in singles, through every ridge, ripple, and divet in the worm’s body right to its tail. Light, more than just a binary of on or off, draped around everything. Peaking through the forest, drenching it, highlighting the color. The color! Xrgl could see everything! It could see the beautiful landscapes, the greens of the trees, the browns of their trunks. It could see everything… and then the eyes closed and disappeared, in reverse order from back to front. The last thing it saw was the imposing figure standing in front of the worm, as its final pairs of eyes closed it all it saw was shapes again.

  “Your people produced the land that would be paradise. And paradise… must be protected.”

  Xrgl agreed. It decided it was done moving forward, and it was done moving backward. It would stay in one place. Specifically, under the Lethal lake. In the Unending Underdark of the fourth floor of the Dark Lord’s grounds. It would move through the tunnels, sometimes connecting new ones, rebridging old ones. Trying it’s best to stay out of the other creature’s way. Did it even know it was a mob boss? Did it know it was given the second highest honor? Right under the Floor Lord? Did its limited capacity allow it to understand the higher concepts of status? It was operating on something instinctual. Protect home. And four intruders stood in its way.

  “Really?” Raka asked, “How big of a worm?”

  “And also…” The dwarf asked, “Just how purple?”

  The tightly packed earth below them started to shake. They felt unsafe. unstable. The little beads of pebbles shuddered along the ground as the worm loomed closer. Kip looked around and at Zeke said, “Zeke! Try to stay alive, buddy! Xrgl’s here.”

  “The WORM!” Dwarf said, “The purple worm. The protector of bastards and confidence men! Scallywags would pray the worm traveled beneath them for a quick escape!”

  Kip and the others watched as a large crack formed under Kip, and traveled all the way to between Zeke and Casios. Zeke was still on all fours, watching as blood bled out of his gut. Casios was distracted by the crack and Zeke used the opportunity to swipe at Casios. Zeke knocked Cas in his head. Casios fell backward. Zeke slammed his fist down on Casios and the ground, which caused the divet to grow.

  “Wait!” The dwarf said, “You’ll bring us all down! We’ve got to get out of here!”

  “Use the Hearthcard! Raka shouted to Baela.

  “It’s in my bag!” Baela said as she rushed back into the small room.

  “Well, bloody GET IT!” The dwarf shouted at her, “We’ve got to go.”

  Casios spit up blood from his position on the ground. The spit hurled upward, curved and dropped back down at him, “Scared, dwarf? I thought you liked a good fight. Let’s stay and have more fun.”

  “Aye. I like a good fight. I don’t like a bad one,” The dwarf ran over with his axe and slashed at Zeke. Zeke dodged by tossing his body on the ground next to him. The gaping wound in his gut opened more.

  The shaking was more violent now. Stalagmites were starting to crumble and the parent crack bore children cracks, which bore more children cracks

  Kip looked up at Sal, who had his arms ready for him. Kip ran and jumped, his arms outstretched and grasped Sal’s grip. Sal pulled him up and the crack ruptured. The ground came out from under the four intruder’s feet and they all fell as Xrgl came to protect what it had come to know as its home.

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