A Lanky appears from the patch of churning soil on the ground and wails another piercing distress call into the sky. It moves as if it’s trying to scramble back onto solid ground. When it’s almost out of the restless patch of earth, a fountain of ochre-colored earth sprays up, and something very large and very fast yanks the Lanky back into the dirt. I get a brief glimpse at something that looks like a hook or a pincer, slender and glossy black like the hull of a seed ship. Then the Lanky is gone beneath the ground again, and its wail is cut off abruptly. The soil ripples for a few more
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