The sun hung low over the desert, casting long, sharp shadows across the cracked earth. Kai surveyed the damaged Goose, his mind already racing through a list of repairs. The truck had barely survived the leyline descent, and now it was stuck in a desolate canyon.
"Alright, team," Kai said, wiping sweat off his brow. "We need parts and shelter, and we're going to find both out there." He pointed to the vast dunes ahead of them, where the sand stretched endlessly. "Echo Dunes are a few clicks away. We'll find what we need, then head back to patch the Goose."
"Sounds great," Tessa said, pulling her crossbow from the back of the Goose. "Just don't expect me to like it." She gave a nervous glance over her shoulder. "I don't know about you, but something feels off. Like we're being watched."
"I'm picking up something on the radar," G.A.I.L. piped up from the truck's systems. "Multiple signatures. Not human. Not anything I've encountered before."
Kiri, who had been staring out into the horizon, spoke up. "I feel it too. Something's out there. Be ready."
They started walking across the sand, the wind whipping the loose grains into the air. The dunes seemed endless, and the oppressive silence was broken only by the occasional crackling of G.A.I.L.'s voice.
As they ventured deeper, the song began.
It was faint at first, like a distant whisper carried by the wind, but it soon became unmistakable—a haunting, melodic tune that echoed through the dunes, reverberating from beneath the sands. It was a sound both beautiful and eerie, like the wind itself had learned to sing.
"Is that... music?" Tessa asked, narrowing her eyes as she listened.
"It's not music," Kiri said, her voice low. "It's a call."
"Call for what?" Kai murmured, sensing danger in her tone. He instinctively reached for the controls in his pocket—the distress beacon just in case.
But it was too late.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them rumbled. The sand shifted and heaved, and from deep below, something stirred. The song became louder, its eerie cadence turning darker, more frantic.
Then, with a violent eruption of sand and earth, a massive form burst from the ground, its body rippling with scales that shimmered like liquid crystal. A Chorus Wyrm—a serpentine creature with wings made of sharp, resonating sound—emerged from the dunes with a deafening roar, its elongated body coiling around itself in the air like a storm.
"Kiri, what is that?" Tessa yelled as she raised her crossbow, aiming at the creature.
"It's a Chorus Wyrm," Kiri shouted. "They're attracted to vibrations—sound. And they're not friendly."
Kai cursed under his breath. "We need to move fast. Tessa, take a shot when you can. Kiri, can you target its weak spots?"
"Working on it," Kiri said, her eyes scanning the creature. The Wyrm's long, segmented body twisted in the air, glowing with strange energy that pulsed in time with the song it was producing.
The air around them vibrated, warping the space between them and the Wyrm. The sound it emitted was nearly deafening, like a thousand voices shrieking in unison. The sand around them began to shift and tear apart, as though the very ground was being consumed by the creature's resonance.
"Everyone, move!" Kai shouted, throwing himself to the side as the Wyrm lashed out with its tail, narrowly missing him.
Tessa fired a shot, a bolt aimed directly for the creature's head, but it seemed to dissipate mid-flight as if the sound itself was breaking apart the projectile before it could make contact.
"Magic-resistant scales," G.A.I.L. noted. "Standard weaponry will be ineffective. Suggest using the Goose's internal weapons systems."
"Too late for that," Kai muttered, glancing back at the truck. "The Goose is still down."
Tessa let out a frustrated growl. "Then what the hell do we do?!"
Kiri, her face grim, pointed to the ground beneath them. "There's something below us. The Wyrm wasn't attacking for no reason. We need to stop it before it destroys everything."
Kai looked down, his heart pounding. "What do you mean, something below us?"
The sand seemed to vibrate again, and suddenly, it shifted. Beneath their feet, something began to emerge from the sand—an object, buried deep, glowing faintly with energy. As it slowly rose, the air around them hummed with an ancient power.
The Wyrm screeched, sensing it. Its roar intensified, the sound waves becoming a nearly physical force that threatened to knock them all off their feet.
Kai pushed past the panic rising in his chest. "We need to get to that object, now!"
With a leap, he scrambled toward the glowing item—half buried in the sand. He could feel the Wyrm's resonant energy growing stronger with every passing second, but he ignored it. His hand closed around the object—smooth, crystalline, and glowing with blue light.
The moment he touched it, the sand beneath him trembled. The Wyrm let out another horrific, sound-warping scream that nearly knocked him to the ground. And then, with a sudden flash of light, the object began to project—a map.
Flickering, fractured lines of light painted themselves into the air, casting eerie shadows across the desert. Strange symbols and ancient language filled the space before him, along with instructions—complex and fragmented—that made no sense at all.
"What… what is this?" Kai asked aloud, trying to make sense of it.
"It's a Founder device," Kiri whispered, her eyes wide. "This map… it's showing us a route—a way forward. But… why would it be here?"
Before anyone could respond, the Wyrm let out a final shriek. It lunged forward, a massive coil of sound and fury, and then it struck.
Kai scrambled to his feet, clutching the Founder device. "Back to the Goose, NOW!"
The team barely had time to react before the Wyrm slithered toward them, its form disintegrating the sand as it dove into the attack.
Tessa fired a bolt, but it was useless. The creature was too fast, its scales shimmering like a living sound barrier.
"RUN!" Kai shouted, pulling the device tight against his chest as they sprinted back toward the wrecked Goose.
They dove into the truck, the Wyrm hot on their heels. The sand trembled beneath them as it closed in. As the Goose's engines roared to life, Kai slammed the throttle forward, barely avoiding the Wyrm's strike. The truck lurched forward, barely able to keep up with the powerful resonance that chased them.
Inside the truck, the map from the Founder device flickered again, showing a path leading somewhere deep in the desert.
As the Wyrm's screeching faded behind them, they all took a moment to breathe—just as the truck rattled, warning lights flashing.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Kai muttered.
"We've got what we came for," Kiri said, holding her breath. "We need to study this map. It might be our way out of this nightmare."
Tessa's eyes were narrowed. "If we live long enough to figure it out."
"Let's hope so," Kai said, scanning the desert. "Let's hope so."