Queen of the Sandworms
Chapter 15: The Invasion
...
Beetlejuice bunched his legs higher up as the leech creatures began slowly crawling up toward him. Beetlejuice gripped the tip of the bone tightly with his body and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the end to come-
Suddenly, He heard a screech and opened his eyes. Beetlejuice turned and saw Edgar rising up from the ground, causing some of the leech creatures to be shoved away in a wave of sand. On top of Edgar's head, rode Lydia, in her Sandworm disguise. Edgar arched his body over the army and toward where Beetlejuice was. Lydia brought out her spear and quickly jumped on the tip of the rib bone Beetlejuice was on.
She swung her spear at the creatures. The creatures hissed and snapped their needle-like teeth as they tried making contact with her flesh. Lydia fought the leeches as they came close to her and the striped clad ghost. "Go!" shouted Lydia as she attacked the perolayx. Beetlejuice looked over to Edgar, who had his head close to where he was.
Beetlejuice felt a sudden stab of fear hit him as he stared at Edgar's head close to him. "Go!" Lydia shouted. Beetlejuice shook the fear from him as he curled his legs underneath him, then sprang forward toward the Sandworm. Beetlejuice landed on Edgar's striped snout. Once Lydia saw Beetlejuice off the rib bone, she stopped fighting and leaped toward Edgar. As she was soaring through the air, she went down and grabbed the back of Beetlejuice's collar, and pulled him off Edgar's snout.
Beeteljuice yelped as he was pulled off and ended up on the back of Edgar. Lydia landed next to him and screeched to Edgar to leave fast. Edgar lifted his head up and screeched back; then he moved backwards and slid back into the hole he created and disappeared. The dark perolayx screeched and hissed angrily as they dove into Edgar's tunnel and chased after them.
Beetlejuice pressed his head down against the Sandworm's skin and held on for dear life as they zipped through the Sandworm made tunnels. He squeezed his eyes shut from the dirt and debris as it hit him in the face.
Lydia's Sandworm hood fell off and her hair whipped through the icy cold winds in the tunnel. She turned her head when she heard the strange high screeching sounds of the perolayx.
She turned back and screeched to Edgar to lose them. With that, Edgar whipped his tail up against the ceiling of the tunnel. His strong, sharp tail pierced through the ceiling, causing the soils and rocks to come crashing down behind them. The leech creatures screeched when they noticed the tunnel beginning to concave in on itself and tried warning the others to turn back, but it was too late.
The perolayx ducked and dodged through it, but the sands continued to pile up on top of them. The sounds of the leech creatures rang through the tunnels along with the sounds of sands crashing into sands, then gradual silence. Dust snaked through the tunnels after the three as they continued through the multiple tunnel system.
Beetlejuice opened his eyes and smiled from what he heard. "You did it! they're gone!" he said and looked over to Lydia. His smile faded when he noticed Lydia with a stoic expression on her face as she stared straight ahead, not giving the striped clad ghost a mere glance. Beetlejuice closed his mouth and slowly looked away from her.
The two rode on the back of Edgar in silence as the Sandworm slithered through the tunnels back to the nest.
...
Once they made it back, Edgar arched his neck from the tunnel above Lydia's room down, acting as a slide. Lydia slid down Edgar's back and into her room. Beetlejuice did the same and walked up to her. "Lydia, what's-" he started.
Lydia abruptly turned to him, stopping him in mid sentence. "What were you doing out there in the middle of the graveyard?" she asked. Beetlejuice's eyes widened. Then he furrowed them a bit. "I went out looking for you! You can't just go out on your own without me!" he said.
"I can! You don't need to be with me every single second! I can take care of myself!" Lydia snarled. Beetlejuice flared his nostrils. "Yes! I know! But you put yourself in greater danger by going out there and making me worry about you! Why didnt you tell me you were going out?" he asked.
Lydia pointed at Beetlejuice's chest. "You were sleeping, I didn't want to disturb you, and if you didn't notice: My clan needed food to eat! The perolayx are ruining all the small jungles and eating every last thing across this planet!" she shouted angrily.
Beetlejuice sighed in frustration as he rolled his head back. "How many times do I have to tell you?! They are not your clan-!" "Yes they are, Beetlejuice! they are my family! I need to help them or we will all die-" Lydia shouted over him. "No!" interrupted Beetlejuice as he gripped her shoulders and looked into her cold, unfriendly eyes.
"You will die if you continue to stay here! Don't you see? You have been here for more than a couple months and you now think you are a Sandworm!" She raised her hand to smack his hands away from her shoulders, but he grabbed it and raised her hand to her face.
"Look! Do Sandworms have hands?" he asked her. Lydia glanced at her pale, fingerless gloved hand, then looked back at The Ghost with the Most, trying to figure out where he was going with this. "Do Sandworms feel love?" he asked as he laced his fingers into hers, still staring into her eyes. Lydia's hard face seemed to soften a little as they stared at each other in silence.
"You are not one of them...you are a human girl, who is best friends with a ghost, who takes you on adventures, and helps him get out of the messes he makes," he said as he smiled a small smile. Lydia didn't say anything as she listened to him.
"You don't belong here...Lydia Deetz...Please..." his voice faltered for a minute when he felt his thraot closing up. "Please...come back with me," he said in a soft voice. Lydia could see his emerald green eyes beginning to fill up with tears.
She was quiet for a moment. Not saying anything. Finally, she opened her mouth and was about to say something, but then all the sudden a loud series of cries were heard down below. Lydia gasped and moved away from Beetlejuice toward the edge of her room and looked down toward the Nest.
Below, a whole swarm of perolayx are seen spilling out of one of the Sandworm tunnels like a plague of rats and starts attacking the Sandworms. Lydia and Beetlejuice gasp in horror at what their eyes were seeing. Sandworms coiled and uncoiled in fear. Interlacing and tangling amongst themselves as they tried to flee away from the sea of squirming black leeches as they jumped through the air by the thousands and attached themselves to the striped snake bodies of the Sandworms.
Most were seen getting away through the tunnels as fast as they could with a couple perolayx on their backs, drilling into their bodies. Lydia screeched loudly and was about to jum, but Beetlejuice quickly grabbed her before she could plunge toward the chaos below.
"What are you doing?! Are you crazy?! If you go down there those things will kill you!" he shouted. Lydia flicked away from him. "I need to help them!" she said angrily. Beetlejuice shook his head. "They can help themselves, Lydia. Right now, you need to think of yourself and find a way to get out!" he said.
Lydia narrowed her eyes, then she looked over to the Sandworms and watched as some were able to get away, while the rest squirmed and screeched in pain, pleading for their queen to save them. Lydia closed her eyes tightly and turned it away. Their cries still ringing in her ears till it was only the sounds of the perolayx tearing the black and white flesh away with their powerful teeth.
Finally, Lydia looked out again and cried out a strange cry in Sandworm. The cry echoed through the whole Nest and through the tunnels. Then she turned to Beetlejuice with the scariest glare he had ever seen her give him. He took a step back.
Just then, Edgar appeared behind her. He climbed on without breaking the stare from Beetlejuice. "Come," she said in a low voice. Beetlejuice hesitated, then started to move when he felt the whole Nest shake and the sounds of the leeches getting closer. He climbed on Edgar's back. Edgar moved his head out of the room, then snaked all the way up to another tunnel and slithered through it. The glowing rocks tumbled and crashed around them as they went through.
Edgar made a new tunnel, making Lydia and Beetlejuice to press themselves close to his back as he rose up to the surface and stretched his body up into the air, then gradually came back down gracefully. Beetlejuice and Lydia jumped off. Their bodies were covered in a layer of dust and mixed sands but they didnt care as they stared at what was left of the Sandworm clan. There were around less than two hundred of the clan. The Sandworms interlaced through each other, crying out in fear.
The sky had turned a cold bluish purple and the sun was nowhere to be seen, only a fine gold line along the horizon of the planet. The multiple moons were seen floating in the sky, along with the scar that revealed a patch of the Neitherworld. Beetlejuice stared up at it and sighed as the cool winds teased his messy blonde hair filled with sand.
Then he turned back and saw Lydia talking to the Sandworms in their language. He watched her as she gestured to them then upwards. Beetlejuice narrowed his eyes in concern. He came up to her when the Sandworms departed. "What did you tell them?" he asked her. Lydia looked over to where the Nest was located.
"I told them that we must keep going...and to not look back...We lost many friends and family members...but they will always be remembered in our hearts..and live on amongst the stars..." she rose her hands up, then gradually dropped them. Beetlejuice was silent as he stared at her back. The she turned to him, her jet black hair swaying in the wind.
"We need to find a new place to stay. The whole place is almost invaded with the perolayx... They breed like crazy and we can't defeat them..." Her eyes narrow angrily as she lowers her head. Beetlejuice thought he saw tears in her eyes. She cared so much for the Sandworms...now they had no home...no place to go. Beetlejuice started to come up to her, but stopped when she lifted her head up.
"But...you gave us a solution to our problem, Beetlejuice," she lifted her head up. Beetlejuice did as well. His face became more white. The scar in the middle of the sky. The rip in the air that connected both worlds. A doorway to the other side.
"L-Lydia-!" started Beetlejuice, but Lydia interrupted him and pointed up at the scar shaped rip in the periwinkle sky. "We must find a better place, a place without the perolayx eating us out! We are going to rise up! We are going to leave this place and head up to...The Neitherworld!" Lydia shouted at him. The Sandworms behind her threw their heads back and cried upwards to the gap.
Beetlejuice eyes widened. "Wh-what?! The Neitherworld?! Lydia-!" he started as he approached her, but stopped when she gave him a creepy glare. "And you can't change my mind, Beetlejuice. This is the only way I can save my kind," then she turned and started walking away from him. Her tattered disguise trailing behind her like a limp tail. Beetlejuice's mouth opened and closed like a gapping fish. He couldn't believe what he was hearing!
"Lydia! You are talking crazy talk! What about your friends?" he asked. She kept walking. "What about Jock and Ginger! and the Monster across the Street?!" Beetlejuice tried again, reminding her if she forgot. Lydia's walk seemed to change as she slowed, then shook her head and picked up again. Beetlejuice followed right behind her, trying to make her remember again.
"You know the Neitherworld wont be able to handle the Sandworms! The Sandworms-!" Suddenly, a loud sound was heard from a good distance away. Instantly, an eruption of black came spewing up from all the Sandworm holes, like geysers. The perolayx came by the billions. Their teeth glistening in the remaining sunlight and coming toward them like an ocean of black ink.
Beetlejuice screamed, but was drowned out by the scared cries of the perolayx. Lydia turned to the Sandworms and screamed a Sandworm cry and pointed upwards to the scar shaped gap. Without hesitation, the Sandworms craned their necks and bodies upwards toward their only hope of freedom. Lydia jumped on Edgar's head and offered Beetlejuice a hand. "Hurry! We dont have much time!" she shouted. Beetlejuice grabbed her hand and climbed up on Edgar's head.
Then, Edgar lifted his striped head upwards toward the scar shaped gap. Up, up and up they rose. Higher and higher till they were within arms reach. Beetlejuice looked down one last time at the surface of Saturn. No more was it covered in the amber gold sands, but the dark, squirming black, oily bodies of the perolayx. Like an evil shadow across the whole surface of the planet; it looked like there was nothing left of the planet, except for its own ring...