There was a rumble in its depths, a Hunger that trembled the earth around it, and teeth--jagged like clustered razors--grinned with awareness. Ancient muscles, stiff from slumber, stretched and rippled across its massive cramped frame. Long toes, tipped with sharp claws the color of midnight, bent and pushed against loose rocks surrounding it, encouraging them to slide and tumble free from the surface walls of the weakened chamber it was in. Fingers that could curl into themselves like rolling tumble weeds, also flexed within its confines--joints popping and claws scratching at granite that had once been a flowing bed of magma. Eyes, so white even darkness could not dull them out, slowly drifted open like a cluster of fluttering fireflies and finally took in its surroundings. What had once been an almost endless cavern, was now nothing more than a shallow grave. A guttural sound, much like a trill, echoed up from its depths,...