In the quiet depths of the worldforest, the time had come for the worm hive to hatch. Exuberant, Estarra dragged her brother Beneto through the forest. They hurried in the brightening dawn out to the dense thicket far from the fungus-reef village.

Beneath the embrace of the whispering canopy, the jungle stirred around them. Beneto kept his hands outstretched, so that he remained in contact with and attuned to the overall forest, brushing his fingertips against the armored trunks.

“It’s just up here,” she said. “You’ve never seen a worm hive so large!”

Beneto smiled at her. His eyes were half closed, but he walked without a single misstep, without tangling himself in the undergrowth. “You’re absolutely right, little sister—the trees have told me the hive will hatch within an hour.”

She ran ahead, and though Beneto didn’t seem to increase his pace, he kept up with her, not even breaking into a sweat.

From the best viewing spot, Estarra looked up to stare at the papery structure. Beneto leaned against a worldtree so he could watch through his own eyes as well as the senses of the forest. Small butterfly-things twirled in the air. Estarra waved her hands to brush them away, but none of them bothered Beneto.

Suspended on the worldtree trunk, the grayish white hive pulsed like the disembodied heart of a huge organism. The pupating worms had finished their hibernation and were ready to emerge to the next phase of their lives.

She heard a clicking, chewing sound and knew the giant worms were stirring through the tangled passages of the nest, questing for an exit after digesting the body of their now-useless queen. “Beneto, do the trees hate these worms because they’re parasites that cause damage?”

With a calm smile, her brother rested a palm against a scaled trunk. He sent the question into the intricate mind of the forest, though he already knew the answer. “The trees say no, little sister. Hive worms are part of the natural order of things. These parasites are no more malicious than most—and they are useful in their own way.”

“You mean by leaving their empty hives for us to live in?” The papery wall bulged outward as the shadowy tubular forms of worms prepared to break out.

“More than that. You will see in a moment.” Beneto ran his fingers along the tree bark, continuing his telink. “Ah, here. It is time.”

The hive wall split open, and a mouth ringed with teeth probed into the air. More heads broke free, writhing like snakes in a disturbed nest. The hive worms spilled outward, their segmented bodies plated with a thick purple armor. Dropping to the ground like eels in flight, they plunged headfirst into the soil, chewing into the forest loam like carrion eaters burrowing into rotten flesh.