Excerpt from my short story "Fury World"

As the planet shook, the creature stirred. It’s massive body, wrapped around the planet’s core like a dog warming it’s belly by the fire, began to expand and contract as it flexed long dormant muscles and tendons. It took stock of it’s extremities; countless tendrils, each many miles long, spread far and wide throughout the planets mantle. Their tips rested amongst underground caverns and fissures, drawing in moisture and minerals that were, for the most part, impossible for any drill to exploit, although a small percentage of the creatures appendages did come within reach of the surface. Still, it had no desire to go up there. It was cold, and barren on the surface. No, it would not travel to the edges of its world. Not unless it had no other choice.

Many years ago, they had come. They had dared to come to it’s world, to change it for their own needs, and to walk upon it as if it was their own. The first time, it had not been ready for them, and once the terra-ships had left, it seemed that their activity had become minimal. The creature, though angered, allowed them to remain. For now. If they respected it’s world, it would respect them.

Years later, the ships returned, and the creature remained idle no longer. It extended a tendril and plucked the Tau Ceti out of the sky as though it were a child’s toy, but it allowed the other ships to flee, returning to it’s eternal slumber. A warning, then.

But now, they returned a third time. Had they no value for their own lives? Was it’s world so important to them? There were other worlds, uninhabited worlds, ripe for the taking. But they chose to return here once more. It had lain here for millennia, waiting for another of it’s kind to make contact. Perhaps it was the last, it did not know. But there was one thing that it did know - It would no longer tolerate these pathetic mortals to walk upon it’s home, to change it, to pile their waste upon it, to build their structures and land their vessels. They would pay the ultimate price for their transgressions. The creature, enraged, began to dig.