Little bit about some giant worms.
The worms are basically just like earthworms, but compared to Figbert and most other creatures in the forest they are very large. Nobody really knows how long they are because they spend all of their time mostly submerged in the walls of the forest, at varying heights. Due to their ability to move through the dirt easily, they are one of the few forest beings that can go to the surface easily and occasionally bring news from above, although they don’t find it very interesting up there and mostly don’t feel it’s worth talking about. Sometimes if it is really interesting they will keep it to themselves anyway.
The worms are governed by whomever is longest when a ruler dies, and generally rule until their death. Who is in charge usually has no impact on the rest of the forest, unless they are particularly tyrannical.
Worms are a secretive bunch but find it very hard to be quiet due to their size. Anywhere around the edge of the forest you can usually hear the rustle of them moving around as a common background noise, similar to hearing waves when you’re next to the ocean. Often you can hear them talking or whispering to each other, but it is quite muffled and in an odd language. However they are very good listeners, and can speak to most of the other forest creatures, even being used as translators between them sometimes.
Sometimes Figbert tries to enlist their help in seeing the surface but this is very tricky; they are quite slippy and wide enough so that Figbert has trouble riding them, and in order to climb up they must go into the earth quite often where Fig cannot breathe. They do not really go underneath the forest ground as there are too many roots, but occasionally a tree or something will be knocked out of place by one attempting it, or mushrooms may be sucked downwards suddenly as in the Great Funghi Drought under the ruling of Weam the Scourge.
One of the best things the worms have done for the forest is creating an irrigation and fresh water supply system. This started out as an accident when they noticed in the early days of the forest that some of their empty worm holes provided a passage for rain water from the surface to the forest floor. They saw that the forest grew stronger this way, and later created purposeful tunnels between the forest and the lakes nearby when there was not a lot of rainwater available.
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