Sand viper

Pluto VIII went pale for a minute at the sharp command, but, in what was
probably a show of false courage, he gave the grip starter a good twist.
Uranium fuel sent pale flames spouting from the boosters, and the bike shot
off in a cloud of dust. It stopped almost as quickly. The engine was still
shuddering away, but the wheels were just kicking up sand. In the dazzling
moonlight, his atomic-powered bike was not only refusing to budge an inch
despite its five-thousand-horsepower output, it was actually sinking into the
ground. “Dammit all,” he hissed, “a sand viper!”

The creature in question was a colossal serpent that lived deep in the
earth, and, although no one had ever seen the entire body of one, they were
said to grow upwards of twenty miles long. Frighteningly enough, though
the creatures were said to live their entire lives without ever moving a
fraction of an inch, some believed they used high-frequency vibrations to
create fragile layers of earth and sand in thousands of places on the surface
so they might feed on those unfortunate enough to stumble into one of their
traps. These layers moved relentlessly downward, becoming a kind of
quicksand. Due to the startling motion the sands displayed, those who set
foot into them would never make it out again. To get some idea of how
tenacious the jaws of this dirt-and-sand trap were, one had only to watch
how the five thousand horses in that atomic engine strained themselves to
no avail. For all the bike’s struggling, its wheels had already sunk halfway
into the sand.

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