How can my creature keep sand out of its mouth?

Excerpt from the great Dalian Holy Book

"The Dark God, the Tayan, was first formed when the gods above sent a curse down to the surface, to remind our people of our dependence on our gods. If the Tayan is not fed, it will rise from its slumber in the underrealm and devour the Cosmos"

I have been working on a creature lately, called the Tayan. It is a biologically engineered being, created by an amazingly advanced civilization to be used as a torture device. Creatures the sizes of Earth bears can be swallowed whole and land in the Tayan's stomach, where they are slowly digested over 5-30 years in agony.

Digestive System

The Tayan, during its adult stage, is immobile and waits for prey to fall into its sand trap. The sand trap is angled in a way so that when a creature tries to climb out, the sand crumbles away, and they fall into the Tayans mouth. Inward pointing, slippery teeth make sure that prey can't climb out, and its tentacles, mostly its main tentacle, help drag prey down.

Prey falls into the Tayan's throat. A muscular flap separates prey into one of two stomachs. Larger prey goes into the main stomach, smaller prey goes into the secondary stomach. Once inside their respective digestive chamber, prey is held back by tentacles to the Tayan's stomach walls, were needle like tendrils inject prey with a paralyzing neurotoxin, that also causes intense pain. Prey wearing synthetic clothing can not be injected with neurotoxin.

Digestive juices slowly eat away at the prey's skin, until they resemble skeletons, with only their nails, hair and (sometimes) eyes still (mostly) intact. Full digestion takes 5 years in the main stomach, and 30 in the secondary stomach. Prey is alive during this entire process, as the Tayan injects their brain with nutrients, and acts as a biological dialysis machine. Intelligent victims have their consciousnesses saved by the Tayan, and essentially become one with the monster, living out the Tayan's 10,000 year lifespan with it.

Here is a visual representation for your convenience. My main character is in the secondary stomach

So, now that we have that out of the way, let's cut to the chase. The specific Tayan in this drawing lives in a semi-arid climate, were sand storms often hit, and when prey struggles to get out of its mouth, sand falls into its mouth. The Tayan cannot digest sand at all, and if too much sand fals down its throat and into its stomach, it would die. So, my question is how could the Tayan keep sand out of its mouth?

posted over 6 years ago

DT Cooper‭

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