Carston's heart felt like it was going to explode from his chest as he ran but he had no time to worry about it. Even though the beast could cover twenty yards at a stride, its leisurely gait was such that the distance between pursuer and pursued remained unchanged, no matter how much desperate energy Carston willed into his legs. Somewhere in his whirling thoughts he imagined that he was being toyed with, that somehow the beast was deliberately matching his pace. Anthropomorphism, he thought. You know better than that.

Blood roared in his ears, punctuated by the slow, steady boom of the giant footfalls ahead of him. Carston could see only its legs stretching up toward the canopy; the rest of the creature was camouflaged, a shadowy outline that wavered maddeningly like a reflection in a pond, tantalizing yet always denying a clear view. At one point his quarry's pace quickened subtly, leaving Carston gasping and scrambling wildly to keep up, and then it slowed again, allowing Carston to close the gap between himself and the pounding feet, but only to a point before they began once again to outpace him. "God damn it!" he wheezed out loud. "Stay still!"

They did. Carston almost fell over his own feet as he struggled to stop and ended up collapsing, breathless, against a tree trunk. The mighty legs towered over him but seemed to vanish into the backdrop of the canopy. Here and there a shadow, a glimpse of a forelimb that appeared and vanished just as abruptly, the suggestion of a tail snaking high over his head.

Tegu!, Carston's inner voice stammered. Tegu! I knew it! Out of habit he fumbled in his empty pockets for a notepad while he strained his eyes upward and whispered frantic notes to himself between pants. "Immense. My God! Impossible. Can only see the legs. Stance is digitigrade, feet are tridactyl, but...Jesus, I could swear that they're homiform above the ankle."

He suddenly noticed that there was no sound other than his own and realized with a cold shock that the giant might be listening for him. Covering his mouth to hide his breathlessness, he pressed himself more tightly to the tree trunk and made ready to bolt if the shadowy figure above should suddenly lunge for him. The huge legs remained facing away from him, though, and then abruptly started forward again. Their gate was different now, slower, more deliberate, each foot settling to the earth with barely a whisper of an impact.

Clearly the creature was stalking something. Me? a part of Carston's being said in alarm. Perhaps, said the rest of him, as the mental warning was politely accepted and filed away for later reference. The scientific passion that had gotten Carston into so much trouble so many times in the past had now seized complete control over him. Patience and caution were things to worry about some other time. Before him loomed the discovery of a lifetime -- no, of a thousand lifetimes! -- the very organism that Carston had been pursuing through contempt and ridicule for the whole of his academic career. To be killed by it now seemed a perfectly reasonable price to pay for just one clear glimpse.

The legs crept nimbly through the forest, with Carston scurrying along close behind. His brain desperately recorded every detail it could even as he cursed the loss of his notepad sometime in the midst of the wild chase. At least he did not have to sprint any longer and could catch a few eager gulps of air now and then into his burning lungs. He marveled at the grace with which the giant glided through the trees, making less noise than even Carston's own comparatively tiny footsteps. Never before had he seen a more magnificent predator. If only he had thought to snatch his camera from his pack before tearing off to chase his discovery before it got away.

No. The camera was gone. The pack had been sitting on the ground behind Dr. Sanchez when he and his two cronies were killed. Tegu had crushed them all flat with one colossal step and continued on, never pausing, never indicating that he had even been aware of the insects who had blundered into his path. It had happened so swiftly that to Carston it might just have been a dream, the images swept away by the thrill of his amazing discovery. Now, though, the horrific reality flooded back with a force that staggered him, and at that moment he came to the end of the woods.

He had seen this before. A vast field of naked earth stretched before him like a gaping wound in the heart of the jungle. Torn soil and short-cut stumps lay everywhere. This time, though, the machines stood upright, plumes of exhaust huffing from their stacks. Men were everywhere, some on equipment, some in the doorways of Quonset huts, others on foot. They all turned together and looked up, and saw what Carston now saw for the first time. Sweet Jesus, Carston thought, he's a hominid. A hominid!

Then Hell broke loose.

Tegu's feet fell with loud crashes as he strode forward, no longer needing to be silent. He had caught them unaware as he had intended, and though they now ran for their lives he overtook them with ridiculous ease. Carston watched from afar, motionless, eyes locked on the grisly scene. Several of the men fell to their knees and cowered pitifully as Tegu paused over them and looked down, then raised a foot and, in a shockingly purposeful gesture, brought it crashing down on them. Their final screams were carried through the distance to Carston's ears a half second later until the thunderous impact silenced them forever. Tegu had already moved on, his head turning from side to side as he zeroed in on his targets and brought his foot over them. His legs pumped in a careful and deliberate rhythm, intentionally stamping his victims flat as a city-dweller might annihilate a swarm of cockroaches.

The men appeared to be just that as they scattered before the wrath of the giant. Tegu crouched and leaned forward, his tail rising behind him for balance as he reached forward. Thin shrieks rose from the men as Tegu's hand came down in their path and drove them backward, herding them into a tight cluster before surrounding them. The great fist rose into the air and closed tightly; a red cascade splashed to the ground below before Tegu glibly flung what was left away and reached for another handful, and then another, and another.

The screams faded away after a few nightmarish seconds. Stunned, Carston watched as the giant stood, turned, and -- unbelievably -- wiped his hands upon his belly and legs, leaving long red smears. Tegu's gaze swept over the encampment and fell upon two closely-spaced Quonset huts. Squatting beside them, he shattered their roofs with a fist and then fished about inside. He plucked a wildly howling figure from the wreckage and silenced it by pulling it apart. A second was simply tossed to the ground and crushed into jelly beneath a thumb before Tegu stood and turned slowly around to assess the destruction. Here and there a few tiny men were rolling on the ground or trying to crawl away. Tegu spotted them and carefully ground them to death beneath his foot, one by one, and then turned his attention to the machinery. Heavy trucks were twisted like putty between the giant's clawed hands. Tractors and bulldozers weighing tons spun crazily as they were kicked through the air. The crash of metal and the roar of exploding petrol echoed like a thunderstorm over the forest.

And then it was over. Carston gasped and stared, then rubbed his eyes and stared harder. Smoke rose from numerous small fires. Hardly anything left behind could still be recognized as human. Of what had caused this sudden and brutal carnage there was not a trace.

Struggling against the choking odors of smoke and fresh meat that hung over the clearing, Carston made his way into the ruined camp. Everywhere lay the red and pulpy remains of men, their bodies reduced to roadkill. Those who had died beneath the giant's foot were little more than bloodsoaked clothing, the rest of them having been pressed into juice by the impossible weight. Carston winced as he inched toward a pile of corpses that lay, brutally entangled, where Tegu had dropped them after squeezing the life from them. The faces that were intact reflected the unimaginable agony of that last moment as the great hand clenched.

"Why didn't he eat them?"

Carston found himself muttering the question out loud. Hadn't the animal that had attacked the camp been a predator? Surely it had acted like one. It made no sense. An animal would not kill for food and then leave the meat untouched. Why, then? Rivals? Wolves were known to kill foxes and other smaller carnivores in order to eliminate their competition, but something this size was unlikely to view something as small as a man as a contender. He had seen its teeth. Undoubtedly they were those of a carnivore.

Something troubled him, though. The teeth. He tried to fix the image of them in his mind but found that he could not. Had he really seen them? He was certain that he had, but...

...but he also had not. He had seen Tegu clearly in an open field in the bright afternoon sun, but the shock of the creature's savage attack had stunned him. He had watched the events, but his horror- numbed brain had failed to record the details. As hard as he tried he could not form a clear image of the creature. He was a blur, a shifting shadow, a hole in Carston's memory that he knew only was shaped like a man.

Angrily he kicked at a piece of wreckage at his feet. He had run himself near to death, and gladly would have run those extra few steps, hoping only for a clear view of the marvel that he knew as Tegu. The opportunity had been presented to him on a fine, fancy platter and he had blown it, allowing years of scientific training go down the toilet while he stood and gawked like a common yokel at the scene of an auto wreck. "God DAMN it!" he bellowed. "This is all your fault." He stabbed a finger toward the silhouette of a man pressed into the ground at his feet. "You just had to get in the way, didn't you? I had to look at you, didn't I?"

The man on the ground did not reply. Carston groaned and mopped at his brow with his forearm, then turned his gaze toward the trees amongst which Tegu had vanished. Slowly his hands balled into fists. "I've come too far," he growled. "Too far. I'm not letting you get away now." He drew a deep breath and then bounded into the woods. "You will NOT get away from me, you bastard. Maybe you'll wind up killing me too, but I'm going to get a good look at you first."

His voice rose to a shrill, determined cry that sent colorful birds fleeing through the canopy overhead. He drew strength from it as he charged through the woods, trying to follow the giant's trail. For something so large, Tegu was annoyingly difficult to track. Carston had noticed it during his initial pursuit. The jungle vegetation would be compressed as each massive foot sank into the ground but would spring back quickly, leaving behind only a vague depression that was nearly impossible to differentiate from a common dimple on the landscape.

Worse yet, the light was fading. The sun's slanting rays were penetrating the thick canopy less with each passing minute. Carston stopped and leaned his hand against a tree trunk to catch his breath. Tears of frustration burned behind his cheeks. What was he doing? In the artificial twilight beneath the canopy he could barely see where he was going, let alone pick up his quarry's trail. Chasing Tegu into the night would do no good. He would fall and break his neck or get eaten by a jaguar or something equally unpleasant, without ever having a clear look at the creature. All of his work would be wasted. No, it would not do. There was enough light filtering through the foliage for him to find his way back to the camp. He could probably manage to find enough shelter in the ruins to survive the night, and perhaps even find a radio or cel phone that had not been smashed and call for help.

Without warning the tree against which he was resting was torn up by its roots and swept away. Carston was left off-balance and fell forward into a shallow depression, landing atop a springy bed of jungle vines. He raised his head in time to see not tree-roots, but a huge and familiar foot rushing away from him, only to land in the dim distance with a low boom. It dawned on him suddenly that the bark of the tree had seemed oddly warm to his touch.

"Oh...you...you son of a bitch!" With all thoughts of retreat and rescue cast away, Carston clawed his way to his feet and charged off after the receding leg. He gasped out a half-growl, half- chuckle at the absurdity of his situation. "You were playing with me, weren't you, you bastard?" he panted as he once again pursued the giant's footfalls, which as before seemed to remain maddeningly just out of his reach.

Let me see him. Please, God, just let me see him once.

His eager prayer was answered. All at once he broke through a tangle of branches and stumbled out into an overgrown clearing. Sunlight streamed down through a broad gap in the overhead canopy, its appearance so sudden that he was momentarily dazzled. He stumbled and shielded his eyes with his hands. It only took a few seconds for his vision to adjust to the light, and when he lowered his hands he let out a startled gasp and fell back, scrambling behind a tree at the edge of the clearing and peeking shakily around its trunk.

Tegu loomed before him in the center of the clearing. There were no distractions this time, nothing to stop the eager scientist from devouring the data that flooded into his awestruck eyes. Anxious not to waste this precious second chance, Carston stared hard, playing his eyes over every inch of the mammoth and unbelievable creature's back. A bipedal stance, just as he'd noted previously, with a narrow waist rising to broad shoulders muscled precisely like those of a man. Horn- like growth's protruded back from the elbows and from the top of the head, and as Tegu turned in his direction Carston saw for the first time the saurian muzzle. He felt a wave of dizziness and fought it down, terrified that his giddy excitement would cloud his vision. There was too much to see, too much to commit to memory. More than ever he longed for his camera. A dinosaur's head perched on the shoulders of a man -- how could he hope to preserve a mental image of something that every ounce of reason told him could not possibly be real?

A low rumble emanated from the giant as he turned his body fully toward the concealed scientist. Carston caught his breath when he noticed heavy external genitalia swaying between the mammoth thighs. He recalled the heat that he had felt in the "tree." "You're warm-blooded, aren't you?" he whispered in awe. He watched as Tegu scraped a three-fingered hand across an itch on his chest, then dropped his gaze and began to rake at the ground with his toes, quickly clearing the undergrowth away. "Reptilian appearance, warm blood...my beautiful dinosaur's son," Carston breathed. He leaned further around the tree and opened his eyes wide, as if by doing so he could channel more data through them. "Tell me more," he pleaded. "Please, tell me more."

Tegu leaned down and prodded at the earth with a clawed finger, then tucked his legs and sat down with a deep thud. As the sound of the impact died away Carston heard a strange clicking sound, like a thousand castanets chattering away in the distance. Tegu's legs and lower body started to darken, his skin literally crawling.

No, not his skin. It was ants -- millions of them, swarming in a dark wave over the giant's hide. "Eciton burchelli," he said softly. Army ants, or a related species. He watched in fascination as the insects flowed across Tegu's hide and gathered upon the glistening red stains that were left from the attack. Tegu himself seemed nonplussed, and in fact began to croon in apparent contentment, his eyes slowly drifting closed. Carston took advantage of that to steal his way out from behind the tree and creep around behind the giant, where he felt he had a better chance of observing without being discovered. The moment Tegu spotted him Carston knew he would be a dead man, but that seemed a trivial detail. All that mattered to him at the moment was learning as much as he could about this newfound species.

The ants spread across every inch of Tegu's body, sheathing him entirely from head to toe, and then began to dissipate. Carston inched forward and ducked behind a tangle of vines, from where he could watch the giant's mottled hide re-appearing from beneath its coating of insects. Where blood and meat had soiled the skin not a trace remained, the tiny helpers having cleaned every scrap away. Minutes passed as the swarm flowed down off of Tegu's legs and tail, and finally disappeared completely into the earth beneath him.

Carston had seen this sort of behavior before in birds, which were known to bask in swarms of ants and even apparently to enjoy the attention. No doubt such a bath left their feathers as prim and tidy as the hide of the creature before him now. Tegu sat motionless, eyes closed, breathing in a deep and slow rumble. Carston thought that no doubt Tegu had fallen asleep in the bath -- the notion brought a whimsical smile to his face -- and he decided to retreat into the woods and perhaps circle around to the front again. As he shifted his left foot he felt a sharp sting at his ankle. Looking down he saw one of the ants latched onto his sock, its vicious mandibles sunk into the fabric. Alarmed, he brushed it away with a swipe of his hand, and then noticed a second one crawling atop his shoe. He dispatched that one as well and cast about for more.

All at once he realized that the afternoon sun was not shining as brightly upon him. He looked up in time to see a gigantic, three-fingered hand descending so quickly toward him that he did not even have time to scream.

Continue to Chapter 3...