Please, just make it quick, Carston thought as he felt the life being squeezed out of him. The monster's broad fingertips were pressing mercilessly upon his ribcage and compressing his lungs so tightly he could not breathe. He struggled in a fruitless effort to push the boulder-hard fingers apart. Bright sparks danced in front of his eyes while the world around him spun crazily. As he felt consciousness begin to slip away he could only think of how this was still a far better way to go than what he had seen Tegu do to other men, but that final thought was interrupted when the pressure was abruptly released and Carston felt himself falling.

He landed feet-first and fell to his side, wheezing and clutching at his aching ribs. The air felt like fire to his starved lungs as he gulped it eagerly. With oxygen restored his head began to clear, the sparks fading and the ringing in his ears dying away. He became aware that he was lying on a leathery surface, surprisingly similar to his old sofa back home, and it was warm, too, as if someone else had just gotten up.

Oh, my god...

Carston went rigid, abruptly halting his desperate panting. The sounds of the forest faded into silence for him. Slowly, very slowly, he turned his head and followed the leathern platform with his gaze to where it split into three huge fingers, each ending in a claw as large as Caston's torso. He swallowed painfully and even more slowly turned his head to the other side, knowing already what he would see.

Colossal and terrifying, devoid of any readable expression, Tegu's head loomed before him. There was no movement save for a steady flexing of its nostrils while air swirled in and then blew out in long, warm gusts. The eyes were cold and reptilian, yet somehow different from any reptile's. Enigmatic. Alien. Trapped in the monster's colossal palm high above the forest floor, Carston was brutally aware that there was no use trying to escape. Tegu would catch him easily even if he did somehow survive the fall. He could only steel himself, waiting for those mighty fingers to sweep inward and crush him like they had the men in the logging camp.

Or worse.

Sweat dripped from his brow. He stared fixedly at the mammoth eye closest to him, his terrified face reflected in the curved surface as if in a funhouse mirror. Eyes positioned forward, his mind fumbled, a predator indeed. Then he noticed that the monster's eyes were not focused upon him but instead at something on the ground below. Bewildered, Carston managed to summon enough strength to crawl backward and peek over the edge of the giant's hand. At the sight of the swarming black carpet of ants he gasped and his hearing returned with a rush, his ears assailed by the harsh clicking of countless tiny mandibles. In mere seconds the two ants who had nipped at Carston's shoes had become a billion ants burying the spot where he had been standing before Tegu had snatched him up.

He shivered suddenly and the muscles at the back of his neck tensed hard. He could not see it, but he could somehow feel the huge eyes behind him shifting, and slowly he turned to face them.

Tegu was peering closely now at Carston. The broad snout hovered only a few feet away from Carston's face, the first warm exhalation blowing over his face and making him to cringe. Trembling, he began to slide himself backward, but the thick fingers rose behind him, the claws curving overhead to block his retreat. He pressed his shoulders back against those fingers and raised one hand up, holding it defensively before him. There was no doubt in his mind that Tegu was about to kill him. He only wished that the beast would stop tormenting him and get it over with. The smooth lips before him parted and with a slick, wet sound a long blue tongue emerged, snaking through the air and slapping its tip against Carston's chest. It dabbed against his shirt, prodded lower, then dropped to brush along Carston's legs, tasting him. Here it comes, he thought mournfully, He's going to eat me.

The great tongue poked at him here and there for several long minutes before it snaked back into the giant's mouth. For a tense moment Tegu did not stir. Carston saw his upraised palm reflected in both of the massive eyes and the sheer futility of the gesture washed over him. He let his hand fall to his side in resignation and drew a deep, and perhaps his last, breath. "At least I got to see you before I died," he sighed.

Without warning the hand beneath him lurched, making him flail for balance, and Tegu's head rose rapidly away from him -- no, he was being lowered. The muscular wall of Tegu's chest loomed before him. Looking upward he saw the underside of Tegu's jaw, and beyond it a canopy of leaves closing in as they swept by. From below came the rhythmic thud of the giant's footfalls, each one jostling Carston slightly. The mighty hand cradled him as he was carried off, leaving his mind whirling with a host of frightening scenarios. Many predators prefer to drag their prey to a favorite spot, a "butcher's block," to be torn apart. Perhaps Tegu had offspring and Carston was going to feed them. The images in his mind only grew more ominous as they moved deeper into the forest, the thick canopy overhead plunging the forest into twilight. More than once Carston thought about leaping off of the huge hand and taking his chances, slim though they might be, but he could not bring himself to dive into the gloom and so simply cowered in the middle of the giant's palm and let himself be carried to whatever fate would befall him.

The forest grew steadily darker as the sun began to set. After what seemed a long time Carston felt himself descending, and then the hand beneath him suddenly tilted, sending him scrabbling and tumbling off of it. He rolled onto a patch of soft vegetation and quickly sat up. Straining his eyes in the dim light he could see Tegu's immense body settling down, the broad chest flattening the undergrowth, a single elbow sinking into the earth as the monster propped its chin in its hand. Carston tried again to retreat but Tegu's other hand swept quickly past him and landed sideways, forming a wall that blocked his escape. "What?" Carston blurted out in exasperation. "What do you want? Are you going to kill me or not? Either get it over with or let me go already!"

Carston caught himself abruptly, startled by his own outburst. Tegu emitted a low rumble behind him and Carston gasped, turning to face him and backing up until he bumped into the monster's hand. "Or not?" he said meekly. Tegu simply stared, his eyes glowing faintly in the fading light. "So, I guess I'll just stay here. Maybe chat a bit. Get to know each other." Oh, for God's sake, pull yourself together. This is an animal. It's either going to eat you or it isn't. Don't waste your breath trying to talk to it.

Tegu rumbled again, a sound like a gathering thunderstorm. Carston cringed, pressing back further against the great hand. "I've been looking for you for a long time, you know. It's really quite an honor. Even if you decide to kill me, I suppose it's still worth it. It's just a shame that I didn't get a paper out of it, though." This is madness. You can't flatter a predator into letting you go. Just stay calm, stay quiet, and don't make any sudden moves. It may lose interest.

Tegu's other hand shifted, moving from beneath the giant's chin and sweeping closer.

Hell, I'll sing to it if it will keep it from killing me! "Nice Tegu...easy now..."

A single titanic claw rushed toward him. Carston tensed his muscles and closed his eyes tightly, waiting to be speared through the gut. Instead, he felt a smooth bulk pressing against his chest and sliding downward. He opened his eyes and peered incredulously as the back of Tegu's finger brushed against him, and then drew back and approached him end-on. The tip of the claw hooked his shirt and tugged, then released it and dragged lightly across his torso. "I don't believe it," he breathed. "You're curious about me, aren't you?"

The finger retreated and Tegu's huge head leaned in closer. Carston heard the moist sound of Tegu's tongue emerging and then felt it butting gently against his shoulder. In the dwindling light its blue color rendered it nearly invisible so that each touch was a surprise that made Carston twitch. He struggled to remain motionless as the damp flesh touched at his arm, then pressed momentarily to his face, then rested for a few uncomfortable seconds against his shorts.

The exploration continued while the afternoon sun faded further, the light beneath the canopy all but extinguished. Tegu's tongue retracted with a quiet slurp and was replaced once again by a finger. Its tip pressed hard against Carston's belly and made him cry out; at the sound the fingertip jerked away and then returned, this time pressing much more gingerly. Carston's head swam. "This can't be," he moaned out loud. "It's impossible. I should be dead." Yet he was still alive, and apparently in one piece. He found himself petting reflexively at the side of the giant finger. "I've got to be hallucinating."

Soon the light was gone. A chorus of insects sang all around them. Carston felt the warm fingers close loosely around him. He was astonished to realized that he did not feel afraid. That itself was madness. An enormous predator had him in its grasp yet he felt absurdly at peace.

Tegu's hand was warm. The darkness was filled with the slow, steady rumble of the giant's breathing. Carston's mind reeled, unable to make sense of the events of the day as they were replayed over and over, and he felt consciousness slipping away.

A fly tickling his nose woke him and Carston sat bolt upright with a gasp. Muted sunlight trickled through the steamy rainforest morning. Birds cackled and quarreled overhead. There was no broken branch, no footprint, no sign at all that a giant had lain there the night before. There was only a small and very befuddled man lying alone amidst the undergrowth. Had it been a dream? The product of some tropical fever?

The sound of water rushing somewhere in the distance reminded Carston of how thirsty he was. He had had neither food nor water since the previous afternoon when Tegu had saved him from being murdered by Dr. Sanchez and his thugs.

Saved? Stop thinking like that. You've got to remain rational. Reptiles act on instinct alone. Besides, you don't even know if anything you saw yesterday was real. Indeed, none of it made any sense. For all he knew it could all have been a dream. He could have been bitten by any one of a dozen well-documented species whose venoms had potent hallucinogenic properties. Dr. Sanchez and the others had probably gone for help.

But if that were so, wouldn't they have left someone behind to watch over him?

Carston shook his head. There was no time to speculate on what was real and what had been imagined. The priority right now was to find water, and then to find his way back to civilization. Climbing to his feet, he stretched out his sore muscles and turned his head from side to side, listening. The sound of the water was definitely coming from his left so he set out in that direction. There was no trail to follow, forcing him to pick his way through the densely tangled vegetation. If only he had a machete!

The sound grew encouragingly louder, and at last Carston caught the gleam of reflected sunlight through the foliage. A few struggled yards later he could clearly see a river, its shimmering surface framed magnificently between two enormous trees sprouting from its bank. Laughing with relief, Carston scrambled through the last of the tangled vines, stumbled between the trees and dropped to all fours at the river's edge. There was no time to worry about the purity of the water. All that mattered was slaking his thirst, and Carston did so quite eagerly. The water was cool and clear and clean. Carston scooped two big handfuls into his mouth and then simply plunged his head in and made a very game effort to drink the entire river down. When he came up for air he was laughing almost hysterically. He wouldn't die of thirst after all, and if he followed the river he would surely make his way eventually to a village where he could send for help.

All at once he stopped laughing and glanced to either side. He realized then that none of it had been a dream. Sanchez was dead. The men in the logging camp were dead. And what he was lying between on the river bank were not trees. With a small cry Carston flipped onto his back and blurted out, "For Christ's sake, would you stop doing that?"

Tegu slowly crouched down over him. Carston cowered as the mighty tail landed before him with a dull thud. The titanic, manlike genitalia descended toward him, swaying ponderously overhead and making Carston fidget awkwardly. The proximity both embarrassed him and made him feel painfully inadequate. He scolded himself for being so squeamish. Animal anatomy was his specialty after all, but...maybe it was because it was so similar to a human's.

Tegu's attention was not on Carston, though. The giant was peering down at the water, his body remarkably immobile save for the slow heaving of his chest. He gave no indication that he was even aware of Carston's presence.

Once more Carston found himself trapped. His back was to the river. Tegu's gigantic feet rested to either side and his tail blocked any escape forward, and above -- Carston just tried not to look up. He busied himself with studying Tegu's legs, mentally noting the arrangement of the muscles and how the hominid calf blended so perfectly with the saurian toe structure. No other creature ever discovered had such anatomy. Carston could have written a dozen papers on Tegu's body structure alone.

After he had remained motionless for so long, Tegu's sudden lunge startled Carston. A massive hand swept downward and plunged into the river with blinding speed and a terrific splash. When it rose again an enormous crocodile was gripped tightly in Tegu's three fingers. Carston watched amazed as Tegu lifted the croc, which easily weighed a ton or more, effortlessly into the air. The croc squirmed and hissed, flinging water about in a frenzied effort to free itself. Unimpressed with the display, Tegu thrust a claw into his captive's snapping jaws and twisted, deftly unhinging its lower mandible. With the croc thus disarmed, Tegu gripped it by the tail, hoisted it high overhead, and opened his mouth. From his vantage point below Carston could see the outline of the croc's body wiggling its way down Tegu's throat before it disappeared.

There was movement in the water behind him. Turning, Carston could see the wakes left by nearly a dozen other crocodiles as they beat a hasty retreat from the shore. He had never even noticed them gathering. There was no way to tell how close they had gotten while he had been drinking his fill like some unsuspecting plant-eater, the kind that one always saw in nature films getting seized and dragged into the water. Tegu had seen them, though, probably had been watching them for a while, and Carston could not shake the disturbing impression in the back of his mind that he had served conveniently as bait for the giant's breakfast.

Tegu's hand swept downward again. There was another splash, a frantic struggle, the crack of a broken jaw and then a second croc vanished, swallowed whole, just like a sardine. A third shared the same fate before the rest moved out of reach. Tegu did not pursue them; apparently three were enough to satisfy his hunger. Carston watched as Tegu lowered his hand into the water, and was caught by surprise as that hand suddenly swept toward him, plowing a massive wave up before it. He did not even have time to hold his breath before the wave crashed over him, knocking him off of his feet and washing him backward. His body thudded against the bulk of Tegu's tail and then rolled forward a few feet as the wave subsided. Sputtering and choking, Carston struggled to his knees and wiped the water from his face. He was soaked to the skin. Baffled, he climbed to his feet and peered up at the giant, who still did not seem even aware of him. Tegu's hand dipped into the river again, scooping up thirty gallons or more of water and raising it to his lips where he delicately lapped it up.

Something flashed at Carston's feet. A silvery fish -- no, two of them flopped helplessly on the ground in front of him. Their mouths opened and closed mutely, their gills straining for breath. Carston stooped and picked one up, and was about to toss it back into the river when he felt the indescribable, inexplicable chill upon his back. Tegu was watching him. He could sense it even before he raised his eyes and confirmed it.

The fish in his hand gave a sudden twitch. "No," Carston said incredulously. "No way. You did not give this to me."

Tegu silently turned his attention back to the river. His hand dipped into the water again. Little silver sparkles flashed in his palm as more of the same sort of fish were scooped up and swallowed along with the river water as Tegu peacefully drank.

Carston felt weak. He stared dumbly at the fish in his hand and swallowed. His graduate students had repeatedly tried to get him to eat sushi over the years but he had always managed to come with an excuse. There could be no excuses this time, and his stomach was reminding him insistently that it had been a long time since he had eaten.

It was not as bad as he expected it would be.

All through his meal Tegu sat over him like a statue, sometimes watching the river, sometimes watching Carston. The giant's behavior was mystifying, defying all logic. Carston refused to accept that the creature's actions were anything other than instinctive. True, Tegu showed the capacity to use rudimentary tools, but so did many other species from primates to birds. Most puzzling of all, though, was Tegu's treatment of Carston. There was no doubt that the giant had no affection for mankind. The slaughter that Carston had witnessed was ample proof of that. The fact that Tegu had not eaten any of the men that he had killed was easy to rationalize: they had not been encountered before and thus would not be recognized, like the crocodile, as a natural prey species. He had made it obvious that humans were seen as a threat, but there was no way to explain why he had taken such an unnatural interest in Carston. Was it his coloration? Some difference in the racial stock that Tegu was able to sense?

You never cut down a tree.

The thought had barely registered in Carston's mind when Tegu's fingers suddenly surrounded him and began to close. "Oh, God, no, not after the fish!" Carston shouted urgently, but it was too late. His breath rushed out in a strangled groan as the giant pinched him brutally and lifted him from the ground. The agonizing pressure was mercifully brief this time; he saw Tegu's palm rising beneath him and was dropped into its center well before he was in danger of losing consciousness, although he was very close to losing his breakfast. The river disappeared from view as Tegu turned away from it and the canopy closed overhead. Carston had the unsettling sensation of floating as Tegu's body became shadowy and indistinct. Even as close as he was Carston could not fully make out the outline of the giant's shoulders, or even the great chest even though it was only inches away from him. He was certain that Tegu's hide was not changing color, but was at a loss to explain how its monochrome surface could be so perfectly camouflaged.

The ride lasted for a long time before Carston felt himself being lowered. The ground rushed up to meet him, but this time he was ready for it and slid smoothly off onto his feet when Tegu's hand tilted. He stood in place while Tegu settled down onto his belly, his enormous body barely disturbing the foliage beneath him. His hand came down behind Carston as it had the previous night, but this time Carston did not feel that it was meant to imprison him. He sat back upon it and tried to relax. "You really are curious about me, aren't you?" he whispered in awe. "It's not really a very reptilian characteristic. What would you like to know?" Control yourself! You're a scientist. This thing can't understand you. Stop anthropomorphizing it.

Oh, shut the fuck up, already! "My name is Carston," he said hesitantly. "Carl Carston. Sounds dumb, I know. My people call you Tegu. It probably doesn't mean much to you."

The huge eyes blinked once, the blue nictitating membrane sliding smoothly across the yellow orb and then back again. Other than that, Tegu made no move.

"Well, not my people. My people...well, I think you've met them already. I saw what you did to them, but I think I understand. It's your home. You're only defending it. We do the same thing when we get infestations." Infestations. Insects. His own words made him shudder. "You need to stop, though. This isn't the way. I can help. They'll listen to me."

Tegu's other hand crept forward. Once again he investigated Carston's miniscule body, his claw tugging at the man's shirt again, the side of his finger rubbing over Carston's flank in a unintentionally rough caress. Carston grunted softly and began to rub back at the thick finger. "I guess you want to know what makes us tick," he said. "I don't think we know ourselves." He winced as the back of Tegu's claw pressed a little too hard against his groin. "I guess I should thank you for saving me, although I don't imagine you intended to. Sanchez, the ants -- although the trick with the crocodiles was kind of mean."

The hand behind him lifted from the ground and came down in front of him, and then began to push forward. "Hey! What are you doing?" He tried to push back but he might as well have been trying to hold back a bulldozer. He was shoved away, stumbling and scrambling and yelping. "Stop it! Not so rough!" Vines tangled around his feet and he fell backward, landing hard on his rump. "Ow! Damn it..."

He found himself in a clearing with bare earth beneath him. His tailbone ached from the awkward landing. Kicking the vines away from his feet he stood and turned around. He felt his heart miss a beat, and then a few more. The sunlight reflecting off the windshield was nearly blinding after the forest gloom and he had to shield his eyes. "Oh my god," he croaked. "The jeep. Sanchez's jeep..."

Whirling, he dashed back into the trees. "Tegu!" he called, sending some colorful birds into frantic flight overhead. His voice echoed in the empty forest. Nothing was there, no depression on the earth, no broken limbs.

Carston had not cried in years, but tears now flowed freely down his cheeks. "You knew all along," he choked. "You knew all along."

The far-off growl of a chainsaw floated through the rainforest. It was followed seconds later by the dull thud of another tree being sacrificed for the country's struggling economy. Carston's blood froze. "Oh God," he muttered. "Oh God, I have to tell them." Stumbling over the same vines, he crashed back into the clearing and sprinted for the jeep, slamming hard against the door and jerking the handle. It would not open. "Locked? Jesus Christ, who the fuck locks his door in the middle of a goddamn rainforest?"

He ran to the other side in the vain hope that the passenger side was unlocked and that the keys would still be inside. Before he could reach it something crashed into his back, slamming him violently down against the hood. His face struck the metal with a loud thud and he felt blood trickling from his nose, and at the same time a cold metal ring pressed tightly to his ear and he heard the click of a pistol being cocked.

Continue to Chapter 4...