Watching the hatching of a great tree-dwelling venomous tentacled land-devil has been field-scientist Aran Romeu's dream for as long as he can remember. And if land-devils are the most dangerous creatures known to humankind, and this whole thing might be a set-up from someone who wants to kill him, and there's a very good chance neither he nor his research assistant and best friend Istvay will come out of this alive … well, he and Istvay have never let something like that stop them before.