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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 1 of 2))
In the photo of the town, there were numerous buildings--or the remains of them, at least--and this Beast of Lorent, whatever the hell it was, looked comparable in size to most of them.

It made him think of the worms in the Undercrust.

But it couldn't be another one of those. He could make out an occasional limb in some of the shots. And while it did leave some noticeable trails of destruction in its wake, there were no obvious signs of sludge.

Plus, he wasn't even certain that worms could survive on the surface. It might've been too cold up here for them.

'Hmm,' mused Garovel privately as he examined the photos from over Hector's shoulder. 'Yeah. I can see why they think this thing isn't human.'

'Could be some kind of crazy mutation user,' said Hector.

'Or something else,' said Garovel.

That made Hector curious. 'Do you have any guesses?'

'A few. But large monsters on the planet's surface are rare, especially in the more civilized regions of the world like this one. Historically, extremely dangerous creatures were often hunted to extinction by one group of servants or another. In retrospect, it's enough to make modern scientists or environmentalists cry, but it was for everyone's safety. In my view, that is. I'm sure it's difficult for many modern people to relate to the experience of being forced to live in constant fear of horrific monster attacks.'

'I never learned about any of that in school,' said Hector.

'Really? Hmm. Well, in fairness, I'm talking about VERY ancient history, here. Probably aren't too many physical records of this stuff left.'

'Damn. So... this monster REALLY shouldn't be here, then.'

'Pretty much.'

'Where could it have come from?'

'Good question. Let's hear what else the ambassador can tell us.'