Syless Coil-Hunger dragged her long body through the wet jungle, hunting the old one. She wanted its scales. She wanted the immortality inside them. She had not found a single track in days. She crushed ferns and snapped young trees as she searched. Behind her, the jungle showed a flat road of broken green, a wide trail of nothing found. Every hour she wasted, the old one heard her coming. Then she saw it. A long furrow split the jungle floor, deeper than any river cut. Trees lay snapped at the roots. Something huge had passed through here, dragging its weight across the ground. She followed the furrow and found the body. A giantess lay broken in the mud, her gray skin torn open, her ribs pulled wide. Something massive had fed here and left the rest. Syless touched the cold wound. The old one had been close. Hours, maybe. She lifted her head and tasted the air. The blind search was over. She had a direction now, and the old one had a head start.