A low, resonant growl pulled Ryan out of his thoughts. He slowly lifted his head and saw gargantuan, reptilian feet gripping the earth with black talons. His eyes crawled up the muscular legs like tree trunks, up to the massive heaving chest and short arms with two-fingered claws, to the thick musculature of the neck. Moonlight shone on a majestic mane of feathers shining like shards of obsidian. Ryan looked higher and he saw the behemoth’s head twenty feet in the air. The rectangular jaws opened and closed, tasting the air, and the knife-blade teeth dripped red with blood. The nostrils on the
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