Ani, or the care and feeding of your great tree-dwelling venomous tentacled land-devil

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.