She slipped through the time curtain as she had before and she could smelled the prey.

     She was old and lame now. Once, long ago, she had hunted and competed with her own kind but a battle with the alpha female had left her crippled. They had expelled her from the group and she would have died but, by chance, she had found the fold in the time curtain. There the prey had no predators, other than themselves, so they were easily taken and never missed.

     She saw the tiny boxlike place in which she knew from her previous hunts, that the tiny creatures would be inside. Sometimes the time curtain let her through onto whole colonies of the creatures all in their little boxes all crammed together. This time it was just one. It would not satisfy her hunger but it would help to ease it.

     A movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention, two of the tiny creatures were coming towards the box and she bent and scooped them up and into her mouth. The juice from them caused her to realise how hungry she was, it had been too long. She lifted off the lid of the little box, the sharp cross on its top dug into her paw and she hesitated. The little creatures rushed out running this way and that and she hurried to scoop them up before she lost them. A few did escape but she didn't worry, there would be plenty more.

     She ambled across a patch of plants that hurt her paws from where even tinier creatures flew up into the sky. She swatted a few but then they were gone. When she reached the large collection of boxes the little creatures appeared to rush towards her before she began to scoop them up. When she did they seemed to scuttle away but she managed to catch them.

     The two flying things attacked her causing pin prick stings and even light blows that annoyed her. She swatted one and picked the other out of the air and pulling it apart, found two of the tiny creatures in it. She popped them into her maw. Then she began crushing the little boxes and picking out her prey.

     The War Council called an emergency meeting and decided that all they could do was to send the Chief of Staff to tell the Prime Minister that they were powerless in the situation. He, in turn, called an emergency Cabinet Meeting, they decided to evacuate London and that was all. All except the Agricultural Minister, a young man, suggested the mad idea to collect up the domestic animals from the countryside and place them at the Horror's disposal. As he said to the P.M., it beats eating people. The P.M. approved it. He then went home. At least he was taking some action, however silly it was - but he didn't sleep well.

     During the night the Agricultural Minister organised enough people to commandeer and purchase every cow, pig and sheep the army could get its hands on. When the dark period was over and she had digested and rested she awoke to find herself surrounded with a different kind of food, food on four legs. The trouble was that as she reached for them, unlike the little bipeds, they scattered and stampeded. She didn't pursue them, now she was no longer hungry, she was sated.

     All she wanted now was to slip back through the time curtain, back to her home. She retraced her steps and waited until the time was right and the curtain allowed her to slip through but she knew she would be back.

     The tapeworm that had been killing the pig stretched, finding herself with so much more space inside the intruder. She would be able to grow more rapidly now. This, she decided, was the place for her to lay her eggs.