Summary

Part One, Chapter One titled "The Hunting Ground," begins with a third person omniscient narrator informing the reader about how London had never bothered with feeble prey years prior, ranging far and wide in the Great Hunting Ground of the Traction cities. It had hidden itself away for ten years in what was once the island of Britain but had now returned to the Great Hunting Ground. It was currently chasing after a small mining town that had been spotted during their journey across the land bridge.

The narration shifts to focus on Tom Natsworthy, a Third Class Apprentice of the Historian Guild, one of the four main guilds of London. He is cleaning exhibits in the London Museum when the chase begins and begs his superior, Chudleigh Pomeroy, to be excused to go watch the chase. Chudleigh denies him permission...