Darwin’s Devils

Clockwork Nessie, Part 3

More water shot straight into the air, dousing the ceiling and squirting through the narrow opening.

“There must be a fissure beneath the water.” I spoke aloud to calm myself.

The effect dissipated, however, when the surface boiled and churned as massive air bubbles ascended. I chewed my bottom lip as I surmised a logical explanation.

“Gases from the bottom feeders…that’s all it is.”

Until ‘all-it-is’ suddenly broke the water’s surface and stretched its long neck. Higher and higher it rose until the creature’s head found the beacon of sunshine in the roof.

I flattened myself in the shadows of the cavern’s wall and held perfectly still. I had never seen the likes of such a creature except in fairy tales.

The beast’s head rose to nearly ten feet. Shiny silver scales, decorated with long dripping strings of seaweed, covered the neck. It reared back in a graceful arch as the creature expelled noisy bursts of water through the hole in the cave’s ceiling. The silver head possessed sharp angles where I would have expected smoother, gentler lines. The jaw formed nearly a right angle on either side as it extended upward to the tiny holes that might have been ears or gills. Along the middle of the back, silver and black-tipped bony plates, like the dorsal fins of a shark, paraded the length in ever-increasing size until they disappeared below the water. A few caught and reflected the sun’s light. The dimensions of its submerged parts eluded discovery.

(To Be Continued)