The Lock Ness Dragon …

Haiku

Jedi Master
The evolved form was much smaller than the original. These days they were only 3 meters long, a dwarf of the original of 25 meters. It had changed to support life this day and age. Besides it would be difficult to hide something with that large of a body today without someone noticing them. As it was, they still were seen and even photographed, but the real creature wasn’t what you saw above the water line, it was below.

When above water, all of its fins go flat against its skin, but underwater they are spread out to give the creature multiple control surfaces. There were the fins that come off each eye that controlled right and left turns for the head. There was the cheek fin, they controlled pitch and yaw of the head. The neck fins were multi-purpose. They can give a boost of forward speed and act as the bias between the head and body, so they flowed together. Then there is a single fin that rides from the head to the tail on the back, some of its spines are a half a meter long, when laying down they make it look like the creature has multiple humps on its back. The tail has its own fin and is the main powerhouse for the creature while it swims through the water. The tail muscles have grown in width to give the energy needed to support the tail function, giving it a wide girth when out of the water. The feet are finned too, but they have been reduced to drag control surfaces in water. Out of water they are still functional feet. Bit it rarely, if ever, goes out of the water.

It breaths water, but it can stay out of water for an hour or more if needed, any longer and it will be starved of oxygen leading to death. They are not affected by deep water or being out of water, they can adapt either way, and they can tolerate salt and freshwater environments, but are often found in water that is a mix of both. They like deep water, it is rare that you see one in shallower pool. Their home is deep in some channel with the rest of the dragons, but their predatory nature doesn’t allow them to stay deep all of the time. The hunt fish and will eat many types. Because of this they can be seen as they come up to the surface during hunting events with their fin humps coming out of the water.

In Loch Ness they live in the tunnels that lead back and forth to the open ocean which exit way down deep in the lake. One such exit is right below a shelf in the lake and all of the dragons in this colony know that to stay safe from the air breathers, you were to go no further than the shelf and turn around. Only the experienced would travel any further or those that think they are fearless, the young, Svit was one of those. He was always pushing the limit.

Svit, he was only sixty years old, barely a teenager in is lifetime. He was always going up to the surface. In fact, if you got a picture of the Loch Ness Monster in the past fifty years, it was probably him. He was too young to have his spikes yet, so his head was still smooth. In this colony, if you didn’t have spikes, you were a nobody. Svit was there, between a real nobody and someone with spikes, he wanted attention, but here in the colony, that was not to be. That is why he was always testing the surface and the air breathers. At least they liked seeing him, for some reason.

One day he was up shallow, watching a boat zigzagging on the water’s surface. He came closer, he saw that they were dragging a net, oh and there were two fishes caught in it. He looked at it and figured that this was easy pickings, a lot easier than chasing his own fish down. The net was open in the front to catch fish, although it did have a bottom and two sides. The fish were deep in it. He poked his head into the net, but he was too far to grab either fish. He pushed a little further and got his neck in the net, but he was still a little out of reach. Next, he over did it and bumped the net with his front leg. All of the sudden the net pulled in catching Svit in it, his neck spine was snagged. He pushed a little further to release the spine and drew them back smooth to his body. Suddenly, he breached the water, his head was out of the water now, two men were looking straight at him. He squirted water into their faces soaking their eyes. Water dragons have an element in their saliva that can numb certain areas of the air breathers, like the eyes. The men’s vision all of the sudden blurred, they didn’t even get a picture. All they had was a quick view of the monster and it was gone as Svit wiggled his way out of the net and back down deep in the lake.

His curiosity should be satisfied, at least for a little while …
 
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