Benthos

by Aurash

Venture, if you dare, to deeps of the Leviathan Trench, where shadows waver and the undertow churns, powerful, inexorable, a relentless swell that threatens to drag you forever into the depths.

There is a legend here among the deeps, a legend like many others, a legend of something - or someone - ancient and powerful, a dark shadow cutting through darker water, in search of--something.

They call her a monster, a threat, a shadowy presence to keep unruly hatchlings from straying too far from the protective wings of the clan. Treasures untold have disappeared in a swirl of bubbles and flashing gold jewelry, never to be found again. Coins dropped are whisked away on an unseasonable current; fish hooks dangle loose and baitless when the fishers turn their backs for a moment.

A queen of the deeps, she is vast and unknowable, a bright-eyed ghost who keeps to her own devices, who hoards shells and jewels and shiny things in caves hidden at the very bottom of the ocean, where undefinable Beings drift lazily, gargantuan shadows who could swallow you whole without even noticing. This is her realm, her solitude. She needs nothing of other dragons, with their chattering and their fussing. They are blind to the beauty of sunken treasures, of pearly shells and salt-bleached bones half-buried in golden coins, of rubies and emeralds and sapphires sunk to the ocean floor. They don't appreciate them like she does, and so she takes it all.

by SeaCrest
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