A small, black-slicked creature was hauling its way in short, soft, grass-cracking bursts of movement through the reeds. A pull of bizarrely-long forelimbs dragged its foot-or-so-long-body a full foot over the marshy earth, where it lay for a moment as those same legs then felt their way forward for a new perch. It was a strange, jerk-and-go movement, unhurried but certainly not smooth, and eerie in the manner of something sickly or unnatural.

The creature itself appeared to be eyeless, and black--reptilian, if one were to ignore the muddy stone ridge on its head or the points at its tail, or the bizarre forelegs.

At last he slipped with a quiet splash into a black water-channel, and then bobbed to the surface, the spiderlike forelegs tucked to his side and his oily hide only barely visible. There he lay, rocking to and fro with the faint current, watching with an empty predatory keenness for any passing prey small enough to snag.