Sea Monster (Patreon)

The cruise ship sat at anchor off a small group of islands. Little did the passengers know but the crew were in disarray. The Magenta 2 had passed through a bank of fog in the night and the the ship’s navigation had shut down for two hours and eleven minutes. When it came back on about an hour before dawn they seemed to be lost. None of the charts matched what their navigation equipment was telling them. The captain made the decision to stay where they were until they could figure out where they were and make contact with the local authorities. The passengers were to be kept in thee dark about this turn of affairs for the time being in order to prevent panic running through the ship.  

It was just after breakfast and the decks were loaded with sunbathers and swimmers when the first sign of the monster came. There was no warning, just a rising dome of water appearing in front of the ship. There were shouts of alarm from the bridge and from the bow. The dome kept rising and spreading. Passengers started to scream. The dome kept rising. Alarms sounded. The dome of water was now twice as high as the deck and the water began to shed from whatever was driving it up. At first you might suppose it was an island breaching, like a great smooth rock, but as the form continued to rise and water kept shedding from its surface two gaping holes appeared… nostrils! The form kept rising and from the ship two crags with huge horizontal slashes here seen, and coils of matted dark material like lava flows. Hair in braids and eyes tightly  shut. Finally a huge horizontal cut. A mouth. Which opened and took in a deep  breath, drawing all the oxygen from the air. They had wandered into dangerous waters.