Denizens of the Deep (A lakeshire story)

[Teclis]

Calandria lay by the edge of the water looking at the piles driven into the silt. They would form the supports for the town's docks. Already so much had been done and now what was once a barren area of rolling hills and forest was becoming a town.

The young wizardess was a bit bored by all the mundane matters around her. Courdenay had ridden out with a patrol each morning and left her with no one who was interesting. She had wanted to go with him, but Courdenay had refused telling her she must remain behind to protect the workers while he was gone.

Calandria looked down at the water and suddenly had an idea. She would summon a friend from the water. She knew a spell for summoning a powerful water elemental, but that wasn't what she wanted. She was after something with more than water for brains. She was going to try to summon a water spirit or creature from the lake.

Clandria had a gift for feeling the fabric of magic, adapting the spell for summoning a water elemental to a spell for calling out to a creature in the water would just require some subtle manipulation.

She began the spell, looking deep into the water, she could feel the wetness, sense the currents. Her consciousness went down into the water searching for creatures. Her eyes glazed over and suddenly the color and the pupil disappeared to be replaced by an ocean playing across the surface of her eyes.

She searched the water for what seemed like an eternity, although it was actually only a couple of minutes. Finally her vision returned and she blinked away the haze to see in front of her a creature that was shocking. It looked similar to a lizard man with some obvious differences. Gills were visible on the side of it's neck and a crest almost like a fin ran from the top of it's head down the center of it's back. It's too large eyes were double lidded and entirely black.

"What are you?" she asked. It turned it's head sideways and spoke, showing a mouth full of razor sharp pointy teeth. "Sa-ha-gin", it said. The voice was totally unexpected, almost a splashing of water where a hissing would be expected. It blinked it's too large eyes a couple of times then as if reacting to some unseen signal, turned and swam back down into the water and out of sight.

Calandria thought about him the rest of the day and decided tomorrow she would try to summon him again. She also decided to tell no one about him.