Primeval Abroad
Chapter Ten
It was now one day after the first sighting of the Santa Cuz sea serpent. According to Connor, the creature's feathery gills told him that it was descended from the greater siren, an carnivorous, eel like amphibian, the largest in modern day America.
But that wasn't what was important, what was important was finding the creature and either getting it back through its anomaly, or destroying it before it killed someone. That morning, Abby and Connor were among the first people to grab their snorkels and hit the water. Nick and Rex were being looked after by Pedro. The waters around Santa Cruz were beautiful, brightly coloured fish were everywhere, and the local penguins and sea lions were quick to take advantage of them, shooting around in the water like torpedoes. Below it all, a huge manta ray glided just above the seabed.
It was beautiful, but Abby and Connor knew that they could not stay and admire it. While the rest of the snorkelers admired the manta ray, Abby and Connor swam a fair distance away from them along the shore, looking for the Santa Cruz sea serpent and its anomaly. For a while, they found nothing except for seaweed, small fish and at one point, a marine iguana. But then, just as they were beginning to think about getting back to the boat, they stumbled across a flock of galapogos penguins. This would not have seemed unusual had Abby not noticed something about the penguins' behaviour. Grabbing Connor by the arm, she righted them both and took out her mouthpiece so she could talk to him.
"Connor, those penguins"
"What about them?" said Connor.
"Look at them" said Abby, putting her mouthpiece back in. As she and Connor went back underwater again, she pointed at the penguins.
At first, Connor noticed nothing unusual about them, then he realised that it wasn't the penguins themselves that Abby was pointing at, it was at something beyond them. In an area of water just behind the penguins, there were loads of fish swimming about, but for some strange reason, the penguins weren't going near them.
"Do you see what I mean, Con?' asked Abby when they surfaced again.
"Yeah I do" said Connor.
'Why wouldn't they attack those fish?" asked Abby.
"Let's find out" said Connor.
Swimming past the penguins, Abby and Connor soon discovered the reason for their reluctance to harvest the fish. As they neared the area where the fish were, they noticed that the previously cold water was becoming warmer and warmer. The warm water appeared to be coming from behind a nearby headland bordering a lagoon.
Abby had a feeling that the anomaly was responsible for the flow of warm water, and she started on her way around the headland. But then suddenly, Connor grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her back.
"Con, what the-" began Abby, her speech slightly muffled by her mouthpiece. Connor placed a finger to his lips signalling her to be quiet before taking her further along the headland. Soon the reason for Connor's actions became clear. The fish scattered as an olive ridley turtle shot out along a stream of warm water. It was followed immediately afterwards by the fanged maw, yellow eyes, feathery gills, fish like fins and sinous body of the Santa Cruz sea serpent. Connor held Abby until the sea serpent was well on its way after the turtle, then he let her go.
Quickly, Abby and Connor swam around the headland. As they did so, they were emersed by the warm water flowing from the anomaly directly in front of them.