Cressidor Blan-Virgine had to admit that the dawn over Eliot Lake was beautiful. Set high in the Kestrel Highlands, the lake was set against a backdrop of ragged mountains, sharp peaks of gray-black stone speckled with stands of deep green-blue firs and the brighter green of oaks and maples, beneath a sky lit in brilliant shades of gold, violet, and pink. All of it was reflected in the lake's crystal-clear waters, cool and deep, so deep that some people claimed they were bottomless. That reflection was, moreover, broken up here and there by skiffs of fog, trailing of fingers of mist that lit up with the dawnlight themselves, giving the lake a mysterious, wild appearance that made it easy to understand how and why tales of "Ellie," the serpentine lake monster, had become popular in the nearby village.

Therefore, it must be understood that when Cressidor opened her mouth wide in a loud and long yawn, it was not at all due to boredom, despite ten-year-olds not necessarily being famous for their patience.

"Grandpa, why do we have to be up so early?" she asked.

Cress's dog echoed her with a sleepy woof. Shuck, too, was more of a night owl by nature. Barghests were, after all, the legendary "black dogs" that stalked the moorlands and hills by night, a chilling omen of doom to any travelers ill-fated enough to meet them beneath the moon. Or at least doom to any pork jerky those travelers might have been saving for a snack later. Shuck was a good boy, but the fact that he was closer to six than five hundred pounds suggested that he was a bit on the spoiled side.

"Because that, Cress dear, is when the fish get up."

Cressidor pursed her lips, giving her Grandpa Blan's answer serious thought.

"Grandpa, I don't think that fish sleep at night."

"Well, fair enough. But different breeds of fish do get hungry at different times during the day. That's why a fisherman needs to get up with the sun and not come back to shore until the moon comes out if they want to have the best chance at a good catch."

"I don't think Mama will be happy with us if we stay out on the lake all day."

"I think your mothers are looking forward to spending some time together without the rest of us underfoot," her grandfather demonstrated why they'd called him Savvy Sauvi in his youth. Lillet hadn't packed them breakfast and lunch and insisted they take the dog with them (despite Shuck being way too big to fit in the boat) for nothing!

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. We should probably wait until suppertime to come back, then, if we don't want to walk in on them kissing." Cress was growing nearer to that age where her parents' affection for one another was starting to edge from "reassuring" into "embarrassing."

It was a good thing that she liked fishing, particularly with her grandfather, who was a good storyteller. Cress thought it was likely that was where her mother had inherited her own talent at it from.

"Indeed. That's more time for us to bring back enough fish for Lillet to try out all the new recipes she wants to experiment with. And what's more, it gives me the best chance to catch Old Blue." He rubbed his gnarled hands together eagerly.

"Old Blue? What's that, Grandpa?"

"Why, Old Blue is one of the legends of the lake!"

"Like Ellie?"

He shook his head.

"Nah, Ellie is supposed to be a sea serpent. Well, lake serpent, I guess you could say, though some people claim that the lake runs so deep that there's actually a channel which runs under the mountains and out to the sea, but that's just so much hooey, if you ask me. No, Old Blue is a fish. The king of lake fish! Ten feet long if he's an inch! He's the prize that all fishermen who come to Eliot Lake hope to catch, and I'm going to be the one to bring him back! See, I've got my secret weapon with me today. A man's got to use all of his skill and cunning in the battle of human against fish."

He held out a handcrafted lure. It was nearly four inches long, but then again to catch a large fish one needed something that a fish like that would actually strike at. He'd expertly whittled it into the shape of a small fish, carving it in three separate segments that fitted together with pegs and notches so that it could flex and wiggle when he twitched the line, giving it more of the semblance of life. Even the color had been carefully applied. It was a serious lure for a serious fish.

"Wow, that must have taken you a really long time to make!"

"Been working on it off and on since last summer. I nearly got Old Blue, even saw him right under the boat, but he was too smart for the lure I was using, sheered off right at the last minute. But this year's different! This year, I'm coming home with that fish in our final battle! I'm not letting old Josh Cellars come back with him, no matter how many crew he brings. 'Captain,' hah! The only thing he was ever a captain of was a pigsty, no matter how many 'ahrrr, mateys' he throws into his conversation!"

Cress's eyes widened.

"You mean, Captain Cellars was lying about being a pirate? And about being a seaman?"

Her grandfather gave a little harrumph.

"Well, I can't say that I can prove it for sure, to be fair, but if you ask me that man's never come a foot closer to the ocean than I have. And I'm not letting a fellow like that beat me to Old Blue, just because he has a bigger boat and a couple of extra crew."

Shuck gave a firm woof. Clearly, as a respectable dog, he was offended by the sheer injustice of it all.

"So this is important, then," Cress said. She was still sleepy, but her grandfather's eagerness to emerge victorious over the nefarious (and probably lying) Cellars was getting through loud and clear.

"It is indeed! And that's why we're out at this hour of the morning." He looked out at the lake and added with a snort, "You'll notice that Cellars's tub isn't out there. The man sleeps in! I can't lose to a fellow like that!"

"You're right, Grandpa! We can't let him win!" Cressidor cheered. "I'll do my best, too!"

He reached out and ruffled her ash-blonde hair.

"That's my girl. You and Shuck wait here with the fishing gear, and I'll go get the boat." The dock was entirely too far down the lakeshore to lug the tackle all that way, and despite his eagerness to get out on the lake and fish, he wasn't ignorant of how his granddaughter was fighting to keep her eyes open. Especially since she was too young for coffee.

"Okay, Grandpa."

Knowing that a girl with a quarter-ton dog at her side was not likely to be faced with any particular trouble when left unsupervised, he headed off, his mind full of strategies about how me might finally land Old Blue after years of trying. It was because of that that he didn't see Cressidor staring thoughtfully (if sleepily) out at the mist-shrouded lake.

A half an hour later, though, the light of the rising sun was glittering on the water, the oars had been shipped, and Sauvi's fishing line was trailing through the water while he helped Cress get the bait onto her hook (something that Lillet had never been good with, either, when she was her daughter's age). All of a sudden, the boat began to shiver, and the sudden motion made the worm slip out of his fingers and fly over the side towards its inevitable fishy doom.

"Holy-" He bit back a curse, out of concern for tender ears. Had it finally happened? Had he managed to catch Old Blue at last with the line just dangling in the water, not even moving?

Sauvi clutched at his fishing pole, but realized at once that there was no tension on the line; the shaking wasn't being caused by anything pulling but rather by the lake-water itself being disturbed. Eliot Lake didn't have anything like waves or tides, though, so the only explanation was that there was something…

…in…

…the water…

Even as the realization hit, the explosion of sound and water happened, as the shimmering bulk of blue-green scales breached the water's surface, causing the boat to wobble back and forth as the lake sloshed beneath it.

"Hold on!" he cried out, his fear for Cressidor's safety overcoming his momentary stupefaction. He grabbed on to the gunwale himself, while his free hand seized Cress's arm, making sure that she had extra support if she didn't keep hold herself.

Meanwhile the giant neck of the lake serpent reared up above them, two rows of triangular fins running down its back, a head like a snake's easily the size of Shuck's whole body. Giant golden eyes with slit pupils stared down at the boat, as if evaluating it for suitability as fresh prey.

He couldn't judge the true size of the monster's maw, though, because it was full. In the next moment, it arched its neck down, gently nudging the humans aside, and opened that giant mouth to drop a massive ten-foot sturgeon, its scales a deep blue that was almost indigo, into the boat, making it rock again with the impact.

"Good girl, Ellie!" Cressidor caroled, reaching up to give the giant serpent pats on the nose. Ellie nuzzled against her, then turned and did a twisting dive into the water, the bulk of its lower body with its limb-like flippers breaching the surface for a moment, before it vanished back into the depths. Fortunately, the waves neither swamped the boat nor knocked the fish overboard.

"Now you can show that mean old Captain Cellars who's the better fisherman! And Mama will have lots of fresh fish for all her recipes!" Cress said, beaming.

Sauvi looked at the girl, then back at the shore, where Shuck was digging away at a chunk of beach that he seemed to have decided really needed excavating, and then back at his granddaughter, and he sighed.

"You know, Cress, I know I said that you have to use all your skill and cunning in the battle of man versus fish, and I'm happy that you made a new vacation friend, but there is still such a thing as cheating."

~X X X~

A/N: Yes, as previously established in one of my other stories years ago, I did indeed christen Lillet's father "Sauvignon Blan(c)," for which I should probably be ashamed, yet am somehow not.