Cryptid Naralon Forests 6

Travel journal Day Three Yesterday, as we travelled so far down along the shores that I no longer could see the end of the forest looking back, nor see the end looking onward; just as the dark, deep woods of Naralon, broken only by beaches, rivers and smaller trebarnii settlements seemed to fade into the background as old news, I saw it!

A most curious creature, awkwardly trundling along the shore, with a strange gait. From its lower jaw a long paddle-shaped beak jutted out, its upper jaw, equally long but in every other way its opposite, soft and supple, like a limb. Carrying its young in its snout! I asked the captain what it was, and if we could come closer to shore to get a better look. He said I would have to keep an eye out, as surely we would see more of them in the coming days.

And he was right, the same night I saw one more, climbing the high branches of a tree. I don't understand how such a clumsy looking creature made it there. But such is their nature, reaching for something, a garkrid nest or some mollusc according to my travelling companions. They are apparently fond of eating anything that creeps, crawls or has a shell, they said. Using their long snout to dig and shift through the muds and sands of the beaches, or to break into nests or rotten logs, grabbing them and cracking their shells and then sucking their prey out of their carapace, or snorting smaller creatures up through their snout by the same technique of their muscular tongue, but directed through the choana to their nose rather than their mouth.

I am told they are often kept, or at least allowed to live alongside the trebarnii as pest control, or to clean boats of barnacles, and suck out shipworms. Others yet they say, are used to break into and disarm garkrid nests when collecting wild honey. Or even to collect live mussels and other seafood for their owners. I couldn't believe it but this morning I saw one swimming! It's muscular forearms propelling it through the water at surprising speed, and now I don't know what to expect.

Author(s): Gabriel Nyström