Roberson's Report, Feb 9: 2,209

Got a late start this morning, losing an hour to an overlong blog post, half an hour to walking, and the rest of the time until noon futzing around on Google reads and Facebook. Then I hit my stride in midafternoon, only to stop short when I reached the end of the story. Damn the luck.

(My output for Saturday and Sunday, btw, was zero. I was lazy.)

Here's a sample of the day's work.

“Perhaps it is simply some baleen,” the young natural philosopher suggested, “or some oversized shark, or…”

Joining Lady Joslyn at the starboard railing, Pol got his first glimpse of the creature. He was forced to admit that it certainly did resemble a monster more than any other alternatives.

The creature had an enormous narrow head, atop a long, thin neck which snaked up out of the water. Its mottled skin was the color of the full moon on a clear night, the color of corpse flesh, and appeared to be draped in some kind of rotten seaweed or rags. Even at a distance of several ship’s lengths, Pol could scent a powerful stench of putrescence, and could hear issuing from the creature’s wide and toothsome mouth an unearthly keening, almost like the song of the damned.

Pol turned to the lady, to find Commander mag Donnac standing at her other side, his hand on the handle of the broadsword hanging at his hip, eyes narrowed and jaw set. “Adversary take me, but it is a monster.”

Lady Joslyn merely nodded, and in a calm voice replied, “Commander, I think it best you assemble your men on deck. Should that creature prove to be a threat, then…”

“Man the cannon!” shouted the first officer from the forecastle, as the guncrews already busied themselves rolling the massive guns into place.

The next few days will be all researching, so it'll probably be next week before I tally up any new words of prose.