Forest Folks

An Anomaly In The River

There's something in the main river.

The Sunfawn has been listening to the cries of birds and critters for a while now. And they stated that there is something wrong with the main river. The Moon River.

Which is abnormal, the fawn has been living in the forest for as long as he could remember. And the Moon river, located in the south of the forest was known as the safest place for every folk. It is hidden by tall trees, covered by rocks and cliffs, even the sound of the water is hard to hear due to the laughter and rustling of wind and leaves, perfect for hiding, saved plenty of lives from mean humans and hunters before, even his own. And now there's a possible danger within the river itself? That no good, no good at all.

Of course. As the only folk whose home is the closest to the thing, they are telling him to come and check what's going on.

Just Investigating of course. If he got into another fight again he'd rather throw himself into the river than hearing the Wolf's 3 hours lecture.

So there he is. Walking to the river, trying to be as sneaky as possible, questioning his life choices and the sanity of his fellow forest friends.

"It looks like you..."

The squirrels nearby chitters. That's odd, he's the only one of his kind in the forest, the Sun huffs.

"No, it has gills."

"And scales! Spiky scales."

"It looks like a fish! A big one."

"But it has your face"

"With bright red eyes, sharp claws, and fangs that looks like it can tear us into pieces within seconds!"

Next thing you know. All the animals in the area started to describe the thing as terrifying as they possibly can, their words mixing together.

That's almost a little insulting, the Sunfawn teased. Were they just telling him that it looks like him seconds ago?

"Please be careful youngling."

He can't help but feel concerned anyway. A giant, spiky fish with claws sharp as hunter's knives and shark-like teeth, aren't sharks saltwater fish?

What kind of fish that has hands anyway? A river monster it is then. Should he call the Chained Alligator from the far side of the northern river for help? At least that Alligator can deal with river monsters, what can a little deer centaur like him do?

His thoughts are interrupted by a soft song.

It is distant, you can barely hear it. But if theres anything you should know about the Sunfawn, is that his ear works really well.

A melody, that's what it is. A sweet melody that sounds like it could calm a raging beast. Not threatening at all, whoever the song belongs to it just sounds sad and lonely, a bittersweet feeling.

Weird.

When he arrived. He saw it!

There is a giant monster fish in the river. The critters were right!

Underneath the golden hue of the setting sun, a dark head of scales can be seen poking out of the water, while underwater a silhouette of a fish tail swayed side by side.

Humanoid upper half, human paws, head. A fish lower half, gills, scales, fins. A beautiful singing voice.

Ah nevermind, no monsters. That's a merfolk. Those guys are rare.