Sneak Peek at Iku Turso

Just something I'm working on....

Sigsbee Deep, Gulf of Mexico

The water around the beast was black as pitch. Sunlight could not reach these depths in this arcane part of the ocean, the molecules scattering the light and leaving in its place only the dark. To the human eye it would have been totally disorienting, and considering the creatures that called it home, completely terrifying. Long-toothed sharks with three eyes,crabs the size of a car and eels with razor sharp skin skidded away from the Leviathan creature. They could sense the evil that had lie dormant for all these hundreds of years was waking up.  It was a hulking form, even in this vast space.  It’s chest looked like the barnacled underside of an old sea vessel.  Massive grayish green scales covered its torso and face.  Where a nose should have been the monster had twelve tentacles that were each the size of a grown man’s leg.  In contrast to the rest of it’s coloring, these were a sickly bruised purple shade, mottled with puffs blues and reds, like it’s creator hadn’t quite blended all the colors and the result was a painful, mangled mess of limbs. They dwarfed in comparison to the rest of it. There were four more tentacles on the left and four on the right, stretching out like arms but the were size of tree trunks.  It had no legs, but a massive mound of gray flesh it had once used to slither and swim through the ocean’s depth. On occasion, in the days of old, it had ventured closer to land, creeping in the water, blending in with the waves, watching the smug faces of the humans as they exploited his home, with their naive notion they were the master race. Alas, those were the old days.  Since one of those fateful visits, the beast had been here. Remaining motionless all of these years, frozen under the ocean, forgotten by man and sea life alike. Now something had happened above sea level, something the creature had been waiting a long, long time for.  As the last school of fish scurried away, one black beady eye popped open, and the water around him glowed an eerie red.  He concentrated, closing his one eye, focusing on his task. A few seconds later red ink shot out of his siphons, spreading through the water like blood. He waited a moment to see if it worked, if after all this time it still had the desired effect.  He watched as the reef around him, now illuminated and glowing red, blackened as his ink washed over it and dissolved away before him.  He slashed his tentacles wildly in success, and the last school of fish were obliterated from existence. A select few were impaled on the claws at the end of his feelers and became part of him, enhancing his sinister appearance.  Feeling victorious, the beast’s gigantic mouth opened revealing hundreds of sharp green teeth.  Bubbles boiled at its lips as it released an agonizing cackle.  

Iku Turso was awake.