Everybody has heard tales about Nessie. But what is a tale, if not a story anchored in truth? We’ve had such tales since the beginning of time, but this particular one goes back to the first humans settling in what we now recognise as Scotland. It was such a long time ago that Nessie’s memory could barely stretch that far. Fuzzy memories of humans occasionally pointing at him or even sometimes talking to him. Every generation or so, a group of those settlers would spot him. Rumours among that group would spread, rumours would become tales, and tales would become legends. If even those stayed long enough, they would form what we call the folk lore.

He has been imagined in as many form as the human imagination can stretch. And stretch it can–they’d come up with the most ridiculous forms. For some time, he’d been seen as a god. Stories of a god of sea protecting this land. A god imprisoned, unable to rejoin the sea. Some tales had depicted him as an oracle, an sign of good health as well as misfortune. He’d also been reduced to a big fish, a trophy that would a person with infinite wealth and fortune. What a nightmare. For years, reckless anglers had set forth onto the lake, seeking to challenge him. That’s when he’d been known as the monster of the Loch Ness. Those unfortunate times had forced him to defend himself more than once, until fatigue at the unrelenting assaults forced him down to the darkest corners of this lake. It isn’t clear how long that lasted. All Nessie knew was that the hunts had stopped the next time he cruised along the surface.

All in all, Nessie didn’t know what nor who he was. He had never met anyone like him. And, while the stories he heard were mostly nonsense, surely some should hold some shard of truth. He was stuck in this lake. But while vast, it couldn’t match the expanse of unknown oceans waiting for him, not far and yet out of reach. Not for a lack of trying though. He’d scoured the lake up and down, from shore to shore, from surface to bottom. All in vain. He’d explored every cave and had even tried digging himself a hole. None of those attempts had been met with success. On the Southern side were some humans living peacefully. The sides of the lake had been left to nature for the most part and only recently had humans settled on the Northernmost point of the lake, bringing with them a culture of barbed wires, rusted metal and black, oily water and industrial waste.

On a bright, sunny day, as he was touring the sides of the lake, Nessie came close to a beach. Sometimes, humans would gather and eat there and it had always been fun to spook these. But while today there was no humans, there was a massive rock lying on the beach. Such a rock had Nessie never seen. Oddly shaped, brown shape presented itself as a polygon with plates strapped onto its surface and with holes at its base. Some streaks of beige and black marbled the otherwise regular rock’s colour.

Rocks on this land had been there longer than him, but this one clearly hadn’t. And, as he carefully crept closer to the beach to get a closer look at this new found rock, it sprouted legs. What kind of rock grows legs and– wait now even a head! A long, dry and wrinkled head, brown as the rest of it faced forward, towards the water.

It was with utter bafflement that Nessie stared as, with painstakingly slow movements the rock clumsily dragged itself to the water. It really wasn’t good at this whole walking thing, but again, since when rocks ever were?

Finally, through the slow, steady process, the rock reached the water and pushed itself there. Well, if this rock could walk, maybe it could talk.

“Hey, oh! Rock! What are you?” hailed Nessie, unsure on what were the best greetings or terms one would commonly use to address a rock during conversation.

Nessie quickly assessed that the rock also had eyes because from the look the rock gave him, he’d obviously startled it.

“Well met, spirit of the lake. My name is Amy. Could I ask for your name?” she answered.

“I am no spirit. But Nessie is what I am called.”

“Well, what are you then? Because you certainly don’t look like any fish I’ve encountered before,” Amy said.

“Thrilling! Have you encountered many fishes?” Nessie exclaimed. “Bigger than what is in this lake? Grand! Can you show me? Can you tell me what they look like?”

His burst of excitement obviously confused Amy more than anything else. She looked at him pensively before answering.

“Have you never left this lake?” she asked. “How many winters have you seen?”

“What question is this? Do you count how many times you flap your fins in a day?”

“You are a spirit, then. Maybe this makes more sense. This explains why you never left the lake either.”

“What are you blabbering about?” he answered, “Humans say I am a spirit, but humans don’t understand anything. And the reason I never left this lake is simply because there’s no exit.”

Amy simply smiled. It was an infuriating, old, wrinkled smile. The kind that left you an helpless child facing a sage. Despite the annoyance Nessie felt at her cryptic questions, he couldn’t help but like this old lady. She was young–as were all other beings to him– but she felt old. In comparison, his timeless experience was scant besides hers if she could tell of the Oceans.

“Very well,” said Nessie. “Let’s say you’re telling the truth. That you’ve been all over the world. That you’ve explored more in the past century than I have in many winters. Please show me the way to the sea.”

However, Amy’s reaction was not was Nessie anticipated. She didn’t jump on the occasion to help him. She simply look troubled.

“Have you really never noticed?” she said.

“Noticed what?”

“Have you ever felt like you sometimes disappear? Like one day it’s summer and suddenly the day changes to winter?” she asked.

“Yes, obviously I did. I zone off sometimes. Doesn’t everybody?” he said.

“Everybody does. But not for months, and certainly not for years, even,” she said. “Do you ever need to eat?”

“What do you mean, eat?” he said. He was starting to have an uncomfortable, queazy feeling about this.

Again, she gave him that insufferable smile. “Everybody eats. And when I say everybody, I mean everybody except spirits” Amy said.

“Nonsense,” Nessie said. “What, even, is a spirit?”

“People, humans, animals, it doesn’t matter who–just think of you. And simply thanks to their belief, you exist. This is why you’re always here, in the Loch Ness,” she said. “It is because people who live here think of you. It is because people outside of this place do not know of you, and therefore do not think of you.”

“Salty water certainly did weird things to your brain, doesn’t it?” Nessie said. “Are you going to show me the way out or should we keep up this absurd conversation?”

“I…” She trailed off. “I have just arrived here, in this lake. I am an explorer, I want to map all the seas, all the oceans. I want to discover all their secrets. If you show me around this lake, I will gladly lead you out to the oceans.”

“If that is the price I have to pay to finally find the way out to the sea, you bet I will! What is it you want to see?” he said. “And would you care for tell me what it is like, out there? In the sea. I want to know absolutely everything.”

But Nessie did not wait for her answer to dive deeper underwater. Only after a time did he look back to see whether Amy was following. Rocks weren’t exactly really known for their ability to swim, after all. But against all odds, Amy was easily gliding right behind him, her fins easily carrying her forward. That image was what decided it in Nessie’s mind.

Amy wasn’t a rock.

Proud of his deduction, he decided to ask, “So… If you don’t mind me asking, what type of… rock are you? I have never seen any such as yourself before.”

This was instantly met with a chortle from Amy. “A rock? Is that how you see me? Oh my dear, I am no rock! I am a turtle.”

“Is a turtle the word for a rock with fins?”

“No, it is the name for my species! I have only this shell to protect myself. I will occasionally retreat in it to sleep in case I need to rest in security. It works remarkably well. I daresay that the sole predator I have had the displeasure of meeting is the human. They are too smart for my own good, if you ask me.”

After a short time, they neared one of Nessie’s favourite spot. Behind a bed of algae lazily undulating from the current stood what looked like a small stone hut. The hut was of crude architecture, simple stones piled on top of another but still holding in place. Some algae had grown on top of the hut, covering it with a moss-like texture while a forest of weeds grew all around, keeping a silent watch on the habitation, as if its owners had just gone and would be back any moment.

“I love this place,”said Nessie, fondly contemplating the spot as Amy swam closer to the scene, speechless. Nessie continued “A long, long time ago, this lake hadn’t been quite as big. It had first been a pond for a small settlement. But then, as time passed, water levels rose and they were forced to abandon this place for higher grounds.”

“Nessie, just how long ago was this?” said Amy quietly.

“Oh. Does it matter? I don’t know. I remember it though, I liked these people. I used to play with them, you see. In fact, they might be the oldest memory I have in my life, now that I think of it.”

Nessie paused, pondering. Amy simply swam through the algae and reached the house, where she paused before entering. She toured the house, pouring over each stone as if each of them had their own story to share. Finally, she came back to Nessie.

“Nessie, it’s truly remarkable, this is–” She had difficulty saying the words aloud and took a brief pause before continuing. “This is beautiful,” said Amy with a quiet voice.

For weeks, Amy and Nessie explored the lake. They crawled through every major cave, visited all the previous settlements and strolled through the depths of the lake. He showed altars raised in his name centuries past. They laughed at the hooks various anglers had tried to catch him with. The boats they’d used. The favourite spots he would sometimes go to rest to. All the while, ongoing discussions about the world beyond slowly nurtured a budding friendship.

.

“Whales are… How to describe them. They are like big fish. Like, really big fish. They are basically the first thing that comes to someone’s mind when you tell them of the sea. Except they can’t breath underwater,” Amy recounted.

“I’m sorry? The biggest, most iconic animal of the sea you say, cannot even breath underwater? How does that make any sense?” The more Nessie was discovering about the world, the less it made sense. Yet, the more his beliefs were rocked by Amy’s tales, the more it kindled his will to discover the world for himself. Amy might have been young for his standards, but she’d seen so much. She told him of places where the water would entirely freeze. Of ice covering entire seas. Of water so hot you felt like you would cook. Of fish of a thousand colours and bloodthirsty predators.

“How do we reach the sea from this place?” asked Nessie. “We’ve toured the entire lake but I haven’t seen a single way out.”

“Well, that’s because we haven’t come close to the humans,” she answered. “There’s a stream that was recently dug in that direction, to the North. It goes through a human settlement. And as with most human places, it is a terrible, dark and dangerous place. It feels like a graveyard. They have traps everywhere. The water is poisonous. Rusty iron spikes protrude from the ground and the water is shallow.”

Nessie fell silent for a long time after that. He had seen this human settlement. He had seen the fishes die or get captured when going near. But the sea-farer tales Amy had fed him since they joined up steeled his will. He would live through this. They would live through this. Despite all their wisdom and Amy’s decades of experience, they set forth.

Although Amy’s swimming skills were remarkable. But they simply couldn’t compare to Nessie’s. She was a turtle while in his mind, he was the next best thing to a dragon. Minus the wings. And the fire. And the insufferable attitude. Where dragons had wings, he had fins instead. Where their menacing scales sent you running in terror, Nessie’s skin was smooth and grey, smooth and slick as to easily flow through the water.

Nessie matched Amy’s pace as they settled on a steady rhythm. After some hours, night fell and they felt the currents quicken as they got closer to the lake surface. Faster and faster, the current built up in strength as a thunderstorm started raging on the surface. If not for it, they might have been able to see the boat coming.

Only too late did they started tasting the oily, retched taste of black fuel mixed in the water as it spread all around them. The nauseating liquid that modern humans boats had started to spew as they moved.

It all happened in a moment. What had been a wasteland of toxic water turned into hell. Nessie felt the net pass through him while he saw Amy wrestle with it, entangling herself.

“Amy!” he screamed.

“Help me, you must be able to do something! I don’t fancy my chances up there on their boat,” she said, unable to keep her voice from shaking. She was furiously trying to swat at the net, biting on its ropes but all this managed to achieve was to entangle her further until she could barely move. She cast a pleading look at Nessie as she slowly got pulled away from him, to the surface.

Except Nessie had never dealt with such brutality before. Some fisher people had hunted him, yes. But those had been with wooden spears and sharpened stones. Not with machinery and devilish contraptions, acting with industrial and deadly accuracy. Nessie was left paralysed with shock as Nessie disappeared beyond the surface.

Maybe Amy hadn’t only been babbling nonsense. Maybe he was the lake’s spirit. Or whatever. In any case, it was true that he’d been part of humans legends for a long time. But maybe it was finally time to remind those hunters that this was his lake. He couldn’t say what did it. Maybe it was the turmoil of his spiralling thoughts. Maybe it was the fear of humans as his head pierced the surface of the sea. Maybe it was true that he was a spirit because the rage from seeing Amy being hauled on to the deck made him grow. From mere metres long, he had now grown so much that he was towering the ship, casting an even more menacing form than the thunder rumbling and the lightning strikes streaking across the sky. Nessie rose, his long neck looking down at the ship and baring sharp claws and fangs he’d never been aware he possessed.

The humans reacted in three distinct ways. Some immediately jumped off the ship. Some grabbed nets and pointed weapons while some others simply stood there, paralysed. It didn’t matter. Nessie rammed into the ship, rocking it backward. Then once again. Then again. Finally, something in the ship gave and, as he slammed into it for the fourth time, the ship sank. As soon as he ripped the net that still holding Amy, she furiously swam away from the scene. Behind her the ship sank, broken.

Nessie wasn’t clear on what happened. One second Amy had been caught by a net cast from a ship, the next the said ship was steadily dropping down to the bottom of the lake, oil willowing in its wake. Quickly, he caught up with Amy who was still shaking from the events, eyes wide.

“I… They almost got me, if not for you. I’d have ended up in someone’s house as decoration. Thank you, Spirit of the Loch Ness,” said Amy.

“You’re most welcome, but please. Don’t start with that spirit nonsense. I don’t need more reverence.”

“Are you still set on denying it? How else would you explain what just happened? You passed through their net Nessie, you grew tenfold and by your mere size simply rammed and sank an entire metal ship!” Amy’s voice grew louder until it reached a shrill scream. “I mean look at the ship, Nessie!”

She pointed downward towards the fading shape.

“It is barely holding in one piece. I don’t think that ‘just a fish’ would be able to inflict that kind of damage. The whole deck is entirely caved in!”

“I…” Started Nessie, although no reasonable explanation would come to his mind. He simply couldn’t explain what just happen. But one thing was clear. Amy was safe.

“But no matter. Spirit or not, I thank you, my friend. Let us be out of this place,” said Amy.

After a short break, the two companions decided to continue their journey. But although they tried to stay as far away from the surface as possible, they quickly started entering shallower waters as they neared the human settlement. They left the icy blue water from the lake behind as the environment became murkier and murkier. Then not long after, rusted debris came in sight despite, their opaque shape barely visible. It was in silence that Amy and Nessie crossed the human settlement, praying to pass unnoticed through the desolate wasteland.

But at last, after what had seemed like hours of wadding through mud, metal skeletons and foul, toxic waste, they reached the sea. Soon, they washed off the grime as the crisp salt started assaulting their sense.

Nessie looked around. “So… That’s the sea, eh?” Said Nessie, looking around excitedly, and not just a little relieved to have made it out for the first time in existence. “Pretty cool.”

“It is! Welcome, my friend, to my home and playground. May our travels bring us far. But where do you think we should go? Somewhere warmer maybe? Anything but this place.”

“You did mention something about warm water, didn’t you? Or were those mere empty words you used to lure me out of my basin?”

A slow, playful smile spread over Amy’s wrinkled face. “To the Caribbean it is, then. Come, we have some way ahead of us before we can catch the right current.”