Water Horse

It was the first day of November. Or, as written in the writer's calendar, 'tis the National Novel Writing Month, a time of writing one's fingers off and conquering the fantasy world. Yes, it was time to go on a writing binge.

So what did I do? Why, I went on Wikipedia to do some research for world-building, of course. Because I've had no time prior to this for world-building, obviously. I'm a terrific procrastinator. But that's another story entirely. So I spent my day alternating between television and mythological creatures. I found a few other things while I was there, as well, and all seemed to be going well.

Then it happened. The internet provider cackled evilly, and then failed to supply us with an internet connection. We thought it was a problem with the router, as it's been acting up lately. But we unplugged it and plugged it back in multiple times, with little success.

While I was waiting for the internet to cooperate, I got bored and decided to open Microsoft Paint. Continuing on my theme of world-building and mythical creatures, I began drawing a fictional creature. Below is the result of my work.

The water horse, also called a kelpie or Ceffyl Dŵr, is a monster which dwells in freshwater bodies, such as lakes and pools. In Celtic legends, it's often portrayed as evil, and will trick people in order to kill them. It usually does this through shape-shifting powers; transforming into a horse, or in some kelpie stories, a beautiful woman. In either instance, the person will inevitably be led to an unfortunate demise.

In this drawing, its body and head resembles that of a horse. It has sharp teeth, a mane resembling seaweed, webbed feet, and a scaly hide. Its long tail has a fin along the top and bottom of it, similar to that of a tadpole.

Realistically, the feet of the water horse will be larger. After I drew it, I felt that they were too small. But I don't feel like redrawing them, so there they stay.

And of course, after doing my world-building and drawing a water horse, I finally started writing my story for NaNo after ten o'clock. At night. Yes, I totally rock.