Chapter Text
The unhurried sounds of a banjo filled the space of a small shack located on the edge of a swamp. Periodically, the chords were interrupted by the sound of interference from an old radio, but such a trifle did not prevent the two reptiles and one beaver from enjoying their common party, filled with the smell of quagmire, mosquito squeak and soft warmth from a portable heater.
Dentgomery was used to a solitary lifestyle and tried to avoid noisy companies. This feature of his appearance allowed him not to get into trouble or make unnecessary acquaintances, from which he had to shed tears in vain. He himself had moved from his native continent to Zootopia relatively recently, but knowing the long-standing prejudices of mammals against reptiles, he was only glad to find a secluded place in the Marsh Market and not attract unnecessary attention from sensitive milk suckers.
Let them stay out of his life, and he doesn't claim their boundaries. Such an informal deal seemed to Dentgomery to be the most suitable option.
But Nibbles was, well, a peculiar exception. First, she, like Dentgomery, understood the beauty of swimming in swamp water. Secondly, her enthusiasm was contagious, and Dentgomery had to admit that without her, weekdays would no longer be so monotonous, no matter how much he wanted to save his life from any sudden changes or unexpected situations. Dentgomery was grateful to the beaver for treating his views on life with maximum respect and not spreading conspiracy theories or the specifics of the alligator lifestyle in her another podcast. Well, maybe just a little. But for science, as she always used to say.
Nibbles, of course, was a creature of perpetual motion, and the allure of meeting living ichthyosaur descendants proved irresistible for her. And Dentgomery, whose nature leaned toward the grumpy, gradually acclimated to her presence — and even to her incessant, grating habit of gnawing on any available wood. Had it not been for this slow acclimation, he would have swallowed her whole long ago.
And thirdly, she knew that Dentgomery liked smoked fish.
"I bet it will definitely make you smile, you sullen crocodile!" She grinned, handing Dentgomery a bag of five delicacies with thin ropes around them.
"I'm an alligator, thank you." Dentgomery took the bag and inhaled the delicate aroma of fish with grains of ancient smoke and something sweet. "Welp, that'll do. Outstanding."
"You're very welcome."
A crunch came from the plaid-covered armchair. Another of Dentgomery’s guests announced his presence. Jesús, a skinny basilisk with scales of lurid green, crossed his legs and popped a honey-glazed cricket into his mouth. His wide sombrero shadowed half his muzzle, layering unnecessary mysterious aura over the lizard.
Dentgomery ignored the dramatics. As long as nothing got smashed, the lizard could posture all he wanted.
"So, amigos," Jesús said, his smile wide and eyeless. "Thirsty yet?"
"A proposal!" Nibbles the beaver announced with ceremonial gravity, unveiling three soda cans. "Given our collective commitment to sobriety, I move we celebrate with the refined palate of this splendid effervescence. Any dissent?"
Jesús offered a silent, hat-tilting negation.
"Get on with it," Dentgomery rumbled, answering for both.
The beaver opened all three cans with a deft movement of her teeth. A concerted fizz rose in a brief, syrupy crescendo against the radio’s tune. Drinks were claimed, aluminum rims met in a tinkling triad — the first, satisfying note of their evening’s symphony.
***
"Bite! Bite! Bite! Bite!"
Jesús and Nibbles were shouting in unison, slapping their paws on the table. With each thump, empty soda cans rhythmically jumped up along with gnawed pencils, half-eaten fish and lettuce leaves. The eyes of the beaver and the basilisk were burning with excitement and anticipation.
Dentgomery surrendered to the inevitable. A sullen sigh, then a sudden, brutal CRACK as his jaws snapped shut. The log between them split cleanly in two.
Nibbles whooped with immediate delight.
"WOO! That was awesome, bro!"
"Told you," Jesús said, smiling with satisfaction. "Gator jaws are no joke. Can crack a turtle’s shell. When they feel like it."
"Dude, I HAVE to make a podcast about this! And I'll call it.. ‘The powerful jaws of alligators’!"
"It's quite... original." Jesus deadpanned, snacking on a cricket.
"Yeah, I know, right?"
Dentgomery spat out a shower of splinters. The two log halves lay forgotten on the floor.
"Remind me. Why did I do that?"
"Scientific inquiry!" Nibbles chirped, already gathering the biggest splinters. "Also, these look tasty." A loud, rhythmic gnawing filled the room. "Wish I had your chompers, Denty."
The alligator fixed her with a skeptical, weary stare. "Trust me. You don’t want to. You can’t sharpen ’em. They just wear down."
"Sounds like a burden."
"Everyone has their burdens, if you think about that." Jesús remarked, his tone suddenly layered with a strange ambiguity. As usual.
Nibbles wanted to reply. But she didn't make it. The air under the arches of the hut was suddenly filled with heaviness and ... trembled.
A low rumbling sound filled the space, showering the backs of the beasts with invisible pressure. All three of them felt their ears pop.
"What the?…"
She turned toward the door, but the night offered no answers, only a profound blackness scented sharply with ozone. The sound ceased, leaving a vacuum of silence.
It was broken by light — a single, violent stitch of brilliance sewing the sky shut — followed by a roar that convulsed the very earth. Nibbles was thrown from her seat. Jesús choked on his cricket. Dentgomery became a pillar of stone, eyes wide, holding his home together by sheer force of dread.
It seemed like an earthquacke had started.
"HOLY COLLIE!" Nibbles yelled.
The hut groaned but held. The tremor passed into a fragile stillness. No one moved, terrified that the wrong motion might restart the nightmare.
"It sounded… outside," the beaver finally whispered. She dusted herself off and crept onto the small veranda. Dentgomery and Jesús followed her.
It was still night, but now there was something else in it. Even the mosquitoes had gone silent. The storm-smell lingered, but the sky was clear.
"What was that?" Jesús asked the darkness.
Nibbles and Dentgomery did not answer, trying to peer into the void in front of them.
Then the alligator looked down. Small, lapping waves were moving toward the shack.
"Something fell there." Dentgomery gritted out. "Wait a minute."
He waddled to the water’s edge, grabbed the ladder, and slipped in. Then Dentgomery lowered his muzzle down, listening to the slightest fluctuations in the water.
He was a statue for a full minute.
“What do you feel?” Nibbles breathed as low as possible.
"Be quiet.”
Another endless minute. Dentgomery surfaced, his gaze locked on the distance.
"Fifteen yards out," he stated. "Something big. Impacted the shallows."
"What does it smell like?"
Dentgomery flared his nostrils once, twice. His expression shifted to pure bewilderment.
"Dentgomery?.."
"…I don’t recognize it."
A thrill of dread and wild wonder coiled in Nibbles’s heart. His confusion was a catalyst.
"Okay, that's it. I swam. Catch up!"
She plunged into the dark water, churning it with her limbs.
"Nibbles, this could be dangerous." Jesús’s warning was already behind her.
"You think talk will stop her? She's got ants in her pants." Dentgomery grumbled, already sliding into the water. "If you’re following, grab a lantern. Don’t be useless."
The three of them reached the epicenter of the strange hum. The water was shallow here, and the darkness was absolute, except for the light from the hut and the flashlight in Jesús' hands. Beaver was counting on Dentgomery's night vision — he had to see something.
"The smell is concentrated here," the alligator hissed. Jesús, ready to throw, moved the beam over the water, looking for any movement.
"Yeah," Nibbles nodded, sniffing the air. "It smells of mud and something… related. A mammal, but an unknown one."
"What, do you have a fragrance database?" Jesús quipped.
"Oh, shut up!"
There was a heavy splash as Dentgomery's foot caught on a submerged object, sending him sprawling.
Nibbles cried out. Jesús whirled toward the noise, but too fast, so he dropped the light in water.
"Blasted log!" Dentgomery snarled, surging up and lashing out with a hind leg at the thing that had tripped him.
The response was not a splash, but a low, drawn-out moan of pain.
Silence, thick and instant, fell over them.
The dark shape in the water began to move. What they had taken for a sunken log began to lengthen and rise. In mute terror, they watched as it formed itself — first into elongated forelimbs, then longer hind ones. Even in the gloom, Nibbles could make out five distinct, splayed fingers on each paw. Swamp water sluiced from a bizarre form: a medium height, a broad shoulders, a stooped back, a long body, a rounded head devoid of horns, trunk, or proper ears.
And.
No.
Tail.
With a shaky grip, Jesús finally raised the lantern beam.
The light fell on a nightmare of pale, hairless flesh: a flattened muzzle, strange blue-ringed eyes, a single elongated protrusion at its center, and a scarlet, slack-lipped mouth. The creature emitted a grating growl, throwing a claw-tipped paw over its eyes.
Nibbles felt a scream rising from the very depths of her being, and there was no other way out.
"AAAAAAAAAAGH!!"
Her desperate scream, clear and uncontrollable, broke the oppressive silence of the swamp.
The creature shuddered all over and responded with a piercing, chilling shriek, drowning her out. Its limbs jerked unnaturally, and his pale, furless mask distorted into a creepy grimace with a dark hole in its mouth and an even row of teeth.
"What is that thing!?" Losing his remaining composure, Jesús let go of the lantern from his trembling paws and rushed away to the warm light of the hut.
"SHUT IT!"
Dentgomery's roar rolled through the water, freezing everyone in place with its animal power. Even the creature fell silent, froze, and a small tremor ran through its body. A hoarse whisper escaped from the twisted mouth:
"Croco...dile?"
Dentgomery's eyes became cold slits.
"I am an ALLIGATOR!" he thundered, and the offended dignity of his entire species line raged in his voice.
The reaction was instant and instinctive. The creature screamed and darted to the side, its long paws splashing helplessly through the water.
"Denty, what have you done? You scared him!" Nibbles exclaimed, and a strange pity broke through the fear in her voice.
"Oh, I'm gonna scare it for real, brotha!"
"Don't let it get away! It can talk!"
"What's going on?" Where am I?! Its lost screams echoed over the dark water. It was thrashing, but the swamp left no escape routes. In a panic, it swam away, paddling clumsily with its limbs.
"It's following me!" the frightened voice of Jesús was heard, who had already reached the hut.
BAM
The chase was short. Dentgomery caught up with the fugitive, grabbed it by the strange baggy hood and stunned it with one clear punch. The body sagged lifelessly.
"Thank you" Nibbles breathed, coming over and looking at the prostrate figure with a complicated feeling. "Let's get it inside."