"Are ye deaf? I asked if ye wanted a sandwich? Thought I'd grab us some lunch while ye finished polishin' thae rocks wi' yer belly."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

He turned and walked away, then stumbled, the toe of his right boot catching the lip of a slight depression in the geography.

I stared at the spot, my heart racing.

"Whit? Dae ye see somethin' then?"

There were three of them—S-shaped depressions, each eight feet long, five feet wide, and three to four inches deep. They were angled from the water's edge up across the embankment and into the forest, and were so broad and sweeping that the pattern looked natural to the untrained eye.

On hands and knees, I inhaled the imprint, gagging at the lingering stench.

"Is it the monster then?" True dropped down and inhaled. "Phew, smells like a girl I once knew."

"I can't speak for your social life, but something biological was definitely here, and it left behind its slime."

"Slime?"

"At least that's what it feels like. Rain washed most of it away, but its slickness still lingers." Retrieving a glass jar from my backpack, I took a soil sample, the sudden rush of adrenaline tingling my bladder.

* * *

True and I continued walking south along the western shoreline, the discovery of the impressions having reinvigorated my friend's excitement. "Okay, Zack, let's say it wis an animal that left thae impressions. To crush the earth like that, how heavy wid ye say it'd have tae be?"

"I don't know, maybe ten thousand pounds or more, but that's just a rough guess."

"Whit did Angus call it then? A Guivre?"

"True, there's no such species as a Guivre. It's just folklore."

"Then how'd ye explain—"

"Easy, big guy, let's not repeat the same mistakes other explorers at Loch Ness make. They create some preconceived idea of what might be out there, then spend all their time attempting to prove they're right by only searching for their imaginary beast."

"Ye mean, like the plesiosaur guys?"

"Exactly. A dinosaur in Loch Ness is a romantic notion, but it's not science, it's just myth-building. We'll let the lab results tell us what this creature is… or isn't."

I stopped. Taking out an empty glass jar and my gardening shovel, I bent down and took another soil sample by the water's edge.

"Now what're ye doin?"

"Checking the worm population."

"Worms? It wisnae a worm that made thae tracks, I'll tell ye that for now."

"Your Guivre has to eat, right? Before it allegedly added humans to its diet, it must have subsisted on food from the Loch."

"Aye. Makes sense."