Sticking with the Lake District with this one. A serene hilltop tarn that is perfect for a spot of wild-swimming. Hopefully my imagination won’t put an end to that…
I sank into the welcoming mud that lined the bed of my tarn. In my youth, I’d thought it a lake. Since then, to my embarrassment, I’ve cult to understand that lakes are much grander affairs. Perhaps I will have to move on one day. Mother told me that was natural for our kind.
“It’s not healthy to bide too long in a single pool,” she’s say.
Well, it’s been decades since mother moved on. Centuries, perhaps. All the while I have remained.
You might think fear has kept me in place, but that’s not it. Not at all.
At first, you might say it was contentment that held me here. Travellers would stop by my tarn to drink. Few would stay long, and rarely would any fool pause to paddle trail-weary feet in my water. Rumour had it that a monster dwells here. And so they stopped briefly and their delicious fear drifted down to provide all the nutrition I could need.
That was before. Then for long years no one came but local wildlife. Their natural skittishness was enough to sustain me. Only just. I no longer had the energy to move to more productive waters. Hard years, and I regretted not heeding Mother’s advice.
But then something changed. The travellers returned, though different this time. Gone were the weary wary folk who spent the barest moments on my shore. These new visitors were bold, relaxed and… Joyful.
At first I was furious. These fools dared to play in my waters. Did they not know the legends? If have to remind them of the Monster Who Lies in Wait. As I swam closer I could sense their emotions, filling the tarn like a cloud of cheer. I tasted some, and it was delicious. Far better than the fear that had thus far sustained me. I drank it down greedily and was hungry for more.
Since then, many have visited. I do my best to keep the tarn nice. I’ve cleaned up after the wildlife, arranged rocky slipways for bathers to enter my water. What’s good for my guests is good for me also.
I don’t know what happened to the legends of a monster of the tarn. But I’m glad it went away. We don’t want monsters here.
Brandon Lim 