Jen Daring

Something explodes from the water down below, close enough that the air is suddenly filled with spray. A collective yell rises from the crowd; the fairy lights shake and one of the wind turbines shakes loose and dangles from the wires. Then a massive shadow emerges, looming above the south side of the plaza. Only the head makes it high enough to tower over the crowd: a heaving black-gray cone split by a red slash full of teeth the length of a forearm. A single black eye, liquid, soulless and the size of a truck tire, gazes at them for a moment. But the creature starts to fall before it can turn to snap....