The Book of Monsters.

Beauty and the Bayou.

Imagine...

She was so beautiful.

That was what he had first noticed about her.

It was incredibly rare for humans to come too close to his territory, much less into it, They were simply too fearful of his kind too venture this deep into the bayou. The house had been built some time ago, a little cottage sitting right in the middle of the too hot, too wild, too strange bayou. No human had ever dared to buy the home. Too afraid of the gators, he supposed. But he wasn't like the other gators, he knew that.

He had always known that...

It was nearly impossible to avoid your own strangeness, especially when it was your very reflection.

From his early childhood, he had known that was simply...different. The memories were painful and he preferred to ignore the but...you can't ignore what you look like. And he certainly looked odd. He was massive creature, an odd mix of human and gator and he was frightening to look at.

He was a monster. A beast.

She wasn't though. She was soft and sweet and he wondered how her skin felt and tasted...If he was beastly, then she was a beauty. And he simply could not take his eyes off of her.

He watched her carefully from his watery home, golden eyes following her every move through the windows of the little house. Hiding in the shade, he was able to spy on her without worry. She bustled about the cottage quickly, moving things around and cleaning and dusting and more for weeks at end.

She was so...so interesting, at least to him. So wonderfully strange.

Perhaps that was why he couldn't stop himself from watching her. She sang when she work, sometimes softly and sometimes loudly but never quite good (not that he minded). She read books in the sunlight of the porch, paperback novels with cursive titles and kissing couples. He watched her in great interest, thinking about her tender touch and pretty pink lips...oh, she was so lovely!

He enjoyed watching her through the house's large windows but had thought that was as lucky as he would ever be...until the day that she stepped out naked onto the porch.

Naked. Bare. Beautiful.

Her body looked gorgeous in the sunlight, the yellows rays making her bare skin look even warmer and softer then it had before. Golden eyes roamed over her excitedly, taking in the human's entire body. Legs that would look so lovely wrapped around him, hands that would run all over his rough scales, breasts that begged to be played with and, oh! When he gazed between her legs, he felt more excited then he ever had before.

She was so beautiful and perfect...and it was all for him, he hoped.

He growled happily, the rough sound vibrating deeply in his chest. Barley being able to contain his excitement, he stared at her and watched as she swam through the lake's cool water. Fire was rushing wildly through his massive form as he watched her swim from the watery shadows.

And that night, he couldn't help himself anymore. He called for her, wanting her desperately as his deep cry rang through the night.

"Come to me...be with me..."

She didn't come.

But she left him little gifts of delicious meat and she kept swimming too, even walking around naked through her home. She was teasing so terribly him with her beauty and it was working too. He wanted this human more then anything else.

He watched her constantly, golden eyes locked onto her daily.

He called for every night, his deep cry echoing through the dark.