The story begins in the twentieth year of the Dragon Emperor Suk Lam reign.

That night the moon hung high above the curve roofs of the city’s buildings, so full and bright on the starry night. Its pale golden light radiant from the sky, shine upon all mortal life. The time is autumn, the breeze is gentle, and the air is cool. After paid their respect to the moon and gave offering to goddess Chan Gee, the lady of the moon, goddess of harvest, one of the old gods that still revere and worship by the peoples, to thank her for a generous harvest and pray for another next year. Families are gathered to enjoy a union meal. After the feast, the citizens of Jar Dee city took to the street to enjoy the Mid-Autumn festival. The city street is lit up by lanterns outside every house, and trips of lantern hung across the streets every few lias. At the city square, a lantern show is on display, with all kind of vibrant colourful lanterns, and with all shapes and size. Filled the city central square are street performers, fire breathers, sword swallowers, jugglers and acrobatic, street play and puppet show. There are also countless food vendor’s stall selling all kind of things, from tasty steaming bun, smoking grilled meat skew, mouthwatering sweet treats, and colourful toy figure make from glutinous rice powder for the kids. . The children running up and down the streets, lantern in one hand, moon cake in other hand, munching on sweet with a brightest and biggest smile on their face like the moon on the sky. The cool autumn wind trolling along the busy streets, playing with the young maidens long flowing black hair, and dancing with their beautiful big sleeves cross-collard robe. Oh! The sight of a young Downers maiden, in their beautiful dress walking in the gentle breeze, can smelted the coldest of heart.

On the dike of the river where it ran through the city, everyone is gathering to drink tea, enjoy moon cake with various flavours, and moon gazing while wait for the firework show to start. Near the water margin, where the fireflies dancing among the vast sea of reeds, a young couple giving each other a passionate kiss and vow for their internal love under the witness of the full moon. But woefully, unbeknown to them, the full moon is not the only witness of their vow. Beneath the calm water, there is something watching them. Under the glittering moonlit water, it slithering, in silent it stalking the young lovers. And when they realized they are being watch. Its shadow lunging forward, the young men shielded his lover and be snatched away. The poor girl can only watch and let out desperate cries of help. When peoples came to aid it was already too late, all they saw was a young men struggling in the middle of the river. A few seconds late, a long shadow under the surface pulled him under.

“so that is when it started?” a man with a short goatee asked

“no, the mid-autumn incident last year was the first time it happened in front of more than one pair of eyes, also is the first time it cost a human life.” A short middle-aged man answered with his hoarse voice, then gulp down his wine glass.

“it is an alligator? I heard there are a lot of them in the swampland.” the goatee man said

“no one sure, some said they saw a shadow that resemblance an alligator. Some say they did saw something but not so sure what that thing is, and some assume the boy just fall into the water and drowned due to the strong current. But there are few, they claim that, what everyone saw was no alligator but “the creature” as they called is the perpetrator.” The short middle-aged man said

“so some people think there is a monster in the river?” the man with the goatee said.

“not the river but the swamp.” Another middle-aged man with a big bushy beard said

“the swamp?” the goatee man asked in curious

“you know Jar Dee is a new city right?” the beaded middle-man said.

“yes, I know, I’m from the capital, I had heard about the settler degree of the Great Delta.” The man with the goatee said

“yeah, that one, by the will of the Dragon Emperor this city was build 7 years ago, I was one of the first settle wave…” the bearded middle-aged man said. “back then, this whole area is nothing but swampland and primordial forest. When we first came to renovate the land and build the first town, we have to battle with this wild untamed land. And fatal encounter with the local wildlife do happen time to time. And about 2 years ago, rumour start circling by the hunters and the swamp-angler, that there is something live in the swampland, some kind of creature…”

“Especially the area around an old Elvas ruin in the swamp. That is where I heard had the most sighting.” the bearded middle-aged man said.

“yah… that place creepy at hell, man. A lot of hunters and anglers had told tale about their sighting of the monster in the swamp near that place.” The short middle-aged man said “I know a guy, he uses to angling in the swamp, it happened about late October 2 years ago. When he was fishing near the ruin. His boat was attacked by an alligator. The damn beast capsized his boat, knocked him into the water, but when the alligator close in to finish him off, it suddenly being pull violently under the surface and disappeared.” The short middle-age man said.

“did he see what attack the alligator?” the goatee man asked in anticipate.

“no, the water was too murky, he said he only had a glance of a long black shadowy figure moving under the water before the alligator been snatch off, and then he keep swimming for his life.” The short middle-aged man said.

“I also heard another story of an old hunter, he said that, on one day 1 years ago, when stalking a deer in the forest, the animal’s trail leads him to near the Elvas ruin. Eventually he spotted the animal in the dense reed, when he about to loose his arrow the deer disappeared from his sight in a blink of an eyes, like something snatched it. He then hears water splash and the deer shrieking for a second, after that is silent and then before his eyes the deer’s lifeless body half submerge in the water moving through the Water Lily leafs like something under the surface was holding it body and carry it into the swamp leave behind a stream of blood, and on the wet mud at the water edge he found slithering mark haft a lia wide.” The bushy beard man said.

“yea… a lot of weird things happened around that damn ruin, not just monster sighting, I tell ye.” The short middle-aged man said, and stuff a big piece of fried tofu into his mouth. Then something caught his eyes make him fixed his gaze toward the tavern’s door.