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Description
This is a sort of redo of an old painting I made which I will not link to, though you can find it in the deep, dark depths of my gallery if you so wish. Unfortunately my scanner cropped some of the organic edges. I think in the future I'll try to fill less of the page so I can get the whole thing under, or else work much bigger so I wouldn't be using the scanner anyway.

The bottom of Hidden Lake is dark - so dark that plants would struggle to gather enough sunlight to grow and sustain themselves. So why are there plants on the lakebed? Because it is not always this way. Periodically the surface mat loses its integrity to heavy grazing or severe weather, leaving islands of crimson buoyphyte (Stagnicorium puniceum) to float among loose vegetation, mostly germinating calaveras and Carellos's buoyphyte (Zygophyta laxa). The light gives the plants the energy boost necessary for reproduction. At other times, the plants live as heterotrophs, trapping detritus and plankton in their gill-like leaves.

The ghostly figures swimming above the vegetation are Hidden Lake cetuses. These gentle serpents feed on the fruits of lakebed calaveras and anything else slow enough to capture. They use the cloak of darkness and silence to evade predators, as they cannot defend themselves in a fight. They are intelligent and naturally curious. If a stranger is not a known predator, they will gather in small groups to investigate, either in search of food or simply a novel experience. Decades after their first encounter with a human explorer, Hidden Lake cetuses were studied in detail by a Helen of Troy probe.

And that's just in one tiny lake...

Description
This is a sort of redo of an old painting I made which I will not link to, though you can find it in the deep, dark depths of my gallery if you so wish. Unfortunately my scanner cropped some of the organic edges. I think in the future I'll try to fill less of the page so I can get the whole thing under, or else work much bigger so I wouldn't be using the scanner anyway.

The bottom of Hidden Lake is dark - so dark that plants would struggle to gather enough sunlight to grow and sustain themselves. So why are there plants on the lakebed? Because it is not always this way. Periodically the surface mat loses its integrity to heavy grazing or severe weather, leaving islands of crimson buoyphyte (Stagnicorium puniceum) to float among loose vegetation, mostly germinating calaveras and Carellos's buoyphyte (Zygophyta laxa). The light gives the plants the energy boost necessary for reproduction. At other times, the plants live as heterotrophs, trapping detritus and plankton in their gill-like leaves.

The ghostly figures swimming above the vegetation are Hidden Lake cetuses. These gentle serpents feed on the fruits of lakebed calaveras and anything else slow enough to capture. They use the cloak of darkness and silence to evade predators, as they cannot defend themselves in a fight. They are intelligent and naturally curious. If a stranger is not a known predator, they will gather in small groups to investigate, either in search of food or simply a novel experience. Decades after their first encounter with a human explorer, Hidden Lake cetuses were studied in detail by a Helen of Troy probe.

And that's just in one tiny lake...