"It was a great gray-black hood of horror moving over the floor of the
sea. It slid through the soft ooze like a monstrous mantle of slime
obscenely animated with questing life. It was by turns viscid and
fluid. At times it flattened out and flowed through the carpet of mud
like an inky pool; occasionally it paused, seeming to shrink in upon
itself, and reared up out of the ooze until it resembled an irregular
cone or a gigantic hood. Although it possessed no eyes, it had a
marvelously developed sense of touch, and it possessed a sensitivity to
minute vibrations which was almost akin to telepathy. It was plastic,
essentially shapeless. It could shoot out long tentacles, until it bore
a resemblance to a nightmare squid or a huge starfish; it could retract
itself into a round flattened disk, or squeeze into an irregular
hunched shape so that it looked like a black boulder sunk on the bottom
of the sea."
Excellent. Fine combination. Great illo, good choice of material. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteI read this story as a kid and it's never left me. Classic.
ReplyDelete