Seaside Snack

Creeping slowly up the shoreline, Albert felt the water shift from deep enough to swim to shallow enough for him to crawl without making too much sound. His body moved skillfully with all the ingrained instinct of a true predator honed over thousands of years. Inch by inch, he closed the distance between himself and the unsuspecting child packing sand together to join a lopsided wall. His head was damp with the salt spray of the waves splashing his pale unprotected back. The soft fuzzy crown of red hair was growing in across his scalp, barely enough to be considered any form of proper protection from the harsh sun. Drawing his tentacles close to himself, Albert had reached the beach with only the barest splash of the waves to dampen his knees and the scaled claws that formed his hands. He could feel the hopeless thrashing of the fish he had planned to devour soon as they succumbed to asphyxiation. Their death throes were soundless in the tight twitching grasp of his tentacles.When the boy was finally within Albert's reach, he extended a single claw towards the child’s head. If he did this right, the boy would never even notice until it was too late.