Nessie's Grotto Story written by Sue Clarke
Hello! I'm Nessie!
I am the Loch Ness Monster. My nickname is 'Nessie' and people have been hunting me for generations. I am nine hundred and forty-seven years old and have lived in my grotto* in Loch Ness for all of my life.
*a cave
I am basically quite a friendly monster. I have only ever eaten one human, but he tasted very bad so I went back to fish. I know I look a bit scary because I am so *huge and my neck is so long, but I really can't help the way I look any more than you can.
*Very big
This is my mum and dad. Do I look like them?
My mum had a very long neck and my dad was very dark and *furry so I have *inherited all of these features.
*covered with hair * receive from a predecessor
This is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather!
On top of that I come from a very long line of monsters which date back to Prehistoric times. I believe I am distantly related to a dinosaur called 'Mamenchisaurus' which lived in the late Jurassic period. It had a body about twenty-five metres long and a fourteen-metre neck! It also had a tiny head, a huge, *bulky body and possibly had two brains - that's probably why I am so intelligent and no-one has ever caught me. *bulky: big and hard to move
A "Loch" is a lake. Can you see the town on the other side of the lake?
Now - I'd like to tell you the story of my Grotto. That's where I live. It is a huge cave about three hundred metres *underneath the bottom of Loch Ness opposite the town of Drumnadrochit. *under
It has a very nice view of Urquhart castle when I come up to the surface, but nowadays there are too many tourists and cameras waiting so I usually only use this way at night. My cave is very comfortable and I had lived there very happily until last year when things began to get very uncomfortable indeed.
This is Mad Mick. Does he want to catch me too?
It all *began with the arrival of a mad scientist (Mad Mick) and his underwater search team. I don't really know what they wanted, but they disturbed me a lot and then I became very *anxious about my cave. *started *nervous/ worried/ afraid
Do you think Mad Mick will hear me?
Their first attempt to find me was really noisy. They came out onto the lake in a boat and put this piece of sonar equipment into the water so they could listen for sounds - a *'hydrophone' I think it's called. *a microphone which detects sound waves under water.
Of course down at the bottom of the lake the water is very dark and *murky and you can't really see much. I have to use my own sonar systems to catch fish. One morning I was very sleepy and my sonar systems were not working very well and I swam right into the scientists equipment. OUCH! *muddy
Oh dear! Mad Mick has heard me...
I think I said some bad words which they picked up on their equipment. I found out later that they said I sounded like a mixture of a 'snorting horse' and 'an eating pig' - now that wasn't very nice, was it?
Then, Mad Mick and the other men went off for a few days and I thought my life would be quiet after that. But I was wrong!! The next week I was happily going for a morning swim around the bottom of the lake when I discovered a sort of round space-ship object called a 'probe' moving around in the dark water.
Mad Mick can see me through the window.
It was yellow and through its windows I could see that man Mad Mick again. It had lots of flashing lights and cameras and when the men saw me the lights started flashing even more. I suppose they wanted lots of photographs. I HATE CAMERAS!
Suddenly, with no warning, a long dart flew out the side of the yellow probe and hit me in the side. OUCH! I think it was some sort of *stun gun because I immediately felt very sleepy. I swam slowly back to my grotto and slept for the rest of that day. When I woke up I was still very angry with Mad Mick!
*paralyze
After a few days I felt better and things on the lake were quiet. The weather was nice and foggy so I could swim around more on the surface. One day I swam all the way up to Lochend near Inverness which is quite a long way! The whole lake is twenty-four miles long so you can imagine I was quite tired when I got back. Just as I was having a nice rest in my cave it started......
.. the *banging sounds and then the explosions! I had a look outside my cave and there was Mad Mick and the yellow underwater probe again! This time it wasn't funny! They had planted dynamite in the rocks near my cave. After the explosions the rocks were falling down and I thought they would block the door to my cave!!
*loud
Mad Mick's gone. But will he come back again?
I swam outside and decided to swim under the yellow probe and *bump it! Then they went away in a hurry.
*knock, hit
By now I was desperate. How could I *get rid of Mad Mick and his stupid yellow probe before he blocked my lovely cave? For a few days I was very depressed, but they didn't come back. I suppose I had frightened them.
*eliminate
And then, a week later, help arrived. It was six o'clock in the morning and I had decided to go for a swim down the lake. It was foggy and misty and the mountains looked very black against the pale blue sky. I swam towards the town of Invermoriston but got out of the water on the other side of the lake. I sat down to rest on the little beach. It was very quiet and all I could hear was the gentle sound of the water. Suddenly a voice said, "Hello". I nearly jumped out of my skin!! Who is it? Is it Mad Mick?
Robbie has got an idea.What is it?
I looked round and there was a small boy with brown hair and a red face. "Hello, I'm Robbie," he said. I was scared because Robbie wasn't scared! So I said, "Pleased to meet you." "Who are you?" he said. "I'm Nessie, the Monster of the Loch." "Oh yes, I've heard of you. Where do you live?" So I told him about my lovely comfortable cave and Mad Mick's efforts to destroy my front door. "No problem," said Robbie. "I've got an idea!"
So he went home and told his father that he had seen a strange black shape in the water which looked like a monster. Robbie's dad worked for the local newspaper and they wrote a wonderful story about people seeing the Loch Ness Monster at the other end of the lake.
The tourists and Mad Mick couldn't find me!
So all the tourists with cameras and Mad Mick and his men all set off for the other end of the lake to hunt for me. Of course I didn't go there for weeks I stayed at home in my comfortable cave near Drumnadrochit.
The tourists and Mad Mick and the scientists gave up and went away because they couldn't find me. So now all is peaceful and I've got a quiet life! So I'd just like to say 'Thank you, Robbie'.