Then the sound came. Low at first, a thrumming vibration that carried through the sand into their shoes, rising until it seemed to rattle the very air. The crowd froze, heads snapping back toward the water. A tremor rolled across the bay, and then the surface swelled.
It rose slow and deliberate, spreading wide, higher and higher until it looked like the back of some enormous beast. Black, glossy, catching the last slivers of daylight in sharp gleams along its ridges. Gasps tore through the crowd. Mothers clutched children to their skirts. A man cursed under his breath.