Leviathan glides to the surface because he can. As the water pulls back from his face, he smiles. A storm is here, making the world above his own dark. His eyes, glowing like flames on the lamp’s wick, gaze at the rolling surface of his domain. From shore to shore is his, the depths and the secrets they contain.
He dives. Water rolls off his arched back, the only part touching the air above his kingdom. Down deep and then he darts upward, back to the sky. Fish scatter at his approach. Crazed with terror, they race for safety, unaware his focus is above them. He tears through the surface this time, his body lifting out of the sea, and roars thunder to the storms gathered above. Flames blast from his mouth, a streak of light in an unending darkness. The clouds above answer with lightning to his right and a clap of thunder that, in a lesser being, would have made them jerk back in fear.
Still, he knows his place. This world full of lightning and clouds is not his. God has decreed it. He lets his back crash back down into the depths. Light flashes above him in the clouds. Sinking down into the depths, he watches the lights, so vibrant, then twists and darts to the depths, bound by the Creator’s demands. The depths are enough, he tells himself. He feels the water rush past as the darkness grows and the depths reveal themselves in the light of his eyes.
(Didn’t feel like writing a piece of non-fiction today so I wrote this rough draft instead. It’s inspired by the description of Leviathan in the Bible. For more on Leviathan, see Job, chapter 41, and Isaiah 27:1
Note: I’m aware that the name Leviathan is often associated with whales. However, since there are so many similarities between dragon myths and the description of Leviathan, I’m including him here in my list.)
Amy Keeley 