squeezing in another mermaid before the clock runs out. this darling creature is actually a design for my goblin story Small Guide. they’re called grasping sharks.
grasping sharks aren’t technically mermaids in the Small Guide setting. They’re more like sirens. they hunt near the surface of tropical waters, waving or thrashing their long hand-like tentacles just above the water to attract prey. sometimes the prey is a curious bird, other times its a doomed good samaritan. they drown their prey mere feet or even inches from the surface (its always drowning, blood attracts other predators), holding onto them with the numerous arms it stores in the toothy pockets of it’s body. these arms are trophies from past hunts kept strangely alive and mobile for quite some time due to the grasping shark’s venom. they rarely take bodies deeper than they have to until the prey is completely dead since breaking their grip is very difficult and rescuers who aren’t careful get easily dragged down themselves.
their intelligence and life cycle is unknown due to the fact that they’re very reclusive and leave few survivors. attempts to study them usually end in tragedy. it has been observed that they don’t seem to eat other sea creatures and favor large sentient prey.
they’re very common around Cashmere’s homeland.