A crocodilian creature I saw in a dream... sorta.
A new fossil species had been found, and I went to make a drawing of it. For whatever reasons I was basing my piece directly on someone else's, though despite having their original work right in front of me I couldn’t tell if it was a painting, a photo, or even a physical model. As I worked, I noticed the image of the beast changed. The basic outline stayed the same, but details shifted every time I looked back at it. What seemed a head became arms, its scaly hide smoothed out, newly sprouted body parts vanished into thin air, utterly alien anatomy reverted to a far more familiar crocodilian form... and vice versa. Even when I thought I had something down pat the small details would alter themselves, forcing me to once again fix my work. The thing was clearly out to spite any attempt at being copied. Was this the original artist’s revenge against plagiarism, or had the paleontologists uncovered something that should’ve stayed covered? Either way, I woke up, looked at the “I dream of painting...” quote on my wall, and decided to copy my copy.
