[366 Days of Monsters] Day 071/366 - Kraldos

Infesting the liquid shadow of The Other's Black Cauldron are the menacing kraldoses. They are also referred to as "shadow sharks", although, their resemblance to actual sharks is tenuous at best. A kraldos is a 12-foot long amphibious creature whose front is nothing more than a large, gaping hole filled with seven rows of gnashing black teeth. A pair of tentacles grow from the sides of its body which it uses to pull its prey into the liquid shadow.

Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of the kraldoses are their ability to mimic other creatures. This includes humanoid voices. A kraldos does not understand the words or languages it speaks, but knows enough to repeat certain phrases that have proven effective. Phrases such as "help me" and "save me" are particularly useful, as is the frequent favorite "don't be afraid." Not only does this ability lure in the kraldoses' victims, it acts as a form of echolocation, too, allowing it to navigate the endless dark of The Other.

Kraldoses prefer the taste of realstuff flesh. However, if there is a sufficient lack of flesh, the kraldoses turn instead to their own fries and other shadow creatures for sustenance. When truly desperate, kraldoses will even eat the undead that swim the liquid shadows of The Black Cauldron.

Although kraldoses prefer hunting alone, they have been known to establish kraldos communities on islands of hard shadow. There, the kraldoses vomit up their young, formed from the remains of realstuff creatures they've consumed. For this reason, newborn kraldos fries have a fleshy quality to their scales which fades with time as their Shadowstuff flesh darkens. Additionally, kraldos fries adopt the same commonly mimicked phrases of the parent kraldos, however, the fries' mimicries often come out as gruesome exaggerations of the original phrase.