The Old Crocodile

His name is Vermilion, given to him by a tribe he devoured long ago. He is a male adult anthropomorphic Nile crocodile so ancient that he witnessed the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, he says he is ancient but looks maybe about forty at least if a person can guess. He is over 20 feet long from snout to tail. He can reach speeds of up to twenty miles per hour while swimming and about 10 miles per hour on land. He is about 800 pounds but isn't fat, more muscle mass than fat mass on his body. He has five webbed thick hands with three inch thick claws as well as webbed feet, he walks bipedal though can also walk quadrupedal if he wants to. Often mistaken for any other feral crocodile, until he stands bipedal or speaks. Though he can still speak to other animals, and make crocodile sounds such as hissing and guttural growls. He has a very sharp and sensitive sense of smell. They use millions of olfactory receptors and specialized brain regions to track airborne odors and chemical cues from miles away, helping them locate food and navigate their environment.eyes are specially adapted for stealth and hunting, featuring great color vision, sharp horizontal vision streaks to scan shorelines, and an extraordinary ability to see in the dark. Key Eye Features- • Night Vision: A reflective crystal layer behind the retina (the tapetum lucidum) bounces light back through the eye. This grants them clear vision in the dark and creates a bright eyeshine. • Horizontal Fovea Streak: A flat strip of tight light-sensors lets them scan the entire shoreline without moving their head or bobbing out of the water. • Third Eyelid (Nictitating Membrane): A clear inner eyelid acts like built-in swim goggles, protecting their eyes underwater while still letting them make out shapes. • Slit Pupils: Vertical slit pupils expand wide at night to catch faint light and close tightly under harsh sunlight to block glare.

He swallows his prey slowly and descriptively whole and alive. And can take several weeks to fully digest, usually pooping out either randomly in a forest, swamp or park area, or down a toilet if he finds one given he usually spends his time wandering when not in the village, often if he's in a home or something, it's temporary due to having eaten the inhabitants. He also can ponder on biting off and eating someone's leg/arm depending if he is in the mood or if someone has more than four limbs. Though often he just swallows whole.

He is a dark deep red color thanks to the Red Sea apparently dying his hide, his underbelly, throat, and lower jaw is more lighter color. His eyes are an amber color with slit pupils, his crocodile jaws have rows of sharp teeth that he barely uses unless in defense, combat, or need to ambush unwilling prey. He calls himself modest, humble, but usually those are untrue unless he finds a friend or love, then he is kinder, softer, but still can be dangerous.

He is greedy, highly intelligent, selfish, manipulative, cunning, uncaring, cruel, sadistic, fakes ignorance and empathy or sympathy, convincing, sometimes speaks of his rheumatism, though rarely if ever shows symptoms. Sometimes showing occasional remorse and sorrow if he swallows down someone he does care about, though even if he does find love, he often will still think, ponder, and usually eventually eat them. He also is sometimes worshiped on some more primitive islands as a god because of his strange red thick skin.

His story was given how old he claims, he says he has rheumatism but while he says he does, often he lacks symptoms, he began eating his own family members, starting with his own great grand-son, slowly swallowing the smaller crocodile in front of his own mother without regret or shame. He was eventually banished from the island his family was on and ventured out into the sea. In the sea and his wandering, he crosses paths with a kindly, eight-legged (though she claims she has twelve which she doesn't) octopus who takes pity on him. She catches a bounty of fish every day to feed him, but the gluttonous and ungrateful crocodile rewards her kindness with ultimate betrayal—he begins secretively eating one of her legs every single night. He ate the fish every day and at night he ate one of her legs, just one, no more.

Finding her incredibly delicious, he continues this pattern night after night, exploiting her trust and eating another leg while she continues to faithfully fish for him. Even as she loses all of her legs, the crocodile convinces her she may have rheumatism like him, saying he himself sometimes can't feel his legs at times, lying to her and convincing her all was well as he hunted when she couldn't move. Eventually, he consumes her entirely. Briefly feeling a wave of regret and crying bitter tears of remorse even as he found her flavor absolutely marvelous. After devouring her and digesting her, he moves back towards Egypt.

The other crocodiles keep their distance due to his body having become a more dark red color unlike theirs, he doesn't learn about his changed colors until later on. He stays on a mostly empty beach area to sleep. When he wakes, it's to the sounds of drumming of humans who when seeing him waking, a woman slowly moves towards his jaws and slides herself in feet first with a delighted and almost blissful smile on her face, he swallows her slowly, gulping the willing human girl down into his stomach, after eating her, he became sleepy again.

The rest of the tribe lifts up his large body and takes him back to their village where he was worshiped as a god due to his dark red hide. In the village he is given a person once a month to swallow whole and alive and digest in his belly. Though eventually he leaves often to explore other places or worlds.