Gertie is a very sweet creature. She’s some sort of water dragon, though I’ve never seen another like her. Hiding shyly below a roof of neat lily pads, she paddles around the pond, sometimes peeping out between the leaves to watch those coming and going.

If something is dropped in the pond, Gertie will gladly retrieve it, balancing the lost thing on her nose and poking it just above the water. Naturally children find this rather amusing and like to toss in items for her to retrieve, rewarding her with tasty fruits and soft pats to the snout.

As no-one has seen her fully out of the water, no-one knows how many legs she has. She just goes on and on, weaving and swaying through the lily stem like a reed.