Get inspired with this week’s Fantasy Art Wednesday, where fun fantasy artwork is combined with a writing prompt to get your creative juices flowing!

I’m sad to say, last night was the season finale of Deadliest Catch. It will be another year before I can follow my favorite captains into the Bearing Sea again—someplace I’m nowhere near adventurous enough to go to myself! But I guess it put me in the mood for a voyage into a different kind of deadly sea…one stirred up by the imagination…and maybe a monster or two.

There’s got to be a good story behind this striking image. What is that horrible creature lurking below the water’s surface? Its tentacles wrap around the doomed ship, but also seem to be holding up the chest filled with gold. Did those on board try to appease it with wealth, only to anger it instead?

The second boat is trying to make a hard turn away from the creature. With prayer and luck it just might get away, else it will share the same fate as its sister ship. Should any of these sailors survive, their tales will no doubt spark legends, many of which will grow over time to have a life of their own. It’s no wonder sailors are such a superstitious lot!

What does such a creature want with gold anyway? Does it collect wrecks as a dragon hoards treasure, or is there perhaps someone waiting on the ocean floor to receive it? Someone who is using the beast to hunt, much like hawks can be trained and released to bring back game.

But these are only some of the possibilities. What do you see?

Artwork by Nicholas Ferrand