Loch Ness wasn't exactly the place one would picture a lot of people wanting to go swimming. Some of it related to the infamous Loch Ness Monster, but a lot of it was probably more that the water was colder than similarly sized lakes in more southerly latitudes. However, there was some boating and fishing and swimming that did occur. Especially as the stories of the Loch Ness Monster was something that always attracted tourists to that part of Scotland. And even Nessa was no exception to that. The day after meeting with Elise, Nessa and Aggie made their way to a more secluded area where they didn't have to worry too much about attention from the news media.
She was glad to see Aggie and Elise, as they were good friends and in some ways she could take plenty of pride in seeing Aggie grown up and that given her age, Elise was in reasonably good health. However, there was a part of her that was seriously curious about the supposed creature that lived in the lake, particularly as there were so many stories about the monster, especially after the infamous photo of the monster appeared. Now, the photo had been proven fake in that the creature depicted was a construct on top of a miniature submarine, but that didn't stop people from investigating the lake.
"You're sure you want to actually look for it?" Aggie asked as they came down to a more secluded spot and looking to Nessa, with her large one piece swimsuit clinging tightly to her curves.
"Mostly just a go around," Nessa answered as she flexed her muscles for a moment, "after all... the loch is deep and long enough that there could be surprises. And people seem to find unexpected things all the time."
Of course, this was mostly curiosity on Nessa's part. The depictions of the Loch Ness Monster were often pretty close to how Elasmosaurus was expected to look like, with its long neck and small head, largely based off of the infamous photo. Though, as she'd gone through her own studies on Elasmosaurus as part of her conversion as part of Project Mesozoic, she'd found plenty that would render some problems with a lot of the common depictions. The biggest thing was in the flexibility of the neck. Elasmosaurus could probably be fairly flexible going side to side with its neck, but with the number of vertebrae that it had and the way they were arranged, it was unlikely that Elasmosaurus could have had much in the way of up and down movement, making the infamous photo impossible for Elasmosaurus to take on, and thus why her conversion also included some snake DNA to make sure that her neck wouldn't lose any flexibility.
There was also the issue that Elasmosaurus, as a marine reptile, breathed air. It might be able to hold its breath longer than a human would, but it would still need to come to the surface regularly in order to breath, which would mean that if there was an unknown Elasmosaurus living in Lock Ness, it would have been seen more often and in daylight just as much as at night. And from some of what Jeremy had commented to her regarding animal life spans and the availability of food, is that even if Elasmosaurus survived the Cretaceous Period extinction event only to become trapped in what would become Loch Ness later in Earth's geologic history, they would need food and the space for a breeding population that would be able to last until the present day. And given the size of Elasmosaurus in the fossil record, that'd make it pretty unlikely that even a lake like Loch Ness would be big enough. Even if the species survived the end of the Cretaceous, it was likely that the size of Loch Ness would have meant that the species would have died out due to over population and a lack of food even before man even evolved.
In theory, Elasmosaurus could have evolved to become smaller to fit its environment, but that wouldn't fit the stories on the size of the Lock Ness Monster. It was enough that while Nessa was curious about whether or not there was actually a Loch Ness Monster, she also wasn't truly expecting to find one. If she did, that'd be great and worthy of news reporting, and if not, then she'd get some time for a swim and to have fun with friends she'd had before her move to the United States.
"In that it could be fun," Nessa answered, "and that's really the point here. Not old myths and legends."
"Just remember that I probably can't swim as fast as you," Aggie answered as she looked over to Nessa, noting her webbed hands and feet and the powerful muscle groups that went with them, "and we don't have the thirty one hours it took Brenda Sherratt to swim the length of the loch."
Nessa turned out to look at the lake and could easily view the size and scope of the lake. While her enhanced curves actually served to create a fair amount of drag in the water, she'd also found her arm and leg muscles were more than able to compensate for that. Though, that still didn't make her Animalia's fastest swimmer.
"Not to mention that we've come to a quieter area that doesn't get as much tourist traffic," Aggie commented, "which is probably a good thing, in that the news media will have some interest in an Elasmosaurus Dinotopian here at Loch Ness in connection with the Loch Ness Monster legends... and will have some issue with paying attention given that you roared at them when you arrived."
Nessa remembered that, and the frustration that had built up as people peppered her questions over her stay. She might have her own curiosity in the Loch Ness Monster, but she wasn't there to be a show woman. Her vacation was intended to be something more personal, and under those questions she short of snapped. The sound made wasn't quite a true roar in the sense of how big cats like Lions and Tigers roared. Though there was some case where the combination of human and animal DNA in Animalians, and Dinotopians in particular came into play. In this, Dinotopians could actually mimic the sorts of sounds that many old movies expected large creatures like dinosaurs to make. She then sighed as she knew that Aggie was right there. She may have had reason to be upset with the intrusion on her privacy, but that didn't make it okay to do anything that others would take as a threat.
"I suppose you're right, Aggie," Nessa gave a sigh as she walked into the water, "and I'm not here solely to search for the monster. If I just so happen to find it... wonderful. If not... we can see we had fun."
And with that, Nessa leaped into the water and dove in with a great splash. Aggie slowly followed, though was forced to raise her arms to shield herself from the splash that Nessa made as she dove in. After a moment or two, Aggie followed suit and dove after Nessa. The water was cool, and probably cooler than most swimming pools would be, but at least for the short term, there would be some room for exercise. Nessa found this especially good as her clear nictitating membrane slid over her eyes as she entered the water. It let her look around the bottom of the water where they were and then look back to Aggie for a moment. She followed, but without goggles and without a nictitating membrane, she had her eyes closed. This would keep them close to the surface, as Aggie wouldn't be able to see anything that would be a potential hazard.
They kept up a few simple strokes and stayed close enough to the shore that Aggie wouldn't be at risk. Nessa stayed close enough to make sure that Aggie wouldn't have any trouble, though she kept an eye out to make sure no one came with the intention of being the source of a big scoop on Nessa being the Loch Ness Monster. So far, none of that happened, and the two spent a few moments just floating lazily on the surface. It felt like the a rather comfortable water bed in that the water and her body's natural buoyancy gave Nessa the ultimate amount of comfort and support.
"So... Nessa... if I may ask... what would you do if you actually found the monster and it actually was an Elasmosaurus?" Aggie asked.
"Maybe... see if I could get Horizon to ship out a special serum that would counteract the vaccine in me and uplift him," Nessa answered, "since if there actually would be an Elasmosaurus in the Loch... I doubt people would really give it peace, given all the attention I've already had coming here."
"So you come here looking for a boyfriend?" Aggie gave a laugh.
Nessa laughed a bit at that, "Hey... there's nothing wrong with that sort of thing. Being an Animalian gave me a new shot at life... and that comes with all the drives of youth. A few of the friends I've made even relish in that part of it."
Aggie laughed again, "I suppose it would. With all that you have... you'd sure to turn heads."
"Yeah... though the only thing is the fact that some of those people end up thinking all an Animalian is a sex doll... that we're too hormonally driven to think of anything other than sex," Nessa commented, "and while some of that could be... enjoyable... it's not something that any Animalian would truly tolerate for long. Be they male or female. Especially when it then gets into fanboy or fangirl attitude..."
"Some of the people fawning over Animalians seen on the news?" Aggie wondered.
"That'd be them," Nessa chuckled. "I trust no one's been doing anything like that with you?"
"Behaving stupidly to get my attention?" Aggie asked, "I'd suppose not... but actually has been a young man who works down in town that I've had me eye on."
"Then I wish you good luck," Nessa smiled at that.
And the trip to Loch Ness largely followed that path. Nessa got some time to swim alone, which she took advantage of to look around the lake, at least in the area where they were. She found nothing that would be indicative of a large marine reptile living in the lake, but she did get some exercise and found some other things out. That was namely that at coming across some of the fish that were known to inhabit the lake, that actually made Nessa rather hungry. In this, as she swam back toward the shore to dry off, her thoughts turned to a good meal.