Hello, fellow cryptids!
It’s my great pleasure, as always, to share another variety cryptic with you. This puzzle uses a different mechanism from the others I’ve done so far. I think it’s as straightforward as the others, if not more, though and I’m pretty happy with how fully the theme came through. I feel this is on the gentler side of variety cryptics, so I hope it’s fun for everybody!
Thanks to Hayley Gold and Nate Cardin, for what is always such thoughtful test solving.
Take care, enjoy the puzzle, and come back next week if you want to solve something totally non-cryptic.
Square Pursuit 