The story is up to your imagination.

The picture was created by merging parts of 4 photos and three paintings.
The "lagoon" is from a photo of a Cenote [sinkhole] at Quintana Roo, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was merged on a digitally painted background. The birds are from a photo of Wood-rail native to central and South America. The bird was multiplied, filtered and changed in color and partly over painted until it got a fantasy bird. The bird in the background is a Toucan, the snake a Green Mamba both were treaded with filters. The "Monster" is from one of my drawings on paper what was scanned. The Butterflies are from one of my digital paintings.
I used Paint Shop XP. Digital Image Suite and Serif Photo Plus.