Well, I took a break from my massive Fire Emblem-related crossover story, and took some time to write this.
This was actually nagging at me long before the idea for A:LoD became reality. I just started writing A:LoD first.
For the warning message: The events of this story do not belong to me, and neither do the characters or places. They are copyright of Peter Jackson and Universal Studios.
Now, before you fanatics of Peter Jackson's King Kong begin bickering about the inconsistency of this story with the movie's plot, this is the story as I remember it. When I forgot stuff, I either filled in the blanks with my own little things or I turned to the rough draft to fill in the holes (and yes, Carl Denham really did get crushed by Kongin the rough draft).
Anyway, here you are. Enjoy!
Beautiful
I hear organized noise off to my right. I turn my head and see some light.
They have prepared a sacrifice. I head to where they are.
This would be a normal part of my life. The light is caused by some strange creatures, and the organized sound is caused by sticks they made designed specially to bash some strange round objects with flexible tops.
It is the middle of the night, and this would be the time they have a sacrifice prepared for me.
It is a thing of trust really. I take one of their sacrifices, and they leave me alone. I only agree to it because I am the last of my kind on this land, and I do not want to be chased by the creatures from their area that wield sticks with points.
However, these creatures are still terrified by my presence. They rarely venture into the forest, and when they do, they begin running when they see me.
These creatures have organized sound. I overheard one of those creatures in a group utter something before running off with his group. In my perch in a mountain, I think about it.
I eventually figured out that I go by the name of Kong with those creatures.
I eventually find my way to the light. As soon as I am within sight of the creatures, they do not move, as they usually would when I go to retrieve a sacrifice.
I look down to see who the sacrifice is among this pack of creatures. As usual, they have the sacrifice tied down to a bridge that connects my part of the island from their part of the island.
However, when I look at the sacrifice, it is very different from what I usually get. I usually get the male creatures. This sacrifice looked like a female creature. Unlike the scarcity of strange fibers on others in the tribe, she has on one large unit of these strange fibers.
The most startling difference I see in her is that her skin is not the color of the rest of the creatures. The other creatures had dark skin where her skin was white. She has the tribal headdress on though, so she must be of this group.
I take the sacrifice. As I usually would, I take her in my hand. As I usually would, I sniff her. The other sacrifices had a putrid scent when I smelled them; this one smelled sweetly of something I cannot describe.
I begin to hear strange shouts from where the creatures are. Many of them retreat. I take this as my time to leave. I turn around and head to the rocky place I call home.
As I turn around, I feel the stare of one of the creatures. I have grown accustomed to this and have learned to avoid it. However, the reason for the stare seems… different.
I decide not to worry about this. What harm couldthat creaturedo to me?
I run off with the sacrifice in my hands. It takes a while to get to my killing ground, and when I do get home, I drop her in it. My killing ground is rocky, and it is littered with the bones of the other sacrifices. It forms a cup with a series of openings that serve as exits.
I drop her on the ground, and she does not move.
I roar at her. She is terrified, and after getting to her feet runs to the nearest exit. However, I easily overtake her, and then she runs towards another exit. I block that exit too.
I keep this up until she trips on the ribs of another sacrifice. She looks around, now apparently aware that there are others that have met the same fate she is about to face.
I pick her up, and bring her to my mouth.
I hear her scream. I feel a strange stinging sensation on my fingers as she struggles in my powerful grip.
Suddenly, I hear a thud as the tribal headdress falls off, revealing something that is very different from the rest of the creatures.
Her hair.
It is much brighter in color than that of the other natives. As I look at her in the moonlight, I cannot help but think that she is something which I cannot describe.
She makes some noise I can barely hear. It, like the round things the creatures beat on, is also organized, but in a very different fashion.
I fondle her hair in my fingers. It has a very different touch from the other creatures.
I then bring her to my chest very protectively. I realize I cannot bring myself to eat one such has her.
I roar, and I turn and begin to head to the mountain I call home.
When I wake up, I can see that it is a bright day. I turn to the nearby vines for nourishment.
Every so often I look over my shoulder to see if my sacrifice is still there. She seems to be sleeping for a very long time. When I see that she is there, I turn and look out towards the island absentmindedly and continue eating.
There is something strange about her position whenever I look back. Every time I look back, she is farther away from me and in a different position than the last time I looked back.
I do not pay attention to it. I decide that my eyes are playing tricks with me, and I continue eating.
After eating for a few minutes, I look back.
The sacrifice is not there. I look around to see a form in a crevice that is very close to me.
I grunt in distaste. She obviously does not know that I can catch up to her very easily. She is better at faking sleep, and I am better at climbing and swinging on trees. All I need to do to get to her is to go over the rock in which the crevice is.
I climb over the rock in which the crevice is etched in, and sure enough, I see her awake, walking away from my general direction. She is standing in a flat part of the mountain I call home, and she looks around to make sure I am not following her.
I slowly climb down, and then I situate myself and roar at her in anger.
She turns around, apparently very surprised. She trips on a trio of stones.
After getting on her feet, she looks at the stones. She stares at them.
She then walks over to them and picks them up, two in one hand and one in the other.
She starts throwing the stones in a rhythmic fashion. One stone goes flying in the air, and then when it reaches her hand, another stone is seen flying in the air. The pattern goes on like this for a long time, and I am bewildered in a curious way.
After she does that for a few minutes, she stops, and then sees a stick.
She drops the stones and goes over to the stick. She then takes the stick in her hand and starts moving around on this rocky platform. Her motions are bizarre yet graceful. She whirls around, waving her arms and the stick all over the place.
After a few minutes of this, she drops the stick and returns to the stones. She does the same hand motions, but this time her feet help the stones a little too. She sometimes throws a stone back, and then her foot hits it back to her hands.
I enjoy this display very much. I decide after a while to have my own fun with her.
After she finishes her display with the stones, I gently push her with my powerful finger. I grunt in pleasure.
I do this a few more times, and then she stands there with a stern reproaching look on her face.
"NO!" she screamed at me.
I grunt in confusion. I do not get why she suddenly stops this display.
"NO!" she replies. "That's all there is, there isn't any more!"
That was it? I am disappointed in this sacrifice all of a sudden. I roar, and run away in disgust. I cannot live with a sacrifice that bores me after she puts on a brief display that is interesting and then scream the word 'no' at me.
I decide to fulfill my dietary needs after that episode. I descend into the forest below.
I arrive close to a chasm and see something. I hide in the nearby cave so that I can see what that something is.
It is a party of creatures, similar to the creatures of the shore with their dark hair, and yet they are similar to the sacrifice that was offered most recently in their lighter skin tone. They make organized noise that I cannot make sense of.
However, they are obviously searching for something. I can sense it in the air.
I suddenly think I know what it is. They are looking for the sacrifice I did not kill.
I fly into a fit of blind rage, and come out of the shadows running.
The party screams. They begin to run in the direction opposite.
Most of the creatures in the party flee, I should say. One stays behind and aims a strange black object in my direction. This creature is dark-skinned like the other creatures of the shore, yet it is also has lighter skin than the other creatures of the shore. Before I can figure out what that black object he carries is, he pulls something on it, and then something invisible darts past my black fur, barely making contact with my chest.
I roar in anger. If this creature has an unfair advantage, I would most certainly like to get him out of the way first.
I charge at him, and then I knock him into the wide chasm.
He falls into the inky blackness, emitting the same sound many of the sacrifices make when I bring them up to my mouth. It is a sound of fear and final desperation.
By now, most of the other creatures have fled to a narrow collapsed tree that lies balanced on the ends of the chasm. What used to be the roots of the tree was the part of the tree that was easiest to grab and shake the entire tree from.
Fortunately for me, the roots are on my side of the chasm.
I pick up the roots, and then begin rotating them with my hands. The result is that the log begins rotating as well, and then the creatures have a difficult time trying to hang on to the log. A few more of the creatures fall into the inky blackness. However, four of the members of the party are still hanging on to the log.
They are persistent. They must surely want to get the sacrifice I did not kill.
I finally get tired of them holding on. I roar as I fling the roots down so that I cannot see the tree.
I do not get to look down the chasm to see if the tree fell. I hear organized sound coming from the other direction.
It sounds like the scream of the sacrifice I did not kill.
I suddenly realize that I cannot leave such a powerless creature in the mercy of the immense jungle.
As the screaming gets louder and increasingly urgent, I turn from the chasm and run in the direction of the screams.
When I get to the source of the screaming, I see her there. I see her with a few other things I did not count on being there.
I see a huge creature chase her, and it tower over her. They have short arms and a very short snout. They roar constantly, revealing a mass of white sharp teeth underneath. I have fought these creatures many times, and I know that their skin is rough and hard.
I know what it is. I do not know what it is called, but I know enough that it is a threat to the sacrifice I did not kill.
I see the sacrifice fall, and then the creature opens its jaws.
When I saw this, I was already running from the chasm to where I was, but now that I see this, I run faster.
As I approach the scene, I punch the creature out of the way. When it is on the ground, I jump on it and punch it as hard and fast as I can.
I look towards the sacrifice. She has collapsed on the ground.
I pick her up very gently. She must be very weak at this time.
That was when the second creature attacked. I hear footsteps, and then I feel a very sharp pain in my arm. I look to see a second creature. I wrest my arm free from the bite just as a third one charges into the area.
As soon as the third one came in, the one that nearly ate the sacrifice I did not kill had gotten to its feet. Now they circle the both of us. I brace myself for what is going to be a very hard fight.
The creatures attack. The first one lunges at me, and I punch it out of the way. The second one snaps its jaws at the sacrifice that I did not kill. I keep her out of the reach of the jaws, though, as I then throw her to my other hand, the hand that used to hold her immediately swinging left to punch the creature away. The third one then charges at me, and I jump on him. The first one lunges at the sacrifice I did not kill, after which I attempt to transfer hands.
However, right when she is about to land in my other hand, the third creature bites my arm. The sacrifice falls to the floor, and she runs in a direction.
The creatures see this, and I begin to run towards her, praying that none of the other creatures would come up and suddenly eat her.
She suddenly falls down a cliff. Fortunately, I know this cliff to have some vines that I figure she can catch.
I go down after her, and so do the creatures.
I am caught by the vines, and so are the other creatures.
I fight them in a sort of contained fall. I am stuck on vines one second, and when I swing my fist at the creatures, some of the vines give way. I do not see the sacrifice I did not kill.
And then I see her. She is swinging on a loose vine. The vine swings dangerously close to one of the creatures, which snaps its jaws at her when she swings close. Thankfully, they miss.
As the fight goes on like this, the vines suddenly completely give way on two of the creatures. I know that it is a long journey from where they were to where the ground is. I am a little comforted at the fact that they should be dead by the time they hit the bottom.
The vine the sacrifice is on slowly begins to give way as well. She looses hold and slips, but she does not fall far before I catch her. What could be deadly for them could be even deadlier on her end.
Finally, though, the vines I'm restrained in suddenly and slowly give way. After the vines give way and support my weight for a few minutes, they completely give way, and then I am sent falling down. I lose hold of the sacrifice.
When I am on my feet, I see the creature standing in front of the sacrifice.
I jump behind her. She turns her head slowly to face me. I stare at the creature threateningly.
Slowly, the sacrifice makes her way towards me. She walks backwards, and she eventually makes it to me.
I roar, and then the fight between me and the creature is on. I see the bodies of the other two creatures as I charge at the remaining creature.
I try to punch him and he tries to bite me in the next few minutes. It is a confusion of sound and sight as I try to kill this thing that threatens my sacrifice, and it trying to kill me, apparently lusting for the taste of flesh. Every so often I feel pain as the creature bites or scratches me.
Finally, it manages to get past me, and it lunges at the sacrifice.
Before its jaws can clamp down on her, though, I grab them, and then I pull the thing's jaws as far apart as I can. I suddenly hear the sickening crunch of bone as the upper jaw of the creature disconnects from its joint. I then push the upper jaw as far into the creature's head as I can. I hear more crunching, and then the monster is on its side. It is fallen, and there is blood everywhere.
I look towards my sacrifice. She is tired, and she is about to collapse again.
As she falls, I take her in my hand gently and head towards the mountain I call home.
It is now sunset. The sun glows a brilliant orange as I finally make it back to my home.
I set her down on the floor next to me, and I sit there staring blankly to space. I find myself bored.
At that moment, I hear the sound that she made when she tossed the stones in the odd arrangement earlier. I turn my head to see her doing it again.
I nudge her lightly again, and I grunt again. This time, though, she does not shout at me.
I take her into my hand. I stare at her for a long time.
She then puts her hand up to her chest.
"Beautiful," she says.
At first, it baffles me. I do not know why she says that.
"Beautiful," she says again.
That is when I make a connection. That thing I could not describe about her… she is… I can finally think of a way to describe it…
She is… beautiful…
I lay myself down, and hold her in my hand. I may never know what the other creatures that look similar to her call her, but I will name her 'Beautiful'.
She falls asleep in my hand before I myself drift off to sleep.
I feel some movement in my hand.
I wake up to see Beautiful awake, holding the hand of somebody else. That somebody else happens to be one of the creatures in the party that hunted me.
I am enraged. I roar, which scares the two of them.
Unfortunately, this upsets the nearby creatures that fly. They begin flying and trying to attack me. I attack them, and after several minutes, I drive them away.
When the bats get away, I do not see Beautiful anywhere.
After thinking about it, I realize that the other person must have taken her away.
I want my Beautiful! I want my Beautiful! I go after them.
After swinging my way through dense jungle for several minutes, I see the two of them heading towards the gate where the creatures offer sacrifices.
I follow them. They get to the gate first.
I follow, breaking through the gate.
What I see shocks me. Behind the gate, many other creatures are situated, aiming strange black things at me and holding reflective objects.
When I go through the gate, they pull something on the black objects and begin throwing the reflective objects at me.
The burst of air that comes from the black objects misses me often, however, when the reflective objects hit, they shatter and then I smell something strange.
I see Beautiful off to one side. They are going after her.
I follow them.
I wind up in a narrow cave where the bottom of the cave is filled with water. I follow them to see more of these creatures aiming the strange black objects at me and throwing the reflective material at me.
Then, I see strange objects that float on the water. Beautiful is in one of them, along with several other creatures.
I make my way to the object, and when another one just like it gets in my way, I violently throw it off to the cave wall.
One of the other creatures aims a large black object in my direction.
Beautiful does not approve of all of this. At this point, she is screaming, "NO!" and trying to stop these creatures by shaking their shoulders, offsetting the aim of the black things, and doing whatever else she can to keep me safe.
There was a creature close to my side that I did not see. In my rush to get to Beautiful, I do not see him. When I got close to the object Beautiful was in, a creature threw one of those reflective objects at my nose. He landed a hit, and suddenly I smell something very strong that makes me… sleepy.
I settle down in the water violently, having lost my battle.
As I loose hold on my vision, I see Beautiful cry. I do not wish her to cry, yet there is nothing I can do to dry those tears of hers. I barely hear her mutter, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," over and over again.
This is the only thing I hear as the blackness envelops me.
Many days later, I am bound to a wall by a very strong bondage. I see a floor that looks strikingly similar to wood. In front of me is this mass of red.
I hear some mumbling from the other side of this red mass. It says something about a wonder of the world or whatever. I do not get what he is saying.
I then hear organized sound of a very different kind than the native's cup-shaped objects. It sound the same, yet very different.
"Ladies and gentlemen… Look upon Kong— the Eight Wonder of the World!" I suddenly hear as the red mass suddenly give way to blinding light.
Where I am perched, I can see thousands of little eyes, but I cannot find Beautiful. I see who took her away from me though.
I want to attack, but the bonding holds me back.
"Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen," I hear. "Those chains are made of chrome steel."
What kind of senseless noise is that? What is steel anyway?
"Now, to tell the story of this monster," I hear.
What? Monster? How am I a monster?
I sit— or rather, do the best I can to sit bound to a wall— and think it over. Beautiful seemed to fear me at first, and then she grew accustomed to me.
This calling me a monster… Is it the result of ignorance?
I see many dark skinned people enter onto this wooden surface. They start dancing around.
"People, I would like to introduce the hero of our story," said the same voice. "Welcome to the theater, Mr. Bruce Baxter!"
Hero? Why hero? They were the ones who took Beautiful away. They also took me to a very foreign place.
I see a creature walk onstage. He does not look anything like the one who took Beautiful away from me. That is a clue that whoever said he was a hero was lying.
But what do the owners of those thousands of eyes know about the lies? They weren't there to witness the events.
"Behold, the sacrifice being offered to Kong!" says the same voice.
I see something come up from the floor of the wooden surface. I expect to see Beautiful, and my mind goes up in elation for a few seconds.
It is not Beautiful. I see something that wants to look like Beautiful but does not.
I am agitated. Putting me in these chains and calling me a monster is enough. I cannot stand the sight of somebody putting somebody wanting to be like Beautiful.
I begin to pull on my chains. Sure enough, the pulling pays off, and I am free from the wall.
The thousands of eyes suddenly flee from their positions, and the owners turn around, screaming. Everybody on the wooden surface. does the same.
Except for one. The one that threw the reflective object at me.
I to over to where he is, and then I raise my foot.
After he looks up, I bring my foot down on him.
I have many reasons to crush him. He brought so much humiliation on me that it seems only fair to end his life.
I then see the one who took Beautiful away from me. He is in an upper level of the strange enclosed area.
I race to his location, and then I try to follow him. However, he exits from an opening too small for me to even fit through. I roar after him, then jump through the wall.
I am in a brightly lit area with a stone bottom. One of the first things I notice is how cold the place really is.
I see many things moving. I see creatures and very large objects that speed around on the ground.
The objects that speed start attempting to maneuver around me. It is then that I realize that the objects are powered by humans. I begin smashing some of them in search of Beautiful.
I pick up whatever woman with light skin and light hair I can see, and I check if it is Beautiful.
I have very little success at first. After many minutes of smashing cars and picking up the female creatures, I do not find her.
I then see the one who took Beautiful away from me. He has gotten in one of these objects and has started speeding away. I follow him.
After a long chase where I climb on tall mountain-like objects that are straight, I corner him. When he tries to get around me, I smash the front of the object he is in with my hand.
The object stops. I see him lay in the seat without making a single movement.
There is nobody else around. I am alone, and I now loathe the loneliness that surrounds me. I used to love being lonely. However, after the creatures of the coast offered me Beautiful, I cannot stand being alone. I want her, and I want her now.
The sound of footsteps sounds very close to me. I turn around and see a female creature. Her hair flows in the wind, and her white dress shines in the light.
Unlike most of the other female creatures I have looked at, this one approaches me without fear. It approaches me almost as if it knew something about the compassionate side of me that many of the other creatures fail to see.
She walks until she stands right in front of me. She stands there pleadingly, almost as if she wants me to pick her up.
I pick her up, and I smell her.
It is Beautiful. I have found her at last.
I carry her off to a place covered in white. I do not remember ever seeing so much white. Beautiful's dress is white, the ground is white, and the water is white.
I go to the water, and to my surprise, it holds me up. It is very slippery, though, and I go sliding around.
This is a very different and very pleasing sensation. I get to my feet, and I slide around.
I slide around for a few minutes. I grunt in pleasure every time I see the world whirl by. It is just me and Beautiful, and I can do whatever I want in front of her. She will understand.
Beautiful enjoys this too. A little later in the sliding, I can hear her make strange noise. It is sort of like my grunts of pleasure, except it is shorter and more repeated. I like to hear this noise of hers. It sounds like music to my ears. It is something infinitely new.
As I am sliding, a bit of the solid water behind my back suddenly rises and I am thrown off balance.
I look behind me and see strange things that release some things at me. However, unlike the little black objects, I can see what is heading in my direction. It releases something that causes fire whenever it hits the ground.
After dodging some of these things, I make it to one of the tall things and then begin climbing it. After I get to the top, I look to see the tallest of the structures. It is not very far, and it looks tall enough to keep Beautiful and me safe from these things that release objects at me.
I make my way to this structure.
It is now morning. I can see the sun shining brilliantly on the world, and I realize how high up we really are.
I have climbed up here with Beautiful. She is a little cold, but she does not seem to mind so long as I am here.
Beautiful and I have been sitting there for a very long time. She looks at me in compassion. She truly knows that there is beauty in my heart.
I stare at her back for a very long time. She is truly beautiful, and I want to cherish it for the rest of my life. I want to stay up her with her, just the two of us, and I can go down and get something to eat and drink, after which I would bring it up to her. It would be the perfect life for me, and for her too it seems. She is comfortable in my presence, so I hope that we can live like this for a very long time.
At that moment, I hear a very strange sound coming from behind me. Beautiful gasps in shock. I look back.
I see things that fly. They are similar to the creatures that fly except for the fact that they do not flap their wings to fly. They fly in a formation, with one object at the lead, and others behind it. I can see that creatures operate this thing.
I must defend Beautiful. I shoot her a glance telling her to stay where she was, and then I went up.
They have a very effective strategy. On the wings, they have little black objects equipped. They must have something that pulls on it that makes air gush by. I fight them from the side of the building.
It is hard from the side. The objects can fly very far away from me, and there is nothing I can do about that. The black objects on those things are very precise, and I constantly feel stinging on my back.
We fight for several minutes, I swatting at the objects that fly while they release air at me.
Then, they shoot and I hear some very disturbing sound. It is the sound of metal grinding.
It is followed by a scream. Beautiful's scream.
I turn around and catch Beautiful just as she is about to fall to her death on this high perch. I then bring her to a constricted space at the level of my eye, and I give her a reassuring look that I am going to be alright.
I then feel the sting again, and then I am forced to go up to the top of the mountain-like structure.
I roar and beat my chest, a signal to them to bring it on.
They fly in my direction. They fire at me constantly, and then one of the objects strays from the formation.
I take this as a perfect opportunity to strike.
As the object flies over my head, I swat at one of the wings.
I land a hit. I can hear the drone of the object, and then I look around to see the object crumpling in midair, making its final descent towards the earth.
I felt pitiful for whoever was in that object. He would never get to know the gentle side of my heart. He would most certainly be dead too.
My attention turns to the other objects. There are four of them left, and they constantly fire at me. I often feel that sting. It is now overwhelming, and I begin to feel fatigued.
A few minutes later of roaring and firing, I see another plane heading my way.
As I see it heading my way, I ready my hand.
I grab the wing, and then rotate in a circle, after which I let go of the object. It plunges to the earth just like the first object.
The objects then begin to get back in formation, and then head my way.
As they near, I suddenly hear a scream from underneath me.
"No!" is the scream that I hear. It is Beautiful, who is underneath me.
The planes divert from me, but they continue firing. After several more minutes, I am knocked back so that I am at the edge of the building, clinging for my life.
I suddenly want to cry. I have been defeated. I will never get to see Beautiful again. The fatigue is too much, and I am afraid of letting go.
Thankfully, I see Beautiful there. She is in the same position she was when I was chasing her in my killing ground after she tripped on the rib. However, the incredible fear for her life that was there then is replaced by a look of despair. I wish I can do something to make her feel better, but I cannot.
As it so happens, my hand is next to her. She then hugs my hand so that she can get a last feel.
As she holds on, I hear organized noise again, and it is the same thing she said in my killing ground. I can hear nothing else as she makes organized sound that is very soothing.
"Lullaby ... and good-night, Go to bed and sleep tight ... Close your eyes, start to yawn, Pleasant dreams until dawn," she says very softly. The pitches she speaks in are defined.
The planes are heard again, and Beautiful is still holding on to my hand.
I have lost to the fatigue. She lets go as I slip off the side of the structure.
As I plummet to the earth, I have only one thought on my mind.
Beautiful… She was truly beautiful…
She was worth defending… Even if I could not live with her for the rest of my life…
The word she taught me is brought back in my mind for the last few moments of my life.
Beautiful...
Author's Afterward:
Well, there you go. My first oneshot. I feel I did a very good job in the end there. Of course, it turned out to be more thought provoking than I thought it would.
Review away, and for those of you A:LoD faithful, expect the next chapter to come soon.
Herr Wozzeck