Well, after an astonishing EIGHT YEARS, I'm just a chapter or two away, for better or for worse, from the bittersweet ending to this fic's third act.
"'People have forgotten this truth,' the fox said. 'But you mustn't forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you've tamed.'" The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943.
"I could have happily died right then and there and wished for nothing more on earth, simply because they had remembered." From Dian Fossey's journal, regarding a July 5th, 1983 contact with the females of Group Five after nearly a year's absence in America.
He smelt her coming before he saw her. Through the filthy-smelling, savagely cold air that now filled Kong's massive nostrils, he detected the pleasantly sweet odor of the female naked ape, yellow haired and blue eyed, whom he'd come to know and love as his only friend after a dozen years of solitude.
He turned, and there she was, lit from behind by the strange, small not-suns that lined these canyons of equally odd human dwellings, even as her fellow naked apes ran in terror. He blinked, and lightly shook his head in surprised disbelief.
But unlike the time when they'd first encountered each other, the yellow haired naked ape screaming and twisting in helpless terror, cringing away as he'd examined her exotic new hair in fascination, she showed no fear in the least. It was so gladdening. And it thrilled him to know then that she'd chosen to come this time, to search him out!
All the same, he moved toward her with a respectful slowness, producing low, drawn-out "hmmms" as she walked up to him uncertainly in turn, smelling of flowers and walking in fake hooves that raised her heels off the cold, black, pitch-smelling stone they were standing upon.
She seemed equally amazed and pleased to encounter her friend and protector as well, but also seemed deeply uncertain, unhappy in her attitude and expression as well.
Kong really had no idea why that would be as she reached out with her delicate hand and slid it through the hair on his great wrist, quivering from a cold that was like nothing he'd ever experienced in his long life. He noticed that she was shaking from the cold as well, without even a covering of hair for protection, only that curious flimsy layer or two of artificial hide.
Was she sad that he'd been captured? Did she feel like she'd let him down at the village? Was she frightened he'd punish her in some way? Did she feel like he'd abandoned him, or the other way around? Or were others of her kind, male naked apes with terrible weapons like the ones that had hurt him at the gorge and the village, pierced his flesh and caused him pain, made him bleed, coming even now to kill him as an enemy-and she knew that she would be helpless to stop them when they did?
As he delicately picked her up in his huge right hand and raised her to his face, looking once more into those beautiful blue eyes, Kong deeply wished he could speak to her in her kind's staccato, droning language of distinct segments and barks of sound, so different from the grunts and gruffer barks and rumbles that the naked apes sharing his island could hear-and the rumbles that they apparently couldn't-tell her that it was not her fault, that he wasn't angry or disappointed with her in the least, that he was just so deeply grateful to have her here and with him again in this cold, smelly, insane nightmare world made by her fellow naked apes, and that whatever happened to him from here on in, it was all that really mattered.
But he knew it was impossible.
In spite of the situation he knew he was in, Kong couldn't help but find that his wrinkled lips were parting in a half-smile of joy. And when the female naked ape, blue eyes shining in the light of the unnatural little suns, reached out and placed her hand on his face-oh, that was blissful. That was wonderful. And Kong couldn't stop himself from giving a deep, rumbling purr of contentment.
As she drew her hand back, the old silverback was slowly pulled out of his blissful reverie by a strange sort of howling in the near distance, filtering through the canyons of little ape dwellings and the pathways both they and their metal beasts traveled on. Other naked apes, communicating with each other, coming to kill him? Maybe.
He couldn't stay here. With a vague, soft coughing break of threat toward the unseen enemy, Kong turned and headed away through the maze. Through the scents of burning things and strange chemicals, he could detect the aroma of conifers on the frigid air from the north, reminding him of the tropical pines that grew in his home forests. Perhaps they could hide out there. At the very least, if he was going to be killed by the naked apes and their weapons tonight, it would be among the trees.
He looked so lost, so confused, so out of place, just like she had been in his own jungle home. But all the same, Ann could see that he was happy, at peace to see her, be reunited with her once more.
As he tentatively raised his leathery right hand and reached out to her, curving the leathery palm and fingers around her slim, shivering body, Ann's protective instincts screamed at her to run like the wind and not look back, to struggle and fight.
But emotion, experience, and certainly trust kept her standing firm as the sensitive, magnificent king of Skull Island carefully raised her up into the air to meet her gaze, obviously checking to see if it truly was her.
Ann felt the corners of her mouth turn upward in a thin, half-hearted smile. It was so strange and ironic, how the wheels of life turned. The very first time she'd been in his grasp, she'd fainted dead away, been utterly out of her mind with terror.
And now, she was as pleased to see him again as she would've been to see an old friend or one of her sisters.
But the happiness and warmth was tempered by the knowledge that no one else in this city saw Kong or understood him that way. They only knew him as a dangerous killer and monster, and intended to deal with him as such.
Somehow, she had to at least try to protect him, just like he'd so valiantly protected her. She had to stay by him, intercede on his behalf as best she could when the time came. It was an insane thought, an impossible and ridiculous notion.
But Ann Darrow didn't turn her back on her family or friends willingly when they were in trouble…human or animal. She had made the ape into an extraordinary friend, and so felt responsible for him now on some level. She was going to do whatever she could to help him when the time arrived.
Until then, whether she succeeded or failed, she might as well sit back and enjoy these last peaceful moments in his company.
His hand felt refreshingly warm and secure around her slim torso as he turned and silently, warily looking about and keeping to the shadows, walked northward through the freezing darkness.
As the strange, solid water, cold and slick, suddenly burst apart behind him from one of the equally weird and terrible weapons of the naked apes, playfulness and contentment gave way to an explosion of panic and terror inside Kong.
There was that awful spitting, rattling sound, and he felt the little stones hurting him, piercing his flesh. It was an attack like nothing he could understand or had experienced before.
So he ran, desperately, trying not to grasp the yellow haired naked ape too tightly if it could be avoided.
He also had a plan. Instinct said he should run away from the direction the rattling sounds and flashes of light and little stones that riddled him were all coming from.
But he decided to take a gamble and run at the group of naked apes in their strange metal beasts instead, an action that would throw them into a similar panic and disarray, make them afraid to use their exotic weapons for fear of hitting each other. Perhaps he could take whoever the leader of this particular band of naked ape warriors out of commission at the same time as well, throwing them into further chaos and so making them less of a threat.
His plan succeeded, and bearing the pain, Kong smashed one metal beast aside, then another, before leaping onto a third and crushing it under his feet before running on.
Now what? Kong didn't really know. But he and his naked ape friend couldn't stay down here in these canyons of naked ape dwellings and their stone-spitting, thunder and lightning making metal beasts they traveled in. All of Kong's instincts told him that they had to get off the ground, get somewhere high and away.
High and safe.
Considering that there isn't going to be the opportunity to do it for much longer in the story, I couldn't resist the chance to look at things from Kong's point of view here. Hope it sounds good!
The first quote above, spoken by the fox in The Little Prince-and for that matter, the entire chapter in which they form a relationship and become friends-is in my opinion, perhaps the most beautiful and touching ode ever written to the rich, deep, fulfilling, pure and wonderful bonds human beings can and should form with domestic and wild animals alike. All that's needed is to behave with patience, respect, kindness, consistency and commitment-and above all, the willingness to put your human sense of ego aside and listen.
