Foreigners on Skull Island part 1
One overcast, gloomy night two exhausted, giant creatures dragged themselves to shore using their slender forelegs ending in hooks to pull themselves out of the sea. When they finally stood up the female, who stood on sixes, 2 pairs of forelimbs and 1 pair of deer-like hind legs ending similarly to cloven hoofs, measured about 90 meters tall. Her mate, who was carrying a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile containing multiple nuclear warheads in his mouth, also got up. He lacked a pair of forelegs but possessed a pair of membraned wings that made up for it and enabled him to fly unlike the female. On his fours, he reached two-thirds of his spouse's height. The only source of light in this darkness was their long, narrow, glowing reddish orange eyes which scanned their new environment.
"This place doesn't seem hostile so far," said the smaller one after placing the rocket into one of his small limbs. Then, he yawned revealing sharp, white, glistening teeth.
"I hope it's not dangerous. I don't see any humans nor buildings, nor do I want to. I've had enough of them. They're everywhere and they're savage. We can't even remain in the wild, they find us then, attack us," replied the female. "Wherever humans are that's no place to raise a family."
The couple crept along the sandy beach until they reached a barren and rocky place with poor vegetation. They decided to explore the area, shortly they stumbled upon a huge, deep cave, containing blackness. They entered then, mapped the cavern using their echolocation. They deducted that this geophysical structure has plenty of room for them, but detected presences of other lifeforms, who were non other than terapusmordaxes clinging to the ceiling by their feet, who had returned not long ago from their foraging and had fallen asleep. The M.U.T.O.'s decided to "evict" them. They crawled outside, tore some trees from the ground with their small pair of limbs and returned into their new abode. They determinedly and forcefully swatted the hairless, bat/mole rat-like creatures with the trees which arrogantly roused them out of their sleep. The terapusmordaxes either regained consciousness when they were already on the arc-shaped path ending at the hard ground or when they painfully impacted the solid, stone floor whilst emitting a shrill screech. Then, they scrambled up and frantically flew out of the cave into the night into the distance not yet knowing where to travel to. After the cavern was free of them the new homeowners occupied it and went to sleep.
A week after the M.U.T.O.'s arrival King Kong and Terkina spent time together at the beach further from the troop. Since Sharam had been torn apart and eaten by tyrannosaurus-rexes it was safe for them to be alone. They had already solved their marriage problems and were drawing in the yellowish sand with sticks which was an activity the male enjoyed doing.
"Almost a week ago the Old claimed that he had seen two colossal beings in the middle of the night haul themselves out of the ocean. One of them had 8 limbs but walked on six of them, the first four which ended in hooks and the last two which seemed to end in hooves. The 8th pair was small and thinner compared to the others. The creature had quite narrow, long glowing red-orange eyes. The Old couldn't tell where its head ended and neck began. It had this angular hump on its back. When it moved its head the hump also grew taller or shorter with it. Its body had the largest diameter from the tip of the hump down to the belly. From the left and right of these points its body gradually decreased in thickness, the rear part of it ended in a short, stubby, pointed tail. According to the Old it was about 11 times as tall as a silverback. The other creature looked like a smaller version of the one I described except it had 6 pairs of legs and one pair of triangular wings. So it had wings instead of the forelegs nearest to its head. It was about 7-8 times as tall as a silverback," reported Kong.
"Can you draw it," asked Terk.
"Yeah," responded her husband.
A while later he finished drawing the male and female M.U.T.O.
"Seriously? The Old said that he saw these things," questioned Terk with skepticism. "These don't look like any known animal, what are they?"
"The Old didn't seem to be joking when he was spreading the word about them. And it also turned out he was telling the truth about Mothra, but I still have doubts about these beings. We'll find out sooner or later whether these creatures really exist or whether the Old was just dreaming," replied the male.
The gorilla couple caught site of the male M.U.T.O flying off into the distance above the teal ocean. As he was fluttering from place to place he studied the ocean surface looking for prey. When he noticed a cloud of vapor loudly erupt from the surface he swiftly flew above it, straightened the ends of his forelegs and dropped himself onto the whale while stabbing it. To make sure his victim wouldn't slide off of his forelimbs, he clamped it with his jaws then, dragged it out of the ocean with the help of his flapping wings. While this was happening the apes urgently galloped into the forest and watched from behind some evergreen bushes.
"The Old wasn't lying, dreaming nor hallucinating," said King Kong in a low voice.
"I see. How did these things get here and what do they want," wondered Terk in a concerned way.
"I don't know," answered her husband.
Minutes later the femuto arrived on the scene, her lower belly curved a little and glowed in an orange-red hue.
"I am starving," she exclaimed.
"I know," said the male. "I hope your eggs have embryos this time. Let's eat."
"I don't know if they do. We've been trying for years without it paying off," she glumly replied.
"Let's hope we'll succeed the time," he responded.
The two devoured the marine mammal quickly tearing pieces from it and swallowing them without chewing. The gorillas remained behind the shrubs they didn't dare sneak back to their nest to avoid getting detected. After the M.U.T.O.'s finished consuming whale flesh the Hokmuto spotted Kong's drawings in the sand.
"Bashira, look, someone drew us," exclaimed the male.
King Kong glanced towards Terk.
"That someone was me," said the silverback quietly in a high pitched, BeeGees voice.
The gorilla lady began giggling with as less noise as possible, even muffling her nose and mouth with her hand.
"I hope it wasn't humans, Tadashi. That's us all right. Hey, my butt isn't that big," commented Bashira in an unsatisfied way.
"It may become that big when you're carrying full-term eggs," joked Tadashi.
"I wish that stick on the sand was bigger," said the female.
"Why," enquired the male.
"So that I could drum on your head with it," revealed the femuto.
The apes were quietly giggling at the "show." The M.U.T.O.'s left, the giant apes wondered back to their nest. They confirmed the Old's report with their own testimony. The elders forbid the troop to go near the unknown animals. As weeks passed reports of M.U.T.O. sightings and observations of their behavior increased. Some band members described their eating habits and their feeding on large marine creatures. Others shared information about their failed attempts of reproduction, their disappointment of the female carrying infertile glowing eggs inside of her. A group of the members suspected that they live on the stony, lifeless other side of the island. The next time Kong and Terk planned to stay on the shore for a while they made sure to check whether the coast is clear of M.U.T.O.'s or not. Not detecting any of them they went for a swim, play fought then, the silverback drew his mate, who stayed in one position, in the dry sand. They were so deeply involved in their activity that they didn't observe the M.U.T.O.'s approaching them.
"There are gorillas over there," said Tadashi.
The apes suddenly jerked their heads up and glanced wide-eyed at the direction of the voice. The sight of the two large beings startled them. Terk jumped up on her fours when the silverback tossed his rod up into the air in a way that it spun around whilst airborne. Then, they swiftly galloped back into the forest, King Kong emitting desperate hoots in the process. They hid behind some dense vegetation and viewed the events from there. The M.U.T.O.'s arrived to the islanders' previous sitting spaces to take looks at their drawn images.
"So it's these gorillas who have been making these drawings. I thought they aren't this intelligent to do this on their own," remarked Bashira. "Well that's interesting. The male was drawing the female who has weird hair. This is not usual of gorillas. She seems pregnant," she further commented.
"I'm not pregnant, I'm fat," yelled Terk angrily and clamorously out of defense without thinking.
Her husband shifted his gaze towards her and made a terrified look.
"Now we're screwed," he whispered madly.
Two mostly metallic black forelimbs spread the trees apart, their trunks snapping, with ease where the gorilla couple was hiding. Even though the apes were trying to conceal themselves behind the shrubs, the M.U.T.O.'s towered high and were able to witness them. King Kong and Terkina remained motionless, excluding their heads which observed the unfolding happenings. The large creatures lowered themselves to visually examine the fearful animals more closely, the length of the female's head, excluding the plate which continues on her neck and back, was almost twice the height of a silverback.
"You can talk," asked Tadashi.
"Um, yes," replied the male gorilla timidly.
"Yeah," answered his wife anxiously.
"What are you doing here on Skull Island," enquired the silverback a bit afraid still.
"Skull Island is the name of this place? We're here to found a family away from humans without being harmed," responded Bashira.
"How many are you having," asked Terk.
"Our species are supposed to have hundreds of offspring, but it turned out that my eggs don't contain any embryos for the zillionth time," answered the female disappointedly.
"Hundreds!? I don't think this island is big enough for hundreds of you. By the way what do your kind and your kind's offspring eat besides whales and whale sharks? What are your species," wondered Kong.
"Yes, hundreds at a time. We feed off of radiation, but we can eat flesh and radioactive things such as nuclear missiles and waste, since we can digest metal we can probably eat anything. We haven't found any source of radiation here, so we chose to eat whales and whale sharks, even dinosaurs, since my hunts for the mentioned marine creatures haven't always been successful. We're a parasitic species mentioned among humans as M.U.T.O. which is an acronym for Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism. We would hunt down and kill godzillasauruses for food and our females would lay their eggs in their carcasses since godzillasauruses were rich in radiation, ideal food for our children. Bad news is the godzillasaurus became extinct because of a disease. Since this mass wipe out we were forced to find other ways compensate our energy shortage. We stay a lot in the sun, this helps, but it's not enough. We eat solid food such as whales and whale sharks, which the godzillasauruses used to hunt but now they're our prey. At times we raid human cities when the humans are inactive and eat radioactive objects as quick as possible then, leave just as speedily. Since our obliged changes in diet has caused deficiency in radioactivity we have had problems with reproduction, not only us but other couples. Some mated pairs, including us, haven't been able to have any children due to infertility. A portion of the females in these couples end up gestating hundreds of eggs lacking embryos to full term and then laying them, some of our courtships ended like this the most recent one will end like this too. About 35 % of all the life-mates have at least once reproduced successfully but in way which is not usual of our species. The ladies in this group seem to be carrying hundreds of infertile eggs. They reach the end of gestation, but egg-laying is delayed. Being maximum two weeks late is still usual, but if the delay is more than two weeks there's a chance that about 1-5 of the eggs have an embryo. Usually two or three eggs contain a life. These eggs hatch inside the female's womb then, they began to consume the unfertilized eggs and grow, they don't produce waste. After they have hatched the female's body prepares for the pregnancy and releases pheromones indicating the pregnancy. A layer, which absorbs some of the babies' movements and will allow nutrients and oxygen transport, develops on the lining of her womb. As the eggs lacking embryos are eaten the female gradually secrets fluid into her uterus to support her embryos. After all eggs are eaten the babies produce a permeable layer of tissue on their exterior, which allows the fluid to flow through it, soon the tissue separates from the embryos' skin. The separation is not full but as it occurs an umbilical cord forms connecting the embryo to the tissue. The tissue, which is more and more like a sack, expands until every tissue blocks the other's. This happens so that the babies don't injure each other. Nutrients, radiation and oxygen is transported from the womb to the sacks then, through the umbilical cords to the embryos. From the time that the embryos hatch up to birth, which is painful for the female and lasts about six hours, 10 weeks pass. The babies from the tip of their noses to the end of their bottoms are about as long as tall you are," expounded the Hokmuto. "What kind of gorilla are you? Do you really differ from the other much smaller gorilla species? If so, how are you different? By the way do humans live on this island, if so how technologically developed are they?"
"That's really interesting. We're megaprimatus kongs, mountain gorillas are our closest relatives. There are several differences between them and us. Not only are we bigger in size, we have a lifespan of about 250 years, our gestation period is 12 months instead of 8.5 months. We have a wider variety of eye colors than any other gorilla species and are more intelligent than them according to humans. We can express emotions better with our faces than any other kind of gorilla. We are familiar with the term monogamous relationship, a few of us live in these, such as Terk and I. We are omnivores, not herbivores. We sometimes hunt. If we are attacked by other species and utterly defeat our attacker we kill it and consume its flesh. Here's the most interesting difference: our females have anal stink glands, they spray the same way as skunks do, but the stench of their fluid is a little worse than a skunk's. The stink can be smelt from 7 kilometers. Females use this to protect themselves since they are physically weaker than males. When Terk's and my marriage was in crisis we had had a very rough time. One time we got into a nasty argument, we were very angry with each other. I did something to Terk which really made her mad. Without a word she abruptly swiveled around, the next thing I knew was that I was blind, my eyes were stinging like crazy and I was heaving, the odor was so horrible. That's when I realized that she sprayed me. I stunk for about two weeks. A tribe of humans live on this island. They're not technologically advanced, you don't have to worry about them, they don't have a military, their worst weapons are spears," expounded the silverback.
"Sounds interesting. That's great news that the humans aren't dangerous," said Bashira. "Terk is your name? Is the stench that you produce really that bad," she asked the female ape.
"Just realized I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Terkina, but Terk for short. I got that name from my ex-human caretaker since I was raised by humans in New York City. How I ended up in that place, then back here on Skull Island is a pretty long story. My other name is Ukuri, that's the name my mother gave me who I got reunited with not too long ago. Yes, the smell is terrible. Do you want me to spray it on some object after we find one," answered Terk.
"Yes," replied the female M.U.T.O. "By the way my name's Bashira."
"I am Tadashi," said the male M.U.T.O.
"My name is King Kong, but most of the members in the troop call me Kong," said the male gorilla.
The apes crept out from behind the bushes. Both parties could view each other better now.
"Woah," exclaimed Terkina when she witnessed the size of the M.U.T.O.'s. "I've never seen any creature bigger than you!"
"Are those eggs," enquired King Kong glancing at the femuto's belly having the curve of a half circle from side-view, glowing like the setting sun due to being full of eggs, similar in appearance to swollen center-less chia seeds, emitting orange light.
"Yes, but as you can see they lack babies," responded Bashira melancholically.
"Let's see if the megaprimatus kong spray is really that awful," suggested Tadashi.
"Okay," said the gorilla lady. "There's a tree with a wide trunk. I'd like to aim at that."
The kongs and M.U.T.O.'s crawled to the mentioned plant resembling an old, lifeless plane tree. Terk stuck her pointer finger in her mouth than lifted it up.
"What are you doing," asked the Hokmuto.
"Checking the direction of the wind. Don't want to end up spraying contrary to the upwind," replied Terkina then, turned her behind towards the tree, considering the direction of the breeze. "All right, now get in front of me and back away a little," she requested.
After they obeyed her she stuck her bottom out and suddenly emitted a golden yellow, partially pulverized fluid streak in less than a second. Her audience began coughing and gagging.
"That is nasty," shouted the male M.U.T.O. then, backed off whilst coughing and heaving in the process.
His mate also reacted the same way.
"This is horrible! It smells like rotten fish and excrement at the same time," she exclaimed.
The silverback joined the creatures bigger than him, his eyes were watering and he was dry heaving in the process. His wife crawled to them, then they spatiated further away until the strong odor was tolerable.
"I have never smelt anything worse than this," commented Tadashi. "I can't imagine what you went through when you got sprayed," he said to Kong.
"I understand. I had a hard time stopping myself from gagging and being able to eat without throwing up in the first few days," replied the male ape. "By the way, I have been wondering what would happen if you ended up laying hundreds of fertile eggs, let's say 400. All hatch, there's now 402 of you. Skull Island is not a large place, it's nothing compared to a continent, there's no radiation and you all need energy, the children are too little for such a long journey moreover. What would you do," enquired the male gorilla already having a hypothesis.
"When M.U.T.O.'s eggs hatch the parents raise them for a while until they are large enough to fend for themselves. They hunt for them and protect them. After they tire out of feeding the children who are growing and so is their appetite they send them away. A part of the kids live solitary lives the other portion of them live in small groups. They stalk the offspring of godzillasauruses and consume them. Well, godzillasauruses are out of the picture here... I'd continue hunting for whales and whale sharks if I'm not successful with that I'd venture deeper into the island and catch dinosaurs. I don't think I'd find as much marine creatures as we'd need in time, we'd end up gradually increasing the amount of dinosaur flesh in our diets. We'd need more and more food. We'd probably run out of dinosaurs in time and need to find something to feed the kids and us. We'd try eating fruits, we'd need a lot of it then, we'd run out of that. What I'm going to say will be very ugly. Due to the food shortage our kids would turn against each other, cannibalism is not foreign to us when there are food shortages. We wouldn't be able to keep our eyes on 400 offspring at the same time, we'd know that if we'd protect them from each other we'd have more mouths to feed but if we wouldn't we'd cause spiritual, emotional and physical wounds and death, which would also hurt us but we'd have less to feed. So, I think we'd lose some offspring, mostly or entirely males, since they are less powerful than the females. We'd try to save a few males and care for them. We'd send away all of the other offspring excluding 2 females. The kids who are not staying with us would be against each other and would wonder off and try living independently. They'd need to hunt for themselves. Maybe the males would try hunting for whales and whale sharks and become aggressive towards each other, even kill each other for food. The females may turn against the males, murder them, and eat them, but some males may form gangs to fend them off and hunt in packs. Taking this into consideration we'd still keep the males and 2 females and raise them. We'd probably have to face attacks from our estranged children since they'd be burning from jealousy and revenge. Those who wouldn't resort to cannibalism would hunt your species who are in the famine that we caused and your population would be decreasing. They wouldn't be newborns your size but larger than you and may overpower you in strength and numbers. You'd become extinct. From this point on all food sources for us would have been depleted. There would be no dinosaurs, no fruit, no megaprimatus kongs but the sea remains as our only option. I don't think we'd be able to find enough food for all of us still. Cannibalism among our kids would continue, we'd have to face that and our estranged ones' attacks while trying to support and protect ourselves and our kept little ones. We'd probably have to gang up and kill our attackers, who are our own blood, to keep ourselves from getting murdered. Our tight group which let's say consists of us and 2 males and 2 females would have to find a new place to live, we'd have to make the long journey across the ocean. Luckily we'd encounter whale sharks and whales as we travel, the male children and I would spot them when airborne and scanning the sea surface and hunt them down for all of us. We'd probably survive," explained Tadashi.
"Long story short we'd end up destroying Skull Island's ecosystem," replied Bashira.
"This is what I thought," responded the silverback. "The ecological balance would become irreversible imbalance. This island has its own ecosystem consisting of native species which we can say is in balance. We need plants, they are our main food source and also food for other plant-eating creatures. We and those other animals are also needed because after we and they eat plants we lay our droppings which contain nutrients on the ground and the nutrients eventually seep into the soil where the plants can access them, they are necessary for their survival. So we, the other omnivores and the herbivores need plants and plants need us and them. We also need carnivores and omnivores as well to control the populations of the other omnivores and also the herbivores so that they don't end up devouring all of the plants and being the cause of a food shortage which affects every link in the food web. So we need every species here even our enemies, the carnivorous dinosaurs. Now if one link or more were to be taken out of our food web, the ecological balance would collapse. This were to happen what you described, Tadashi, if you would have hundreds of children here. What I'm going to say will sound offensive but you're not a native species here, you aren't in our food web, and you would do us much harm if you were to reproduce by hundreds. You mentioned that since the godzillasaurus became extinct, your species have the problem of radioactivity deficiency and you have much much less offspring than usual. What I just mentioned all connects. I think it's nature's way to prevent your kind from overpopulation, since your enemies that you need have fallen out of the food web or chain that you're in. It seems to me that your species need to join another food web to survive, but your offspring are very few to prevent as less as possible amount of damage to your new food webs," expounded King Kong.
"It makes sense what you're saying," answered the femuto.
"I will try to hunt marine creatures first but if my hunts are unsuccessful I will need an alternative food source such as dinosaurs," replied the Hokmuto.
"In that case I suggest you hunt different kinds of dinosaurs, not just the same one," responded Kong.
"Speaking of food we're going to eat soon," said Bashira.
"So are we," replied Terk.
After the farewell both parties went about their business. King Kong and Terkina reported their experiences with the M.U.T.O.'s to the elders then, to their friends.
