7- The Natives of Skull Island.

As noon was at its peak, Chapman arrived to some huge lake where he decided to rest for his scouting. He stood watching it as a big flock of some kind of small avian reptile florafauna creatures flew over him, although they looked more like bat-like creatures with pronounced rostrum-like horns on their foreheads, covered in spines. Their wings were green and they resembled green leaves, allowing them to camouflage themselves as the leaves of trees when in groups. They had yellow stains on their heads and on the back of their bodies and a 2-5 meters wingspan. It was a flock of Leafwings. While Chapman was distracted by the flock of said strange creatures, he was unaware of something else emerging and moving lightly on the lake's surface behind him, something bigger and longer. Later he went inside the lake a little so he could fill his canteen of water and cleaning his head and his wounds with its freshwater, with the rest of his equipment left in the shore near a rock. Then some noises caught his attention, and those were increasing, meaning that something very big was approaching from one of the other entrances to the lake. Chapman became worried and nervous, having an idea of what could possibly be that, and he was not wrong. Then the same giant ape appeared suddenly in front of him walking quietly into the lake, looking around his surroundings. Chapman became frozen of fear by seeing him again, as he was the one that took down all his forces and the war balloons, including his. However, the giant primate didn't look aggressive or menacing this time, but with a serene and neutral face, besides that he didn't become aware of his presence thanks to his tiny size. Of course Chapman had to retreat back to the shore quickly as the man-walking gorilla went to where he was without noticing it as he continued checking to the environment. Chapman managed to hide behind a rock just in time, and it didn't look like the giant mammal discovered him. In fact, he was more focused in checking on the wounds of his right arm, mostly burns. Fortunately they didn't make some serious thing on his arm, mostly only leaving those parts of it bare and some parts of his skin burned but nothing severe. It would regenerate with time, both fur and skin. The ape had the instinct of touching his burns while he crouched to the lake's surface. These still hurt at touch as his reaction was at of not liking that feeling, the same with the burns that he had on his right hand. Next he stood observing his own reflection on the water curious before touching it with a finger of his left hand, before using it to take a good amount of water and drink from it. After drinking the ape took another big volume of water and put it all over his exposed burns in order to reduce the sting feeling and relieve himself. All this was watched by Chapman, who contemplated it with a mix of amaze, fear and confusion. Then the ape turned his sight to the front. It seemed like he finally got aware of Chapman's presence there, what made him nervous and scared. The ape looked like was going to launch his hand at him, making the firebender to hide again, expecting the worst to happen. Luckily it didn't. It seemed that something else took the attention of the ape, as he grabbed from the water something that looked like a tentacle, one very big and long. As he tried to pull from it, many other tentacles similar to the first one began to emerge from the lake and trying to make a tight grabbing on the ape from everywhere. As Chapman could see, the creature that the giant gorilla was facing by now looked like some giant cephalopod species. The creature had a length of 27+ meters, a rounded bulbous head that is similar in appearance to that of an octopus, countless incredibly long and thin tentacles and its entire body was red in color, a Mire Squid. The giant ape realized that Mire Squid was lurking near him and decided to not give it the chance to catch him off guard. After briefly struggling with the Mire Squid's tentacles, the ape was able to stomp on its head and crush it. Next he tore off some of the tentacles and started eating them gladly. It looked like he also got a good meal after all. Chapman, still hidden, watched all the fight surprised and amazed, that gotta be the most amazing battle he ever saw in his life. Nothing from his world could equal it, and there was no doubt that ape was the dominant creature of that island. After eating the tentacles in peace he left the lake with his prey, dragging the creature's carcass away with him. If it wasn't for the ape, Chapman wouldn't have realized that Mire Squid was there until it was too late, and thus he would have become its next meal. Meanwhile, on another part of the island, Marlow took Conrad's group to the place where the natives lived: their village was settled on some small plain surrounded by a lake and near a shipwrecked damaged and rusted big ship of the Fire Nation with growing plants over it. The zone was covered and well natural shielded by the surrounding mountains, besides of a huge wall made of wood and stone that also separated the area from the rest of the open places of the island. The wall also had lots of giant sharpened spears in order to keep away and out the giant and dangerous megafauna of the island, everything signaled with the natives' red flag that also had distributed everywhere in their village.

"You probably noticed a lot of weird things on this island. As long as we stay in here where the people live, we'll be all right." Marlow advised.

"Wow! Look at the size of that wall." Hakoda expressed, impressed of how huge was the wall that separated the natives' territory from the wild lands. "It must have taken many decades to build it."

"That wall, is that supposed to keep out that thing?" Noriko/Ursa asked wondering about if that could really keep the giant ape out.

"No, he's not the one they're trying to keep out." Marlow corrected. That answer left everyone confused.

"What?" Brooks said intrigued as he and everyone else followed Marlow toward the village.

If the natives did not make that wall for keeping out the ape, for what was that wall made for then? That meant that there was something worse than him? And what thing could be worse than that giant gorilla?

"These people live up on top of the trees while we're down on the roots. Some of them don't even seem to age." Marlow explained, referring to the natives, like if he was comparing these two kinds of people: the people that he knew, the ones from the outside world and the natives, but he knew exactly what he was talking about. Maybe they were more primitive, but they were better in some things that the people of the rest of the world weren't, so that made them better than the other humans, especially the Fire Nation, but that was already obvious.

While Marlow was talking about the natives, the group of newcomers saw them making their usually chores of every day as they were passing through. Their houses were made of wood, sticks and other plant materials. Much of the villagers stood watching at the newcomers curious, even approached them a little and followed them.

"There's no crime, no personal property. They're past all that." Marlow continued talking about the natives' virtues.

Then a couple of natives approached them in front, escorted by a group of four, a man and a woman. They looked to be elders and instead of yellow paintings and red clothes the ones they wore were blue, the same color of their paintings. That couple seemed likely to be the chiefs of the village and the natives.

"I wonder who those are." Poppy whispered to her husband.

"I think they must be the chiefs of the natives." Lao supposed, whispering back at his wife.

Marlow received them showing his arms as a welcoming gesture at the couple. Then they stood glaring at him for a few seconds, like if they were establishing some sort of mind bond with him, and next gently bowed at him lightly.

"Thank you. Thank you." Marlow said to the couple as they left slowly. "So, good news. They say you can shack up here." He said to the others.

"I didn't hear them say anything." Conrad said back.

"No, me neither." Bato added.

"Oh, they don't speak too much." Marlow responded. "When you've been here as long as I have, you start to understand. You'll see."

"Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait." Nieves called while putting himself in front of Marlow. "We can't stay here. We have to get off the island. We have lives. I have a life." He implored.

"Nieves, now is not the time. All right?" Conrad suggested while Marlow acted like he didn't care of Nieves pleading attitude and just saying 'oh' a few times in some fake surprised tone.

"What lands here tends to stay here." Marlow answered only that before walking toward the shipwrecked ship and guiding the group toward it. "As far as I can tell, this ship washed up about 10 years before I did."

"You've been here since that long really?" Weaver asked, still not believing that he stood all that time in that island.

"Yeah, it's hard to believe but true. What happened with the war? Has the royal family come to their senses yet?"

"What do you mean with that?" Slivko asked, not sure of what he was referring to.

"Uh-huh. That makes sense." Marlow expressed disappointed as he guided everyone inside the broken ship, which the natives made it some sort of special and important place for them, with the same paintings of theirs. "This is all hallowed ground to them. So if you like your hands, don't touch anything."

After passing through the corridors where some natives stood like statues or sentinels they reached to the ship' inside. The entrance was enlighten by some torchers and in front of them there stood three natives with the same blue paintings as the elders chiefs, meaning that those who wore the blue paintings had to be the ones of more important class among them. Behind them a large crowd of natives stood on their knees bowing to some strange group of big stones with paintings. In fact, all of the stones of the room had different kinds of paintings, all them resembling drawings, like some kind of ancient rock paintings. Marlow bowed at them in respect, allowing them to enter as the rest of the natives got up and turned around at them watching. The room was also filled with some plants and some holes in the ceiling that allowed the sunlight to enter.

"Oh! Look at that." Weaver expressed amazed by the place.

In fact, everyone was amazed by the place and its atmosphere. Not even the culture of the Air Nomads could be compared with that.

"The way they tell it, for thousands of years, the people on this island lived in fear." Marlow began to tell, thanks of what he learnt from the stones and their meanings, starting with a group of stones at left with the painting of a group of natives cornered by the jaws of some kind of giant predator creatures, defending themselves with spears. "That's a lot of a long time to be scared." Next at their right were another group of stones with the painting of the natives bowing to what looked like the face of the giant ape. "And then, one day, the strangest thing happened. Some of the things they were afraid of started protecting them against the things that were eating them." And next came another one of the ape kneeling in front of the skeletons of other two of his kind. "But nothing lasts forever, I guess."

And next everyone turned their attention to the last and biggest group of stone with paintings that was at the back of the room, where it could be seen the natives standing alongside the giant ape, who stood in the center with open arms.

"And this is where they honor the last of their saviors." Marlow declared, referring to the picture.

"Hey, that's the…!" Hakoda called, recognizing the giant ape of the picture, as it was the same one that they saw previously.

"Yeah. That's Kong." Marlow confirmed, revealing his name. "He's king around here. He's a god to these people."

As Marlow talked about him, Kong landed on a mountain after jumping and was climbing it before taking a look to his kingdom, or maybe he was looking for something and he was in a hurry, while another flock of white birds flew behind him.

"Kong's a pretty good king. Keeps to himself mostly. This is his home. We're just guests here."

Meanwhile Kong kept jumping over mountain to mountain before landing on another plain field.

"But you don't go into someone's house and start dropping bombs unless you're picking a fight."

At hearing this much of the members of the group became embarrassed and ashamed, knowing that he was right. After all, they were the ones who dropped the bombs and made Kong mad, it was their fault. It looked like both them and the Fire Nation were invading and attacking his home like nothing and forced him to protect it by using sheer force against them. All that time they thought there was no real reason for Kong to do what he did to them…until now.

"Wasn't Kong the one who killed your friends?" Poppy asked confused.

"No. One of them did." Marlow responded pointing at another painting at their right, one that resembled some kind of two-legged carnivorous creature with a big, long tail. "Kong's god on the island, but the devils live below us."

"Wait. Are you saying that there's something worse than Kong out there?" Hakoda replied concerned.

"Well, we had some few encounters with some monsters before the natives found us" Bato reminded.

"Oh yeah. There's a lot of monsters that sees this island as their home, but they're soft compared to this kind of things." Marlow rectified. "And yes, they're worse than everything else of here."

"And what are they called?" Conrad asked then.

Marlow looked at his sides before lowering his voice. "The Iwis won't speak their name. But I call them Skullcrawlers."

"Why?" Lao asked back, also lowering his voice.

"'Cause it sounds neat." Marlow said simply, returning back to his normal voice tone.

Everyone took the catch of that after a few seconds.

"Oh. Well…okay then." Hakoda said.

"Look, I just made that name up. I'm trying to scare you." Marlow explained himself.

"I'm fine calling them that. Are you cool with that?" Weaver said, trying to excuse herself before asking Conrad.

"Yeah…" Conrad agreed.

"I like the name, so…" Poppy agreed too.

"Yes, that seems like a great name." Noriko/Ursa also agreed.

"I've never said that name out loud before. It sounds stupid now that I say it." Marlow confessed. "You call them whatever you want."

"No, no, no! It's fine! It's fine!" Hakoda apologized. "We think it's a good name, for real. It's catchy."

"Yeah. Skullcrawlers, that meant something really serious. And it doesn't sound stupid." Bato added.

"So, what kind of creatures these Skullcrawlers are?" Lao asked, changing the subject.

"They're big lizard things. Nasty." Marlow began explaining.

At the same time, back with Kong, he was inspecting a big hole that went deep down to the subsoil of the island. Next he turned his sight up and saw one of the komodo rhinos of the Fire Nation army that ran away from the battlefield some time ago in front of him, but this one was dead. It also seemed that something was feeding on it. Kong recognized such creature and frowned in anger before roaring at it, because that creature was some sort of archenemy of his kind and the biggest menace on the island: one of the ones called Skullcrawlers by Marlow (and called Halakrah by the Iwis). Suddenly the creature appeared from behind the body of its prey, revealing its appearance. A giant two-legged reptilian creature very different from any other reptile creature from the outside world. It was a large serpentine creature with only two long forelimbs and no hind limbs. Several aspects of its appearance was noticeably skeletal, particularly its back and its head. Its head closely resemble those of mosasaurs, particularly the mosasaur Tylosaurus. Additionally, the Skullcrawler had four digits in total on each hand, with the thumb being the smallest digit and the rest of the digits being larger and of the same size. The head of the Skullcrawler was predominantly grey and white in coloration, with the monster's eyes being situated behind two round eye socket-like depressions on the sides of its head. The creature had hidden gills, was 3.65 meters high and 35 feet long. The nasty predator stood growling threatening at Kong, no matter if he was bigger than it.

"They come from the vents deep down. That's why Kong got so mad. Those bombs woke up a bunch of them. I tell you what. You're lucky he's out there, too, or you wouldn't have made it this far. They're horrible freaks. Mean as a demon." Marlow kept explaining.

Kong reincorporated himself, ready to fight it aware that another Skullcrawler appeared from a mountain behind him roaring and the two of them would likely try to work together in attempt to take him down, and of course he was not going to give them a chance. The first Skullcrawler charged at Kong fast, but he grabbed it and threw it back to the ground with force near the second one as this tried to bite him. But Kong was smarter and grabbed its jaws, closing it and made the same tactic as he did with the first one. The first Skullcrawler got up fast and tried to attack him again from the back, but Kong saw that coming and slapped it hard before grabbing it and the second one by the mouth. Then he dropped one over the other one fast and hard before crushing them both with his foot. After finishing with them, Kong let out a victorious roar.

"Now, he can handle them as long as he gets to them when they're still small. You don't wanna wake up the Big One." Marlow warned.

"The Big One?" Noriko/Ursa asked.

"How big is it?" San asked next.

"It's bigger. It wiped out his whole family." Marlow revealed. "Kong's the last of his kind, but he's still growing. And you better hope he does. Because the Iwis say once Kong goes, then the Big One comes up. Then it's, "Goodnight, Home Sweet Home"."

Lao shallowed hard and nervous at hearing this. "That's…definitely not good."

Now everyone began to understand everything about Kong, the island and its people and what kind of relationship they had. Kong was not a monster; it was a unique creature which role was about protecting the island and all its inhabitants from any potential dangers, especially those Skullcrawlers. That also made them feel responsible of bringing those horrible creatures there, all because of their war that all of them brought with them, even before their arrival to the island. They were disrupting its balance, and Kong was the one who maintained it. It was like some reminiscence of the Avatar, but on some different and bigger scale, not joking. Striking down Kong would be like striking down the Avatar. By realizing that, all of them felt bad with themselves, especially knowing how important Kong was for the natives.

"Listen, there's a refueling team coming to the north end of the island in three days." Conrad told to Marlow.

"You should come with us." Weaver offered.

"Yes. We can take you out of this place at last." Hakoda added. "That's what you and your friends wanted, no?"

"To the north end of the island?" Marlow recalled.

"Yes. That's our way out of the island." Bato confirmed. "That was our plan from the beginning."

"We're gonna get out of here." Conrad reassured laughing a little, making Marlow to do the same but sarcastically.

"In three days?" Marlow recalled again.

"Yes."

Marlow began patting Conrad's face like nothing as he continued laughing, making everyone else to give him some weird and worried looks. Then Marlow stopped doing that and got serious again. "You can't get to the north end in three days. It's impossible. That's it. No way." That was his answer, and he knew what he was saying as he lived all those years in the island more than anyone else and knew how dangerous and hostile wildlife was there and what it was capable of to do to humans. That answer worried and discouraged some of the members of the group.

"So that's it? We'll never go back home?" Poppy said with tears almost formed on her eyes with Lao hugging her to comfort her.

Marlow took a look to them, feeling bad for them and remembered some crucial fact. "I haven't said that. I said that you cannot get there in three days. At least not on foot."

His answer not only surprised everyone, but also got them back hope.

"You know another way to get there?" Noriko/Ursa asked hopeful.

Marlow's answer was just a strong smile. Meanwhile, out there on the island's wild lands the Fire Nation group was now passing through a swamp, with the air all full of mosquitoes and other bugs. Luckily, they managed to keep them at bay thanks to their firebending. Then Cole signaled everyone to stop as Iroh and Packard spotted something. In front of them stood a bare tree where a flock of Leafwings was resting on top of it. The two leaders got their eyes on one lonely Leafwing that stood on the ground. The two of them got a little disgusted at the animal's appearance.

"I've never seen a creature with such appearance." Iroh confessed.

"Indeed. That is one very ugly bird." Packard agreed, as he began charging some electricity on his fingers.

Then and by surprise, the colonel shot a lightning directly at the Leafwing, revealing to also be capable of such advanced technique. The explosion provoked the entire flock to fly away scared and screeching.

After performing his move, Packard saw that the prince gave him a bad look. "What?"

"Was that really necessary?" Iroh said serious.

"Only to be sure of it." He simply answered before resuming the march, making the prince to shake his head and sighing at his answer. After that he gathered back with the soldiers.

"Dear Billy, if the Spirit World exist, this must be the world of nightmares." Reles expressed stunned at seeing the creatures flying over them, just like the rest.

"And monsters exist." Mills added. "Under beds and paying gold to bounty hunter scum."

"Come on, pal."

"Seems like maybe he wants to go kill that ape instead of finding the princess and getting us off this island? Yeah! Are we even gonna make it?"

"Make what?"

"The exfil! We gotta be there in three days!"

"We'll make it." Cole reassured. "We're gonna make it."

"Yeah, but, Cole, what happens if Chapman's not-" Reles insisted.

"The colonel said he's there, he's there."

"We don't know that for sure." Iroh said, getting their attention as he turned at them. "The same as I think what your partner told about Colonel Packard could be possible."

They really didn't expect Prince Iroh to suspect about the colonel's true intentions too. Of course he couldn't confirm anything yet, but he was keeping an eye on him, just to be sure of it, watching every movement of his closely without him being aware of that.

"You…you think that the colonel is up to something that we don't know, Your Highness?" Mills asked at him.

"I don't know what's going on inside the colonel's mind." Iroh confessed as he turned his sight to Packard, who kept advancing in front, before returning it to the soldiers. "But be assured…that I'm going to figure it out." He swore. "If he's not going to get anyone out of here, I will do it."

After his speech, Iroh kept walking through the water, with Cole signaling the other soldiers to follow him.

"Sir, yes sir." Reles said for himself.

Back to the natives' village, Marlow guided Conrad, Nieves, Slivko, Bato and Hakoda out of the old ship to some part near the lake shore that was also near the village. He wanted to show them something, something related with the alternative way to get to the north part of the island in time.

"We were this close to getting it working. Me, Kato and Kalina were gonna take off for the open sea, try to get home. That's when one of them things got them." Marlow retold. "There she is."

The group stopped in front of what Marlow wanted to show them: it was some kind of big sized improvised boat. It looked like being made from scrap metal and remains from other ships from the Fire Nation to build a smaller ship. It looked a little rusty, even broken, but it was floating over the water and it also seemed to be stable, and it was all painted in blue, green, red and light blue: the colors of the four nations.

"Well, that's lovely." Conrad commented at seeing it.

"Wow. You made that for real?" Bato asked impressed.

"You're so right, son." Marlow confirmed.

Marlow took them onboard so they could check it out better.

"Hum, it looks like some smaller version of a Fire Nation war ship, except for some modified parts and the colors." Hakoda examined it. "Those colors…are what I think they are?"

"Yep, the colors of all four nations: water, earth, fire and air." Marlow confirmed. "We voted it and agreed all three together."

"Does this thing even float?" Slivko asked, not very convinced yet.

"Me, Kalina and Kato spent 6 years of our lives building this thing. She's called the Harmonic Fox. And she floats." Marlow said as he get inside where seemed to be the cabin from all the devices for controlling the ship where located. "Pulled the engine parts from some of the bigger ships from my old fleet and then we managed to create our own smaller version for her. Found even some ship from times before the war started on the beach one day. That was something."

"You gotta be kidding me. That thing looks like it's made out of pure tetanus." Nieves said stunned.

"I know she ain't pretty to look at, but it's nothing a couple of extra hands can't fix. Unless you got a better idea, I suggest we get cracking."

Conrad looked at Slivko and the Water Tribe teenagers and nodded, as they did to him too. "All right."

Meanwhile most of the boys began helping Marlow on finishing his work with the ship, Weaver decide to take Poppy and Noriko/Ursa with her in some painting session on the village of the natives. They helped her on taking some good paints of the natives, who stood in front of them just staring at them without moving, perfect for Weaver for making her painting of them without so much effort. Next she made another one of the two teenage girls holding spears of the natives standing still, like if they were some jungle warrior girls, which was hilarious for the three of them. Even many of the natives gathered curious of that. For the last picture, Weaver signaled the natives to gather and stay still there, even much of them imitated the girls when they did the victory sign with their fingers. This last was the teenager girls' idea, a funny one, but a good contribution for the painting. The female trio was seeing the pictures after that, the last one being their favorite because of how funny it looked like, besides making them laugh.

"I gotta admit, that was quite hilarious." Noriko/Ursa confessed.

"Who could have though that painting could be so fun?" Poppy added.

"I knew you were going to like it." Weaver reaffirmed.

Then something caught Weaver's attention, something that came not only from the huge wall, but from the other side of it. It sounded like an animal calling, so she went to investigate, with the two teenage girls following her.

"Weaver? Where are you going?" Poppy asked her, with no result.

"Weaver, wait! We're supposed to not go outside the wall" Noriko/Ursa pleaded. "It's too dangerous!"

Weaver ignored their pleadings and warnings and went out, to the other side of the wall. At first they only heard some bugs buzzing around until they spotted the source of that calling sound. In front of them, a few meters away, was some kind of big reptile animal trapped under the remains of one of the fallen war balloons (some kind of dinosaur species, an herbivore hadrosaurid dinosaur called Ligocristus, and one of the last few remaining dinosaurs of Skull Island). The creature was a duck-billed ornithiscian. It had broad, three-toed feet. Its skin was light in color with brown coloration on its back and head, which was used as camouflage. It had special resonating chambers in its skull that allowed it to make trumpeting calls. Its beak lacked front teeth, but was equipped with molars and its yellow eyes hosted horizontal pupils. The dinosaur was 26-34 feet long, but it couldn't get up and free itself from the rubble, no matter how hard it tried to get itself free from it. The only thing it could do was calling for help, and for the looks of its eyes, was starting to get desperate. The girls approached at it slowly and looked at it, feeling themselves sad for the poor animal.

"Poor thing. It's trapped." Noriko/Ursa said looking at the dinosaur. "It's calling for help."

"We gotta do something." Poppy added. "We have to help it."

"Girls, help me on lifting that thing up!" Weaver instructed as she tried to lift the part of the wreckage that seemed to be trapping it against the ground.

The two teenagers nodded at each other and followed her example, joining at her on trying to get the Ligocristus free. They pushed it all they could.

"Come on, get up!" Weaver said hardly as she and the other girls kept pushing with all their forces while the big reptile kept calling in despair.

Despite their strong will and attempting in freeing the giant animal, they lacked the necessary strength or skills to perform that task, even they realized that as they tried to catch their breath and thinking about another way of releasing the Ligocristus from there. But then…the wreckage was miraculous lifted easily in the air like if it was like a leave or a feather, freeing the dinosaur which was able to get on its feet at last and began leaving the area after giving the human trio one last sight and calm grunt, like if it was saying them "thank you". But the girls became shocked and alarmed when they saw who was the responsible of freeing the herbivore creature: Kong, who had the wreckage held on his left hand and stared in front of them only from a few meters glaring at them with a frown, as he recognized them as so of the humans that attacked his land previously. Weaver stood in front of Poppy and Noriko/Ursa spreading her arms in defensive position, with them three standing there frozen in fear without being able to take their sight out of the giant ape, which kept looking at them with some bad look. Despite all that, Kong only dropped the wreckage at his side while he kept looking at the female trio. Perhaps he knew that they three were only trying to help the animal and nothing more? Well, because of what he did, or better said, of what he didn't do, that was the case. After seeing this, Weaver began to get herself calmer and slowed down her breathing while she only stood looking at Kong, this time not so frightened, but curious, even a little amazed. Noriko/Ursa and Poppy got themselves calmed down too. With that response, Kong seemed to be calmed down too, as he began looking at them with some curious eyes. Shortly after that he returned to have a frown face and went back to where he came from, leaving the area just walking away peacefully. The girl trio sighed in relief at the same time, glad that everything was over. However, that also left them a little confused.

"What…was that?" Poppy asked stunned.

"No idea. But…it was…that was…wow." Weaver said, with no idea of what to say exactly.

"I guess that…everything that Marlow told us about Kong is true after all." Noriko/Ursa concluded.

The other two nodded at this while they hurried on going back to the village. Meanwhile, back with Prince Iroh, Colonel Packard and their group, they were walking through some open plain area near some river where a herd of prehistoric deer approached to have some water, without losing sight of the traveling humans. While he was watching at his surroundings, Packard spotted something interesting behind them on some small mountain over them.

"Well, would you look at that?" The colonel said pointing at the mountain's surface, where some huge mark with the same size and form of Kong's hand was visible for everyone. "It bleeds."

Everyone stopped and contemplated that unexpected sight impressed.

"Wha…" Mills said in disbelief at seeing that image in the rock wall.

"We did that. We hook up with Chapman, there's enough munitions on that downed Sea Stallion to finish the job." Packard encouraged as they continued walking.

Without knowing it, Iroh gave him another suspicious look. The prince became more and more convinced that the colonel had his eyes and mind on another target, a bigger one, and he was willing to do anything to achieve it, even if that meant risking his own troops. However, that was not yet the time to prove it. Besides, his main priority was finding Princess Ursa, ensuring that she was safe and sound and reach to the north end of the island in three days in order to get everyone out of there and go back home. So for now they should keep going. Randa stood looking at the red mark of Kong's hand a little longer, contemplating it.

"Magnificent." Randa confessed for himself.

"You know why I carry this instead of a sword from our army?" Cole said to Randa showing him his sword, one different from those that Fire Nation non-bender warriors had. He shook his head at his question. "Took it off a farmer fighting on some Earth Kingdom village. He surrendered right after we leveled his village. He was 50 years old. Said he'd never even seen a firebender till we showed up. Sometimes, an enemy doesn't exist till you go looking for one." He told before resuming the march.

"What happens when they show up on your doorstep?" Randa asked back at him, maybe referring to some other kind of foe.

"I'll still have his sword." Cole answered back lifting his sword in the air.

"Best of luck with that, soldier." Randa said last while he compared his own hand with Kong's mark at the distance before catching up with the group.

After walking a little longer Iroh signaled everyone to stop as he spotted something nothing comforting in front of them.

"It's one of our komodo rhinos." Mills recognized.

Indeed, it was one of his mounts, but it was alive not anymore. In fact, some group of animals were there feeding on it wildly. There were a great number of them and their appearance didn't mean anything good for the survivors too. They looked like mammals, but also had some reptile-like looks at the same time. Despite seemingly being a type of mammal related to canines, those creatures showed a heavy resemblance to flesh-eating dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor, standing horizontally on two legs with their forelimbs held in the air and a long tail suspended in the air behind them. They had no defined neck and large elongated heads. The creatures' skin was wrinkly and gray in color and adorned with rounded bumps and yellow stripes. They possessed a mane of spiky hair-like fibers around their heads and another patch of these fibers on their exposed spine atop their backs, and these spikes were as sharp as razor wire. These ferocious dinosaurian predatory mammals of 6-12 feet high were known as the Death Jackals. Before the group could retreat some of the ravenous creatures from the pack spotted them already, growling and roaring at them. Then shortly, the entire pack charged at them running at fast speed. But Iroh created a big fire wall with his firebending in front of them that forced the pack to stop immediately.

"That wall of flames will not last long. Run!" Iroh ordered, making everyone to run away from there the fastest they could.

As the prince predicted, the fire wall extinguished in a few minutes, allowing the Death Jackals to pursue them. The problem was that the pack was faster at running than the humans, even if they were still far from them, so it was just a matter of time before they ended reaching them and leaping on them, and both Packard and Iroh knew that. Despite that, they continued encouraging everyone to keep running as they tried to find another solution that fighting those things directly. Then the colonel spotted another big swamp area nearby them.

"That way! The swamp! Go pass the swamp! Fire rockets! Full power! Bring the civilians!" Packard ordered.

As he instructed, all firebenders used said technique to go flying away in the direction that their colonel said in no time, with Mills and Cole carrying both Randa and Steve before a single Death Jackal could reach them. Despite the fact of their preys being in the air now, the pack kept running after them. The colonel's plan was to force the pack to get into the swampy waters in hope for they to struggle for getting out of there while they taking their leave meanwhile until they could lose sight of them. As the entire group reached safe and sound to the other side of the swampy area after a while flying, the Death Jackals kept pursuing them, no matter if they had to go into the water in order to reach the other side, and these did not seem to get tired of all that hard effort. Fortunately, the swamp had a few unexpected surprises hiding below the surface. The Death Jackals kept forcing their way ahead as they approached some swamp foliage swimming, but then…suddenly some giant creature emerged from the water and assaulted the pack catching one of the creatures before shallowing it whole. The new creature looked like some giant amphibious insect florafauna species. The giant aquatic insect had an elongated body with many limbs protruding from its sides, akin to a centipede. Its legs were incredibly long, and resemble tree branches, and its skin was greenish-brown, and covered in horns and spikes. The creature's mouth was circular like a lamprey's, and filled with a complete circle of sharp teeth and was 22-28 feet long. It was an ambush predator: a Swamp Locust. However, the Death Jackals didn't seem scared a bit of the giant arthropod as they began climbing on it and attacking it in group. That big fuss drew the attention of some other Swamp Locusts that were nearby, besides a flock of some flying creatures that came from above, and these looked bigger than the Leafwings. The new flyers had a wingspan of 5-9 feet and looked like another kind of avian reptile animal that resembled hairless bats, though they lacked prominent ears or noses. They also displayed gender dimorphism. Males had hair on their back in the shape of a mohawk, and females had hoods resembling that of a cobra's. All members of this new flock, the Psychovultures, were leaded by an alpha male, this one being significantly larger than the others. They were drawn there thanks to their thermal vision and started attacking both the Swamp Locusts and the Death Jackals with their feet claws, jaws and firing electrical blasts from their mouths. The group of survivors stood speechless watching all the battle. An ordinary hunt had become a war between species.

"You see that?! In this island most species seems to eat each other like nothing." Mills theorized.

"Yeah. It seems that here everyone is food for everyone." Cole added.

As the fight raged on, nobody was aware that all that mess got the attention of the biggest inhabitant of the place. The creatures took their fight to some near island, or that was what it seemed to be. And suddenly…the island rose quickly from the water, revealing to be some kind of giant amphibious reptile florafauna creature of 45-65 feet high. The large reptilian monster somewhat resembled a crocodile, covered in grass and roots, and even with some trees on its back. It had a large jaw with sharp teeth in it. The monster also had a pair of small orange eyes. When it was previously half in water, it resembled an island, and the monster used this camouflage to ambush and catch some of the Swamp Locusts, Psychovultures and Death Jackals in its mouth. This left the group more speechless than before and forced the rest of the creatures to retreat from there while the giant reptile creature, the Sirenjaw, roared to the sky.

"I think that we should leave right now." Iroh recommended.

"Good idea." Packard agreed as everyone ran away back to the jungle, as far as they could from there while Sirenjaw submerged itself back into the swamp.

After running away for a while the group stopped at some other small clearing in the jungle in order to catch their breath.

"What was that?! A giant crocodile?!" Reles asked in disbelief.

"I have never seen a crocodile like that, not talking about its size." Iroh answered. "This island never stops giving surprises, bad ones."

"Well, what really matters now is that is very far away, and we must keep going." Packard recalled. "Once we rest a little, we'll continue on our way."

With everything settled, everyone began resting and recovering forces. They were gonna need them for later. Back to the village of the natives, Conrad and the others were helping Marlow to put the finishing touches to his ship.

"Okay. So, we've got 48 hours to make it to the north shore." Conrad reminded. "Slivko, do you know what you're doing back there?"

"Yeah! My father's a mechanic in the army. If I can't fix this, he'll disown me. If he ever sees me again."

Conrad also saw that Hakoda and Bato looked like talking with Marlow. "It looks like Bato and Hakoda are making a new friend."

"Yeah, one that was from the Fire Nation. I'm still surprised that they are approaching him like that."

"Well, they saved you back then, right?"

"Yes." Slivko could only say that, with nothing of what to say for sure.

As Conrad observed, the two Water Tribe boys were curious about Marlow's case.

"And what exactly made you change your point of view regarding the war?" Hakoda asked curious to Marlow.

"Whatever it was, it should be after you arrived to this island." Bato suggested.

"Oh, it was." Marlow responded. "I used to think like everyone else of my nation before: all for the glory of our Fire Lord and our nation, some big lie. It was right after meeting my two new friends that I started to see other people's point of view, especially the ones most affected by the war."

"Really?" Hakoda said back.

"Yeah. That and the fact that Kong is very convincing. He was the one who stopped our senseless fight. It was enough just to look into his eyes to see the truth."

"So Kong helped you more than you expected." Bato supposed.

"Indeed." Marlow confessed sincerely. "It's a gift that he has. He knows what's right and what's wrong with just seeing it."

"Wow." Both pals of the Water Tribe said impressed.

"You know, Marlow?" Hakoda began talking again, this time making some deep confession. "All this time I thought that all Fire Nation were evil by nature. But now…I see that I was wrong: not everything is reduced to something so simple."

"Who told you that?" Marlow asked curious.

"Our adults, most of them. My parents, our chief…even some travelers our warriors met."

"Ugh, it makes sense. Our superiors in the army used to tell us something similar about the other nations. It's the most common thing to think on these times. But in the end, everything is not reduced to just black and white, but to some gray that almost people are not able to see."

That answer was something that not only both teenage boys didn't expect, but also the rest of them.

"Just gotta think it through." Marlow recommended them before returning back to work.

"Come on, we're losing daylight." Conrad advised.

Sometime later, at afternoon, on the west part of the island Chapman was now where it looked like some kind of dry forest, although said trees still were full of leaves on the top. He sat down on a big log to rest after so much scouting of the area after stabbing his sword on some near tree with all his belongings on it, but he also was worried about not being able to find anyone in a while, besides of some other personal thoughts.

"Dear Billy…" Chapman said to himself, referring to his son too. "Sometimes, life just throws you a fireball in the back. Snap."

He began to feel tired and desperate. Just then the log where he was started to move, forcing him to stand up and looked what it really was: another giant insect florafauna species up to 50 feet high and 15 meters long. The giant parasitic insect had both body and limbs resembling fallen trees. In fact, bark was a part of the species' epidermis. Beneath this deceptive layer lied a parasitic slug-like creature. That giant arthropod, a Spore Mantis, seemed to have awakened in a very bad mood as it began advancing at Chapman on some intimidating way, but he acted first throwing some fireballs at it before it could use its legs to attack him. Even if its skin was very tough, those firebending moves and the fact that its skin was also half wood forced the Spore Mantis to retreat immediately, as it didn't want to get burned because it was very vulnerable to that element. The giant bug hid its head almost completely before starting to walk away. At first, Chapman thought he managed to scare it, but then he heard other noises from behind him, and these sounded like another creature. So the Spore Mantis may not be leaving because of him, but from something way more dangerous. And when Chapman turned to see what it was, a Skullcrawler appeared from nowhere and charged at him very fast with its jaws ready for the kill, giving him no time to react, leaving some red spots on the ground. When nightfall came over the island, everyone that were in the village decided to rest inside some room of the shipwrecked ship, with the light of some torches to illuminate the inside. The room had marks in the wall that someone made counting the days and years of being on the island, possibly a thing of Marlow or one of his friends. It had some drawing of Kong too. At the same time, the night sky was covered by the light of auroras. The Beifongs and the Water Tribe boys were talking about their different experiences of the noon and of what they learnt.

"What do you mean that you never heard the tale of Chin the Conqueror?" Marlow said while he was shaving.

"They never told us anything about that in home." Slivko responded as he was practicing some moves with a spear of the natives. "Who was that guy anyway?"

"Who was that guy? It was the closest thing of some version of the Fire Lord in the Earth Kingdom. My friends told me about it." Marlow revealed, something that caught the attention of most of them. "Chin the Conqueror was an earthbending warlord who aimed to overthrow the 46th Earth King and launched a largely successful conquest of the Earth Kingdom. That was hundreds of years ago. He was an extremely stubborn and proud man, and a horrible tyrant. Chin expanded his army to all corners of the continent. When they came to the neck of the peninsula where Avatar Kyoshi and her people lived, he demanded their immediate surrender. She warned him that she would not sit passively while he took their home, but he did not back down. In the end, Chin fell to his death when he refused to back down as Kyoshi separated her village from the mainland and formed Kyoshi Island with the power of the Avatar State. And I'm telling you, if the Fire Lord doesn't stray from that same path, sooner or later he or any of his successors will have the same fate, or some similar one."

"Oh. I…have no idea of it."

"I don't know if I'm gonna like whoever's under this beard." Marlow said for himself while looking at an almost broken mirror.

"I really hope that thing you call a boat can get us upriver in 36 hours. Because if we miss that window, we're, literally, up a creek." Nieves recalled.

Meanwhile Brooks was talking with San while she was reading some scroll with information about the Hollow Earth theory of his. "When I first wrote that paper of the Hollow Earth theory, the whole committee of Ba Sing Se laughed out loud." Brooks remembered.

"Not Randa." San recalled.

"The one guy in the crowd who actually took me seriously. It felt good. Then I thought he was crazy when he said the earth was full of monsters."

"I can't tell when I'm talking or when I'm not talking." Marlow said to Nieves.

"You're talking." Nieves said back.

"Am I?"

"Yes."

"I'm talking?"

"Yes."

"Your mouth is moving."

"What?"

"I'm gonna make you bald by the end of the night."

"Really?"

Marlow laughed at that. "Just kidding. If the boat doesn't work, we'll just take a bigger one." He joked.

Meanwhile Conrad went near where Weaver was, contemplating the beautiful view of the sky filled with the magnificent auroras, and they weren't neither in the North Pole or the South Pole.

"Isn't it odd the most dangerous places are always the most beautiful?" Conrad said looking at the illuminated night sky.

"Mmm." Weaver nodded. "I'm trying to take a good painting of this view, but my brush broke."

"Oh, um…try this." Conrad said giving her some other brush alongside some green identification medal.

"Thank you." Weaver said back before taking a look at the medal. "Special Forces?"

"It was my father's. He gave it to me as he left to fight the Fire Nation long ago. He maybe wasn't it for everyone else, but to me he was someone like the Avatar. Some kind of mythic hero."

"Did he come back?"

"His battalion faced a great force of firebenders. In the end they managed to force them to leave from their position, but he disappeared. They searched for him for months but…I suppose no man comes home from war. Not really." Conrad expressed a little sad of that memory, and Weaver felt bad for him.

In the end, both of them could feel that they two had most in common that they though previously, understanding each other more than they expected.

"How did you know the Beifongs?" Weaver asked curious about that subject.

"It was long ago." Conrad began, giving a sight back at them while he smiled. "When some scouting group of the Fire Nation found Gaoling and attacked the village, the same day that the two of them met and dated for the first time. I was there passing through by the moment, and I prepared a trap to catch all them off guard. They became very impressed and thanked me for saving them and their home. Sometime later the local authorities captured me. They believed that I was related to some serious criminal they capture a few days ago, but Lao and Poppy stood there for me. If it wasn't for them, I would have ended in jail. Since then they invited me at their house and we became good friends. Sometimes, when I could, I bring them with me on some travels through the Earth Kingdom to go exploring and see other places outside their village. A way of get some special memories before they had to attempt to their own business because of their nobility class."

"There's no doubt you're close friends."

"Well, I try my best to be it. I wasn't able to be on their wedding, and it wasn't truly my intention to bring them to such dangerous like this one. Sometimes…I think that there's something I doing wrong, or that I not doing my best to be a friend worthy of them." Conrad said, with some repentance in his voice.

"No, you're not. You may not seem like the perfect man for some people, but I know that you're a good man, Conrad, and a good friend." Weaver supported taking his hand.

That lifted Conrad's spirit as he gave her a smile, the same as her to him. Meanwhile Noriko/Ursa stood a little far from everybody else. She looked nervous and worried, and for a good reason. She decided that she couldn't keep lying to them, the people who helped her so much through all that trouble that they passed on the island, but she was scared of what they could think or say about her if she revealed that she has been spying on them all this time until they reached to Skull Island. But…despite her fear, she decided to be brave and being sincere with her group at last, because…she had to. After all, they were her friends.

"Everyone, could you please come here?" Ursa called at everyone in the room, making them to gather around the center of it. "There's something I have to tell you."

"Noriko? What is it?" Hakoda asked worried because of how her voice sounded.

The princess let out a sigh before beginning in telling the truth.

"Look, the…thing is that…" Ursa began to explain herself hardly. "…I have lied to all of you. I'm not who you think I am. Better said, I'm not the one who I told you that I was."

Everyone got a little stunned of hearing that.

Ursa sighed again trying to keep calming herself down before continuing. "And my true name is 'not' Noriko. I'm Princess Ursa of the Fire Nation." Her answer left everybody shocked, even Marlow, who didn't looked very surprised at this at first.

"Excuse me, I think I didn't hear right." Marlow said to this. "You said you were…?"

"Wait, wait! Wait a minute!" Slivko exclaimed back, trying to catch that crucial fact, as it was related with his supposed mission. "Are you the princess? I mean…you have been with us all the time?! And I was wondering where could you been all this time, or if you were even still alive."

"What? What are you talking about, Slivko?" Lao asked to the firebender.

"Oh, well…once we have reached the island, our other mission was to find Princess Ursa among the enemy lines and retrieve her far from all the mess, as she was supposed to have ended with her part of the mission, so…" But he stopped talking, as he realized that he talked too much.

"Part of the mission?" Weaver recalled.

Conrad then nodded with the head, as he began to realize what was all that about. "I see. So…that's how all happened."

"Yes. It was my duty. Our spies heard some rumors of a collective force of the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes from north and south that were preparing for some important operation. I guess they thought that you were preparing an invasion force for the Fire Nation capital. Then Fire Lord Azulon gave the task to infiltrate your fleet and pass all important information of your actual course to the interception fleet commanded by Colonel Packard and Prince Iroh. Once the battle was over, their forces were supposed to extract me from there and return with them. Of course, we didn't expect Kong or how this island was truly, like you." Ursa continued explaining her role on everything that happened before they met Kong for the first time.

"I already thought that you looked like from my nation. But the princess…here?" Marlow expressed still surprised and stunned. "And I thought that the Fire Lord could not sink lower."

"But…if you did that…why did you helped us then?" Bato asked confused.

"Because…you're my friends. I know, I know saying that doesn't make any sense now. I also know all that I did to you was bad, but…please…believe me when I say that I didn't intend to do it to you on purpose." Ursa said saddened, like if she was going to let out some tears. "It's just…I didn't have a choice. You maybe believe that being a part of the royal family is something very lucky, but it isn't. I never wished to be it, but now…well, now that's a thing of the past."

"Ugh, I guess that…neither any member of the royal family is guaranteed to be out of the Fire Lord warmongering plans." Marlow deduced.

"Yes. But…Hakoda, Bato, Lao, Poppy…when I was with you, spending those moments with you, I felt like I went back to my old days, feeling accompanied with friends. That…was so warming. All that time together with you, that wasn't an act. Just the contrary, it was very real. That's the reason why we're still alive in this island. That's the reason why I'm telling all this to you, for you to know that you mean something for me after all, and that I'm very sorry for everything. I never wanted any of this to happen. But…I'll understand if you decide to ignore me, even hate me." Ursa accepted turning her back at them saddened, lowering her head. "And…I'll respect that."

"You still believe that everyone in the Fire Nation is evil?" Marlow reminded to everyone there.

Even if they were still shocked by this revelation, now they understood a few things about Ursa and the royal family of the Fire Nation. Even they felt bad for her. After all and deep inside, she was another victim of the Fire Lord cloudy choices. And thanks to what Marlow told them, not everyone in the Fire Nation was what it seemed to be. Hakoda, Bato, Lao and Poppy gathered around Ursa, for her surprise, and put some hands on her shoulders.

"Noriko." Hakoda began, for next correcting himself. "I mean…Ursa. The past is past. You're right; you made some bad things, or mistakes. But…you're not the only one here."

"What? I don't get it." Ursa said confused.

"He's right. We are all to blame here. We brought the war here, maybe the only place in the world where it didn't reach…until now. That's why Kong attacked us, because we're destroying the peaceful life of him and the other creatures of this island." Bato explained. "Since that, we have been forced to struggle to survive, and the reason of why we've achieved it and made it this far is because we helped each other. And just like we said before, that's what true friends do."

"Besides, this has no ended yet. We still have to get out of this island." Lao recalled.

"And we can only do it by working together." Poppy added.

All that support coming from them and the fact of them smiling at her it was more than enough to make Ursa see that she was forgiven, making her to smile while dropping some tears of happiness.

"I…don't know what to say. Thank you, guys." Ursa said as she and they embraced in a warm group hug. "You're the best."

Everyone else smiled at that heartwarming scene. Even Slivko wished to be part of it, something that didn't get unaware.

"You too, Slivko. Come here." Hakoda invited him to join the group hug, with him gladly accepting.

"This is how it should be everything." Marlow said seeing such beautiful moment.

At the same time, back with the Fire Nation group, they were resting on some plain near some bonfire under the auroras sky. Some of them became wondered by these auroras, which had nothing to do with the spirits, but some true natural phenomenon, and others were patrolling the area aware of any possible dangers on nearby.

"Mills, quit fooling around. I'm going on perimeter." Cole told his pal as he walked near him.

Meanwhile Randa decided to talk with Iroh about some private thing regarding Packard, something about his 'new behavior', as he also noticed that something was wrong about him, but he wasn't sure of what could it be.

"Can I talk with you about something, Your Highness?" Randa asked to the prince. Iroh nodded at him while sat down next to him. "I think that something is not right about our colonel. He doesn't look like determined to find Princess Ursa unlike you, or his second in command. It's like…if he was after something else."

"Yes, his behavior has…changed somehow. I also have noticed that since we began our travel here."

"Do you know what could possibly be?"

"I'm not sure. He seems obsessed with something, something personal. And I think it could be about this island. After all, he has acted like that since we got lost here. But…I cannot be sure of that yet. So for now…I just only keep an eye on him, until I can be sure of that for certain. If you're going to ask him, you better go with caution. I fear he has become more unstable since losing our warriors one by one all this time."

Randa nodded at the prince before getting up and approaching Packard, who had his eyes submerged in the flames of the bonfire in front of him. Randa sat down in front of him before talking directly to him.

"Colonel Packard, this mission to the crash site is folly. I understand going after your man. But the rest of it…This is beyond us. You even don't look interested in finding the princess, and I neither believe that she could be there too. That's impossible."

Packard got his mind out of the fire and turned his sight at Randa. "You don't like the way I'm running things? You know where the door is. You set this in motion when you put this place on the map. And I will not cut and run. I know an enemy when I see it."

That was the colonel's words. At the same time in a cave located on the biggest and tallest mountain of the island, a huge mountain shaped like a skull located in the island's center, that was where Kong's lair was. And so was him there inside, looking at the illuminated sky while being sat down. The cave had some skeletons that looked like some other members of his kind: his predecessors, but bigger than him. He looked like being reflecting about something very personal of himself. Next Kong showed some concerned face; even he looked a little sad. Even if he preferred to be alone, there was sometimes that he really felt lonely, like if deep inside he only wanted some company or…missed someone. Next day in the morning, back inside the shipwrecked ship of the village, Conrad, Weaver and the teenagers saw Marlow, who now had his beard much shorter, kneeled in front of two tombs with the belongings of his fallen friends, with a sorrow look on his face.

"These two names were Kato and Kalina. They were from the Southern Water Tribe, siblings." Marlow said, talking about who his friends were for him, remembering them like if it was yesterday. "But you take away the uniforms and the war…He became my brother." His voice tone changed to be sadder, and he seemed to continue hardly. "And she…my wife." He tried his best to not drop any tears of those special and painful but still beloved memories. "She was the last waterbender of her tribe. They were going north looking for shelter before the three of us ended here. Since that day, when we became family, I promised myself that I would never firebend, ever again, and we swore we'd never leave any of us behind. We wanted to go back to the world, going away from the war as far as we could, starting a new life from zero. But sometimes…life gives you back what you do to others."

The group felt sad for Marlow. He really changed since he first arrived to Skull Island, but also lost everything that was important for him there.

"We're so sorry." Ursa said, in name of everyone present there.

Marlow got up and turned his sight at them. "Let's get off this island." He declared taking his brother's Water Tribe sword and his own.

Later everyone was onboard Marlow's ship, ready for ignite it for the very first time, checking every detail of it before bringing it to life. However, someone did something very soon and that provoked the engine to let out some smoke and make some not good noises.

"Ow! Not yet!" Slivko yelled while he was checking on the engine.

"Prime the lines." Conrad advised.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Nieves confirmed, doing that.

"Wind it up, let's go!" Slivko said, confident for now all systems to work. "Keep going!"

They tried to make the engine to wake up, but it was another failure.

"Third time's the charm. Here we go. Here we go!" Slivko encouraged, feeling that the third time was the one for success. "Let' go, let' go, let' go."

"Come on, come on." Marlow cheered up.

After all their combined effort, the engine and systems began responding correctly and stable. They managed to achieve it at last.

"Yes. Yes!, Yes!" Slivko exclaimed happy for succeeding finally.

"You did it, Slivko!" Bato congratulated, patting him on his shoulders.

"Yeah, way to go!" Hakoda congratulated him too grabbing him. Slivko liked this sensation of gratefulness and laughed happy.

Everyone laughed in happiness at the long wanted result. Then everybody got silent went they saw all the natives standing in front of them, as if they knew that it was time to leave for their outsider guests, especially Marlow, who stood with them so many years. He approached the chiefs with his same sign of open arms.

"I guess this is goodbye." Marlow deduced. "Thank you. If you ever wanna look me up, don't go to the Fire Nation, because I won't be there. And I don't recommend it to you."

The chiefs seemed to be nodding at him by bowing lightly at him as the boat began leaving the shore. Conrad and the others could see and sense that was also a hard and sad moment for Marlow, as he saw the natives like a family too, one that took him and his friends in and treated him like one of them all that time. Weaver was able to make one last fast painting of the natives. The whole tribe saw their departure while some part of the wall that reached the water surface opened, revealing a secret passageway connected to the river of outside and allowing the boat to leave the home of the natives. That way, the group reassumed their journey to the north part of the island, unaware that they still would have to encounter themselves with the most dangerous creature of the island and face it one way or another.