Skull Island. 1965.
James Conrad, the former SAS officer, stared worriedly at the murals that the so-called 'Iwi' Tribe made within the ruins of the ship called The Wanderer. Listening to the words of the old WW2 veteran Hank Marlow as the old man took a deep, worried breath.
"Look, I know the name 'Skull Crawlers' sounds stupid, so call them whatever you want. Big lizard things or whatever."
"The point is, these things are extremely dangerous and come from the vents underground. That is why Kong got so mad with the bombs you guys dropped the moment you arrived here."
For the hundredth time that day, James cursed the idiots at Landsat and Randa for dropping those 'seismic charges' on this island.
"Those bombs woke up a bunch of 'em."
Marlow smiled wryly at the worried look on the group's face.
"You're lucky he's out there, or you wouldn't have made it this far with those things out there. Them's some crafty bastards."
"Most of the time, Kong can handle them. As long as he gets to em when they are young."
Marlow stared seriously at the group as he spoke with trepidation.
"But you don't want to wake the big one up."
San Lin, the biologist from Monarch, stared at the murals that looked oddly familiar. However, catching what Marlow said about the 'big one', her curiosity got the better of her and prompted her to speak.
"How big is it?"
"Big. Like, really big. It wiped out his whole family."
Turning back to stare at the mural depicting Kong standing over the Iwi tribe with his arms spread, signifying the way the tribe viewed him as something of a god, Marlow felt sorrow for the young ape's loss.
"Kong is the last of his kind. And he is still growing."
"You'd better hope he does. Because the Iwi say, once Kong goes? The big one comes up, and it's goodnight for everybody."
Houston Brooks, the Monarch agent, felt like he would shit his pants sooner or later as revelation after revelation kept slamming him in his face.
He even wanted to go back in time and smack his past self on the head and make sure he never wrote that damned thesis when he was still in the Ivy League.
However, he felt distracted by the same thing that kept grabbing San's attention.
A strange mural that seemed to be placed separately from the others, but still held an equal place of reverence as Kong, from the looks of it.
"What's that?"
Marlow looked away from James and Mason Weaver, the photographer, and saw what Brooks pointed at.
Seeing what caught their attention, Marlow's face brightened up, momentarily forgetting the doom and gloom.
"Ah! That's my favourite part of this place. No doom and gloom over there, no sirie!"
He happily hopped over to the mural and spoke with a jovial tone, staring longingly at the mural.
"This mural depicts what the Iwi call the Primal Trio."
Brooks snorted at the name as James rolled his eyes.
"That name one of your creation too?"
"What? No! That is what the Iwi really call them. Look."
Marlow pointed at the design made with blue pigmentation, representing some kind of fish or whale.
"That is the Primal Sea."
Then, he pointed at the red painting shaped like a lizard or a dinosaur.
"That is the Primall Land."
And finally, he pointed at the green serpent coiling above the two figures.
"And that is the-"
"The Green Sun?"
Marlow stopped speaking as San whispered with awe as she finally realized why the mural felt so familiar to her.
Marlow gave the woman a confused look.
"Well, I was going to say Primal Sky, but you do you, I guess."
"No. I mean to say that I know this legend."
Mason walked towards the only other woman in the group and placed her hand on her shoulder with curiosity.
"What are you talking about?"
"Right. So, this so-called Primal Trio? It is just another name for an old legend. It is called the Tale of the Three Gods, where it is said that, in ancient times, three ancient gods came together to create a land for the blessed."
She walked forward and hesitated for a bit, looking at the Iwi people for any rejection before gently tracing the figure of the blue painted fish pattern.
"The Healing Sea, who blessed the waters around the land with abundance and life."
Then, she traced the figure of the red lizard.
"The Moving Mountain, who blessed the land with fertility and resources."
Then, with great reverence, she placed her palm on the emerald serpent's image.
"And finally, the Green Sun. He who bestowed heavenly knowledge and blessed the land with gentle weather free of tribulations."
"This is the creation myth that is told to every man, woman, and child from the country of Hoenn."
James stared with mild surprise at the story before speaking up.
"How do you know that?"
San smiled at the group and took out a small pendant around her neck that had the symbol that looked like an emerald spiral.
"My grandmother was from Hoenn. She used to tell me this story when I was a kid."
Mason smiled at the little tidbit of information, glad to know a little bit more about her companion, while Brooks's mind kept racing. His Monarch training, of which he had very little due to his status as a rookie, forced him to look at the story from multiple angles and try to see if there was a possibility that the Iwi got this story from Hoenn or if it was the other way around.
Or, in the worst case, there was some truth to the story after alll and these things really did exist out there somewhere.
'We need to find Randa as quickly as possible. He needs to know about this.'
James shook his head to get back to the present and turned to Marlow with a serious look.
"Listen. There is a refuelling team coming to the north end of the island in three days."
Mason turned to Marlow.
"You should come with us. You've been here long enough."
Marlow stared at James as if he were looking at a lunatic.
"The north end of the island? In three days?"
Marlow burst out laughing as he patted James's shoulder as if the younger man had cracked some kind of joke.
"Its impossible to get to the north end in three days. That's it. No way. No way in hell."
The group fell silent at those words.
However, Marlow's eyes suddenly sparkled as he got a 'brilliant' idea.
"...At least, not on foot."
As the group of humans got to working on the gritty details of their 'escape vehicle,' they did not know that the 'gods' that they were talking about until now were having their own conversation.
And the great holder of 'Heavenly Knowledge' was feeling rather baffled at what he was observing from the orbit.
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'What the hell are they doing down there?'
'I don't know, and I don't care either.'
'Same as Groudon. Why do you even care about what the humans get up to in that place? Brother?'
I observed the vaguely skull-shaped island from orbit. My eyes making it extremely easy for me to see most of the things down there without much issue.
That is why I was able to catch sight of the last Great Ape on the surface fighting the things called 'Skull Crawlers' based on my fading human memory.
Ever since those humans started dropping their bombs on the surface (Why are they even doing that? I remember that this was a plot point in the movie, but it has literally been millions of years since I was born in this world, and my human memory is vague at best by this point.), These lizards have been climbing up to the island from whatever pocket they live in below the island.
Originally, I should not even care about what goes on here since this island is basically a prison/exile grounds for the Great Apes and their followers, the human tribe of the Hollow Earth. The ones that did not join the Skar King willingly in his conquest.
Godzilla banished them here so that they would never step foot in the Hollow Earth again and dare to stir up trouble down there. As for Skar King and his followers? They are dead.
I made sure of that.
'Brother?'
'Hm?'
'You still did not say why you are interested in that island right now.'
'Right. Well, it's not that I am interested in it. I am just curious as to what the humans are even trying to achieve here. After all, this is the first time that humanity from the surface has set foot on the last of the places that their kind has left uncharted till now.'
'I see. But I think we have much more important things to discuss right now.'
'Like?'
'Like your answer to the little ones' attempt at communicating with you.'
'Here we go again.'
I felt like smiling as I started moving again, leaving the skies of Skull Island and listening to my brothers speak.
'Listen to me. This time around, you could literally ask them to build you those manufacturing establishments of theirs to supply you with alcohol all year round in exchange for blessing them with a little bit of 'knowledge''
'I think you have become addicted to the taste of alcohol, Groudon.'
'Says the turtle that would not stop complaining about missing the offerings for centuries on end.'
'AGAIN WITH THE TURTLE! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?'
'YOU ARE MY PROBLEM!!'
I sighed and kept circling the planet, listening to the same old bickering of my 'siblings.'
Yeah. Whatever's going on down there is not my problem because I've got much bigger issues to deal with in the form of natural disasters in physical forms with tempers to match.
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The humans on Skull Island and Kong: Fighting for their lives because of the Skull Crawlers.
Rayquza, the big daddy in the sky, looking down from orbit with confusion and mild intrigue: What the dawg doing?