The villagers that dwelled alongside the Kitakami River had been going through their daily rituals as they had for generations, and were getting ready to stop for the night. Soon, it would be time to do their nightly ceremony to appease their god, Baradagi. There had only been a few times in recorded history where they had forgotten, and all had ended in disaster. Whether the winds came and crushed the village into sticks, or the fearsome god himself emerged, there was little want for another disaster to arrive. Even those poor scientists that did not believe them had gone out into forbidden lands, quickly disappearing beneath the shadow of god. The police were not as believing, but they followed suit with the proper procedures.
A scream that came from the forests, however, made all in the village stop in their tracks. Many turned their heads to see a young child come running out of the trees panicking and screaming. Several ran toward the child but stopped as a low roaring noise echoed over the trees. They split apart as a massive beast emerged, splitting the trees away as it stepped into the village boundaries. A brown, scaly hide glinted in the setting sun’s light, with a long tail dragging behind. Taloned hands flexed as a massive head with a mouth of sharp teeth glanced downward at the villagers. It took another, thundering, footstep and let out a massive roar that shook the villagers with its sheer volume.
The village immediately went into chaos. People scrambled about to escape this reptilian horror from another era. They fled to the forests, to the water’s edge, trampling over their own and leaving behind everything that they ever knew in a desperate bid for their lives. The beast in turn, began to look for food. The sounds of farm animals from behind a house drew its attention first. It moved through the small building without issue, shattering it into rubble while it reared down and lifted a cow in its jaws, quickly swallowing it whole without issue.
From a distance, invisible to the fleeing villagers and the terrifying beast, two beings watched the rampage inside a ship. One stared on callously, while the other had to tear herself away from the sight.
“M11, do we really need to just stand by and let this carnage happen? Those are people down there! We could help them!” lamented Emiko, who could only hear the sounds of the fleeing villagers and the foraging kaiju.
“Unfortunately Emiko, we must. There’s too much risk in revealing ourselves to a crowd this big, and in this timeline we could be mistaken for a variety of invading alien races, and probability has shown that this outcome results in the least amount of death in the first place. This is not taking into the consideration that we would also risk bringing out the other monster that is in the vicinity,” affirmed the cool voice of the android, who observed the dinosaur attacking outside with mild interest.
Emiko’s head suddenly snapped toward M11, shock rising on her face. She grabbed the android’s shoulder, dragging his eyes from the rampage to her.
“You didn’t tell me there was another kaiju here. We could’ve stopped it from coming here in the first place!”
“It was your direct commands to not interfere with the Godzillasaurus’ path once we brought it to the safest timeline possible,” M11 replied coolly, “And I did just that. With the advent of Godzilla in 1954, nuclear weapons were brought down to an all-time low here, with several known nuclear tests that occurred in our main one in the 60’s and 70’s not even put into effect. Other forms of energy were focused on, but at the cost of more monsters occurring earlier on. It would be inevitable that the Godzillasaurus would leave the icy waters of Siberia, and that’d he’d go to the first place that’d be suitable.”
The android turned his head, its eyes unflinching as the beast continued its destructive carnage.
“It was also likely that any place that we could’ve chosen otherwise would be inhabited by another monster or a group of people. It was almost inevitable that something like this would occur when the beast went to find its own territory. But now, it’s time we looked back. It’s done feeding, and it will look for the next sustenance it will need.”
The android was correct in his statement, as the dinosaur had finished its foraging on the penned up farm animals. Turning toward the river, it marched down through the middle of the village, crushing a house underneath its foot as it moved forward. The only thing standing between it and the river was the ancient shrine, and the old priest that had chosen to try and summon the terrifying god to their aid. He did not stop as the beast advanced, and only gave a small groan as the beast crushed him beneath the rubble of the temple. The saurian barely noticed the building, taking a few steps into the river and began to take in gulps of water to slake down the meal of cow, horse, and pig that he had consumed.
Ahead of the prehistoric denizen, the waters began to churn and froth. The Godzillasaurus did not notice at first, continuing to gulp large quantities of water. When it became much larger and noisier, the dinosaur lifted his head up to stare out at the churning surface with curiosity. It came to a climax as a large shape shot outward, slamming into the Godzillasaurus with rapid force and knocking the beast backward. The dinosaur stumbled back and looked at his surprise attacker with glaring eyes. It was a quadrupedal beast, with wrinkled skin punctuated by spines in a line down its back, neck, and head. Two fins dawned the side of the beast’s head, flared in anger at the intruder. Opening its mouth, Varan let out a scream of rage toward the one that had trampled its way into the primal god’s home.
The two hesitated little in clashing with one another. Varan charged forward, leaping upward and grabbing onto the sides of the invading dinosaur. Rearing onto two legs, he tried to claw into the Godzillasaurus. However, the Godzillasaurus took the advantage of the situation and bit into the shoulder of Varan, teeth sinking into flesh and bone. The spined beast howled in pain as Godzillasaurus crunched down into the bone, and began to shake its head back and forth. The brown beast had surprising amount strength, making Varan stumble side to side in a vain attempt to keep balanced. It moved its arms from the side of the beast to the neck, and began to slam them repeatedly into the Godzillasaurus’ exposed neck. Hook like claws swung in and out, leaving scratches that turned into gashes. Grunting in pain, the theropod swung the body of the guardian monster skyward, releasing it into the air.
The titanic dinosaur however stared on in surprise, as the reptilian god suddenly stretched its legs out and began to glide through the air as if the throw was nothing. It landed on one of the rocky cliffs that towered over the secluded valley back onto all fours, turning back toward the invading dinosaur and gave a hellish roar that echoed out over the entire valley. Varan’s foe stared down, glaring with hatred but thinking out its next move. It had not thought that such a foe that dwelled in both water and land could take to the air with such ease, but yet it had done just that. Was that something worth fighting for such a place to live? There would be other places to hunt and dwell further south, but here might not be worth it.
Varan however, had other plans in store. Leaping off the edge of the cliff, it dove straight down for the invader into its river. The crimson hued reptile had only enough time to give a shriek in surprise as it was slammed into the side by its rival, both falling into the shallower parts of the river. Varan sliced claws into the Godzillasaurus’s side, while the predatory king of the dinosaurs thrashed to get back onto his own feet. A stray slap of the tyrant predator’s tail slammed into Varan, sending it flying into the deeper parts of the river. Getting back onto two legs, the downed beast shook its head and looked out at his foe, half submerged into the river like some gigantic crocodile. The spiky kaiju roared at the intruder, who gave a half-hearted roar back, before returning the way it had entered, retreating from the water back into the thick forests it had trampled through. Rearing onto its hind legs, Varan gave a screech of victory, before slinking into the depths of the river that it called home.
Aboard the KIDS, Emiko gave a sigh of relief as the creature that she had risked so much for slunk away safely rather than falling in combat. Trapped in another timeline, it was one of the few reminders of the place that she called home. Turning toward her companion, she posed a question that seemed like an obvious solution was inbound from M11.
“Do you know when the Godzillasaurus will appear again? I rather make sure it stays safe, for all the troubles we’ve gone through for it.”
“I will have to run a diagnostic’s scan, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out,” M11 replied coolly, “Though, if I might pose a question, there is something that has been... confounding my programming as of yet. Do you regret leaving everything familiar and bringing this monster to a different timeline?”
Emiko sat for a second, processing what had been asked of her. Was it really worth it yet? Abandoning everything that she had known for another living beast, to try and give her own world a chance of becoming something greater? Her reply was slow, as if she was choosing her words carefully rather than blurting something out.
“It’s too soon to tell M11. It’s still too soon.”
Seemingly satisfied with the answer, the android nodded before speaking out to her again.
“I have located the next major appearance of the Godzillasaurus. There are a few other sightings, but nothing substantial until the next major collision with a monster.”
“Alright then. No need to be wasting time here then. Let’s go.”
The invisible ship began to emit a series of strange lights and warping of the air around it, before fading out of the events of the valley. It did not go unnoticed by Varan lurking at the bottom of the river, but the kaiju reacted little. It choose to swim back to a more secluded place to heal and rest. It had been a long time since any kind of conflict had graced the beast, and it was something that it had craved. Perhaps it would come into the world once more, once these wounds had healed, to show the strength of Varan to believer and non-believer alike.
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