Isle of the Extinct

Seven: Clash

Shane was on tenterhooks. That was an entire float of Kapros (short for Kaprosuchus)he was staring at, guarding eggs which would probably drastically increase their aggressiveness. But there right beside the eggs was the aloe vera! The plant had rose to plant stardom when discovered that it yielded sap that had countless healing properties, including treating severe wounds; it was precisely the thing he needed. Half the battle won, he knew, now he just had to get it...

He looked down, seeing an abundance of twisted, broken sticks and branches lying innocently on the muddy ground, and an idea fizzed into existence. It was not the best, or most logical one, but it was the best shot Shane had.

Hesitantly, he picked one of the branches up with quivering hands, before hurling them in the direction of the animals. The branch splashed into the lake, garnering their attention for a moment, some of the more curious ones even bounding into the greenish pool to retrieve the stick. The egg guardians remained stiff, however. "Not like I expected that to work..." Shane grumbled.

Just then, a couple of the egg guarders, the ones closest to the aloe vera, perked up. Shane stiffened: do they know I'm here?

The Kaprosuchus then trotted lazily towards the pool, before submerging itself in the sickly-looking water. Now's the chance! Go! the voice in Shane's head hollered. As if infiltrating a secretive, heavily-fortified military base, Shane tiptoed around the other Kapros, periodically looking down to make sure no branches would give him away by being crunched on. Heart racing madly, he saw the plant was in his reach! He only needed to steal one leaf! The sudden surge of excitement and triumph made him falter however, and his hands shuddered in midair, refusing to obey his brain's commands.

GO! GOOO! his mind clamoured. His hands still would not obey. One of the parent crocodilians was returning, emerging steadily from the pool! He could see it, approaching almost mechanically towards the nest.

GET THE DAMN PLANT! his hands continued to remain in limbo. GET IT! GET IT! GET-

The sounds of trunks cracking and splintering came from inside. Branches were being trampled on, the crackling of leaves was abound, and Shane noticed several mangrove trees being bent with the force of whatever was pummelling through the trees, carving a path through the vegetation with its own immense body.

Snap!

Shane felt the plant's leaf in his hands. "YES! This better have paid off!" he told himself, looking back at the scrambling Kapros, evacuating their once-safe haven with their eggs neatly clasped in their wicked jaws. Just in time as well...

The behemoth slammed through the last couple of trees, stepping dignifiedly into the golden, molten sun as it boasted its ragged swords for teeth, body blanketed in an impenetrable pelt of scales, tail studded with triangular spikes, swamp water lacing every corner like pearls on a necklace...and the grey spheres it had for eyes, speaking one word about everything this animal was, from its blood to its demeanour: COLD.

Was this not the creature he had hallucinated? Surely this was another figment of his imagination, which had turned overactive in the days he had spent here. The slit-like pupils in its eyes, the intricate matrix of scales wrapping its body all disproved his idea. Whether he liked it or not, he was staring bug-eyed at a genuine specimen of the monster of a crocodile that was Sarcosuchus.

There was something about reptiles that man despised. Their cold, unblinking eyes, the winding movement, the disgusting way they creeped and slithered on their bellies, the fact that they were wrapped in a sheath of rough scales; it was all so wrong, so messed up, so DIFFERENT from what people were. How they could stalk in the underbrush at unsuspecting prey, before lashing out with lethal venom, injecting it into their victim before cowardly sliding into the bushes again, watching the poor animal stagger and foam at the corner of its mouth as it slowly succumbed to the toxins attacking its heart. How they could disguise themselves as pieces of driftwood to set up a horrifying ambush against their targets, assassinating them in cold blood. And Sarcosuchus was the living embodiment of everything that demonised it and its reptilian brethren.