(Time Skip)
I heard the birds cawing. I ran in the direction and stayed grass because I spotted creatures. They walked and talked like any other creature. But I knew this language. One of the villagers, Hank, talked like this. He taught me last time I visited. I soon realized that these creatures kind of looked like...well, me. They stopped when Talula, the sker buffalo, came up out of the water. They pointed, what looked like weapons, at her.
"Nobody move." I heard, what I assumed to be theleader, said. "Easy." Talula walked closer to them, and one of them pointed hisweapon at her. I snuck up so I was standing in the water behind Talula. Ibacked up and ran towards Talula's back. I jumped up and flipped over her. Ilanded on my feet between Talula and the creatures like me. I showed no fear.It was one of the lessons Kong taught me. Show no fear, and they'll be afraidof you because of that.
"It's a girl!" One of them said. The male with the weapon pointed it at me. I stared at them with anger. They come into our home and threaten our animals?! No way.
"Slivko." The leader said, causing me to look at him.
"What?" The male said. The leader walked towards him.
"Put it down." He said and pushed the male's weapon down. The female held something up and I heard a click. I glanced back at Talula.
"Go, before they hurt you." I said. She nodded and walked away.
"What is she saying?" I heard one of the creatures ask. I turned to them.
"I don't know, man!" The dark-skinned male said. The leader took a step towards, me causing me to step back and slowly reach for my small knife in my pocket.
"W-What's she doing?" The male with the weapon asked. The leader took another step towards me, causing me to grab my knife and pull it out. I pointed it at them. "Knife!" The male with the weapon pointed it at me.
"Slivko, don't." The leader said.
"Put the weapon down!" The male shouted at me.
"Wait." The leader said.
"Now!" The male shouted.
"Slivko!" The leader shouted, jumping in between me and the male.
"Move out of the way, Conrad." The male said.
"I can't." The leader said. "Listen, if she knows the island, she could help us."
"Why would she want to help us?!" The male with the curly hair asked. "She literally has a knife pointed at you!"
"She's just scared." The leader said. "Let me talk to her. I can reason with her. Just wait." He turned to me and took a step towards me. I tightened my grip on my knife. "It's okay. It's okay. We won't hurt you, alright? There's no need to be afraid. I promise you." I nodded to the weapon the male had pointed at me. "Slivko, put the gun down."
"Are you crazy?!" The male asked.
"Now." The leader demanded.
"How do you know she won't kill us?" The male asked.
"Because if she wanted to, she would have done it a few minutes ago when she started following us." The leader said. They looked at him in shock. "Just put the gun down." The male slowly pointed his weapon down. I realized that he probably wouldn't be a threat now, and slowly lowered my knife. "Alright. See. We are of no threat to you."
"Can she even understand us?" The female asked.
"I'm guessing, since she lowered the knife." The male with the curly hair asked.
"My name is Conrad." The leader said, pointing at himself. He pointed back at the females. "This is Mason Weaver and San Lin." He pointed at the male with the gun. "Reg Slivko." He pointed at the dark-skinned male. "Brooks." He pointed at the male with the curly hair. "And Nieves." Mason started walking towards me, causing me to take some steps back. "Don't." Conrad stopped her. "She's just starting to trust us. One wrong move and we're back to square 1."
"Well, maybe we need to go back to square 1." Nieves said. I glared at him.
"She understood him!" Brooks said. "She must speak somewhat English."
"Do you understand English?" Conrad asked me. I gave him a nod.
"Do you have a name?" Mason asked. I gave her a nod.
"What's your name?" Conrad asked.
"We're really asking a savage if she has a name?!" Nieves asked. I growled at him. "Did...Did she just growl at me?"
"Anthropomorphism." Brooks said, with an amazed look on his face.
"English, Brooks." Reg said.
"She's speaking like an animal." Brooks explained. "So, I'm guessing that it must mean she was raised as one."
"You mean, an animal adopted a human?" Nieves asked.
"It's happened before." Brooks said, shrugging. "Child lost in woods gets adopted by animals. They have to be reintroduced into society."
"What's your name?" Conrad asked me again.
"Kala." I said.
(Time Skip)
Conrad put down a map in front of me.
"We need to get here." He said, pointing at a place on the map. "The North Side of the island. A helicopter will find us and take us back."
"And then what?" I asked. "You destroy more of my home?"
"No." He said. "We didn't know that this would happen. We didn't even know anyone was here."
"Or a giant monkey for that matter." Nieves said. I ignored him and looked at James, dead in the eyes.
"You come here, destroy my home, threaten one of my friends, and now you want me to help you get away?" I asked. "Forget it."
"Listen, I'm an antiwar photographer, okay?" Mason said. "I hate this just as much as you do. We didn't want to destroy this place. The scientists did. We didn't. All you gotta do it take us to the spot and we'll deny that we found anything. I promise." I sighed.
"First of all, you have to get past every creature here." I said, pointing to a spot on the map. "Here, everything will try and kill you. You want to survive? Act as harmless as you can, but not so much that they think you're easy prey."
"So, what do we do?" Reg asked.
"Well, some animals don't care." I said. "Doesn't matter if you're the biggest animal on the island or the smallest, they'll try and kill you. That's why I'm coming too. I can convince some of the animals to leave us alone. But the others, you'll have to take care of them." I nodded to their weapons.
"And how do you know they'll listen to you?" Reg asked.
"I'm royalty here." I said. "They'll listen if they don't wanna die."
"You would kill your own subjects?" Brooks asked.
"No." I said. "I won't. But someone else will." Brooks looked at me with a fearful face. "You wanna get home? I'm your only ticket out of here."
"Hold on, everything we do here matters, alright?" Nieves said. He turned to San and Lin. "You guys wanted an expedition! I thought that mattered." I grabbed the pencil off the rock and wrote an X on the spot. I put the pencil down on the rock and looked at them.
"Now nothing does." I said.
Conradlooked at the X, then at me.