Colossus By Choice: Book 1 Verse 7

3001 P.G.E. (Post-Godzilla Era)

[Universal Date: Day 118]
[Planet: Pyrestar]
[Capital: Silver Sun City]
[Location: City wall limits]

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Along the trail of glowing mushroom colonies, the group of former prisoners who escaped from the grasp of the Iwi-ki press forward while following the lead of their main guide through these parts of Silver Sun City’s outer limits, Taum Thunder-clan Pyrestar. As they continue to follow the trail in the hopes of beating the ape soldiers and warn the city, Skrill suddenly puts his hand out in front of Taum, prompting everyone to hold position.

The elderly Radent smuggler sniffs the air intently for a few moments. Once he picks up on a particular scent, his whiskers instantly straighten out, signalling that he’s been put on alert by whatever he’s smelling.

This prompts everyone to look for cover behind trees, rocks, and bushes. Some of the senior city scouts get tactical, advancing forward from cover to cover; the others follow their lead. After covering a few dozen metres, the sounds of growling force everyone into hiding. Skrill sniffs the air once again and dares to peek his head out to see if he can catch a glimpse of whatever it is he’s smelling. From the corner of his eye, he can see some Monster moving in the bushes up ahead.

This unknown creature is definitely larger than the small Herbivores and Neopterons that the group had been encountering up until this point, with a small part of its back poking out from above the foliage. It soon reveals itself in full as it lumbers out from the bush.

It’s none other than an Arzuros, the Blue Bear Beast.

It comes out of the bush and sits its rear down in front of a rotted log to feast on the Wiggly Litchis crawling over it.


(Skrill): I thought there were no Large Monsters within the city limits!

(Yun-Tao): We’ll have to take it out.


Some of the group members prepare to follow Yun-Tao’s lead to eliminate the roaming Arzuros. Before they can ambush it, however, Taum suddenly jumps out into the open and holds out his hands to stop them/ This grabs the attention of the Fanged Beast, who finally looks up from its feast of Wiggly Litchi from a rotting log; it tilts its head in quizzical confusion at this turn of events.


(Taum): STOP! We don’t need to kill it!

(Yun-Tao): Move out of the way, Taum!

(Taum): This is Shira, one of the local farmers’ tamed Arzuros! We can follow her back to the farms where we can use their flare launchers to warn the city early.


The escapee group loses their previous gusto upon hearing this. However, they remain in hiding and maintain their grip on their weapons; they only relax once they see Shira the Arzuros come up to Taum and lick his face. After seeing this, they come out of hiding and lower their weapons; the youngling Draconi breathes a sigh of relief. Taum pats Shira’s head a few times and whispers into her ears.


(Taum): Okay, take us home, Shira.


The Fanged Beast turns around and starts lumbering into the distance; Taum motions to the group to follow her, to which they oblige. It’s not too much later after following the tamed Arzuros that the group comes upon a small honey farm. Surprisingly for a honey guzzler like Shira, however, she doesn’t immediately raid the beehives for their sweet liquid goods; she instead moves through the honey boxes like a patrolling guard.

Now that the group has reached the private property, Taum rushes up to the massive door and begins banging on it repeatedly; a few moments later, the door dwarfing everyone present opens up. An extremely large bipedal turtle in a simple tunic steps through the doorframe in front of the junior apprentice of the city scouts; he’s larger than every single person present, even the surviving Oxbul blacksmiths. This Gameran appears to be the owner of this honey farm. He looks around at the group gathered in front of his house, then down at Taum standing before him on his porch.


(Pianoto): Taum, what brings you here—

(Taum): I need your flare launcher now, Pianoto!

(Pianoto): Alright, alright, just hold up a moment. Let me go fetch it.


The tusked Gameran farmer lumbers back into his house to fetch the flare launcher. For several moments, the escapees are left waiting in front of the house; Skrill and Yun-Tao in particular seem a bit impatient at having to wait for the turtle man slowly rummage through his things. However, Taum is relaxed and stoic; he’s clearly dealt with Pianoto’s slower tendencies plenty of times before. Finally, after several consecutive minutes of waiting, the head of the farming lot returns with the flare launcher in hand.

He hands it off to Taum whom immediately brings out into the front yard. He then loads some of the emergency flare rounds loaded on his hip belt into the launch tubes of the flare launcher and pulls the trigger, sending 3 green smoking lights high into the sky. The Draconi youngling stands back and looks up at the sky, waiting for a response signal from Silver Sun City’s defence watch. A few seconds later, the group can see 3 blue smoking flares being launched from one of the pillar towers lining the outer rim of the main metroplex of Silver Sun City.

The defence watch has received the warning.

The group of former prisoners cheers in celebration at having successfully relayed news of an imminent attack to the city; Pianoto can’t help but smile at having been a part of this. The Gameran honey farmer walks down his porch and across his front yard up to Taum; he gives a single tap on the youngling’s shoulder, prompting him to turn around.


(Pianoto): Clearly, you’ve had a long day. The city’s been warned of whatever threat is coming and will be sending the Defence Watch here to pick you up and ascertain the threat in a few hours. Why don’t you all come inside and rest up a bit?

(Taum): I really can’t—

(Pianoto): I insist. You must all be tired and starving. The guardian Gamera always encourages us Gamerans to give food and shelter to those in need. And you’re most certainly in need. Now come on.


The kind honey farmer puts his hand on the junior apprentice of the city scouts, covering his back entirely, and gently walks him into his house. While they walk in, he motions for the others to follow; they follow suit. As is to be expected of a household belonging to such massive people, there’s plenty of space inside for the others to rest, though most of the chairs are too big to comfortably sit in. This isn’t much of a problem considering that most of the group just find some spots along the walls to sit down in and rest for a bit.

Meanwhile, Taum sits down at the kitchen table with Pianoto; he’s joined by Skrill and Yun-Tao, much to his confusion.


(Pianoto): New friends, I see.

(Taum): Oh, they’re not my friends. We just all escaped imprisonment together, helping each other to do so.

(Pianoto): By Gamera’s tusks, I know true friends when I see ‘em. You 3 will be sticking together like honey to the roof of your mouth, mark my words.

(Taum): Do you want to know what’s going on or not?

(Pianoto): Very well. Continue, little one.


The youngling Draconi imparts everything about the events of the past 24 hours to his family’s friend and neighbour, not sparing a single detail no matter how small; the sudden shelling of one of the walls separating the city limits and the untamed wilds; the subsequent rounding up and capture of everyone that survived the ensuing chaos; the revelation about the nature of the Iwi-ki; the escape plan involving the Tigrex and Yun-Tao’s horn; and the trek through the forest. Throughout Taum’s explanation, Pianoto listens intently and patiently, never interrupting and only confirming that he hears and remembers things every once in awhile.

Once the junior apprentice finishes, he looks at his family’s friend intently to see what his reaction will be. The Gameran head of the household gets up from his chair and walks over to the room next to the kitchen; he slowly opens the door, being careful to not make much noise. Inside, the honey farmer sees his wife sleeping next to a small clutch of large eggs; he closes the door just as quietly as he opened it. Pianoto returns to the kitchen tablet after checking in on his spouse and egg clutch.


(Taum): What do you make of all this?

(Pianoto): Son, we’ve got a serious problem on our hands. No matter what these Iwi-ki want, it’s clear they’ll go to any lengths to achieve their goals. And that single-minded drive is a real danger to my new family.

(Taum): I’m sorry to bring such terrible news to your doorstep after finally finding peace about your old family, but you needed to know.

(Pianoto): I appreciate the thought, little one. Say, mind doing me a favour, Taum? Before the Defence Watch comes to pick you up to debrief you lot?

(Taum): Sure. Anything you’d like.

(Pianoto): Mind listening to this old turtle ramble on about one of his old bedtime stories? I know you’ve heard this one, but I wanna make sure I’ve still got it for when my own younglings hatch.

(Taum): Sure, Pianoto. Go right ahead.


Pianoto straightens himself up in his chair and clears his throat a bit; a few flames belch out from the sides of his mouth, but he quickly douses them. The Gameran honey farmer is ready to tell one of his old bedtime stories told to him when he himself was just a youngling fresh out of the egg.Col