Timothy Fuller
Timothy Fuller
Timothy’s interests in science and storytelling are both professional as well as personal. Having studied marine science, he spends most of his time in scientific communication. His personality is largely constructed from a childhood of fantastic science fiction and explorations into the natural environment of his central California coast home.
The Destroyer of Islands
Deep rumbles woke the beast. Such rumbles this far underwater were often just volcanic activity. Other times they were slides of destabilized submarine sediment rushing down the canyon walls. In this case the rumbles came from hunger. It was time to eat. The titanic reptile lumbered from his deep-sea cave out to the freezing mud flats. He paused and stared into the silent pitch black: no prey anywhere. The leviathan snorted a giant cloud of bubbles in disgust. He knew of a place where he could find a meal—but it would be a journey. Adjusting his buoyancy, he gently rose from the ocean floor. The monster swung his body fully out of the cavern and stabilized his ascent by grasping at the canyon walls. Massive claws crushed pale creatures clinging to vertical life. Fish darted out from the disturbed mud clouds in a frenzy for safety from their crumbling worlds. Once out of the canyon narrows, he fully stretched his tremendous tail and relaxed into his swim from the frigid hades. He was headed for surface waters.
There was a time he would have dismissed the surface as a viable fishing ground. He remembered the sunlight rapidly turning into a red glow behind a relentless cover of sand and dust. Quickly the terrestrial world became vacant, so he dove deeper to graze in the ocean’s depths. Then, one day, he chased a whale out of the darkness and was greeted by an explosion of life. All around him flowed rivers and circling schools of many different animals. His ensuing feeding frenzy was magnificent. The memory tickled his salivary glands. Since that discovery, the behemoth often returned to the waters above to feast. However much prey he found below, he knew his appetite could only be truly quenched at the surface.
Rising higher, he felt lighter as the ocean’s squeeze on him lessened. Schools of tiny deep-sea fish fled before his ascent and hovered around his body like gnats in their blind panic. Whales sounded near and far. Warmer sea water washed over his tongue. The leviathan was entering the surface waters. A school of tuna traversed an invisible highway across the monster’s rise. Some of the travelers were distracted by the deep-water fish rising past them. It was a perfect food chain. The fleeing fish were easy prey to the large silver fish. The large silver fish were easy prey for the titan. He snapped a couple of tuna down as his heavily armored body rammed through their plane of travel. The beast was finally entering productive waters.
Above, the nearly full moon shone in columns of dancing light that rippled over shallow reefs. The colossal reptilian behemoth glided to a stop just below the surface. Even in the pale glow, he could recognize the surrounding bathymetry. Relatively little time had lapsed since his recent previous visit, so he easily recalled a familiar heading to a reliable feast. Another growl echoed through his nearly empty gut. Not much longer now.
Like the dorsal fin of a terrific shark, his projecting scutes smoothly rose out of the water. Their slow piercing sliced a white gash that ripped the ocean in the wake of his cruise. Seawater rushed alongside his rough hide as the beast raised his enormous head to the tranquil moonlit sky. He was grateful it was night. Compared to his den deep below, the surface water and air were quite warm. It was more pleasant to gradually warm instead of emerging directly into the blasting heat of daylight hours—although he was looking forward to basking in the sun eventually. At this point, a hearty nap after a feast was his routine. The colossus purged the salty water from his nares and inhaled the rich tropical air. It smelled odd. He halted his cruise before rolling upright to get a better vantage. The monster’s dark, mountainous, and scaled form rose out of the sea. Streams of ocean flowed in ephemeral waterfalls off the giant form. His eyes lightly burned from the warm, humid air—the humid air and something else: smoke. He shifted his head over into the lazy wind and surveyed the horizon. The leviathan blinked at the sight: islands silhouetted against the glowing sky were dotted with small lights along their shorelines. Drool began to ooze across his tongue and through his terrible teeth. He knew those lights were small fires, and they meant something special: there was a bounty of food on land too.
Whenever the monster encountered those fires, they usually were near noisy little creatures. Previously, the behemoth detested terrestrial hunting because it was wearisome on his bulky form in the thick jungle. But then these noisy little creatures started turning up everywhere. At first, they were only a couple of islands, but they quickly spread. He would have been upset by their annoying presence, but the beast quickly discovered something amazing. They collected tasty prey from the island and surrounding sea to store it in their easily accessible nests. This made hunting on land much more fun—especially since the little creatures were so harmless. They might occasionally try to poke him with a stick while he raided their inventory, but mostly they just ran around screeching their odd sounds. They also tasted terrible. But these creatures never ceased to be surprising. Sometimes he noticed the puny things would strap one of their own to some wood and push it off for the open sea. This behavior puzzled him so much that once he even followed it as it drifted out to sea. All the while, the little thing sounded like it made mournful cries. He had approached it for a closer look, but the fragile structure crumbled, and he lost track of the poor creature in the mess. It all was odd.
The beast blinked at the horizon again. He did not remember seeing so many lights. Were their nests even bigger? Had they hoarded even more food? The titan was driven by hunger and curiosity. His giant bulk lowered back into the water and resumed cruising towards the lights. He kept his face above the water and relished the richly floral fragrance sweeping off the islands. It was a luscious combination with the salty and smoky air. Another grumble rolled through his stomach. As the behemoth hungrily cut towards his destination, water swirled around his face in a white froth. It had been a still ocean on this quiet night. Now new waves rippled against nearby shores.
Usually, he would graze on the nearshore marine life and sometimes supplement with hunts on land. However, after the creatures started nesting on the islands, he noticed the fishing became scarcer. This drove him to forage on land sooner each time. But tonight would be different. Hopefully the nest was larger with more food. Besides, with such a big nest, there probably were fewer fish anyway.
Rumbles sounded louder than ever. His monstrous profile sailed into the bay. Entering the shallows, he dropped his feet beneath him and strode across the shallow floor. He felt the volume of sand increase under his claws. Eventually he leaned back into his bipedal balance on hulking legs. The leviathan trudged his hunched form onto the beach. Dark scales shadowed his features in the night despite the seawater sheen reflecting the strong firelight and the weak moonlight. He stopped and silently regarded the tiny creatures.
He was right—the nest was bigger. They were crowded in giant masses around the small fires. He felt a bit overwhelmed by their abundance. There were many more things than ever before! And they were so calm! It was so unnatural compared to how they usually behaved! Scanning the aggregation, he quickly noticed why. A few of them moved around in a graceful fashion not unlike the minuscule gelatinous creatures of the sea. The behemoth snarled at the additional oddity and looked back at the crowd. Indeed, there were many little creatures. They completely took up the space beyond the beach. Above them was an expansive sprawl of different structures. The colossus could smell many different meats coming from all around. He strolled towards a deliciously aromatic pile near an abandoned fire. Nudging it around with his snout, his exploration confirmed it to be some of the tasty food he was detecting. Sand and drool spread across the fire pit and smothered the flame as he chomped up the meat.
As he swallowed the soft chunk, the monster’s eyes wandered to the rest of the island. It looked almost unrecognizable. The forest was gone from the hillsides and replaced with odd angular presentations of novel vegetation with standing water. Little paths exposing the rock and dirt surface lined the contours of the landscape as they created an apparent network. He quickly realized there appeared to be multiple nests: one large nest nearby and multiple smaller ones along the periphery of the network. His head swiveled around and took in the scene. These creatures were not simply numerous; they were everywhere! Questions raced through his mind. Had they demolished the forest? Had they already ruined his favorite napping spot? How or why had they done this?! Were they going to destroy the entire island?! He felt like the entire place was infested by a pest. The beast puffed a resentful snort at the mass of tiny things lost in their distraction. The leviathan munched angrily on the remaining food pile.
#
An old man stood up from watching the festival dance to prepare more meat for another one of the night’s feasts. He carefully shuffled past a few of the outermost villagers still watching the women grace the central dance floor. After clearing the crowd, he looked out onto the dark beach only to realize his bonfire had gone out. Cursing, he returned to the nearby table for more matches. It would take a while to restart the blaze. His eyes quickly adjusted from the firelight as he hobbled on his stiff legs out into the night.
Rubbing his face, the villager looked up and realized he was walking towards a rocky reef. Puzzled by the feature, the poor little man spun around to get his bearings. He recognized the mountains behind him, the village, and the various other fires built for the festivities. Everything else was familiar to him. Now he was rattled by the idea that he had previously overlooked the reef. He was unsure how he missed it with its strange location and silhouette. Shiny black against the moonlit sky, the stack of ocean rock was created by giant coral. The man rubbed his eyes. He had not seen shapes like that except from some of the deepest fishing trawls. How did a mysterious reef of such odd design remain unnoticed till now? Nearing the feature, an icy mist vibrant with rotting fish wafted over him. He wished for a torch. Instead, a pathetic match only illuminated the caution in his own eyes before quickly burning out.
Just as he was about to return for a torch and braver friends, the villager saw something move. Actually, he saw the whole reef shudder. Then, out of the cold void, two floating orbs glowed chartreuse above him. A younger man might have neared for a closer examination, but his fear froze him to the spot. The villager was too old for such curiosities. He had seen too much life and death to happily investigate mysterious lights on strange rocks. The orbs vaguely reminded him of an animal’s eyes when they peer out of dark jungles by torchlight. But these glowing objects were hovering over the reef—almost 10 meters off the ground! A chill down his spine whispered for him to run.
The orbs blinked.
Fear fell into terror. He tore up the beach, screaming for help. Behind him mounted an avalanche of sounds with sand splashing his heels. Barely managing to peer over his own shoulder, the old villager briefly sighted the shadowed colossus rumbling quickly upon him. He desperately looked towards the too-distant fires of the festival and attempted another tear-stricken cry for help.
#
A young woman stepped in her colorful garb through the squeeze of the crowd to get a drink of water before her next dance. She dipped the cup in the trough of clear water and savored the refreshment. The ambience was oddly pacifying despite the festive energy. She relished the moment through closed eyes: heavy drums pounding through the sand, the faint breeze across her face, cool water washing her throat, quiet conversations from other villagers, faint screams from the performers… Her eyes popped open. The festival was between dances. She looked over towards the drummers. They were also looking for the distant drums. The screams neared. As if in a collective realization, many pairs drifted over towards where the feast bonfire was supposed to be tended. Instead of a fire, they saw one of their cooks waving his arms in a frantic sprint while back-dropped by an immense darkness quickly advancing to the powerful beat of a mysterious drum. The young dancer dropped her cup.
People broke into a frenzy and fled from the beach uphill. The woman was elbowed by a man hastily grabbing his baby. She fell to the sand and struggled against the trampling of people rushing over her in their frantic escape. The hut roof swung into a deep droop after a family crashed through a wall. The rest of the hut quickly followed and nearly pinned the dancer. She weakly rolled onto her knees and crawled in her tattered costume through rapidly thickening smoke toward a sliver of firelight beyond the rubble. Struggling against the burning thatch, she pushed her way out into the night.
As she recovered her breath, she realized something: it was too quiet. She heard the distant cries of her neighbors as they continued their retreat, but the pounding drums had stopped. Gingerly rising to her feet, the dancer looked around. A low rumble growled in the night. Whipping her head over towards the beach, she was blinded by the rampant fire spreading beyond the destroyed hut.
Then she felt it: the drum’s beat resumed at a slow tempo. She felt the earth shudder after each beat thundered louder—no, nearer. Whatever made that terrible sound was approaching. The woman’s heart raced as her feet froze to the spot. Sand danced at her feet. She felt a cold chill drain from her crown down her body.
The drumming stopped. Her breathing quickened. Terrifying anticipation wafted from the darkness. Finally, a gargantuan, toothy grin glided into the firelight and hovered over her.
#
The monster examined the solitary creature. It had not fled like its fellows, so he had the rare opportunity to closely examine the little thing. It was covered in bits of color and reflective pieces. The gentle turbulence from nearby fires seemed to make the materials sway. Its delicacy enchanted him. Another rumble in his gut reminded him of the outside world. The appetizer on the beach had been delightful, but he was ready for the entrée. After a final look, the leviathan mowed through a flimsy pile of wood that was smoking from a buried fire and continued towards the larger nest. A tiny shriek was covered by the hiss of steam and the crash of timber under his mighty step. He could smell fresh prey up the hill.
His thundering march echoed from the steep jungled mountains. Upon nearing the nest, he saw a flurry of activity. Most notably, he observed other small creatures noisily chasing a herd of prey away from him. He quickened his pace. The landscape trembled under his stomp, and the fleeing creatures responded appropriately. The beast liked it that way. Fear had a delightfully bitter tinge in its flavor. It would be a grand meal. A couple of the tiny noisy things squawked and waved sharp points at him as they ran behind the pack. He was irritated by their existence, so he swiped his jaws at their harried defense. He felt no compulsion to kill and he had no care if he killed them. The behemoth was simply annoyed, and hunger still chased him.
The furred animals rushed over a ridge as the titan quickly closed the gap. A steep embankment rose to meet the rush—trapping his prey. He grinned his drooling maw before his claws and teeth slashed at the helpless bovids. The bloodbath wailed a cacophony of screams in the shuffling earth. He was sharply interrupted by one of the animals biting his thigh with their fangs. He paused. These creatures did not have fangs. He examined his thigh and was further confused by the sight of a stick secured into his flesh. The remaining cornered cattle panicked in their tight herd of false safety. The leviathan looked back at them in surprise. They had not possessed the ability to poke with sticks before. He turned his scrutiny to the hills around. In the grey of premature dawn, he could barely make out many little shadows from the little creatures lining the hillsides. Had the noisy things come to fight him? They had never interfered with him before. At that moment a crack sounded, and a microscopic object struck just above his eye. His rageful bellow assaulted the mountainous jungle. Everyone else shuddered, and the herd froze. He could already feel his ocular flesh beginning to swell while blood partially smothered his eye. How dare they interrupt his feast! How dare they sting him—twice! Half-blind fury propelled the giant hulk’s charge through the terrified prey to the nearest hilltop. A chunky smear of bones and meat was left in the monster’s wake.
The barrage of arrows and crackling projectiles responded to his charge with a desperate ferocity. It was a busy haze of useless impacts that did nothing to thwart his godlike wrath. Many of the puny creatures screamed and abandoned their nerve into the adjacent forest that they hugged, clearing. His grand meal could wait. They would pay for their trickery. He saw a fat one had not yet given up the assault. It would be the first to atone for their evils.
#
Their trap had failed dramatically. The bravest men of the village had trained for years to finally extinguish the scourge of their sea. The giant monstrosity had been discovered generations ago. Ancient lore painted a colossus had burst forth from the Earth to murder and consume all in sight. Believed to be from a tormented world deep underground, the islanders would hear and feel its bellows in the Earth’s tremors until it emerged. After many different and failed attempts to ward off the threat, the wise elders finally found an antidote for this mighty affliction. They realized that to neutralize such a great evil required balancing it with great goodness. Originally, they held ceremonies to find the person among them with the most goodness in their heart. This tragic saint would then sail out to sea and confront the terrible creature. Though harsh, this strategy sufficiently appeased the villainy for a time, but it never fully eradicated the malevolent entity. Each time it returned, they would again send out another sacrifice with hopes that their representative held more goodness than the previous agent.
Unobserved by the descendants, this practice evolved into a tradition where the most beautiful young woman of the village would “voluntarily” drift out to sea and freely give of herself to satiate the giant evil. Though this ancient ritual was long regarded as successful and kept the monster at bay, contemporary thoughts doubted its true efficacy. Instead, a recent hypothesis promoted the unorthodox idea that this horrific threat was not a hellish deity seeking to defile all goodness and beauty, but instead just an animal that could be killed. With growing support for the latter, the islanders strategized a trap that would hopefully defeat the titanic terror. Eventually they finalized the perfect plan. First, they would lure the evil beast with a big festival where the island’s young women performed the ritual courtship dance in unison. As anyone knows, this would create a giant plume of goodness that could tempt any evil to come near. Secondly, they would use their cattle to further lure and trap the thing in a valley. And thirdly, the brave men would destroy it from higher ground. The plan had gone perfectly except for the last stage.
Now the hunters had become prey.
The men each split up into the dense foliage as the gigantic form rose up the ridge. Tearing through the thick leaves and tall grass, the nearby shouts and impacts quieted as they traveled deeper into the smothering jungle. A burly man scrambled into a creek and covered himself with leaves. Another, younger man desperately clambered up a tall tree. And another man, particularly muscled from years of experience hunting, tripped over the rugged forest floor with an ankle-breaking snap. His shriek pierced through the jungle, causing the other men nearby to turn. The muscled man tried to bury the pain under his muffled sweating. A successful retreat was impossible—he knew he was as good as dead. He could only clutch his ankle while rocking in place to redirect the pain. A moment later, the village glutton screamed his last breath as the monster cried a victory. Then they heard it crash into the foliage with a tremendous tread. It was somewhere nearby.
Though orange dawn was beginning to chase away the hazy blue sky, the jungle was still dark. The awful stomping neared. It was a pounding countdown to death. The burly man threw off his leaves and began a panicked dig into the safety of the riparian wall for more shelter. The younger man continued his desperate climb. The muscled man attempted to drag himself out of the projected path for the incoming murder. The ground quaked. It seemed like it had doubled or tripled in size. They felt the fragility of existence. Very few had survived to tell of this titan; consequently, horrendous legends abounded. For all they knew, this giant could indeed breathe fire or fly as tales described. The footsteps thundered closer. The burly man felt the dirt vibrate under his fingers with each beat. The younger man’s grip loosened from the shaking tree, and his skin burned against the wood as he lost a meter of elevation. The muscled man pleaded with his personal pantheon of protective powers. Just then, another distant cry for help was immediately crushed beneath a tonnage of hell-born scales.
Then it was silent.
The men braced themselves for anything. The burly man stopped digging his tunnel. The younger man held his breath. The muscular man cried silently. They imagined a low growl.
The younger man looked out over his shoulder. A bloodied eye parted the greenery and shook the man’s core. It was here! The giant terror examined the jungle with its half-swollen gaze, but it did not see the villager in the tree. The young man silently thanked the Worshipped for climbing a tree on the behemoth’s blinded side. The beastly horror slowly bent down and appeared to investigate the forest floor. The young man convinced himself that a soft spot in the thing’s skull lay just below him. Taking a breath, he built up his courage. It was prey in the trap again. He could be the hero of the day—nay, for all time! It would pay for the generations of terror. Clenching his butt, he silently reached down for his pistol. If the creature could remain still long enough, he could dispatch the menace and return the hero he knew he deserved to be. Sweaty palms and gravity had another plan. With a mild curse, the younger man watched his weapon plunge elsewhere to the jungle floor. Then freezing in renewed terror, the villager realized his mistake. Looking back towards the titan, he saw it regarding him with a vengeful eye.
It launched towards him. The younger man clawed at the trunk to get opposite and above the assailing fangs. It was a worthless attempt. The leviathan clamped down on the tree trunk, piercing the younger man’s arm through and securing him to the woody growth. Pulling away, the behemoth ripped the upper tree free and violently shook the mouthful. Pinned to the new log, the villager struggled to escape by kicking the giant gums and snarling muscle. The monster viciously clawed at the mass and dislodged the wood from its mouth. Splintered trees and shredded villagers rained down towards the burly man in the creek bed. The younger man shattered his remaining limbs as he careened into the stony and muddy basin. Struggling to get his head above the rushing water, the young villager looked feebly at the burly man before his body was plowed into the earth by the great toothy maw. The burly man desperately dug deeper into his tunnel.
The muscled villager saw the entire spectacle from his prone helplessness. The behemoth rose from its revenge and paused—seemingly examining the murder. It then cleared its nares and strode out of the creek up on the jungle floor. A portion of ground sank under its weight, and the muscled man thought he heard a muffled scream. It inspected the surrounding forest with its eye. The giant thing appeared to relax its back plates and rested its humongous tail on the ground before gingerly rubbing its eye. The villagers remained frozen. He looked to his belt to see his small knife still sheathed. To his right, he spied a rifle just out of reach. He knew he should try to attack the beast so he could fulfill his bravely made vow of slaying the monster, but he also knew he would never get to his feet in time. If he could just reach the rifle, then he could draw the creature over to him and blast it between the eyes. While many previous gunshots had appeared to only deflect off its scales, he doubted the thing’s armor could withstand a shot point-blank. Sweat flooded over his conflicted composure. He fooled himself that he was only trying to keep the element of surprise. Deep below his foundations of honor was a basement of “self-preservation.” Of course, this is not a rare trait amongst humans—especially in the face of a brutal death.
The colossal mass lumbered back towards the clearing. The muscled man still worked hard considering his plan of attack. The titan tiredly plodded past the prone villager, still pondering his attack. The man realized that the leviathan would escape before he could finish planning. He faked disappointment and chuckled to himself in relief.
Then he froze. It heard him.
#
The behemoth was surprised to find one of the puny creatures still alive. He walked right past this one without noticing it at all. These noisy little things indeed just turned up everywhere! He had even just seen one in a tree of all places! A while ago, he found one stuck in the plates on his back as he had been returning to his home underwater. At first, he thought it was a large squid. He was quickly disappointed to find that it was only one of the small creatures but shriveled and pale. They just turned up in the oddest places.
With tremendous effort, he changed direction and closed in to investigate. He no longer felt the need for vengeance. Justice had been delivered. Now he was just tired and in pain… but also curious. This tiny thing had emitted a unique sound he had not heard before. It almost sounded like a pitched rattle. Without consciously knowing it, the exhausted colossus knew it was a cocky little creature that made a cocky little sound. Although it did not look especially cocky at this moment. Surprisingly, it was another tiny one that did not scurry away. It shrieked and flung its minuscule appendages around all while lying on its back. It certainly made a racket compared to the previous little creature that had not fled. Leaning forward, his bulk completely shadowed the noisy small creature. Though his eye still burned from the attack, his vision began to return while he blinked away the blood and tears. It looked vaguely similar to the small creature from earlier, but, unlike the first tiny one, it looked less delicate and was not covered in color or reflective pieces. Also, it smelled awful. He wondered why it refused to stand up and run away. Instead, it just continued to lie down and wave its limbs weakly. He began to suspect it was injured. The pathetic creature also kept trying to grab a long shiny stick just out of its reach. The huge beast was fascinated by this curious sight.
His grumbling stomach redirected his interest back to his trampled prey in the field. It was time to finish his grand meal. Without any further regard, the giant turned from the now blood, tear, and saliva-soaked creature to head back towards the clearing. Emerging from the jungle, he was greeted by the growing glow of the sky’s pastels. It would not take long for the sun’s warmth to arrive, and he was eager for his morning snooze. He hoped his favorite napping spot was not destroyed. The beast gingerly stepped down the steep ridge. The meat was just where he left it—delightfully tenderized from the little skirmish. He sighed in relief.
As the monster lapped up the pieces of his prey and meaty juice off the grassland, he felt a small discomfort in his foot. A quick exam did not reveal any sharp objects piercing his muddied scales. After some cleaning, he spotted the source and removed a tiny but burly creature from under his foot. Indeed, they just turned up everywhere.
END