First Feast of the Crocodile

[Inferno Rodan]

Suchodon wanders in the newly-opened Natural Zone. He’s one of the first monsters to be granted access, due to the higher-ups at the UCA determining that his predatory fighting style and history back on his Earth would translate especially well to the Natural Zone and make for good viewing. Just to encourage him, he hasn’t been fed for four days - twice the usual interval.

But despite all this, Suchodon hasn’t done anything but wander around for nearly an entire day. He’s hungry, very hungry, but everything here smells so unfamiliar. He’s seen several groups of large creatures off in the distance, but between the unfamiliarity of it all and not having Jason there to direct him, he hasn’t approached any of them. He continues to wander across the savanna, constantly testing the air with his forked tongue.

In the waning light of late evening, Suchodon is just about to settle down for the night when he finally picks up a familiar scent. He flicks his tongue out rapidly several more times just to make sure. He closes his eyes, savoring it. Yes! The smell makes his stomach ache with anticipation. He begins salivating profusely, his Komodo dragon DNA showing in full force. Even under normal circumstances this smell would make him excited, but with him being so hungry it sends him into overdrive. The crocodilian chimera trots off in the direction of the smell, tongue constantly flicking out to keep him on the trail.

After a couple minutes, he hears a noise and slows to a stop. Off in the distance, he spots what he’s been looking for: a herd of War-hogs rooting in the grass. He licks his chops, strings of drool falling from his jaws by this point. Glancing around, he weighs his options. Cover is light, with only a few scraggly trees in the area. But under cover of near-darkness, he manages to slowly and carefully close the distance to less than a kilometer. He stands, motionless, partially obscured by a tree, waiting for the right moment to make his move.

Finally, after a couple minutes of watching, he does so.

Suchodon charges forward. His footfalls are what initially alert the herd, making them look up from their rooting. But in the low light they don’t immediately see him. When one of them finally does spot him, it bolts, causing a panicked chain reaction of all the pigs doing the same. Suchodon singles out a mid-sized male, quickly catching up to it. He swings his head, slamming it into the War-hog’s hindquarters and knocking the pig to the ground. The boar rolls with it, quickly getting back to its feet and spinning around to face Suchodon. The chimera avoids its lunge, then counters with his tried and true technique for dispatching boars. He swings his clawed hand, striking it in the side of its head and knocking it over again. He immediately lunges, slamming his jaws shut on its neck.

The pig kicks and flails its legs, desperately trying to escape, but Suchodon has it. He shakes his head, sawing his teeth through flesh. Venom pours into the War-hog’s bloodstream, but even without it the pig is doomed. Major blood vessels in its neck are severed, and Suchodon’s immense jaw pressure completely prevents it from breathing. It’s dead in less than a minute.

Suchodon lets go of the pig’s neck and settles down to eat. He gorges on his first kill in ages, savoring every bite. Perhaps it’s just his hunger, or the fact that he killed it himself, or even a combination of both, but it tastes even better than usual. The heroic chimera sleeps well on a belly full of pork tonight, and there will even be enough left over for him to eat tomorrow too. He won’t need to hunt again for at least a couple days.

[Inferno Rodan]

(Sorry Giratina, but I intended for this to be a closed thread.)

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-Day 2-

The next morning Suchodon awakens to find his War-hog practically covered in Skymp. He quickly gets up and roars, sending the small creatures scattering into the sky. Walking over, he rips a chunk of meat off and swallows it. Truth be told, he’s really not hungry after eating so much last night, but there’s still plenty left on it and he’s in no mood to share since he doesn’t know when his next meal will be.

Picking the carcass up with his claws, he carries it over to the tree he slept under last night. He drops it by the base and lays down next to it, quickly falling back to sleep. The crocodile does little for the rest of the day, only waking up occasionally to take a few bites of the pig before rolling over and going to sleep again. The Skymp circle overhead all day, waiting for Suchodon to leave since none of them are bold enough to go down with him right next to the carcass. They are ultimately disappointed, though, and disperse when night falls once again.

-Day 3-

A few of the Skymp have returned and are circling overhead once again when Suchodon wakes up the following morning. He lets out a great yawn and gets up, then picks the last couple scraps of meat worth bothering with off of what’s left of the War-hog’s skeleton. With that, he starts to walk away to explore some more. Once he gets a few hundred meters away, the Skymp descend upon the remains of the War-hog. They’ll have the bones picked completely clean within half an hour.

After a few hours, Suchodon comes to a huge river. Leaning down, he flicks his tongue at the water. It’s fresh, and pure. He takes a couple gulps, then wades in and begins leisurely swimming downstream. Eventually he notices the surroundings start to change. There’s more trees, and they’re larger. Grass gives way to other varieties of low-lying vegetation. Even the ground itself is different. It’s lower, and wetter.

He likes it. Not that he disliked the savanna, per se, but something about this place feels more... comfortable.

Suchodon continues to cruise down the river for the next several hours. At one point, he spots another familiar face: a large male Ziller browsing on a shrub by the riverbank. The mutant iguana warily eyes the crocodile as he swims by, chewing its mouthful of leaves and branches. Suchodon pays little attention to it, though. Back home they weren’t considered a threat, and weren’t numerous enough to cause any problems, so they were left alone. Unlike the mutant boars, he never developed a taste for Zillers. He’s certainly not hungry right now, anyway.

As afternoon turns into evening, Suchodon begins looking for a place to bed down for the night. He eventually spots a clearing at the edge of the river and hauls out onto it, stretching out on the soft, muddy ground and going to sleep.

[Inferno Rodan]

-Day 4-

The next day, Suchodon continues going downstream. After a couple hours, he finds himself at the mouth of the river, looking out at the sea. The chimera is now left with a choice: continue out into the open water, or follow the beach. He opts for the latter, wading ashore and walking along the sandy beach. While still not very hungry, he knows that now is a good time to start looking, and his chances of finding something along the shore are greater than out in the vastness of the open water.

A while later, Suchodon is walking along in the shallows when he spots something strange in the water a short distance ahead. Walking up to it, he cocks his head quizzically. It’s olive green in color, cylindrical, with a red horn at one end and several small tentacles at the other. Suchodon stands there, blinking several times as he watches it slowly crawl forward on the sandy bottom, its tentacles probing the sand as it goes along. He leans down, poking his snout into the water, and gently nudges the strange creature.

BOOOOOOM-BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Suchodon leaps nearly 300 meters backwards in surprise, landing with a splash. Breathing deeply, his eyes are wide and pupils dilated. He stands there, staring for a few moments, recovering from the shock. When he finally regains cognitive and motor function, he turns and slowly walks toward shore, giving the Boom-Boo an extremely wide berth and keeping his eyes locked on the sea cucumber the entire time. Even once he reaches the beach, he doesn’t take his eyes off of the creature as he hurries past it and continues up the beach. He looks over his shoulder several times over the next few minutes, even though he’s miles away from the Boom-Boo by this point.

When the terrain starts to change from the marshlands back into the savanna, Suchodon decides to head back inland. After trekking through the transitional terrain for a while, he finds himself back in the savanna proper once again. It’s getting late now, so he continues walking for a bit longer before laying down under a tree for the night.

Tomorrow, he will hunt.

[Inferno Rodan]

-Day 5-

Suchodon is on the prowl. It’s been 48 hours since he’s eaten anything, and he’s hungry. He flicks his tongue out constantly, taking in every scent. Another War-hog would be nice, but he doesn’t smell any.

As he walks around a rather dense patch of trees and brush, he spots a huge herd of creatures less than two miles away on the other side. A few days ago, he wouldn’t have been confident enough to attempt anything with them and would have just kept walking. But something is different now. He stares intently at them, flicking his tongue out repeatedly, familiarizing himself with their scent.

Sticking close to the edge of the trees, Suchodon takes a few steps closer. His stance is unmistakably predatory: gaze intensely focused straight ahead, each step, each breath slow and calculated, almost mechanical in its precision. Then a virtual explosion as the tension of the stalk erupts into the fury of the chase.

The herd of Gigabeest and Uberbok scatters, fleeing at top speed in different directions to escape the predator barreling toward them. But Suchodon has his sights firmly locked on his target. Despite the female Gigabeest’s best efforts, Suchodon closes the distance. The chase lasts less than a minute, but in that time they travel nearly 10 miles. Suchodon tackles the antelope-like creature, burying his claws in its flanks as he does so. Carried by their momentum, the two of them tumble across the ground, sending up a large cloud of dust. The instant they come to rest, Suchodon thrusts his head forward and slams his jaws shut on the back of the Gigabeest’s neck. Her struggles almost immediately cease as her spine is crushed by his immense jaw pressure.

He remains like that for several seconds, claws still buried in the Gigabeest’s sides and jaws clamped on its limp neck while he breathes heavily. Once he’s sure it’s dead, he releases his grip on its neck, letting it flop to the ground as he stands up. He flicks his tongue at the body a couple more times, actually touching it with the forked tip, just to lock in the unique scent of this creature into his memory. Then, placing a foot on its shoulder to hold it in place, he opens up its soft belly and begins eating.

Unfortunately for Suchodon, making a kill in broad daylight like this tends to attract the attention of others. Of course the Skymp begin to gather overhead before very long, eager to clean up after it’s all said and done. Some distance away, however, another creature sees the circling Skymp and begins heading in their direction, knowing that the scavengers mean the possibility of food.

By now, Suchodon has nearly hollowed out the carcass, having started off consuming the internal organs first. Hearing something behind him, he lifts his blood-covered snout and looks over his shoulder, at which point he sees a relatively small, stout creature coming toward him, snarling the whole time. It’s too small to be any sort of threat, though, so he ignores it and sticks his head back into the Gigabeest’s body cavity.

The Mustelus, however, won’t let itself be ignored. It continues coming toward Suchodon, its assorted vocalizations getting progressively louder and more obnoxious. The chimera looks over his shoulder again, giving the creature a mildly annoyed glare before going back to eating again. The Mustelus comes up behind him and nips the end of his tail. Suchodon jerks his tail away and quickly spins around, roaring at the nuisance. The badger-like creature ruffles its fur and backs away slightly, but continues making its racket as the crocodilian chimera turns back around and buries his head in the Gigabeest’s body cavity again. A few seconds later, the Mustelus pounces on the Gigabeest’s ribcage, sandwiching Suchodon’s head between the two sets of ribs. The reptile immediately pulls his head out and roars at the Mustelus again before snatching it in his jaws and tossing it away.

Suchodon has had enough. This creature obviously won’t take the hint. He steps over the carcass as the Mustelus gets to its feet. The mammal bares its teeth and backs up as the reptile looms over it. Suchodon stomps on its head, pinning it down, then reaches down, jaws agape in preparation for ending the nuisance once and for all. He’s stopped cold, however, when his entire respiratory system is assaulted by the most horrific stench he’s ever experienced. The chimera stumbles back, gagging uncontrollably. Freed, the Mustelus picks its head up out of the dirt and shakes it, then immediately resumes snarling and hissing.

Retreating back to the Gigabeest carcass, Suchodon plants his foot on its ribcage then leans down and bites down on its spine just behind the ribs. There’s a loud CRUNCH as he crushes the vertebrae, and then with a couple tugs he rips through the remaining skin and tissue in the area, separating the rear part of the carcass from the front. Snatching the hindquarters up in his jaws, Suchodon hastily departs, leaving the rest of it behind for the obnoxious furball.

Once he’s far enough away that he can’t even see the Mustelus, Suchodon settles back down to eat again. It doesn’t take long for him to strip the meat from the bones. He’s full afterwards, but without the rest of the carcass he’ll have to hunt again in a couple days. Most of the rest of the day is spent alternately napping and lazily gnawing on the Gigabeest pelvis.

[Inferno Rodan]

-Day 6-

Suchodon lazes around for much of the day, conserving energy. Around mid-afternoon, he’s disturbed by a sound off in the distance. Lifting his head from the ground and craning his neck to look, he sees a group of creatures quite far away. There looks to be about a dozen of them, and he can tell even from this distance that they’re huge. He snorts and lays his head back down.

A few minutes later, he hears more sounds, this time closer. Looking again, he sees the creatures are much closer than before, only about a mile and a half away. They don’t appear to have noticed him, or perhaps they have and simply don’t care, so he lays his head down again.

Shortly afterward, the herd is practically on top of Suchodon, with the closest member a mere 500 meters away. They’ve taken notice of his presence by now, with all of them looking in his direction, sniffing the air and listening with perked ears. Their snorting alerts Suchodon, and a few members of the herd flinch slightly when he lifts his head to look. A particularly large individual comes forward, boldly approaching the reptile. Now 250 meters away, it takes a few deep sniffs. It snorts and lowers its head, stomping and pawing at the ground with one of its front feet. Then it charges.

Suchodon just manages to roll out of the way and to his feet, the Cerotitan trampling through where he was laying a moment later. He roars at the huge creature as it skids to a stop and turns around. The Cerotitan is apparently unimpressed and immediately charges again. Suchodon readies himself to dodge and counterattack, but then notices a black mass gathering out of the corner of his eye. The rest of the herd has rallied together and is coming toward him as well.

Knowing full well he has no chance against such numbers, Suchodon avoids the large bull’s charge and takes the opening to retreat. The herd chases him for a short distance, but he quickly outpaces them and they give up, having quite firmly gotten their point across anyway.

Once he feels he’s far enough away, Suchodon slows to a stop and looks over his shoulder, then snorts in annoyance and starts walking again. Since he’s already been disturbed, Suchodon decides he might as well keep going.

By nightfall, he’s still in the savanna. Having found nothing in the way of food, he lays down and goes to sleep.

[Inferno Rodan]

-Day 7-

It’s Suchodon’s final day in the Natural Zone, though he doesn’t know it. He’s definitely getting hungry now, and on the lookout for anything to eat as he walks across the savanna. After a few hours, he notices the terrain starting to change again. He recognizes it as the transition into marshland. This time however, he’s entering the smaller area around the intersection of the two rivers.

Once he’s well within the marsh area, he comes across a fairly large lake a few miles across. As he lowers his head to take a drink, a splash a couple hundred meters away catches his attention. Slowly wading out to investigate, he spots movement in the thick vegetation covering the bottom. He freezes for a moment.

Keeping his gaze locked on the spot where he last saw movement, Suchodon walks toward it, going so slowly that he barely even causes ripples. Once he’s practically on top of it, he lashes out with his clawed hand. He can’t see what’s in the weeds, but he’s sure something is there. His assertion proves correct, as he connects with something solid and sends it flying out of the water and landing with a splash a short distance away.

Walking over, he finds the nearly-eviscerated body of an Amfishbian floating on the surface. Grabbing it in his powerful jaws, he crushes it and swallows it whole. Tasty!

Suchodon catches three more Amfishbians over the next few hours before laying down on the shore to rest, satisfied. Not a large meal by any means, but enough to keep his hunger sated until tomorrow anyway. With the sun beginning to set, he prepares to go to sleep for the night. As he does so, though, he’s engulfed in the bright light of a teleporter beam which sends him back to his quarters in the Hub. His time in the Natural Zone has come to an end for now.