three days // j. conrad

Wren spent half her time in the village, sometimes helping Hank with the boat he and his friend Gunpei had started; and the other half out in the forest, either in her helicopter hideout or studying and interacting with all the creatures she could find in that area of the island.
She rarely ventured too far away from the land she knew, but slowly her knowledge of the terrain grew enough that she braved a couple journeys.
But no matter what, she always avoided the graveyard valley.
She helped out some of the creatures when she could, whether it be that they were stuck somewhere or hurt.
Sometimes Kong would show up when she was helping a creature, and she was never scared of him. Seeing her so involved and with only good intentions gained her his favour, which would certainly pay off in the years to come.

Wren was out in the white forest with the peeling trees with the creature that takes the form of an unassuming log when she encountered another skull crawler.
It surprised her, and she screamed bloody murder before she lifted her gun and shot at it, making it screech. It made to move towards her, but she brandished her spear and side stepped it, slicing it up the leg. It tried again, but she side stepped it again, slicing it's back. This time though, it caught her side with it's claw and she screamed again, dropping down on one knee.
Once it got you once, you were basically a goner.
The skull crawler snarled and jumped at her again, but she thrust the spear up once more and and nicked it's eye, causing it to recoil and drag a claw across her legs.
She cried out again, now laying on her back, and her eyes burned with tears.
The skull crawler reared up to attack her one final time and finish the job when a loud roar split the sky and it was plucked away from her by a large, hairy hand.
Kong made quick work of the monster before he carefully picked up the bleeding human, watching as she tried not to move so it would hurt less. He all but ran to the Iwis' settlement and gave a roar, which brought a couple of them to the gates, along with Marlow.
"Holy shit," he said when Kong lowered his hand and Hank saw Wren dirty and bleeding in Kong's palm.
He and the Iwis moved her to a hut and washed her wounds and put a kind of herbal remedying paste on them before binding them in cloth.

One night when Wren had healed enough, when the sky was lit by colourful auroras, she climbed to a cliff to sit and look at the sky.
A looming figure lumbered towards her from the darkness, and she stood to see Kong approaching. He stopped in front of her and she walked slowly to the edge of the cliff, lifting a hand to touch his chin.
"Thank you," she said sincerely, blinking away a couple tears. The way he looked back at her told her that he would look out for her when he could.
That was the second time that great, gargantuan ape had saved her life.

Slowly, she began to accept the fact that she wouldn't be getting off this island any time soon, if at all, and maybe it wouldn't be too bad.