It ran. Never stopping even once as fear kept the hatchling moving. Always moving. Something was wrong with its kin when it had hatched. It came out wrong, sickened, and twisted. It did not respond to its own pleading cries as it had torn through the unhatched eggs of its clutch. It had broken them. Dashed their insides out across the ground and stomped on them.

For a small amount of time it had thought it was safe with its own brothers as they fled their birthplace and the frenzied madness of their kin. They had found a hunting ground far enough away they believed themselves to be safe. There had been a delicious smell that had drawn it closer to the nest of the two legged creatures outside. One larger and one smaller that must have been its offspring. There had been a four legged creature slinking away through the brush but it had made quick work of that simple beast.

The larger two leg fought back somehow, with explosions of sound that leapt from its arms to drive spikes of pain into it and its brothers. But they had almost had them. The entire nest of two legs surrounded as its pack closed in on their first kill.

Then their mad kin had followed. Stronger. Faster. Coming for them.

For it!

The battle was fierce but their mad kin was strong. Too strong. Too fierce. Too driven by madness. The sickening stench of their dead brothers stained its teeth and flesh. Had it had eaten its own to grow stronger? Its own kind?! Even as it and its brothers fought against the maddened kin it hoped that it was not true. It couldn’t be true. It was wrong to eat kin. Wrong! So wrong! But it had gorged on them like its brothers were prey!

Then as the heat of the fire grew around the two legs nest it had stumbled back from its kin, falling to the ground as it held a claw over its eye. There on the ground, through the red dripping out of the wound that had just spared its eye, it had stared into its mad kin’s eyes. Those terrible… terrible eyes. They burned. Burned to see him dead. To see his heart blood spilled out until it ran no more. To sup on his flesh and lap at the wet red of his insides until his final dying breath. Until the white of his bones were crushed to dust and scattered to the wind.

It had run when the flames ran high. Run and run and run and run. Without his pack. Alone. His kin would follow him, he knew now. Would always follow him. Would never stop following him! It wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop wouldn’t stop!

It would not STOP!

It ate only when absolutely necessary, slept only when it fell into the dirt from exhaustion again and again as the hours crawled on and night turned to day and back to night. It knew fear as it quaked in the dark under the canopies of green that spread out endlessly before it. Fear and nothing else. But as time passed. As it starved and weakened and thirsted. It learned something new. Something that gave it strength. Something that drove it forwards.

It learned to hate.

Waking again from another shortened rest a pang of hunger tore through it as it shivered. Wet after the light rain had peppered it with water. It moved ever forwards. It needed to grow stronger. Strong enough to kill its maddened kin. It would make it pay. Make it pay for all its dead brothers. Make it bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed and bleed.

The first true shelter the hatchling stumbled into was a cave, it was dark and cold, but still better than shivering in the rain. It could smell the tang of dung and animal fur in the air, drawing the Kaiju towards the rear of the cave. Where a shifting mass of black fur growled menacingly at the monster’s approach.

The black bear rose up on its haunches as its four cubs mewled and cowered behind their mother. Despite being alone, and so far from the aid of its pack the Kaiju didn’t back down. It took a step forward, the eye with three gashes that had scarred over it taking the bear in with a manic hunger. Even though it stood eye to eye with the standing bear, even as its instincts told it this would not be an easy fight. The hatred drove it forward. It had seen how strong its maddened brother had grown. Remembered how terrible its strength was.

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It would match that strength- No!

Crush. It.

Mouth salivating at the food before it, dripping from its maw onto the cave floor the Kaiju lunged at the bear the instant it was distracted by a cry from its cubs. Sinking its fangs deep into the bear’s thick neck as the Kaiju wrenched its head from side to side. The bear roared in pain and challenge as it raked its claws over the Kaiju’s scales. Tearing through its natural armor and into the meat of its hide.

The fight was as savage as it was quick. Both beasts holding nothing back as they desperately sought to end the other. Roars of fury and pain mixing together as they echoed out of the cave. The bright red of fresh blood spattered across the cave floor as their claws rose and fell. But much more from one beast than the other.

The bear staggered back, its maimed leg failing to take its weight as exposed arteries spelled its end with every pump of its heart. Staining its black fur crimson as it futilely tried for one last swipe at the beast that had killed it.

The Kaiju dodged the blow and as the bear fell to the ground it dove for the back of its exposed neck. Feeling the bones of its spine bend under the pressure of its jaws until an audible snap echoed through the cave. Heralding the end of the mother bear and the first true feast the hatchling had won for itself. A final spasm wracked the bear’s broken body as it died, muscles twitching violently as they acted on the broken signals being sent to them. In the span of seconds their strength dwindled to a barely perceptible shiver as the Kaiju’s jaws closed. Tearing a chunk of flesh and bone from the bear’s neck that stilled it forever.

The monster tore into the corpse almost immediately, not sparing any time to even confirm its kill and safety. It tore strip after fleshy strip from the bear. Groaning in delight at the taste of warm muscle and fat on its tongue. It dipped its claws down into the meat of the bear’s belly, grasping organs and connective tissue that spilled out of its claws to litter the ground around it as it lifted the prize to its mouth. Barely even taking enough care to chew its food enough to not choke on it. As it gorged on the beast, a change ran through its body. Its muscles rippling under its scales as a gene locked ability in its DNA reached the necessary threshold. But the Musculoskeletal upgrade didn’t stop there, with the constant marathon of its flight from its mad kin the Slow Twitch muscle fibers all throughout its body strengthened. Increasing its inherent stamina and endurance beyond what other hatchlings would normally have access to.

When the changes stopped the hatchling looked up and stared, its head almost level with the ceiling of the cave. Any amount of surprise it felt at its increased size was quickly forgotten as the Kaiju refocused on the mewling sounds of the bear cubs at the back of the cave. Calling out for a mother who could no longer hear them. There wasn’t an ounce of sympathy in the Kaiju’s heart as it strode forward. The increased weight of its step crushing the exposed bones of the bear it had slain. Even with the fresh wounds on its body from the bear’s raking claws and fangs it knew these prey animals before it were no threat.

The still warm wetness of the cub mother’s heart blood dripped from the monster’s fanged maw. Dripping in a trail of red across the den the cubs had called home all their lives as the Kaiju moved towards them. Until it loomed above them, flicking a reptilian tongue over its fangs at the meals before it. It felt no need to rush what would come next.

In the forest outside the cave where every smaller beast had fled, had there been any nearby. They would have heard the sounds of four bear cubs crying out into the night. Then three… Two… One...

Then no more.

As the dawn began to peek over the hills some hours later, the Kaiju had finished lapping at the last remains of its feast. With its green scales stained red with drying blood it raised a claw over the eye its mad kin had marked. Tracing the claw scar that stubbornly refused to heal. It remembered its hatred. It remembered its purpose.

Kill you… The Kaiju’s primitive mind thought. Bringing the claw down across its yellow eye as it brought to mind its kin’s sickening stench. The terrifying strength its body held. Hunt you… Find you… Kill you!

For a moment the Hatchling was lost in its thoughts as it savored the idea of hunting its brother. Finding it wherever it was. Killing it with its own strength. Its yellow eyes burning with an intensity it had never felt before.

Kill you! The Kaiju roared. As if it could carry its declaration to the brother it despised.

Kill you! Kill you! KILL YOU!