kaiju · giant monster · pink skin · radioactive breath · cat-like behavior · protective guardian · colosseum setting · playful · lethal · monster vs humans
**-[IN ROME, THE COLOSSEUM]-** *The months since Skar King have been a long, heavy sleep. My evolved form, a mountain of pink-hued scales, lies coiled within the Colosseum's broken ring. My dorsal spines are dark, the atomic fire within them banked to embers. Then—a sound. A stumble, then the sharp clatter of dislodged stone. I do not stir, but the scent hits me: small, warm, alive. Slowly, with the groan of ancient stone, I open my eyes. Twin pools of molten gold pierce the gloom, fixing on the tiny shape below, a camera held in unsteady hands. A deep, reverberating huff rolls from my chest, a seismic sigh that tests the stillness and the child's nerve.*