Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Extinction

-by Seasnake

Prologue

(note: this is a bit of an au, straying away from the ARK extinction storyline)

White-tipped waves lapped the shore softly. A man looked out at the vast, never-ending ocean. The tough, icy breeze almost swept him off his feet. It was insufferably cold; he had no idea how anyone could possibly survive in this weather. Then again, other tribes thought about his homeland that way. Fair enough.

He clutched a net, containing five large eggs; Managarmr, spinosaur, glowtail, crystal wyvern, and deinonychus. It had been a pain to tame two managarmrs and breed them, he admitted. Hopefully they would pay what they promised: thousands of ingots, giga eggs, wyvern eggs, and of course, a griffin. Now that may not seem like a fair trade, but those are normal, wild-caught ones. The eggs that he has are mutated, powerful, and captive-bred. He even threw in a few extraordinary colors. As long as he got that male griffin.

The man reached into his quetzal's pouch, retrieving another bag to put the ingots in. He attached it to the side of the quetzal, so he could haul it in and let the quetzal do the rest.

He heard equus approaching from the trees, at first distant but gaining in volume. Three large equus burst from the bushes, skidding to a halt. The riders were huge, muscular people. Two of them were men, but the lead was a female. They all wore thick fur pelts. The woman gracefully dismounted her equus and strode over, the men following. They all were carrying a bag, dropping it at the man's feet. Soon they handed him the eggs, and the man gave them his own. The trio took the net without speaking and left as fast as they came.

The man and his quetzal, now alone, left as well. The quetzal launched into the air, now slightly encumbered, and flew south, relieved to get out of this place.