Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
Live Or Die
Chapter 8: The Spark That Lights The Fire
In the morning we met up with the others at their sleeping spot. Jude kept giving me a funky stare but other than that the only news was that we decided to sleep with the others, since I’m concious. That’s when Dasha decided to reveal that she was an architect- so, naturally, we decided to put base planning on her plate- oh, we also decided to put up our main base here. We had fresh water, cover, and were deep in a forest. So that’s how our massive wood collection began. Harvey had made us some more hatchets, and some saws out of rocks to cut down trees.
Fast forward a few weeks, and we had fences and a few key buildings- after laying in the wood supports, we used a kind of cementing paste and stones to make reinforced stone structures. We had a main building, near a rocky cliff edge with the foundations of wood layed out. Some walls were inconplete, and they looked a little like ruined buildings with half-crumbled walls, but we had two main rooms. the first was the central. It had a lovely wooden floor, stone walls and big arching pillars holding up the ceiling of neatly cut wood. In the centre was a large, circular table with a wood rim towards the outside, but to the donut-hole in the middle it was stone so that the warming fire in the centre didn’t light the table. There was a cleverly built stone chimney that caught any smoke and funnelled it out the side of the house. In the far left corner from the front door was a ladder that led to the upstairs, which was a cosy bedroom with that neatly cut wooden floor, a few wooden pillars to support the improvised roof of sticks and thatch but there were 5 beds (I say beds, they were bundles of hay, ferns and pine held together roughly by ropes) and a table with an oil lamp in the corner. There was one window that faced the front of the house and it overlooked the lake. Foundations were layed for a workshop for Harvey that would have an open-aired outside patio-like platform, a room for Ruby’s saddles and clothesmaking, a kitchen and a leisure room. Past a few foundations for other buildings and there was a fence running around a large area within the rocky walls that surrounded us, with access to the lake in the field with gaps in the fence so the water can flow. We planned on building a barn there, connected to that field for the raptors. A long, spiked fence ran along the top of the cliffs to force anything wanting to attack us down through the pathways to the hidden lake.
Overall, Dasha had done an amazing job. She planned on adding an armoury, Training ground, dino pen and so much more as we advanced on. It was amazing. She even made a load of… perches? I’m not really sure what to call them, but they were like dog beds for Bob. Speaking of which- ever since thaf fateful encounter with Raphiel, we hadn’t seen him. We just assumed he was dead. But no- that bird powered through and as we began cutting down trees, came trotting down the hill to fall over and start drooling on my feet. Oh Bob!
“Aww, Dasha, look!” I heard Ruby exclaim. “Bob’s using your little Bob-nests!!” I saw Dasha look over and smile at the tiny Bob. That night we all slept through a thunderstorm- it wasn’t the most pleasant experience, seeing as our makeshift roof wasn’t holding up too well.
“In the morning I suggest we make a new roof- one where we can properly sleep under.”
“Yes- that seems wise, Jude. Should we maybe move downstairs by the fire for tonight?”
“Harvey- I would like nothing more!” I replied. So, we all moved downstairs. We had to sleep on the wooden floor, but the fire kept us warm and dry. I slumped my back against the wood rim of the donut-table and watched the others. Jude and Ruby went round the other side, Dasha lay down opposite me and Harvey went to continue working on some chairs he was making.
When I woke in the morning, Harvey was lying across three chairs, Dasha was fuelling the fire and Ruby and Jude were sleeping side-by-side. When I got up Dasha took notice.
“Morning,” she said.
“Mmm… Morning.” I mumbled back. She went over to the door and mist from the lake swept back into the house, and a shadowy silhouette startled at the door. They were a short, teenage girl and she fell over as we opened the door, which her massive flying bird woke up too. Bob squarked loudly and her silhouette stood in the doorway. I grabbed my bow and Dasha grabbed her spear, but the person, who we could only see the shadow of through the thick mist, shyly said:
“Hi…”
-I accidentally sent a draft of this- it was only the first few lines- ignore it! Bob’s back! And the next chapter will be in Trike
-Nightfall