Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Guns n’ Rexes

Chapter 8: The Crimson Demon

I don’t have a clue how parents pull it off. The bugger hatched, and at first he was beautiful- a feathered raptor black as the night sky with red feathertips, and he crawled into my arms like he was my own son. Then he began whinin’, kept eatin’ and was hungry every 12 seconds. I got no sleep. We did that for a few days, just raisin’ the raptors as they learned how to hunt and all the other raptor stuff. Then came the day when me and Chris decided to try and ride ‘em.

First, we needed saddles. After searchin’ about we found a traveller who had built a whole house on the back of one of those elephant-horse-giraffe lookin’ dinos, and he hand made 2 fine saddles for us. We paid him and off we went to test ‘em out. We saddled up and hopped on their backs- to my surprise they weren’t too unhappy about it. We started to walk, trot and when we finally sprinted- it was like a rush I’d never felt before. The wind in your face, the way we effortlessly zipped past Winchester and Jesse, how we jumped like we were flyin’. It was magical. Then we went out huntin’ with ‘em, and they chose one of the big diplodocus or whatever they’re called. They lept up and dug their talons into its side, rippin’ its flesh off and eatin’ it alive. Once they were done, I hopped on my one’s back and tried that again. We latched onto that diplo, it started eatin’ and I whipped out my revolver, flipped that rapid-fire switch and emptied the mag into the beast we were attackin’. I loved it.

In the evenin’, I went into one of the villages we found and bought some paints and dyes. That night, I took apart my gun, his saddle and dyed everythin’ black with red accents- my gun, my clothes, his saddle, oh and I customised his saddle a bit. Added a holster, some pouches, a sizeable flask and some extra ammo. I named my new companion Reaper. He seemed to like it. By mornin’, we set off to do what we did best- rob the unsuspectin’. Only, we could go after much bigger targets now.

Heist after heist, robbery after robbery, we got richer and richer until we couldn’t carry any more loot and were too heavy to chase after anyone else. We rode into a settlement to cash in on our profits, and we ended up spendin’ a load in the bar. Chris had disappeared, but we didn’t mind too much. I did notice a lot o’ people whisperin’ and pointin’ at us. When I pulled someone up on it, they sounded terrified.

“Y-you… You’re th-the C-Crimson Demon!”

“What?” I asked, completely dumbstruck.

“Y-you rob and plunder a-and kill p-people. Th-they call you th-the Crimson Demon.” The Crimson Demon. Huh. I like it.

-Next in Dinopithecus, last was in Diplocaulus!

-Nightfall