Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Clans

Chapter 4

Talon steps. Faraway voices. Hollow blinked awake. He was lying on his side in an empty den, his head throbbing and his wounds hot with pain. He lifted his head, wondering how he’d gotten here. His vision was blurred, and he vigorously rubbed his good eye with his palm. Yep, alone. He struggled helplessly to his feet, slowly heading to the opening that led outside.

“Oh wow, you’re awake!” Said a voice as he stepped out into the sun, which very helpfully blinded him some more. There was a rush of scales and a dark ginger/maroon raptor came over to him.

“Hello, Thunder,” Hollow said vacantly. Thunder was one of the few raptors he’d grown up with, since they shared close hatchings. He was a bit taller than Hollow and very good at fighting, but was personally uninteresting.

“Glad you’re alright,” Thunder was saying. “I was half afraid the hit had been a bit too hard.”

“Wait, what?” Hollow blinked the haze away and managed to turn to Thunder. “Are— It was you who did that?”

“Well, if I hadn’t, Dusk definitely would have,” Thunder said defensively, lifting his talons. “And you would be in much worse condition if it were him.”

“Yeah, thanks so much, I feel much better now,” Hollow hissed to him.

“Um, I don’t think you do, by the looks of it,” Thunder said.

Hollow scoffed, fluffing out his feathers and turning to look at the scratches on his shoulder. It was a little past morning, and fortunately he didn't appear to be bleeding anymore. At the sound of voices he turned his head and Thunders eyes widened, his back talon thumping rapidly against the ground for a moment.

Tail and Finch, the two others from there litter (Though not related), were coming towards them. “Hi, Thunder!” Tail said, coming over and pushing at him lightheartedly. He let out a small “Oof” sound and deftly pinned her to the ground in one quick shove. “Good morning, Tail,” he said as he held her down. “And F-finch. A good morning, right? Very good morning of today.”

Finch nodded, smiling slightly. Thunder let Tail back up and stared at Finch in awe, and Hollow glanced at her as well.

Finch was oddly beautiful, Thunder was smart enough to see that, at least. Her scales were a deep cocoa brown with raw salmon colored flecks, and she had one white talon and yellow eyes. Hollow looked quickly away, shuffling one leg on the ground.

“You having fun licking your wounds, Hollow log?” Tail asked. Finch rolled her eyes and sat down as a growl escaped Hollow’s throat.

“Don’t call me Hollow log!” He barked.

“Hey, hollow log like the log you got your head stuck in when we were hatchlings?” Thunder asked Hollow vacantly. Hollow hissed at him.

“That’s why you got your name, right?” Thunder continued.

Hollow didn't bother replying to him. “I’m gonna go hunt or something,” He sighed in a disgruntled tone, stepping past them.

Finch nudged him with her tail kindly. “Just ignore it,” she said.

“I ignore everyone,” Hollow replied, though his bitter gaze softened as brushed past her. He looked back at Finch for a moment, before sprinting out of camp.

~

“What a stick in the mud,” Tail said as Hollow left. “I can’t believe we shared a den with him for moons.”

“Well, Thunder was there to stop us from ripping him to shreds.” Finch said, smiling at the burgundy colored Raptor . He blinked his orange eyes shyly, letting out a lame chuckle. Two hatchlings ran past them, one wielding a stick in her mouth and scraping the end of it along the ground slowly. The other called directions as they went and drew an undecipherable shape around the three older Raptors.

Dusk had gone out hunting alone early this morning. Finch had asked if she could go with him, but he had declined and said he wanted to be alone. She looked down at her talons sadly. It was just her and her father sometimes, out of the sixteen other raptors here. She had never met her mother, who had gone missing along with Dusk’s good friend Bur when Finch was just a few days old.

Dusk never talked about them.

She stood back up, looking out at the trees towering overhead and the bright sunlight shining down. It was warm, probably one of the last warm days they’d see before all the leaves fell and the days got colder.

“Hey, Sand!” Tail called. “You wanna come out of camp with us?”

“Not really,” Sand called back honestly, his voice hoarse from his tussle yesterday.

“I’m gonna stay here, too.” Thunder said. “I promised Rift I’d help her watch her hatchlings.”

Tail shrugged and wheeled around, gesturing for Finch to follow. They padded past the dens, spotting a small puddle on a ledge that had collected the rain from last night. They each took a small drink and climbed out of the clearing.

“Maybe we’ll scent those Raptors again,” Tail said as they walked.

“I’ll race you to the drop-off and we’ll see!” Finch said, quickly running forwards and into the trees. Tail leapt after her.

They ran through the forest and to the ending borderline of trees, where the ground fell abruptly downward into a valley. Otherwise known as the drop-off. They sniffed the air and Tail peered down the valley, stretching her body and neck as far as it could go as she looked down.

Birds chirped and squabbled quietly from the trees overhead, only to be startled out of the branches as Tail slipped and yelled aloud, her voice echoing loudly through the forest. She tipped forwards, nearly falling face-first into the pit as she lost her balance. Finch was quick to grab her friend's tail in her jaws and yank her back.

Tail stood slowly and they stared at the edge. Finch didn’t know for sure, but she guessed that it would be hard climbing back out if one were to fall down there. “You’re welcome,” she said. She made her voice oddly accented as she continued. “We must be careful, dear friend, no one wants a flattened Raptor at the bottom of the rocks~”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tail said, shaking herself vigorously and unruffling her feathers. Finch shook her own feathers and sat down, looking out at the valley and deeper part of the forest where no one ventured. A beam of sunlight escaped through the canopy and filtered down.

Finch found herself thinking of her father as she inhaled the strange scents on the breeze that came from the valley. She curled her tail around her body and wondered if maybe Bur and her mother were somewhere out there, far away in the forest.