Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Riddles of the Phoenixes Series

Chapter twenty two: The plan

It wasn’t hard to follow Rowan’s path. It was like a T-Rex had come through, in anger she’d trampled a lot of plants. That and he could hear her growling to herself and throwing stones angrily. And the sun was starting to come up.

Cedric watched quietly trying to work up the nerve to approach her. “SHUT UP!!!!!” Rowan roared suddenly , startling Cedric. “Shut up, shut up! Stop talking to me! You’re not even real!”

“The other can’t see you!!! How can you say that you’re real?!” Rowan hissed. A pause as if she was listening to something. Rowan scoffed. “Im special? Yeah right, like I believe that. Im not alone of those stupid Phoenixes.”

“Oh I don’t have to be one? Are you making this up?!” Rowan continued hurling rocks at a specific point in the river, glaring angrily. “No im not stopping! If you’re not real then stoned won’t hurt you!” Cedric furrowed his brow with confusion.

What was she talking about. Rowan let out a grunt of frustration and dropped the rocks, burying her face in her hands. “Just leave me alone. I just want to leave these losers. And get rid of you.” Rowan said, her voice slightly muffled.

“With you? You’re a fox. A regular fox with six extra tales and not even real. I’d be better off alone. What? No. I can’t leave. I can’t. I don’t..I can’t this anymore..” Rowan trailed off, her shoulders shaking slightly.

Cedric inhaled, ran his hands nervously through his hair and walked up quietly to her. “Rowan?” He whispered softly. Her head shots up quickly, eyes narrowed. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot, which Cedric hadn’t been able to see in the dark cave.

Slightly wet spots stained her face. She hurriedly wiped them away, glaring at him.

She didn’t bother standing up from the rock she was sitting on though. “Go away!” She snarled.

Cedric smiled softly. “Calm down bro. Sheesh it’s not like I’m going to try to kill you.” He said. Rowan’s eyes darkened and darted slightly to the side then back toward him. “Mind if I sit by you?” Cedric asked, walking up. Rowan didn’t answer, didn’t move. He sat down on a rock near her.

“Listen…I wanted to talk to you.”Cedric said, through slightly gritted teeth. Rowan rolled her eyes. “What?!” Cedric inhaled, trying to figure out a way to apologize.

“I’m sorry…for..umm hurting your…feelings? Cedric said slowly. Rowan stared at him for a few long minutes then let out a harsh cold laugh. “That..was the worst apology I’ve ever heard!” She scoffed. Cedric chuckled nervously, wincing at her laugh. It was a cold grating laugh, not unlike the sound of a fork scratching across a plate.

“So…does that mean that you forgive me?”

Rowan gave him a cold look. “No. And I’m not going to. You know…I’d be better off without you losers. I don’t even need y’all! If y’all want to die go ahead! The world would probably be better off without you foolish royals!”

Cedric held up his hands. “Hey. I’m sorry if we “offended” you in some way. But we do need to stick together and then once we get out of this place then you can go home for all I care. We have to work together for this cause.” Cedric said.

Rowan’s eyes flickered to the side and back to him, nodding slowly at something that Cedric felt like wasn’t him. “Fine. But we’re following MY plan.” She growled. “As long as no one gets killed for a bad cause.” Cedric said.

Rowan’s eyes twitched with annoyance but she nodded. There was something different about her but Cedric couldn’t place it. They stood up and then Cedric realized it. Her hair was down. It was live a glossy wave that fell just below her knees.

Cedric blinked. But that couldn’t be what was different. It was something else. But he didn’t know for sure…

~

As they walked toward the cave, Rowan began pinning her back up ignoring all of Cedric’s attempts to talk with her. “You know we could just leave them right?” Sunny said, limping along beside Rowan. Rowan rolled her eyes. “ I can’t.” She muttered under her breath so that Cedric couldn’t hear her.

Sunny sighed and change the subject. “So…why don’t you cut your hair? You look like a walking doormat with it down.”

“Shut up.” Cedric’s head shot up. “What did I do?!” He exclaimed. “Not you! I was talking to…ugh never mind.” Rowan said. “You know…you should really cut your hair. You look kind of like a walking doormat with it down.” Cedric said. “Shut up.” Rowan said.

Sunny hid a smile. Finally they got to the cave. Everyone was waiting for them inside of it. William looked at them with raised eyebrows, the look on his face indecipherable. Oliver motioned them over. “I’m surprised you got HER to come back.” Liv squeaked. Oliver gave her a stern look and she went quiet.

Rowan felt a twinge of annoyance as Sunny gave her a smug “You should have just left” look. “OK. So we’ve come to the agreement that we’ll follow whatever Rowan’s plan. As long as we work together and no one dies for bad reasons.” Cedric explained.

Rowan’s jaw locked in anger. “May I make one TINY suggestion that will probably help our mission?” Oliver asked timidly. Rowan nodded. Olive was smart, she’d admit. Of all of them he was probably the most useful but still weak.

Their team was composed of a old man, a eight year old, the crazy lunatic, the weak brainiac, the pretty prim princess and the mute useless guy and Rowan. And the Fox but she didn’t count because no one could see her except Rowan.

“I say we cut out these…implants.” Oliver said simply. “And we should cut off Elayne and Cedric’s medallions. They’re basically just trinkets for y’all anyways. And even if these implants DO do something then we can’t risk being teleported to some prison to be captured or something. Or tracked.” Rowan paled. “What?” She asked. “What to afraid to do it?” Cedric asked teasingly.

Rowan glared at him and swallowed, taking a breath inwardly. “Fine. Let’s do it.” She said through gritted teeth. Oliver grinned, happy that his idea had been accepted. “Anyone have a knife?” He asked. William raised his hand slightly and handed over a slime pocketknife.

“Why do you have a knife?” Cedric asked curiously. William grimaced. “To protect myself, duh.” He said. “With a pocketknife?”

“Shut up.” William growled. “Respect your elders.” Cedric hid a laugh. “Ok who wants to go first? I’ll do me, Liv, Kannon and William’s and Rowan..” Oliver trailed off, looking at her. Rowan frowned. “I’ll do mine myself.” She said softly.

Kannon raised his hand slowly. “I’ll go first.” He signed, walking up to Oliver. Oliver inhaled and wiped sweat from his forehead. He gently dig the blade into the corner of the implant and tilted it upward. Kannon winced slightly then his face went blank again as Oliver pulled the implant out. “See? Easy as pie.” Oliver boasted. “Now who’s next?”

One by one he took the rest of their implants out except Rowan’s. Cedric and Elayne pulled their medallions off and solemnly( Or at least Elayne was solemn) dropped them into the river.

Rowan took the knife and went off alone to take it off, telling her others to leave her alone while she did it. She went back to the river and sat down on the rock. Sunny sat down in front of her, tails swishing with anticipation. “You don’t have to do this, you know. We could just leave them Rowan.” Sunny said.

Rowan shook her head and pulled the black cloth from around her wrist. “No. I have to do this. I can’t leave, you know that.” She whispered. And then with a deep breath she brought the knife down into her wrist.

~

Rowan blinked away the tears of pain and set the bloody knife down. A diamond shaped(implant shaped) hole covered her wrist now. “That should be okay. I’ll just tell them that I cut it to deep. And it bled. Which it is bleeding.” Rowan mumured under breath, trying to wrap the black cloth around her wrist again unsuccessfully.

Sunny eyed a bright red flower sticking out of the grass nearby. “That looks…pretty.” She whispered. “Hey. Little help over here? It’s kind of hard to bandage something when I’m only using one hand.” Rowan growled.

Sunny hopped into action and took the black cloth in her teeth. Using her paws and sharp little teeth, Sunny firmly secured the bandage around the hole in Rowan’s wrist. “There. That should do the trick.” Sunny said, patting it.

Rowan smiled weakly and swished the knife through the water, cleaning the blade off. Sunny sat there staring at Rowan’s wrist, her blue eyes filled with a strange light. “Well? What is it?” Rowan snapped. Sunny blinked. “Oh oops. Must have started day dreaming!” She squeaked, then casually leaned forward and licked a bit of wet blood off Rowan’s arm.

“Eww!” Rowan pushed Sunny off her. “Don’t ever do that again!” Rowan said. Sunny smiled smugly. “Sorry.” She said slowly. Rowan turned and started walking toward the cave.

She stopped. She couldn’t hear Sunny following her. “Sunny? You coming?” Rowan asked, turning around. Sunny looked up from the dead lone flower that she was looking at, a strange smile playing on her face. “Of course!”

-SunnyFox57