Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Pandora

• Chapter 11 •

There was an echoing sound of talonsteps. A small creature walked down the tunnel, her focused eyes glowing in the darkness. The pathway was tight, narrow.

She came into the room. Stepping carefully, she walked up to the wall. Moonlight spilled into the area from a tiny hole above her. The night was silent. Soundless.

A pen was lifted gently off the ground. The dragon’s mouth moved, slipping into a small smile. She giggled lightly, barely, and placed both her talons firmly on the wall. Her black and white eyes glittered as she looked up. Then she began to draw.

***

Bria sat stretched out on her ledge with her head resting on one wing. Her claw scratched quietly along paper as she wrote in her journal. She’d taken a rest from hunting today, though the others were probably wondering where she was.

A small puff of air escaped her mouth. ‘Bored.’

Her eyes flicked over to the open main room of the den, noticing Pandora still sleeping on her spot. She sighed again and went back to writing, her violet eyes half-lidded. There were a couple voices and sounds as a group of Wyverns climbed by outside, and she slowly tuned them out.

‘The Ice Wyverns festival was very full,’ she wrote down. She tapped her claw on the parchment, pausing to think for a moment. Then she added to it. ‘I’m still a horrible dancer.’

‘I’m pretty sure Toxin’s hatching day is soon. He won’t bring much attention to himself, but I’m positive half the kingdom already knows. If I do, surely. Gossip can really spread.’

She lifted her claws, shaking the ink off before flipping over and tossing the journal to her side. Then she dragged herself off the ledge, her claws and tail scraping against the floor.

She came out and looked up at the cloudless gray-blue sky. It was around midday now. She scrunched up her nose and yawned, unfolding and flexing her wings out as she did. She felt the bones in her spine and wings pop and crunch quietly.

As her mouth closed she caught a flash of wings not far away and double-checked herself, blinking as she realized who it was. A smile grew on her face.

She shook her wings out and lifted herself into the air, flying off to greet a friend.

~

Tat, tat, tat.

The dark colored Wyvern was standing outside the palace anxiously, the sunlight making his typical black and gray scales a lighter shade. His tail thumped up and down slowly in suppressed excitement. He shifted his back leg and stepped on it gently to pin it in place.

He made a face, his chorea causing his ruff to twitch slightly. He scratched at his spine with his claws. ‘Nah, she wouldn't be in here,’ he thought nervously.

He decided to check anyway and stepped forward, before hearing a voice from above that started him out of his scales.

“Boo,” Bria’s voice said happily, and he looked up in surprise to see her latched onto a rock beside the palace entrance.

“Oh, hey!” He said with a smile.

“Are you looking for me?” She asked with a tilt of her head.

“Maybe,” he replied with a nervous shrug.

She let out a small laugh and jumped down to him. “It’s nice seeing you again, Rain!” She stepped over to his side and glanced at him, her talonsteps light on the stone ground.

“You too,” he agreed excitedly. She walked past him, her head turning and her eyes watching him enthusiastically.

“Remember when we talked about the palace last time we met?” She asked him.

“Yeah,” Rainstone answered.

“You wanna see the inside?”

“For real?”

“Of course! Come on, I’ll show you everything!” She ran towards the entrance and he quickly followed along, hurrying to keep up with her.

She stepped into the palace quietly and he came in shortly after, lifting his head to gaze at the carved stone and wood hallway. It was a wide open space, with tall windows and banners hanging from different sections of the walls.

Bria looked over at him, grinning. “Follow me,” she said, continuing on.

They went up a spiraling set of stairs, which Bria scoffed at and flew the second half of the way. She went up into another room and Rainstone followed, his tail twitching. As he came out he saw an abstract structure built in the center of the room, a statue of some kind made of glass that was twisted and bent into an indecipherable shape.

“What is it supposed to be?” Rainstone asked as they went past it.

“Heck if I know,” Bria answered. “Isn’t it weird?”

“I think it looks really pretty,” Rainstone said.

They came out to a balcony that gave a view of the lake and over half the kingdom, spires of rock and green forest and the ravine in the distance. Rainstone came up and stopped at the edge, placing his wings on the railing and looking out at everything.

Bria turned back around and they ran past the statue once more, spending the next half an hour going throughout the palace and nearly every room. There was a big gala room with unlit lanterns and long windows with tapestries draped over them to block out the light. Tables and glass artwork took up several parts of the place.

“For palace festivals and nonsense like that,” Bria explained.

“Cool,” Rainstone said quietly. This was definitely his favorite part of the palace.

The next floor was a library with light flooding in through the windows. They spent some time exploring it and then finally went back downstairs.

“And that’s basically it,” Bria said as they reached the bottom floor and stepped back into the main hall.

“It’s almost just like I remember it,” Rainstone said, walking beside her. They walked out together and Bria spread her wings, lifting off with a whoosh. She slowed down and flapped in place, peering down at Rainstone with shining purple eyes.

“Wanna come with me to my place?” She asked him eagerly. “I’ve got food and stuff and we could just hang out.”

Rainstone blinked in surprise for a moment, before he smiled. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

~

The sun outside slowly moved closer and closer to the horizon. The blue Obelisk floated far off in between the Mountains, the yellow sunlight reflecting off its surface.

Bria was lying down with her tail wrapping around her, eating from a bowl of food that was perched between her wings on the ground. They were sitting inside her den, Rainstone on his side with his wings spread out lazily and his tail tapping against the ground, his eyes looking up at the sky through the opening above the den that let the light through.

He scratched his scales with his claws and rolled over before sitting up, looking up at Bria.

“Is that a journal?” He asked her, noticing the small book she’d brought along with the food sitting by her side.

“Uh, yeah,” she answered, glancing at it. “I write my deep dark secrets in it,” she joked with a malicious expression. He grinned.

“I’ll be sure to leave it alone then.”

“What’s going on?” A soft voice asked from behind him.

He turned around, biting back a yelp as he saw something with glowing black and white eyes standing at the entranceway. He knew instantly who this must be.

“Pandora, there you are!” Bria exclaimed.

The small Wyvern’s eyes glistened as she stared at Rainstone with an unreadable look. He tried his best to smile and not back away. “Hello, there,” he greeted her.

“Who is this?” She asked Bria quietly, not taking her eyes off of him. “Why is he here?”

“This is my friend, Rainstone,” Bria explained to her.

Pandora continued to stare at him, and Bria glanced around awkwardly.

“Rainstone,” Pandora repeated. “That’s a weird name.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Rainstone said, holding out one wing in greeting. His nerves shivered as Pandora looked down at his claws, before she lifted one of her talons to grab his and shake it slowly. She then let go and turned around, going over to the other room of the den without another word. She looked back at them once, her eyes flashing. Then she slipped away.

~

Pandora came into the second room, glancing around slowly. Her tail flicked and smacked into the lit candles on the shelf. They were knocked over and thunked onto the ground, their flames blown instantly.

She walked in a slow circle, before sitting down and staring at the floor. She heard Bria’s voice from the other room and listened silently.

“Sorry. She’s not usually like that–”

“It’s, uh, i-it’s fine.”

Her claw dragged lazily across the ground in a smooth stroking motion, her eyes staring into nothing.

She then turned her head around, looking out the doorway as the two began talking.

~

“I remember when my dad would let others come over all the time,” Bria said slowly, sitting down. She looked up at the skyhole and the glowing, fading pale daylight and the stars that had barely begun to appear. “My aunt, Sasha, especially.”

“What’s she like?” Rainstone asked.

“I don’t really remember, honestly. I haven't seen her since–” she paused, going quiet. Her smile disappeared slowly and Rainstone took a step towards her.

“Since your father?”

“She was there when it happened,” Bria explained. “Me and Pandora, were, too. It came out of nowhere.”

“I know I said this last time, but I’m sorry that happened to–”

“Yeah,” Bria said quickly, slightly interrupting him. “Thank you. It’s been several years since that, though. We’ve moved on.”

Rain nodded, starting to fidget again. “Y’know, that’s the first time I’ve seen your– AH!” He whipped around and Bria looked back, seeing Pandora standing outside the room like she’d been waiting there forever.

“Did I interrupt you?” Pandora asked.

“No, not real–” Rain began.

“Nevermind, then.” She pulled herself to her talons and walked past them, out towards the entrance that went outside. “Pandora, wait,” Bria said, quickly following after her. She came out into the open where the sun had finally set, leaving the sky to darken and the stars to become more bright and vivid. She kept her eyes on her sister and hurried over to her. Pandora stopped and stood at the edge, turning her head to look over at her.

“What are you doing?” Bria asked. “You seem–”

“I’m not being any different,” Pandora stated. “He does not belong here.”

“And why is that? He’s not a bad dragon,” Bria insisted. “He’s my friend.”

Pandora didn’t answer, her eyes staying locked where they were.

“Can you say something to me?” Bria asked with a hard tone.

“No,” Pandora said. She then turned and stalked away down the path, and Bria called after her. “Wait, where are you going?!”

She said nothing, the tips of her wings and tail slowly fading away into the moonrisen night. Bria watched her go, before baring her teeth slightly in frustration. She turned back round and squeezed into the cave, where Rain stumbled nervously in place and looked up with an anxious smile.

“Hi,” Bria said to him quietly.

“I should probably get going,” Rain said gently. “Right?”

“Yeah,” Bria said. “Just as long as we see each other again another time?”

“Definitely,” He agreed.

She poked herself out of the entrance as he left, calling goodbye before blinking and smiling to herself, her teeth showing in a good way this time. She went into the den and picked up her journal, settling down and opening it up.

‘Made a really good friend.’

Her tail flicked and she shuffled her wings, taking her claws and carefully moving to a different page. A small breeze flew through the opening and ruffled the pages, making a loose scrap fall out of the book. “Ah–” she said quickly, reaching for it but missing. It landed and slid easily across the ground, into the second part of the den. She got up and went after it, coming into the room and picking it up. It turned out to be a scribbled drawing of her and Pandora. And two other Wyverns were there as well. One was Father. ‘I drew this,’ she thought to herself.

Something tapped against her tail. She looked down and saw a small wooden pen on the ground, its tip worn out and broken. She extended her wing and picked it up, wondering when it had gotten there. The rug’s surface made a soft sliding sound as she moved forward, her tail slithering along.

‘Huh?’

Her head tilted to the side, her ruff flaring. There was a second pen on the ground, closer to the corner of the room. She went over and saw ink spilled from its end. She set the drawing down and took a couple more steps, before she was standing over the pen.

It was darker here, she realized. The candles that were once lit were no longer flickering. A long insect scuttled overhead on a ledge, antennae twitching as it looked down at her.

There were three more pens. She felt a draft of air hit her face, and she looked around and then back again, and her eyes widened.

There was a hole. A tunnel opening, at that. Bria whispered in confusion to herself, stepping towards it and setting her claws on the edges of the opening. A pitch black path stretched down from the opening. One she had never seen.

‘This was never here before,’ she thought, her pupils narrowed to tiny black slits. A lingering sense of fear clung to her heart. But she brushed the pens aside with her claws and took a little breath, before she climbed into the tunnel.

There was nothing in sight. She couldn't see a thing as she walked, just darkness ahead of her and the feeling of rock scraping the ends of her moving claws and wings. It was now that she wished she had even the slightest bit of night vision that Ice Wyverns had.

‘How far does it go?’ She wondered silently, wrinkling her snout and squinting her eyes. She didn’t notice the centipede she walked past, its legs too small to make a sound as it crawled over the dead body of another bug.

It was then that she began to see light. Her vision cleared, enough to see the narrow stone walls and ceiling above her.

And… a drawing on the wall.

Bria stopped and stared, looking at what was a black, messy silhouette of a flying creature. Its direction was pointed opposite of her, small wide eyes drawn on its head. Her eyes narrowed in confusion and she stepped away from it.

She turned her head and continued, moving slowly and steadily with her eyes moving cautiously around. Silver-blue light began to drape across the floor, and she took deep, calming breaths as she walked.

She stopped mid step and looked down in wariness, spotting a black line scraped across the stone under her claws. She glanced back up and saw more of them sketched across the tunnel ground, leading slowly up the pathway. She felt her heart begin to thump louder in her chest, her blood roaring. Cold air whistled over her scales and she stared at the ground ahead and the drawings all over it. She climbed slowly up and came out.

The light of the moon above reached her eyes as she entered the wide open cavern at the end of the tunnel. She looked up and focused, before her eyes widened and froze in shock.

Confusion and awe seeped into her as she gaped ahead, her mouth open. Drawings covered the walls, everything, everywhere, looping like a void on the ground and climbing up to the ceiling. Shapes of Wyverns and Pterosaurs and birds and insects were drawn all around, all fleeing and facing her. Lines scored under and around her like dripping blood.

And in the middle, right ahead of her, a giant shape of a screaming creature that looked like something from a nightmare.

(Story begins in Amargasaur, last chapter was in Baryonyx and it continues through all Breedables alphabetically!)

—Moon