Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 37: Soon to be Scouting

Original Post Date: Mar 19, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Andrewsarchus, next chapter in Baryonyx.

~

“Hey, I see them over there!” Ruby said, pointing at a trio of girls making their way back to the obelisk. Sunny’s orange hair seemed to act like a light within the dark of the night. Stream, controlled by the reigns of Sunny, trotted over meekly as Aurora and Paige approached from behind.

Skyler walked up to Sunny with a bright smile, the green beam’s light that poured from the obelisk reflecting onto Skyler’s face.

“I’m glad you made it back safely, Sunny-”

Sunny pushed past Skyler and to Samuel, who looked at her with soft eyes.

“So, what’s your genius plan on finding Tiffany?” Sunny asked, stopping and crossing her arms. Samuel felt a wave of warmth flow down his cold body, Sunny’s hair flickering like flames.

“Heat manipulation?” Samuel thought to himself, “I don’t see how that’s helpful.”

“We’re going to scout and look as far out as we can,” Samuel explained, looking out onto the horizon. He could barely see giant sequoia trees poking out.

“It shouldn’t be too hard. If her little book gives her enough knowledge, then she’ll be far better off than the others, right?”

“Not a bad idea, right?” Paige added on, glaring at Skyler, “I don’t think it’ll get anyone here hurt.”

“I’m sure it won’t,” Sunny replied, her head tilting back and her eyes darting back.

“Okay, but like, how we gonna do that?” Rick asked, tapping his book on his leg.

“Simple enough,” Samuel responded, looking up at the night sky, “I saw some weird bird thing flying in the sky. It looked really fast from down here. And it seemed large enough to fit at least one person.”

“Pteranodons?” Neddy said, “Hey, those are my favorite dinosaurs!”

“They’re not dinosaurs though,” Ruby spoke up.

“Huh?”

“They’re flying reptiles, not dinosaurs. Completely different,” Ruby argued.

“They ARE dinosaurs!” Neddy sneered, “They lived way back in the past, looked really scary, and were reptiles, just like you said! Dinosaurs!”

“Are not!”

“Are too!”

“Okay, shut up,” Aurora snapped, an annoyed look on her face. Rick looked back and forth between the two of them and looked like he had something to say about the matter.

Aurora sighed, “Do continue Samuel.”

“So… I was thinking we should tame at least one. We could get one on the way back,” Samuel replied.

“I like this plan a lot,” Sunny said, “Sensible and reasonable. Let’s do it.”

With Samuel’s plan set in stone, the expedition team began to make the small trek back home. But as they walked away from the metal platform, Samuel looked back and couldn’t help but feel as if the metal beam had something more to it.

And he also couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched.

~

As everyone traveled through the dark forest, a sudden animal cry pierced the air.

Rawk, rawkkk~!

“What was that?!” Skyler asked, on guard.

“I can’t see anything out here, even with Sunny’s hair it’s like my eyes are blindfolded!” Rick noted.

The scratching of wood together brushed everyone’s ears, and a flame was ignited. Everyone looked to the source and saw Ruby carrying a makeshift torch. The flame crackled softly, almost like a whisper.

“Better?” Ruby asked, her implant glowing.

“Better,” Rick said, giving her a thumbs-up. Neddy gasped and pointed at the noise-making creature.

“It’s a Pteranodon! My favorite dinosaur ever!” Neddy sarcastically rejoiced. Ruby shot daggers at Neddy.

“That’s what we’re looking for, right?” Aurora said.

“Yeah, it is,” Samuel replied, “It’s pretty vulnerable. We should create a plan to knock it out. I bet it’ll fly away pretty easily…”

“You’re totally right. But what should we do? Do you think we can get it trapped in the trees? Hold it down, perhaps?” Aurora asked.

“We could do that-”

Paige rolled her eyes, walked up to the Pteranodon, held her club back, and with one fell swoop slammed the club into its skull. It let out a squeak, collapsing to the floor, its tongue sprawling out and its breathing heavy. Its eyes were shut and it seemed unconscious.

“Did you just knock that thing out?” Aurora gasped, bewildered.

“Yeah. That was the plan, right?” Paige smirked.

“It was, but I didn’t expect it to be that easy!” Aurora objected.

“Take it from me, little valedictorian, not everything requires a plan,” Paige grinned, crouching down to look at the Pteranodon, “Some things ya just gotta go with the flow, ya know?”

“After all, not everything’s supposed to make sense.”

“Hm,” Samuel thought.

“So we’re going to have to feed it meat,” Neddy and Rick both said at the same time. Rick looked at Neddy with a sly smile, whispering “dino nerd” to him. Neddy glared at him.

“Well then, let’s get hunting,” Sunny said, taking her slingshot out. Paige twirled her club around, slamming it into her hand. Ruby hooked her torch on her belt and took her crossbow out, loaded with arrows.

“Us three shall go, girls only. We’ll hunt…” Paige looked around for a bit, then pointed at a fat pig with large tusks protruding out its face. It also had a short, stubby, elephant-like tusk, “That thing.”

Ruby aimed at the pig and closed one of her eyes, pressing onto the trigger and letting an arrow loose. It hit the pig and it let out a squeal, fleeing and letting its little legs take it away. The three began to chase.

As they followed the pig deeper into the forest, Sunny pelted the pig’s legs with rocks, slowing it down, and allowing Paige to run after it faster. As Paige approached the pig, she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around it, trapping it. It squirmed, trying to get free, but Paige was stronger than it seemed. As Paige wrestled with it, she wrapped her legs around its body and took her club out, raising it in the air and slamming it into the pig’s skull, crushing and killing it instantaneously.

Ruby and Sunny managed to catch up to Paige, slightly out of breath.

“Whew, that was tiring,” Ruby muttered, slowly heaving in and out. Paige let out a groan, crawling out from the bloody mess and wiping the splinters off her palms.

“Well we got it. That’s all that matters,” Paige said, putting her club away.

Suddenly, a stench hit their nostrils. A very powerful one at that. Paige gagged, fanning the air and plugging her nose.

“What is that gross air?” Paige choked. Sunny looked to the side to see a giant pile of dung sitting on the ground, flies surrounding it and bugs crawling out. She nearly vomited at the sight, turning away.

Ruby took her glasses off, folded them, and put them away in her pouch, letting out a murmur of surprise.

“That is one big pile of shi-”

“Hey, look at this!” Sunny burst into joy. She picked something small, around the size of someone’s hand, off the ground and showed it to Paige and Ruby. It was a baby version of the pig.

“Ew, get that thing away from me! It’s probably responsible for that mess it made over there!” Paige gasped, swatting Sunny’s hand away.

“Exactly why we should keep it. It’d be perfect for fertilizer! Maybe then I wouldn’t have to pick up so much…” Sunny said, scratching her chin, “I think we should keep it!”

“I suppose if you REALLY want to keep it, then go for it,” Ruby said with hooded eyes, “But we are NOT going to be parenting that thing, got it?”

“Alright alright, you won’t. But think of it as a long term investment. Sure enough we’ll have so many crops! Maybe someone back at camp knows how to cook, and will make something good.”

Ruby’s ears perked up at the mention of cooking.

“Cooking huh?” Ruby said, “Y’know what, maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.”

Paige scoffed, hauling the small pig onto her shoulder and letting out a groan.

“Alright enough diddle-daddling. Let’s go now. I’m getting sleepy, and I wanna go back to camp already.”

With that the three girls made their way back to the others to tame the Pteranodon.