Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Journey Through All Creatures
Chapter 13: Sodden Conflicted
Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Iguanodon, next chapter in Mammoth.
This is a continuation of Chapter 12. It will be a long chapter too.
Okay, enjoy!
Sodden’s pteranodon quickly approached the back of the base. When the pteranodon landed at the back door, Sodden ran to the front, but no one was there. He ran inside and saw the tribe sitting around,, eating some meat. “Guys. You need to hide. Now.” Sodden said. “Why?” Red said. “Because… I… I saw… I saw… saw…” Sodden said, hesitating to say the reason why they needed to hide. “Dude, just say.” Red said. “A friend of mine told me about a tribe that was hunting you. And I saw their flag while I was flying back. They’re heading towards the base!” Sodden yelled. Everyone gasped loudly. “Nameless!? That idiot tribe! I wish they could just leave us alone!” Red said. “They’re coming!?” Denine screamed. “Yes, but they won’t do anything if they know you’re not here. So you need to hide. I will handle this.” Sodden said. He turned around, but Denine grabbed his arm. “Where!?” She yelled. “In the barn, within the raptors. The raptor pen will cover everything. You need to go. They could be almost here.” Sodden said. Denine was speechless. She was breathing hard, whimpering. “No one will get hurt as long as you do what I say. Now go hide!” Sodden yelled. Everyone nodded then ran out of the back gate and towards the barn. Sodden looked out a window and saw the group running into the barn. And just in time, because he looked up to see the flag again! Then someone hopped off the lead Giga and banged on the gates. Sodden groaned then walked to the gates. He opened the doors. “Hello, sir. Is it okay if we inspect your base? We’re doing an inspection to confiscate any kind of overpowered or dangerous property.” The person said. “Uh… yes. Just stay out of the barn. There’s a lot of strong creatures in there and it reeks too.” Sodden said. “We wouldn’t invade your tames’ privacy. Let us in, please.” The person said. “Yes.” Sodden said. He ran to his base and opened the doors so that Nameless’ tribemaster could enter. The tribemaster walked in and looked through the first floor of the base, through the kitchen, the forge room, the storage room, but when he got back to Sodden 10 minutes later, he said, “I can’t seem to find what we’re looking for. We need to check upstairs.” The tribemaster said. Sodden nodded. As the tribemaster walked up the stairs, Sodden snuck out the back door towards the barn to check on it. But when he entered, he saw someone in it. “Tribemaster Cordor, this guy who lives here has horrible tames. He’s stupid. Oh… hi.” The person said to his implant as he turned around to see Sodden. He turned off voice recorder and walked to Sodden. “Raptors are terrible at PvP.” The person said. “What do you mean? They have a pack bonus. They can destroy the bosses in a few minutes.” Sodden said. “Okay, your Carchas… what are their stats?” The person said. “The breeding pair I’m currently using is 190% melee and around 19000 health. They have quite a few health mutations.” Sodden said. “Dang. You are… WHAT!?” The person sneered, then looked up to catch someone in the roof’s opening. “Who is… wait.” The person said. He used his implant to look at the structures and saw that they were owned by the Tribe of Nudon. “NUDON! Cordor, get down here and send in the Gigas!! You are dead. So dead. So hecking dead!” The person screamed. Sodden tried to run, but the person threw a bola at him. Then the Carchas went to attack him, but he took out a shotgun and blasted a Carcha in the mouth, and then blood spilled on the ground. The person climbed the walls, kept shooting the Carchas who were standing above Sodden, and tried to get in the hole in the wall. Then Cordor, the tribemaster, stormed into the barn. The Nudon group tried to sneak out while the Carchas were fighting, but Cordor threw a bola at Denine. It missed, but knocked her bag off her back. Cordor grabbed it and threw it to the ceiling. The person on the ceiling caught it and took out the god shotgun. “It’s ours! This idiot really believes he can free the people of the Assassin Heart. He’s young, he’s dumb, and he’s terrible! We’ll let him watch us kill his friends, then we’ll kill him.” The person said. Then they heard roaring, and suddenly, the barn shook and exploded. The Gigas knocked it down. They closed in on Nudon and another group went for the Rexes. Sodden was very upset and confused. He had no idea what was going on. But he had to do something. He secretly poured out a pile of 40 cryopods. He hit them all and all of them opened and Carchas came out. The person handed Cordor the shotgun as the Gigas had the tribe’s survivors on their knees, their hands behind their heads. Cordor aimed the shotgun first at Red’s implant. His finger rested on the trigger, about to pull, then the Carchas and raptors came and knocked him down. Denine quickly grabbed the shotgun, but the other Nameless tribemate grabbed her and threw her across the floor, and the shotgun fell out of her arms. Then Sodden threw a bola at both the Nameless dudes, but the Gigas started attacking the Carchas. Sodden released all his cryopods at once to stop the Gigas, and he quickly led Nudon into the forest.
After 20 minutes of running from Gigas, the group stopped for a break. The Gigas had decimated the Carchas, and Reaper was Sodden’s only raptor left. Sodden sat on a rock, near a campfire he placed, and everyone else surrounding it. “So you’re a fraud.” Red said. “Well… I just don’t understand this.” Sodden said. “If you don’t understand, you could’ve gotten help. Or just… don’t do it!” Red said. He held Denine in his arms, shaking and bleeding out her shoulder. “Well… I feel like my purpose is to help people.” Sodden said. “Well, you are horrible at that! You are not worthy for such a mission. You know, I should actually decommission this mission. Okay, ready. I hereby pronounce JTAC terminated! Reason: because Sodden is a fraud and an idiot!” Red said. Sodden stood up just then. “Guys… I didn’t…” Sodden said. “You should’ve cared more for your friends than your stupid mission! Go kill your creatures. I don’t care! I get it. You think it’s not that hard. You have to pass a lot of dangerous tribes and a lot of bad enemies to get the heart. Terad is a bad guy. He’s using you! This is a mission for experienced and long time survivors like us! You spawned in two months ago, made almost no progress towards beating this Ark, and your little “play” ALMOST GOT US KILLED!!! Our Rexes are gone, my poor tribemaster is traumatized, and it’s all your fault!” Red yelled. Everyone murmured in agreement, then stood up and walked in the other direction. Sodden couldn’t say anything. He let out a long sigh then put his head down.
As the sun began to set, Sodden slowly walked to his base. His walls were broken, his barn was destroyed, there was blood everywhere from all the dead Carchas and raptors, and his main base was slightly damaged. He felt like a terrible person after that. He slowly walked into his base, walked to his fridge, ate some carrots and meat, drank some water from a water jar, put everything back, then walked to his bedroom. He took out his artifact and threw it on the ground. “I don’t want that.” Sodden growled. He collapsed on his bed and fell asleep in minutes.
A few hours later, Serenity was riding her Giga towards Sodden’s base to check on him. While she was going through the trees, knocking them down and matting down the grass, she saw Red and the entire group of Nudon walking. “Oh, hey guys. What happened?” Serenity said. “Your stupid ally is a fraud.” Red said. “What do you mean?” Serenity said. “He let Nameless approach us and we almost died permanently because Cordor got his hands on Denine’s god shotgun. Sodden is terrible.” Red said. “What? What… you mean he found out and didn’t think to go to his friends if he thought Nameless was coming? That’s not him.” Serenity said. She tapped her Giga and it ran through the trees, and stomping got quieter and quieter. “Okay.” Red said. The group kept walking.
After an hour, Serenity showed up at Sodden’s base and her jaw dropped. “Oh, god. They weren’t joking about what happened here.” She said. She got off her Giga and knocked on the door. No response. “He’s probably asleep.” Serenity said. She knocked harder. Still no response. Serenity then took out a riot shield, backed up, then ran at the door and it burst open, breaking into pieces. The sound jolted Sodden’s ears and he got up. He walked to the front and saw Serenity standing there. Sodden sighed.
Later, the two sat on the sandy shores, before the crashing waves. Sodden explained what happened and what was really happening with him. Sodden said that he didn’t know what the mission really was or what he had to do, he just did it and wanted to continue his desire for killing all creatures. When Sodden stopped talking, the place was silent. After a good 15 seconds of silence, Serenity sighed and said, “Well. I’m not mad, just disappointed. You could’ve said that a lot sooner.” “Well, I didn’t think to do that, since… I thought I could handle it. I didn’t even understand what it was. I did it because I wanted to free people trapped in the chains of the Assassin Heart.” Sodden said. “It’s not easy for anyone to handle it. And you don’t have to go that far to help people. But maybe show some respect for your friends. Dundo told you about Nudon’s enemy, and you could’ve come back to base to see if Nameless was coming. You’d have way more time to think of a plan. But you stalled off, thinking you could handle it at the last second, and your base is wrecked, Nudon left, and now…” Serenity said. She said nothing else. Then, after a long pause, Serenity said, “The Assassin Heart is hidden in Extinction’s depths. Many tribes, like the C Tribe, are evil and try to stop people from getting to it. One of the only ways someone can manage to get through the C Tribe and ascend all the way through Aberration and all the other Arks is to trick them. Get Terad’s trust, and sneak out without him noticing. You can do what you like, but maybe try to balance what you want to do and what you need to do properly. Maybe, less tames will die and less tribes will be in grave danger.” Serenity said. “Wow. I know how dangerous these tribes are now. But…” Sodden said. “Your Carchas weren’t very good, anyway. But you still have a chance. Terad is the only one who doesn’t know your true mission. Make sure he stays on our side until it’s necessary to escape him. And you can’t do it alone.” Serenity said. “Well… everyone thinks I’m a fraud now.” Sodden said. “We can make up to Nudon after what happened. Why don’t we visit them in the morning?” Serenity said. “Okay.” Sodden said. He smiled. “Thanks.” He says. “Yeah. I’m here for you. Remember, it’s not the time to break Terad’s trust, so I gotta stay with him. But if it really needs to happen, I’ll leave him.” Serenity said. Sodden nodded then looked out to the ocean. “I still got three creatures and two of them are underwater, so…” Sodden said. He then embraced Serenity and said, “We’ve got each other.” Serenity smiled and said, “Well, I’m not much of a hugger, but thanks.” Then Sodden let go and threw a cryopod out into the ocean. A Mosa came out, and Sodden put on scuba gear and hopped on. “See you tomorrow, buddy.” Sodden said. Serenity nodded and said, “You too,” then she ran to her Giga and hopped on. The Giga ran into the jungle and Sodden dived into the ocean. In ten minutes, three messages popped up. “Sodden (Level 58)’s Mosasaur (Level 239 Mosasaur) killed a Leedsicthys (Level 1) killed a Liopleurdon (Level 20!) killed a Lystrosaurus (Level 35!)
Tune in soon for Sodden and Nudon’s reunion! Hopefully they get back together…
-RelatingHen8906