Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Ultimus Chapter Twenty-Four: How to Tame Your Beast

Erica, Jonathan, Sylas, and Andrew began to walk eastward through the city of Sanctuary, Erica found Sylas and Jonathan in the outdoor kitchen area making tea for everyone else. She tried to get them out of the tent as quickly as possible, but Sylas somehow spilled Andrew’s tea all over himself and had to change. Andrew looked very awkward in that scenario. It was such a weird moment too, it just felt completely off. But now he was acting really weird. He was in the far back of the group when he would probably been somewhere between Jonathan and Andrew, talking to someone. But for some reason, he wasn’t. His breathing was very heavy and heaving, and his lips and eyelids seemed to droop yet he seemed wide awake. Andrew noticed it too, Jonathan was too busy looking at the pterosaurs flying above the city to notice. It was starting to worry her to see him in this state. But they had to move, they weren’t in a safe place. She and Paul saw those defense units and those other machines and drones that warned the other machines there earlier and she thought they were most likely nearby still.

Erica chuckled as they were getting out of this area. She thought the city would be significantly safer than the protoarks or the wasteland with the defenses of Sanctuary. But with them dealing with crazy defective machines, crocodiles and kapros, spiders, and even rexes. It made her think twice about how safe the city was. But she had her rifle with her, and she couldn’t help but notice that Andrew had brought his bow with him. This had her concerned too, but she had to remember that she would give him a chance. Even if he’s carrying a deadly weapon on his belt. She couldn’t help but notice his armor too. It wasn’t a standard issue Tek of the URE or Terran she knew. It was an older, military-grade Terran Tek. Having thicker armor and more practical parts to it like a belt loop and external pockets. So it had to have been used as those were harder to come by, explaining the marked spots from gunfire. And why he didn’t wear a helmet, they were designed with retinal scanners for one-person ownership. So he wouldn’t be able to access the suit’s full powers. She worked on one during her last few semesters while working on her PhD in engineering. But for this type of environment to live in, he was wearing some of the best stuff.

They continued moving onward out of the dangerous area and each time she looked back. The worse Sylas was beginning to look. Erica was getting really worried now, he was already looking like he was having a bad time, now he needed to stop before he fell over dead.

“Andrew, you go on ahead for right now. I think we’re gonna stay back and rest for a moment. I believe we’re in a safe enough region now that it’s alright for you to go off ahead of us now. If you see any horses or some sort of creatures that look fast. Come over and tell us.” Erica said, Andrew looked back at her and understood why she was stopping, looking over at Sylas who was hunched over.

“You sure you don’t want me to stay with you?” Andrew asked,

“Or me to go along with him, because I would much prefer to go gather more information on thes-” “I would like you to stay here Jonathan, just to keep me and Sylas company. But you should go, Andrew, no reason for us to hold you back from finding any animals.” Erica said, Andrew nodded softly. Almost disappointed, it almost made her feel bad for saying that he should go.

“Okay, I’ll come back if I find anything.” Andrew said, he walked off ahead of them and went around a building skyscraper to another block of the city. Erica turned around and looked at Sylas.

“Now what's wrong with you now Sylas? Why is your face drooping and heaving? Did you eat narcoberries?” Erica asked, Sylas scoffed in surprise.

“Noe, I only phap onccce.” Sylas slurred

“THEN WHAT DID YOU DO!!” Erica said, Sylas eye that was open widened.

“I bibn’p bo amyphing. Ponaphan bib ip. He bruggeb Ambrew’s pea wiph bemon.” Sylas slurred again, Erica turned to Jonathan who was pretending not to listen in to this as he was sketching and writing some notes down on the pterosaurs above.

“Jonathan.”

“You know it never occurred to me that there would be more descendants of pterosaurs besides Dimopho-”

“JONATHAN!! WHAT DID YOU DO?” Erica interjected loudly. Jonathan groaned as stared at Erica.

“I didn’t put any Titanoboa venom in Andrew’s tea. I was merely irritable with the fact that I had to explain myself again to this newcomer. And that for me entire introduction he couldn’t understand.” Jonathan said irritably,

“THEN WHAT’S WRONG WITH SYLAS!?” Erica shouted in a panic.

“Oh that, yeah I poisoned his tea with Titanoboa venom.” Jonathan answered. Erica's eyes widened.

“Why in the name of sanity did YOU DO THIS TO HIM!!!! HE LOOKS LIKE HE’S KNOCKING ON DEATH’S DOOR!!” Erica shouted,

“Relax Erica, it wasn’t a lethal dosage. If I wanted to kill him, I could’ve used a crossbow or a knife to the throat. He was just pestering me when making the tea that I couldn’t take any more of it. So I put a pinch of boa venom in his tea if he was so afraid of me putting something in someone’s tea. It might as well be his. Plus it was great fun hearing him suffer back there.” Jonathan said smiling slyly, but this was short-lived. He then gasped in shock as Erica slapped him over the side of the head. She then grabbed the shirt he wore and pulled him in the direction so that he stared into her furious eyes

“When we get back and we will, I will make sure you will do every dirty and filthy job back at the base until I find it fit for you to be done with them.” Erica said seething, Jonathan scooted as she held him there.

“It was only a harmless prank.” Jonathan said, Erica glared at him intensely.

“And this ‘harmless’ prank could have killed him if one of those enforcers or defense units targeted us!! And we could’ve been injured in the process.” Erica growled as she shoved him back and she helped Sylas sit down and then went off.

“Now where are you going?” Jonathan asked, she turned and scowled at him.

“Getting stimberries for Sylas, like you are going to do too. We need to get him back on his feet at a hundred percent before we go taming some animals. Hopefully, we can get him to their so we can catch up to the new guy. I don’t like leaving him out of our sight.” She said, Jonathan groaned as he dragged his feet. He looked back at Sylas who seemed to be getting worse and rolled his eyes.

“Should have not pestered me while I made tea. Good thing you didn’t drink mine though. Probably would’ve died with the amount of poison in it.” He said, Sylas looked up with his one half-opened eye. And he just started blabbering nonsense. Jonathan rolled his eyes.

“Just shut it, you can’t do anything as long as the narcotics are in your system. Then I’ll have a comeback for whatever you blurt out once you can speak properly again.” He said as he walked away to find berries.

~

Andrew walked through the city alone, he had seen creatures all the time. He wasn’t sure if the ones he had seen were the ones they wanted but he had seen horses, though he didn’t watch the creature’s whereabouts when it came to in the city. Only near places in the polluted environments outside the main city did he watch their whereabouts. Which wasn’t helpful at this time to him. He had been traveling through the city for who knows how long, he wasn’t sure entirely but maybe forty minutes. It was hard for him to judge though. He knew the city like the back of his hand. He heard someone describe their life that their full-time job that gave a check was their part-time job and their real full-time job was being at home with their family. How he would describe his lie is that his full-time life was scavenging Sanctuary and the Wasteland around it. He lived permanently at his old house, yeah, but as he got older, he spent more and more time out there. Trying to look for things that could help him understand what happened to the planet since his time asleep. But he didn’t know where the URE’s databank was and while he knew the Earth was dying, from their studies on the effects of the Element in the Earth. It wasn’t doing anything like what he saw now. The Earth almost seemed to have tumors growing on it while it tried to die. Almost prolonging it’s death. He needed to know what happened to cause this place.

But that was for later, he needed to find a good “tame” for traveling. He wasn’t sure what to exactly for by that description. He didn’t know anything about the dinosaurs roaming around and what had what speeds. His dad probably would have, but not him. So he was just going to find some horses. He knew they were some of the best travel mounts in history. So it was the best option. The trouble would be finding them now, he would have to search the whole city for who knows how long before he would find any. He had no idea where to find them, but he knew how to track footprints, which wouldn’t be helpful if he had never seen the foot of the animal he needed to track.

While he continued to walk, he felt like he was being watched again. He genuinely hated this feeling. It didn’t start until he started burying Reuben, but it only happened when he was in around the area of Sanctuary. This feeling only grew more as time passed and as he moved on trying to ignore it though he continued to look around for anything yet found nothing. The feeling grew to become the feeling that he was being followed. He continued moving, hoping that this feeling would just pass away with time, but it didn’t. He stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes, listening to his surroundings for movement. A twig snapped somewhere behind him. He opened his eyes and looked behind himself, grabbing his bow and activating it as he did to see Erica, Sylas, and Jonathan coming out of the brush. For a moment, panic struck him. Thinking that he would react more than he should. Erica saw that he had his bow gripped in his hand and her eyes seemed to judge him for it. He pursed his lips in self-frustration as he deactivated his bow and latched it back onto his belt.

“I’m… sorry. Thought you guys were a predator stalking up on me.” He said,

“Understandable, it has been a while since we saw you go off. Once I was feeling good enough. Erica tracked your footprints to find you. She and Freya are really good at that sort of thing.” Sylas said, he did look better. He still was a bit pale and breathing heavily. But he looked like he was doing a lot better since his appearance of knocking on death’s door.

“You’re going the wrong way if you're looking for mobile tames. There was a Gallimimus flock not too far away from where we were before.” Erica said monotone, Andrew could tell he did something that made him go backward on the scale. He was pretty sure it was his grabbing the bow.

“I, don’t know what those are. I’m sorry, I probably passed them. I really don’t know what creatures are good for traveling.” Andrew said, Jonathan chuckled.

“Then how were you going to find a good travel mount if you Donn’s what’s good for traveling?” He said in a condescending voice.

“Well horses are still good, right? Paul mentioned them, and I’ve seen them in history books and some movies before. I have seen them here too. That makes them more practical to tame.” Andrew retorted calmly, Jonathan rolled his eyes.

“TT, Un tel petit malin enfant .” He said condescendingly. Sylas stepped ahead of him and smiled at Andrew.

“Yeah, they are still good. Not as good as Gallimimus but horses are a load more fun.” Sylas said smiling.

“Equus, not. Ugh.” Jonathan huffed. Erica sighed.

“Alright, Paul and I saw some a couple of days ago west of our camp. I would prefer Gallimimus but I guess EQUUS are alright. If we want to get them as quickly. I suggest we start backtracking as soon as possible. Sylas did you bring any rockarrots?” She asked coldly, Sylas smiled as he raised his left hand, and grabbed something from his implant. A handful of carrots appeared from thin air and Sylas showed Erica smiling.

“I never go anywhere without any.”

“Good, now since that’s been settled. Let’s get moving” She said, Sylas and Jonathan took the lead for the moment going back to where they came from. Andrew walked next to Erica.

“Hey, I’m sorry about pulling my-” “Doesn’t matter. Let’s just make good time on finding those equus fast. We already wasted time going in this direction.” She said as she walked off. Andrew stood there for a moment to himself. He sighed. He needed to be less on guard near these people to gain their trust. He looked down at himself, at the two weapons strapped to his belt. He grabbed his bow and activated it, he went to the categories of arrows and chose the narcotic gas arrows then deactivated it and strapped it back to his belt. He still felt like he was being watched, but now he just thought it was his head messing with him. He needed to gain these people’s trust, and being paranoid would probably not help him. He quickly ran off to catch up with the others.