Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Under Nirvana - An ARK

Chapter 6: Players Gonna Play

Story by Bria!

Find the last chapter in TAPEJARA and the next chapter in SNOW OWL!

Neddy dived deep into the depths of the forest in search of firewood for the campfire. He shivered slightly at the cold, still bare, still without any tools or weapons to aid him on his quest. He looked around meekly, desperately looking back and forth for stray logs that may have fallen down.

“Hm. A light would definitely help, huh?” Ruby murmured to herself as she walked up next to Neddy. Neddy let out a shriek and jumped, goosebumps ruffling his skin. Ruby raised her eyebrow as the young man nearly fainted on the spot. He let out a sigh of relief, wiping his brow.

“Relax,” Ruby said, putting her hands on her hips. “Sorry about the startle though. You look like you’re about to fall over, dead.”

“Of course. When you’re out in this dark forest alone, with nothing but your underwear on… anything would scare you.”

“I understand. I came to give you a hand.”

“Really?” Neddy asked, scratching the back of his head. A few flakes of dandruff fell to the ground just then. “Are you sure Borealis… wouldn’t get upset?”

“Screw Borealis if you want to live.”

Neddy chuckled. “Heh, yeah. I guess. But…”

Neddy shook his head. Ruby raised an eyebrow, stepping closer to him.

“But what?”

“It’s just that, well,” Neddy let out a nervous laugh. “He’s a really good fighter? All of the dinosaurs we’ve run into so far, he’s been able to handle.”

“Except the Raptors,” Ruby snorted.

“Yeah. But that’s different. If he had weapons? I’m not sure many would stop him. If I disobey Borealis…” Neddy continued. “He won’t tolerate me anymore. I’ll be as good as dead. I need Borealis to survive.”

The walk through the forest was quiet. Ruby wasn’t too sure what to say just then. But Neddy kept talking.

“Why’d you stop cooking?” Neddy questioned her. “I remember all the competitions you went to. You were the best in our school. Nobody else in the Capital could compete. And one day you just…”

“Quit the game. Yeah, I know,” Ruby said, her voice shaking.

“How come? I always wondered. It always seemed like a waste of talent—”

“Shut up. Respectfully. I don’t want to hear anything more come out of your mouth,” Ruby spat. “I came here to help you. If you’re going to make small talk don’t be a little a$$hole about it.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Just quit it. You don’t get to know. We just met.”

Neddy looked away with guilt. Ruby turned away too. And for a moment, it was just the two staring off into the dark forest.

But with daylight rising, it was getting harder and harder to ignore one another.

“Here,” Neddy said suddenly. Ruby looked back in surprise. Neddy was holding his glasses out, almost as if handing them to her. Ruby squinted her eyes, trying to make out Neddy’s expression, but she could barely tell.

“Really?” Ruby asked, her voice coming to a whisper. “How did you know?”

Neddy almost laughed. “You look like me whenever I lose my glasses. I figured you lost them one way or another.”

Ruby took them gently. Slowly, she placed them over her eyes. Surprisingly, their prescriptions must have been the same, because Ruby was able to see better with them! She looked over at Neddy, gazing at his figure fully. He looked…

“Ordinary,” Ruby thought, not thinking much of him. She blinked her eyes, taking them off again.

“Are you sure I should have these? I can always craft another pair. I just need obsidian and crystal, wherever that is.”

Neddy shook his head, crossing his bare, skinny arms.

“I insist you have them. I won’t take them back. You need them more than me anyway. A useless guy like me won’t survive long anyway… so I might as well make myself helpful wherever I can.”

The rustling of the trees broke the silence. The wind was beginning to pick up.

“Don’t say that about yourself,” Ruby whispered. She placed Neddy’s glasses back on. “The only worthless person here is Borealis.”

“Borealis? Worthless? That seems a bit of a stretch.”

“You don’t know the things he’s done,” Ruby said. “For starters, he—”

The tree leaves above rustled hard. Ruby paused.

“What was that?”

Just then, they heard the flapping of wings. The call of a bird rang throughout the forest, and a weird large white-feathered bird dive-bombed them, striking Ruby on the stomach! Ruby let out a groan, falling to the ground with a THUD! Ruby blinked her eyes in disbelief. The bird had taken Ruby’s entire pouch of berries!

“An ichthyornis? Stupid PEST!” Ruby yelled. Neddy flinched.

“C— careful! That was so loud…”

“Sorry, sorry,” Ruby apologized, her voice dropping to a whisper. It was turning daytime. They couldn’t risk running into any other creatures.

The Ichthyornis shook the pouch in its beak. A few berries flew out, some hitting her on the head. Ruby groaned, reaching for her bow strapped to her back. Ruby took her bow off, readied an arrow, and aimed at the bird. She closed one of her eyes, and with the release of the string of the bow the stone arrow went soaring through the air… missing the bird entirely. It flew around the two scholars, squeezing the berries into its mouth. It let out another ‘caw!’, dropping the empty pouch onto the grass next to Ruby.

“Damn it,” Ruby murmured, drawing another arrow to fire. But before Ruby could, the Ichthyornis let out another shriek and dived at Ruby again! Ruby was about to release the string, but Neddy lunged forward, grabbing the bird with his bare hands and taking it to the ground with him.

“Ah! I got it, I got it!” Neddy cried, hugging onto it tight. The Ichthyornis let out a shriek so loud that Neddy almost let go to shut his ears tight. Ruby clutched her arrow tight, and with a single push, shoved the tip into the throat of the bird.

SHINK! Blood gushed out onto Neddy’s chest. He turned green, looking away in disgust. Ruby let go of the arrow, and Neddy tossed the seagull to the side.

“Ugh, that’s… ah,” Neddy gagged, brushing the blood off his chest. He wiped his hands on the grass.

“That… was tiring. Thanks for the help,” Ruby said, rubbing her hair. Ruby walked over to the dead bird, while Neddy was getting his bearings. Ruby crouched down and pulled the arrow out of the body, putting the bloody thing back into her quiver.

“It might help collect its meat. We might need to eat soon. I wouldn’t mind breakfast now.”

Neddy’s ears perked up. “Breakfast? Cooked by the great Ruby?”

Ruby laughed. “Yeah. Sure, why not.”

Ruby pulled out a crude pickaxe with a stone head. She began to whack at it, splitting the Ichthyornis in half. It was a gruesome task, but the next minute Ruby spent separating its body into slabs of meat. There was a little bit of its skin left over, which Ruby decided to keep for future usage. With the help of the strange implant, she was aware that hide was essential for some crafts.

Ruby took the slabs of meat and then put them in her pouch, reacquired from the grass. Neddy picked up any spare berries that had fallen from the ground.

“Here. There’s some left over.”

Ruby carefully reached her hand out and scraped the berries off the palm of his hand.

“Okay. Our work here is done,” Ruby said, picking a few pieces of spare wood off the ground and stuffing them in her pouch.

“Yeah, finally. I’m already nervous that something’s out here…” Neddy softly replied, not noticing what Ruby picked up.

The two marched back to camp, the sunrise casting beautiful, colorful rays through the treeline.