Pandora

• Chapter 10 •

Pandora was by herself once again. She watched the ground and her talons thumping against it as she walked, the rings on her claws shining in the pale moonlight. She then slowed down, stopping to stand in place and looking up at the dark swirling night sky with a gentle exhale. The nebulas of stars and the full silver moon were a beautiful sight beside the far away silhouette of the skytree.

She sat down on her haunches, her eyes still fixed on the mass of stars. Though she stayed motionless, a light hum came from her closed mouth, a song only she knew. One she’d heard from somewhere unknown to her. A place in time she’d never seen yet.

There was a tiny sound from behind. Pandora turned her head slowly, her wings twitching. She saw a tiny feathered shape let out a small cry as it plummeted from a tree and landed with a thud on the ground.

The bird twitched and chirped. She watched it for a moment, turning around to step forwards. The small creature was lying on its side and glancing around with round black eyes. It was a sparrow, its feathers light and dark brown speckled with white.

Above the bird, there was a nest from which it had fallen. There were two others inside it, looking down quietly with tiny twittering noises. The bird on the ground stared up at her, and she tilted her head at it, noticing one of its wings were uneven and deformed.

“Hello, little bird,” Pandora greeted it slowly. She reached down with her talons and scooped it up. The sparrow chirped in protest and wriggled slightly, its feathers soft and fluffed as she felt it.

“You seem to have fallen.” She said to it, looking up at the old tree. “And you aren’t wanted up there, are you? Because your wing does not work. I… I pity you. Hm, I’ve never used that word before, it sounds quite nice to say, actually. You don’t know at all what I am saying, of course. Small. Small little thing. Don’t worry, though. You are perfect the way you are, even if you don’t survive past sunrise.” She set it back down and it crouched low on the ground, still too young and weak to walk or run away.

“But that’s not my problem, friend. I can’t help you.”

It jerked its head to the side, fluffing its tiny tail feathers and making a small sound. With a whirl of her tail she turned away, folding her wings in and heading back up, towards the warm lights and voices coming from the festival.

“Goodbye, tiny bird.”

~

The clearing was filled with dancing. Nobody was sure how it started, just a simple Wyvern twirling around another or someone asking their partner to dance. Bria was caught in the midst of it all, swapping places with others and occasionally spotting her friends among the gathering. She was never into dancing, and didn’t know how to either, but she tried her best to go along with everyone despite it.

Izzabee and Toxin were sitting outside the crowd, Toxin gnawing hungrily on a stick of sun-dried meat. Izzabee basked beside a lantern next to him, looking chilled down and a little bit tired.

“We should get going soon,” Izzabee said.

Toxin shivered in the cold and sighed, nodding slowly.

“Spread your wings, move around! C’mon, Bri.” Bright said to Bria kindly, sliding out of nowhere and halting next to her, the laces on her wings shifting. She grabbed Bria’s tail with hers and tugged them further into the group, Bria nearly running into several others as she moved. They spun in a circle and Bria spotted Rainstone for the second time, who smiled again before she lost sight of him.

Someone let out a roar of joy as they jumped and spun in the air. Others smiled and mirrored the sound, eyes closed and wings spread. Bright lifted her head high and roared along with them, flapping her wings as she did.

The night went on like that for a while. By the time the moon had crossed most of the sky, the fires and lanterns had dimmed and burnt out and many dragons had gone home. Bria was sitting down, adjusting her necklace and shaking the tiredness away. Ember was talking with the other drummer in the distance, and she saw the mulberry colored Fire Wyvern exclaim in sudden excited fire, before blinking and laughing nervously. Nettle was fast asleep on a flat boulder, her tail hanging limply and the side of her head lying against the rock.

Bria noticed a couple of other Wyverns still awake and talking, while others were eating, resting or half-asleep.

She sat down and ducked her head, using the edge of her wing to pull her necklace off. It landed with barely a sound on the ground, the moonlight reflecting off its black surface. ‘Ugh, Pandora, where did you go?’

“I’m back.”

She turned around and sighed in relief as she saw Pandora standing there.

“Where were you?” She asked. “You missed Toxin. He was looking forward to meeting you.”

“I know he was.”

Bria stood silently, unsure of what to say.

“And you don’t need to worry about me, Bria,” Pandora continued, almost sternly. “You should know that.”

“I do, I know, sorry,” Bria replied. “You ready to go home?”

“...Yes,” Pandora answered.

Bright padded over to them, looking a bit drained but still smiling. Ember was calling goodbye to the Lightning Wyvern, who finally took off and left with her drums in her back talons. Ember then scuttled across the clearing and yelled, “Nettle, we’re going!” And the Poison Wyvern let out a throaty warble as she woke up and lifted herself.

“Finally,” Nettle said drowsily.

Bria was just about to lift her wings when Pandora stepped ahead of her. “Stop, wait,” she said.

“What is it?” Bria asked.

“We should probably walk,” Pandora said.

“Walk?” Nettle echoed.

“Why?” Ember asked with a puzzled look.

“I suggest we walk, that’s all,” Pandora answered flatly. “At least as far as the lake.”

Bria stared at her thoughtfully. Pandora returned her gaze, her expression giving away nothing at all. She looked up at the stars and then began to take the lead down a path that went away from the plateau.

Bria followed her, Nettle coming after second with a confused expression. They climbed down the slope for some time, the moon passing its high point and beginning to crawl downwards in the sky. Bright fidgeted with her accessories a few tail lengths from Bria, pulling her jewelry off and stuffing them in a small bag.

Their voices echoed across the rocks and trees as they went, waking up sleeping birds and various creatures hidden at this time of night. “Why are we walking again?” Ember’s voice reverberated from where she was.

“Beats me,” Nettle replied.

“Aegh!” Bright sounded suddenly, and the others jumped and spoke at once in confusion. “Swallowed a baugh–” she wheezed.

Bria watched Pandora, her sister’s tail twitching back and forth and her eyes glancing around as if without a care in the world. Bria began to realize how tiring walking seemed compared to flying.

“It’s very cold at night down here,” Ember said after some time.

“Bria, are we almost there?”

“The trees sound like they’re talking to us…”

“You’re just crazy, Ember.”

By the time they had reached the lake, Pandora went still. Bria was about to speak when she heard a familiar sound from far away. “What’s that?” Nettle asked.

Bria’s tail lashed and she looked up quickly.

There was a great bellowing and she saw black forms of Queztalcoatlus’s and other Pterosaurs fly above them in the sky, their cries intense and almost haunting. The force of their wings sent the tops of the trees shaking, and Bria ducked low, afraid the creatures would swoop any further down towards them. The others were looking up as well, their widened eyes glowing in the darkness.

Finally the last of the mob passed, heading the same direction the last one’s had. Their sounds slowly faded and diminished.

Then Pandora looked at them, almost optimistically. “OK, we can fly now,” she said.

They were silent for a short few seconds, before Nettle shrugged and took off with a blast of air. “Guess I’ll see you guys later,” She called. She flew upwards and left, off to where she lived.

Another moment passed.

“What was that all about?” Ember whispered.

Bria felt cold ice run down her spine. Someone had asked that exact same question last time there was a mob. “I’m not sure,” she replied.

“Something’s scaring them all,” Bright said. She and Ember then both looked at Pandora.

“What?” Pandora asked softly.

“How did you know?” Ember asked, sounding both confused and curious.

Pandora blinked and answered, “Premonition,” with a slight shrug, her tone sounding like she herself wasn’t sure, or just didn’t have a good answer.

“Let’s just all get home and go to sleep,” Bright said. “Good night, you guys.”

“Good night,” Bria said.

~

Toxin flopped onto his bed, letting his wings drop to either side of him. He looked up at the ceiling, making a thoughtful face. “That was… not too bad of a festival,” he said admittedly. “I liked the food. It was, it was, pretty good. Bria seems OK. BUT THAT BEGS THE QUESTION OF WHERE WAS PANDORA?”

“Calm down, Toxin,” Izzabee said. “Bria didn’t know. Maybe we’ll see her some other time.”

“But when?” Toxin whined. “I literally just want to meet her. That’s all! So why can’t I?”

“If you really want to, then just fly over to their den and say hi,” Izzabee suggested.

“Ohh. No no no, that’s weird and rude,” Toxin said, rolling over. “I don’t wanna seem weird and rude.”

“Just go to sleep,” Izzabee said. “I’m tired anyways and it’s way passed moonhigh.”

“I’m sorry.” Toxin said. “You’re right. Good night, mother.”

“Night,” Izzabee replied.

“Love you,” He called.

Izzabee smiled, leaving the room without a word.

~

It was chilly and quiet in her den as Bria and Pandora finally made it back. Pandora went over to her ledge and curled up without a word, leaving Bria standing there, tired and her head whirling with thoughts. She looked back out the entrance, her mind lingering on the fleeing creatures in the sky.

She swallowed and rubbed her face with her wings wrist, before climbing up to her sleeping spot and setting herself down, her eyes closing quickly.

Ember's words echoed quietly in her mind.

‘ "What was that all about?"’

She slipped instantly into dreams, strange things she’d see but never remember after morning came. Glitching skies and bright streaks of light in a storm. A fleeing Wyvern and a roar louder than anything she’d ever heard before. A face she didn’t recognize.

The stiff, tiny silhouette of a dead creature on the cold ground. The shape of a bird.

I just had one of the most frustrating times in ark ever.

I tamed a baryonyx on an official server and it took a while… so then I transfer to ragnarok to play there instead. But for some damn reason it spawns me in a whole different place and someone put turrets there so I died and lost my loot. I told the guy who lived there and he wouldn’t give my stuff back. SOOO I went to red obilisk angrily and made it there. And for some reason my bary wasn’t there so I checked back at island (where I tamed him) and he was alive in tribe log but nowhere to be seen. And THEN I tamed another bary and did the same thing and transfered it over and actually got to use him for five seconds. A pack of troodons and a micro raptor attacked me and killed my bary and me again so I rage quit.

R.I.P those two barys

I had a bary before named spike. his mate shin. And their child. Everest. When their son grew up we were greeted into a high level war in public. That war never ended. With my dinos and comrades aside we fought. And fought many tamed dinos fallen along with Everest and shin. Spike went insane after he saw what happend and ended the war with his abilities-

1 like = Spike’s family will be revived….

I will miss you Everest and Shin. You will be remembered in our hearts.

The Obelisk

Hi guys! It’s Moon here. You probably wondered (or not) why my writing is different from most story’s here. The truth is, I’m a real writer. In a few years my book The Island will come out (it’s not about Ark, sorry,) and my name will be revealed to you! Everything about the way I write is proper writing if yur interested!

-Chapter 13-

The Swamp was HUGE.

They were Sarcos, Baryonyxs, Snakes, and creatures big and small Forest had never read about. He wanted to go and sniff and climb everything he saw, asking all these animals what they were, but he knew he couldn’t dawdle. He had a destiny.

“Woah-ho-ho!” Rust exclaimed, admiring the marsh with wide yellow eyes. “It’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

“The Swamp can stretched acrossed half the island,” Spark lectured, flicking her tail. “The is the smallest one, by the Dark Forest.”

“So that’s where we’re headed?” Rust asked. “Land of the Terror birds?”

“Unfortunately,” Spark sighed, “yes.”

Terror birds? Forest had never heard of them. “What are they?” He asked.

Rust stared at him like he’d asked whether or not food was really necessary. “Hello?” he growled. “The raiders? Most devious carnivores in all of Fjordur? Perhaps the world?”

Doesn’t ring a bell, Forest thought uncomfortably. “And?”

“The Terri birds hate other creatures.” Spark said. “ and that’s just an understatement. They HATE us. Anyone who’s not one of them.”

“They rule practically the whole dark forest.” Rust said with a hiss.

“But don’t worry,” Spark said, minding Forest with her side. “We’ve got them under control. They are only allowed to march their sectors. The Meadows and mountains aren’t bothered by them. We haven’t heard a peep from their king in years.”

“Oh,” Forest said. A thought had struck him, but he’d evaluate later. “So how do—“

In a flash of ruby scales, something pounced form the nearest pool of water and sunk it’s claws into Rusts shoulders. The two creatures fell to the floor.

“Rust!” Forest cried.

Spark lunged forward and latched her jaws around the hissing creature. With a strong wrench, she yanked it away from Rust. The deinonychus fell back, shuddering in pain.

Spark flung the Kaprosuchus acrossed the mud, and pinned its neck down with her foot. “What do you think you’re doing?” She roared at its face.

The Kapros nostrils flared, but she responded. “Revenge,” she snarled, thumping her tail on the ground. “No one steals my kill and lives.”

Maybe 10 minutes ago, I tamed this guy. I am a very low level and I tamed a level 6 so I was exited. While heading home I decided to take a moschops, it said it was a dangerous area so, naturally, I was on edge, in case if it was a therizino, halfway through the taming I get killed by a carno, and my baryonyx is lost... happy days

Sooo story time , I was on my sarco in the swamp and saw one of these things and I was like “I gonna tame this guy “ .so I loaded my cross bow with tranq arrows and tranqed him and slapped some raw fish meat in him.it took about 7 minutes to tame it and I named him rudy(from ice age 3) and he died because of a car o.

1 up for Rudy :(:(:(

All the Light we Cannot See

Chapter 10

That night Max couldn’t sleep. After weeks, probably a month! They were going home. But what bothers him the most is how do they know where they are? Max looked over to Andrew who was already sleeping deeply. The kraut prisoner Paul escaped during the battle earlier this afternoon. “Up! Everyone get up! The C-47’s are landing 20 miles from here, we are ordered to get to the landing.” Sergeant-Chief Kyle ordered as he shouted around the trench. There were not as many Americans there were before the attack, instead, it was full of Soviet troops.

Max and the others got out of the trench and marched with Lance-Corporal Jackson in the lead. Max estimated there were only 15 pilots left out of the 30 that started on this island. After a couple of hours marching Max and the others saw the sun's tip rising from the horizons. In front of them was no longer a forest, but a flat meadow. “YEAH!” The others cheered as they ran to the two C-47’s. “IT’S THE SIXTH COMPANY!” One of the soldiers around the plane shouted over the loud engines.

“Go on now lads, I have no idea why they brought two of them but go on.” Kyle said. Max and Andrew were last in line. Just when Max and two others were gonna go inside the plane, the C-47 next to this one exploded. “BOOM!” The broken parts of the C-47 hit the plane as it was already taking off without them. “NO, WAIT! COME BACK!” The four shouted.

Suddenly a Giga came merging from the forest and grabbed the C-47 as it shredded to the ground. “RUN! RUN!” Max shouted as he turned back. But the Giga already saw them as it chased after them. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!” Andrew exclaimed as he ran through the woods. “It’s a Gigantisaurus according to my brain.” John replied proudly. “YEAH OK, NO ONE ASKED, AND NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR BRAIN!” Lance-Corporal Jackson shouted through the shouting and roaring of the Giga.

Max tried not to think of being eaten alive by the Giga. “JACKSON! WHERE ARE WE GOING!” Max shouted. “TO THE TRENCHES.” Lance-Corporal Jackson replied back. The trees were slowing down the Gigas but it came closer and closer to them. Suddenly something struck the Giga and its tail hitted Max and the others.

Forcing them to black out.

-SandmasterXD

Note:Story in the the Island abc order

Tried taming one of these guys. Accidentally knocked ‘em out in the water. Moment he woke up 5 piranhas were on him. While he’s fighting he attacks a salmon. Big mistake. 10-12 of those guys start fighting him too. I get in there to help my bary and shoot a bronto by mistake. Now I’ve got piranhas, salmon and a bronto on me. I make it to shore, whistle for him to follow, and immediately get jumped by a raptor and his buddy. I hop on my pteranodon and fly away while my bary follows. Not a second later a spino and three allos (one alpha) spawn right in front of us. So now he’s gone from fighting some fish, to fighting a bronto, two raptors, a spino, and a pack of allos. Needles to say, my guy didn’t make it. RIP man, had ya for 1 whole minute.

The Red Pike

Stalker’s story (lamprey’s second character)

A baryonyx ran through the swamp, trying to chase a gallimimus it had been hunting. Just then, another baryonyx blocked where the galli was running, stopping it from running. The poor galli had nowhere to run nor hide, and the two baryonyx killed and ate the galli.

“Nice cutting it off there.” Said Stalker.

“We can hunt anything, and it can’t escape.” Said the other baryonyx, who was stalker’s mate. A sarcosuchus swam by, almost sneaking up on Stalker.

Stalker quickly reacted to the sarco and ran to the water, and then hitting it with his tail, stunning it. The two baryonyx quickly killed the sarco while it was stunned.

“That was close.” Said Stalker.

“There’s becoming less and less creatures around redwoods, we should move to another place.” Said Tailspin. (finally got a name for Stalker’s mate.)

Tailspin told Stalker to follow her, and eventually they made it near the huge, green glowing obelisk. Then, Stalker heard something huge, most likely a spino. Stalker quickly looked around, trying to find the apex predator of the swamp. Stalker then heard a muffled roar that ended too quickly, and when he looked to see if his mate was fine, the spino was there, with a corpse that looked like a bary in it mouth, which it proceeded to eat.

I took my baryonyx, Ripper into the water for a swim because I just got a saddle on him! I was getting a bit nervous because some megs were following us so I headed back to the cove. What I saw scared me more than the two megs following me… SIX were attacking my basil and turtle!!! I took Ripper to the shore, ready to dismount and fight them myself, but Ripper was way ahead of me and sprang into action right before my eyes! I went under the water to see a complete mess off dead and stunned megs. Ripper did it! He protected his friends! Once all the megs were dead, Ripper jumped out of the water, but went rogue again! He tore apart another Meg that wasn’t even doing anything! Once he was done, he came back to me! I guess Ripper is living up to his name!

I was walking around, killing dinos with my moschops called big chungus then I was walking back to my base and I thought I saw a parasaur NO big mistake it was actually a baryonyx and it killed me and big chungus. R.I.P big chungus. Up to pay respects.

Once I we playing with my friend on ark bcuz he introduced me to it and I found it very interesting. When I joined a level 4 baryonx had wrecked his house so he wanted to tame it. We ventured into the redwoods without knowing the dangers and we both died. We then turned off the PC and did something else. When we came back and went into the game it had not saved so we were back at the house.He had a few tranq arrows left so he shot it and it worked! We went into the river to get a few fish and then he became our friend. This was the first tame I have ever had and wanted it to last. We then searched up base locations and found herbivore island. We used the raft and took our new baryonx to herbivore island. All went wrong when a bronto stepped on the house we had anki’s so they attacked when it died Barry had a setting on called “seek fish on low health” so once we found him, we didn’t want him to get eaten by any megaladons so we turned it off. One night after we took him on his usual killing spree, when we were in the house. He died we both didn’t know how little fish he had and bcuz I had turned off the seek fish setting. My dumb actions killed my first and favorite Dino. I will never forget Barry but I will have to carry on because it has already saved. In the end my friend says everybody loses their favorite Dino’s in ark. So I will just have to deal with it. 1 like=baryonx is your favorite animal.

these things need a little boast I know there already cracked but just make the stun like 5 seconds and maybe give the stun a 2 seacond cooldown and they need bigger jump hight and longer distance and should take lower fall damage like I lost 18 barys to high falls how does a fall kill a 8k hp bary??? it wasint even thet high!!!

My favorite Dino ever btw is this guy he’s just him

The first time I tamed a bary was when I wanted a carno but every time I found one it died to trikes thesinasaurs etc.so I saw a bary and tamed it his name is carno.

One time my brother and I were at the swamp on The Island. We had some arrows on us, and got ambushed by a Bary. We started shooting it with arrows, I only had tranq, and knocked him out. We then killed some piranhas, and tamed him! His name is now Bartek, and he is currently at our base. I sometimes bring him out to get fish meat. I hoped you liked this! Signed, Pickle844Luvr

I got a female Bary today and it was orange and white I named it pumpkin pie and there was a spino near my base so me and my 4 trikes and pumpkin pie went to battle it we killed it with one death which was pumpkin pie but I got pumpkin pies thing to revive it so one up = 1 prayer for pumpkin pie maybe I can revive her

The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 37: The Golden Egg

“Hyahh!”

Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!

Bobby let out a battle cry as he smashed his pickaxe into the glittering rock. He and Simon were currently toiling out near some strange cave, smashing away at rocks that were filled with pockets of raw metal. They thought it would be useful for future projects for the Book Club.

“Whew, that was some nice work,” Simon noted, wiping sweat from his brow. A comically large backpack slung over his shoulders. Pieces of raw metal poked out from the top. Bobby took the last few remaining pieces of metal and stuffed them into Simon’s backpack.

“Okay, I think that’s plenty. Now let’s head home. It’s already night, we don’t want to run into any more of those orange eyed things,” Bobby said.

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Simon replied. He tugged on the straps of his backpack and began to walk off back to camp. As Bobby followed though, he turned around for a quick moment, staring at the small, looming crack in the hill that led to the cavern. Bobby could feel dizzy and hot just staring at the opening.

“Who would want to go in there?” Bobby thought, shaking his head in disapproval. He followed Simon back to camp.

Somewhere in the darkness, along the riverbed, something golden glitters.

So when Bobby and Simon were heading back to camp, the two immediately noticed it laying in the sand. A small egg made of pure gold. The two gasped in awe, and Bobby leaned forward to pick it up.

“Nghhhh!” Bobby groaned. The egg seemed to be too heavy, “It’s so heavy!”

Simon patted Bobby on the shoulder, before picking it up with his index finger and thumb. He pocketed it, and gave Bobby a wink and a grin.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. I can always take care of anything too heavy, you know that,” Simon reminded him. Bobby stared at the golden egg with delight, licking his lips furiously.

“Man, you think we can eat it? I bet it’d taste SO delicious!” Bobby groveled.

“Are you crazy?” Simon sneered, “We shall not! Do you, by chance, know the tale of the Golden Egg?”

“Uh. No. Why, is it important? Does this thing exist IN REAL LIFE?!” Bobby shouted with unwavering anticipation.

“No, it doesn’t. But basically, a farmer discovered his chicken could lay golden eggs. But he grew impatient with how slow it was at laying eggs, so he killed it, but discovered there was nothing inside. Now he had no more golden eggs to make,” Simon explained thoroughly, “We can’t just eat it now. It may serve some use later down the line.”

“Okay, OKAY, I get it,” Bobby replied with a sigh, “Let’s go home then. I bet Skyler and her team will be back by now.”

“Yeah, I bet. I wonder how it went, they probably found what they were looking for, AND their five heroes!” Simon said ecstatically, walking down the sands, “I can’t wait for what happens next!"

I’m so confused I am raising twin barys and I have trough and full of fish meat they won’t eat they’re inv is cleared to someone please explain

Oh wow I just saw this hunting a fish what it's looking at me um I think I should....