The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 22: Briefing

Part 2/2

Everyone burst into conversation once again, pretty much everyone arguing over who the heroes could be, but Samuel had already figured Skyler out. Skyler was just trying to give a clear goal in mind so she could stall for time and find another solution.

“She seems to really believe in this Obelisk of hers, I don’t think she’s lying about that,” Samuel thought, “But she needs people to believe that this is the true tale, and this is how. If I create confusion, perhaps I can focus our attention on finding Tiffany instead of searching for heroes.”

“No, it can’t be from the same camp,” Skyler reasoned. Samuel cursed to himself, and Ben stared at Samuel’s eyes deeply.

“And why not?” Aurora finally chimed in. Everyone looked at her, “I’m the valedictorian. You’re the one who was given this prophecy. And who knows? Maybe me, Samuel, Neddy, and Ruby are the four heroes you’re looking for. All of us have formidable attributes, and I’m assuming you do too.”

Everyone seemed to agree with what Aurora had to say, but Skyler cut them all off.

“No, no, it can’t be as much as I’d love to say it,” Skyler said, “If these heroes in the book were from other species, it’d be safe to assume these heroes on this island would all come from different groups.”

But by now, the Book Club was torn in half. Half of the members thought that perhaps Samuel and his group were indeed the four heroes Skyler was talking about, while the other half thought that Skyler’s reasoning made sense. But Samuel’s plan worked, not enough people wanted to go look for more heroes when the five heroes could clearly be established.

“Fine. We won’t go look for heroes,” Skyler declared, “But we still need more hints from Moonflight. I’ll try to see if I get another dream tonight, so I’m going to bed early. But by morning I want to get expedition groups set up. I want to tame some more creatures, perhaps if we tame the same creatures from The Obelisk we’ll see some results.”

So with that, everyone decided that they wanted to go to bed. All the members headed to their respective huts, and Samuel and his group were given a guest hut for now until Bobby and Simon could get some houses for them set up.

Neddy let out a groan as he twisted and turned in his hide sleeping bag. He was huddled up in the corner of the room where it was most comfortable.

“Man this feels nice, I haven’t slept till’ who knows when. Welp, good night everyone. And sweet dreams.”

“Sweet dreams,” Ruby replied. The two fell asleep, but Neddy had to inconvenience everyone by snoring the night away.

Aurora looked restless in her sleeping bag, and Samuel’s eyes darted to her.

“Hey. You okay? You’ve been awfully quiet since our argument.”

Aurora turned away.

“Yes. I’m fine.”

Samuel paused for a second. He really didn’t want to assume what Aurora was feeling, but he just had to know.

“Aurora. I want you to be truthful. Do I remind you of anyone you’ve known in the past? Like your boyfriend, Borealis?”

Aurora didn’t answer for a second. Perhaps Samuel had struck a nerve with that one. But Aurora finally answered.

“He’s dead, Samuel. So yes. You do remind me a lot of him.”

“Oh.”

Neddy’s snoring seemed to make the situation more awkward than serious. Somehow Ruby was able to sleep through all the noise.

“Those two must be in love or something,” Aurora whispered as she looked at the two, “They’ve been chatting away ever since… we ran away. I was just thinking…”

“Maybe we could be the same way?” Samuel continued.

“Yeah. Maybe, maybe we could,” Aurora said. She reached for the gold heart locket in her pocket, took it out, then tossed it away. She scurried her sleeping bag closer to Samuel, but he jolted away.

“Stop, stop I can’t,” Samuel gasped as he began to sweat, “I don’t- I don’t want to-”

Aurora frowned, sighed, and then turned away again for like the fifth time of the night without a word. Samuel let out a sigh as he felt his conscience drip away, his mind getting hazier and his thoughts wandering.

“Damn it Aurora, why’d you have to make things so complicated?” he thought as he fell asleep.

But as Samuel and his buddies were sleeping, unbeknownst to him, Star had snuck out of the hut, walking up to Rick’s hut and creeping inside…