The Arks: Over Heaven

Chapter 22: Briefing

Original Post Date: Feb 9, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Glowbug, next chapter in Gasbags.

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“I am glad that we’ve all been able to come together to discuss what comes next for the Book Club,” Skyler said as everyone settled down either on the floor or on chopped down logs. Additionally joining them was the infamous “Ghost Gamer”, Gary. He had with him a large cat that barred large fangs, a Sabertooth, according to Neddy. Gary had decided to name the big cat Lynx.

“As you all know, Tiffany disappeared last night without a trace.”

Murmurs of discussion riled up the members, and most seemed anxious because of it. Tiffany was their leader, how could she have disappeared into the dead of night?

“Along with Tiffany was that book of hers, so we can no longer get information regarding that book. So as things stand we’re at a bit of a roadblock.”

Everyone gasped, but Samuel’s ears perked up at the words.

“Wait a minute, that Tiffany had a physical copy of the book?” he wondered to himself, “If that’s the case then I could potentially take a peek and get some information regarding this place.”

Samuel looked at Rick, who had a trickle of sweat running down his forehead. Rick knew something the others didn’t.

“He is a hardcore reader. Perhaps he himself has read the book, like Ben has read a little bit of it.”

Paige raised her hand, and Skyler nodded at her.

“Yes? What’s your question?”

“Okay, so what exactly are we gonna do now? Is all that work we did building this camp up nothing? We don’t even know how to go forward now?”

“No, in fact this won’t affect progress at all,” Skyler answered with glee.

Skyler then explained everything that had happened to her last night. Her dream regarding Moonflight and how The Obelisk definitely took play in this island shenanigan. After her word, everyone seemed to be nodding in belief, taking her word for it.

“Yeah, yeah, now that I think of it it does sound kind of legit…” Bobby murmured while looking up at the sky.

“I guess we can go forward with the fact that that book is true?” Chris asked.

“I think what you’re saying is true, but how will this book help us? The main characters of the tale were animals, not humans like us,” Sunny suddenly argued. Everyone turned to her.

“Sister, why don’t you enlighten us,” Gary requested.

“Of course. The main characters of that story were a bunch of animals that happened to be sentient. And even so they had an entirely different goal, save the island they were on, Fjordur. We are just trying to survive. Different goals, different characters, even if they are the same idea, how will we know what to do next?” Sunny reasoned.

“That makes total and complete sense,” Neddy added while looking dumbfounded. Ruby rolled her eyes.

“Sorry, you’ll have to excuse Neddy here. Neither of us have ever heard of or read this ‘Obelisk’ story of yours,” Ruby explained.

“Oh, even more newcomers, this is great!” Paige sarcastically shouted. Skyler cleared her throat and smiled at Sunny.

“Ah, you see I do know where to go next,” Skyler told Sunny, “There were five main heroes in the book, right? According to that prophecy. Heroes of all different kinds, all carnivores, but all from different species.”

“So you’re saying we gotta recruit aliens to help us?” Simon laughed.

“We might as well, we might as well…” Bobby chuckled.

“NO guys! What I’m saying is that think about it! There’s a connection between the prophecy in that book and the book itself! The book itself is like a prophecy, and there are five heroes who need to fulfill its destiny of controlling the power of the obelisk!”

Everyone began to burst into conversation, murmuring and whispering to each other about it all. If that were the case, who would be their five heroes? Chris asked this important question, and Skyler smiled at him gently.

“Well, I was thinking it’d be me,” Skyler said. Everyone murmured to themselves.

“You? But what if it’s me?” Simon said, flexing his biceps again, “I mean look at these guns!”

“Remember the fact she came to my dream, so clearly she’s giving me the role of the hero, or at least, one of them. We just need to find out who the other four are.”

Samuel suddenly raised his hand, and all eyes turned to him.

“Do you think that the other four heroes could be here at this camp?” Samuel asked with a sly grin.

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…