The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 17: Back to the Beach

Part 1/2

The trip across the plateau and the footpaw was uneventful, boring, and frankly wasn’t very exciting. For once, the group didn’t have to face off against any aggressive dinosaurs, and even dinosaurs such as Dilophosaurus or the Raptors would be taken care of quickly by Samuel’s raptor. For now, all that they could do on the way to the Book Club’s camp would be to chat, chat about life and things before they were brought to the Island.

“So are you going to name your Raptor?” Ben asked Samuel from afar.

“No, I can’t really think of a name at the moment,” Samuel replied. He looked at the Raptor. Maybe its colors could give him ideas. The Raptor was brown, and had red feathers on its tail and head. It also had blue stripes running down its legs, and its talons were unbelievably large.

Samuel shrugged and said, “Yeah, I still can’t think of anything.”

“Well, do you mind if I name him?” Ben asked.

“Yeah sure, I don’t see why not,” Samuel answered, “You are the one who helped tame this guy anyway.”

“What about Ned? I wanna call him Ned,” Neddy said, raising his hand.

“We aren’t calling him Ned, that would just make things confusing!” Ruby protested.

“Come on, guys, let the guy decide on his own,” Aurora said. Star squawked in agreement, for the first time ever.

“To be honest, I actually don’t have one at the top of my head,” Ben said, looking up at the baby blue skies, “But maybe our friends in the… Book Club could help us decide!” (wink wink hint hint, help give it a name!!!)

“Okay, just let me know when you have a name,” Samuel said.

An hour or so of traveling later, the friends had finally made it to the coastline. There was a giant river that cut through the land, and it was so wide that it would be impossible to swim through.

“Ah, I almost forgot about that. I didn’t come from the Book Club this way,” Ben remembered.

“Huh? So does that mean we’re lost?!” Aurora glared with steam pouring out of her ears.

“No, no, it’s just that the route I took is too dangerous for all of us to take,” Ben replied with the space between his thumb and pointer finger on his chin, pondering, “How are we supposed to get to the other side?”

“Hmm, that’s interesting,” Samuel thought as he stared at Ben, “Too dangerous, yet he has no tames, nor weapons except stone tools… What is his implant power?”

Ruby closed her eyes, searching for something that she could potentially create so they could safely reach the other side. Then, she opened them up again, an idea storming in her mind.

“We can build a big raft,” Ruby said, “It’ll take a lot of resources, but it’ll be useful if we need to travel the seas in the future anyway.”

“What type of materials will we need to build this raft?” Neddy asked with curiosity.

“We’re going to need quite a bit of wood, plant fibers, and hide,” Ruby dictated, “We already have plenty of hide from the beasts we’ve killed, but we’ll need to gather some wood and fiber.”

“Don’t worry, Ruby,” Neddy said, “We’ll get the resources for you. You can take a break.”

“Aww, thanks,” Ruby replied with a smile. Ben rushed for the bushes and began to tear them apart with his hands.

“Come on, Neddy! Let’s do this!” Ben shouted with a grin.

“Okay okay, wait up!” Neddy shouted back as he rushed up to him. Aurora nudged Samuel’s shoulder, and he looked at her drearily.

“Come on. Let’s go get some wood,” Aurora said as she unhooked her hatchet.

“Yeah, yeah I know,” Samuel replied. He crouched down and looked at Star in the eyes.