The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 19: Seasick

Part 2/2

A few dozen more arrows later, and the big Leedsichthys let out one last bellow, and it stopped swimming toward them. Its eyes rolled up to the back of its head, and everyone except Samuel got chills down their spine.

“Wooo, I think it’s dead!” Neddy hollered with excitement. Ruby let out a breath of fresh hair as she put away her crossbow. Neddy walked up to Ruby and high-fived her.

“Good job, you ate that thing up!” Neddy said with glee.

“Thanks Neddy,” Ruby replied with a smile. Aurora looked at the two and smiled, and then at Samuel and then back at the two buddies. Ben did a thumbs-up, a queasy look still on his face.

“Yipeeee,” Ben said with a smile.

~

Samuel had turned the raft around so they could go back to the Leedsichthys’ corpse and harvest it for its meat. It took quite a while, and in the end they had decided to just leave most of its body to rot in the ocean. Now the group was off to the river so they could reach the Book Club’s camp. All while they were doing that they were eating a hearty meal of Leedsichthys meat

“Jeez, this meat tastes wonderful,” Neddy murmured with wonder as he took a bite out of the meat.

“Is it because I cooked it? Or is it because it came from this giant beast?” Ruby asked with a grin.

“I’m thinking it’s both, to be honest,” Neddy said with starry eyes, “Oh my goodness this meat is just so scrumptious, succulent if you may, delectable if you will.”

“Man I didn’t even know those words existed,” Ben chuckled as he took a sip of water from a waterskin.

“It tastes sort of like salmon, but it’s silky smooth and whenever I bite into it there’s a CRUNCH, but at the same time it’s soft on the inside,” Aurora commented as she bit into her own piece of fish. She looked at Samuel dreamily.

“What about you Samuel? What do you think of this prime fish?”

Samuel cleared his throat as he chewed on the piece of fish voraciously.

“I think it tastes boring,” he provided his thoughts.

“Oh,” Ruby said with a frown.

“Well, not to insult your cooking or anything,” Samuel replied, “I just don’t find anything interesting to eat. I never did.”

“You’re probably the type of person to eat chicken and rice, huh?” Ben said with squinted eyes, “And unseasoned.”

“Hey how’d you know?” Samuel sarcastically responded while rolling his eyes. Everyone laughed a little, and even Star seemed to be making squawking sounds as she munched on some purple berries.

Ruby’s eyes darted to Star for a second and then back at Samuel.

“Hey, doesn’t your pet want some fish too? I’m sure Star would LOVE my cooking,” Ruby suggested happily. Star nodded her head in certain agreement.

“Dude, you can’t feed dodos meat… they’re herbivores!” Neddy objected with a pointed finger.

“I think you just want to eat the meat for yourself, Star will be fine eating meat,” Samuel replied. Ruby gave a piece of cooked fish meat to Samuel, and Samuel put his palm out for Star to feed. Star tore off a chunk of fish meat and began to chew with her beak. She swallowed the meat easily, leaving Neddy’s mouth agape in shock.

“Whaaaaaa-”

“Star’s a special dodo,” Samuel reminded Neddy, “She’s smart, can eat meat.”

Samuel looked at Star again, trying to pick up more details, trying to figure out what Star was.

“And even acts like a human sometimes, you know?”

Star nodded in agreement, flapping one of her wings and holding them out like a proud eagle, closing her eyes and squawking like a madman. Everyone began to laugh wholeheartedly, but Samuel’s eyes instantly widened.

“Okay, Star is DEFINITELY not normal,” Samuel thought with realization as he blinked his eyes. He rested his back on the pole that held the raft’s sail.

“I wonder if I can find a way to more effectively communicate with Star. I really want to get to the bottom of this,” Samuel thought as he looked up at the night sky.

Ben let out a groan as he stretched his body again, and he got up from the raft to look out into the distance. He squinted his eyes and pumped his fist in the air.

“We’re almost there! The river is just within reach!”