Under Nirvana - An ARK

Chapter 19 – Bubble Guts

Story by Bria!

Find the last chapter in LYMANTRIA and the next chapter in GRIFFIN.

Ruby’s face turned white. “Looks like a Leedsichthys. If you didn’t know, they were one of the largest prehistoric fish to have ever lived. But that one is absolutely humungous…”

She turned to Bria, who was still pushing down on the lever. “Move this thing faster?”

Bria looked back with a sneer. “What do you think I’m doing? Your raft isn’t a motorboat by any means.”

The giant Leedsichthys was trailing behind the raft slowly, almost as if testing what the humans would do next. Neddy gulped loudly. Borealis clenched his fists, and Nova took a steady breath, grinning to herself wildly.

“I was wondering when something new was gonna happen,” she muttered. Twinkle, who was standing next to Nova, looked like he was about to barf. He shook back and forth, ruffling his feathers and pacing around Nova in a frantic manner.

“What do we do?” Neddy asked, looking back at Bria. She sighed.

“We don’t have any naval mounts, so defending ourselves is out of the question.”

“So what, we’re just going to let that thing beach us? I thought you knew something about this place!” Ruby cried, stepping toward Bria. Ocean snarled, stepping in front of her. Bria sighed, rubbing her eyes.

“If you want, you can use a ranged weapon to get it out of here.”

Ruby let out a heavy breath. She drew the string of her bow back. Neddy quickly followed, picking up one of the bows Ruby had crafted and aiming at the leviathan. It was getting closer, and it did not look happy to see something in its territory.

BURRRPPP!

“Fire! Just fire!” Ruby shouted. PEW! PEW! The two started firing arrows like no tomorrow at the beast. The arrows struck the scales of the huge fish, and for a second it seemed wary. It let out another bellow, submerging into the water. Bria cursed to herself, swerving the raft to the left as hard as she could.

“WOAH!” Neddy shouted, almost tripping into the water. Borealis rushed forward and grabbed him by the arm before his body dipped in the water. SPLASH! Water drenched the group as the Leedsichthys lifted itself out of the water in an attempt to hit the raft.

Neddy looked up at Borealis in surprise as he threw him to the ground.

“T–thanks?” Neddy said, surprised by what Borealis had done for him. Borealis huffed. He was looking at the Leedsichthys, almost as if studying it. “Don’t mention it.”

Twinkle screeched, ducking behind Nova again. Nova gritted her teeth. The Leedsichthys was preparing for another one of its slam attacks. Borealis turned to Bria.

“Do you not know a counter to it beyond other beasts?”

Bria tapped her finger on her chin, still pushing the lever forward. Her forehead was coated in sweat now. “We could go back to the coast, but we’d have to get there by land the whole way. This part of the island is a bit more dangerous though, so I would not prefer that for you all.”

Borealis grumbled. “Okay. Neddy, give me your weapon.”

Neddy, who had just finished firing another arrow at the Leedsichthys, looked at him in horror. “But I’m using it!”

“Do you have a death wish?”

“Hey, you can’t order him around like that anymore!” Ruby warned him.

“Yeah, Bore-Bore, remember your place,” Nova said teasingly. Borealis grumbled to himself, muttering something under his breath, before finally speaking again.

“Neddy, please give me the bow. I have an idea.”

“Okay…” Neddy hesitantly dropped the bow in Borealis’ hands. Borealis grabbed a handful of stone arrows off the ground and rushed over to the edge of the raft, where the Leedsichthys was now trying to nip and bite at the wood. Borealis aimed the bow at the creature.

“What are you planning on doing? Hm?” Nova asked teasingly, waltzing up behind him to whisper in his ear. Borealis winced.

“Don’t distract me,” he warned, his hands barely shaking.

Pulling the bow string back, Nova realized just how muscular he looked. He really did have the body of the greatest wrestler of Aqua High. Her smile only tugged further. She leaned in really close to whisper.

“Just think of someone nice and pretty,” Nova encouraged him. “I bet your aim will get better.”

Something shined within Twinkle, and Borealis let out an exhale of relief. His eyes narrowed, not even realizing the implications of Nova’s words. Without as much of a second of hesitation, he released the string of his bow.

PEW! The arrow went flying. The Leedsichthys surfaced to nip at the boat again, but with near-perfect precision, the arrow struck it in the eye. It let out a wail of pain, and the water started to pour with blood. Borealis shot another arrow at its throat. PEW! Contact was made again, and before long, the Leedsichthys had flipped upside down, drowning the surrounding ocean in red.

Twinkle stopped glowing, wobbling over to the edge of the raft and unleashing a torrent of vomit into the blood-ridden sea. Bria let go of the lever. The others looked at the unfolded scene with a mixture of awe and disgust. Nova smiled. She stepped away from Borealis with her hands clasped behind her back.

“Good job,” Nova said softly. “You did so well.”

“Yeah…” Neddy muttered. “That wasn’t too bad.”

“It was a team effort,” Ruby grumbled. Bria looked back cockily.

“I was a pretty good captain weren’t I?”

“No, you were the worst captain we could have ever had!” Ruby shouted back. Bria snorted. “And you’re the one who didn’t put a gear shift on this thing. Nah. I’m just messing with you. Why don’t we drop the anchor and get some meat off this thing?”

~

The raft was now parked relatively close to the coastline. A considerable amount of the Leedsichthys’ body had been hacked off, leaving nothing but bone and tendon for the surrounding sealife to scavenge. Ruby had started a small, contained fire on the raft for them to cook the meat. The waft of goodness was practically intoxicating.

“Mmmmph,” Ruby moaned, taking a large bite out of her piece. There was a satisfying crunch as her teeth dug into the fish. Neddy was tearing his up piece by piece to sample. He licked his fingers with a POP!

“Alright, this is way better than what you cooked last time,” he said honestly. Ruby gave him a smile.

“Thanks, Neddy. I’m thinking it has something to do with this meat, and the fact that I toned down the fire for this.”

Bria was taking a bite out of her own fish. So were Borealis and Nova. Simultaneously, they crunched into their pieces. Nova chewed so loudly beside Borealis that he couldn’t help but stare at her in disbelief. Bria wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

“You’re a good chef, Ruby,” Bria complimented her. “But I think I would have preferred this raw.”

“Raw? How undignified… barbaric,” Borealis scoffed. Bria glanced at him with slick eyes. “I prefer sushi, unless you don’t know what that is.”

“Sushi’s great,” Ruby offered her thoughts. “I could try making some later. It’s not too hard.” Borealis looked off at the horizon as he took another bite out of his fish. Nova looked him up and down. He didn’t seem to hate it, but he didn’t seem to enjoy it either.

“I like it,” Nova said woodenly. She ate the rest of her fish in one bite. Ruby giggled. “It sounded like you did. You practically devoured that thing.”

Neddy shrugged. “You haven’t eaten a real meal in a while, have you?”

“Yeah. We’ve been in this damn place for like, what, more than a day already?” Nova said, putting her chin on her fist. “Gosh, I wonder what the news is like back home. ‘Breaking News: Aqua High School delinquents go missing.’”

“I am anything but a delinquent,” Borealis said haughtily.

“Whatever you say, valedictorian,” Nova laughed.

There was a moment of silence again. Bria stood up from the floor.

“We should get moving. There’s not much time to waste.”

“Agreed. I want to see what this… ‘Coalition’... is all about,” Borealis declared.

CRACK! Bria pulled the lever forward again, and the raft started to move. Neddy and Ruby, who were sitting close by one another, let out a ‘WOAH!’ as the vessel shifted. Neddy bumped into Ruby’s shoulder. Nova grinned deviously.

“You see that, Twinkie?” Nova said, bending down to pick Twinkle up. Twinkle didn’t look like he was going to react, but he gave a subtle nod to her. Nova smirked.

“Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Nova was enjoying this island far more than she originally anticipated. With them meeting the Coalition soon, she was only bound to get what she really wanted out of this ARK.

Twinkle’s head shifted. Nova noticed this, looking at where he was. There was a pile of leftover fish meat from the fire. Nova’s eyes darted back to Twinkle in her arms, adjusting his weight so she could handle him easier.

“You want some fish?”

Twinkle nodded again with a soft chirp.

“Okay… here. Have some fish.” Nova walked over to the pile of fish. With everybody else distracted by something else, she picked up a small morsel of fish and gently offered it to Twinkle’s beak without question. Twinkle picked it up and swallowed it one bite, lovingly humming in appreciation.

“Like that, don’t you? Here. Have the rest.”

Nova plopped Twinkle down on the ground. Twinkle started to feast. Nova, triumphant, put her fists on her hips. Twinkle was eating in a rather civil manner, picking up pieces one by one and taking his time. He barely left a mess.

“He eats like Samuel,” Nova observed wistfully.

The raft turned. Nova looked back to see the raft heading into what appeared to be a lake. The air around them seemed hotter. Bria squinted her eyes, tilting her sunglasses down briefly.

“Finally here at the lake… We’re almost there.”