Journey Through All Creatures

Chapter 43: Preparations For the Aberration Depths

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth Exclusives and Aberration Exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Glowtail, next chapter in Lamprey.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 7

Aberration Day 3

4:31 PM…

Sodden treaded through the blue zone, sitting on Reaper. His bag was heavy and full of red gems and metal and other supplies he would use to construct the interior of the base. Sodden had a bruise on his shoulder. He had sent a message to Dorack to check on him, and Dorack said that he was almost done with the exterior of the base. But Serenity was still missing, Rod was in the shadows, and Nal was who knows where. Sodden panted softly as Reaper continued walking across the paths of the blue zone. Sodden had shot down a Basilisk, Bulbdog, and some other creatures. He had the glowtail and glowbug to do for now, but he had to wait until he had hazard suits. While Sodden was walking back, his backpack weighed down by nearly a stack of metal and two stacks of wood, Dorack was stitching together wooden walls to finish off the base. Dorack placed the walls along the outer foundations, and he began to make some ceilings from wood being held together by fiber and thatch. The wooden logs were being forged into ceilings and Dorack then climbed up to the top of the base and placed then down along the tip of the walls, leaving a small opening in the right side of the base for the stairway. The stairway that would lead to the second floor. Dorack had been working on the base for hours that day, and he had materials in the storage box that lay near the bed. He was planning to go on an adventure. He didn’t know how long Nal had left, but he was desperate to get his best friend back. Dorack continued to spruce up the base, with the ceilings, some balconies on the front and the sides, and continuing to construct the interior of the first floor. He put down a smithy and refining forge he got from collecting resources earlier that day. He also made a preserving bin for their food and placed it down near the bed and across the room from where the smithy and forge was. He walked to the back where there was a opening in the ceiling. He left the opening there for when he made a staircase for the second floor. Dorack then walked out of the base, holding a hatchet in his right hand, and walked to some tall trees in the distance to collect wood. As he hacked down the trees with his tool, he had some thoughts in his head. He couldn’t help but think of how long it would be before Nal would die for good. Rod didn’t tell him that. Nal could be gone for good right now. Dorack sighed and continued to break down the trees, then the tree creaked and fell over. Dorack picked up the wood left on the ground then walked to another tree. As he collected the wood, he just couldn’t stop thinking.

“I can’t do this. I need to find a way to get her back. I need Rock Drakes. But I can’t rush this… Sodden’s my friend.” Dorack thought. He dropped the hatchet and sat down, his back against the tree, and looked up at the ceiling of the cave.

“No. Nal’s been with me and my tribe far longer than Sodden. But… Sodden… I can’t do this to him. I don’t know how long Nal has left… no. I’m going to get a Rock Drake. But for that, I need a hazard suit. Sodden needs to get back soon.” Dorack whispered. He then lifted his left arm to look at his implant, then he put his right hand on it and started to write a message to Sodden, asking him when he was going to return. Dorack sent the message after a minute, stood up, picked up his hatchet, and continued to collect resources. Dorack was not listening to Rod. He refused to betray Sodden for Nal. But could it work long-term?

Later that day…

Sodden, riding on Reaper, continued the trek to the base. He was over halfway home. He had told Dorack that he would be home in a few hours. Sodden was in the green zone now, and was continuing to ride his raptor towards the base. Dorack, however, was not in the base. He was on the other side of the green zone, and he had been collecting giant honey pieces from trees and hives to drop near Roll Rats. Dorack was sitting behind a rock, peeking at a Roll Rat sniffing a giant bee honey that he dropped on the ground, then the rat growled softly and dug underground, and left some red gems in its wake. Dorack quickly ran towards the red gems, picked them up, and ran back to behind the rock. The Roll Rat growled loudly as it rose to the surface again, seeing that its gems were gone. It looked around and grumbled softly, then dug down into the ground again. Dorack sighed and stood up, then walked west towards the base. As he walked, he remembered something. He gasped.

“I remember when Marison mentioned someone… Sunhigh. Brought up the Aberration Kingdom… Rod didn’t say anything about allying with other tribes. Okay. I need to go find the Aberration Kingdom. But… okay. Getting Rock Drakes is important, but I need to find Sodden first.” Dorack said. He sighed and kept walking towards his base.

Even later that day…

The sun had barely begun to touch the horizon, yet the fires had dissipated from the Ark and it was close to 10 in the evening. Sodden and Reaper had finally arrived at the base, and the ceiling was almost entirely closed up, the second floor was starting to take shape, with walls surrounding most of the floor, and a stone path lay in front of the front door. Sodden jumped off Reaper and looked around the place. He let out a deep exhale and put Reaper in a cryopod, then walked through the doors of the base. When he pushed the door open, he saw Dorack sitting on a bed, his head down. He held a piece of paper in his hand, and Sodden walked towards him. Dorack looked behind him and gasped.

“You’re back. Okay, so how many red gems did you get?” Dorack asked.

“Got around 40.” Sodden replied. Dorack nodded slowly.

“Okay. I got around 30 from roll rats. Soon, we’ll be able to adventure through the Red Zone and leave this place. We need to do caves, though.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded.

“Agreed, but we should save the caves for tomorrow, This is about the point where Rod’s tribe, Rock Death themselves, would come out to hunt creatures and resources. We can’t risk running into them, not after what happened with Serenity and Nal.” Sodden said.

“Yeah. You’re right. We gotta wait.” Dorack said as he slipped the paper into his bag. Sodden looked confused as he stared at the paper.

“What’s that paper for?” Sodden said.

“Ah, nothing. I like writing down my adventures.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded slowly.

Okay, then. Well, let’s settle down, shall we?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded, and Sodden put everything he had on him in his bag, put his bag to the side of his bed, and Dorack put his bag to the side of his bed too. They both sat on their beds, lay down, and looked up. “You ate, right?” Dorack asked.

“Yeah. Got some prime meat on the way home.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded.

“I also went hunting for a little bit.” Dorack said. They both sighed and turned around in their beds to fall asleep.

Past midnight…

Dorack shivered quietly as he woke up slowly. He looked around, his vision blurry. As if what he was seeing was real, but also not real at the same time. He tried to stand up, but his feet were pinned down to the ground, and he was too painful to stand up. He was in some kind of subconscious state. Then, he recognized the pain. The pain that held him down in 2023 after the incident. He winced, then the world around him reformed. As it did, he heard faint screaming and coughing. There was quiet sparkling. Dorack then saw something horrible. He saw the situation he had most feared. There he was. Right in front of Codred, heartbroken after he saw Elaine die permanently in front of him. Tears trickled down Codred’s face as he held Elaine in his hands. She spoke out one last sentence, “Nothing is more powerful… than the true power… of friendship…” before her implant went dim and the gold death message appeared on everyone’s implant. Except, in this dream, it didn’t look at all like Elaine. It looked like Nal. Dorack gasped and shut his eyes to try and snap out of it. But he could not, and he heard a faint whisper. “Don’t escape the past… you can’t.”

Dorack opened his eyes, but he was still in a blank white room. Only this time, the pressure that was holding him down was gone. He could move normally now. He looked around, and all he could see was bright white light. Then suddenly, he saw another image. This time, it wasn’t the picture of the past. It was a picture of the future. In it, Dorack saw a strange sleeping pod. It had a weird, hourglass shape with some powerful essence inside. But the essence was purple-red, turning gold. It was dying. Dorack then saw the essence disappear. He heard a sound just then. Then a whisper.

“Give up… she should have died a long time ago…”

Dorack shut his eyes and screamed loudly to snap out of the dream. He knew Rod was in his head. Dorack then quickly gasped as he sat up on his bed, finally back in the normal world and out of his nightmare. He quietly gasped and looked around, worried and sweating. Rod was in his head. Dorack felt like he had to do anything it took to save Nal. Dorack sighed and stood up from his bed, quietly picking up his bag, then creeping towards Sodden’s bag, quietly taking out the cryopod that had Reaper in it. He then walked to the door, opened it slowly, stepped outside, then closed the door.

“I need to find the Aberration Kingdom. Now.” Dorack said. Dorack needed Rock Drakes if he wanted to progress faster. He left Sodden behind to protect him and he threw the cryopod on the ground, and Reaper came out. Reaper yawned as she looked around, growling softly. Dorack jumped onto her.

“We’re going to the Blue Zone now.” Dorack said. Reaper growled and ran south towards the Blue Zone. He knew where the Aberration Kingdom was, he had read the story (Author’s note: and so had the Hen, don’t worry), but could he get there safely?

—----------

A few hours after Dorack left, Sodden opened his eyes slowly. He couldn’t help but feel that something was off. He felt some chills as soon as he woke up. It was cold in the base, and Sodden sat up to look around the area. He looked at the bed beside him and gasped. Dorack was gone. And so was his bag. Sodden immediately lept up and looked into his bag to get Reaper, but Reaper was not in the bag either. Sodden gasped. Dorack had left him. There was no blood or damage on the walls, so Rock Death couldn’t have snuck in. But why would Dorack leave on his own? Sodden picked his bag up, put it on his back, slammed the door open and ran down the path. As he ran, he sent a message to Dorack, telling him where the heck he was. But he knew very well Reaper was miles faster than Sodden, so Dorack was probably halfway across the map by now. Sodden looked around the area as he ran.

Minutes passed. Dorack did not respond. Dorack was locked in and ignored the message. He didn’t care. He kept running, and Reaper kept roaring, hoping to warn Dorack that what he was doing was highly risky. Dorack was in the Blue Zone now. He was deep in it, walking deep south to find the Aberration Kingdom, which was close to the Red Zone.

After a few hours, Dorack stopped at a cliff, overlooking the Red Zone. A deep pink shimmer glowed in the far distance. The shimmer was not usual, it was more green-yellowish than pink. Dorack got off Reaper and looked over. “There it is. If I’m right, this is real. This better be real. Okay. I need to find a way to get there without getting caught.” Dorack said. Reaper grumbled quietly and put her nose to the ground, sniffing the place. Dorack looked down at her.

“What?” Dorack asked. Reaper then shot her head up and roared as she grabbed Dorack’s shirt with her mouth and threw him onto her back, then ran into a bush. She had sensed someone was coming. Dorack then heard footsteps as he crouched in the bush. Then yelling.

“I mean… how can Serenity be back? Like what is going on!”

“I’ll tell you what is going on. The Rock Death Tribe, or Drake Death, whatever the heck you want to call it, they’re triggered. They want to find them and kill them. Something’s happening.”

“Okay, so if something was happening, why have we not found details on it?”

“It’s directed towards someone else!”

“God forbid Journey Through All Creatures is here! If Serenity really is back, we have a real problem. Remember the last time she was here?”

“Oh, yeah! That tribe with Dread… uh… raided us and killed Queen Syl once?”

“Bro, that was someone else! Whatever, forget it. I’m done here. Let’s go back to the base before we get caught.”

The footsteps then dissipated. Dorack had his jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Serenity was an ally with them? Maybe Marison was and was forced out of the kingdom. They already knew that the Rock Death tribe had a terrible plan, and Dorack still didn’t understand anything about it.

He understood one thing, though:

Queen Sylveevee was here.

Meanwhile…

Marison was walking through the Blue Zone with his Megalosaur, collecting metal and blue gems. This could help him improve the base’s defenses to finish their plan. Marison had been grinding for hours. He yawned as he walked towards the east end of the Blue Zone. Then he heard yelling. There were three people arguing. Marison gasped and leaped into a bush and peeked out. He grinned at the sight of them. It was Sunhigh, Moonhigh, and one other. All part of the Aberration Kingdom. The three then stormed away. Marison chuckled.

“Well, then. Looks like things are happening. Well… wait.” Marison said, then he was interrupted by quiet rustling around 20 meters in front of him. Marison squinted his eyes and saw that one of the bushes was rustling quietly. Marison chuckled quietly.

“I know what’s going on. Dorack is trying to get to the Aberration Kingdom to get some help. Then Sodden’s gonna come and things are going to get heated. Oh, I did not think this would work.” Marison said, grinning.

Later that morning, around sunrise…

Sunrise had happened close to 2 AM. But the light did not enter the cave until at least 7 AM. By then, Sodden had exhausted almost all his food and water, but he was almost to the Red Zone. He had continued searching the Blue Zone for Dorack, but he was nowhere. Dorack never even responded to any of Sodden’s messages. Dorack had neared the edge of the Blue Zone and saw tall gates and turrets on big towers in the distance. The towers sat on the corners and edges of the walls, there were at least two of them on each wall, and in the walls was a large castle, with stone and metal structures towering high above the ground, the kingdom flag standing close to the cave ceiling. Dorack had looked up and gasped. Reaper continued to pull on Dorack’s bag, whimpering and growling. She had tried to get Dorack to turn around before he got into serious danger. Dorack was hiding behind a rock, which lay behind a wall, and around the corner was the final stone path down to the kingdom entrance. Dorack growled deeply.

“Okay, you need to stop, please. This is to save Nal. You wouldn’t understand how much she means to all of us.” Dorack whispered. He then took a cryopod out of his bag and put Reaper in it. He then locked the cryopod so Reaper wouldn’t come out herself and then put it in his bag. Dorack sighed and looked back around. The walls were huge and the gates were tall, and also locked. They were guarded by three different people. Dorack sighed deeply. “Okay. Just gotta tell them I come in peace, get some resources, and get back to the base. Completely foolproof.” Dorack said. Then he heard a yell, then a click. An arrow whizzed past his shoulder, striking the rock below him. Dorack yelped and leaped back. Then someone looked over the cliff.

“Care to explain what you’re doing here, intruder?” The person said. Dorack stammered, and was about to say something, when he heard fast footsteps.

“Dorack, what the hell!? You left without telling me and… what are you doing at this castle… thing? What’s going on!” Sodden yelled in anger as he ran straight down the path towards Dorack. Dorack stood up, and the guards looked ahead to see the two friends arguing.

“Okay, listen-” Dorack said, then he was cut off.

“This could be Rock Death’s base or something! Whatever, just come with me and we need to get home now. I’m almost out of stuff because of you!” Sodden yelled.

“Well…I have a explanation for…” Dorack said, then he was cut off by screaming and then an explosion. The guards gasped as they looked up. A body fell from the cliff and hit the ground, in front of the guards. Marison stood above them. He then turned to Dorack and Sodden.

“Oh, look who it is. Bro thinks he can just wander into our base and get away with it.” Marison sneered. Dorack gasped and Sodden growled deeply. Dorack knew Marison was lying.

“You’re telling me, I wasted over half our food and water supply, half the entire night, and I come here to see you fooling around at Dread’s base? What kind of sick idiot are you?!” Sodden yelled. Dorack stammered, trying to let out an answer, then Sodden punched him hard on the head and knocked him out instantly. He took Reaper’s cryopod out of Dorack’s bag, threw the cryopod down, and Reaper came out. Sodden put Dorack on his back, got on Reaper, and Reaper began the long trek back to the base. One of the guards was shocked.

“That was Sodden. And Dorack. Didn’t know they were actually enemies.” He said.

“Shut up. Marison probably has some kind of sick plan for these guys.” Another guard said.

“Whatever the case, we know what to do.” The third guard said.

—------------

The three guards walked through the castle, towards the center where the throne room lay. There was a red carpet stretching across the floor, and on the other end was a gold-pinkish throne with a green seat. Someone sat on it, wearing a bright yellow and red crown. She had magenta eyes, a magenta gown, and long orange pants. The guards walked to her.

“What do you want?” The queen said.

“Queen Syl… something happened outside our base. We saw Dorack and Sodden.” One of the guards said.

“They were arguing with each other because Marison showed up above our base and killed one of our scouts, then told them a lie, that this base was Dread’s base.” Another guard said.

“Not only does Marison know where we are… we believe he has some sick plan for Journey Through All Creatures.” The third guard said. The queen looked up, her eyes gaping at the guards.

“Send our reinforcements. We need to find the two friends. No way I’m letting them go down like this.” Queen Sylveevee said, determined.

To be continued…

In the Cave Chapters…

Well, heck. The chapter took 71 days. At long last it’s here, and you’re at the end. I mean, at least it’s here. Sorry it took so dang long to make. But I am done with my writer’s block, and the next chapters will come out very, very soon!

-RelatingHen8906