Under Nirvana - An ARK

Chapter 17 – Ice Breakers

Story by Bria!

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

The trip through the thick forest was dull, mundane, and frankly uninteresting. For once, the group didn’t run into any trouble with any of the dinosaurs they encountered. Even the carnivores like the Dilophosaurus and the Raptors were taken care of quickly by Bria’s newly tamed Raptor.

There was an awkward silence as they passed by tree after tree, bush after bush, herbivore after herbivore. Nova glanced at Bria again. One hand tugged at the reins, another was holding something to inspect. Nova and Twinkle shared a nod of mischief. The two ran up to see what she was looking at.

“Hey Bri–” Bria closed her hand around the item tight, slipping it back in her pocket in an instant. Nova let out a slight groan. Bria gave her a look.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering if you were going to name this guy,” Nova said, tapping her finger on the thigh of the beast. The Raptor gave no reaction to her touch. Bria shrugged.

“A name? I haven’t really thought of it.” Bria scratched her chin, trying to think of something appropriate. She studied the colors of the Raptor briefly. It was dark blue, and had green feathers on its tail and head. Orange stripes ran down its legs, and its talons were unusually small.

“Ocean, I guess?”

“That’s such a boring name!” Nova laughed.

“I think that’s a nice name.” Ruby nodded in approval. Borealis let out a ‘hmph’, crossing his arms. He clearly had something to say, but refrained himself from doing so. Nova fell back to nudge Borealis on the elbow.

“Hey. You look like you have something to name it.”

“I–” Borealis trailed off. “I don’t have any ideas.”

The colors of the Raptor were very clearly ‘off-putting’ for the valedictorian.

“Whatever you say, Bore.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Do not call me that– you know what, forget it.”

Nova smirked. Bria let out a sigh.

“Its name will be Ocean until we figure out something better. Okay?”

“It’s your Raptor, so I’ve got no objection,” Neddy reminded her.

The group fell back into silence as quickly as they fell out of it.

~

An hour of so traveling later, the group had finally made it to the coastline. There was a giant river that cut through the beaches, but it was so wide in diameter that it would be impossible to swim through. The Piranhas in the water didn’t really help.

“Ugh! We’re gonna have to go the long way, aren’t we?” Nova sighed. “How’d you even get to the forest, Bri?”

“Through the swamp. But going through with us all isn’t a great idea. We should get to camp through the seas. Ruby, I assume you know how to build us a raft?”

“I…” Ruby trailed off, clicking the dots with her implant attribute. She nodded swiftly. “Yeah I do. Wood, plant fibers, and animal hide. Though, we have plenty to hide already, so we should focus on the first two materials.”

Ruby reached for her pouch to make some basic tools. Borealis scanned the beach for the resources they’d need. There were a good amount of skinny palm trees and lush bushes to provide them what they required.

Soon, Ruby had given each of the members a pickaxe and hatchet each. Neddy held onto his hatchet awkwardly.

“Um, okay…” Neddy said. “I’m going to get resources.”

“Let’s get into groups,” Bria suggested. “We’ll gather the resources faster that way.”

“Yeah! Yeah, good idea,” Neddy said. Ruby looked at Neddy pleadingly.

“Um, maybe you should rest,” Neddy told her. “You’re already building the raft after all.”

“Right, right.” Ruby nodded, fastening her tools on her belt again. Neddy looked between Bria, then at Nova, and then at Borealis. He trembled when he locked eyes with the man.

“Uh…” he looked at Nova. “I’ll go with N–”

“Me?” Bria said, stepping forward. “Thanks. I didn’t think I’d be picked. We’ll go collect fiber.”

“Er– um, yeah…” Neddy said in awkward defeat. The two walked off and began to pull at the bushes in the ground. Nova rubbed her face in annoyance. Borealis huffed, walking off to a nearby tree.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

Twinkle squawked, shaking his head in disapproval. Nova set the dodo bird down on the ground.

“This will be quick, little man. Go hang out with Ruby and Ocean until I’m finished.”

Before sending him off, Nova reached into her pockets and took out an assortment of berries for the bird. She tossed them to the ground near Ruby.

“Ruby has more, if you finish.”

Twinkle hummed. If dodos could smile, Twinkle certainly was. He ran off and began picking them off the sand with his beak. Nova sighed.

“He reminds me of Samuel.”

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! The sound of a hatchet slamming into the tree drove itself into Nova’s ears. She turned to see Borealis already hard at work chopping a tree down. In just a matter of seconds, the entire log collapsed to the ground.

BOOM! The large thud made Neddy screech. Nova walked up with her own hatchet in hand. Thwack! Thwack! She began splitting the tree up evenly into large chunks for Ruby to use later. Borealis began working on another nearby tree.

“So your favorite ice cream flavor’s really vanilla?” Nova smirked.

He grimaced in response. “This is pointless.”

“I’m just asking! It still feels really stupid. That didn’t sound like a real answer back there.”

“Argh,” Borealis said. “I left the… ‘favorites’ to…”

Nova didn’t press him further about it. She already knew who he was referring to.

“Well you better find a favorite one day– Bore. Now. I may as well tell you my favorite things,” Nova said. She looked up at the skies with a ‘whew’ when she finished chopping up one of the trees. “My favorite ice cream flavor? Definitely peanut butter jelly.”

“That’s– that’s not an ice cream flavor.”

“Yes it is. You just haven’t looked hard enough.” Nova wiggled her finger. “The old lady near the school had all sorts of unique tastes if you just asked.”

“Well I don’t really go out of my way to buy sweets.”

“You should. It might liven you up for once.”

BOOM! Another tree fell down next to Nova. She walked over to that tree to chop it up too.

“And your favorite animal?” Borealis questioned.

“Easy. Iguanas.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really! They’re cool. I’d like a pet iguana one day. Wouldn’t you?”

“No… not really.”

“Bummer. They match your personality.”

THWACK! BOOM! Another tree fell as soon as Nova finished chopping up the one she was on. Nova shifted her position and drove her hatchet into the wood again. Borealis continued to speak.

“You know, with a personality like that, I would have expected to know you sooner than now.”

“Oh?” Nova said, stopping in her tracks.

“You never took any of the hard classes, did you? Nor did you apply yourself by enrolling in any extracurricular… you were one of those kids weren’t you? Just living school life day to day, with no responsibilities or troubles.”

Thwack! “Yeah. Yeah I was. What’s it to you?”

“Hm,” Borealis hummed. “Nothing. I was just curious. That’s all. But you never told me your favorite flower.”

Thwack! “Oh yeah. I asked you that, didn’t I? You said ‘dandelions’. Ha! Well, my favorite flowers are definitely the Jade Vine. You know what that is?”

Borealis didn’t answer.

“I’m going to take that as a no.” Nova piled the wood together, scooping up as much as she could into her arms. “Okay, that should be enough? We’ll get more if we need to. Come on. Help me bring this over to Ruby.”

But Borealis was unable to move. His hands trembled like they never had before. His heart was hammering against his chest, his throat was closing up. He fell to a knee, shakily picking the log bits one by one. Nova’s words rang through his head over, and over, and over again. ‘Good boy!’ Borealis wanted to gag at what Nova had said then, but nothing came but the tightening of his heart.

“Control yourself, swine,” he thought to himself. He spotted flowers growing out of the ground in the corner of his eye. Dandelions.

“Do not forget what you did.”