Chapter 30: Alpha Ambush

Now it’s really fixed

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

Chapters to the end of Segment II: 7

WARNING: Another bloody scene lies in this chapter. Again, proceed at your own risk!

Day 8 on Scorched Earth

A week had passed since the crazy first day on Scorched Earth. The survivors had upgraded their base. The base went from being a wooden box with a small porch to a expanded, stone circular base that had a box on the back, which had a gateway on the right side. The dino pen. There was a sloped roof on the pen and a tower-like roof on the main base. The base had a larger door, and inside was more rooms. To the left was a bedroom, with more beds and some preserving bins. To the right was the kitchen where there were now cooking pots. And next to it was the forge room, with around 20 forges and a smithy. Most of the group had gotten to Level 40. Soon, they could get better weapons. Rod had gone out to collect resources for a wall around the base. It was noon on the hot 8th day of Scorched Earth. Sodden, Serenity, Nal, and Dorack had bags filled with metal, stone, wood, and fiber. The four took out their piles of metal and placed them in some of the forges. As they started lighting the forges with metal, Dorack walked to the wall that had no forges.

“We should put a map up here. It’ll help us find caves easier.” Dorack said.

“Okay. That’s a good idea, we just gotta find the caves. Then we can mark them on the map for later.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded and walked out of the room. “Should we go hunt? I mean, we have good food, but what we don’t have is a good supply of soups and narcotics. We arre getting piles and piles of narcoberries but we don’t have a good amount of spoiled meat.” Nal suggested.

“That’s decent. We can find a carnivore to tame. I think a low level Rex should suffice for now.” Sodden said. Serenity walked up to him.

“We’ve been here a week and we’re making great progress.” Serenity said. She was about to say something else when they heard a dinosaur call. It sounded like a Parasaur. “What?” Dorack said. The four walked to the dino pen. They opened the door and walked into the pen, and saw the Parasaur just left of them calling and making a noise as it nodded its head up and down. “That noise normally means it detected an emeny nearby. Probably just a normal herbivore.” Dorack said. “Or it might be a carnivore. We gotta check.” Sodden added. The others nodded and walked into the base. They closed the door behind them, then Nal and Dorack took out a crossbow, pulled back the strings, inserted an arrow on it, then walked to the front door. They saw a weird red haze in one of the left wall windows. “Uh…” Dorack said. “Wait.” Sodden said, his eyes gaping. He squinted them closer to the haze. Nal put her hand on the door, and yanked it open. “Guys, NO! That’s-” Sodden shouted, but it was too late. An Alpha Raptor leaped and swung its claw, almost splitting Nal’s chest. Nal jumped back and screamed as she shut the door closed. It hit the claw, and the Raptor did not like it. Nal was gasping, her hand on her chest, as she walked to the pen. Everyone followed her. They opened the door, walked into the pen, and closed it. Then they heard a loud shattering noise. “What?!” Nal yelled, breathing hard. “The Alpha Raptor is here already!? An hour ago, it was almost a kilometer away from here!!” Sodden yelled. “You catch anything while the door was open?” Serenity asked Dorack.

“I did see a weird corpse. Very small. Had wings, though.” Dorack responded.

“Looks like it chased a high level microraptor all the way here. No other way it could’ve gotten here so fast.” Sodden said. “Guys! Level?” Dorack asked as he pointed to the window. “Right. That has to be a low level.” Sodden said. He whistled and Reaper walked from behind the Morellatops with a red spot. The red spot was about to expire, but there was another Morellatops with it and they were bred together, and the survivors were hatching a egg from them. Reaper growled as it walked to Sodden. Sodden stood up and got on Reaper, then walked to the gate, opened it, then walked through it and closed it. Sodden quietly went to a window, and saw the Alpha Raptor growling as it walked through the kitchen, sniffing the preserving bins, storage boxes, and cooking pots. Sodden reached into his bag and took out a spyglass. He looked through it, then immediately covered his mouth with his hand as he gasped quietly. “Oh, no. That’s just bad. That’s really bad.” Sodden said worryingly. He shook his head as he walked back into the dino pen. He walked into the pen, closed the gate again, then walked to his friends. “So… what is it?” Dorack said. Sodden was silent for a few seconds.

“We have a Level 150 Alpha Raptor inside of our own base.” Sodden said. Everyone gasped loudly and immediately ran to the window just next to the door. Serenity took her spyglass out and looked through the window with it. “He’s not joking.” Serenity said. “That’s terrible.” Dorack said. “The wolves would decimate a low level Alpha. Maybe… maybe the pack alpha left the wolves alone and thought they would come with him when he saw an Alpha Raptor. The wolves stayed, because they were distracted with Dorack and Nal, and forgot about the raptor. The wolves knew the raptor was a really high level, so they did not want to mess with it.” Sodden said. “Okay, well, then why did the Level 85 attack the Alpha Raptor?” Serenity asked. “Maybe… maybe it was just blind and forgot what the raptor’s level was. Somehow, the pack alpha saw the level of the raptor.” Sodden said. “Or maybe knew about it. I’m pretty sure wolves can sense the level of creatures. At Snowball, I used a wolf to detect the level of a yeti that broke into our base, since it was too dangerous to use my spyglass next to it. Really helped us.” Dorack said “I did not know that. How does it even…” Sodden said, shocked. “Not sure. We never really figured out why.” Dorack said. Then they heard deep growling and purring. Sodden, Dorack, and Nal walked closer to the door and put their ear against it. They could hear sniffing. “The raptor’s sniffing the door.” Sodden whispered. “We can’t outrun it with our raptors.” Serenity said. Sodden and Dorack walked to the gate, and Nal and Serenity followed. The creatures inside the pen looked down at the survivors. “Guys… there’s a max level Alpha Raptor in that base. We need to leave.” Sodden said. “But where are we gonna hide them?” Serenity said. Then they heard quiet screeching and scratching. “No idea, but we need to leave.” Sodden said. Then he whistled for all the creatures to follow. Sodden and Serenity got on Reaper, Nal and Dorack got on the low level, and all the creatures followed them out of the gate. Then the raptor started bashing its head against the door. The gate was closed, and just in time too. The raptor kept bashing his head against the door until it started cracking. The raptor stopped, then leaped at it and swung its front claws. They immediately shattered the door. The creatures could hear it. “GO!” Sodden yelled. The creatures were running from the raptor as it began to sniff the pen.

~~~~

Day 60 of ARKtic

33 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape

“The Near-Finality”

A dodo trilled as it walked along the rocky ground, the barren, cold lands of Snowball’s center. As it walked, it heard roaring. It screeched and walked away, then some wolves dashed right in front of it across the ground. The dodo was pushed back. Then another wolf came. Nal and Dorack were both on their wolf, being chased by a lone wolf.

“Oh, god.” Nal said, gasping. The wolf was running fast, and starting to slightly catch up. Nal and Dorack could see their cabin-like base in the distance, around 300 meters away.

“We’re almost there! We gotta keep it busy until we can find a way to kill it!” Dorack said. Nal nodded. The wild wolf chasing them was a Level 450, a max level on this Ark. Nal and Dorack were wearing ascendant flak armor, around 1200 on both chestpieces, and a total of 4500 armor. That was very good, and it also helped them stay warm against the cold. But the leggings they had were very terrible with its durability, so the wolf would easily crush the two survivors if they got caught off guard and without caution. When they were just meters from the door of the base, the two survivors led the wolf to a rock, and the wild wolf followed. Then the tamed wolf both survivors were on ran at the rock as the wolf was within biting range of the tamed wolf. Then it made a sharp turn inches from the rock and made a U-turn. They ran to the door. The 450 wolf hit the rock hard, and it backed up, dizzy and exhausted. Nal and Dorack were panting in exhaustion, so was the wolf. They put the tamed wolf in a cryopod, walked into their cabin and went up the stairs to the second floor. To the left was a large room with storage boxes and some armor stands, some with fur, some with flak, two were empty as it held the flak armor Nal and Dorack were wearing. There was also a curtain on the back of the room for changing into a new set of armor. “Okay. What now?” Nal said. “We need weapons.” Dorack said. Then they heard loud shattering, causing the two to yell out and turn around quickly. “Okay. Get the swords.” Dorack said. Nal nodded, and the two walked to a storage box sat between the two empty armor stands, opened it, and Nal took out two swords. She gave one to Dorack. “Let’s go.” Nal said. Dorack nodded and walked to the stairs, then as he was going down, something hit him hard in the head, causing him to lose consciousness almost instantly and fall down the stairs, unconscious. “Oh, no.” Nal said. She jumped behind the curtain, holding her sword to her chest, and covering her mouth as she stood against the corner of the wall, her back against the curtain. The wolf growled as it walked upstairs. It sniffed the ground. It growled softly as it walked to the empty armor stands. They stood against the wall opposite to the curtains. It then looked to there and sniffed around. Nal could feel her heart accelerating with fear. Nal was gasping softly but quickly. Dorack had a small scratch on his forehead, but the armor protected him mostly. He moved his head, groaning as he started to wake up. The wolf sniffed the curtains, then walked to the opening. Nal pointed the sword at the wolf as she turned her head away. She looked forward again as the wolf growled, staring at Nal deeply. It growled deeply and loudly, at this point snarling. “Oh, god. No… no, please…” Nal gasped. Her hands were shaking badly. Dorack walked up, his head hurting, then he heard a screech, then screaming. The wolf leaped to the side, knocked the sword out of Nal’s hand and bit her armor, then Nal screamed as she tried to throw it off, but the armor started getting cracked. The wolf’s claws were sinking deeply into the armor. Nal was knocked down, and the wolf pulled down her chestpiece and sunk his teeth deeply into Nal’s upper chest. Nal let out a gasp, blood spurted out of her chest, and her mouth filling up with blood. It was choking her. Nal couldn’t breathe. She could feel everything slipping away. Dorack ran quickly to the wolf and stabbed its neck with his sword. The wolf had a strong grip, though, and did not let go of Nal. Nal’s arms were getting cracked and bloodied, her body starting to slow. Her health was detoriating. Dorack kept stabbing the wolf until it finally detached its mouth from Nal’s chest. Blood was spilled on the ground, and also on the walls. Dorack then picked up the wolf. “You might’ve just cost me my best friend. You are the worst wolf in this universe.” Dorack growled. He threw the wolf across the room, picked up a barely breathing, severely injured Nal, then ran downstairs. The wolf was knocked out from the sword stabbing his neck and heart, and would soon perish. In that instant, Nal, who had some godly armor, deteriorated from 390 HP to 50 in literal seconds.

~~~~

Sodden led his creature group and his friends west, towards the mountains. Rod was on a Lymantria, flying down the mountain with supplies, when he noticed the group running. Rod gasped and flew towards them. “Guys!” Rod called out. Sodden looked around and looked up to see Rod coming. Then everyone stopped running and Rod came down to the ground. “What’s happening?” Rod asked nervously. “There’s a max level Alpha Raptor in our base.” Sodden said. Rod gasped. “Oh, no. How will we-” Rod asked, then Dorack interrupted.

“We are going to tame it.” Dorack said. Everyone gasped. “No, you can’t. We don’t have cataprime, remember?” Rod asked. “Normal meat still works, but it is a lot slower. But it seems like the only option.” Dorack said. Nal put her hand on Dorack’s shoulder.

“We could try. But we should be careful.” Nal said. “Okay. Let’s get down to something. These are normal Alphas, not modded ones. They will take a lot longer to tame. I’m pretty sure you gotta earn their loyalty or something.” Sodden said. “Yeah, it needs to think you’re worthy of such power. So it’ll let you fight it. If you get it down to 50% HP, it will get a green glow on its tail, that’s when you start feeding it. But to start the process, you need around 5 prime meat for a max level alpha raptor. But for normal meat it’s way worse. Four stacks, approximately.” Dorack said. Everyone gasped. “Well, better get hunting, shall we?” Sodden said. “Wait a second! How will we know it won’t just leap at our creatures the second it finds us?” Rod asked. Sodden turned to him.

“We will get into a trap and lure it that way. We will be able to get it easily that way.” He said. Rod nodded.

“I do have materials for a trough. I’ll find a place to get the trough down. You get the meat.” Rod said. Everyone nodded. “Good plan.” Dorack said. “I’ll stay with our creatures.” Sodden said. “No way you’re doing that alone.” Serenity said as she hopped off Reaper. Sodden got off too. He put his hand on Serenity’s shoulder. “Okay, then Dorack and Nal will get the meat. We’ll stay here.” Sodden said. Serenity nodded, smiling. “I like that idea.” Serenity said. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” Rod yelled. He then took off on his moth and went to the base. Nal and Dorack got off their raptor, walked to the wolf they tamed recently, got on it, and set out south.

~~~~

20 seconds after attack…

Dorack, who held Nal in his hands, ran towards the bedroom, which had a bed at the back of the room, near a window, and a storage box next to it, and he set Nal down onto the bed. Nal was barely conscious and was very low on HP. There was a huge opening on her chest, which was from the wolf’s bite. There was a major amount of blood pouring out of that wound. Dorack ran to the storage box and opened it. He took out some gauze pads, two rolls of bandage, and walked to Nal. He put the gauze pads on the edges of the wound, then ripped a strip of bandages and pressed it down on the wound. She was not breathing well. She was down to 43 HP already. Dorack had to be fast, otherwise she would die and Dorack would be alone. Dorack was desperate to save his friend. The health was at 40 now. Detoriating at .14 HP per second, Dorack had to stop the bleeding now. The bandages were slowing it down well, but her throat was red, and looked swollen. Dorack looked into her mouth and saw a ton of blood inside. “Oh, my god.” Dorack said. The damage the wolf had caused was extreme. Nal’s arms were very badly damaged. Dorack wrapped bandages on the arms, ripped the strip from the rest of the roll, then walked to the other side. He took another long strip, ripped it from the roll, and wrapped it around Nal’s right arm. Nal started making terrible noises. Dorack gasped. She was losing health faster. Dorack immediately moved her into the recovery position and smacked her back with his hand five times. Nal was coughing blood out, and her chest was very broken. She was losing health slower now. But there was blood on the blanket now. Dorack pulled it away and took another from the storage box, and wrapped it around Nal. Dorack then lifted her up and she was sitting up, then Dorack moved his fist to Nal’s stomach, and softly pounded against it. Nal coughed all the blood out, and she wasn’t choking now. The main problem was the chest wound. Dorack lay her back down and took another gauze pad, then pressed it down softly on the center of her upper chest, where the wound’s center was. Then he noticed that Nal had stopped losing HP. She was on 32.4 HP now. But her health was not going up either. The bandage roll wouldn’t hold for long, either. Dorack had to find a way to stop the bleeding. “I swear to the Overseer I will kill myself if I need to tell Nudon- no. They’ll know already. They’ll see the death message of gold. It’ll crush everyone. Sal will be crushed to hear this. So will Red and Cendor and Denine and Paul and Tedan and Rick and so many other people.” Dorack muttered under his voice, worried and scared.

~~~~

Nal and Dorack ran across the desert, looking for creatures. After a few minutes, they saw a few Morellatops, a Paracer, and some direwolves roaring as they ran at the Paracer. Dorack and Nal nodded at each other and their wolf leaped at a Morellatops. The Morellatops roared as it tried to attack and throw off the attackers, but the wolf was biting hard and the pack was a low level too. The Morellatops soon collapsed from the wolf’s deep bite, then two others ran at the wolf. Nal and Dorack took out their crossbows and launched the arrows into the heads of the Morellatops. They screeched as their eyes collapsed and they stopped, and roared as they ran around, blinded. Nal and Dorack led their wolf onto the Morellatops and knocked it down, then sunk its teeth deep into the hump. The wolf ripped out a chunk of its skin, and the water camel stopped breathing after. The last Morellatops roared in fear as it ran away. The wolves attacking the Paracer were getting bloodied and very bruised, and were running out of energy. But so was the Paracer. Its legs were shaking a little. The wolves were walking slowly, and the Paracer roared as it stood over the wolves. It roared to stop them from attacking any more, and the wolves didn’t care and leaped one last time to attack the Paracer, then they bit its legs, causing it to roar in pain. Its front legs lost the ground for too long and it began to lose balance. The Paracer then roared as it kicked a back leg at a wolf, and it got hit in the head and it was thrown back, into a cactus, and it screeched weakly one last time before collapsing and going limp. There were still two wolves. Nal and Dorack readied some arrows, and launched them at the wolves. The Paracer then roared as it crashed into the ground, and the wolves were biting at the Paracer, ripping up its skin and neck. The arrows made contact with the wolves’ necks, and they choked as they fell over. Nal and Dorack high fived each other and walked to the Paracer. “Okay. Let’s do this.” Dorack said. “That should be at least 4 stacks worth of meat. Enough for the raptor.” Nal said. “I’ll let them know.” Dorack said. He looked at his left arm, pulled it closer to his eyes, then put his right hand on his implant and pressed a button on the bottom, a recorder you can use to send a message to tribemates. “We got a dead Paracer here. Bring the raptor here, okay? Be careful. This needs to work.” Dorack said to the implant. He pressed the button again, stopping the recording and sending the message.

Sodden was with Serenity, near their creatures, when they got a ding on their implants. They looked at them and saw a message. “Okay. Dorack and Nal got the bait. How will we lead the raptor there?” Sodden said. “Rod. Rod can fly his Lymantria. He can’t out-fly the raptor but he can stay above him to stop the raptor attacking.” Serenity suggested. “Perfect.” Sodden said. The two got on Reaper, they whistled for their creatures to follow, and the group started walking. Sodden looked at his implant, moved it closer to his eyes, pressed the button on it to start a message, and said, “Rod, can you lead the Alpha Raptor to Nal and Dorack’s position?” Then he sent the message and stopped the recording.

~~~~

8 hours after attack…

New moon. That was what covered Snowball the night of Day 60. A thick blanket of darkness lay on the Ark. Dorack had run out of fuel in his base, so it was dark in there except for the few standing torches he had. He had no gasoline to fuel a forge or fabricator. He held Nal’s bandaged hand, sitting next to her and holding some fresh bandages down on it. Dorack had used his implant essence to collect advanced status on a survivor, which includes blood amount, health amount down to the hundredths, and other things. Dorack was sitting there, panting nervously for 2 hours, until his implant beeped loudly, a red glow emitted from the ball inside. Dorack pressed it, and he got the status. But it was terrible. Nal was on 12.24 HP. She was losing health by the second, and the blood amount proved why. She only had 4 pints inside her body. She needed at least 6 to survive. Nal’s bandages were beginning to give out, and the wound was slightly stitched together but it wouldn’t hold for long. One second passed. 12.11. Another passed. 12.01. This was terrible. Dorack ran to the storage box on the other side of the room and opened it. He took out a syringe. He was gasping as he held it tightly. He softly pushed it deeply into his leg, and blood filled up the syringe. It held one pint at a time. Dorack had to do this one more time. Dorack took the syringe out and put a bandage on it, then got up and ran to Nal, who was on 10.07 HP. She was about to fall below 10 HP. Dorack inserted the syringe into her shoulder and it launched some blood into the body. 5 pints in. But the poorly stitch wound and bandages were breaking. 9.51 HP!! Dorack yelled as he took some bandages and gauze pads and held them down on the wound on her chest. The blood started slowing down a lot, but her heart was slowing down and not pumping blood well because of how little pints there were. 8.90 HP! Dorack put the syringe in his chest and blood flowed into it. He shouted in pain, then took out the syringe and pressed it into Nal’s left chest, inches from her heart. As he launched blood into Nal’s body, her health kept detoriating. 7.20 HP already! Dorack saw that the blood was not flowing fast enough, so he ran to the box and got out the defibrillator. It would help her a lot. But she was at 10 BPM and 5.91 HP now. Dorack’s hands shook. Seconds passed by, and he put the pads on Nal’s right and left chest. Then his hands were resting on the handles. 5.01 HP. “Clear!” Dorack yelled as he pulled the handles, sending shocks through Nal’s body. Her heart rate sped up for a second there, but slowed again. The defibrillator was heating a little, but Dorack did not care. He sent another shock, and it did good, but the wounds were opening. 3.67 HP!! Dorack took out the last group of gauze pads and a few rolls of bandages, ripped off a long strip of bandages, and pressed them down onto the chest after putting down the defibrillator. Her health was declining slower now. 3.10 HP! Seconds passed. 2.40. 1.99. 1.80. The shocks weren’t doing much. Dorack was sweating, panting in fear. He was on the brink of Nal’s finality. The verge of losing his best friend. Dorack picked up the defibrillator. “Please work… please… PLEASE…” Dorack gasped as he put the device on Nal’s chest. He turned up the shock. The HP was down to 1.02. 0.99. 0.90. Dorack pulled the handles and they sent a huge shock through Nal’s body. 0.60. 0.54. 0.50. 0.45. The massive shock shook her body hard, sent her heart rate up and made it pump the fresh blood through. The wound was stable again. Then suddenly… the decline stopped. The HP started increasing - exactly the result Dorack wanted. Dorack was gasping as he fell over. “Oh, my god. Thank god.” Dorack gasped in relief.

0.07 HP. That was where it stopped. If it wasn’t for that large heart rate surge, Nal would’ve died before the blood got a chance to flow properly. Dorack was speechless. He was relieved, however, Nal was still alive. 0.07 HP was the lowest HP amount any survivor got to and survived.

See the aftermath of Nal’s awakening at the end of the chapter!

~~~~

Sodden, Serenity, and their creature group had found Nal and Dorack after a few minutes. They had put up a stone gate near the Paracer. The stone gate was a box, that had a big opening where they would put up a gate and gateway when the raptor entered. There was also a window so the raptor could have air and get the Paracer corpse. As the group waited, they saw a notification on their implant. Rod was coming.

Rod flew on his moth above the raptor, who was roaring and jumping up. Rod flew the moth west as the raptor followed, trying to get the moth. But the moth was flying too high and the raptor couldn’t get it. Soon, the trap came into sight. Rod flew into it, the raptor roaring as it leaped at the moth. The moth dodged as it made a sharp turn, leaving the gate. Sodden placed down the gate, then when the raptor hit the wall on its head and slowed down, he also placed the gateway. The raptor roared in anger.

“Okay. DO IT!” Sodden yelled at the creatures. The creatures roared as they ran to the window, grabbing the raptor’s neck and claws. The raptor scratched at them, biting them and screeching. But the creatures overwhelmed it. And the minimal space the raptor had to attack was making it worse. Then Sodden ran around, and saw a green glow.

“Everyone stop!” Sodden yelled. The creatures let go of the raptor, roaring as it tried to get out the window. Sodden and the others ran to the Paracer corpse, and pulled its legs. They groaned as they pulled it to the raptor. The Alpha Raptor purred as it saw the Paracer. It licked its lips, and opened its mouth. Dorack noticed this.

“Guys, raptor wants the Paracer!” Dorack yelled.

“That’s what we want!” Sodden yelled. They pulled the Paracer to the front of the window, and then Sodden took out a metal hatchet. He then swung it hard at the window, shattering the bulletproof glass. The raptor purred as it looked out the window and started munching down on the paracer. “Perfect. Now we wait.” Sodden said. Nal gasped and walked closer to the raptor. She saw a paw hanging above it, with a weird ring forming around it. “I think that’s the taming process.” Nal said.

“It is.” Sodden said. After the raptor ate the whole Paracer, it was full and satisfied as it screeched and ran to the gate. The process meter was full, and the message, “You tamed an Alpha Raptor (Level 150)!” was shown. The group ran to the gateway and opened the doors. The raptor roared as it ran out, then walked around Sodden, purring. Dorack chuckled.

“I think it likes you.” Dorack said, smiling. Sodden rolled his eyes, happy. He petted the raptor. “Rod, you get any metal?” Sodden asked.

“Yeah. Got a decent amount. We’re gonna go smelt it now. Let’s do this. Grinding for victory!” Rod yelled. Everyone cheered in excitement. Then they led their creatures back east.

~~~~

16 hours after Attack

Day 61 of ARKtic

32 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape

The sun slowly rose above the horizon, its rays of light sweeping away the darkness. Inside the base, Dorack slept, lying with Nal on the bed, who had stitches on her wound and bandages on her arms. Dorack had his arm on her shoulder. Nal opened her eyes slowly, gasping softly. Dorack woke up just then.

“Oh… you’re finally up.” Dorack said, excited.

“I… I saw the Creator. I thought I was gonna die… but you saved me.” Nal said. Dorack chuckled. Nal turned her head to Dorack.

“I saved you, yes. Day 61 begins. Why don’t we blast our flares off, like we do on each morning to signal a new day on Snowball.” Dorack said. They both embraced each other. Dorack was just relieved and happy to have his best friend back.

—-----

…

You…

You’re nearly to Aberration segment…

I hope you’re prepared for what will happen then…

Will set the stage for Segment 4, 5, 6, 7…

And eventually, the finality of Journey Through All Creatures.

Prepare for Halfway… 6 chapters to go.

—-------

That was a paragraph hinting at the Aberration segment. Anyway, sorry about that bloody scene. If you don’t like them, I can scrap them.

Anyway, see you in 31, where we start the Cave Chapters of Scorched Earth!!

-RelatingHen8906

-Chapter 73-

You are my sunshine…

Crimsons eyes opened. Darkness stretched through the den, everyone in the cave sleeping soundly. Crimson rolled over to get a better look at the entrance, where a small amount of moonlight shone through. Few hours to dawn. A cold breeze flew through the cave, cool and chilling against Crimsons scales. She rubbed her eyes with her wrists, still feeling very, very tired.

Why did she even bother trying to sleep? She hadn’t gotten any real rest for days, and all of these crowded and claustrophobic catastrophes were not helping with anything.

My only… sunshine…

Agh. Rust began to snore from the corner of the cave. Crimson rolled her eyes and climbed around Spark and Nyx, her tail dragging behind her, as she made her way to the caves entrance. She needed some air.

You make me

happy

when skies are gray…

Crimson stepped out of the burrow, lifting her snout to the ice-cold air. The thin, claw-shaped moon beamed down on her. she closed her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh through her nose.

Then she heard something… something echoing from far away.

You’ll never know dear…

Crimson froze.

How much I love you…

No.

Please don’t take my sunshine away.

She turned in a slow circle, searching for the source as the song went on. At last, she stopped, listening to the words as they were sung her way. Slowly, she went towards the music, acrossed the clearing, passed a few burrows, down a tunnel…

Around the corner and into a small cave.

A Shadowmane lay against the back wall of the cave, a baby Shadowmane curled up beside her. She set one paw over it, singing the song Crimson had known all her life.

Crimson stood there, watching the Shadowmane.

“…You make me happy, when skies are…” She noticed Crimson standing in the entrance and looked up in surprise.

The two stared at each other for a few short seconds. “You’re one of the Five,” The Shadowmane said.

“I guess so,” Crimson answered quietly.

“Can I help you?” The other carnivore asked.

Crimson shook her head. “No, I just—” she swallowed silently. “You have a very beautiful voice.” She said truthfully.

The Shadowmane smiled. “Thankyou. It’s one of my favorite songs. My parents would sing it to me all the time.”

Crimsons eyes unfocused, staring into space. “Mine too.”

“They must be very nice parents.”

“Yeah.” Crimson said softly. “They were.”

***

the other night dear

as I lay sleeping…

I dreamed I held you

In my arms…

When I awoke dear

I was mistaken.

So I hung my head

And I cried.

(The first book starts in achatina and continues in abc order and then the second and third follow it)

Riddles of the Phoenixes series

Through the eyes of the Dark phoenixes.

Chapter fifteen: Dinner.

Cyra came running up. She looked at Jack’s slightly purple face. “Are you okay Jack?” Cyra asked. Jack nodded. Cyrus gave her a fake smile and they walked together down the hall to the dining room. Nora and William were already seated at the table. Cyrus sat in between Cyra and Jack. They all ate in silence. Their was steak, potato soup, vegetables, and bread. Cyrus ate his meat and then for some reason pushed his plate away leaving the vegetables and bread still on his plate. Sweat snaked down the side of Cyrus’ face. Jack felt uncomfortable sitting next to him. Jack pushed his food around with his fork to make it look like he was eating until he saw Cyra’s glare from her spot at the table. Jack gulped and tried to swallow a spoonful of potatoes but only succeeded in almost choking himself. Cyrus was breathing rather heavily in Jack’s ear. Suddenly Cyrus’ medallion began to glow a menacing black. William pushed back his empty plate. “Well, I’m stuffed. Cyrus, you look peaky. Would you like to go take a night walk in the fresh air with me?” William asked casually. Cyrus nodded and they walked out. They walked quickly through the city and then through the giant gates. William turned to the guard who was opening and closing the gate. “Whatever you do do NOT open this gate for anyone until I say so. Understand?” William asked seriously. The guard nodded.

Jack sighed with relief as soon as Cyrus left the table. Cyra watched them go with a worried look on her face. Jack studied his glass of water. It looked normal enough. No grayish tinge to it. Jack picked it up and swallowed a large gulp of water. Then another. And another. Then the glass was empty. Outside a loud wolf howl cried.

Jack glanced at Cyra. Her medallion was hanging around her neck, glistening in the moonlight shining in from the window. “What are-are-are y’all’s medallion powers?” Jack asked. “Mine is speed.” Cyra said quietly. “And I can heal people.” Nora said. “And bring back memories. But most powerful phoenixes can do that anyway.” They didn’t mention Cyrus’ power but Jack didn’t mind. He had had enough of Cyrus for the day. The man had threatened to kill him for Pete’s sake! Jack pushed back his plate and walked away from the table. As he was headed to his room he saw a book lying open on a chair and a tiny purple snail with a brown shell, a achatina, was inching its way across the book as if it was slowly reading it. (🤣) Jack shook his head and kept walking until he entered his room. He sat on his windowsill(they had replaced the glass with some substance that couldn’t break.) and gazed out into the night. The moon shone high that night and the stars twinkled brightly. Jack sighed. Where was Jay now? Probably blaming Jack for all his woes. Jack scowled. What was Jay’s problem? Always blaming Jack. Technically it was Jay’s fault because he told Jack to take care of Josephina and Jaquin. Jack sighed.

-SunnyFox57

I started crystal isles official and found out they kept the desert biome, so I hoped in gcm and looked for deathworms to kill so I could tame a mantis or two when after 4 hours of searching I found out they don't spawn on map so the mantis is only useful for organic poly rip four hours of searching

I never tamed a mantis before cuz I always get killed by one, after I killed a deathworm I went straight to taming a mantis, so when I went to a nearby wyvern ravine in ragnarok and tried to find mantises, but when I saw one I paused the game and figured out how to tame it, once I knew how I put a sleeping bag and went to it with the horn on my last hotbar and tried to go behind it but when I was 3ft away it attacked me with his jump attacked and killed me even when I was in ghillie armor, from then on I kill mantises for their organic polymer.