i was playing ark and i was with my tricaratops named trike we where hunting parasurs we found one neer a forest we killed the parasurs but the meganuras came out of the forest killed me my trike and ate the parusar. the moral of the story is if you kill something near a forest they will come

Under Nirvana - An ARK

Chapter 16 – Conflict

Story by Bria!

Find the last chapter in ONYC and the next chapter in MANTICORE.

“She must be fun so far, huh?” Bria said, leaning in close to study Borealis’ reaction. Borealis stiffened, his jaw clenching tightly.

“She’s an annoyance at best,” Borealis muttered, stepping forward to catch up with Nova. Bria let out a hum of acknowledgement, quickly following in his footsteps.

“An annoyance? That’s a bit cruel to say of your partner, don’t you think?”

“Partner–” Borealis paused, turning back with a slight glare. “We’re not partners!”

“Oh… I must have mistaken you two for someone else. I could have sworn you two were partners.”

“Don’t push it,” Borealis muttered. “Let’s just get moving.”

“HEY GUYS!” Nova shouted at Ruby and Neddy. The two heads turned. Ruby scoffed as Borealis entered into their view.

“Oh. Hey, Nova, Borealis. What happened? You two just bailed on us,” Ruby asked, more curious than confrontational. Neddy’s implant glowed a little brighter when Bria emerged from the treelines. He gulped loudly, scooting closer to Ruby’s side. Ruby’s eyes darted to Bria as she waved.

“And who is this?”

“Don’t mind me,” Bria told her. “Do your thing. I’ll be waiting.”

Bria leaned against a nearby tree. Nova sighed, giving Borealis a sly look.

“Sooo, should I tell them, or do you wanna?” Nova said teasingly. Twinkle chirped quietly in response. Borealis murmured something incoherent under his breath.

“What was that? I can’t hear you… you need to speak up.”

“Calm down, I said that it was a misinput,” Borealis said loudly.

“What was a misinput?” Ruby questioned, stepping closer. Her hand clenched into a fist. The beam of red fireflies behind her casted an intimidating glow on her figure. Borealis tensed up further, his breath rising.

“I ran. So, what of it? Any of you would do the same in my boots.”

“You ran, are you serious right now?” Ruby laughed. “Ha! That’s hilarious!”

“Ruby… let’s just save it for another day. We’re all safe now–”

“No, Neddy. Borealis needs to hear this, and hear this closely,” Ruby spat. “What he did was unacceptable, especially since he claimed to be our so-called leader.”

“Well,” Neddy chuckled. “That is true, isn’t it?”

“Not to mention, Nova disappeared alongside him. Do any of you two want to tell me why that is?”

“Should I tell her this part?” Nova said teasingly.

Borealis shook his head furiously. “No, that won’t be necessary! I– she came with me when she saw Ruby get knocked down.”

Ruby looked at Nova in disbelief. “Seriously?”

Nova raised her hands in surrender casually. “Okay, now that’s definitely a lie. Why would you lie, Borealis? He dragged me along, if you were wondering. I was willing to help fight those birds off.”

“Lie? I’m not lying. I just followed what my heart said. And my heart told me that you wanted to get out of there to save yourself.”

Bria’s eyes perked up. She tilted her sunglasses to observe Borealis.

“So you aren’t just a huge jerk, but you’re a liar too. A sham,” Ruby said, stepping closer to Borealis. “You’re not useful in the slightest, are you? You haven’t done anything for us. You’ve only done what’s best for you.”

“I helped Neddy when we woke up!”

“One time is not very impressive, man.”

Neddy stood up, gathering the courage to speak. “Y– yeah. I was handling myself fine! Surprisingly… that dilophosaurus wasn’t that big of a threat.”

Ruby turned to face the rest of her audience. “It appears we need… a rebellion. Why have someone in our group who only holds us down?”

“Yeah!” Neddy grinned. “You’re going down, Borealis!”

“You need me, boy! Don’t forget that!” Borealis shouted, his voice shaking. Nova smirked, crossing her arms. She was enjoying the pressure Borealis was being put under.

“Why not carry a vote?” Ruby proposed. “Raise your hand if you want Borealis to go.”

Ruby and Neddy raised their hands. Twinkle raised a wing. Ruby looked over at Bria. “You can participate too.”

Bria shook her head. “I’m abstaining. Thanks for the offer though.”

“And raise your hand if you want Borealis to stay.”

“I– I–”

“Alright, alright,” Nova laughed, raising her hand. Ruby and Neddy shared confused glances. Even Twinkle squawked in disbelief.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Nova said, pacing back and forth. “But, you see, Borealis and I came to an agreement when he… let’s just say ‘kidnapped’ me.”

“That’s exaggerative, but okay,” Borealis muttered.

Nova held a finger up. “Borealis would continue to operate in the group…”

“As a loyal subordinate.”

“WHAT?!” Borealis cried. “That was not what we agreed to–”

“Is it not? Oh well. I guess you can stay here. The rest of us will keep moving.”

“N–no. No, NO!” Borealis said, his composure cracking bit by bit. “You’re right… you’re right! That’s the agreement we came to, yes…”

Ruby and Neddy glanced at each other in amusement.

“Y’know, it might be better seeing him like this,” Neddy whispered. “It’s much more satisfying than leaving him to die don’t you think?”

“Yeah. It is pretty funny. He looks so out of it,” Ruby whispered back. Ruby cleared her throat.

“Okay, okay, fine, he can stay. But he better not go running anytime soon… we aren’t gonna look for him a second time.”

Nova snickered. “What do you say, Borealis?”

Everyone looked at Borealis expectantly. His face was a light shade of red.

“Thank you, Nova…”

Nova got on her tippy-toes and rubbed Borealis’ head.

“Good boy!”

Borealis was absolutely fuming now, but he forced himself to stop speaking. Ruby and Neddy snickered quietly at the exchange. Twinkle cawed in protest.

“Okay, okay,” Bria said, kicking herself off the tree. The Raptor that Bria tamed quickly followed behind. “You’ve all got it figured out. Great. Now we need to open this beacon.”

Neddy screamed, falling onto his bottom and crawling away as quickly as he could. Ruby pointed at it.

“Hey, watch out!”

But when the Raptor stood as still as a statue behind Bria, Ruby could already tell something was off. Neddy sat up from the grass. He wiped a slick of sweat off his forehead.

“What… how…”

“Let’s cut to the chase here. I’m ‘Bria’,” Bria said, putting a hand on her chest. She motioned her hand to the Raptor. “You can tame dinosaurs. Yeah. That’s about it. I’m also looking for more people to join our Coalition. The more allies, the better.”

“A coalition against what?” Ruby questioned.

“Whatever’s waiting for us when we try to escape this Island.”

“You think there’s gonna be something at the edge of the sea when we escape? Sea creatures, maybe, but something to stop us?”

Bria shook her head. “I don’t think it’ll be as easy as escaping through the sea.”

“And how did you know how to tame the dinosaur?”

“Things will be explained in due time,” Bria said, glancing off. “We don’t want you to run off with the knowledge I give you, do we?”

“Fair enough.” Neddy stood up and walked to Bria with his hand out. Bria ignored his handshake and walked past him instead.

“Our Coalition has set up camp near one of those floating monoliths. I believe… he called them ‘Obelisks’.”

“He?” Nova wondered. “Who is he? He seems to know a bit about this place. How… interesting.”

Just then, Bria shoved her hand into the beam of fireflies. The fireflies dissipated, flying back up into the sky, and disappearing into the clouds. The beam had left something on the ground– a saddle, of sorts. It seemed just the right size for the raptor Bria tamed. She fastened the leather on the beast.

“More details will be given once we make it to camp. You’ll get to meet everyone there as well.”

Clink! Clink! The metal loops of the saddle jangled when Bria hopped on. She tugged on the reins, and the Raptor began to walk through the thick forest. The others quickly ran after to catch up.

“Alright, then!” Ruby sighed. “Lead the way, mystery girl…”

The group walked off, leaving Twinkle behind where the fireflies had been. He let out a squawk of dismay, running through the treelines as quickly as he could. Before he could make it a step further, someone scooped him up. He looked up and cawed when he saw Nova’s familiar sparkling black hair and tanned skin.

“Don’t worry, little man,” Nova said. “I haven’t forgotten about you.”

Twinkle chirped, rubbing his head against Nova. Nova caressed his head slowly, before running off to catch up with the others.