The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 9: Sacrifices for Success

Part 1/2

Samuel looked at Aurora, and then scoffed.

“Yeah? Seriously? After just ditching your friend you wanna team up with me?” Samuel snorted. Aurora had a look of regret on her face, and she looked down at the rough sands with pity.

“I know I did. But Ruby chose to stay on her own to help the nerd out so that’s her decision to make. I really didn’t want to abandon her, okay? Sacrifices had to be made-”

“No sacrifices had to be made,” Samuel said, “You could’ve stayed behind and helped fight the creatures off, there would be a higher chance that all of us survived, but now the chances of the two of them AND Star dying is much higher now.”

“Okay? And what about you!” Aurora shot back, “You aren’t running back to help them.”

“Because I don’t need to. That’s your job,” Samuel retorted.

“How is that MY job?!”

“Because you’re the boss, right? The leader of our squad. That’s what you said because ‘no one stepped up to the job’. So now your responsibility as leader is making sure everyone’s safe.”

Aurora groaned and shoved Samuel hard. Samuel went tumbling back a little bit.

“And besides, you don’t want to just leave them,” Samuel pointed out, “What if they do survive? The consequences could be fatal, they might want revenge on you. And both of their powers from their gems are useful. You don’t just wanna let that go, do you?”

Aurora frowned for a bit, and then nodded.

“Yeah. You’re right. We should go back then. Help them before it’s too late,” Aurora decided. She turned to Samuel with a glare, “But you gotta help out instead of just sticking to the sidelines!”

Samuel shrugged.

“I never said I wasn’t going to. Just give me a weapon,” Samuel requested. Aurora reached for her belt and took out a blunt hatchet with a stone blade. She tossed it to Samuel and he catched it midair.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Samuel commented, “From now on you’re going to treat me as an equal. Not as an employee to boss around.”

“Okay Samuel, deal,” Aurora said, raising her hand out to shake. Samuel took her hand and shook it. Aurora smiled, and began to walk off.

“Come on, let’s go save the others!”

“Okay, just breathe in, and out,” Ruby muttered. She aimed at an orange-eyed beast, and released an arrow. It soared through the air and landed right in the grass next to it. The orange-eyed beast’s head jolted from the arrow and toward Ruby. Ruby cursed to herself and readied another arrow.

“Damn it Ruby, concentrate!” Ruby shouted. Warm rays of light struck her on the shoulder, and she looked back to see the little dodo bird’s chest aimed at her. The dodo let out a squawk, and Ruby’s mind suddenly cleared. It felt like a state of bliss.

“I feel… enlightened,” Ruby noted. She aimed at an orange-eyed beast and let go of another arrow. It soared through the air and struck it right in the head! The creature collapsed to the ground, and five other buggers let out shrill cries and began their attack.

Ruby, in a state of panic, began randomly shooting arrows at the incoming horde. Two ended up dead but the other three still remained. Looking around the area, she spotted a bloody spear embedded in an orange-eyed beast. She grabbed it and pulled it out of the corpse, holding it out to protect herself from the beasts of the past. One orange-eyed creature jumped onto her, and she grabbed at it with her hands and pried it away before it could bite her. She threw it at another beast and it hit it so hard it collapsed to the ground. With a hurl of the spear it pierced through both of the creature’s bodies.

The final beast lunged at Ruby’s face, and her eyes widened in horror as its talons were outstretched and its jaw was unhinged…