Chapter 1

My name is Steve the all powerful! Ok maybe it’s just Steve, but even though, shhhhh be quiet and listen to my story, through my eyes. I was very young when two low lv players tamed me. I was their best friend and only protector for a long time. As I leveled up, I saw my tribe grow from two to three to four and so on. I remember the great pride I felt every time one of the survivors hopped onto my back. I helped them to progress and as dangerous predictors and other survivors fell before me I began to feel invincible. And even though “stronger” dinos were tamed by my tribe and they took them into caves and on raids, they never forgot about me. I was always there. Ready to help gather berries, offer comfort, even take a few bullets from turrets on raids.

Now as I look up at the tall towers, listen to the buzz of activity, and roars of various dinos, I can’t help but feel pride for what I helped to build. I thought that nothing could ever take us down. That I was invincible. But maybe... maybe neither my tribe or me where ever as powerful as I thought.

Chapter 2

It was a perfect day. I was out with my best friend Riley, a rex, showing her how to be more fierce. That was a problem of hers, she was one of the biggest carnivores on the island and yet she was so nervous all the time. I was just beginning to get somewhere with her when I heard commotion coming from the far side of our base. I began to head over there to investigate. Suddenly it was like I was plunged into another world. Chaos broke out everywhere. Flying dinos swooped down from the air. Impossibly huge dinos broke through our walls, bullets swept the area, ripping anything or anyone in the way. I ran trying to avoid the bullets. Other tames and even tribe mates screamed in agony as the huge dinos raged through our defenseless base. A sudden wave of rage hit me. I charged at an attacking survivor on a slightly smaller mount. WACK! My tail smashed through the dinos legs. It cried out in pain and rage. I roared back and brought my tail around for another swing, but I never got the chance. Something huge rammed into me and sent me sailing through the air. I landed with a painful thud. I tried to move but I was trapped in between a cliff and one of our walls. I roared in frustration as I listened to my tribe being slaughtered and my base torn down to rubble. I don’t know how long I was behind there, but eventually I managed to nock down the weakened wall. I blinked my eyes, trying to clear the dust and rubble from the fallen wall. When my vision cleared, I was horrified by the sight. Everything was gone. Bodies littered the rubble of our once magnificent buildings. I was all that was left. What would I do now?

Chapter 3

The next few days were horrible. I had never felt so alone and helpless in my life. I didn’t like the feeling of helplessness, it was unsettling. I couldn’t bare another moment at my destroyed home. I had to move on. I traveled for awhile unhindered, but then I came to a swamp. I sniffed at the murky water. It stank like something dead. Hesitantly I began to a sludge through the water, my belly just above the muddy water. Bugs swarmed every where and I could here something swimming near by. I felt a tremor of fear go through my body, but then I pushed it down angrily. It was just a bit of grows water. Then out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of movement. I turned just in time to see a blur of movement leap towards me. I dodged to the side as quickly as possible. As the creature sailed just past me I felt something warm run down my side. I looked and saw the bright red of blood. I didn’t have much time to react before the attacker was whirling around to come at me again. It was a creature I had never seen before. Some sort of alligator. It came at me again and I confidently swung my tail to intercept it. I could handle this. But it was fast! It ran under my tail with lighting speed and bit into one of my front legs with its massive jaws. It’s sharp fangs bit deep into the flesh of my leg and I began to hear bone crack. Crying out in pain I began to whirl around in circles trying to get loose. I swung my tail at it but it was two close to my body to get a good hit in. Again I felt sudden fear. Finally I ran up to a tree and slammed the creature into the trunk. It came off of my leg with an angry roar. It readied to leap at me again but then another even bigger creature came up out of the water. This thing I recognized, it was a sarco. With the first attackers full attention on me it never saw the sarco coming. The sarco snapped it up into its massive jaws, almost biting it in half. The sarco dragged the creature down into the murky water. I stood there in horror as I watched the water slowly still. Then I ran, or more accurately limped, as fast as I could away from there.

Chapter 4

Finally I made it out of the swamp and continued to travel. I soon began to feel a cool salty breeze blowing by. Not long after I came to the edge of a beach. The vast blue ocean lay ahead of me. It seemed to stretch for miles. I turned away from the ocean and began to walk down the beach. I kept alert. I hate to admit it but my confidence had been shaken by that encounter in the swamp. I heard a hiss, I whirled around to see a dilo standing not far off. I waved my tail at it menacingly, I had defeated plenty of these things before. But it just turned and walked off. I watched it, puzzled. I had clearly threatened it, why hadn’t it reacted? I know I would have. I watched as it began to hunt down a dodo. It ran after the dodo, biting and hissing. Suddenly an unsuspecting trike walked right in front of the dilo just as the dilo was spitting some venom at the dodo. The venom hit the trike and the trike roared in anger, turning on the small dilo. The trike shook its head angrily and rammed its head into the dilo. I knew that the dilo was done for. But then it did something that I would have never done. It looked calmly at the trike, then ran off. The trike followed the dilo but the dilo quickly lost the trike in some near by trees. After I lost site of the dilo I continued to walk on. But my mind stayed with the dilo. While I would have become angry and fought the trike, the dilo remained calm and simply retreated and because the dilo retreated, it survived. It was something that I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about. I was so distracted thinking about it that I didn’t see the danger right in front of me before it was almost to late.

Chapter 5

ROARRRRRR!!! The sound seemed to echo all around me. It was deafening. I looked up, startled, to see a massive rex standing right in front of me. It started to run right for me. I tried to swing my tail at it but had to stop half way, dodging to the side, when it bit at me with its massive jaws. My heart pounded in my chest as I swung at it again. My tail hit the rex’s leg. But it seemed to hardly leave a dent. The Rex bit at me again, it grabbed my tail in its jaws and bit down hard. I cried out in pain. It was the first time anything had managed to damage my only weapon. Several days ago I would have stayed and fought to the death. Just because this creature had dared attack me. But the past couple of days had showed me that I couldn’t handle everything and sometimes it was better to retreat when it was too much for you to handle. Gritting my teeth in pain I squirmed my tail out of the rex’s mouth and took off running. I tried to run to the forest but the Rex blocked my way. I turned and ran strait for the ocean. I plunged into the cold water and kicked frantically with my legs. Trying to escape. I didn’t dare look behind me. I just kept swimming leaving the rex far behind.

It seemed like hours, I just swam and swam and swam. Soon exhaustion began to take over. I looked, but there was no land to be found. I kept swimming till I could go no further, my eyes slowly shut. I just needed a moment of sleep.

I woke up on a sandy beach. A parasaur stood over me, watching curiously. I stood up shakily. “Careful” the parasaur said “you look like you’ve been through a lot.”

“Where am I?” I asked.

“Your at herbivore island” the parasaur replied happily.

I had made it to herbivore island. I later learned that it was a safe, paradise like place. After all that I had been through. I had made it through things that many of my kind wouldn’t have. And now, finally, I was safe.

The three wandered towards the barren desert ahead. while they did, Forest explained why he thought they needed to find someone.

“So your taking your hunch off a dream?! Why did I agree to helping you. It’s very unlikely your dream will guide us to anything!” Nightfall said with frustration.

“I wouldn’t normally think much about it, but Peeri was the one to tell me in my dream and there was something different about her in this dream than anyone else I have ever dreamed about.” Forest said.

“Do you think that it might’ve been a message from her that she could have placed in your memory?” Crimson asked.

“Okay, first off, who is this Peeri? Second off, why do we care that she was the one who said it?” Nightfall said perturbed.

“Peeri was a Basilisk who spoke of the prophecy of the Five. Creatures on Fjordur believe that Basilisks are able to see the future. She was one of the very few left on Fjordur before her death more than a year ago.” Crimson said.

“Well that’s a croc then. The only creature with mind powers are slugs and have never heard of a Basilisk implanting thoughts or any other creature for that. Now I’ve heard about Basilisk’s power to foresee future events but I don’t get into that mumbo-jumbo. Do really you believe it was what Crimson said or do you believe it was your mind playing tricks on you and doing that. Because if you don’t, please let’s go back to the cooler, more shaded desert by green obelisk where there’s water, this sand is melting my feet and it looks endless to me!!” Nightfall said whining. Crimson glared at Nightfall as he did so.

“I don’t know if i-, Do you hear that?” Forest said.

They all stopped and they heard noise that sounded like a sandstorm. And they saw a spine coming towards them out of the sand. It started circling around them, they saw eyes peaking out from the sand as he circled and it seemed to stare with fear inducing eyes at Crimson. Crimson’s noticed it and looked over at Forest and Nightfall, Nightfall was trembling with fear. His eyes were throbbing and his claws were clattering together.

“What is it Nightfall, we’re new here and you know more about this place than both of us. Plus by all the fear pheromones your making, makes me think you know what this is. Spill it!!” Crimson said quietly.

“Well Cr-Cr-Crimson. Th-This seems to be one of the Apex Predators of Scorched Earth. A Fa-Fa-, a Fasolasuchus. I think we’re going to die.” Nightfall said whimpering, his eyes watering as he started to heave, “Calm down Nightfall, we are not going to die!! It circling, that means it’s curious about us.” Crimson whispered loudly.

“Well Crimson, you say that when a literal Sand Shark that can form a whirlpool of sand that can bury you in seconds is circling you and no one else know what the heck this thing is!!!” Nightfall began screeching.

“Can you please stop talking about what we’re known for, and let me introduce myself?” the creature said as he got out of the sand. Everyone went quiet as the large beast rose from the ground. It’s hulking armored body blocking a bit of the sun as it stood in front of them.

“Howdy, the name’s Methuselah.”

“Ahah, Hello?” Nightfall said, his voice shaky.

A fully mutated one, too. Her name is Juliette. Half of her is red, while the other is blue. Before the TLC, she was already a beast. She dealt 930 damage with just one swing of her tail. Now, with the TLC, she is even better. She not only looks better, but she does even more damage with the impaling ability; almost 1800 per tick. Her regular tail swing still does 930, though. I have yet to mutated a Mammoth, pre TLC or post TLC. I will update on the Mammoth when I do get it. Currently, I am on an ARK hiatus, letting myself take a break until I get interested again. Until I do get a fully mutated Mammoth, see you around.

This is Hades, signing off.

The Riddles of The Phoenixes Series

Chapter sixteen: A light

They began traveling further into the cave. The ground they walked on was surprisingly soft, like moss. A few random green mushrooms popped up in places, glowing dimly. However there were few. “Is it just me, or is it getting darker in here?” Cedric asked.

“No. It’s your imagination.” Rowan said sarcastically. “OWW!!! Someone stepped on my foot!! I think you broke my toe!!” Elayne squealed. “I can’t see anything anymore.” Oliver said. The cave was completely dark now. “We should be far enough in. And we can’t see anything. Might as well stop for a break.” Rowan said.

She heard the others sitting down. She did so as well, and out both hands on the sides of her head trying to focus. If only they could make the storm stop. Her heart was pounding in her ears.

“It’s dark in here.” Elayne whimpered. “Hello darkness my old friend…” Cedric sang softly and teasingly. “Oh shut it!” Rowan snapped. “Shut what?” Cedric asked innocently. “Cut it out!” Rowan growled. “Cut what out?”

“Stop twisting my words!!”

“I’m not twisting your words.” Cedric said. “Yes you are. You do it all the time.” Oliver’s voice said. A scoff echoed along the cave walls that sounded like Cedric. “Like that time that your mom told you to weed all the green(the weeds) out of the garden for a punishment and you spray painted the garden grey so that there was no more “green” in the garden.” Oliver said.

“I forgot about that.” Cedric chuckled softly. “Just stop talking!!!”

Rowan suddenly felt a rush of hot breath on her face and she gagged. “Ugh! Who’s right beside me? Your breath stinks buddy!” Rowan gasped. “It ain’t me.” Cedric’s voice said. “I can’t see anyone, so I’m not sure.” Oliver said. “Here..” Elayne whispered. They all saw her medallion light up dimly and suddenly beams of light lit up the room, shooting from her hands.

Rowan blinked rapidly. They all could see now. Oliver was rubbing his glasses off with his shirt, Kannon was studying the cave wall, and Cedric was chewing on some berries. He was right next to her, so she scooted farther away.

Elayne’s cheeks were blushed, as she was embarrassed of her power. “Sorry that my power isn’t more useful.” She said. “What power would be better for than this predicament, then that?” Oliver exclaimed.

“Well…I was hoping that my power would be more useful. Like being able to style my hair any way I want or something..” Elayne said.

Rowan scoffed and thunder rumbled louder. Oliver’s eyes glanced over to her. Rowan caught another whip of someone breathing on the side of his face. She gagged and turned to face whoever it was.

Amber eyes stared back at her, glittering with interest. Rowan inhaled and blinked. The eyes were gone now. “What was that?” She said aloud. “I don’t see anything.” Oliver said. Elayne turned her flashlight hands over to Rowan. “Ow! My eyes!” Cedric cried. Rowan smirked. “If only it would quit raining. It’s soo boring in here.” Elayne groaned. Kannon sniffed the air, and tilted his head back.

Cedric glanced toward the entrance of the cave and rubbed his head, standing up. “This isn’t a normal storm. It seems to be…stronger, louder, longer…” He whispered. Rowan swallowed, and tightened her grip.

“Maybe it was generated from someone’s implant power.” Oliver suggested. “Like someone in here?” Cedric asked. “Maybe. It’s not you or Elayne though and it’s not me or Kannon because theoretically or implants would be glowing which leaves..” Oliver trailed off and they all looked at Rowan. Rowan shielded her eyes as Elayne spotlighted her.

“What?” She snapped. “It’s your implant isn’t it?” Oliver asked. Rowan narrowed her eyes at him. Kannon yawned. “Maybe.” She said slowly.

“I don’t know, okay?! I didn’t mean to cause this storm!!”

“It must have been triggered by something… hmmm were you annoyed or agitated?” Oliver asked, pushing up his glasses. “Probably she’s always annoyed or agitated.” Elayne muttered. If looks could kill then Rowan’s smoldering glare might have killed Elayne.

“What are you annoyed by?" Oliver asked. “Y’all. Obviously.” Rowan said, scowling darkly. Cedric chuckled and ran a hand through his thick hair.

“So…..there has too be someway to deactivate the implant ability..”

“Not take it off. That could kill her. Although we wouldn’t lose much…” Cedric said. Rowan glared at him. The thunder rumbled louder. “How dare you?!?! You wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me!!” She spat. “Exactly. We wouldn’t be in this stupid predicament.” Cedric said.

Lightning crashed and Rowan stood up, hovering menacingly over Cedric. “Fine then! I want to see you survive on your own!” Cedric rose to his feet and put his face close to hers. “Ok, go ahead and go. Coward.”

“Guys, just stop!” Oliver yelled. They ignored him.

“I’m not a coward!! What in the world makes you think that, huh?! When have I ever left y’all to die?! When have I ever tried to run?! To hide?!” Rowan yelled. Hail pounded on the cave roof loudly. “Ha! You’re afraid right now of that implant in your wrist! Why else would you cover it up?! C o w a r d.” Cedric reached out and grabbed her wrist, with a painful twist.

“Ow!! Stop it!! Let go off me, you idiot!!” Rowan yelped.

“Only if you admit you’re a coward.” Cedric said calmly. “I’m. Not. A. Coward.” Suddenly a shock ran through her body, like she had just been hit by lightning. Cedric released her wrist. Silence unfolded slowly around them. “Y’all hear that?” Oliver finally said. “I think-I think it stopped.” Elayne whispered. They all ran too the cave entrance. Sure enough, the rain had slowed down and the dark clouds were fading away to reveal the sun lowering itself.

“How did you get the storm to stop?” Oliver asked. Rowan frowned. “How should I know. You’re supposed to be the expert on this stuff right?”

“I did it.” Cedric said. Oliver pushed his glasses back. “How?” He asked doubtfully. “Well I figured that if I made her more and more agitated her implant would continue to act up this making the storm worse. But it kept making it worse and worse until finally the implant grew tired and malfunctioned slightly this causing the storm to stop.”

Oliver nodded thoughtfully. “Huh. I didn’t think of doing that.”

“I bet you didn’t. I thought you were supposed to be smart Oliver.” Cedric said playfully. Rowan rolled her eyes. “Okay. We’ll spend the night in this cave and then keep heading to the dome.” She turned and began to walk away, adjusting the black cloth around her wrist.

“Rowannn…” A soft voice called. Rowan pulled her hood up over ears, blocking it out.

Sorry this chapter took so long. 🙃

-SunnyFox57