Under Nirvana - An ARK

Chapter 6: Players Gonna Play

Story by Bria!

Find the last chapter in TAPEJARA and the next chapter in SNOW OWL!

Neddy dived deep into the depths of the forest in search of firewood for the campfire. He shivered slightly at the cold, still bare, still without any tools or weapons to aid him on his quest. He looked around meekly, desperately looking back and forth for stray logs that may have fallen down.

“Hm. A light would definitely help, huh?” Ruby murmured to herself as she walked up next to Neddy. Neddy let out a shriek and jumped, goosebumps ruffling his skin. Ruby raised her eyebrow as the young man nearly fainted on the spot. He let out a sigh of relief, wiping his brow.

“Relax,” Ruby said, putting her hands on her hips. “Sorry about the startle though. You look like you’re about to fall over, dead.”

“Of course. When you’re out in this dark forest alone, with nothing but your underwear on… anything would scare you.”

“I understand. I came to give you a hand.”

“Really?” Neddy asked, scratching the back of his head. A few flakes of dandruff fell to the ground just then. “Are you sure Borealis… wouldn’t get upset?”

“Screw Borealis if you want to live.”

Neddy chuckled. “Heh, yeah. I guess. But…”

Neddy shook his head. Ruby raised an eyebrow, stepping closer to him.

“But what?”

“It’s just that, well,” Neddy let out a nervous laugh. “He’s a really good fighter? All of the dinosaurs we’ve run into so far, he’s been able to handle.”

“Except the Raptors,” Ruby snorted.

“Yeah. But that’s different. If he had weapons? I’m not sure many would stop him. If I disobey Borealis…” Neddy continued. “He won’t tolerate me anymore. I’ll be as good as dead. I need Borealis to survive.”

The walk through the forest was quiet. Ruby wasn’t too sure what to say just then. But Neddy kept talking.

“Why’d you stop cooking?” Neddy questioned her. “I remember all the competitions you went to. You were the best in our school. Nobody else in the Capital could compete. And one day you just…”

“Quit the game. Yeah, I know,” Ruby said, her voice shaking.

“How come? I always wondered. It always seemed like a waste of talent—”

“Shut up. Respectfully. I don’t want to hear anything more come out of your mouth,” Ruby spat. “I came here to help you. If you’re going to make small talk don’t be a little a$$hole about it.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Just quit it. You don’t get to know. We just met.”

Neddy looked away with guilt. Ruby turned away too. And for a moment, it was just the two staring off into the dark forest.

But with daylight rising, it was getting harder and harder to ignore one another.

“Here,” Neddy said suddenly. Ruby looked back in surprise. Neddy was holding his glasses out, almost as if handing them to her. Ruby squinted her eyes, trying to make out Neddy’s expression, but she could barely tell.

“Really?” Ruby asked, her voice coming to a whisper. “How did you know?”

Neddy almost laughed. “You look like me whenever I lose my glasses. I figured you lost them one way or another.”

Ruby took them gently. Slowly, she placed them over her eyes. Surprisingly, their prescriptions must have been the same, because Ruby was able to see better with them! She looked over at Neddy, gazing at his figure fully. He looked…

“Ordinary,” Ruby thought, not thinking much of him. She blinked her eyes, taking them off again.

“Are you sure I should have these? I can always craft another pair. I just need obsidian and crystal, wherever that is.”

Neddy shook his head, crossing his bare, skinny arms.

“I insist you have them. I won’t take them back. You need them more than me anyway. A useless guy like me won’t survive long anyway… so I might as well make myself helpful wherever I can.”

The rustling of the trees broke the silence. The wind was beginning to pick up.

“Don’t say that about yourself,” Ruby whispered. She placed Neddy’s glasses back on. “The only worthless person here is Borealis.”

“Borealis? Worthless? That seems a bit of a stretch.”

“You don’t know the things he’s done,” Ruby said. “For starters, he—”

The tree leaves above rustled hard. Ruby paused.

“What was that?”

Just then, they heard the flapping of wings. The call of a bird rang throughout the forest, and a weird large white-feathered bird dive-bombed them, striking Ruby on the stomach! Ruby let out a groan, falling to the ground with a THUD! Ruby blinked her eyes in disbelief. The bird had taken Ruby’s entire pouch of berries!

“An ichthyornis? Stupid PEST!” Ruby yelled. Neddy flinched.

“C— careful! That was so loud…”

“Sorry, sorry,” Ruby apologized, her voice dropping to a whisper. It was turning daytime. They couldn’t risk running into any other creatures.

The Ichthyornis shook the pouch in its beak. A few berries flew out, some hitting her on the head. Ruby groaned, reaching for her bow strapped to her back. Ruby took her bow off, readied an arrow, and aimed at the bird. She closed one of her eyes, and with the release of the string of the bow the stone arrow went soaring through the air… missing the bird entirely. It flew around the two scholars, squeezing the berries into its mouth. It let out another ‘caw!’, dropping the empty pouch onto the grass next to Ruby.

“Damn it,” Ruby murmured, drawing another arrow to fire. But before Ruby could, the Ichthyornis let out another shriek and dived at Ruby again! Ruby was about to release the string, but Neddy lunged forward, grabbing the bird with his bare hands and taking it to the ground with him.

“Ah! I got it, I got it!” Neddy cried, hugging onto it tight. The Ichthyornis let out a shriek so loud that Neddy almost let go to shut his ears tight. Ruby clutched her arrow tight, and with a single push, shoved the tip into the throat of the bird.

SHINK! Blood gushed out onto Neddy’s chest. He turned green, looking away in disgust. Ruby let go of the arrow, and Neddy tossed the seagull to the side.

“Ugh, that’s… ah,” Neddy gagged, brushing the blood off his chest. He wiped his hands on the grass.

“That… was tiring. Thanks for the help,” Ruby said, rubbing her hair. Ruby walked over to the dead bird, while Neddy was getting his bearings. Ruby crouched down and pulled the arrow out of the body, putting the bloody thing back into her quiver.

“It might help collect its meat. We might need to eat soon. I wouldn’t mind breakfast now.”

Neddy’s ears perked up. “Breakfast? Cooked by the great Ruby?”

Ruby laughed. “Yeah. Sure, why not.”

Ruby pulled out a crude pickaxe with a stone head. She began to whack at it, splitting the Ichthyornis in half. It was a gruesome task, but the next minute Ruby spent separating its body into slabs of meat. There was a little bit of its skin left over, which Ruby decided to keep for future usage. With the help of the strange implant, she was aware that hide was essential for some crafts.

Ruby took the slabs of meat and then put them in her pouch, reacquired from the grass. Neddy picked up any spare berries that had fallen from the ground.

“Here. There’s some left over.”

Ruby carefully reached her hand out and scraped the berries off the palm of his hand.

“Okay. Our work here is done,” Ruby said, picking a few pieces of spare wood off the ground and stuffing them in her pouch.

“Yeah, finally. I’m already nervous that something’s out here…” Neddy softly replied, not noticing what Ruby picked up.

The two marched back to camp, the sunrise casting beautiful, colorful rays through the treeline.

The Arks: Over Heaven

Chapter 6: Game is Game

Original Post Date: Nov 23, 2023

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Tapejara, next chapter in Snow Owl.

~

Ruby dived deep into the depths of the forest in search of firewood for a campfire. Her quiver slung over her shoulder and her bow hung over her neck, her eyes darted around the dark forest in an attempt to find any stray logs that may have fallen down.

“It’s so hard to see out here,” Neddy said aloud as she walked through the grass. Ruby let out a shriek and jumped around, taking her bow out and aiming at Neddy.

“Woah woah woah!” Neddy said, raising his hands in surrender, “Sorry for startling you. It’s just me, Neddy.”

“Oh,” Ruby let out a sigh of relief, “It’s just the weird guy.”

Neddy frowned at her words.

“Hey, what the heck man!”

“Can you blame me? You’re running around like a mad man with only your underwear on. And you smell too, by the way.”

Neddy grumbled and kicked at the dirt.

“Look I-I don’t know, okay? I was just so tired of having that graduation gown on. The past four years we had to just sit our butts down at a seat and learn some boring stuff. I wanted to just get outta there, maybe go live out in the countryside. Have a ranch. But now here we are, stuck on an island filled with dinosaurs.”

The moment was silent some more, and Ruby turned away guiltily.

“Maybe I should just make you a set of clothes like mine,” Ruby sighed.

“Well that’d definitely be appreciated,” Neddy chuckled. Ruby put her bow back in place, reached into a pouch on her pants’ belt, and pulled out a few dozen threads of plant fiber. She began to mash them together, intertwining and locking them together, and after a few seconds she made a pair of pants. Neddy’s jaw dropped as Ruby gave the pants to him.

“What the- How did you do that?” Neddy asked, dumbfounded. Ruby showed her left wrist and tapped the strange diamond-gem implanted in it. It glowed green for a second, then went away.

“The gem. That’s my power,” Ruby explained, “After Aurora and I found each other, we discovered the gems give us unique abilities. Aurora can chart the area by using the sky and stars, I was given the knowledge to craft whatever I needed to survive.”

“That explains a lot…” Neddy said.

“What do you mean?”

“The gem guided me to Samuel, and then you guys,” Neddy told her, “The gem glowed every time I was getting closer to one of you guys.”

“So that’s your ability?” Ruby noted, “That’s going to be useful.”

“For finding people?”

“No, for staying away.”

“But why would we want to stay away from people?” Neddy wondered, “We need as many allies as we can get. United we are stronger, right?”

“That was what I was thinking at first,” Ruby said, “But Aurora said we shouldn’t. We don’t know who to trust out there.”

“You can trust me though, right?” Neddy said with a grin. Ruby scowled at him.

“I don’t know about that, Neddy.”

Just then, they heard a really scratchy growl. Then a shriek, and a weird hairy four-legged creature jumped on Neddy! Neddy let out a scream of fear as it scratched Neddy, reached one of its ‘arms’ into his hand, and snatched a handful of purple berries. The four-legged creature began to run, and Neddy cursed at it.

“Damn it… A pegomastax?! Damn pest!” Neddy yelled at it as it ran. Ruby hushed him.

“Shh. We don’t want to alert any creatures that might even be more dangerous,” Ruby warned him.

“Right, right,” Neddy said. Ruby took her bow off, readied an arrow, and aimed at the pegomastax. She closed one of her eyes, and with the release of the string of the bow the stone arrow went soaring through the air, hitting the thief right in the torso. It let out a shriek of pain and collapsed to the ground.

“Yes!” Ruby pumped her fist in the air. Neddy began to clap.

“Uhh, woooo you did it!” Neddy congratulated her. Ruby ran up to the dead thing, and Neddy followed closely behind. Ruby crouched down and pulled the arrow out of the body, putting it back into her quiver.

“Woah. That was a nice shot,” Neddy gasped.

“I know right? It feels like I’m getting better at shooting my bow.”

The two just stared at the corpse for a bit. Neddy looked at Ruby, asking,

“So what are we going to do with the body?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ruby giggled, “We’re going to eat it.”

“WHAT?!”

“Well, not raw, dummy,” Ruby said, pulling out a crude pickaxe with a stone head. She began to whack at it, splitting the pegomastax in half. It was a gruesome task, but the next minute Ruby spent separating its body into slabs of meat. There was a little bit of its skin left over, which Ruby decided to keep for some reason. Ruby took the slabs of meat and then put them in her pouch. Then she picked the purple berries the pegomastax had robbed of Neddy and handed them to him.

“Here, have your berries back.”

Neddy carefully reached his hand out and scraped the berries off the palm of her hand. As he did he felt a tingle in his heart, but it quickly went away.

“Well, I guess we can go now,” Neddy said, taking a few pieces of wood off the ground and getting up.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Ruby softly replied. The two marched back to camp, the stars shining brightly above the forest top.

Journey: Chapter 25

As it was night, Forest turned and shuffled in his sleep and touched the rune that sat next to him.

He woke up in Fjordur, on a cliff overlooking the redwoods and the ocean. The sky was hazy, but not in the right way. It was reddish purple yet it flickered like that of a single flame but not, and all was quiet with no background sound, no ocean waves crashing, no birds singing, no bugs chattering. It was all silent.

“Forest” a voice called out, Forest turned around to see a face he hadn’t seen in a while.

“Peeri?!” Forest said with enthusiasm. Before realization struck him. “But, you died. How is this possible?”

“Find the others. You have to find them Forest.” Peeri said.

“Where are they Peeri? All I know is that I found Crimson here.” Forest said. “Find Methuselah and then head to The Scar. You’ll find the rest of your journey from there and the others along the way.” Peeri said smiling.

“What are you talking about” Forest asked confused about what she meant, “Fjordur needs you once again Forest, and it needs your friends too. Both old and new.” Peeri said.

“What do you mean Peeri. I thought we were done being heroes?” Forest asked concerned. Peeri just quietly laughed and smiled.

“Heroes are always needed Forest. They just need to know when they are called to help.” Peeri said.

And before Forest could ask her more, she started fading away with a static glitchy faze. “Remember what I told you Forest, Find Methuselah.” Peeri said as she faded away and all Forest could see was land.

“Peeri? Where did you go? Peeri!” Forest yelled, but Forest stopped as he saw the land in front of him turn to frost and ice and the other parts of Fjordur did that and some turned to fire and lava. He saw the place he grew up and love turn to ash in front of his eyes and he heard screams and cries. Then, a wave of static.

~

He awoke and realized that it was a dream. He could feel his heart pounding out of his chest. His claws were shaking and his breathing was rapid. He looked to his left and saw his hand was touching the rune.

He jerked his hand away from it, he thought for a minute about his dream. It felt so real, like she was right there with him as he was on Fjordur. He continued to look at the rune. And then he laid back down and wondered if it really was a dream…

The Riddles of The Phoenixes Series

The Lost World

Chapter eighteen: Stars

Rowan, Cedric, Kannon, Elayne, and Oliver lay on the ground outside the cave, trying to fall asleep. It was too dark and stuffy to be in the cave. They lay, looking up at the stars. Kannon was already asleep.

“Bro have you ever noticed that even though the stars are supposed to be “certain things” they look like different things to different people? Like that group right there, it looks like a giant sock.” Cedric asked Oliver. Oliver snorted. “I don’t know. It kind of looks like a bronco head to me.” He sighed.

“It looks like a ball gown to me..” Elayne sighed. “You know what it looks like to me? The words “shut up”!!” Rowan snapped. They all went silent.

“You know…I think Rowan’s got a point! Looks that one looks kind of like a S and the next one is a H and-” Cedric was interrupted by Rowan. “Shut up!!! I’m trying to sleep!!”

Oliver snorted and Cedric could feel Rowan glaring at them in the darkness. They sat in silence for a while. Cedric could hear Elayne’s breathing go heavy as she drifted off to sleep. And then Oliver.

Rowan’s breaths were unsteady, like she was nervous or impatient. “Can’t sleep?” Cedric asked quietly, breaking the silence. Rowan snorted. “No. Maybe I don’t want to go to sleep. Someone needs to stay up as guard anyways..” She whispered harshly.

Cedric rolled over to face her. Her back was to him. “What’s wrong?” He asked. “Nothing!”

“Why do you hate me so much?” Cedric whispered. Rowan sat up and turned to face him. “I don’t hate you. I just despise you and everything you stand for.” She said. Cedric sat up. “Why?” Rowan smoothed her hair down.

“You know why. You’re royalty. Y’all think that y’all are SOO much better than everyone else and that y’all can do whatever you please when in reality…y’all are nothing. Just a bunch of silly kids with necklaces.” Cedric grinned at her. “Riiight..” He said. Rowan glared at him. “You can’t take anything serious can you?” She scoffed.

“I can. I asked you a serious question right?”

“Ugh I guess.”

“Okay then ask me a silly question.” Cedric said. Rowan raised her eyebrows. “What?! Why?!” She whispered loudly. Cedric rolled his eyes. “To prove that you’re not always so serious. Duh.” Rowan scoffed. “I am always serious.” Cedric gave her a smug look. “Coward.”

Rowan gritted her teeth. “Fine!” They sat in silence for a few seconds. “I’m waiting..”

“Give me a second will you?!” Finally she looked at him, gritted her teeth angrily at having to do this.

“What’s the funniest, in your opinion, prank you ever pulled?” She asked, already blushing from the question. Cedric grinned. “Easy. It was the time I got my uncle Jay to help me prank my dad. You see my dad has the thing…about cats. He hates them. So much.

So we borrowed Brutus, my Aunt Josephina’s friend the talking hyenadon…” Cedric began. Rowan leaned in, looking slightly amused. Cedric scooted farther away from Oliver so that he was closer to her so he didn’t have to whisper as loud.

“My father went into the kitchen to get his annual morning cup of coffee and Uncle Jay opened a portal above the counter and Brutus dropped down on top of it. You see, Brutus had shrunk to the size of a kitten, That’s his ability, you know, and my dad legit freaked out.

He screamed so loud that he sounded like a pig and whirled around to run off. And then…Uncle Jay opened another portal that Brutus fell through in front of dad. And it continued on and on until we stopped. Dad kept running and Uncle Jay kept opening portals for Brutus. Ahh I got grounded for a whole month.” Cedric finished with a happy sigh.

Rowan let out a small chuckle then dropped her face as if embarrassed to be laughing with him. Cedric sensed that he should probably go away. “See it wasn’t that hard! Cheer up. We’ll get out of here. Goodnight.” He scooted away and laid back down.

Rowan sat against a boulder, watching him until she could hear him fall asleep and start to snore softly.

She pursed her lips and stood quickly and quietly, sneaking off into the forest.

Rowan walked until she came to a sloped hill. The moon shone its white beams down toward her. She stopped and stood there, tapping her foot impatiently. “Come on..” She muttered.

“Rowan..” A voice called. Rowan whirled around,,trying to find the unfamiliar person that the voice was coming from. “Who’s there? Show yourself!! I swear if that’s you Cedric—”

But she knew it wasn’t as soon as she saw it.

Dark amber colored eyes, glinting with a strange mysterious glow…

-SunnyFox57

The First-Chapter One by Swamp Guy

Whenever there is light, there is also dark…

I take in a deep breath of fire and iron. It always gives me joy to see the guns and swords being forged in the armory. Weapons that we can use to fell the monsters of the island and the people here too.

I take one more breath and exit the armory into the cool fresh air of the beach. The red obelisk looms overhead. I remind myself that I am the son of Lord Redsaw, ruler of this village. I am the most skilled fighter possibly in the whole western coast, and I am one day going to rule the whole island.

A small ship docks in the harbor, carrying wood and stone shipments. My good friend Captain Malog is at the wheel. He waves to me as he hops off the ship, carrying a plank of lumber in his right hand. It’s been a week since I’ve seen him. He’s probably been smuggling high-price Spino sails from the northern rivers.

“Ah, my good friend, Prince Hashino. How has royalty been for you these days?”

“Good. Seems like you’ve been working your muscles.” I laugh as he picks up a large barrel of stone.

“Well, I’m not as strong as some of the pelt hunters I came across on my journey. Those guys can wrestle a wolf pack bare-handed. Terrifying fellows, really. How’s buisness here?”

“Profits are coming in good. Father had a shipment of bone jewelry sent out yesterday to the redwoods.”

Malog’s eyes flash just for a second. He may be a merchant, but he’s more of a pirate. The idea of a full shipment of jewelry obviously triggers his attention.

“Speaking of your father, how is the old man?” Malog asks.

“He’s planning an attack on the seafaring tribe in the southeast. Finally, a chance to defeat the other powerful tribes. A chance for GLORY!”

“Tsk. Glory.” Malog laughs. “That’s all you care about. I’m more of a money guy.”

“You’re a pirate.” I correct him.

“Yeah, but-“ he begins, but he’s interrupted by a soldier running up to us.

“Prince Hashino, the Lord has a message for you. It’s about the invasion.”

Hey what's tha- OH GOD PLEASE HELP ME

The First-Prologue by Swamp Guy

Yes, I’m writing again.

****************************

From death comes new life….

The first people to wake up on the island weren’t much. They remembered a few things from their past lives, but didn’t dwell on them. They made a fresh start, new lives on the island. They built villages, tamed the wild beasts of the land, and lived their lives. It was peaceful, mostly, but they lacked order. The first generation of arrivals were disorganized and primitive. But eventually, they gave birth to the next generation. Not only new arrivals, but children who were born and lived their whole lives on the island. This is the story of the second generation. The generation that united (and divided) the ARK. The generation that would begin everything that was to come…

Rockwell has started out as a scientist interested in medicine and plant life and has become power hungry since disappearing after aberration only to come back here in genesis 2 with a vengeance on the player for trying to stop his plans of controlling the human race

I have a theory that the Summoner is some how related to the Seeker they are both disciples of Rockwell and look similar

Idk what’s this is and it’s really wierd