RWBY's .A.R.K.

[Shadlos]

( Decided to post what's been posted on HoL already. Prolog and Chapter 1 are already posted there, so expect chapter 1 to hit this forum fairly soon. This is still a current W.I.P., HEAVY W.I.P. This may not update too quickly, especially with classes kicking back up for me in college. Topic started on 1/9/2016 at 11:47 PM on Hub of Limbo. Topic started 2/2/2016 at 8:25 AM on Survivetheark.com, the ARK Community Forums. RWBY's .A.R.K. is an original idea by the cooperative efforts of Shadlos and Jack Frost).

 

-Prolog-

 

      Aaahh...I was loving this dream. After a hard day of work at school and life in general....it felt good to be back in my dorm with the others, sleeping contently. This dream itself...i was lying alone on a beach, all to myself, relaxing. I deserved something like this. I laid stretched out on my back on a towel, sunbathing happily with my eyes closed. I stretched, something quite simple, stretching my arms above the top of my towel, giving a contented yawn. As I began to move my arms behind my head, the top of my left hand touches the surface of the sand...and I....seem to feel it. This sensation wakes me, but I still have my eyes closed. From behind my eyelids, I can....see a bright light? I shouldn't with the canopy over my bed...I work up the nerve to bother opening my eyelids...and the light that floods my eyes catches my eyes of guard, blinding me. I raise my hands naturally in defense of the blinding light...it...it's a rising sun? And a sky? A clear, cloudless sky. H...I actually feel sand under my back? My vision begins to clear, and I see my bare arm...bare? I turn my left arm around, so I can see it's underside, and....there's some sort of thing attached to my arm!!! This immediately wakes me fully. Suddenly I look at myself...! I have no clothes, only underclothing?! And I'm on some sort of a beach?!? Immediately, I scream. I hear commotion beside me...it's Weiss, Blake, and Yang! My screams have suddenly woken them up. In the chaos, they see themselves, they see me...the result is several moments of panic and screaming, before suddenly we hear a shrill whistle. It's from Yang, who has the thumb and index finger of her right hand in her mouth. “CHILL OUT!” my sister hollers loudly. “Chill out?! CHILL OUT!?!” Weiss snaps hastily. “WHERE ARE WE?!” I'm just as panicked as Weiss is, and I can tell Yang's concerned, but she's holding this well- So is Blake. I still see the looks of worry on their faces, though. I'm shaking, before I begin to cry like some sort of little girl. Immediately, Yang sees this and quickly holds me in her arms. “Hey, hey!” she tries to reassure me. “C'mon now! Enough of that! We can't have our team leader crying now, can we?” I wipe the tears currently on my face and sniffle. “But....wh...where are we?...what's happened?!”

“This...this can't be anything Torchwick or any of them could have done, right?” Weiss replies. “I...i know we were getting close, but-”

      “It's not Torchwick. Nor Cinder, or anybody like that.” Blake says calmly. “How do you know?” Weiss asks. We look, seeing Blake staring at the device on her arm. She stares right at it. “What?...” I ask. “What can you make of these things?” I say, looking at my own. Yang and Weiss are doing similarly. “Look.” Blake says, then pointing further into the island. From the beach there is a small hill, open sand-and-grass plains in the middle, and forest on either side. Just above the tip of the hill, is the top of a large, metal building. It has a diamond-shaped part to it, glowing red....that one part...it looks similar to the strange things attached to our arms. Weiss pauses, before speaking “S...should we try and remove these?” she says. “wait...isn't that a dumb-”

“no.” Blake says. She's been scratching at hers slowly. “It's not just skin-deep, so it seems...it looks like...an implant of sorts...and I have a feeling that trying to remove it is a bad idea.”

      “Well then, what do you think this is?” I ask. Blake slowly rises. “I don't know...but some science fiction books I've read come to mind.” she stares dead at the tower's tip. “But I feel that may have some sort of...explanation.” It becomes clear, our goal is to get to that tower. We begin heading up the hill as a group. Surprisingly, Weiss is fairly quick up the hill, and gets to the top far before we can. She freezes solid, suddenly, when at the top. “Weiss!” I call. “What do you see?”

 

….she gives no response. “Weiss! Weiss!” I call again. “What is it?!”. I'm the first to get up to her. She's staring dead at something with a...near indescribable look of awe. “Weiss!” I say grabbing her shoulder, looking at her. “What is i-”

 

A sound catches me off-guard. A close, booming sound. Blake and Yang have now caught up...and they see what Weiss sees. I turn...and...there it is.

 

 

It's walking towards the forest edge on the right. It's huge. Four legs as big and thick as trees themselves, a long neck and tail....nobody says anything for a moment. Yang finally breaks the silence. “I....is that....a dinosaur?...”

 

      Unmistakable. It is! It is! For a moment, all of my curiosity is gone. I run right up to it. “Ruby! Wait!” Yang calls, but I'm already halfway to the giant creature. I smile, looking directly up at it. It's like it completely ignores me. For once, something living that's bigger than me isn't scaring me. The others seem to follow me. I look at the tree the dinosaur is eating from, it's a fairly tall one, too. I decide...well, that it's time to get a vantage point. I begin frantically climbing the nearby tree, and my team scurries up after me. I get pretty high up the tree...I must be more than 100 feet up. The others finally catch up. Weiss is huffing. I guess she hasn't climbed many trees. “What's the big deal?!” she asks. She can see why now. From the shaded vantage point of the tree, we see it...right over the top of the crest of the hill...we're on an island, that's only part of a much more massive island. Across a large, natural canal that runs between our island and the much larger one, there's that red tower...or not. It's a massive, metal obelisk of sorts...floating in the air. From it's center, it emits a red beam of light that emits down onto the ground, at a focal point. Around it, water from the canal and nearby ocean flow around it, creating a small caldera or moat around the obelisk...and there isn't one. There's three. To the very far east, I can faintly make out a green one. To the north, atop an incredibly distant snow-covered mountain....i can see what seems like a blue one. There are pillars of light that aren't these structures coming down in several locations. I can't tell what these are...and there...there are things flying in the sky, prehistoric things. In the nearby forest, I can see the heads of other long-necked dinosaurs. All of us are staring at this sight before us. This time, it's my scared voice that breaks the silence. “G...guys....i don't think we're in Remnant anymore....”

 

 

 

 

 

Shadlos Presents...

With assistance from Loki (Jack Frost)

A fan-fiction work.

RWBY's

.A.R.K.

[Shadlos]

(got some time today, so i'll help you all catch up with this. I will also confirm that some of my own fan-animals for ARK will be showing up in the novel as well, also including the mods I often run in my singleplayer server, thus giving Team RWBY new items and tames. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to comment!)

 

Chapter 1

There we are, all four of us staring off into oblivion at what we see...I don't know what I'm feeling right now other than shock. A bunch of things are hitting me all at once...and I guess it all can be summarized as “shock”, as well. Suddenly, I hear Weiss's voice in a panicked tone. “Hah, OK, OK...” she's slowly grabbing her head. “this...this...this is all a dream...just a dream...a really weird, really bad dream...I'll wake up sooner or later to somebody's alarm clock or Ruby's shrill voice-”

“My shrill voice?” I whine. “Ey, you're not real. You can't be. I can say what I want. This is some sort of stupid dream. None of this is real, right? I mean, it's obviously not real. I'll wake up fine, back to normal school, stupid history lessons, dumb other classes, and all kinds of other usual things. There's no way at all any of this is real in the sli-”

What stops her sentence cold...catches Blake and myself off guard. Yang straight-out smacks Weiss across the face. It's not a hard slap, more like a “let me show you you're not dreaming” slap. Weiss pauses a moment, looking at Yang with a shocked look at disbelief. My sister smiles. “Feel that? I don't think you're dreaming”. Weiss...she lets out a loud, decently-lengthed scream. “Don't EVER hit me again!!!” she screeches at the end. Yang shrugs. “Hey, you were having a nervous breakdown. Somebody needed to both show you this is real, and bring you to your senses. Wherever we are, we can't be loosing our sanity if we want to survive, right?”. Weiss takes a moment to cool down with a huff. “...Just....don't...hit me again. EVER”.

As I look at Blake, I can tell I'm not the only one amused by what just happened. It's at this moment the dinosaur from earlier starts eating from the branches near us. It's head is fairly big compared to us. It sees us...but seems completely oblivious to us. It just keeps eating from the treetops, ignoring us entirely. I take a minute to admire it, before I look and see the others already climbing down. I quickly follow them down, and we move to the other side of the clearing, in a large patch of bushes beside the other forest's edge. Blake slumps to the bottom of another tree and begins looking at the device in her arm. We all sit down and do similarly, staring at them. I finally decide to touch mine. I slowly raise my right hand, ready my index finger, and give it a slow, careful poke. The minute I do, it suddenly emits light, to my shock. It emits a screen of light to me, showing myself as some sort of hologram standing in the center, apparent “slots” for clothing...stat values...and an entire section left devoted to anything I have in my inventory. The others soon look over my shoulder. There's one item in my “inventory”. It's called a “specimen implant”. I...take a moment to poke it on the screen. A box with text appears next to it.

 

Specimen Number: #4230952358

Species: Homo Sapiens

Vernacular ID: “Ruby”

Gender: Female

Characteristics: Dexterity, Adaptability, Intelligence, Resourceful, Unique Undocumented Adaptation.

Survival Quotient: TO BE DETERMINED

 

I don't know what to think of this...but Blake apparently does. I hear her make some sort of intrigued noise. She activates her own implant, reading her own specimen ID's description. I stand so I can read it as she and the others do.

 

Specimen Number: #4230952360

Species: “Faunus” (Vernacular identification, species to be phylogenized)

Vernacular ID: “Blake”

Gender: Female

Characteristics: Dexterity, Adaptability, Intelligence, Resourceful, Feline-like Characteristics, Heightened Senses, Unique Undocumented Adaptation.

Survival Quotient: TO BE DETERMINED

 

Blake asks Weiss and Yang to check their own implants, and tell her what their numbers are, and see if they also have “Unique Undocumented Adaptation” in their characteristics section. They both check their own implants. Their numbers are #4230952359 and #4230952361 respectfully. Once again, their implants state “Unique Undocumented Adaptation”. Blake closes hers by touching it again on her arm, before walking in thought over to the tree she sat at and sits down. We close our own. “What's up, Blake?” I ask. “....I think I got what's going on here.” Blake says. “From the few science fiction novels I've read, I at least think I...could come up with a possible scenario for our situation.”

“What is it then?” Weiss asks. “....heh, this will be hard to believe, but...i guess at the same time, it's not.” Blake says looking to the side for a moment. Yang looks around, doing some sort of grand shrugging gesture as she does so. “Well, I'd say anything is possible. What are you thinking?” Blake looks back at us. “Aliens”. She replies. “...Aliens?” Weiss, Yang, and I say in unison. Blake looks off for a moment as she speaks, as if envisioning the whole process. “Yes, Aliens. I...suppose we're on some sort of ecology preserve. Sort of like a zoo, but not exactly...this is a place where species are stored to be allowed to survive. And...i guess not just normal creatures. Creatures throughout earth's past that were favored in the eyes of these Aliens, or higher powers, and brought to this place, so that they can continue to evolve and prosper...but here's the catch. It's a bunch of favored or worthy species living on the same island. It's also a test to see which of these “favored” species can survive and adapt best, and if they can form their own “favored ecosystem”. I...presume there might be creatures from all over Remnant's past here.”

“Do you think there are Grimm here?” I ask. Blake shakes her head, still looking away. “For some reason, I don't think so. But other things most definitely are...but think. Then, as the higher race watches on, we come on to the scene...mankind, and Faunus alike. The two of us rise above all other creatures on Remnant...and the Aliens, the higher race, takes notice. So they take a few humans to this reserve, to see what happens. To take part in the ultimate fight for survival. To either prosper and live...or die horribly trying.”

 

The three of us our silent. As preposterous as it sounds...it's probably...it's probably the answer. I slump to the ground. “So...so we're on a strange island, on an alien world, all to be at the whim of some sort of higher race?...” Blake looks back at me, and nods slowly. “I'm sorry, but it all makes sense, doesn't it?”

I give a hard swallow, and try to hold back tears. “It does...it...it's just....we're not going to go back anytime soon in your story, if at all, are we?...” Blake doesn't answer me. “I mean...I'm already starting to miss home...our dorms...Beacon...Vale...Jeanne and JNPR....even Ozpin and Goodwitch....everybody and everything...but...I guess that's me still being childish. Heh heh...” Yang puts her hand on my shoulder, crouching next to me. “No, not at all...I miss everything too...even my....stupid bike”. Weiss is level with me too now. “....I actually miss my family, too” she says. “As....stupid as we all are. The company...my family...I'm with you on that.”

“I am too.” Blake says. “But...I know we can't let that hold us back. We've got to get with the program. If we don't get on our own feet...we'll be the ones going extinct.”

I...I'm filled with resolve, then. I feel my team leader personality kicking back in. “....alright. Blake, from what I can guess, when the implant's talking about “Unique undocumented adaptations”, it's referring to our semblances and auras, right?”

“As far as I can tell.”

“So we've still got that on our side. That's a huge advantage over everything else on the island! We can do this!” the others smile, and seem to also become resolved. I clench my fist, a plan already forming. “Alright. Blake, see if you can find anything else out using that implant of yours, alright?”

“I was thinking the same thought. I'll get right to it.”

“Great. Weiss, Yang? I think we should start gathering a few things from the immediate vicinity...especially things for the clothing department.”

“I....greatly second that.” Weiss says, looking at herself and the rest of us. Yang smiles “What's that I hear? Being bashful for some reason? It's just like going to the beach, you know.”

“I...never went to the beach....or ever went swimming.” Weiss replies.

“....you really did live a sad life.”

“Hey hey! Let's pick on each other later!” I say. They agree. With that, Blake opens up her implant again and begins to try and see if it's got any other information. We begin gathering from the immediate vicinity. From the bushes I find a variety of things. Different berries, for starters. There are yellow ones, white ones, purple ones, red ones, black ones, and blue ones. I also snip off some plant fibers. Maybe they can be woven? Weiss is also picking a few things from bushes, but also begins picking some choice stones from the ground. Yang does similarly, before turning to a nearby palm tree, around 12 ft tall. She walks up to it and, after a short pause, punches it once, hard. Must have hurt herself with that, as I see her flinch after doing so. The tree falls easily. I guess that's one way of getting wood. After around ten minutes, Yang's punched down about five palm trees and gathered the wood from them. Weiss and I have a variety of materials, about as much as we can carry. We all settle down near Blake, putting our stuff on the ground. “so...” Yang says as she sets her wood down. “Did you find out anything else?”

“Where to start...” Blake says, with a bit of a light tone. “First off, maybe bring up your own so you can see what I'm talking about”. We do so. “The place for items on the left...I found out it's actually sort of a storage unit in and of itself. Now, I know each of us varies in strength of how much we could carry, but I assume your “weight” value maximum is still 100, yes?” we nod. “right. From what I can see, this also works as hands-free storage, but it still adds that weight to our own person, so we still feel it. I don't know how...but I was experimenting with a few berries here.” She's got a stack of red berries taking up a tile space on her inventory screen. “Apparently...if I just want to put it in to my screen here, I...just sort of...well, want it to go there, and it does. And then, if I want one....” she focuses a second on her screen for a second, and then, a few purple berries, seven in total, are in her free hand. All seven she had, now out of her inventory, in her hand. She pops one in her mouth. “So that's how that works...strangely.”

“So it's more than just a specimen implant.” I note. “It's an actual tool for us, as well.”

“Yes, so it seems.” Blake replies. “Now, about the berries themselves...each one of them is fine, and fairly tasty...save for two of them. White ones are bitter, and give you a bit extra energy, staving off exhaustion, but they dehydrate you...the “Stimberries”. The black ones...they're “Narcoberries”. As the name suggests, they make you sleepy if you eat them...i feel as if, though, they might have another use. Then above the item slots, to the top...see that tab that says 'engrams'?...apparently it's just basic blueprints of things we know how to do.” I touch it. For some reason...i feel like I can make a torch and stone pickax...and apparently I can, and knew how to this whole time. “So...so I see.” I say. “But...why are there plus icons near my stats?...”

“Oh, I assume it's leveling.” Blake says. “Apparently, rewards for work and experience. I've apparently been gaining passive experience while sitting here...i can level a few times myself. You upgrade your stats, one upgrade per level, to your content. With each level, you also gain engram points to unlock towards new engrams...learn new things. Try it out.”

I examine my stats. I...well, I'm already fast, so no need to up my speed...stamina maybe....hmm...I decide health, just perhaps to see if I can survive longer. I go up from 100 to 110, and I feel a slight bit of pain...I can still level two more times, I then up my carry capacity and stamina. Weiss puts hers into balanced as well: health, stamina, and weight. Yang puts two into melee damage and the last into health, while Blake follows Weiss and my example. Then, I suddenly see a screen with all these “engrams” which I can learn and re-learn....apparently I forgot to do a lot. “Hey.” I say. “I don't think immediately all of us need to learn how to everything...why don't some of us learn certain things for the benefit of the others? Get where I'm coming from?”

“Smart of ya, little sis.” Yang says, slapping me on the back once a little hard.. “I...i guess I'll play mommy real quick and learn how to make shirts and pants for everybody...Making a hatchet sounds nice as well...”

“I can take spears and campfire, and learn how to make...a slingshot. I guess that can come in handy.”

Weiss says. Blake nods. “Guess I'll do the thatch building materials...What about you, Ruby?”

“Well...” I say. “that...just leaves me with a mortar and pestle...narcotic...and sparkpowder, I guess. Whatever sparkpowder is...” Upon activating those...i actually feel something in my head. I can actually feel myself instantly learning how to do these things the minute I activate them. We soon get to work. I quickly make a pair of pickaxes for Blake and myself- I'm surprised I could actually do that- and then the two of us begin to hack away at a few nearby large rocks. Weiss and Yang wait for us to get flint, and Yang starts using the gathered fibers to make cloth clothing. Weiss, with nothing to do, watches Yang...Blake and I have gotten a few stones and flint from our first rock. I hit it one time...and to our shock, the rock completely shatters! Nobody's hurt, and the pieces seem to disappear... “Well, guess you're almost as strong as me after all, sis!” Yang says smiling. “I....I have a strange feeling rocks work like that here.” I say with a pause, before Blake and I bring over the materials that we got from the first rock. Weiss...actually started making a pair of cloth pants! “Hey, you didn't have the points for that, did you?...”

“Nope. But, while I was watching Yang...i decided to learn. Sure enough, I felt something weird, checked my engrams and....i learned how to make cloth clothes.”

“If we can get around the point system like that, then I think we're set.” I say confidently. We continue working, gaining a few levels as we go. Around an hour later, each one of us is dressed, but still barefoot, with a few spears, a pickax, and hatchet per person. We take a moment, after our hard work, and begin to make “breakfast” of the berries we've gathered. I almost forget not to eat the white ones. We begin some idle chat, about a few things. Yang's going on with Weiss about something that apparently happened back in Weiss's childhood, and I watch on, smiling, popping a “azulberry” into my mouth. I then hear something behind me. It sounds....like tiny footsteps. I turn, looking behind me...only to see an adorable little dinosaur. It's tiny, around a foot long and a foot tall, two feathers on it's head, two-legged, with green scales, and big eyes. I immediately make an awww of delight, which gets the attention of the others. They soon gather around me to look at our adorable little visitor, who looks up at us with curiosity, making a few adorable chirps and sounds every once and a while. “Hey, I do remember something looking into the implant told me.” Blake says “If you focus enough, you can see what kind of creature you're dealing with, as well as it's own level”. I do so, and can sort of tell....well, I guess “tell”, but seem to know, only by looking a this creature “Wild Male Compy- LV 2”. “He's an adorable little thing, isn't he?” I say. “He's soo cute!” Weiss squeals in agreement. “It looks like the perfect pet!”

“Tiny, cute, cool looking...and not a dog, right Blake?” Yang says. Blake cuts Yang a look, but it it's more like an “oh you” kind of look. “Say hey...” I ponder aloud. “I wonder if he's hungry...”. I take out a Mejoberry and hold it out to him. He sniffs it, but doesn't seem interested. “What?” I say in a baby-ish voice. “Wou don't wike the poiple ones? Or do wou not wike bewwies?”

“Looks like a little meatavore” Yang says, seeing the thing's small, fairly sharp teeth. “He must run around and eat bugs and that stuff.”

“Aww. Well, at least he's a perfect wittle visitor, right?” I say. The others easily agree with me. The little “Compy”makes a noise, looking behind itself a second, before fixing it's gaze back up at us. We continue to gawk at the little guy a few more seconds, before we hear something else. A blue one suddenly trots up next to it, staring at us with it's green friend. “Aww! Wou have a fwiend, don't wou?” I say. The others are just as enamored, when the little guy makes a slight chirp, opening his mouth a little wider than usual. The other does something similar. Then we note a tan-one showing up....it's when we notice him....we...see about thirty more of them. There's more than thirty of these “Compys” in front of us...and...our enamorment has fled. They're all staring straight at us. I look at the first one, and then suddenly, it leaps up, and latches it's mouth onto the bridge of my nose! I quickly fall back onto my rear and start kicking in self defense at the others as I grab the one on my face. Weiss, Blake, and Yang are already trying to kick the little buggers away, when I finally rip the green one from my nose, throw him into oblivion, get up...and we all bolt, the horde of Compys in hot pursuit. We run, but I don't go so fast as to leave my friends in the dust. As we run up the large, not-so-steep slope of the hill, there's a rock in our way. I'm the first to come to it, and I try to jump it, but I jump early, and the top of the rock catches my bare foot, and I fly over it. Just as I hit the ground; I do a forwards roll from the momentum and pop back up on my feet, and keep going. The others avoid it easily...but it's not a rock! It's apparently a tortoise, as big as a car! As it pops out of it's shell confused, Yang is the last to pass it. A compy tries to nip at her heel, but ends up hitting the turtle's leg instead. The turtle actually lashes out, biting the compy. The whole horde now starts attacking the turtle instead of us, as we run away.

 

We finally get to the top of the hill, and Weiss and I collapse. Weiss onto her knees, and myself onto all fours. We're all panting, not exactly out of exhaustion, but rather, out of shock. “Note...to...self...” I say between breaths. “Cute things....not so cute....on island”. I then collapse face-first into the ground. “Hey! Hey Ruby!” Yang says, shaking my back. “Sis! How's your nose?” I then remember. I sit up, and touch the bridge of my nose....no blood, or scar. I'm healed...but I'm hungry. I snack on the last of my berries as I tell Yang I'm fine, to her and the others' relief. As I munch away on the berries...i note...off to the left, an absolutely massive rock, that might as well be considered a mini-mountain. I stand, spear-in-hand, and begin to head that way, leading the others. As we come to a side of the rock, we see a large, flat space....we're at the top of a cliff! On this flat side, there's a patch of trees and bushes separate to themselves, then further down, a small forest that begins and loops around the other side of the rock. I peer over the cliff face. Below, on one side, the overlook of a series of small coastal rivers, with no forest, only some greenery and beaches. The other, giving way to a majestic, but intimidating, ocean. I then suddenly get an idea. “Hey!” I say. “What if we set up here?”

“Here?...” Weiss asks. “Yeah!” I reply. “It's nice and flat here, with a LOT of space...and if we do things right, maybe we can take out all the forest back there for wood and building space, but leave that patch right there for harvesting materials?”

“That...could actually work!” Weiss says, and the others are also giving looks approval. “And...it is a cool location up here...” she says, walking from the dirt onto the stone of the flat edge of the clifftop. “Plus this view...it's good, and I bet the sunsets are nice.”

“Now you're thinkin', you two!” Yang says. “So we should set up shelter here?”

“Well...I think we will learn how to make wooden things eventually.” I say. “As in walls and floors. That's what we'll want to make our real house out of. But for now?...we've got thatch, so let's just build a little thing where we can take cover from the elements and sleep, as well as store things. That way, when we get an actual establishment up, we can re-cycle the thatch structure into a shed or something!”

“That's a clever idea, Ruby.” Blake says, agreeing with and complementing me. “If we can ever build up walls...we could set up walls up near the front of the rock, then another back behind it, with the rock and cliff being natural walls themselves.”

“So...” Weiss said. “How...how sturdy do you think Thatch is?...”

“Well...only one way to find out.” I said. With that, we begin going into the smaller forest and chopping down materials. We begin to learn from Blake as she assembles foundations. We help her do that, then set up walls. Then a door frame, a door, and sloped roofs. During all this work, we level a few more times. We constantly level throughout our work, learning a few helpful engrams as we go. We put in two large storage boxes we make, then set on the floor, a small mortar and pestle that I managed to put together, without needing the hide. Now done, we stepped back and admired our work. It...well, was a thatch house. Not too impressive at first glance...but to us, it was all we needed for now. Feeling accomplished, we headed inside, and looked around. It was a small space, around a little more than half the size of our dormitory back at Beacon. “Hmm...” I said. “Not too cozy, but I think it will do”.

“Not too cozy? I'm at home already!” Yang said taking a few steps, spinning once, and plopping onto the floor. “Yeah, it's tiny, but we actually have a little shack to call home! There's nothing better then four good walls and a roof over your head, am I right?”

“I....i guess you're right. The basic necessities...” Weiss says hesitantly. It's just then we hear a clap of thunder. Blake looks out the door. “...yeah, that's a storm coming.” she says. We've just now noticed the noon-time storm that has snuck up on us. The sky is dark in part, as storm clouds roll our way. We built a firepit out front, but we're not taking one inside...it'll be cold inside when the storm hits. Cold and dark. We all know it. Suddenly, something else catches Blake's attention....we see it too. Atop the rock, a white column of light has begun to shine, and something is descending within it. “Hey,what's that?” I ask. Blake quickly checks her specimen implant, looking for something. She then finds what she's looking for. “They're called Beacons apparently....! They're supply drops-!” the latter part of her sentence is hurried as she realizes this, and she bolts out the door. We bolt out after her. Using our Aura, we jump up to a part of the rock, where we can then run up to the beacon from natural ramps in the rock itself. Descending is a diamond-shaped object surrounded by four rotating panels, as it slowly descends in a pillar of light. “Some are level-exclusive...you know, have to be certain levels to open them, apparently...” from what she reads in her implant. The others and I are desperately trying to figure out how to open it. Yang is about to tear the thing apart when an idea hits me. “YANG WAIT” I say, just as it looks like she's about to tear off a panel. I look at it, then open up my specimen implant. Instead of myself, I see the contents of the supply drop. “I see what it's got!” I say. They rush over to me. It's got a few things of hide, some wood, sparkpowder, and some...spoiled meat?...OK then. Then we see something definitely worthwhile. It's a standing oil lamp, on a tall, black, metal, curved pole. The lamp itself is made of clear glass. There's also oil for it to use. I immediately tap the button I see that says “take all from inventory”. Just as everything is suddenly in my inventory, the light disappears and the beacon falls into shards before dissipating. Just as we note this, there's another, louder boom of thunder, as rain begins to fall. We quickly dash inside our little house just in time, shutting and “locking” the door behind us as we do so.

 

The house is much sturdier and warmer than we thought it would originally be. We don't feel the rain a all, but we feel the cold a little. I quickly try to figure out what to do about that lamp. I pull up my inventory, and select it. Suddenly, it's there, in front of me, standing. I put it in a good location, with it's back against the wall, the lamp itself hanging away from it. We put some oil in...but now, how to light it? Weiss comes up with an idea. She takes a individual piece of thatch from our storage, and two pieces of flint. She then asks for Yang's assistance in lighting the thatch. It's risky, and it's getting damp. The first few clicks, and we're worrying about the stray sparks. Blake and I stamp out with our bare feet any that touch the floor and don't disintegrate. Finally, the tip of the thatch Weiss holds catches aflame. She walks over to the oil lamp and lights it. It lights up our whole thatch hut with it's soft, warm glow. We all smile, and look relieved at this while as Weiss blows out the thatch she used. We all sit on the ground, and eat a few more berries as Yang starts making boots and gloves of cloth for us using the hide pieces from the supply drop. “How long do you think the storm will last?” I ask. Blake shakes her head. “from the size of those clouds...I'd say we're stuck indoors for the rest of the day”.

“Lovely....” Weiss said with a groan. I gave an optimistic smile. “Hey, maybe we can get some work done.” I quickly check my engrams. “Hey. That's useful. I can learn how to make a bow and arrows now. How about you?”

They all check. They can do similarly. Upon that, we can learn “tranq arrows”. Sedative arrows!? We're quick to jump on that. The rest of the day is filled with crafting our new gloves and shoes, then the long process of bows and arrows. I quickly catch on to making Narcotics using the mortar and pestle. That's what the spoiled meat was for. You use it with narcoberries to make narcotic. I manage to make several batches, and then coat a few arrows in them. The arrows turn green as they are coated. I make around 10 for each of us, and plenty of standard arrows to go around. The bows themselves are the most annoying part. We each took a painstaking amount of time to get the curvature of the wood just right...stringing the bows using fiber....the whole process, grueling, but worth it. I looked up. “hey.” I said. “Do you think that maybe one day, we might be able to build our weapons?”

“Build our weapons?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah. You know, how I hand-built Crescent Rose? Maybe in the really distant future, we might be able to build versions of our old weapons.”

“Knowing you, sis, that's definitely possible”. My sister said, stringing her bow. Soon, we finished with the process. Bows...I've never used them, but they're definitely a preference over spears. “Masters of the bow have often made great conquerors...” Blake says, admiring her own work. “That, and as long as our arrows don't break, we can re-use our ammo.”

“You don't say...” I reply, stringing my bow with an arrow, and pointing it at a nearby wall, being careful not to actually shoot. “Then I say we're on the right track to surviving on this island. Where do you suppose we are? You know, on the island? Think this place has a name?”

“There's a map in the implant”. Blake says. “And it identifies this place as “Cragg's Island”. We're south of the rest of the island...which is apparently called ARK.”

“ARK?” Weiss asks.

“Apparently.”

I smile. “Well then...it's our ARK now. We'll do more than just survive! We'll prosper and thrive!”

The others agree with me. We chat around a little more before dinner of more berries. Then, it's finally bedtime. Each one of us takes up a position around the house. I stand next to the lamp, and look around. Yang's sitting in a corner, back against the wall. She's definitely asleep. Weiss lies on her back on the floor, head atop a makeshift pillow of bundled thatch. Blake sleeps atop the large storage boxes we made, apparently that's where she felt like sleeping. Her left leg dangles off the side as she sleeps. I smile upon seeing this. Just earlier today we were panicking....and now look at us. We've built a house and are sleeping all in like...well, we own the place, sleeping wherever and however we want...and we do! This island...the “ARK”...it's ours now, and we'll master it for sure. I open up the top of the oil lamp, and blow out the light.
 

-End Chapter 1-

[Xdrone]

Cool will other chapters be listed here too?

[Shadlos]

In due time, yes. These two are the most recent I've posted, and there are plenty more in the Word Document I've typed this all in in Open Office. That being said...

-Chapter 2-

I slowly begin to awake after a dreamless sleep. I slept on the floor, on my face, surprisingly...and, I guess it will be as good as it gets until we...get a hold of ourselves. I slowly rise onto my knees and check my implant. It has a section for time, reading it off in digits in military time. It's 5:58. As I deactivate it, I hear the sound of an obvious snore coming from one of the others. I look, and it's not Yang. She's out cold, now having slumped onto the floor. Looking around, I can see it's coming from Weiss, who's torn her thatch pillow to shreds in her sleep...weird. I slowly and quietly get up, then lumber towards the door, unlock it, and silently step outside, closing the door behind me. Once outside, I stretch and give a higher-pitched, contented yawn as I do so. I scratch my left arm, looking around me, the sky still orange from the just-risen-over-the-ocean's horizon-sun. I then hear a little noise and look around...there are around twelve birds in the area, flightless ones, that have sort of just...wandered through. Just looking at them, I know what they are. Dodo birds. An idea comes to me, and I sneak back inside before coming back out, this time with some tools. The most important of which, my bow and arrows. I don't think they're too fast, and I shouldn't cause too much of a noise to wake the others. I raise my bow and pull an stone arrow from my quiver, loading the bow. These things...I know they're deadly if accurate. I've pulled off some shots with Crescent Rose before, but I don't exactly know if a sniper rifle's projectile statistics are the same as that of a bow and arrow...I start doing a little bit of mathematics in my head, just to get an idea of how the arrow might fly. I pick out my target, the closest Dodo, which is around 50 ft away, next to the firepit. It's rooting around on the ground for anything edible. I decide just to pull the string back, to feel the strength and feel of a loaded bow. I carefully aim my shot, getting a feel for the new weapon that is my lifeline. I've got the bird in my sights...I let the string go. There's a whiz in the air as the arrow flies towards it's target in seconds. There's a whack, a humorous yet pitiful noise, and the Dodo bird drops to the ground, dead. The other birds are completely oblivious. I smile in satisfaction. I walk up to my kill and take the arrow from it's head. Bloody, but still strong. I load it back into my bow for another shot. This time, I pick the farthest away bird, around 70 ft away, and decide to practice my quick draw, in the case of chaos of some sort. I quickly string the bloody arrow, raise my bow, and shoot at the target. WHACK! Another headshot, another dead dodo bird. I smile again, too excited and proud of myself. I bend down to the first Dodo I killed and pick it up by it's neck. Looks like a good amount of good meat. As I look at my first kill in my grasp, I hear applause coming from the shack. I turn to see Yang standing in the doorway, with Weiss and Blake behind her. “Nice shootin' sis!” my sister says stepping out the door. I Smile. “You guys saw all that?” I ask happily. Blake nods. “Yang woke us up when she saw you reading your first arrow. Personally, I like the idea of breakfast and target practice in one...”

“Yeah...i don't think we'll get this lucky again...so might as well use what we can when we get the opportunity, right?”

 

The others agree. They begin to take out the rest of the birds as I work up the nerve to start skinning my first two kills. I use the hatchet to first cut it's head off at the base of it's neck, then skin the bird's hide from the meat itself. I then use the sharper end of my pickax to tear off the usable chunks of meat. Weiss takes one out and brings it over, starting to skin her first kill. She's squeamish about it at first, but troops through it. I set up a few pieces of wood to suspend the meat on, and put my few pieces on top of it, before asking Weiss for help with the fire. It's a bit tricky at first, but then it catches on, and the meat starts cooking fairly quickly. I've never cooked meat before, so while the others finish skinning, my eyes are locked on the cooking meat. A few moments later, one piece looks like it's done, so I use my spear to gently skewer it, then take it off the fire. It's nice and brown, looking quite tasty. I tear a slight piece off and is the first of the group to try dodo bird meat as I pop it into my mouth. “...i like it!” I say with a contented smile, as I hold it up for the others to take a piece. “About as good and as close as it comes to chicken, I think.” Yang says after chewing hers a bit, then swallowing. “Pity there isn't much good meat on them, though”.

“As much as I don't like the idea of having to do this a lot...” Weiss says with her hand over her mouth, then swallowing her piece, before going to remove another piece of meat from the fire. “I...kinda also do like it.”

“You like it, but you hate it?” Blake asks. “Well....” Weiss replies “For some reason...ya know, the...Schnee side of me hates having to do such...well, dirty work, but at the same time...there's that same part of me that always wanted bunk beds as a kid that's getting an adventurous, outdoorsy kick out of this”.

“Heh heh, maybe you're not so boring after all”. Yang teases. “Yet, as kinda cool as this is...and as much as an adventure as it probably will be, it's definitely not going to be all fun and games, frolicking with plant-eating dinos and eating fried dodo bird tenders. We've seen 'Compy's, A prehistoric turtle, Long-necks, pterodactyls soaring above...if we've got all of those on the island, what's the one dinosaur you think would HAVE to be here?”

“...velociraptor?” I ask, biting into a whole piece of meat wide-eyed. “Well, yes, Raptors...” Yang says “but...what about T-rex?”

I swallow my meat a little hard. “T...T-rex? I-I-I mean....we've got things technically worse than a t-rex back home that we've fought, but...ya know, if basically everything on the islands has 'evolved' ....then...it's not just a T-rex. It might...be an evolved one”.

“Exactly! Who knows? He may not be the king of the dinosaurs anymore...but the GOD OF THE DINOSAURS!!!”

With that I shake my head. “Nice try, Yang. I think I'd actually have to see one before I actually get scared of it”.

Yang smiles, popping meat into her mouth. “Thou shalt learn what to feareth soon enough....”

“You two cut it out!” Weiss says with a smile. We all laugh and continue eating and cooking breakfast. By the time the meat is done cooking, we have some left to spare, so each of us takes a few pieces for later. Remembering we can make a “Preserving Bin”, we decide that the first order of business for the day is to hunt something large for more materials. We're short on hide for the preserving bin, and if we hunt something big, we'll have more meat to either spoil or cook. That said, we geared up and headed out into the fields once again. We headed back down the hill, towards where we first woke up yesterday. A few moments later, as we hiked down, we noticed....the turtle from yesterday, alive and fine!? It's got a couple nicks on it's feet and neck, but other than that, it's OK. Must have pulled into it's shell, and the compys lost interest I think to myself. We pass it by, leaving it to it's sunbathing, and continue. We get to our starting beach, and nothing's there. We talk about going back and hunting the turtle, but we decide that it had enough of a rough time, and leave it alone out of sympathy. We walk into the forest on the right, looking for anything worth hunting. We walk for another few minutes, sometimes talking to pass the time, but speaking in hushed tones, not to spook anything. Eventually we come to a clearing. There's a large herd of medium-sized dinosaurs browsing from the foliage. They've got crests on their heads, that go backwards and...kinda look like a trumpet to me. I can faintly make out names. “Parasaur”, is what I'm getting from them at the moment. The four of us are crouching, and trying to figure out which target looks like the easiest one. Off to my right, I see a green-and-red one that looks like we can take down. “Alright”. I whisper “I don't think it's going to go down in one shot, even to the head. I'll get close and give off the first shot. The herd SHOULD then scatter down that way” I say pointing to the left. “Weiss, hide down a few feet that way. If you pop out and start shooting as well, that should keep them heading the way we want. Blake, see if you can head down further, but get around the other side of them. Yang, you'll be farthest down. If we can't get at least our first one down, you'll be our last shot.”

“Gotcha sis”. Yang says winking, and holding her bow firmly. Each one of us begins to slowly creep into position. I manage to get into my position near our target first. I can see Weiss now ready, and she gives me a quick nod, slowly drawing a bow from the quiver on her back. Looking far down a ways, It takes a moment, but then I can finally make out Yang. Due to the color of our clothing, and Yang's blonde hair, I figured she'd be decently simple to spot, but she's actually quite well hidden in her bushes, and under the shade of a few larger trees. I can't make Blake out, which is a good thing, I guess. I then hear a bird-like whistle coming from where Blake should be. That's her, she's ready. I can just barely make out her left shoe in the branches of a tree. It's my turn. I slowly pull a stone arrow from my back and get ready. My arrow's in the string, loaded and ready. I pull the string back, waiting for the Parasaur to lift it's head from grazing. It finally does, oblivious to me. Quickly, I stand to my feet and let the arrow go. THWACK! It hits right above the eye. The creature panics and quickly gives an alarm call. The heard begins to panic and flee the direction I predicted. I've already got another arrow in my bow, pulled back...but I'm not the only one hunting. Suddenly, with a furious roar, a large, bipedal shape bursts from the bushes near my prey: it's a raptor of sorts, a BIG one. It quickly jumps onto the Parasaur and starts slashing with it's claws and feet, biting down on the poor thing's windpipe. I send my arrow flying without meaning to in shock, and it hits the raptor's back. The paramour drops to the ground from the raptor's attack, and the tan-scaled predator looks up at me with furious, hungry eyes. With a screech, it readies it's claws and rushes at me. I scream as loud as I can, quickly pulling out a spear in reflex “HELLLLLLLP!” The raptor pounces on me and I use my spear to block it, but it still knocks me to the ground onto my back. I try to hold it back as it tries to snap at me and slash as much as it can. I can feel it's legs moving, trying to both pin me down but disembowel me at the same time. I struggle in fear and keep it from doing so. “RUBY!!” I hear Yang scream, and she's already running through the parasaur herd trying to get me. Weiss, who burst out of hiding as she was supposed to, runs towards me, as does Blake. I quickly kick the raptor in the stomach with strength that's come out of nowhere, and the impact lifts it up enough that I manage to quickly swing my spear and slit it's throat. It reels back and roars in pain...it's not the only one with pals to back it up. The second I had kicked it, five other raptors have burst out of hiding, and are charging directly towards me. Either my friends get to me first...or apparent death does.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the raptors, a gray-and-black one, is dashing right alongside Blake. It notices her and then screeches, dashing and closing in on her. Blake quickly pulls out, not a spear, but two hatches, and starts dual-wielding them, as if they were only a mirage of Gambol Shroud. She slides at it and with a spin, and hits it twice in the head with her hatchets. It reels back only to leap at her. To retaliate, she quickly drops down onto her knees, back along the ground, and tears a large hole in it's abdomen as it leaps over her. It can't land easily from that and lands onto the ground on it's feet in pain, but conscious. Blake, with a roar, takes the opportunity as she quickly stands and freaking throws one of her hatchets at the back of the creature's head. It hits hard and deep, lodging in the back of it's skull, instantly killing it. Weiss, on the other hand, is jumped by another tan one. It jumps onto her from behind, but she rolls with it, throwing it off. She quickly begins to wield a spear similar to Myrtenaster, and rushes at the confused creature, slicing it with the spear's tip several times. It whirls around in some sort of a roundhouse kick and slashes at her left leg with it's right right leg. It cuts a strip of her pantleg off, cutting the top piece of skin. She buckles onto one knee at this, and the raptor comes down from above to try and give the finishing blow. Weiss barely uses one hand to blocks the attack and the creature with her spear in time. It holds the creature just long enough, which tries to snap at her from above her and kick at her below, pushing back against the spear. Weiss takes the only other spear she has with her other hand and readies it. Then, her other spear snaps in half, and the creature lunges forwards at her, mouth wide open. Weiss gives some sort of primal scream of rage, and using her one last spear, stabs the creature in it's open mouth, through the back of it's throat, spear tip piercing out the back of the creature's head. It's an instant kill, and the whole thing collapses on top of her. Yang weaves in and out of the parasaurs as she tries to get to me. She's not the only one navigating the living maze. From her left, a raptor pounces onto her with a shriek. The green-and-black predator and my sister go rolling out of the herd as one, and when they stop, the creature's on top of her, and has already cut her arms and legs up several times with it's claws. To the creature, it may seem like good hits to incapacitate it's prey, but we and Yang know otherwise. Her eyes are red and her hair aflame. She does still have her semblance! It tries to bite her head with it's mouth, but Yang grabs the creature's jaws with her bare hands, fighting back. With a rage-induced scream, she yanks her right arm, which is on the raptor's bottom jaw, to the right- snapping it's jaw. She's nowhere near done, nor is she even playing around. While the raptor is only shocked by the sheer pain for a few milliseconds, Yang adjusts her grip outside of the creature's jaws, and forcibly closes it's mouth. She then quickly has her right hand on it's snout, and the left on the back of it's head. With another enraged scream, Yang snaps the raptor's neck with complete ease and brutality. Meanwhile, the raptor who's neck I slit has still been trying to fight me, but blood loss has exhausted it. I manage to get a vicious stab to the side of it's head, getting it in it's eye. That's the killing blow. Just as it slumps to the ground, I see the last raptor running at me. It's a red-and-black one. In a survival reflex, I quickly pull an arrow from my quiver. It lunges at me, and I bend down, and fire. The arrow hits the side of it's head. It leaps over me and lands on it's feet, walks a few feet, then drops to the ground. I give a few huffs, and look down, panting, still on one knee. Yang is the first to run up to me, Weiss and Blake right behind her. “Ruby! Ruby! Are you alright?” she pleads, just as exhausted. I nod a few times, and my breathing becomes a little strange. “What?!” Yang pleads. “What? What is it?!”
“Hah...hah..hah...he...ha...HA HA!!!” I cheer in triumph loudly, rearing my head and raising my bow triumphantly. “I TOLD YOU WE'D OWN THIS ISLAND!!” I'm both ecstatic, and scared as hell, tears in my eyes even though I'm also incredibly joyous. Yang shakes her head before giving me a massive hug, and the others do similarly. We've got not just our target down, but also, five raptors. “You have no idea how happy I am you're OK...” Yang says, rubbing the top of my head a few times as Blake and Weiss let go, so it's just the two of us, before Yang herself lets go. “I...i really should grow up and stop taking this so lightly”.

“Actually, I advise you...to kinda not.” I say.

“Why's that?...” my sister replies a slight bit confused.

“Because. Your lightheartedness is what makes this all easier to take in”.

She smiles and gives me another hug. “Alright, alright”, I say, still hugging her back. “But let's get to work. Let's at least get everything in one spot before we start skinning and things”.

The others agree, and go back to fetch the bodies of their kills. I manage to drag the first raptor that attacked me over to the parasaur, and then take a moment to watch the others start hauling theirs back. Heh, Yang's got her's slung over her shoulder, with a smile on her face. She flashes me a overconfident thumbs-up. I go back to fetch the other raptor. I slowly approach the body of the red one as the others put their bodies down. I go to grab this one by arm-?! I freeze. It's body...it's chest....is still moving up and down. I look at the head of the creature, seeing it's wide-open amber eyes. It gives a slow blink, and I look at the arrow that's fallen off. It's a green arrow. I apparently shot a tranquilizer arrow by mistake, and seemed to have knocked it unconscious! “Hey!!” I call over my shoulder “I actually knocked this one out!!” The others slowly advance to my side, and look at the seemingly tranquilized raptor. “So you did...” Weiss says, noting the effects of the arrow. “At least we know they work”.
“Now to put that thing out of it's misery” Yang says somewhat spitefully, raising a spear and stepping forwards. I quickly hold my right arm in front of her. “Hey! Wait a sec!” I say with pleading in my voice. Yang pauses, then, upon seeing my face, puts the spear down and steps back. I get closer to the raptor and kneel next to it...as I could with the compy, I can make out “Wild Female Raptor- Lvl 45”. I can also tell how long it's going to be under tranquilization, and how fast it's torpor is depleting. I then think...why do I feel as if I should...I slowly take out a piece of raw meat from my inventory. I then check to see if the Raptor has it's own inventory...not exactly, but I can see it's own stats, now that it's tranquilized. I slowly walk to the front of the creature and slowly put out my hand, the raw meat chunk at the very tip...it slowly lifts it's head, before sniffing it, then weakly grabbing it with it's mouth and eating it. I check at the raptor again and...i see something different this time. “Taming effectiveness: 100.00%”-!? I...I stare at it in shock. “I...I can tame it?!”

The others are in just a shock, and note this as well. Blake quickly opens her implant, searching for something on taming. “Apparently...” she quickly reads. “Some creatures can be tamed by tranquilizing them, and then feeding them, while keeping them unconscious, until the taming process is effective. Creatures gain bonus levels depending on taming effectiveness, which depletes with time and type of food used. Certain animals like certain foods more than others. If the creature is attacked in any way, by human or wild animal, taming effectiveness sharply drops. The higher effectiveness, the quicker and better the tame...and not all animals can be tamed by tranquilizing them either. Some require feeding them while they are still conscious, building trust. Others may require even different tactics, and then some of the creatures on the island are completely un-tameable.” Blake deactivates her implant and the three of them look at me. I turn to them. “Please, please, please!! Let me try and tame it! I was the one who knocked it out, and she'll be a big help! Please!?”

“It'll be just another mouth to feed...” Weiss notes. “But it's another mouth who can help feed us all!” I rebuttal. “Think about how useful she could be when we're out hunting?...please? Please?...” I'm literally beg them. They stare at me, before looking at each other for a couple moments, and turn to me. Yang...smiles. “I...guess you're right on that”. She says. “It would be nice to have help from a local, right?”.

“Taming animals might make life easier for us”. Blake says. “In theory, if we ever get the resources, we could tame one of those turtles, or some compys...or even one of those long-necked dinosaurs. Each animal might have a specific use...that can help us in the end with a variety of work.” Weiss smiles “I agree...you were lucky to use that tranquilizer arrow instead of stone”. Yang smiles warmly at me still, briefly looking at the others. “Well then. No hard feelings, and I guess it's settled. We'll let you give taming it a shot. If it works out, it's your responsibility, alright sis?”

I smile enthusiastically, my face lighting up. “Yes! Of course! Thank you!”

“Nah, thank you for knocking it's lights out”. Yang says winking. “You can stay here with her. We'll get started on skinning and stuff. If you need more meat, just give us a holler, alright?”

I nod, and they turn to begin working. I look back at the raptor. I wonder if she's still hungry? I take out another piece and feed it to her again. The raptor, in those few moments, is so hungry she actually scarfs down twelve individual pieces of meat. I smile, and decide to look over her once again...i actually note how beautiful she really is,with her red-and-black coloration. She has large feathers on her tail tip, on her arms, and on the back of her head; scales everywhere else. I slowly put my head on the side of her chest, hearing her breathing and her heartbeat. I slowly pet her on her back as I do this. I'm completely fascinated by her now. After a few seconds of listening to her heartbeat, I get back up on my knees and feed her a few more pieces of meat. I then get an idea. I stand up, then move around behind her head, before sitting again. I slowly lift her head, and give a few “shhh” of reassurance, stroking her head as I do so, stretching out my legs under her head, and then finally resting her head back down in my lap. I feed her another piece of meat and gently stroke her head while it rests in my lap. “There there...” I say low and calmly. “It's OK...I'm not going to hurt you. No, I'm not...” I feed her another piece of meat. “I know you don't feel good, and I'm sorry for doing this...but I like you. I think you and I can be good friends...good girl...it's OK..”. The raptor seems to give a relaxed exhale after this. I smile “That's it...good girl...I won't hurt you...no I won't. I'll protect you. I'll be here all the time. It's OK...I won't leave you now...good girl...”

 

Meanwhile, the rest of us have already skinned two of the raptors. Weiss and Blake are finishing up the parasaur while I continue working on a raptor. “She seems to be doing a good job”. I say, seeing my sister with the raptor's head in her lap. Blake and Weiss look over. “She's taking it very seriously.” Blake says. “She's really trying to forge as best a bond as possible...that's good”. Weiss looks a little worried. “Now as...I know it would be great to domesticate something like that...but...we killed it's pack mates. We originally were trying to kill it, too. I mean...who's to say when it gets up it doesn't try and....or if it...”

“ey, Blake”. I interrupt. “Didn't you say that the taming process is just 'tranq-and-feed', right?”

“The majority of the animals on the island, yes”.

“I'd say we're fine, then”.

“That's not what I was asking and you know that.” Weiss replies. “I mean, OK, what if that is the process, but it could also be a different one entirely for a raptor! What if when it comes to it...still views us the same? I mean, from what I remember hearing about raptors back home in books and stuff is that they were pretty intelligent dinosaurs...”

“Dogs are intelligent”. I say. “Cats too. People tamed them, didn't they?”

“But aren't raptors supposed to be smarter than dogs?...Can you blame me for asking questions? You were the only other one who got torn up by one of those things...” she says, looking at her own leg, which is nearly healed. Most undoubtedly from her Aura, but also from a strange healing rate we've noticed ourselves having since arriving on ARK. I look at her a second, then sigh, before replying.

“...Weiss, I'm not...not worried.” I say. “If that's what you're asking for. I'm still concerned, but...you saw the way Ruby was looking at it and us. I feel like we should at least give her the chance.”

Weiss takes a moment, sighs, and smiles. “Yeah, you're right. Besides...if it does work...like you guys were saying, the possibilities could be endless! Heh, Yang, if Ruby gets the raptor, you might as well get the Rex, right?”

I smile, thinking a moment. “Me? With a tamed T-rex? Oh, the chaos I would spread...and how badass that would be! I'd ride that thing everywhere!”

“Of course you would”. Blake says with a smile. “But before romping around on a T-rex, there's finishing up these animals”.

“Right, right”. I reply, smiling, and shaking my head, before continuing to hack away at the raptor that attacked me earlier.

 

 

Several minutes go by, and I'm still trying to bond with the raptor. I feel confident in what I've been doing. The other three walk over. “Hey. Finished up?” I ask. “Yep.” my sister replies. “How are you two?”

I smile, looking down at the raptor's head, who is resting contently in my lap. “I think we're doing very well. It's much calmer now than it was earlier.”

“That's excellent”. Blake says. “Have you used any narcotics or narcoberries to keep it's torpor up?”

“...to be honest, I was going to...” I said “But...then I started feeling like I didn't need to.”

“...so...that thing could wake up any moment, right?” Weiss states. “...yeah, but I trust it.” I say uneasily, but with confidence. “I trust her.”

“Did you think of a name for her yet, sis?” Yang says, as if to ease everybody. I nod, smiling. “I like the colors a lot. So I want to name her Ember”.

“ 'Ember', eh? I like it.”

We all smile at each other, when...suddenly, it happens. From lying down, Ember quickly rises to her feet, startling the four of us. All of us are wide-eyed as she seems to stretch and brandish her claws quickly with a growl, before turning at me. Her eyes are locking with mine...and then, I see it. With the wild animals, I always saw their names as orange or tan...but for hers...i see green. And she's not level 45 anymore...but 70. I Smile “E...Ember?”

She gives some sort of affectionate growl before nuzzling my face. I laugh and smile, holding and petting her head. “Good girl, good girl!” I say. The others are relieved, and look at each other happy I'm fine. Ember continues being affectionate and loyal towards me, beginning to push on me. “Hey! Hey!” I say. “Ember! Ember, you!” I laugh as she pushes me onto my back and continues to nuzzle and lick me. The others laugh at this “Ember!” I say laughing and happy. “Ember! Good girl! I love you too! Chill out!” I say petting her all over. Weiss seems to smile. “Well..not exactly what I was fearing...but still familiar to it”. She jokes. The others nod and smile. “Ember!” I say once again. “That's enough! Chill out, girl! Off!” She seems to get it that time, and stops, standing up and allowing me to stand up as well. I check, and now she has her own inventory. I take the remaining pieces of raw meat I had in my inventory and place it in hers. I see the stack go down by one while it's in her inventory. I guess it's feeding without having to actually feed her. Convenient. I then notice my implant's been flashing a strange, new light. The others' are doing similarly. I check a highlighted tab, called “Survivor profile”. Blake, Weiss, and Yang look over my shoulder, with Ember looking at me to my left. There's a full screen, full of many, MANY blank squares that say either “kill to unlock” or “tame to unlock”. There's one that's different, though. One with a blue outline of a raptor's head, and the word “Raptor” above it. I poke it, and then it shows what appears to be a dossier on the species.

 

Common Name: Raptor

Species: Utahraptor Prime

Time: Early Cretaceous

Diet: Carnivore

Temperament: Aggressive

 

-Wild-

Utahraptor Prime is an incredibly aggressive sub-species of Utahraptor found on the Island. It tends to travel in small hunting packs, attacking smaller prey with its sharp teeth or enlarged foreclaws.

 

One of the faster creatures on the Island, Utahraptor Prime often uses hit-and-run tactics on larger opponents. The large, curved talon on the second toe of this sub-species seems particularly suited for attacking while jumping.

 

Utahraptor Prime usually kill their prey with numerous slashing and leaping attacks in rapid sequence.

 

-Domesticated-

Despite its normally aggressive nature, Utahraptor Prime has become one of the main mounts for roaming bands of raiders, as well as scouts for the larger collectives. Those who ride Utahraptor Prime claim they are difficult to tame, but fiercely loyal once they are. As a carnivore, once tamed they require a steady stream of meat to maintain.

 

 

In excitement, I close my implant. “Did you read that?!” I ask. “I can ride Ember around! Although I think I need a saddle first...oh, who cares?! I can ride a dinosaur!!” My sister and Weiss are excited for me, but Blake is in thought. “Hmmm...the dossier stated 'Utahraptor Prime has become one of the main mounts for roaming bands of raiders, as well as scouts for the larger collectives'. We've seen the rest of Cragg's island from our vantage point, and seen a lot of the rest of the island...there doesn't seem to be anybody else on the island”.

“Or...maybe there was?...” Weiss said.

“W...what do you think might have happened to them?” I ask, petting Ember. “...Maybe they went extinct”. Blake said, looking off towards the top of the red obelisk. “Either by their own methods....or not”.

“Wait, if the point of this is survival of the fittest, why would the race kill the other people off? Due to a whim?....or what if they evolved too much?”

“I don't know.” Blake says, shaking her head “But the Implant mentions Ultimate Life Forms, so I don't think it's a case of 'you evolved and adapted too much, so we'll kill you off'”.

“Ultimate Life Forms?” I ask.

“The apparent pinnacles of the ARK's success. From what I've read, and what the implant says, there's four of them, at the least. From what the implant says, there are certain conditions which must be met for people to try and summon and challenge these life forms. Apparently, rewards are given if you succeed...”

“Well.....let's forget about them for a decent while”. I say “We're waaaaay too early to even think about challenging them. If they only appear by being summoned, we should be OK. Although, I do also agree with you, Blake. If humans just did suddenly...disappear from ARK...I'm curious why. Maybe as we go along, we'll find out.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Yang says. “Oh, and Blake. Does the implant say anything else about taming? Maybe, hints or something?...”

Blake checks her implant again. “I don't think we get that much of a guide...but I think if we just contemplate how the animal behaves we might be able to figure out what taming process is best. It DOES say, however, that the highest level animals we'll encounter are in their 60s....so if we tame any more creatures, I'd say the first requirement is they be level 30 or higher”.

“If that's the case, then”. I say. “Let's wander around a little, though...get a lay of the land. If we're gonna call Cragg's Island our home, we need to know how to navigate it”. The others agree, so we head down the plains, with Ember trotting right alongside me. We follow it down to a different beach, this time, with the herd of Parasaurs from earlier now here, browsing from the beach-side bushes. We stop here for a moment, to rest and forage a bit our own, and start having lunch. Yang checks her implant. “Ey!” she calls. “Looks like we have enough leftover hide for me to give everybody a clothing upgrade.”

“Clothing upgrade?” Weiss asks. “From Cloth to Hide!” Yang says. “Think of it as....dino leather!”

“Would...that even be comfortable?”

“Aw, come on! It's what we've got better than cloth. I know none of this is designer brand, but it's Yang Xiao Long Practical ARK Survival Brand! Trust me, you won't look like a giant wallet when I'm done with these.”

“Well...these cloth clothes are still comfy, and you did well on these. I guess we can still use them for pajamas”.

“I'll get to work then...it'll take me a little bit, so take a look around, just watch out.”

We continue foraging, near the heard of Parasaur. We then hear something storming along in the sand up the beach, and look. We see a mid-sized predator dashing at the herd of Parasaur. It's got long legs, a sleek frame, two minuscule arms tucked to it's sides, a rounded head, and two horns. I can barely make out “Wild Male Carno, lvl 2”. It's charging dead at a parasaur that hasn't noticed it, and bites into it's right flank. The parasaur screams in pain and the herd flees down the beach, with the Carno chasing them down. I look back at Yang. “Ey Yang, wha'd ya think of that Carno?”

“Cool looking...and it might be something I'd want, for sure. But I feel there are bigger things more up my ally. I'd kinda like something with a little more punch”.

“I guess when it comes to you, Yang...” Blake says “You'll be more into the creatures that pack the bigger punch”.

“Yeah, I guess. What about you?”

“Me?...I'd like something quick yet versatile. What about you, Weiss?”

“Hmm...I'd say I want something a little more well-rounded. The jacks-of-all-trades. I'm fairly confident there's a few of those around somewhere. So how about you, Ruby? You can't just be satisfied with Ember, right?”

I gave a smug face and pet Ember “I am quite satisfied with her. Although I understand what you mean...maybe the quicker the better, but that's just me.”

After a few moments, I looked out to see that rather than run with it's herd, a strange parasaur decided to try and swim across the bay to another island. “Pfft! I think he didn't get the memo”. I say smiling, and pointing. Yang smiles and shrugs. “Maybe he's the directionally challenged one. But hey, looks like they're good swimmers.” We continue watching it swiftly make it's way across the bay...that is, until an absolutely massive shark suddenly grabs it from beneath. The whole shark is so big the parasaur's whole body is within the grasp of it's lethal jaws, and it's come up with such force it lifts itself and the parasaur out of the water for a brief few moments before crashing back beneath the waves. I'm sitting there in stunned silence having seen that, and I assume Weiss and Blake are too. “HELL YEAH THAT WAS AWESOME!!” Yang cheers. “THAT there is something I WANT, BABY!”

“Y...you want a giant shark?” I ask my sister. “Do you even think a shark can be tamable?...”

“Eeyup. Something in my gut tells me so.” Yang says, having finished two hide outfits. Dang, she's working hard. Soon, she finishes all of our outfits, and we quickly change in the bushes. These definitely offer more protection, for sure. They're also a little warmer. We head up the beach before Weiss stops in her tracks. She's staring at...well...what looks like some sort of large, flat beetle crawling up out of the sands. Yang gets an idea and grabs the creature by it's apparent horns and lifts it up, and it flails it's small legs around in the air. Weiss steps back. “Really? I mean, really? What is it anyway?”

“Trilobite.” Blake says “And that Chitin on it looks worthwhile. Yang, would you mind keeping it there? Best to get at it's softer underbelly.”

“Ey, and you miss and stab me? Nope. But, here ya go.” She tosses the thing Weiss's direction, who hastily gets out of it's way, and the Trilobite lands on it's back, flailing. Blake stabs the creature with a spear, and it flails more violently before dying. She then starts hacking at it's underside to start removing the valuable bits of shell, and upon opening it up, finds a few glistening white pearls within a black liquid. Blake carefully plucks out a single pearl, with some slight black goop on it. “...the black liquid is oil” she observes “and this...this pearl seems to be made of silicon”.

“Silicon? The stuff they use for computers and electronics?” I ask. Blake nods “This guy is probably a bottom-feeder, so he's probably picking all this up in his digestive tracts. So that makes three things that make these guys valuable to us: Chitin, Oil, and Silicon pearls. If we find any more along the beaches, I suggest we make use of them.”

 

After harvesting the one trilobite, we continue along the beach and kill a few more we find along the way. The oil and silicon are in various amounts, but they're still there. Eventually, the beachside stops getting clear, and there are forests of coastal foliage in the sand. Now we're on the Cragg's Island side of the channel, with the Red Obelisk nearby. It's up ahead of us, to the right. We're looking up at it as we advance. “So what purpose do you think they serve?” I ask, cupping my right hand over my eyes, looking at the Red Obelisk. “I don't exactly know...” Blake replies, “Maybe it helps regulate the islands themselves? Destroying them could be a very bad idea....if they can be destroyed at all. If they are tied to the island, destroying them could bring about the destruction of the ARK and all life thereon it”.

“So don't blow up the giant floating towers...” Weiss notes. “Alright then...”. We continue looking at the obelisk as we advance...and Yang suddenly trips onto her face. “Ey, you alright, sis?” I say, stopping and turning to see her faceplanting into the soil. Yang spits sand and dirt out of her mouth, and wipes her face as she sits up onto all fours. “Yeah, fine. Blonde moment...that's all.” she says, pointing to her own hair as she says “Blonde” “Tripped over this fallen palm tree”. She looks back at her ankles...the log is a darker, ruddy brown...much different from the white bark of the palm trees. Then it shifts...it's a tail. Yang quickly gets off of it and rises to her feet, and the five of us stand together as the tail's owner rises from it's slumber. Weiss, Blake, Yang and I stand ready for a fight as the large creature stands. Once again, it's another bipedal carnivore. This one seems a little bigger than a Carno. It's arms are also much longer, and on each of it's hands, there's a claw bigger than the others. It's head is elongated, similar to that of a crocodile. It shakes for a moment, then turns and looks at us. From what I can see, it's a level 12 female “Baryonyx”. We expect it to start behaving aggressively to us...but it does nothing but stare at us, as if merely curious what had woken it up. I look at Ember, and she's not threatened at all. I stand down. “Hey...Ember's not behaving any way towards it...I...think we're OK.”. The others aren't so sure, but slightly lower their guard upon seeing how relaxed Ember is. The Baryonyx seems to stretch, before moving to the water's edge. It wades in ankle-deep and begins staring at the water, before suddenly slashing at it with it's right arm, slapping a fish -called a coelocanth- onto the beach, which it then proceeds to eat. “Oh...” Yang says. “It's...a fish-eater. I guess that explains the claws, webbed hands and feet”. She says, watching it devour the fish. Yang, after a pause, then walks out into the water as well, standing knee-deep in the water, spear ready. I suppose she wants to give spearfishing a shot. “Would be a nice and easy way to get food...” Weiss says, and Blake watches on with intent. I smile “I think Blake's only interested in if Yang succeeds or not.” I jest. Blake's eyes dart to mine. “...right...” she says “but you do have a point...it could take place of hunting sometimes, although I don't think we'll get hide from fish...so we'll have to moderate it”. Yang's eyes are tracking nearby coelocanth. None of them are within striking distance, so she waits silently...just then, something under the water, around the same size of a coelocanth, darts directly at Yang. Suddenly, Yang screams and grabs at her right leg, there's blood in the water. More blurs dart towards Yang as she stabs at whatever's latched onto her leg and tries to free and haul herself ashore. We rush to her aid...but somebody else does instead. The Baryonyx rushes towards whatever is attacking Yang and causes such a commotion she's able to escape. Her pantleg has held up, with only a few puncture marks of teeth visible. She's fine. The Baryonyx is still going ballistic against whatever is in the water, and with another claw slash, slaps one of the assailants onto the shore. It's a massive piranha, around 3ft long, which flops wildly on the sand, jaws viciously clapping together, before the Baryonyx viciously kills it. Yang stares at the dead fish in the predator's jaws. “H...how did I not loose my leg to that thing?” she says aloud. “Heh...must be lucky, sis”. I say “Although I think that confirms that this river...isn't safe for fishing”. Just then, Ember gives a growl, to get our attention. I look at her, and she looks down the beach, then back at us. I suddenly get it. “Hey! You remember that one river we can see looking down from the cliff? Maybe it's a cut-off from this river. Maybe it's a little safer!”

“Hah...guess it's worth a shot”. Yang says, standing as her wound heals. So we continue through the brush. I lead the way, but this time Ember isn't beside me. She's actually near my sister, and has been allowing Yang to lean on her for support, as her leg heals. Seems like Ember's loyal to more than just me. We continue trudging through the bushes. I part apart one, only to see another small, bipedal dinosaur facing my way, it's been looking down at the ground, as if sniffing. When I part through the bushes and see it, it looks up at me. Suddenly, it gives a hiss and flares out a neck frill, spitting something in my face. I'm blinded, and I can't move too well. I panic and fall on my back with a scream. I can't see anything but feel the creature leap onto my stomach. I hear a screech, then rapid footsteps as something seems to tackle the smaller dinosaur off of me. Blake is helping me to my feet as I regain my vision. I see Ember fighting with the “Dilophosaurus”, pinning the level 25, smaller dinosaur to the ground. Finally she manages to bite it's head just right, and it stops flailing. Ember looks back at me to see if I'm OK. I smile, wiping the green goop from my face. “Good girl, Ember.” I say “I'm OK”.

Ember then goes back to tearing apart the Dilo. From watching her....it appears like she's doing more than eating it. She seems to be...gathering from the carcass, as if we would! When she's finished, I call her over and check her inventory. She's got a few more pieces of meat, and some hide now. “So looks like carnivore pets can gather from kills too.” I note “that's helpful...” I continue petting Ember's snout, before we move on. Now we enter a clearing. It goes up another hill, and to the top and the right, I see our rock where our base is. I smile. “We've gone full circle, and look!” I point to the river. It's crystal clear, and there's only coelocanth within it. “All fish, no piranha.”

“There IS that big rock back where this river connects to the channel...maybe it keeps the piranha out”. Blake replies. The beach is clear, and we decide that this is where we'll fish from now on, and since it's near our house, we also decide to use it to bathe in. Yang decides to test out the water here, and dives right in to the clear water. “Dang, it's it's nice and warm!” she says, swimming on her back, looking at us. “I'd say this place works out after all.” I decide to take my shoes off and sit at the water's edge, dipping my feet into the river. Ember sits next to me so I can pet her. Blake begins walking up, with Weiss a few feet behind her. Weiss takes a moment and looks back up the hill, then us by the river, and gives a contented, relieved sigh. “This really is a good location...Looks like we're pretty set after all.” she says relieved, then takes a step forwards with her left foot to join us. She goes to move her right, but she hears some sort of a low, yet shrill noise as something grabs her right ankle. “Hgnh!-WHAT THE HELL?!”

I turn around just as Weiss does, and time slows down for me...i turn around just in time to see Weiss turn around and get stabbed in the stomach by the stinger of a man-sized scorpion. “WEISS!” I scream. Blake, who's still closest, immediately puts all her weight into throwing a spear with deadly precision. It strikes the giant scorpion's head, but becomes lodged within its chitin armor. It's not a fatal blow, but it's enough to interrupt the second sting the scorpion was attempting. Ember runs over with a shriek and gets to Weiss at the same time as Blake does. The scorpion stings Weiss a second time, once again in the stomach, but just as it does so, Blake's grabbed it's tail, as has Ember. Yang and I rush over and try to rip Weiss free of the scorpion's pincers. Weiss is fighting back as well, but I can feel her getting weaker, as if the scorpion's venom is taking it's toll, the pincers of the scorpion are doing something to her...or both. Weiss is getting weaker and weaker very quickly in my grasp. In a primal roar I thought incapable of uttering, I suddenly lunge at the head of the scorpion with a hatchet and smash it right above the eyes. This causes it to let go. The two are torn apart from each other, but I'm not done. I keep savagely beating the scorpion upside the head with the hatchet, green blood flying from it's body with each slash, until it finally gives a long hiss and goes limp. It hasn't attempted to grab me with with it's pincers at all, but was in too much of a panic from Blake and Ember grabbing it's tail and my brutal assault on it's head to really react. Blake lets the tail of the dead “Pulmonoscorpius”, as I can now see it to be called, go, as does Ember. I sit there on my knees, furious, insect blood on my face and clothes, as I pant heavily in some sort of angry rage. I quickly look back at Yang and Weiss...Yang's kneeling on the ground with Weiss in her arms...and Weiss has her eyes closed, limp in Yang's arms. “Weiss!!!” I shriek, running over with Blake and Ember. “Weiss! Weiss!!” I say, shaking her, as Yang's already been doing. “Weiss! C'mon!! Weiss! Weiss?!?” I've got tears in my eyes. Blake quickly puts her index and middle fingers of her right hand at the base of Weiss's neck, then holds me back. I fear the worst of what Blake's about to tell me. “It's Ok...”she says “She's only knocked out”.

“Wh...wha...what?” I ask in disbelief, crying “Only...only knocked out?...” Blake nods, looking over to the Scorpion. “It...appears to be just tranquilizer venom, not fatal venom. It's claws must have also contained such venom sacs as it's tail does, so it was constantly hitting her with sedatives. She's fine...” she takes out a few stimberries, and I see what she's trying to do. Yang opens Weiss's mouth open, and we force-feed her a few stimberries. After about fifteen of them through several painful seconds, Blake is popping the 16^th one into her mouth when Weiss suddenly spits it out, and gasps. We're relieved, as she slowly comes to, opening her eyes, and looking up at us wearily.

“A...am I dead yet?” she asks. Yang smiles. “Far from it. We won't let you go quite yet”. She weakly smiles back at us, and rolls herself off of Yang. Weiss is still very groggy, and crawls over to the nearby river where she scoops some water in her hands and drinks, repeating this several times, regaining hydration from the effects of the Stimberries. Blake stands. “Ruby, mind if I borrow Ember for a sec, to help me with the scorpion real quick?”

“Ah, of course not...” I say, wiping tears from my eyes. “Go on ahead”.

Blake whistles to Ember, who begins to follow her, then help her with harvesting the scorpion, including the narcotic poison from it's venom sacs. I look at Yang, smiling. “Well...I...think this has been...sort of better than the first day?” I say. Yang smiles “We've learned a lot, today and yesterday. We're standing on our feet, but we need to get a more firm stance. We've got to be a little more prepared from now on...hope you'll still be our team leader, sis.” I smile “of course. Now more than ever do we need each other. I won't fail you guys, I promise!” After Weiss is back to her senses, she takes a moment and looks at her reflection in the water. She partially lifts up her hide shirt to where the scorpion stung her in the gut. There's a large welt there, but it's quickly healing to her relief. Once Blake's finished with the Pulmonoscorpius, we head back up the hill and to our home. Once there, I tell Ember to wait by the fireplace, and she does so, sitting down and resting. “Alright.” I say. “now, who's got what? I know I want to try out making a saddle for Ember...but about we've also got the preserving bin to do”.

“Let's just split into our old teams, sis!” Yang says. “Blake and I could deal with that makeshift fridge, and you and Weiss could try building that saddle for Ember. Hopefully it works out all works out well”. So we decide to do just that. Blake and Yang go inside and to store and gather materials. Weiss and I sit on either side of Ember and begin to pet her to keep her calm. “So...” Weiss said “What are you thinking?” I look over Ember's body. “Well...” I reply “I think the actual seat goes here, on the back between the arms and hips...with support ran to the hindquarters, in front of the legs, front of the chest here, and then the reigns go up the neck here to the head.”

“Ok so...” Weiss thinks for a moment, looking around. She raises her right arm, and bends it, looking at her lower arm. “From my elbow to my fingertips...it's around a cubit, which is an older measurement, but...I'd say my arm is around a foot and a half. This part, anyway. That being said...” Weiss puts her elbow on a part of Ember and then counts by a foot and a half, each strap which we want for the saddle, making rough estimates and mental mathematics. As we go inside to start gathering the needed materials, Blake and Yang come out with several sizable rocks, setting them on the ground, as well as some wood. They start by cutting wood and making an outer frame. As they begin to get their boards the right size, Weiss and I come out with wood of our own, plenty of fiber, and some extra hide. We lay the materials next to Ember and get to work. We begin weaving the fiber into long strands, then flattening them into hide sheathes for the straps. When a few are done, we then get to work on the seat of the saddle. Both of our work takes a while, about an hour and a half passes. Weiss and I have finished the saddle, it just now needs to be put onto Ember. Blake and Yang walk over, tired. “Hey...” my sister asks. “Looking good. Are you about done?”

“I'd say so.” I reply, noting how sweaty they are. “You two...must be going hard at that thing.”

“It's harder than we thought, but we're just about there...” Blake says, looking over to their work. They've got two wooden frames, an outer and smaller inner one, with rocks sealed in between them, as well as a wooden door, not attached to it's hinges. “All we've got to do now...” Blake says with a tired tone “is....sew the hide covering onto it”. Yang looks at me, wiping the sweat from her brow. “So...you're done with the saddle, right? Why don't you see if it fits?”

She's right. I better try now to see if it fits or not. I pick up the saddle, which is basically my exact size, and place it on Ember's back. She's confused at first, but seems OK with it. Then I run the straps around her, and put the bit in her mouth...which she doesn't mind at all. I step back...it fits, and looks great! I smile, and high-five Weiss. “Nicely done, Weiss!” I say. She smiles “Hey, it's your raptor, your saddle...i just helped out my friend and partner, that's all”.

I smile and get excited, but nervous. “W...well then...i...guess there's only one thing left to do, then.”I say. The others watch as I walk up to Ember, who's standing and looking at me. “Ember....down” I say, giving her the task to lie down so I can climb on easier. She does so without any fuss, willingly. I step over her back with my right leg, and put my foot in the proper catch. I adjust my left leg into it's catch, and then finally rest atop of Ember. I give her a whistle, as if to say “up”...and she rises, with me on her. I'm nervous as she rises...but then exuberant when she's standing tall with me on her back. “YES!!” I holler triumphantly “Yes, yes, yes!!!”

The others cheer for me. “Look at you, sis.” Yang says“You're...riding a dinosaur!”

“Hah, I know! If I get the raptor, you might as well get the Rex, right Yang?”

Yang and Weiss look at each other, smiling. “I guess so, sis!” she replies. Suddenly....I...get a VERY strange feeling, that causes my eyes to widen....I can't exactly describe it. The others quickly look concerned. “...Ruby?” Weiss asks “You...alright?”

“I....think so?...” I say confused, and look at my implant. It's flashing colors again. Blake steps up to me, looking up at me with seemingly awe and confusion. “R...Ruby...” she says. “Is...is it me...or...have both you and Ember....gained a massive amount of levels?...”

I check my implant. I'm level 21 now, same as earlier in the day...but my max experience to next level was 648.35...but I've gained 95,000 experience....possibly from the sheer act of mounting Ember?! I quickly begin to balance out my stats. First, I max my carry weight at 250, then my crafting speed to 150%. My melee damage to 125%, stamina to 300, and health to 310...by the end of my leveling...I'm no longer level 21, but level...68. I put down my implant and stare at the others in shock, then towards Ember. I check her stats. She can also level immensely. I put her weight also to slightly above 250, so she can carry me easily. Then I double her stamina to 820, and get her health to just above 1,500. I then pump the rest into her attack damage, and she ends up with 1,045.72% melee damage. She's maxed out at a level cap of 132. I sit there in shock, before taking a bite of cooked meat, and feeding Ember some raw meat. “S...so just by mounting my own, personal mount...I've gained an immense amount of experience?...i wouldn't think it to be....”

“...maybe it's not necessarily experience” Blake notes “but rather....a reward for hard work”. I smile at this. “Alright you three! I bet you can't wait to get rides of your own, huh?!”

Yang smiles “For free levels and a dino level max-out? How would I not be?!”

“I feel like it's some sort of cheap trick...but I'm OK with it it makes me survive easier!” Weiss replies.

Blake shakes her head “Something's strange about the situation...but it's an opportunity we cannot miss. I'm just as eager”.

I'm feeling quite determined and encouraged now. “Great! But first...let's see...” I look forwards and give Ember a slight tug of the reigns, and a low whistle. She responds by trotting forwards, as I wanted her to. The others watch on, happily and encouraging. I give Ember's reigns a light turn, and she turns back around like I wanted her to, and I ride her back over to the others. We pull up back next to them, and I smile enthusiastically and triumphantly. I kick my legs in excitement. “I'm soo excited by this!! I just really wanna see how fast she goes!!!” I squeal like a child. Blake gets an idea. “Say hey...you could make good use of that...i think we have some leftover materials to make waterskins for the four of us. If we can make them real quick, could you mind running down to the river and filling them up?”

“Of course. Sounds fun!”

“BUT!” Weiss interjects. “You two have worked enough for a bit.” she says to Blake and Yang, seeing how they're still a bit sweaty from the hard work they've been doing. “You two take it easy for a bit. Let Ruby and I make 'em. You two take five”.

“I second this proposal.” Yang says raising her hand. We laugh. “Alright.” I say. “You two chill out a bit. We'll get to work”.

Yang and Blake walk over to the firepit and sit down. We have four logs sitting around it, acting like makeshift benches. Yang plops down and rests the back of her head on one log, and crosses her ankles, hands folded on her stomach, resting contently, eyes closed. Blake does similarly, and wipes her face with both hands a moment before resting. Weiss and I head inside for a moment to make the waterskins while Ember patiently waits outside. It takes a few brief minutes, but we've made four waterskins easily enough. I pack them into my inventory and hop back on Ember. Yang opens her eyelids, and adjusts her posture, looking towards me. “Have fun, sis! Don't push Ember too far, now”. Blake also opens her eyes and looks at me. “Don't worry, I won't” I reply to my sister. “Now, while you're gone, we'll get back to working on that preserving bin...” Weiss says “and I will lend a hand to distribute the work...”

“Thanks, Weiss.” Blake replies “Still a little tired...but we can resume work while Ruby's gone.” I nod “Alright. You all do that. I'll be back in a few”. I tug on Ember's reigns and give another whistle. She gives an affirmative call, and we dash off. “Bye Sis!” Yang calls as they see me off. “come back safe!”

 

I'm excited and surprised by Ember's dashing speed. That, and the exhilaration I'm having of riding on a freaking raptor! She's just as quick as I remember seeing her running at me.....but riding on her while she does so is....so much cooler! Safer! And more awesome! We dash down the hill, and jump a small rock in our way rather than go around it. Dang, she's agile! And with how strong she's become with my help...heh, I think the two of us will make a great team. We finally arrive down at the river again in mere minutes. We're not the only ones here for a drink. There's a herd of what seems to be Triceratops here, around twenty of them, drinking from the river. They're on edge due to the fact Ember's here, but don't charge at us. We give them plenty of room, and I get off Ember and start filling the waterskins. Ember herself dips her head down and begins to start drinking from the clear water. As I finish filling the last of the waterskins, I put them in my inventory and look up. Across the river, atop a small hill, I see a green Beacon descending. I decide it's worth investigation. I hop back on Ember and loop back a bit, before looking at the river. With a whistle from me and a tug on her reigns, Ember dashes towards it and we attempt leaping over the river. We make it!! I'm smiling as we continue up the smaller hill to where the beacon waits. I pull Ember up next to it and check out what it has. Four spyglasses, and around six wooden foundations. I pack it all into my inventory and immediately feel the weight...i bet Ember does too. We head back across, this time, we don't fully clear the river, Ember landing knee-deep, and we keep on out. A few minutes of riding back up the hill, I put Ember back into a standard trot as we enter the area we're homesteading. I arrive just in time to see Weiss, Blake, and Yang muscling the finished Preserving Bin inside and into position. I stop Ember near the firepit and dismount her, only to see all three of them come back out, tired. Even Weiss has seemed to work up a slight sweat. “There she is...” Weiss says a bit out of breath. “Right on que. Did you get them filled up?”

“Nope.” I say, smiling “i went out for a joyride”.

Yang smiles, shaking her head. “You better be joking, sis. Otherwise, I'm throwing you off the cliff and having Ember for dinner”.

“Don't even”. I say “Ember's my new Crescent Rose. You touch her only if you wanna have a bad time!”

I gave them each a full waterskin, to which they eagerly drank from. I sighed “Well...i think I might be able to make...maybe...just one sleeping bag, with the materials we have left....who wants it?”

“Howabout Weiss?” Yang suggests. “She's got to have SOME form of comfort rather than a torn-up thatch pillow”.

“Hey!” Weiss whined. “I'm sorry if I'm the only one here who still enjoys SOME form of comfort!”

I smirk. “Alright then, Weiss. I guess you get the sleeping bag”.

“It's not like i-” Weiss paused for a moment. “Wait....what?”

“Yeah, you...you are the one that...well...needs some sort of comfort, if ya get me...so...It's yours”

Weiss makes a saddened face “Well...now you're making me...it's just I...”

Yang puts her hand on Weiss's shoulder. Seeing the smiles from the three of us, she smiles back. “...thanks guys. Besides....we'll have enough materials for more than one eventually, right?”

We agree to this, and I head inside to make the sleeping bag for Weiss. Once again, Yang and Blake crash by the fireplace and begin resting, only this time, with Weiss joining them. It takes me around twenty minutes, but I make a good sleeping bag, with a more comfortable hide pillow for Weiss. Hopefully she doesn't tear it to shreds. I see I've got some leftover hide...and I get a fun idea. I learned how to make a hide hat...but I want to put a spin on it. I take about ten minutes and make a hat with a wide brim, somewhat like a cowgirl's hat. I smile, having admired my work. Heading outside, I shut the door behind me, and toss the hat onto the face of my half-asleep sister. She's startled by what's on her face for a moment, then picks it up, and smiles. “Ey, thanks sis!” she says, before putting the hat over her head to block out the sun, and starts sleeping again. I decide that it's naptime, so might as well join in. I sit down, then scoot next to Ember, laying my head on her as I get comfortable. Seems like she doesn't mind being my pillow at all. We all begin to nap away a decent part of the afternoon, feeling safe...for now.

 

 

[Xdrone]

Next part eta please i cant wait!!!

[Shadlos]

ETA? Sometime either Thursday or Friday, definitely by Saturday. Again, college is...well, an adjustment period. I often don't have the time I think I do...and I loose track of it VERY easily...X_X

Regardless, RWBY'S ARK Chapter 3 ETA: 2/4/2016-2/6/2016.

[Xdrone]

Keep up the good work and good luck on college

[Shadlos]

Well, today's going to be a little difficult to crank out more stuff...especially with college work normally being hefty for me over the weekend. If things work out, though, I should catch you guys up to how far I've written in my .odt file. Even if I write more, I won't post any more until I do my proofread-and-opinion sessions with Jack Frost over Skype. Regardless, here's a little something before today gets hectic for me (warning: language starts to kick in here).

-Chapter 3-

I really think somebody should have been keeping watch. Although, I guess with Ember here, she will be able to sense danger before it gets close. I'm lying across from Ember, who has Ruby asleep with her head on Ember's body. I'm completely exhausted from working on the preserving bin with Yang, and I enjoy basking in the warm sun as I take a well-deserved rest. It's been a good while since we first settled down...and I'm surprised we've gone this far along undisturbed...until now. I...catch the faint sound of something light treading on grass. My ears begin to twitch as I try to pinpoint it's location. It's close. Very close. It's then I hear movement VERY near me that seems to sound like something moving on top of the very log I rest my head upon. I slowly open my eyes, only to have light flood them. I don't move my hands immediately, because a sudden movement might trigger a fear or predatory reaction. I can't see anything immediately...then hear what sounds to be something gripping wood. I look at the rest of the log, and see a pair of scaly legs with sharp talons resting on it. I quickly dart my eyes up and lock eyes with....an owl. It's....a strange owl, too. It's wings are fairly short, and it's legs are about as long as it's normal body is tall...I'd say the whole thing is around 3 ft, or a little more than half my height. The tawny bird with a white underbelly is staring at me curiously. I'm surprised Ember hasn't noticed the thing. I keep staring into the eyes of this strange bird, and can make out a mouthful of a species name.... “Wild Male Ornimegalonyx – Lvl 52 -”. It's not meaning any harm...just...a curious bird. I'm just as curious as it is, and I decide to see if I can keep it's attention, as it starts to look around at the others. I wiggle my feline ears a few times, and it immediately focuses back onto me. I wiggle my ears a few more times, and it tilts it's head while it observes me. Slowly I move my left arm, and it tracks my movements, only occasionally looking back at my ears which at times twitch to it's curiosity. I pull out a small piece of meat and slowly bring it to my other hand, and hold it to the owl. It backs up a bit, staring at it. I put the meat on the log between us, looking at it, and still occasionally wiggling my ears to let it keep interest. It stares at the meat, before pinning it under it's left foot, scooting the meat closer, bending down, and eating it. I repeat this process two more times before it actually feels comfortable eating out of my hand. I try to pet it once, but it backs up a bit. Too soon. I continue to silently feed it a few more times as it gets used to me. I...think I might actually be taming this bird, this.... “Ornimegalonyx”. Finally, it lets me lightly stroke the back of it's head once, looking around behind itself only to see my own hand, and calming back down. I continue to stare at the bird, and then finally try to attempt some sort of owl call, for the first time in my life. I let out a very low, yet seemingly convincing hoot as it tilts it's head at me. I do it two more times, and it actually lets one out back at me. Just then, Ruby gives a loud snort of a snore, which causes the owl to quickly leap off the log and bolt. I slowly turn over to see it hiding in the nearby bushes, staring right back at me...very precarious little thing, good for him. He looks at me with...some sort of fondness, from what I can see in his black eyes. I wiggle my ears once and hoot at him, to which he responds by giving another hoot back, twirling his head around once, then leaving into the bushes....I feel I'll be seeing him again. I resume my original sleeping posture, get myself fairly comfortable again, then fall back asleep.

 

When I awake, the sun is just now setting. I sit up, off of Ember, and stretch, before looking at the setting sun with a warm smile. I get onto my knees, scoot over to the firepit, and light the fire, which begins to catch on quickly. I get up for a second – waking Ember in the process – and head inside, fetching some meat from the preserving bin. I take it out, and once again begin to start cooking meat for supper. The smell of cooking meat begins to wake up the others. Just as Weiss rubs her eyes as she awakes, I look her direction and speak. “Hey Weiss, guess what?”

“What?...” she says tired, still trying to wake up. “You weren't wrong about the sunsets.” I say, pointing behind her. She gets up onto her knees and turns around, as do the others, towards the beautiful sunset. “Wow....” Weiss says. “It...really is gorgeous.”

“Those hues though”. Yang says in awe of the orange sky, and the purple-colored clouds. “They're simply gorgeous”.

“You couldn't really get something like this everyday back in Remnant, could you?” Blake replies. “To be honest, when you think about it, nature really is the best painter. It seems unsullied here...and besides the terror you get from that...you also get sheer beauty from this”. There's then a loud, yet low call. We look to the down and off to the right of the cliff. There are long-necked dinosaurs there. More than one species, of various sizes, their necks poking through the treetops, as pterodactyls-err, I mean pterosaurs- fly in the sky above. I smile. “It's like they're singing.” I say, hearing the long-necks communicate “It...sounds really beautiful”.

“This whole scene is beautiful, sis.” Yang replies “and to be honest...it's probably one of the coolest things I've seen...I'm glad I'm getting to see it with you guys”. We look at each other for a few moments, smiling appreciatively, and go back to admiring the beautiful show nature's giving us. I don't think I'll be missing TV anytime soon due to this. I pet Ember's head a few times as I admire the beauty the ARK shows us for now...and then notice something. What appears to be a large, long-legged owl that's come out of nowhere. It's walked up behind Blake, then does a slight leap, standing on the right of the log she's been sitting on. “Eh?...oh, you again.” Blake says, noticing it.

“ 'You again'?” I ask. “Ah, yes. He paid us – more specifically me – a visit while we were napping. You scared him off with a snore then.”

“Aw, I'm sorry.” I say, watching the owl sit next to Blake, and now seeming to be comfortable enough with her to let her pet the back of it's head. “Have you thought of a name, yet?” I ask.

“For this guy?...well, he's got one tongue twister of a name...but for sake of ease, I think I'll just call him O-...” she pauses a moment. “Actually...now that I think of it, I like Ozpin better. They're both wise old owls.” she jokes. We all give a slight laugh. “Ozpin, eh?” Weiss asks. “Ozpin the?...uh...”

Our specimen implants are now glowing again, meaning Ozpin's apparently been tamed; and Blake opens up her implant, reading a dossier. “Ozpin the Ornimegalonyx microvivovenator”.

“...OK that's a mouthful.” Weiss says quite bluntly in shock. “The heck does that even mea-”

“Bird Giant Claw Small Life Hunter” Blake answers.

“...o..k.”

I'm humored by this, and take a moment to read the dossier myself. It's describing their usual habitat to be woodlands and open plains, and that they're highly curious, but also incredibly skittish; and can thus be tamed either passively or normally. It talks about how clever and intelligent they are, able to take down creatures around their size, like the Dilophosaurus that attacked me earlier, although they prefer smaller meals. Then I note something interesting. “Hey, it says that Ozpin can be sent out to gather food for us.” I note. “If he paid you a visit and didn't wake us up in the process, he must be pretty sneaky. I think he'd do OK, right?...”

“Probably so, yes.” Blake says, stroking the back of Ozpin's head. “He'd definitely be useful in that aspect. Yet look there here... it also says he can...remember how to do things for us, apparently”.

“He really is a wise old owl!” Yang says. “I'd say he's a super helpful little guy, then. Helping us with food, or just sticking around for moral support- he'd always have an important job!”.

Blake nods “He will, won't he?...heh, although, I'm sorta disappointed.” she says with a strange smile.

“Oh, why?” I ask, taking meat off of the fire. “Because,” Blake says “Your first tame is mount-able. Mine's just...a big owl.”

“Oh you!” I say. Yang smiles. “Hey, Blake....you're not one to normally joke around.”

“Heh...well, like Ruby told you...your own lightheartedness makes our whole situation easier to deal with. Besides...I better start talking to you guys more. Now we're REALLY stuck together”.

We laugh again, and start eating and cooking more meat. I give a piece to Ember to see if she likes it. She does, but not as much as raw meat. We continue to sit around the campfire, eat dinner, and talk to each other. We take turns sharing fun stories from when we were younger as we talk. Seems like Weiss didn't really live too much of a boring life...and besides her early involvement in the White Fang, Blake's got a couple of stories too. We keep eating and socializing until the sun goes down, and the beautiful, star-lit sky now hovers above us. Weiss, Yang, and I are laughing about something Blake's wrapping up telling us. “I'm serious.” she says. “All that time, he regretted nothing....and I don't blame him...I kinda wouldn't either!”

“My side hurts...” Yang says between chuckling laughs, head down. “Tonight's been too great”. She sighs, catching her breath. “Welp...I think it's time to be checking in. Sometime tomorrow we need to thinking about making an actual...plan. Like when we're going to start on making that bigger, wooden house”.

“That's true.” Weiss says, then stretches with a yawn. “I'm kinda tired after today too, still...” she's had her head up as she stands and stretches, eyes closed. She opens her eyes. “...oh wow.” she says, seeing the stars above. “You weren't kidding, Blake. Nature's one heck of a painter...and this is one heck of a night sky”.

We all look up at the beautiful, starry canvas. It's really like no other night sky I've seen before...they're streaks of purple or violet clouds high in the sky...nebulae of some sort, probably. It's completely gorgeous, and I feel as if I'm literally looking off into oblivion. A mesmerizing, fathomless oblivion.

“Even outside the kingdoms, where the lights of the cities obscure the sky...I've never seen anything comparable to this”. Blake says, in just as much awe. “When we get secured walls, I'd love to stay out and admire the stars...maybe map them out, as well”.

“That could prove useful.” I say, yawning. “But so does a good, long, proper night's sleep. There's no storm tonight, so we should be OK and sleep well. Shall we?”

We agree, and head on over to the door of the house. Blake is first inside, and Ozpin follows right after her. Then it's Weiss, Yang, and myself. Ember looks in through the doorway, and gives a whine. “Aw...” I say, stroking her head. “I'm sorry, girl...i don't think there's enough room...”

“Well...actually...” Weiss says, looking at the others, who seem to have the same idea. “There...could be. But only for a short term, alright? Too many inside at once could be a little...crowded. Let's take off her saddle before we all head to bead first, alright?”

I nod, and Ember trots inside...it's upon her entry we really do get the feel and reality that our little shack is actually roomier than we thought. We take off Ember's saddle and put it in storage before changing into cloth clothing again. Blake once again climbs up top the storage boxes, only with Ozpin now following her, sitting at her feet. Weiss takes a moment to get into the one sleeping bag. “Heh...you really sure it's OK I use this?” she says. “I...really do feel bad about it, and I can wait until we all get one...”

“I'm comfortable up here for now, actually.” Blake replies. I smile, turning to Weiss. “Weiss, you're a sensitive girl who requires a certain level of comfort to maintain.”

“I do not!”

“Heh, I know. We're just lookin' out for ya. Noting how you slept last night...we just feel like you should deserve a better night's rest, that's all”.

“Heh...thanks.” she scoots down into the sleeping bag, and rests her head on the hide pillow. “Hey...this is really comfy. Nice work, Ruby”.
“Thanks...” I say, sitting on the ground, as Ember lies next to me. Once again, I sort of lean on her, wrapping an arm around her. Yang smiles. “Hey...my back hurt from sleeping against the wall like that last night. Mind if I use Ember as a pillow too, sis?” I ask. I smile in response. “I don't mind, and I don't think Ember does either. She just loves being loved on”. Ember gives an apparent chortle of agreement... I wonder if she truly does understand what I'm saying. Yang lies down on the other side of Ember, propping her head up on Ember's back, as Ember lies on her side, an arm draped over me. I smile “Well...goodnight you guys. Here's to a good night's sleep and more good work tomorrow.” I say.

“Here here.” Yang replies in agreement, before once again folding her hands on her stomach. It doesn't take long before everybody else is asleep, and Ember and I am the last ones to do so ourselves. Soon enough, we too are with everybody else, sleeping happily and contently within the not-so-crowded-after-all shack.

 

Must have been a few hours later. I was sleeping contently on Ember when I heard what sounded to be a hoot from Ozpin. I figured it must have been an owl being an owl, but then I remembered that he fell asleep around the same time Blake did. A couple seconds later, I hear a low growl coming from Ember, it's sound amplified by my head on her chest. This has woken up both me and Yang, and Ember's staring towards the door, and growling. “Hey girl...” I say, petting her. “It's OK...shhh....Ember, it's alright...” she's not calming down, and keeps growling at the door. This wakes up Blake and Weiss. “What's up with her?” Weiss asks “She better keep it down. Otherwise she goes outside”.

“No way!” I say, wrapping my arms around Ember's neck. “Who knows what would happen to her!”

“Then get her to calm down!” Weiss says, before getting back under her covers. Blake's been silent the whole time, and she seems to be listening to something. “Hey Blake” Yang says “What's u-”

“Shh!” Blake quickly snaps. She's trying to pick up on something. Soon we all hear it. Multiple footsteps outside the hut...it sounds as if a group of something seems to be lurking VERY close outside. Weiss slowly sits back up, with a somewhat scared look on her face. The footsteps seem like they come from everywhere. Just then, there's a noise that scares me. It's the door. It shakes once, and then, after a few more seconds, shakes again. The latch on the door goes up and down, something's trying to open the barred door. Blake silently drops down, taking a spear from lying off the wall into her hands. We Weiss gets up out of her bag and grabs a spear on the floor near her. The door continues to shake a few more times, still not violently, but steadily enough. As Yang and I get up onto our knees, Ember quickly stands up and gives a shrill roar at the door and does a mock dash towards it. With this, the door stops shaking, and there is a sound of multiple creatures quickly fleeing, and a couple low cries following this as they communicate during their escape. These cries send shivers down my spine. It's now eerily quiet. There aren't even crickets chirping...everything's dead quiet. “Guys” I whisper “Let's check real quick. Blake, Weiss, get the door. Yang, you get behind me”. They nodded, everybody having a spear in hand, as we slowly approach the door. Blake gets right behind the door and grabs the wood barring it, with a spear ready. Weiss is behind her, also ready with a spear of her own. I stand ready for the door to open, with Yang behind me, ready to assist me. I give a slow nod to Blake, who returns it. Slowly, she lifts the wood barring the door, and puts it aside to the wall, arm still pressed against the door. I nod again, and she slowly begins to crack open the door. I see nothing as the door slowly opens. Suddenly, there is a shrill shriek and carnivorous dinosaur shoves it's head through the crack, attempting to force the door open, and snapping at me. It's head is bald and scaly, but has black feathers on it's neck and back. I shriek as I begin stabbing at the dinosaur which I can now make out as a “Troodon”. Yang's stabbing just as frantically as Blake and Weiss use the combined effort of their weight to try and force the door shut. Soon there's another Troodon trying to force their way in. A third one pounces onto the door, opening it enough for the first Troodon to charge in. It pounces onto me and bites my neck, as I grab at it and try to throw it off. Yang, in a reflex of sibling protection, suddenly uppercuts it at the base of it's neck, which causes it to let go. In the same motion, Yang grabs the man-sized raptor and chucks it out the door at the other two, which clears the way and allows Blake and Weiss to hastily shut and bar the door. I'm on my back now, convulsing and twitching. Blood comes from the wounds in my neck. They're fairly shallow, luckily, so I'm not bleeding out. “Ruby! Ruby!” Yang pleads at me “Ruby! Stay with me! You're alright.”

“Hua..hu...heng...pha..nggh” I try to speak anything, but I just babble out nonsense for a response as I feel my body locking up. Yang shakes me and continues to panic as my body locks up, no longer convulsing. My fingers twitch every once and a while, I can only move my eyes, which quickly dart around in fear. “Sis? SIS!?” Yang panics, as Blake and Weiss gather near me. I can't speak, I can't move. Just then there's a shriek from a Troodon, and the door shakes violently. I've got nothing but a frozen look of fear as they're forced to leave me there on the floor, paralyzed, to fight off the attackers. There are multiple cackles and screeches outside, allowing me to make out seven different voices: seven different Troodon. The Troodon are communicating outside, undoubtedly plotting on how to breach the inside. One suddenly shoves it's head through a wall in the back, opposite side of where we are. Ozpin leaps down from the storage boxes and stomp-kicks the Troodon in the head, slashing across both it's eyes with his talons in the process. Blinded, the Troodon shrieks violently and pulls it's head out of the wall in a panic. I can hear it panicking in blindness, as it's voice hints to it backing up. Suddenly, I hear the sound of a slight amount of pebbles falling, then a loud shriek that fades off into the distance. It's fallen off the cliff in it's blind panic. Six left. They're scratching and slashing at the thatch walls. “They're trying to get us to attack the walls and thus let them in.” Blake says quickly. “So we just have to wait for them to actually break in?!” Weiss counters. Yang's furious “Hell no! Not yet! They'd get a shot at Ruby! NO WAY!” she quickly starts pounding on the walls back and screaming. “SCREW OFF!” She roars “GET THE F*** OUTTA HERE!” I'm shocked to hear my sister use such language, but at the same time, granted the situation, I'm not. I get it: she's trying to scare them off by raising as much of a commotion as possible. Blake and Weiss soon join in, along with Ember. Minutes tick by, and somehow it seems as if the noise display might be doing something. I'm still lying on the floor, but I can slowly feel my body unlocking. My fingers are slowly responding again. I slowly roll over, and stutter onto all fours. An idea suddenly hits me. I do some sort of strange limp-crawl over to one of the storage boxes, and slowly open it. I grab a piece of wood, then some flint. Suddenly, Ozpin's next to me, and he leaps up into the box – beyond my current semi-paralyzed reach, and snags me the fiber I need. Quickly, I splinter off the top of the wood I grab, wrap fibers around it, then tear some thatch off the floor. My movements are jagged, as the paralysis still hasn't left me yet. I light the makeshift torch I've made, and stand onto my feet. This light gets the attention of the others, now seeing me standing. “Ruby!” Yang calls and quickly dashes over to me. I put out my right arm, and grab her shoulder to stop her, and push her aside. I still can't talk because of the paralysis. I do a stuttering limp over to the door, pushing Blake and Weiss aside. I quickly remove the wooden bar from the door, and it flies open, a hungry Troodon roaring at me. Yet since before the door has opened, I haven't been afraid. I know what I'm doing. The second the door flies open, I angrily smash the Troodon in the face with the torch, and there's a small explosion of flame on impact. This causes it to stutter back. The others react similarly. As I thought: nocturnal animals don't like the bright light of fire. The Troodon rushes back at me, but I stomp-kick it back out of the way before violently and angrily throwing the torch right onto it. There's another pop of flame as it impacts the creature and lights the ground around it aflame, as well as the creature itself, which begins to roll around and try to fight off the fire. The other Troodon still panic from the fire. In their panic, they kick the smoldering shaft of the torch into the campfire, which immediately lights it. More sudden light and fire, more panic. I quickly shut the door and bar it again, slumping to the floor. Weiss, Blake, and Yang are looking at me wide-eyed in shock. “Dang...” Yang says “Nice going sis....don't know if I really like this new side to you or not.”.

I look up at Yang, still unable to speak, and give her and the others a slow, thumbs-up gesture. They're relieved I'm recovering from the paralytic bite. We hear the noise of the Troodons outside. Their voices are turning from panic to anger again. They must possibly be getting used to the light of the fire now. They're calls have gone back to aggression, and there are multiple barks and hisses coming from outside. I grab my spear from earlier, and begin to try and rise back onto my feet with Weiss's help...but then we hear something. Footsteps. BIG ones.

Dun....dun...dun...dun...dun..dun..dundundundundunDUNDUNDUNDUN

There's suddenly a loud roar. Whatever it's from, it's another carnivore. A MUCH bigger one than the Troodons. Suddenly, there's what sounds to be a strike, and one of the Troodon screeches in pain as I hear it's voice shift positions outside. It's been lifted into the air by the predator. The other Troodon roar and shriek in response, and I can hear them attacking the larger predator. There's soon a large thump as the predator throws the first Troodon to the ground, then begins to lash out at the others. There's a vicious fight going on in front of our house that we can't see, but can hear all to well. We back away from the front wall, more towards the center of the room, as the fight goes on. Suddenly, it sounds as if the predator does a sharp turn in an attack, and then some of the higher walls on the front bend and snap from impact from it's tail, most likely. We can hear the Troodon: they're loosing the fight, but they're not stopping. A few seconds later, there's a loud roar as the predator throws the final Troodon into the front wall of the shack, and the Troodon's head lodges into the walls. We stare silently in fear at the hanging dead creature. Then, there's a growl, as the Troodon is slowly pulled off of the wall. We then hear what can only be the larger predator feasting on the spoils of it's victory. I then note...the hole in the wall above, where the Troodon's head was...it's fairly big. As the creature outside eats, we slowly move to the front wall and huddle down at it's base. The predator outside takes a moment from eating. We hear it getting closer to the house...until it's literally on the other side of the wall. I can hear it directly behind my head. Does it smell us? It sounds as if it shifts it's head as it investigates, then gives a loud exhale, the wind of which manages to penetrate through the thatch and brushes against Weiss's back. She shutters, but stays quiet. We hear it lifting it's head up. Soon, the light from the hole up top is blocked. It's looking through the hole into the shack. I look into the glass of the nearby oil lamp, seeing it's reflection. There we all are, huddled down at the base of the wall. Directly above us, an eye looks through the hole into the shack. The eye seems almost to be entirely an eerie white, but there's a darker gray, slit pupil in it. It looks around in the darkness of the shack before lowering it's head. We then hear it move of a bit, before feasting again on more carcasses.

[Xdrone]

??????????Appreciated 

[Xdrone]

Welp never expected you can post 1 chapter a day so keep up and maybe 1 more today?

[Xdrone]

Gimme the next chapter! Gimme gimme gimme

[rpicardi1]

Good story.

[Xdrone]

*claps hands like a baby* Gimme Gimme Gimme the next eppiissooddee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Not trying to add stress relax)(just cant wait for next chapter)

[Shadlos]

(NOTE: We are quickly approaching where I left off with my last proofread section with Jack Frost. Once we catch up to that, I will not be able to post any more until I've read and proofread with him what we've already written. I hope you understand what I am trying to say here. In other words, once I have his approval, we can go on to the next chapter, an etc. I will let you know at the bottom of a chapter if we ever come to an end of what's been approved already. Also, Xdrone, glad you're liking this so much :P)

-Chapter 4-

I wake up, aching from last night. My back is still against the wall. We've all fallen asleep huddled at the base of the wall, where we were last night. I'm the first awake again. Ember shifts, feeling me awake, and this wakes up the others. None of us feel too terribly rested from last night. Yang's giving me an exhausted, relieved smile. “Hey sis...” she says “You alright?”. I nod in response. “My throat's very sore, though.” I reply in a hoarse voice “I'm alright, though”.

“God...i just want...ONE easy day....please...” Weiss groans. “Just one...peaceful night...”.

We all slowly stand, aching in pain. We unlock the door and head outside. The whole area has been trampled due to the fight last night, but the firepit is still there. I turn to the house and survey the damage with Blake and Yang. “So...” I ask “Repairable?...”

“Despite the obvious thrashing on the thatching...” Yang says, and we groan “...it's not too bad. I'd say we can fix it”.

Blake turns and sees Weiss staring into oblivion. “What's up, Weiss?” she asks. Weiss slowly raises her hand and points towards the bushes we decided to leave for farming “It's right there”.

We then see what she's pointing at. A large, black back lying in the bushes. There's a single row of spikes down it. Weapons drawn, we slowly approach it. It's definitely the carnivore from last night. It's a medium-sized bipedal dinosaur, at least 20 ft long. It's back is black, with a gray underside. Stripes of a different gray are run vertically down it's sides. Two arms with four claws each, with a head boasting sharp teeth and...sharp horns. One horn above each eye, another above the nose. The horns are serrated, and they and the beast's mouth still have dried blood on them from last night. It's fast asleep, probably being nocturnal, like the Troodons. Eyeing it from a safe distance, I make out “Wild Male Cerato – Lvl 43 -”. “Cerato?...” Blake says thoughtfully in a low tone “...Ceratosaurus. That's another one I remember from my books”. I take a careful step forwards, stepping on a small branch that snaps under my foot. Immediately, the Ceratosaurus lifts it's head and looks directly at me with tired eyes. I freeze solid, as do the others...yet, like the Baryonyx, he seems fine with us...I look back at the others, and then back at the creature groggily staring back at me. It probably recognizes our scents from last night. Slowly, I take a piece of meat out of my inventory and hold it out. It's attention goes from the me to the meat in my hand. I get onto my knees, and slowly approach it, being incredibly careful as the others watch on. The dinosaur stares at me and my meat, before slowly taking it out of my hand, swallowing it, then continuing to groggily stare at me. I can see...that he appears to be a passive tame. “I think as long as it's during the day...” I state low “He's passive...i mean, look at him”. The ceratosaurus, meanwhile, is staring at me with a look that says “either feed me more or I go back to sleep”. I give it another piece of meat, which it takes, then lays it's head back down, attempting to sleep anyway. I use my implant to view it's own inventory, and I take the few pieces of raw meat I have on me and put them in it's own inventory. “That's all I have.” I say. “Eight pieces...don't know why I slept with those on me...huh?” I'm staring at my inventory in tired disbelief. “Wow I'm slow....”

“Why's that, sis?” Yang asks.

“I've still got the spyglasses, and wooden foundations, walls, and roofing from the beacon I looted yesterday, when I went on Ember to get water....man, no wonder I feel so weighed down...”

My sister chuckles. “Well, at least you've found some stuff. Did you have enough of those spyglasses to go around?...”

“Huh?...yeah...here.” I take them out of my inventory and hand them out. I then notice...Ember's not here. I look over to see her lying on the ground near the firepit weakly, with Ozpin looking over her. My heart skips a beat. “E...Ember?!”

She looks up, stands, then slowly walks over to me, and lies down next to me. She's looking right at me. Her eyes are strained, and she seems tired. On top of that, there's copious amounts of snot near around her nostrils. “Is it just me...or does she look sick?” Weiss says, kneeling next to her. I put my head on Ember's forehead out of instinct, and she feels hot. Just then, she sneezes in my face. Yang busts out laughing and I slowly wipe the snot off my face. “Ember....” I say. “You're not feeling good, are you?” I stroke her head carefully. “Looks like she has a cold or something.” Blake notes “She should be fine with plenty of rest, but we need to start the day”.

“Right...” I reply, helping Ember to her feet with Weiss's help. We then notice another beacon coming down on the rock, which Yang volunteers to go and loot. Blake stays near the taming Ceratosaurus, who's out cold like a rock. Weiss and I lead Ember inside, where it's cooler. Weiss then does something quite kind for her to do. She lets Ember lie on her sleeping bag, and rest her head on it's pillow. Using some leftover fiber, we make a decent blanket large enough for one of us to use, but we drape it gently over Ember. I stroke her head. “Hey, it's OK. You sleep right here, alright? I'm not going to leave you, OK?”

Ember gives a low, pitiful noise in response. Weiss and I get up, and fetch some more meat from the preserving bin, and take it outside. We plan on giving it to the Ceratosaurus. Upon getting outside, we find Yang back, and setting up a second fire with a cooking pot near our standard campfire. “Was that in the Beacon?” I ask.

“Yeah, it was. These too” she says, holding up what appear to be mint and tea leaves. “There were some seeds for mint and tea, too”.

“You don't say?...” Weiss notes. “Yang, do me a favor?”

“Depends”.

“I think I can make a nice brew of tea for everyone with that. It could definitely help you with your throat, Ruby.” she says looking at me “as well as perhaps help Ember sleep better. I just need some berries from the bushes over there”.

“Oh, no prob! I guess you wanna get the fire started and water boiling, eh?”

“Yeah, it would help”.

With that, Weiss heads over to the cooking pot and Yang walks over with me to the Ceratosaurus. Ozpin is with Blake now, who is on her knees, looking right into Ozpin's eyes. She nods, and he gives a hoot, before turning and galloping off. “Did you send him out for some hunting?” I ask. Blake turns and nods “Yes. I'm confident he'll return. Your throat feeling any better?”

“not really...” I squeak. “But it will soon, I hope.” I put the meat I have for the Ceratosaurus in his inventory. He's taming along nicely. Yang plucks a few blue, red, and purple berries for Weiss, and brings them over to her. Weiss has poured the remaining water from her waterskin into the pot, and it's already started to boil. She adds in the mint and tea leaves just as Yang walks up with the needed berries. “Just what I was thinking.” Weiss said, taking a few narcoberries she's had in her inventory, and dropping them into the pot “with these for a bit of relaxation...hopefully it works out good”.

“Hey, I've never made clothes before in my life”. Yang says, handing over the berries to Weiss, who adds in the needed amounts “but they turned out good, right?”

“True. This will take a moment. Maybe we can make use of those wooden building materials Ruby has in the meantime”.

“Ah, true. I'll do that”. Yang stands and walks over to me, half-asleep on the Ceratosaurus. “Ey you.” she says. “Can I borrow those wooden walls and stuff real quick?”

“Eh?....yeah...here.” I say halfheartedly, selecting them in my inventory, and then using “drop item” without second thought. It spawns a cloth-wrapped box, strangely enough. Yang pauses a moment, then grabs it. The second she touches it, it disappears, and the items are in her inventory. She looks at me, but I've got a groggy look that just says “I know it's weird: but I don't care”. She smiles, then walks over to where we know the general gist of our house to be. Upon selecting a foundation, then “Use item”, she can make out a green outline of the foundation. She quickly catches on to what this means. Getting it to where she wants it to be, she merely seems to confirm to herself that's where she wants it, and it suddenly spawns right there. Yang smiles, and does similarly, laying down four wooden foundations, and putting up eight walls, making a small corner of the the eventual, larger structure. She takes a step back, imagining it when it's done. “Looks....promising!” she says, smiling. “Now....all we need is the right materials, and I'd say we've got ourselves a REAL home!”

Meanwhile, Blake looks over at me. “What about a name for this guy?” she says, gently stroking the ceratosaurus's snout. I eye her. “I don't know...maybe Night Knight”.

She stares at me. “Really. You'd drop that pun?”

“I don't know. Brain hurts right now. Not thinking straight. Gimme a break. At least that's what we can use him for, right? Have him wander this area, while we are asleep?”

“True...howabout Nightshade?”

“Nightshade?...i guess so.” I say smiling groggily “It works, and I like it”.

Blake continues to watch over Nightshade as I continue to try and rest. Due to last night, as well as my throat, I don't feel like saying or doing much. A few minutes later, a strange, pleasant smell is what gets my attention. It's coming from Weiss's cooking pot. I shamble over and sit on my knees next to her. “Smells done...” I squeak low, eager to taste it. Blake walks over after me, and Yang walks back out from inside the hut. Weiss gives an uneasy look “Smells ready...and as far as I can tell it is...but...well, I don't really know. First time I've made tea...so I don't really know if it'll be any good or not. I might think it's good, but in reality you-”

“I'm not really caring if it tastes good or not. I just want something other than water to drink right now.” I reply. Weiss nods “alright...but if it tastes bad or-”

“I won't blame you.” I say, finishing her sentence. There's been five stone cups we've received with this cooking pot. Weiss takes one and carefully fills it with the air-cleansing, brown liquid. She hands me the cup, which I take in both hands. I take a few sniffs, and I can feel my nose opening up. Just the vapor alone seems to make me breathe better. I blow over the top a few times, then bring the cup to my lips, and take a slight sip. The minute the liquid crosses my lips, my eyes widen. What started as a small sip turns into a larger one as I gulp down what I've drank. “So...is...is it good?” Weiss asks me. I lower the cup from my mouth and look directly at her. “...Dang Weiss” I say, my voice normal now “I don't know what you've made, but this is ridiculously good!” The others are wide-eyed at me. “How's...your voice, sis?” Yang asks. “Fine as you can probably hear” I say “My throat isn't dry anymore either...and I'm not tired. I feel like I slept great last night. Honest!”.

Blake and Yang look over at Weiss, who's returning their look of shock. “...I don't know what you've made, Weiss...” Yang says “But you better hook me and Blake up with some of that tea”.

Weiss smiles. “Sure. I think we all deserve some” she begins to pass full cups to Blake and Yang, before getting one for herself. I take a small sip of my own tea, then get an idea. I quickly stand, then walk back inside the house. Ember's still lying sick on top of Weiss's sleeping bag. As I approach her, she looks up groggily at me. I kneel next to her, and stroke the top of her head with my right hand. “Hey girl...” I say “Try some of this for me, OK? It should make you feel much better”.

I bring the cup to Ember's snout. She sniffs it, then opens her mouth for me to pour the tea into her mouth. She tilts her head back as I do so. I've poured the rest of my cup out for her. A few seconds later, she stands up slowly, gives a contented growl and a short shake, before looking at me. Her eyes seem completely fine, and there's a lot less snot around her nose now. I stand, smiling “I told you that would work. Don't you feel better?” I pet her snout as she nuzzles me, and I take the blanket off of her and set it near the sleeping bag. We head back outside, Ember following behind me. Blake smiles upon seeing us “Seems like it worked. How's she feeling?”

“Doesn't look like it cured her, but she's much better. I'd say it's just a light cold right now, in comparison to what she originally had...that was scary”.

“As long as she's OK now, right sis?” Yang comforts me. I nod in response “Now, that aside...what do we do today? I think the first order of business is to patch up the shack...”

“That can be done.” Blake says. “We've got to stick around until Nightshade tames up, as well...but I'm growing disgusted at the smell I've got coming off my own body”. With that last utterance, the rest of us take a quick moment to actually sniff ourselves...we're not too excited with our own smells, either. Weiss shudders “Dinosaur island apocalypse or not, I can't stand smelling like this for much longer. I say we go put the river to good use”.

“Not a bad idea...” I say “but let's go in turns. That way, we still have people here”.

“Fair enough...” Weiss replies “Guess you go on down first”.

“Alright...guess I'll go on Ember, in case anything happens”.

“And we'll start working on fixing up the house here!” Yang replies, and the others agree. I head back inside, fetching Ember's saddle from a storage box. As I do so, the others come inside as well. Blake carefully climb up the wall using the interior scaffolding to the damaged areas. Yang and Weiss start handing her materials as she begins to tear down the unrepairable parts. I head back outside, saddle up on Ember, and ride down to the river. Once there, I take a quick look around the area. No other creature is here except for Ember and me. This said, I dismount her and head to the shore of the river. I take a quick look around before taking off my hide clothing, then everything else, then diving head-first into the water. It's still just as warm as it was yesterday. After soaking in the water, I begin to actually try and wash myself down. Looking around in the water, there are some coelocanth, but nothing else. One sends a massive chill down my spine as it brushes my back, catching me off guard. I scrub myself down as best I can using my bare hands. After around ten minutes, I step back out of the water and use a piece of cloth I brought to dry off. I then start putting my clothes back on. Just as I'm sliding my hide shirt over my makeshift bra, nearby bushes move. I quickly look that way and focus on that area. I don't know why, but at first, my initial instinct is some sort of peeping tom...I'm both embarrassed as well as angry. With my clothes on, I take out my bow and a stone arrow from my quiver, loading my bow. I whistle Ember to follow behind me as I carefully get close to the moving bushes. My initial idea of a peeping tom slowly begins to fade. If it was one of the others, it might be my sister, but I'm fairly confident even she wouldn't want to get accidentally shot with an arrow. If it were a person, the bushes should have stopped moving. As I get about 20 ft away, I see something...just behind the bush, to the slight right, a large ant, about as big a small dog. It's dead. Seeing the jaws on the ant, it must be some sort of carnivore. Just then, the ant is dragged back behind the bush. I ready my bow, and then a head pops up above the bush. Atop a decently-lengthed, feathered neck, is a head vaguely similar to the head of a raptor. Sharp teeth line the outer edges of the feather-less head. Above it's eyes and down the middle of it's head are two tall crests. The scales of the creature are a tan color, but the crests are two-toned red and blue. The eyes are red, and the creature's feathers are also blue and red. At it's neck, there is also a hanging flap of skin. The creature's holding a dead “Titanomyrma” as I can make them out somehow, in it's jaws. The ant it holds, however, has wings. The creature's size is slightly larger than Ember. It's got a medium-length tail ending in four long, red feathers coming off the tip. It's staring right at Ember and I...but it's not aggressive. Just curious, like I am eyeing this oddball of a creature. Ember seems fine with it, so I put my bow and arrow away. It keeps staring at me, swallows the ant in it's jaws, then looks at me more. It then lowers it's head back down, and I hear what sounds like it to be eating more ants. A couple seconds later, it lift it's head up again, then gives it's head a shake and bob. It's making strange, somewhat high-pitched, birdlike sounds, despite looking like a kind of dinosaur. I haven't seen it's arms this whole time...until it raises them. They aren't arms, but arms that appear similar to dragon-like wings. The fingers flare out to make the outer edges of it's wings, and the support themselves. It flares out it's wings a bit, as if stretching. It's arms aren't feathered, but scaled, and the wings are a similar blue color, but with two red-and-yellow eyespots on each wing. I would guess if it flared out it's wings at me, the pattern could vaguely resemble a large face. It's back legs are feathered only on it's thighs, remaining scaled the rest of the way down, and ending in eagle-like feet. It's chest is deep, probably to help support flight muscles. I continue to stare at it in awe of what I can only describe to be some sort of strange, living wyvern. It then begins to seemingly preen it's right wing, keeping a careful, curious eye on me. Something suddenly hits me, then. I check my inventory. I don't have any berries, but I've got a handful of different seeds. Taking them out, I hold a pile of seeds out in my hand in it's direction. It stops preening it's wing and looks my way, at my outstretched hand. It steps forwards slowly, a little weary, out of the bushes and directly in front of me. It looks at me and my outstretched hand before finally bending down and lapping up the seeds in one go with it's tongue. I giggle at the ticklish feeling. I can now make out this creature as a level 64 Male “Yi”. Yi? Kinda funny name, if I do say so myself. I chuckle a little more at this thought as it swallows the seeds, then bobs it's head a bit and gives two calls as if to say “you're alright. I like you”. Unfortunately, that's all I've got on me at the moment. I back up, smiling at it, and climb onto Ember, all this time it watches me. I begin to turn Ember back up the hill, and then look back at the Yi. It shakes it's head once, gives a call, then turns up the hill itself. It fans out it's wings and begins running decently fast, comparable to Ember. Once it's ran about 100 ft, it leaps into the air and flaps it's wings, taking to the sky just like a living wyvern. It gives off a few calls as it ascends, circles around once, then heads off deeper into the island. I'm left feeling a sense of awe of some sort, and begin heading back up to the hut. As Ember and I ride back in, I see the others just putting the finishing touches on the hut's repairs. I dismount Ember and my sister turns and sees me. “Hey there sis!” she says. “You still stink?”

“Nope.” I say “The river works. Best we'll have for now, I think”.

“Great!” Weiss says, relieved. “I'll go down next...if I don't I might just go crazy”.

“You already ARE crazy”. Yang replies. Weiss gives a huff at this as the rest of us laugh a bit. Suddenly I remember my recent encounter. “Oh yeah” I said “I met something down there”.

“You met something down at the river?” Blake asks.

“Yeah.” I reply “Something I haven't seen before. Blake, do you know anything about a 'Yi'?”

“Yi?...” Blake pauses a moment. “In a short article I read online, yeah. It's a small dinosaur with arms that evolved into gliding membranes. Around a foot long, and lived in trees”.

“Oh cool, so they're like little dragons, eh?” Yang asks.

“Basically” Blake replies.

“That's cool. Nice to know we got those little guys running around. Would be nice to get one as a little pet, hm?”

“It's just that.” I say. “He wasn't a 'little guy': he was bigger than Ember by a few feet”.

“Wait, what?” Blake said. “Are you sure it wasn't a pterosaur of some sort?”

“It was standing on it's back legs.” I said “And it ran before it started flying. Note I said FLYING, not gliding”.

“That's...” Blake was in deep thought “...I'd say improbable, but knowing the ARK here...some people were writing speculative papers online for fun about how something like a wyvern could be possible if Yi hadn't died out, if Yi developed powered flight. How'd you run into it?”

“When I was putting on my clothes I heard and saw nearby bushes moving. When I went to investigate, I found him eating some giant ants I think he killed.”

“Giant ants?” Weiss said with a bit of reluctance.

“Yeah, they were about as big as Zwei...who I really miss”.

“Me too, sis.” Yang says. Blake's still in thought. “Yi and it's relatives were thought to have eaten insects, fruits, and seeds. Knowing how big the insects and other arthropods-”

“Arthrowha?” I ask

“Arthropods. Basically the fancy word for bugs”.

“Oh.”

“Yes. Again, knowing how big the scorpions and other arthropods of the islands seem to be, Yi might have evolved bigger to hunt bigger prey.”

“Yeah, he looked like he could tussle with somebody...” I note “Looked as strong, if not a bit stronger, than Ember”.

“I wanna find that thing and ride it now!” Yang said. “It's basically a dragon! I want a dragon!”

“It went of flying deeper inland” I tell my sister. “Deeper into Cragg's Island. Maybe when we're done here we can go out and try to find him?”

We agree to this. Weiss gathers what she needs for bathing and heads down on her own, keeping some materials in case things get hairy. I help out Yang and Blake at the house for a bit. Around the same length of time I was gone, Weiss comes back relieved and rejuvenated. She confirms my story, having found the ant remains and footprints of the Yi herself. Just as she finishes saying this, Nightshade finishes taming, according to our implants. We look over only to see him still asleep. Can't blame him: he's nocturnal, after all. Yang goes down for her turn to bathe next, as well as check out the evidence of the Yi through what it's left. I don't know about that thing. For some reason....i feel it to be really rare, or really special. Maybe because it's basically a living dragon! We've hatched the idea to do some hunting and gathering while we're out, so we begin to prepare for as such. Blake's the only one left to go and bathe in the river. Once she comes back, we'll be good to go.

 

Yang comes back soon enough from bathing in the river. Once again, she confirms what Ruby's told us. I might as well take a look myself while I'm down there. Having everything I need, I take the walk down the hill to the river. Once at the river, I decide to check the evidence out first. Heading over to where Ruby said the creature was, there's indeed giant bug parts scattered around on the coastal forest floor. I then look towards the hill. In the ground, I can indeed make out several footprints. Three toes in the front, and another one in the back. This isn't like the Yi I've read about. They only have three standard toes, not bird-like feet. This is definitely strange, but that's enough for now. I head down to the same rock everybody else has been laying their clothes on, and undress, before heading into the water myself. There are coelocanth as usual, but nothing too major. Yet...I've got a strange feeling. Normally when we were down here last, we could hear the seagulls nearby...but I barely hear any of them. My instincts tell me something isn't right. I decide I need to make this quick, but thorough. It takes me just about five minutes to completely wash up: but even still, I feel like I've taken too long. I swim back over to shore and the rock where my equipment is. I quickly dry off as fast as I can and put on my underclothing. I finish putting my top on and reach for my hide pants. Just then, there's a sound of a something bursting from the water behind me, followed by a vicious roar. I don't even look over my shoulder to see what it is. In a quick reflex, I activate my semblance to leave a copy of myself while I dash forwards and grab my bow and quiver. I turn around to see the animal taking the bait. It's looking around frantically as to where it's prey has gone. I don't know exactly what this is, but it looks like a large, white crocodile. Just under 20ft long, but not your standard albino crocodile. It's legs are much longer, comparable to that of a big cat, and it's head is vicious, with a ferocious set of fangs. It's eyes red, and the right side of it's face having three red slash marks across it, primarily, across it's eye. I note “Wild Male Kaprosuchus – lvl 56 -” In instinct, I pull out a sedative arrow and fire. My shot isn't the best, hitting it in it's left shoulder. This brings it's attention back to me. It gives a hiss then roar, and bounds towards me with incredible speed. I manage to give off another successful shot before I have to use my semblance again to trick it. Once again in it's confusion, I give off three successful shots into it. It hisses at me and bounds at me again. Where do I go now? I remember that near the rock with the rest of my clothing...there's a much larger one I can use for a vantage point. I bolt as fast as I can and jump to the top of the rock quite easily. The Kaprosuchus bounds after me and leaps up at me, but it can't exactly get up to me. It turns back around a bit before charging and jumping at the rock again, still short. I take this moment and fire another shot. It does attempts to jump up four more times. During this period, I give off five more shots: one one on the third attack missing. The Kaprosuchus has no signs of slowing down. Are my arrows even doing anything? It comes in again much faster this time, but to my shock, uses the rock with my clothes on it as it's own vantage point. In a flash, It's jaws are snapping in my face as it's front arms claw at the rock, trying to haul itself up. My adrenaline levels are immense. In a quick reflex, I fire off three shots in very quick succession, all to the face of my attacker. To my relief, this does the trick. It's movements slow as it fails to try and clamber atop the rock. Then it slides back down to the ground due to it's weight, landing on it's back. It rolls over slowly, takes a few steps away from the rock as if to either run away or charge again, looking over it's right shoulder at me, then drops to the ground. It's out. Quickly, I leap down from my rock and put on my clothes. I rush up to it. It's torpor is going down fairly quickly. I have five pieces of meat on me from feeding Nightshade earlier, but that's all I've got. I quickly put those in it's inventory and run over to the nearby bushes, plucking off every narcoberry I can find. I gather fifty in about twenty seconds and dash back over to the unconscious crocodilian. It's torpor is still depleting. I put those into it's inventory and force-feed them to it. It's got two pieces of meat left. In reflex I dash to the riverside and pull out a stone arrow, aiming it at the closest coelocanth, and fire. It's a one-shot kill, and apparently killing the Coelocanth earns me it's dossier. I don't have time to pay attention to read it, and quickly haul my kill ashore, and start cutting off large chunks from the dead fish, gaining ten good pieces of meat. I put them in the Kaprosuchus's inventory just as the last two pieces I use run out. Then I dash back to the bushes and start gathering more berries. It turns into a cycle that seems to last for an hour. Berries, feed. Fish, feed. Then back again. I'm gathering from the bushes on the fifth time when suddenly I hear a voice. “Hey! Blake!” I turn to see Ruby waving at me. She's dashing down the hill atop Ember, and she pulls up to me in seconds. “Are you alright? You were taking a really long time, we were starting to get worried. Then when we suddenly got the coelocanth dossier we thought something was up. I got on Ember as fast as I could, you're ok right?!”

“I'm fine, don't worry about me.” I say “Just need some help with him, please.” I dash around and behind her and Ember towards the Kaprosuchus, who Ruby now notices. “Oh snap!” Ruby says in shock as she gets off Ember and runs over to me. “Where'd you find him?!”

“In the river we were bathing in, actually”. I say forcing the Kaprosuchus to take the narcoberries. Surprisingly, I'm still at 100% taming effectiveness. “Wait, you're serious?” Ruby says, looking out into the river.

“Apparently” I reply. “He jumped me as I was putting my clothes back on. I've had trouble feeding him and keeping him out cold, so if you could-”

“Got ya, gotcha.” she quickly replies, checking her own inventory. “I've got some narcotics on me anyway. These should ease your workload.” She force-feeds the Kaprosuchus only two narcotics, and it makes a drastic difference. I sigh relieved, as she then takes some spare meat from Ember and puts it on the Kaprosuchus. I collapse into a propped sitting position and sigh once again. “Heh...thank you.” I say. Ruby walks over to me and kneels next to me. “Hey, it's ok. What's a team leader and friend for, hm?” she smiles encouragingly at me, which I return. She helps me back up. “Here...” she says, taking a few narcotics out of her inventory and giving them to me. “Keep an eye on him. I'll get the others, alright?”

I nod. “Yeah, thank you. Really.”

She smiles again. “Well, really, I already told you. It's no big deal...we're gonna have quite a few close calls here. Just count on us as usual and we'll get through them just fine.”

I agree with her, and she mounts Ember again and dashes towards the hill and back home. I manage to now relax with ease, finally sitting next to my tame. It's a vicious creature for sure, and it's scars tell a definite story. I can't tell if the slash mark across it's eye is from tooth or claw, but it seems to have been made in self-defense. Perhaps prey he jumped one time fought back. I look at the eye that's been slashed. It's not blind, and can still see: it's looking directly at me. I note several other scars on it's body. Although they've healed over time, and are very slight, and cannot be seen easily. “...Bad past, eh?” I say. “Me too...I've got scars as well...but not anywhere on my body. All here” I point to my head. It continues to stare at me. “You've got physical scars....” I continue “I've got mental ones...I'd say you're the lucky one of us. You don't have to worry about guilt or conscience....i think both of us are going to get along fine”. It gives a low hiss. I don't know why I'm trying to have a full-on conversation with a crocodile...must either be trying to calm myself down, the fact I'm slowly going insane...or maybe I'm trying to do what Ruby did with Ember. I lean closer “You're quick on your feet. I bet you're quick in the water, too. I need somebody like you as a new partner. I've got my teammates like Ruby who you met...but I need something like what she's got her Raptor. Surely you saw something between her and Ember, right? I think we can have something like that. Trust me...if you'll just give me a chance...” I slowly hold up my hand, and begin to slowly bring it to the Kaprosuchus “you and I will become quite strong...and we'll bond very well...” I put my hand on the back of it's head, and it seems fairly relaxed. I then look at the scar over it's eye. “You've got enough scars” I state. “You...need no more. I'll take a scar in your place if I need to. No more scars, alright?”

 

I stay with it, and soon Ruby rides back down with Weiss and Yang following. Both of them are quite surprised and impressed at the beast I've managed to knock out. “Heh, nice going Blake.” Yang says grinning from ear to ear “He looks freaking badass”.

“Thank you.” I state. Weiss is also looking over my tame. “Sorry it took a bit longer than you might have thought...” she states. “We thought about getting the needed materials for a possible saddle. Yang and Ruby took a moment to make some Cementing Paste, as Ruby learned the saddle engram for you”.

I smile appreciatively at Ruby “once again, you've got my thanks. You really do”.

“Eh, it's nothing” Ruby says, still atop Ember “though we were worried, because we didn't know if we had enough hide for the job: and we didn't. Luckily, though, a little bird came around and gave us just the right amount we needed.”

“A little bird?” I ask. Just then, she leans to the left a little, and reveals Ozpin sitting behind her atop Ember, who leaps down off of her. I smile as he walks over to me,and around my Kaprosuchus. I stroke the back of his head. “Just in time, aren't you, old man?” he gives a hoot in response at me. We then get to work while keeping my tame calm and under sedation. We measure him from snout to tail tip using our arms and other rough measurements: he's 15ft 6 inches, approximately. We get to work making a saddle as best we can. It's similar to how Weiss and Ruby made the saddle for Ember, but we use the cementing paste for waterproofing and holding certain parts together. We finish it in around 10 minutes, working together. I'm sitting on the right side of my tame, stroking it's head. Weiss looks at me with a supportive smile “So, Blake. What's his name?”

“I came up with it rather quickly.” I state, looking at his head. “And I think you'll know why I named him as such: White Fang.”

They all look at the scar across his eye. Yang gives a smug grin “That there's how you name something awesome like that. Make it personal! With meaning!”

I shake my head at this. “It was purely because of the scar.” I state “although there might be other motives. I'm not too sure myself, yet”. Then, White Fang suddenly gets up and stretches with a growl. He's mine now. I smile as the others cheer for me. White Fang looks directly at me and lets me hold his head in my hands and pet him. “Guessing you're ready to see if I can live up to what I've promised, hm?” I tell him, and he seems to hiss in response. “Alright” I reply “just need a moment of your cooperation, then”.

With help from Ruby, Weiss, and Yang, I get the saddle equipped onto White Fang. I take a step back and admire the look. He seems to like it, himself. He seems to walk in a short circle, taking a few pauses, as if to test it out himself. Then it's my turn to take it for a test. I walk up beside him, then sling myself over and onto the saddle on his back. It's not the same as the saddle for Ember. White Fang's saddle doesn't have foot-catches. He supports me just fine. I then ride him around for a moment. First a walk, then gradually working up to a sprint. He's quite fast despite his size, and quite agile. Just like he did earlier, I direct him onto the smaller rock, then the larger one, and this time, with my help, he climbs it MUCH easier, as we stand atop it together, me on his back. The others give cheers of approval, and I can feel it now...that same feeling Ruby felt. I check my implant, and sure enough, I can level up tremendously. I decide to do that, continuing to keep my stats balanced. As I level up White Fang, I also get his health to 1500, like Ruby did for Ember, as well as double his stamina. His weight was already 240, so I didn't need to up that too much. Lastly, I put the last bit into his attack, and some into his speed. He's got 180% movement speed and 947% melee damage. I'm very pleased with how it works out. We climb down off the rock, and then I decide to try his amphibious characteristics. I direct him into the water, and he heads in easily, and swims around with me atop his back. It's not deep enough for him to completely submerge us both, so he cruises around the water's surface. I decide to head to where this small river meets the ocean, near the base of the cliff. The others follow us as I direct White Fang downstream. As he swims along, White Fang successfully catches and kills a coelocanth in his jaws and devours it, satisfying his hunger from leveling so much. We pause at the mouth of the river. “Hey Blake!” I hear Ruby holler. I look back to see her waving from still atop Ember. “Stay safe! We already know of one certain thing that lives out there, you know!”

“C'mon now, partner!” Yang calls out “As good of an idea as it is to test it out, don't go out too deep. Who knows what else other than those sharks are out there. We'd better not loose you, now!”

“I'll be careful.” I reply to them both, before looking down at White Fang and into the water. He seems to take the shallower ocean just fine. I nod “Alright, White...” I say “Let's go”. I give a slight tug of his reigns and whistle. He bends his back as he begins to descend into the water. Just as the water gets to the top of my chest, I take one large inhale of air as I quickly submerge. We're underwater now, and White Fang floats, awaiting my order. I figure it must be somewhat hard for him to swim with me on him like this. I let go of his body with my legs and begin to float, grabbing onto the front part of where I sit on the saddle, but with the reigns still in my hands. This should be much more hydrodynamic for him. I give another tug of the reigns as we begin to explore the reefs, staying in the vicinity of the river's mouth. We slowly approach the drop-off...the cliff goes down for a VERY long ways. I quickly scan the area and then note something...to the right further down on the cliff...there seems to be what looks like a metal tunnel of some sort protruding out of the cave wall. It's as if the metal was part of some sort of walkway that gave in, and was flooded with water. Just as I note this, a familiar shape swims out from behind the metal structure: another giant shark, which I know as Megalodon. In instinct, I pull quickly on White Fang's reigns, and he does a very quick U-turn back to shore, towards where the others are. Just as the water gets shallow enough, he leaps out of it- with me on his back- near the other members of the team. As he's airborne, I shift myself back into proper land-riding position. “So, how'd it go?” Weiss asks.

“Well, saw one of those Megalodons patrolling nearby, that's what sent me in.” I said, wiping my face “but other than that, quite well. The reefs looked beautiful from what I could tell, but were still cloudy to me. I can see in the dark, not underwater”.
“Yeah, we know.” Yang says. “You're a cat, not a catfish”.

I burrow my eyes directly into hers for a few moments. “...either way” I say “i did note something strange. There's what looks like a metal tunnel of some sort sticking out of the cliff side of the drop-off, ...it looks different then what the obelisks are made of, and it looks....man-made”.

“So there's a metal,man-made structure underwater?” Weiss asks. I nod in response slowly. “Alright then”. Ruby says “We need to remember it's here. That way when we get better aquatic tames, we can go down and check it out. It might have something of use”. We agree to this, then begin to head back to our homestead, through the many rocks at the base of the cliff, back up the river, then up the hill.

[Xdrone]

Wheres the cerato theywere taming???

[Xdrone]

I found out about the cerato maybe add in both gigantoraptor and megaraptor?

[Shadlos]

Megaraptor is a thing in my fan-cannon, he comes later. Cerato's back at camp, tamed up, if you re-read. He's nocturnal, so he sleeps during the day, and moves around at night (in contrast to ARK's Megalosaurus, who will begrudgingly move during the day, my friend's Ceratosaurus won't even bother moving during the day. In contrast, Cerato is around Carno's size, and is faster than Megalosaurus. Riders of Ceratosaurus also gain night vision so long as they are on their Cerato, but the Ceratosaurus will immediately plop down anywhere once the sun fully clears the horizon So yeah. Also, I plan on releasing dossiers here of my fan-animals when they are introduced, so check the fan-fiction forum soon for the dossiers on Ornimegalonyx and Ceratosaurus.

[RaptorKnight01]

good story i like it 

[Xdrone]

Now there is one thing about the ending : no one will like it if the ending is the characters or ruby woke up and said it was all a dream 

[Xdrone]

Now, gimme gimme gimme the next chapter! I guess they are going to tame a yi or flying mount and i guess ruby gets the yi?

[Shadlos]

Let's find out.

-Chapter 5-

 

 

Blake and I now have mounts. That just leaves Yang and Weiss to get their own. We stop back at our house and dismount Ember and White Fang. “Are we confident we want to leave these two here?” I ask. “Well, I guess it's for sake of fairness to those who have to walk” Blake replies “besides, Ember's still not 100% healed, so she can rest here with White Fang to watch out for her”. We all agree to this and stock up on items and equipment inside before heading back out. It's just after noon, now. We decide to head back to the river once again, this time, to try our luck at some safe fishing. Once back down the hill, Weiss and I wade out into the water to try our luck catching food,while Yang and Blake work on a campfire to cook the food. Weiss uses a spear, wielding it above her head, and using her free hand to aim her throw. I try using my bow and arrow, tracking fish within the water. Weiss and I strike at almost the exact same time. Both are aims are true, as Weiss spears a coelocanth directly in the center of its flank, while I manage to shoot my own in it's head. Weiss bends down into the water and retrieves her spear, reward still attached to the end. I grab my own kill, and we both take them to Blake and Yang, who've got the fire already roaring. Our fish are around two feet long each, good meals, as far as we can tell. We leave Blake to cook them as Yang joins us by the river again, trying her own hand at spearfishing. Blake gets to work on the coelocanth, skinning them down except for their head and tail tip, tearing off the fins to make them easier to eat, I suppose. She skewers them in the mouth with sharp sticks, and begins carefully cooking the first two catches of the day. After around five minutes, they look pretty cooked. Yang, Weiss, and I walk over just in time to see Blake take a coelocanth off the fire. “So” I ask her “What do you think?”

“Can't...tell exactly...” she says, holding the fish horizontally in front of her “smells good, though. Although, just because something smells good doesn't mean it tastes good or is safe...”. She carefully looks over the cooked meat of the fish within her hands. Slowly, she raises the fish to her mouth and sinks her teeth into the meat. Her eyes suddenly widen and her pupils shrink. The others and I are taken back a second. “Blake?” I ask “are...you alright? Is it ok?!”

She slowly moves her mouth back away from the cooked fish, and begins to slowly open her mouth, as if to say something. Suddenly, she begins wildly devouring the fish in an animalistic frenzy. The others and I burst into laughter at this. “Dossier said that the meat was good, but I didn't expect it to be THAT good!” Yang says, not even bothering to keep a straight face. Realizing my own hunger, I reach out to grab the other fish on the fire. At the last possible second, Blake snatches it out right from under me and starts tearing into both fish at the same time. Yang laughs even harder, holding her stomach and falling onto her side, proceeding to kick her legs a few times. She's dying from this, I know she is. We spend about an hour and a half cooking fish, catching more, and eating our lunch. At the end of it all, Blake's on her back in a semi-comatose state because of how much she's stuffed herself, and Yang's still dying from the whole thing. “I want one for the road, please” Blake says raising her right arm a bit, before it collapses back onto the dirt. Yang can't breathe or keep a straight face. Weiss huffs “don't be lazy! Get your own!”

“Can't. Can't move.”

“Then you shouldn't have eaten so much!”

“Couldn't help it. It tasted too good.”

“Then you should have more self-restraint!”

“Sorry, I don't even know what that is right now”.

“Oh leave the happy fat cat alone!” Yang bursts out. She's been dying this whole time still. Originally, she was standing like Weiss and I, but she's keeled over again and is flailing with laughter on the ground. Weiss looks at me, and sees me trying to hold back my own laughter. Seeing this, Weiss can't hold it in either. She gives a snort, and then Weiss and I loose it. Blake looks over to her left, seeing the firepit. There is one more cooked coelocanth on a stick, just for her. She weakly reaches for it with her left hand, to no avail. She's so lazy right now she just sort of reaches into the air at it, before finally dragging herself closer using her one free arm. Her fingertips can just touch the stick. With a bit of fumbling, she manages to grab it. She holds the fish vertically on top of her stomach, and looks at it, her mouth still drooling. Just the sight of this fish reminds her of how good it tastes. She's staring at this fish in mesmerized awe, until a dark shadow suddenly appears over her face...it's a strange, elongated head blocking out the sun above her. The head is attached to, as far as she can see, a slightly elongated neck...that's looking at her fish. Suddenly, Blake turns very aggressive and defensive. She quickly brings the cooked coelocanth to her chest and bear-hugs it as if she were a child, and that fish her favorite stuffed animal. “NO!” She says angrily “MINE! GET YOUR OWN!” The creature slowly looks down at Blake...it's got a weird face, for sure. Blake then bears her teeth and hisses at it, and Yang dies even more. The creature simply responds by giving Blake a slow, wet, lick across the face, from her forehead to her chin. Blake closes her eyes as it does this, and she's angry at first, before her anger quickly turns to absolute confusion. The others and I laugh at this as Blake slowly rights herself to see exactly what she's staring at. The creature doesn't have an elongated neck...but a very elongated neck, taking up half the creature's body length. At around 6 meters long, that's one long neck! It's got a very short, stubby body, with four short legs, all of which are posed out to the side. The rest of the length is made up of a tail slightly longer than the rest of the creature's torso. From what we can see, it's a “Tanystropheus”. It gives a low, strange, bellow-like call in Blake's face. Blake isn't pleased with it's breath, which reeks of fish, and waves her hand in front of her face, before pausing a moment, breathing into her own hand, then sniffing it “...touche, Tany” she says. She puts the cooked fish away in her inventory, and stands as the Tanystropheus continues looking at her. “I didn't really mean to be mean....” Blake says “...but you're still not getting any fish. Not from me, at least”. Seeing it will get no food from us, the Tanystropheus slowly turns towards our river and lumbers over, before waiting at the water's edge, and putting that long neck of it to good use. We watch it for a few moments as it does this, before Yang turns to me, having gotten a hold on herself. “Aiight, now, sis, about your dragon-buddy?”

“Oh, right! The Yi!” I say. I quickly look around “He was going....that way!” I pointed into the forest. “Just that way?” Weiss asks “You don't know anything else?”

“He flew above the treeline! I couldn't see anything else!” I say throwing my arms in the air “I just have a feeling he's still on the island, somewhere!”

“Well, let's go and find the thing then, sis!” My sister says, putting a hand on her hip and putting her hat back on her head. We agree to this, and then begin our forest trek in search of the Yi from earlier.

 

 

Sis insists she leads the way, oh well. The forest isn't too bad, and it's pretty on the inside. The coastal forest is full of air that carries the scent of the sea. It's perfectly calming, as well as nose-opening. After walking for about ten minutes, we come to a small clearing with a log in the center. On top of this log is a bug of sorts, around the size of a seagull. It's...strange, like a cross between a moth, dragonfly, and a grasshopper. We slowly walk up near it, until we're around 10 feet away. I try and use my spyglass to get a closer look at the green-and-brown insect. It's apparently called a “Permithone”. “Permithone?” I ask “never heard of those”.

“Well, for once, neither have I.” Blake states “I know a slight bit about prehistory from what I've read, not a lot”. We continue to look at the strange bug. It's just sitting there, apparently resting for some reason, feeling safe. Weiss smirks “free chitin, am I right?” she asks, and we nod in response. She pulls out a spear and holds it ready for a strike as she slowly creeps up behind the unsuspecting bug. She's within five feet of it, ready to attack. She raises her spear, and then suddenly jabs at it from above. I don't exactly know what happens next. Suddenly, there's an small explosion where Weiss was just standing. All I can see at first is the Permithone flying away at a blinding speed with dust coming off of it's abdomen at first, which ceases as it flees. The dust cloud is still there, and as it clears, so is Weiss, frozen mid-strike in shock. Ruby jumps up “HAH! I DIDN'T DO IT THIS TIME!” she says pointing at Weiss. Weiss remains in this posture, before she finally just falls backwards onto the ground. Suddenly, I put two and two together, and bust out laughing. Already on my knees, I grab my stomach and then proceed to punch the ground a few times. “Oh my god, it's a bug that farts explosions to protect itself.” I say laughing. Weiss slowly sits back up “Why...did a bug...blow up...in my face...”

“...because that was ingenious.” Blake replies.

“That I just got blown up?!”

“No, that defense mechanism, and the creature itself.” She tells us. “I've got some sharp eyes. Just before the explosion, the Permithone shot out a black dust from it's abdomen, then used it's back legs by scratching them against it's abdomen. It was like clicking flint and steel together...”

“Wait, wait wait...” Ruby says. “Are you saying this thing...naturally produces gunpowder?!”

“I'm fairly confident. It's a brilliant adaptation too. The explosion damages and slows down the predator, while the insect itself uses the force of the explosion to gain a boosted launch for it's getaway. That's....I'm sorry for your situation, Weiss, but it's really a brilliant adaptation”.

“Yeah....right” she says getting up, and rubbing her back. “So....if I kill them, kill them from a distance?”

“If you want to hunt them, yes. Although, I think I have an idea. I know we can all make Gunpowder now from combining sparkpowder and charcoal, but; what if we try and tame a permithone, allowing us to be able to harvest the gunpowder regularly, instead?”

“A Gunpowder farm?” I ask “That just about sounds like the most awesome thing I've heard in a long while”.

“In theory it could substitute having to make copious amounts by ourselves.” she replies. With that in mind, and making sure Weiss is alright, we continue onward through our trek in the woods, eventually coming to a hillside clearing...where there are a lot of really pretty flowers of various colors. Red ones, orange ones, yellow ones...there are flowers everywhere, on the ground, and in the trees. The whole area smells nice from all the flowers here, and Ruby bends down to pick a small red one from the ground, before putting it in her hair. “How do I look?” she asks with a smile. “Adorable” I reply. Ruby giggles with a wide smile hearing my response. I guess it's something to smile about granted our situation. Weiss turns towards some of the flowers hanging on nearby branches – white flowers - and sniffs them. “Wow...these...smell really good. I wonder if we could end up using them for something?”

“Bodywash, maybe?” Blake asks. I spy a few yellow flowers hanging on some nearby trees, and move over towards them. I take a sniff myself, and indeed...they do smell nice. Really nice. The aroma of the whole area puts us all at ease...then I hear something...it sounds like the buzzing of a bug flying near my ear. I swat it away, only to still hear the noise...it..isn't near my left ear...then..suddenly, the buzzing gets VERY loud incredibly quick, and there's a gust of wind behind me. I turn my head quickly only to see the open mandibles of a massive bug's mouth, and I scream. My team turns towards me...yet, the minute I turned around and screamed...the insect had a similar reaction. Startled, it suddenly flies backwards, then up into the sky at a 90 degree angle very quickly. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake run over to me. “Yang, are you ok?!” Ruby asks. I take a few hurried breaths “Y...yeah...i...swore it looked like it was trying to eat my head.”

“N...nice graphic description.” Weiss said. “What was that thing?”

“L...like I know...let's just get out of here.”

Right as we go to leave, we hear the buzzing again. Soon enough, the giant insect appears out of the sky again, diving straight our direction... but not at us. Around 60 ft up near the trees, it turns, and then hovers near...yellow flowers. The insect itself is unlike anything I've seen. It's head vaguely resembles that of a dragonfly, as does it's wings and body shape...but the wingspan of the entire creature itself must be over 30 ft long. It's tail ends in a stinger similar to that of a scorpion's, as well. it has six legs; in front of them, a pair of vicious, sharp pincers. The whole creature is a strange black-and-purple color, with hard chitin armor. It grabs the branch with it's pincers...and starts eating the yellow flowers. I pause a moment, before then reaching behind myself and grabbing my some of my hair, and bringing it in front of me...Weiss and Ruby do similarly...while Blake takes an uneasy sigh of relief, noting that her hair color doesn't match any of the flowers. “I...if it even STARTED...” I say angrily “...well, let's just say we'd have quite a fair share of chitin”.

“Y...yeah...” Weiss says “S...so...at least it...didn't mean to try and start eating your hair?...”

“It...DID flee from confrontation.” Blake says, observing the feeding insect “as...long as we don't bother him, he shouldn't bother us.”

“What is it anyway?” Weiss asks, to which Blake just shakes her head. Ruby takes out her spyglass and looks through it at the large bug. “It's a...Ogre Darner. Level 5.” she states “and...i really think that he's ok. He wants flowers, not hair.”

“I...guess.” I say with a sigh of relief, before looking down, past Weiss....and seeing another Pulmonoscorpius coming up from behind her. s***, heads up!” I point behind Weiss, who turns, to see the charging scorpion about a hundred feet away. We pull out our bows, and I'm the first with my arrow on my string. Just as I go to fire, I hear a noise...then, there's a rush of wind as the Ogre Darner blasts down from above, stabbing the scorpion in the back with it's stinger, which pierces the back plating easily. At the same time, it's pincers grab the front and tail of the scorpion, and it lifts the scorpion of the ground a few feet. The scorpion writhes in pain, trying to fight back and struggle free, to no avail. About 50 ft off the ground, the Ogre Darner twists the scorpion slowly, and we can hear the popping and snapping of it's chitin, and the hissing of the scorpion's pain. Finally, the Ogre Darner drops it's helpless victim onto the ground, before landing on top of it, and starting to consume the dying insect. I...i can't help but think this is another one of the island's Jekyll-and-Hyde creatures...but Ruby's eyes widen. “Tarantula hawk...” she says low, with a big grin on her face. Weiss turns to her with a strange look “ 'Tarantula hawk'?” she asks. “Yeah!” Ruby says “One of my friends back at Signal is really into bugs. It's his thing. One time, he was telling me about this really cool species of wasp called a Tarantula Hawk. Adults eat two things: flowers and Tarantulas, hence the name. They kill Tarantulas by stinging them with a paralyzing poison, before eating them alive.” Ruby gets a strange face of excitement “A really cool and gnarly thing about them? He told me when females need to lay eggs, they tranquilize a tarantula or the like, take it to a burrow, then lay a few eggs on the spider's middle. Then, when the larva hatches, they burrow into the still living host and start eating them from the inside out, but they avoid the vital organs as long as they can, to keep the victim alive as long as possible.”

Weiss's face...is perfect. It's a strange look of absolute confusion, as well as disgust, and showing that she's definitely creeped out by what Ruby just said. Blake just sort of...takes it in as new trivia. I smile, crossing my arms “Dang sis, that...does sound really cool, in a weird, gnarly way.”

“Yeah....let's just be...happy we're not bugs.” Weiss says with an uneasy voice. Blake looks towards the scorpion and Ogre Darner. “Wait...” she says “What...what if those two species are tamable?”

“Scorpions and Ogre Darners?” Ruby asks. Weiss shudders “Ok, Permithone I can understand, but, seriously: why the heck would we need those two?”

“Taming assistance.” Blake replies. “We know from your experience that Pulmonoscorpius don't have venom, but tranquilizing venom. The Ogre Darner has similarly. As such, that's two different creatures that can help with taming. Plus, what if we needed to tame some sort of flying creature? With the Ogre Darner, it wouldn't be stuck to just assisting us on land like the scorpion, and could chase after whatever we were trying to tame. Do you get what I'm saying?”

“That...taming something monstrous like those two is definitely...beneficial!” Weiss says “At least, if you put it that way. Do...you think it's something that could be done?”

“Probably” Blake suggests “Although for a method of taming...maybe just try the usual first.”

We...don't stay to watch the graphic demonstration the Ogre Darner was giving us of how it kills and eats a scorpion anymore. We continue on, back into the forest, looking for the Yi that my sister had seen. We trek for an even longer time, drinking water from our waterskins and eating on rationed meat as we go. I can't tell how long we've been traversing the forest now, and I definitely don't feel like I'm getting the exact lowdown of Crag's Island yet. We get to a slight clearing, with the trees above still blocking out the sky above...and Blake freezes. “What's wrong, Blake?” I ask. She looks around carefully, drawing her bow and an arrow “...we're not alone.” she states. There...there's something in the foliage around us, moving...I draw a spear from my back, and before long, the four of us stand back-to-back, weapons drawn...it's dead quiet...All I can hear is slight movement around us. Suddenly, there's a roar and something jumps out of the bushes right at me...and whatever it is, it's BIG. I dodge out of the way and stab my spear into it's head with such force the spear snaps in half, but the creature still stands fine. The others have dodged the attack as well, and soon there's a flurry of motion. The creature is attacking all of us at once, and moving quite quickly, despite it's size. All I hear is the roaring of the creature and our own, primal roars in response as we attack back wildly. I send another spear into what I can make out as it's back, and then suddenly, there's teeth in my face. I uppercut the creature in it's lower jaw, and it reels back as the others attack it. Suddenly it leaps away from us, as if to distance itself...it's during this state I can see...it's a four-legged mammal, almost as big as an Ursa. It's fur is short, and body muscular, as it turns towards us, blood coming from several parts on it's body from our attacks. It's a level 54 male “Bear-dog”...which it really does look like. It's growling and bearing it's teeth at us aggressively as it slowly begins to circle around us, as if trying to find another opportunity for it to attack us. If we had our weapons, we'd tear this thing apart in seconds...but, we don't. It's not as care-free or easy. It growls once more, then shifts it's weight, before pouncing once again at us with a roar. I then hear a noise, and turn...Weiss is holding her spear in a way I've seen her do before. Just as the Bear-dog gets close in it's leap, one of Weiss's glyphs appears, blocking the attack, and launching it back towards – and completely through – a nearby tree. The tree falls away from us, and the Bear-dog struggles to try and get back onto it's feet, before my sister sends an arrow flying it's way, which hits it in it's right eye. It roars in pain, limps towards us – instead of away – and then finally collapses...it's dead. We slowly approached, weapons still drawn, and I'm the first upon the dead Bear-dog...I kick it in the head with my foot...it doesn't respond...and I take a sigh of relief, putting my spear down “It's dead.” I say. The others also seem to give a sigh of relief...and then I note...my Specimen Implant...I've earned a new dossier. We all have... I open my implant's screen, then check the Survivor Profile...sure enough...the Bear-Dog dossier is there. I take a moment to read it aloud while the others carefully examine the dead body.

 

Amphicyon indominus is a powerful mammalian predator, almost as tall as a man, and capable of carrying a man on it's back. This terrifying animal appears like a large cross between a bear and canine, hence it's nickname. What's more terrifying is that although they can easily hunt solo, Amphicyon commonly hunt in groups of 2-5. They have the ability to swipe their powerful, front forepaws at a target, which can cause powerful damage. Their claws and teeth alike can make a victim bleed out, and they attack vital organs in the same manner as Kaprosuchus, exhausting targets quickly. With up to 5 powerful Amphicyon doing this at once, death is inevitable. Furthermore, they seem to get angrier the more of their pack members are slain.

 

Although an Amphicyon, with it's power and "Alpha" pack system would be a good taming option, taming is impossible, despite being able to be knocked unconscious. They refuse food given to them and will still try to attack the survivor trying to tame it. This makes the Amphicyon a deadly predator that is to either be avoided or exterminated.

 

 

Blake's been looking around consistently “...looks like this is a loner from what I can tell.” she says. Ruby holds the Bear-dog's right forepaw up, having to hold it with both hands “Shame they can't be tamed...but look at this! This thing's paws are bigger than my whole friggin' head....” she says in awe of the creature's paw and claws. “Well, yeah...” Weiss says “But so is that of a Beowolf or Ursa”.

“Those are Grimm though”. Ruby says “this is a real animal.”

“True...maybe it's just the shock that animals were once just as fearsome, if not more, than Grimm.”

I'm looking at Blake, who's already taken out a hatchet to start skinning the animal. “Hey Blake?” I ask, just as she prepares to go for the first swing, and she looks back at me. “What?” she asks.

“You're not scared of it in any way?”

Blake looks at me confused for a moment, then gets what I mean. “Oh, I get you...not really. It's more of the fear of something trying to kill me than anything else.” she says, then looking at the bear-dog's head “And besides...it's more bear than dog, to me.”

We take what we can from our dead assailant, gaining some meat, hide, and even pelt. I feel like the pelt will have good insulating purposes, which might come in handy later. We press on, into the forest once again. I don't know how long we've been walking now, but the sky has started to turn red above...the sun must be setting. “We better finish up our searching soon.” Blake suggests as we trek through the forest “I don't like the idea of being in the middle of an island jungle at night...especially on the ARK.”

“It clears up ahead.” Ruby points out “this will be our last stop before we head out of the woods, Yi or no Yi”.

We enter the clearing...and discover a unique sight: some sort of hidden spring, probably 60 ft or so in diameter in this decent-sized, covered clearing. The water itself is crystal clear, revealing a smooth stone bottom, and is only a few inches deep. Weiss smiles “this...is really pretty” she says upon seeing the spring. It really is, with the way the clear water shimmers and shines, polishing the smooth, shimmering rocks. I smile, then put my hand on my hips “Well, as pretty as this all is...I've got a question to ask.” The others look at me “What's up, Yang?” Ruby asks. I smirk “Well, we've been on this island a few days, and granted certain reasons...I can't be the only one looking for the little girl's room, right?”

The others look at each other and myself awkwardly. “Uhh...yes? er...no.” Weiss says, stammering at first. I shake my head “C'mon now, Weiss. There's no such thing as a powder room in a dinosaur apocalypse. It's go as your ancestors did, or...get really sick. Ya know I heard that if it doesn't go out the usual end, sometimes it comes out the other?...”

Weiss...her face is perfect. She's staring at me with a complete uncomfortable look of shock and disgust. She shakes her head quickly, removing that look from her face with a more normal one. “F...fine.” she states “I...I'll settle with it. It's not...that bad, right?”

“Meh, yeah. Although maybe if we can figure out piping and stuff, we could figure out plumbing...”

“Until then,” Blake adds in “If we ever start farming, we can use-”

“DONT EVEN FINISH THAT!” Weiss says, putting up her hand. “I mean, ok, I know why, but please, not now. There's no way I'm carrying anything around...my own crap!”

“Ehh...once again I'mma side with Weiss here...” Ruby says, slinking to Weiss's side. I chuckle “whatever! Vive le wild!” I say, turning around, and walking off into the nearby bushes. Blake does similarly an opposite direction...before Ruby flies off her own way...she REALLY needed it, apparently. Weiss stands there alone a moment, hesitant, then huffs, and stomps off.

 

I'm the first back to the spring, and I get on my knees by the water's edge for a drink...damn, I better not make holding it in a thing, I'm dehydrated. Soon Ruby comes back, then Weiss, and Blake...they're just as thirsty as I am. We take a few drinks from the spring before re-filling our waterskins, and taking a short break. Weiss...is somehow surviving this, I don't know how, but hey, she's a trooper. It's just as we're getting back up nearby bushes shake, and there's a strange noise. Ruby quickly looks over, the sound familiar to her. “W..wait...I think that was him!”

“You sure sis?” I ask. Ruby scans the bushes “...yes! Right there, in the bushes! I see blue and orange! It's him!” She's excited, but keeping her voice low. She begins to slowly walk over, leading the way, with us close behind. “Hey there you...” she says low, reassuringly. “Don't you remember me? I've got friends this time.” she slowly gets closer to the bush. “It's ok...no, don't be afraid...come on out. We've got more food to share...it's ok. Come on out you-”

Just then, a noise as a familiar head pops out of the bush. We freeze upon seeing it. Ruby's looking directly into it's eyes. “...little s***”

 

Just as she says that, the Compy horde bursts from the bushes once again, several of them leap onto Ruby and bring her to the ground. She's kicking and screaming, and we rush to her aid once again. I grab and hit at the compys as they nip and scratch at Ruby. On jumps up and latches onto my arm, and I rip it off and throw it away. Suddenly, I feel many of them on my legs, and jumping up to get my back. I reel backwards and start flailing at them all around me. I'm not the only one getting attacked: Weiss and Blake are now too. I kick and strike as much as I can, but in the end, several of them are leaping up onto me, forcing me onto the ground. They're biting me everywhere, even yanking on my hair, which only ads to my fury. My hair bursts into flame, but it only causes them to stop tugging on my hair, but go for everywhere else. I can hear Ruby, Weiss, and Blake also screaming and flailing on the ground. We're all being slowly torn up by the compy gang. It's painful, and I'm bleeding from what feels like everywhere. The stinging and nipping won't go away from the compys' relentless assault, no matter how hard I flail. The fear is racing through my mind that...the others die before me, and I get to see and hear them being eaten...no...we're already being eaten alive, and I can't do anything about it!Suddenly, there's a massive, loud roar from what sounds like some sort of large, apex predator; and there's a gust that can only be from it's breath...looking the direction, I see two large eyes atop a massive head. The Compys all immediately scream and bolt the opposite direction, fleeing as fast as they can. I'm relieved I no longer feel the pain of the compys anymore, but I immediately remember the predator that scared the compys away. We turn towards the direction of the face, and look into it's eyes!...th..they're not eyes. They're eyespots – and the gust of wind wasn't from the opening of a mouth, but the opening of a pair of wings...it's the Yi. It adjusts it's head, making a loud growl uncharacteristic for it, as it lowers it's wings with a few flaps, and starts making a few low bird like calls, shaking it's head a few times as it flaps, then folds it's wings. Ruby gives a weak, but enthusiastic smile “Thank you!” she says. The Yi bobs it's head and does a short call as if to say “you're welcome”. We all slowly stand onto our feet...we're all in pain, with many nicks and scrapes on us, as well as cuts...but we're alright, thanks to Ruby's pal. Blake smiles appreciatively at the Yi “So...it can mimic the calls of other creatures...neat.” she says taking a few sighs of relief. Weiss is...very tired from what's just happened. She leans on a spear, it's tip embedded into the ground, as she smiles weakly at the Yi. “Heh...you really do have weird friends, don't ya, Ruby?” she says. Ruby turns to her and smiles “Weird, but helpful, and I wouldn't trade them for anything else!” she says...she's not talking about just the Yi, but us as well. Just then, Ruby's stomach growls LOUDLY, everybody, including the Yi, hearing it. Ruby rubs the back of her head “heh heh...guess I need to fuel the healing process...”
“You're not the only one, sis.” I say, as I can also feel my stomach fairly empty. We all sit back on the ground, slowly, with the Yi now sitting nearby. He's not tamed yet...but he's coming along. I check my inventory and...uh oh. “Well...I'm out of cooked meat.” I say “I...think there should be a thing called Trail Mix on this island. There...I added something for the 'make ARK better' suggestion box.”

“You wish.” Ruby says “and...me too. Guess...I had the munchies while we were hiking.

“I'm out too....” Weiss notes. We turn to Blake...who's looking into her inventory. She takes a moment, closes her eyes, and sighs, retrieving her cooked fish from earlier from it, and then proceeding to tear it into equal fourths. “It...it's not much, but I don't want you all to go hungry. It should help, right?”

“Yeah, it should.” I say, taking my piece from Blake's outstretched hand, and sinking my teeth into the meat. It tastes much better than what I originally recall, probably due to how hungry I am with my body trying to heal from the wounds inflicted by the compy horde. With that being the only food we had on us for now, we walk over to the nearby bushes and browse from them, picking off and eating the safer berries to satisfy our need for dinner. The Yi actually joins us, eating the berries and seeds from the bushes. At one moment, the Yi lifts his head up from browsing, makes a couple noises, then bends back down for a few moments. Then, it pops its head back up again...only much more distant in the forest. Ruby turns to the Yi, who locks eyes with her, and looking at the rest of us. It bobs its head and calls as if to say “goodbye”, and then turns, walking deeper into the forest. Ruby smiles, and does a little hop as she starts waving goodbye frantically with her left arm “Bye!!” She says “Thank you!!!”.

Feeling grateful, we also wave goodbye. After all...as far as I can see it, and the others as well, that Yi saved our lives. Soon it's walked off into the darkening forest...yeah, we better get moving ourselves. We quickly turn and begin to leave the deep forest as quickly as we can. Who knows what kinds of hell are starting to prowl the forest at night.

 

 

I'm so thankful that I met that Yi earlier, and seemed to befriend it. If not...well, one of us...or more than one...heh, I didn't think a swarm of tiny teeth would be what gets me on a dinosaur island apocalypse...but until we get something for crowd control, I think it's best to avoid the compy gang running rampant on the island. Once again, I lead Weiss, Blake, and Yang through the forest as quickly as I can...it's night now, and I really don't want to be in these forests with them, for all of our safety. The forests are beautiful in the day...but turn ominous and spooky at night...there's a sense of danger within them. Finally, I see what looks like an open clearing, and we burst into it, relieved to be out of the woods. Suddenly, I take a look around. “Hey, wait a sec...” I say, scanning the area. “What is it now?” Weiss complains, huffing a little from running. “Nothing bad, I swear!” I reply “It's just...I'm confident this is where we fought Ember's pack!” We all look around...yes, it's the same area! I see where Weiss and Yang once did, the same tree Blake was in, the exact same spot where our initial target Parasaur was...and where I once laid, taming Ember. Blake nods “yes, this is the same spot...so the house should be...” she points up the clearing, rather than down it, towards the beach. “That way. If we head that way, following the clearing, we'll arrive near the house.”

“Heh...I REALLY want to go to bed, after today.” Weiss says “It's...been eventful...but I'm...really...really tired.”

“I feel like I could sleep forever, Weiss.” Yang says, yawning loudly. “So let's go on ahead and get home, hm?”

 

We agree to this, and start heading up the skill. Sometimes, our eyes look up to the vast oblivion above us that is the ARK's nighttime sky...heh, I swear, no matter how long I may be here...that sky will never get old. We walk for about thirty minutes, when suddenly Blake stops....she's listening again.

“Do we have company?” I ask. Blake shakes her head “no...but I hear something...it's coming from up ahead.” We look at each other for a moment, then draw weapons. I pull my bow off my back, ready to string an arrow, Weiss and Yang pull out spears, and Blake once again pulls out her trusty hatchets that she used to dispatch her raptor. We slowly creep up the hill...and we begin to hear something. A commotion up ahead...there are vocalizations, familiar ones. High-pitched ones, and lower, gruffer ones. I immediately recognize them “Hey, aren't those raptors?...and Amphicyon?”

“The Bear-dogs?...” Weiss asks. Blake listens for a moment “That's definitely them. I...think we might have a territorial dispute going on up ahead. Listen to their voices, they're obviously stressed and aggressive.”

We take a moment...the sound of the Utahraptor and Bear-dogs communicating back and forth sounds spine-tingling, sending a few shudders down my spine. Yang shakes her head “Damn, they really sound pissed off.” She says “I wonder what's got them all riled u-”

 

“HARAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHH!!!!!!”

 

That...that roar that interrupts Yang...it shocks all of us. It's...nothing we know, for sure. Whatever it is, it's new...and it doesn't sound to happy. We proceed with extreme caution, barely cresting the hill. Just over two hundred feet away, we see what's going on. Amphicyon and Utahraptor haven't been conversing at each other...but with each other. There's four Utahraptor and Three Bear-dogs gathered in a wide circle around a large, black object. At my first terrified though, I swear this creature is a Creature of Grimm, as probably do the others...but it's not. It's black, feathered, and stands on two legs. It stands hunched over, as if catching it's breath. It's got a small head, atop a long neck, and a pair of very long arms...the claws on those arms...there's three of them per hand...and the claws must be almost as long as I am tall. Strong legs and a sturdy tail help balance the feathered creature's neck and head. The dinosaur...it's also got a strange, red cloud emitting from around it. “W...what the hell is that thing?”

Blake slowly takes out her spyglass and looks at the seemingly exhausted creature. “..I..it's a Therizinosaurus.” she states. “A what?!” I snap back in confusion. “Therizinosaurus.” Blake replies “It...it's an herbivorous dinosaur who's name translates into 'Scythe-clawed' or 'Reaping' lizard...for obvious reasons...and it's...level 120?...”

“Wait, what?!” I say scared “That...that's double the level of the highest things the implants said we'd run into!!!”
“Well...just look at that thing.” Blake says slowly lowering her spyglass. “It...definitely...there's something very wrong with it.”

A raptor strafes directly in front of the Therizinosaurus and begins hissing, to which the strange herbivore does nothing. Thinking the prey is wounded, the Raptor attacks, running and leaping into the air...the Therizinosaur instantly springs to life, roaring loudly, it's voice sounding altered – probably by whatever condition it's suffering from – raising it's right arm, and bringing it down talon-first onto the Utahraptor, impaling it in the back through the spinal cord with all three claws, slamming it onto the ground and lodging it's claws in the ground THROUGH the raptor's carcass, before violently ripping them free. This provokes the other carnivores to attack. Two utahraptors, one on each flank, charge the Therizinosaur, and leap onto it, and it proceeds to flail wildly in anger. The fourth Utahraptor charges from the right side, but the Therizinosaur turns and slashes at it as it leaps, killing it, and sending it's corpse flying into a leaping Bear-dog. Another Bear-dog tries to approach from the side while the Therizinosaur is distracted, but it's not quick enough. Once again, with the raptors still on its' back, the Therizinosaur whirls around and uppercuts the bear-dog with it's left arm, instantly killing it and sending the poor carnivorous mammal flying. The last Amphicyon charges and latches on to the 30 ft dinosaur from the front, between it's arms. Bad idea. The Therizinosaur grabs the Amphicyon using it's right hand, tears it off of itself, raises it into the air, and slams it down with such force it's claws cut the bear-dog in half. The two raptors have been hanging on for dear life while trying to bring down this incredibly dangerous animal...they're about to suffer the consequences of choosing this creature as prey. Suddenly, it reaches to it's sides and grabs the raptors by their feet, slamming them down onto the ground in front of itself. It then raises up, arms outstretched, roaring loudly, and then comes down, slashing it's arms in an X-shape onto the ground. There's a splatter of blood as both raptors are violently killed in the same attack. The Therizinosaur steps back, takes several heavy breaths, then roars into the sky with it's claws and arms outstretched. It's still got it's back towards us, thankfully...but...I'm terrified by this thing. It's not even a Grimm, but the way it's acting...it's as...if it's even more dangerous than the Grimm I remember back home. There...there's just something so terrifyingly wrong about this dinosaur. With it's back still towards us, it once again bends over, as if completely winded from the encounter. I...i really don't know what to think right now, other than the fact I'm terrified...and then...still bent over, it lifts it's head slightly, turning it...and sees us. It's unholy, unnatural, red eyes glare into us. We slowly begin backing up...maybe we can just run from this thi-!..wha?! I turn around, feeling something...there...there's suddenly a transparent wall behind us, pulsating in blue light to reveal hexagon-shaped patterns every time I touch it...we..we..we can't run away?! We panic, trying and try in vain to see if this is just some sort of...no...it's no illusion. We...we're trapped! We..we've got no choice. Once again, I ready my arrow...it's not the only one who's angry now. We all are. Blake readies her hatchets, and Yang and Weiss hold spears ready. The Therizinosaur flexes it's claws, then roars loudly as it turns and rightens itself, slashing a dead body of a bear-dog in half with it's left arm as it turns right to face us, then roars at us, arms outstretched, and charges directly towards us with surprising speed.

[Xdrone]

Lvl 120 alpha therizinosaurus. DILO

[Xdrone]

1 question if they dye,they die forever or reborn/respawn? That will be a difference

[Shadlos]

I WILL SAY NOTHING.

 

Also, I'll only post at the least one chapter a day. that gives me time to write more, and also more time to try and get into contact with Jack Frost for our proofreading sessions. This shall be a lesson in patience.

Also, Ogre Darner dossier coming up in five!

[Xdrone]

Ok thx thats what i want to know. I bet a cookie for respawning?