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The A.R.C Chronicles: In Seas of Burnt Sand...


DaEndGame

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So i was rereading what I had written so far in this when a thought struck me. That thought was that some of you may be wondering who is

On 7 September 2016 at 11:03 AM, DaEndGame said:

The Beast

He was mentioned in the below paragraph of chapter one:

On 7 September 2016 at 11:03 AM, DaEndGame said:

He hadn’t felt such fear when he faced the ultimate lifeforms, the tyrannical lords of the 
so called “ARK’s”: The Broodmother, Megapithicus, and the mighty Dragon. They were all the size of a fully grown bull brontosaurus and bigger; in the dragons case, it was almost as tall as the monolithic Titanosaur. He had faced them all by himself, yet he had had help from The Beast when fighting them all. It was Aris and The Beast that the creatures of all the ARK’s now bowed before and they ruled peacefully. The only creatures that didn’t obey them were the pesky humans, of whom had named the “ARK’s” “ARK’s”…

Only a brief explanation is really needed at this point, as revealing to much now wouldn't be good for the health of the story.

Just so you all know, this isnt the first time I have brought the beast up. I first mentioned him in chapter 3 of "The Chronicles of Aristaeus Cosmos and many others".

All you guys really need to know is that he is basically Aris' alter ego and is the embodiment of his wild side. The beast also isn't the most stable guy either. He will come into play later in the story, around chapter five, so expect to learn more about him then.

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Chapter Four: Welcome to hell

As fast as a thunder clap Aris caught one of riders hands, as he fell from his seat. After getting a better grip on the saddle and riders hand, Aris pulled rider back into his seat. 
“Thank you,” said rider, “and what happened to ‘on three’?”
“Uhhhh, I don’t know,” Aris replied, “gut instinct I suppose. Now can we get going please?”
Without replying, rider picked up the tapejara’s reins and drove it around the mesa plateau, and then towards the now visible green obelisk.

After an hour had passed in rider spoke, “What’s your name?”
Aris remembered the last time he had told someone his real name, long story short it ended with a battalion of the elite guard in hospital and a few cuts, and bruises on his part. “Arretay,” He finally replied,
“Well Arretay, I’m Alex and my friend here is Boeing,” said Alex as he patted Boeing’s neck,
“and we are on our way to Orion city,” silence fell after that. 
It wasn’t until Orion city came into view that anyone spoke again, 
“What is with you people and building massive cities surrounded by gargantuan walls?” Aris asked,
“I don’t know about the city size, but the wall makes people feel safer.” Alex answered,
Aris grunted in asset. 
“Why is it you grunt so much?” 
Aris pretended he didn’t hear him.
After a few more minutes they landed in a courtyard that was just inside the main gate and they both dismounted. 
“You will have to get registered by the Placement over by the small dinosaur gateway,” Alex said, “by the time your done I should be finished unsaddling Boeing”
Aris turned around to thank Alex face-to-face, but was stopped in his tracks when turned to find a women standing there instead. 
“Alex,” Aris asked, confusion evident in his voice.
She sighed in exasperation “Alex is short for Alexis; don’t fret about it, you aren’t the first person to mistake me for a man and you most definitely won’t be the last,” replied Alex, “now go and get registered”
Still baffled, Aris did as he was told and walked up to the gatekeepers office to get himself registered. The gatekeepers office was a small shack with one wall replaced by a tavern counter for business dealings, at the back of the shack’s interior there was a desk and chair with a bounty board on the wall behind it. He couldn’t help but notice the extra large one with his name on it; thankfully there was no picture, only a description. 
“Can I help you son?” asked a portly old man that had just entered the building through a side door.
“I’m here to be registered.” Aris replied.
“New to the Scorch are you?”
“Yes.”
“Well then welcome to hell!”
“If it’s hell then why are you being polite?”
chuckling to himself, the gatekeeper replied, “Alright then, I’ll just need to ask you a few questions, is that alright with you?”
“Aha.”
“Then first things first: first and last name?”
“Arretay Lebête. Spelled A r r e t a y then L e b ê t e,”
“Interesting name. Age?”
“26.”
“Date of birth?”
“I don’t really know, but it is around the end of Autumn.”
His answer earned Aris a quizzical look from the gatekeeper
“Is this your first time on any Ark,”
“No,”
“How many others have you been on,”
“Two, The Island and The Center,”
“Thank you for answering those for me,” said the gatekeeper as he gave Aris a piece of paper, “this is your ID slip, DON’T lose it,”
“I won’t,” Aris replied and he turned around to walk back to Alex, but stopped as soon as he had started. He had seen that mans face before…

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Chapter Five: An Old Friend or Two

 

Aris slowly turned back around to face the gatekeeper, all the while his mind was hard at trying to dig up the gatekeeper’s name. He remembered a much younger and thinner face, but the name remained out of reach. He couldn’t remember where and when he had seen him, only the face. When he had finally turned back around, he saw that the gatekeeper, who was struggling to suppress a grin, had already realised who Aris was and that Aris hadn’t realised who he was.

Aris warily took a few steps forwards, closing the gap between him and the shack, then asked, “Carter?”
The gatekeeper started to chuckle, “It’s been far too long Aris! Did you honestly think I wouldn’t recognise the name I gave you?” Carter replied, “ Arretay Lebête; more or less french for ‘he stops the beast’. You daft old fool!”
Obviously in discomfort, Aris wisely didn’t reply.
Still chuckling, Carter said, “Sorry to have to do this, but I’m going to have to tell you to report to City Hall.”
“Why?” Aris replied in vain,
“You know why, and take this,” Carter said as he handed Aris another slip of paper, “hand it to the guards at City Hall.”
“Arretay, what’s taking you so long?” Alex said from directly behind Aris, startling him.
“Arretay and I were just having a friendly chat,” Carter responded, “but we just finished, so he is all yours Miss Alex. Oh and before Arretay here forgets, could you please take him to City Hall for a meeting with the mayor?”
“Sure thing, but if I may ask why?”
“That’s not my place to say.”

Nodding in acceptance and having finished they’re exchange, Alex turned to face Arretay and found that he had slowly backed away while she was talking with Carter and that he was almost at the gate. She found this odd and went after him, catching him by the arm right before he slipped into the crowd of people walking through the gate. He turned and faced without saying a word, looking straight into her eyes. She could see something in them that she had not seen in another person. She wondered what was so important about him that he had to see the mayor and not the governor like most freshies and the ranger that brought them in.

Arretay nodded and said, “ lead the way.”

Without a word Alex let go of his arm and lead the way through the gate and up the main road, which was empty aside from them and the others that had walked through the gate as well. After walking up the main road, on their way to City Hall, for around five minutes, Alex asked, “Why do you have to see the mayor?”
“Now isn’t the best time, not to mention it is a very long and gory story.” Arretay calmly responded. 
Hearing a sharp intake of breath from Alex, Arretay said, “No more questions please.”
And they continued to trudge on in silence and blistering heat. After another ten minutes, Arretay said, “We should take shelter somewhere. I don’t fancy getting caught out here the storm!”
“Wha…” Alex was cut off by the tolling of distant bells: three rings, a few seconds of silence then another three rings. Alex knew it as the signal for an incoming sandstorm.
“How di…” Alex began saying, before Arretay interrupted her.
“Doesn’t matter, we need to find shelter”
“The signal means it will hit us in ten minutes, if we run we’ll make it to City Hall in time!” Alex answered,
“Alright.” Said Arretay as he ran off up the main road towards the looming City Hall, after recovering from the initial surprise, Alex took off after him. Alex could tell she was losing ground on him, so she picked up the pace. 


By the time he had reached the Large double doors that were the entrance to City Hall, Arretay could see the sandstorm approaching from the west at a rapid pace. Looking down the way he had come, Arretay could see Alex was still charging her way on up to him; he had forgotten how slow humans were. 

Ever so slightly, as subtle as a pin dropping, he heard an intake of breath, “Please wait a moment.” Arretay said before the guard behind him could speak, “I’m waiting for a friend, then I’ll go inside.” Arretay didn’t even have to look at the guard to know there was a look of pure disbelief on his face. Arretay chuckled silently to himself in amusement.

The sandstorm had reached the city wall by the time Alex arrived and she was clearly winded, sucking in copious amounts of air into her lungs. Between breathes Alex said, “How…    Do…    You...    Run...    So...     Fast?” 
Without answering, Arretay grabbed Alex by the arm and showed the guards his ID slip and the other slip that Carter had given him. As they opened the door for him, he pulled Alex in with him and found a chair for her to sit in and recover her breath.

After a few minutes, Alex got up and said, “Come on, the mayors office is this way.” and walked off, knowing full well that Arretay could easily catch up and keep up. After only a few steps, an ominous grating sound signified that the sandstorm had arrived at City Hall. Continuing on and following Alex up multiple flights of stair and up and around many hall ways, they eventually arrived at the anteroom to the mayors office where a young man sat behind a desk; the mayors clerk.

Arretay walked up to the clerk and said, “We are hear to see the mayor, on order of gatekeeper Carter.” He showed him the slip he had been given. Looking up, the clerk glanced at the slip, took it from Arretay and walked up to the door to the mayors. He knocked gently then walked in and after a few moments walk back out, accompanied by a gentle “Come in.” From someone inside the room; almost certainly the mayor.

Alex stepped forward first and lead the way in, with Arretay following in shortly after her.
As he walked in, Arretay took a good quick look around the sparsely furnished office before he laid eye’s on the mayor himself and would have yelped in surprise if he hadn’t of met carter earlier. It didn’t surprise him to see another person who should have died long ago, especially one that he so easily recognised. His name was William, he was six foot four inches tall, former military general of New Haven cities Armed Forces and was once his closest friend, but that was almost four lifetimes ago. Arretay considered whether or not to take his chances with the Sandstorm outside, or to risk it in the office with William.

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38 minutes ago, Kaprodonychus said:

Interested to read more. Especially since there's all this backstory

Speaking of, once In Seas of Burnt Sand is over - which is a long time from now - my next fiction will be off Aris' first meeting with humans, his last endeavour with them (which ended with elite guards in hospital;)) and most of the time between.

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When I plan my chapters I always keep in mind how it is goig to flow into the next, but when I was planning chapter 5 i could not decide which of two I should make into flow into. In light of this I ended the chapter like so:

On 21 October 2016 at 8:22 AM, DaEndGame said:

Arretay considered whether or not to take his chances with the Sandstorm outside, or to risk it in the office with William.

because of that I decided I would let you guys decide via strawpoll: http://www.strawpoll.me/11485270

I might do this every few chapters, but I'll probably do another straw poll for that after chapter 6.

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Oh and btw i have decided that in Chapter six Arretay aka Aris stays and listens to William. I may do a character profile for William, although that is a slim chance. Staying in the office leads to a good night of talking between Will and Arretay, dont worry I aint spoiling much it is inly a small part of the chapter.

 

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Since it has been nigh on two weeks since the last chapter, I shall post some of chapter six here. Sorry it is taking so long, had to do some revisions on this. Please keep in mind what I will post may be prone to change once the I post the rest of the chapter.

 

Chapter Six:        (I'll name it once it is done)

After as much of a careful consideration as was possible in less then ten seconds, Arretay concluded to stay and hear what William would have to say and if need be dive through the window into the raging sandstorm. After another few moments, William finished the visual analysis he had been taking of both he and Alex, he said, “Never in my life did I expect to have you in my office, not ever!”
Arretay didn’t reply, which is what William had expected from him. Alex however had a highly confounded look to her and after a few moments said, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t need to worry about it, Alex,” William replied, “You are dismissed for rest of the day,”
“With all due respect sir, I found him and that gives me some right t…” 
“You are dismissed Alex,” William said, interrupting Alex,
“But father…”
“That is enough,” he interrupted again, his voice had lowered considerably – Arretay knew that tone, he had found himself backing up from it on more then one occasion – effectively silencing the retort that was springing to her lips and without another word she walked out of the office. 

William drew in a deep breath and returned to his seat at his desk, Arretay waited a few minutes before speaking, “She gets that mouth from you, ya know? She clearly gets everything else from her mother,” Arretay said, “Speaking of, how is Teresa?”
William didn’t respond, he just looked at him and brandished a bottle and cup, with his eyebrow raised in query. It may have been a very long time since he they had seen each other, but Arretay could still read him like a book and William’s stoic expression, accompanied by his attempt to change the subject spoke volumes.

Arretay nodded, accepting the proffered glass of what smelt like wine and took a seat next across from William, who had moved to an alcove of old chairs around an even older table. 
William was already ready well into his second glass before Arretay had taken his first sip and it was most definitely wine. It was a well aged vintage, in fact Arretay would dare say it was well past the vintage stage, and it was easily the best wine he had ever tasted.
“Told you I would hold onto it, didn’t I?” William said, after noticing his reaction to the wine,
“ ‘I’ll hold onto this one till the next we meet and we’ll drink it together that same night,’” Arretay replied, reminiscing of a time long past, “those were your exact words. Neither of us expected that to be almost four-hundred and thirty years did we?”
Both of them chuckled forlornly at that.

Both of them continued talking of their past together all through the night, as they went on the mood continually rose. By the time the wine bottle was half empty, Carter had entered the office and sat down with them, joining in on the conversation as if he had been there the whole time. When they had finished talking and the wine bottle had been long empty, Carter left and William drunkenly stumbled his way up to his private quarters via a concealed stair well in the back of the room. Arretay passed out in his chair as soon as both had disappeared from view.

Amidst his sleep, Arretay dreamt of the past; of running through the forest, direwolf pack in tow; of hanging from the highest branch of the tallest redwood and basking in the beauty of his side of the Divide, untouched by both man and time. Soon he was pulled from the peace of his dreams…

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Ok, I'll be frank with you all, the rest of chapter 6 is going to be a while off. So to keep you all appeased, I have a semi-completedmap of my version of the Island for my series.

image.jpeg

This my change to a drawn version of it, which is why there is very little details to it.

As extra information for y'all, the Black Mere Swamp is where the brood mother dwelled, somewhere in the great forest dwelled the Megapithicus and the desolation was home to the Dragon.

For a sense of scale, Black Mere swamp is about the same size as England...

If you guys think that is a bit big, I have a friend who has designed a map that is about 15x times the size of russia...

 

 

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2 hours ago, DaEndGame said:

Ok, I'll be frank with you all, the rest of chapter 6 is going to be a while off. So to keep you all appeased, I have a semi-completedmap of my version of the Island for my series.

image.jpeg

This my change to a drawn version of it, which is why there is very little details to it.

As extra information for y'all, the Black Mere Swamp is where the brood mother dwelled, somewhere in the great forest dwelled the Megapithicus and the desolation was home to the Dragon.

For a sense of scale, Black Mere swamp is about the same size as England...

If you guys think that is a bit big, I have a friend who has designed a map that is about 15x times the size of russia...

 

 

What a funny person. They must have to desgin so much lmao

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9 hours ago, DaEndGame said:

Gigantic? More like Satanthosaurus (i hope i spelled that right) size, almost borderline Titanic.

 

edited: Since it would be classed as a supercontinent I believe it needs a name.

Nah mate. more like matriarch titanosaur size. And those are huge! I forgot to mention this but the super continent must support a whole new and gigantic beast that's large enough to be its own ecosystem. I haven't gotten it a name yet, all I've gotten is 'behemoth' for that beast. 

I'll have a supercontinent name soon. Oh and yes you spelt satanthosaurus correctly. Nice job at remembering. ;) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm just going to repost the whooe chapter, so without further delay I present the completed chapter 6

 

Chapter Six: Smoke...


After as much of a careful consideration as was possible in less then ten seconds, Arretay concluded to stay and hear what William would have to say and if need be dive through the window into the raging sandstorm. After another few moments, William finished the visual analysis he had been taking of both he and Alex, he said, “Never in my life did I expect to have you in my office, not ever.”
Arretay didn’t reply, which is what William had expected from him. Alex however had a highly confounded look to her and after a few moments said, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t need to worry about it, Alex,” William replied, “You are dismissed for rest of the day,”
“With all due respect sir, I found him and that gives me some right t…” 
“You are dismissed Alex,” William said, interrupting Alex,
“But father…”
“That is enough,” he interrupted again, his voice had lowered considerably – Arretay knew that tone, he had found himself backing up from it on more then one occasion – effectively silencing the retort that was springing to her lips and without another word she walked out of the office. 

William drew in a deep breath and returned to his seat at his desk, Arretay waited a few minutes before speaking, “She gets that mouth from you, ya know? She clearly gets everything else from her mother,” Arretay said, “Speaking of, how is Teresa?”
William didn’t respond, he just looked at him and brandished a bottle and cup, with his eyebrow raised in query. It may have been a very long time since he they had seen each other, but Arretay could still read him like a book and William’s stoic expression, accompanied by his attempt to change the subject spoke volumes.

Arretay nodded, accepting the proffered glass of what smelt like wine and took a seat next across from William, who had moved to an alcove of old chairs around an even older table. 
William was already ready well into his second glass before Arretay had taken his first sip and it was most definitely wine. It was a well aged vintage, in fact Arretay would dare say it was well past the vintage stage, and it was easily the best wine he had ever tasted.
“Told you I would hold onto it, didn’t I?” William said, after noticing his reaction to the wine,
“ ‘I’ll hold onto this one till the next we meet and we’ll drink it together that same night,’” Arretay replied, reminiscing of a time long past, “those were your exact words. Neither of us expected that to be almost four-hundred and thirty years did we?”
Both of them chuckled forlornly at that.

Both of them continued talking of their past together all through the night, as they went on the mood continually rose. By the time the wine bottle was half empty, Carter had entered the office and sat down with them, joining in on the conversation as if he had been there the whole time. When they had finished talking and the wine bottle had been long empty, Carter left and William drunkenly stumbled his way up to his private quarters via a concealed stair well in the back of the room. Arretay passed out in his chair as soon as both had disappeared from view.

Amidst his sleep, Arretay dreamt of the past; of running through the forest, direwolf pack in tow; of hanging from the highest branch of the tallest redwood and basking in the beauty of his side of the Divide, untouched by both man and time. Soon he was pulled from the peace of his dreams and into the chaos of nightmares; battlefields piled high with the dead, rivers of boiling blood, a massacre of limbs and mangled flesh, the ultimate lifeforms and the worst of all; the Scorched Lord…


It was standing atop a sand dune, where the sand sea met the Scorched Earth. It made no sound, only walked down the dune towards Arretay, accompanied by the gentle crunch of sand. 
“My lair is far across these vast seas,” it declared, “cross them at your own peril.”
After staring at Arretay for a few seconds, it turned around and stalked off into the dunes, the heat shimmers rendering it invisible after a hundred metres.

Arretay stood there, staring after the now gone monster. His internal senses told him that he was facing east, so that is way he would go when he was ready to fight it. Eventually the world around him faded and his senses started to track what was happening around him, out of the dream.


Arretay didn’t open his eyes, not wanting anyone to realise he was awake. He could hear people talking inaudibly, likely in a vain attempt to not wake him. They stopped almost immediately after he had awoken, and Arretay felt their eyes upon him.
“Looks like his nightmare ended” William whispered, someone else grunted in asset.
After a few moments their chatter continued,
“Are you sure?” a man whispered, not William but another and the voice was irritably familiar. 
“I am, it’s only Le Bête that we have to worry about and Aris has plenty of control over him.” William whispered with uncertainty. 
“What about the ‘incident’ all those…”
They were cut off by the foyer door as it squeaked on it’s hinges, followed by a thud.

“Alex.” the other man said so quietly few men had the ability to hear it, he wasn’t happy.
Arretay opened his eyes to find both of the men with their backs to him, the closest’s height marked him as William. Alex was slowly standing after falling to the floor when the door fell open. She had been eavesdropping and there was no denying it. 
Slowly the other man walked forwards, he was short, but would still stand over Arretay. His body seemed tense and rigid, like he was in constant pain and was trying to hide it. His hand was slowly rising above his shoulder ready to slap Alex; he clearly had a temper. Arretay was expecting William to intervene, but he simply looked away; it was most unlike William to let something like this happen.

The man was almost upon Alex now, she was against the wall waiting to get hit, but before the mans arm made the descent Arretay burst from his chair. He was fast as a racing gallimimus and within a second he had crossed the room, grabbed the man’s wrist and wrenched him away from Alex. After the initial surprise wore off, the man tried to break free of Arretay’s steel grip and ultimate failed.

“You going to stop or do I have to…” Arretay let go of the man and almost yelped when his attention ran over the man’s face. One side was a horrible mess of burnt scar tissue and the other was seemingly untouched by anything but age and few battle scars. It wasn’t his scars that had surprised him though, it was the fact that he was third man in less then twenty-four hours that he had met that should have been long dead. It was starting to get on his nerves; a lot.
“Surprised are we?” The man asked with a hint of derision, he had never given Arretay or anyone else his real name, only said to call him…

“Smoke.” Arretay replied, struggling to keep the surprise from his voice. He and Smoke had never been the closest of friends, in fact they were best described as constantly bickering team mates then friends, but there was still a friendship there of sorts.
No one seemed willing to talk, and the tension in the room was constantly growing. 
Finally Smoke talked, “You’re looking young for your age, Aristaeus. What’s your secret?”
Alex poorly suppressed a gasped when she realised Smoke had been talking to Arretay and she slowly made for the door.
‘Raptor’s Claus’ claws.’ Arretay thought to himself, ‘Alex wasn’t meant to know who he was and now she did.’
Before she could open the door, Aris stepped forward and held it shut.
“Don’t tell a soul.” He warned, there was no need to threaten her, it wasn’t needed, the legend of Aristaeus Cosmos would be more then sufficient to keep her quiet

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