Ark - Survivors Lost In Time - Exodus

Day Fourteen

Sure enough when I awoke the next morning the Oasis was buzzing, a dimorphadon had arrived right after sunrise with a contract from the Devine Knights. Cradix and Kabr would be leaving in a few hours to meet with the tribe leader. They would not return until the contract was done, the size of the contract was unknown at this time, we could be without the two of them for days or weeks if the project was large enough, and in that time I would be in charge, it would be my responsibility to guide Squirrel, Swan and Antonio with the expansion of the Oasis.

While Kabr loaded the construction beasts onto the carrier quetz Cradix pulled me into the dining hall to talk. He sat across the table from me, at first his eyes were on the door, thinking about his contract no doubt.

"Why are you taking Kabr instead of one of the others?" I started, he turned his deep steel blue eyes to meet mine.

"I don't want any trouble while I'm gone and the easiest way to insure that is to keep Kabr within my sight, besides if he is wanting more responsibility then what better opportunity for him then to join me on a contract so I can train him to be able to do his own contracts for the sub tribes." Cradix took my hands in his larger ones. "I need you to guide the others, they need to know what to do in my absence." I nodded. "You keep doing what you do, go and tame some new pets," He stood, walked around the table kissed me on the forehead and left. The ground shook, the quetz had jumped off the ground. I rushed outside to join the others waving our tribemates good bye. They quetz disappeared over the lip of the valley, and I was in charge.

The three men looked at me for guidance, "We need to expand over the edge of the cliff, Cradix left a blueprint for a great furnace room, we need to get started on that." The others stared at me. "Get the spare construction crew and lets do a metal run," I said to Squirrel and Swan, "Antonio go hunting, we need food and hide." I said, they all nodded and dispersed. I took Firewing out on my own hunting trip, we needed pelt to make fur armor, there were great mining points in the Whitesky Peak under the blue Obelisk, we needed those resources, and we needed to stay warm.

I hunted a heard of great mammoths, collecting hundreds of pounds of pelt before making a trip back to the Oasis to drop of my treasure, I left Firewing in her nest as I put the pelts away in storage. When I came back up to her nest there was a white and blue Argy nestled in the nest beside her, that bird belonged to one man. I searched for him around the base, and found him next to the still smoldering coals of the cabin.

"Mejo?" I ventured. "What are you doing here?" I asked as I came to stand beside him.

"I have some good news for you my dear," He said, turning to smile at me. "Skull is dead," Warmth spread through me, the whole I had not realized was in my stomach filled, I physically felt lighter.

"How?"

He smiled at me again, "We found Vadar on the way home yesterday and put a hit out on him, his Blood Knights made quick work of it, they have collected their payment and his body rots in the sea, and his beasts have been released back into the wild." Mejo laughed. Vadar was the leader of the Blood Knights the only publicly known member of the tribe, the assassins are skilled at their job.

I fell on him, tears of joys streamed from my eyes, he laughed and patted my back, he had done what we could not. Skull could never come back to hurt our tribe, the Hosts would bane his beacon from the future Arks, or give him to a new Ark experiment. "Thank you Mejo." I laughed letting him go.

"I am glad I could bring you this happy news." He looked around the sparsely populated paddock, with the quetz gone, and both construction crews missing, only our predators were left. "Where is everyone?" He asked.

At first I was unsure of if I should tell him, but the Dino Knights were our allies and Mejo was a Nomad before, most of his tribe had been Nomads previously. They were no threat to us, I invited Mejo in to eat lunch with me and told him about the contract, told him about my struggle knowing how to lead the men who were looking to me for guidance.

"While I am always with Cradix on his decisions and I always have his back, but I have barely ever truly had to be in charge, by the time I was ever in charge in the past we were all set, and I would just keep an eye on things while the rest of them were gone on their contracts." I ran my hand through my short white hair, "I do not know what I am doing." I sighed, Mejo laughed, I glared up at him.

"You think I know what I am doing all the time, you think Cradix does?" He asked still chuckling. I stared at him, my eyes narrowed, my spine stiffened. "We did not know what we were doing when we first found each other all those Wipes ago," He laughed, "Leadership is not about always knowing what to do, it is about doing the right thing, making the hard choices, being the one to stand up when everyone else wants to back down," He sat up a little taller, a grin on his face as he stared off at the wall. "Being a good leader is about being there to listen to your people, being able to guide them through the hard times not just the easy times, standing up for the weak members of your tribe." He smiled down at me, "You have the makings of a great leader my dear, but you just need some guidance until then," He patted me on the shoulder, with his steel gauntleted hand. "You will be just fine, no major decisions need to be made today, or even tomorrow," He smiled and gave me a side hug, "My young Firefang you will be okay, you are Cradix's princess he would never abandon you." I smiled, and felt my cheeks flush, Mejo was one of the few that reminded me that Cradix promised me a kingdom one day. He gave me a kiss on the top of my head and took his leave.

I sighed and lay my forehead against the table, and stared at the wall, Mejo was right, I was not making any real choices, just guiding what Cradix had set up. I pushed myself up a new sense of determination, I would have our goals done by the time Cradix and Kabr returned. I marched out into the paddock, I pulled out paper and charcoal, I began to draw the plans for the expansion, by the time the men returned with their loot, I was covered in black marks, and had the plans laid out.

Together we began working on prefabricating the walls and foundations, the sun began to set, and we had to call it a night. I assigned the watch for the night, which turned out to be a little difficult, with us all being exhausted from the day's work. Swan was not excited that he got the first shift, but he stuck it out.