Ark - Survivors Lost In Time - Exodus

Day Twenty Five

The following days after the loss of Firewing were a blur for me, I was busy raising her chick, and trying to stay out of the way of my tribemates as they went about building their own personal residencies around the interior of the valley. Our main facility had become a trading center for the factions of the Ark, a safe place for merchants to come and trade, even a safe place for an inquiry which took place the day before, regarding Skull, who was not there to testify on his own behalf, and as such not formal decision was made, only agreement with Cradix actions by the other Admins. While the Admins met in the newly constructed Justice Hall, their escorts sat uncomfortably in the entrance hall, glaring at each other, it was not often that Shadow and Devine Knights were forced to sit peacefully together, the Dino Knights made the encounter a little more bearable, joking and catching up with their tribemates, I stayed away from the meeting until I was called upon to testify against Skull, I shared what he had done, and left as fast as I could to get back to my baby argy, since he had survived long enough to mature to be able to fly, I had given him a name.

I met Shadowing outside and put him through his exercises, I made him chase one of my Dilos around the valley, he was getting big, he would be full grown in a day or so. He was pure black except for the tips of his wings which had a touch of white, a trait he had inherited from his mother.

I sat on the edge of the crowd with my dilos and my little argy and listened to the inquiries verdict, they had decided that Cradix had done right by his tribe and by the Ark, that Skull's demise was a necessary loss. The leader of the Shadow Knights Loki did not look as pleased as Mejo, and the leader of the Devine Knights, Chance; as he had lost a possible future recruit, but he had plenty of men at his disposal, the loss of one was nothing to his legions. I looked at Cradix through the crowd, he met my eye and smiled, we had moved past the awkward moment in the hatchery a few days earlier, by doing what we usually did, not talking about it. He would be leaving on another contract, this time by himself, for a Shadow Knight sub tribe, and Kabr was taking Antonio on a contract for the leader of the Blood Knights. It would be me, Swan and Squirrel to hold down the fort, and so we would.

I had said good bye to my friends the day before and now I sat on the lake shore and watched Shadowing chase one of or dimophodons around the sky overhead. Squirrel was busy training a turtle for a race that Mejo was planning as a cooperative game that he wanted to have to create comradery among the warring factions. I was not so sure that a turtle race was the way to go, but it was certainly a start, there was also a maze in the works, that Mejo hoped that I would take the contract to create, I had not given a final answer but the idea had intrigued me, but I would not start anything until Shadowing was adult size. I had built my platform on the quetz that Cradix had given me, a large green black behemoth I had dubbed Longshadow, he was strong enough to carry the crew I had assembled. I spent the morning sketching some ideas for a maze, and running them by Squirrel and Swan when they would pass by, Swan could care less, he was singe minded and just wanted to get himself a Rex, he was working on building a raft up at the north beach to sail over to Carno Island to find his own Rex and bring it back. Squirrel on the other hand as an accomplished builder in the tribe, gave me a few pointers for the structure I was planning, and helped me design some of the puzzles.

By afternoon, Swan was out sailing in the bay, testing the maneuverability of his craft, and adding to it where needed. Squirrel was busy once again racing his turtle around the lake once again, he would whoop and holler at me as he rushed by, and by rush he wobbled back and forth on top of the shell, as his turtle trotted forward as fast as the giant thing could. I would wave and laugh, the older man had a way of cheering the rest of us up when we were down, and watching him toddle from side to side like a bobble head was humorous to say the least.