Ark - Survivors Lost In Time - Exodus

Day Twenty-Eight

I was doing my patrol flight on Shadowing as the sun rose over the Oasis. All had been quiet in the valley since Steven's arrival, our tribemates were still out on jobs. The arrival of Steven had been a turning point for the remaining members of the tribe, Squirrel was happy to welcome Steven back, but Swan felt pushed out, he felt that he barely had his position in the tribe as it was, with Steven's return he felt that he was being replaced.

"As beautiful as always," His husky voice echoed through the fog down to me. I smiled up at the great quetzal flying over me. I pulled Shadowing upward, and landed him on the platform. I climbed from the saddle, he turned the quetz to the landing pad and climbed onto the platform, I sat cross legged next to Cradix's doed, he came and sat across from me.

"How has the last week been, hun?" I laughed, he cocked his head at me and narrowed his eyes.

I told him about the week he had been gone. I told him about running into Steven on the beach and his behavior since he had arrived in camp. I told Cradix about Swan feeling ostracized, I told him I did not know what to do.

By the end he was smiling at his hands, "You know I have not always been in my position," I nodded, "There was a time when my tribe leader left me in charge, the difference, he never came back. I was not prepared to take over, but I did, I had the help and support of my tribe, I had to move on, I had to deal with the loss of a friend, and those looking to me for guidance, I was lost I was young, I powered through, I kept my chin up, and that is what you are learning to do." He sighed and leaned back on his elbows and his quetz circled down toward the landing pad.

"I have an idea," He said, as his quetz landed with a ground shaking boom. He waved for me to follow and whistled his construction crew off of the platform and lead me inside. He took me to the green house on the roof, and walked with me among the plants. "I think you might not be ready to be the sole leader of the tribe in my absence." I started to object and he held up his hand to stop me, "You have not done anything wrong, I just think that I need to appoint Squirrel to help you be able to make the decisions you are not experienced enough to make." He said placing a hand on my shoulder, "I might not always be here, and as such we need a clear line of succession, if I place you in a permanent second in command and have Squirrel as my second he would take over in my absence but you would still be his second in command." I was actually surprised that I did not feel betrayed by him demoting me, I felt a wave of relief. "Why are you crying," He asked, he touched his thumb to my cheek and wiped away a tear, I had not even realized it.

I laughed, "I am relieved," I let out a sighed, and stared up at the sky through the glass ceiling. "I did not want to admit that I was scared to take over the tribe, I love being your number two but being in charge is terrifying, I want to earn that right eventually, but I want to ease into it." He smiled at me. He put both hands on my shoulders and me my orange eyes with his blue ones.

"You will make a great leader one day, who knows maybe the Hosts will see fit to make you an Admin in time." He hugged me and left me to tend to the garden, I stared up at the sky through the glass, were the Hosts watching me now, did they know what I was scared of, what I was feeling, I worried that this Ark would end before I had the chance to prove myself. I left Cradix to the garden and went out with Shadowing once again.

We flew to the mountain workshop that Cradix built with Longwing following behind me, we mined metal all morning. It was a lonely task but it kept my mind off of my failures, it was a long day of separating ore from stone, my hands were red and raw by the time the sun reached its peak, the load net beneath Longshadow was full of metal by the time I tied it to his saddle and climbed back onto Shadowing. We headed back to the Oasis.

"Metal?" Steven called up from the back of Fluffy, as we flew over the lip of the cliff and into the valley.

"Yes do you want to help get everything into the furnaces?" I called down as Shadowing glided towards the workshop. The carno stomped along beneath us as we circled the walls and touched down at the ramp up to the furnaces.

Cradix and Squirrel came to help us, we carried the metal from Longshadow to the furnaces. By the end of the afternoon we had a whole two tons of metal ingots to build up our stock in our vault.

I left Longshadow to the feeding trough and took Shadowing out once more to do an evening patrol. "What do you really expect to find?" Squirrel called up from the watch tower, he was leaning on his pike, his flak helm pushed up on his head, he did not have a care in the world.

"Does it matter?" I asked pulling Shadowing to a hover next to the tower.

"We are neutral none of the Factions would be stupid enough to attack us, especially not here in our home." Squirrel stated.

"Perhaps not, but that does not mean I do not want to be prepared,"

"I feel the same," Squirrel said, waving to the watchtower. "With us allied with the Dino Knights not even the rebel tribes would be brave enough to attack us." He laughed.

"I am still going out," I called and urged Shadowing over the trees. We flew the shore line, nothing out of place, the barge was tied to it anchors on the northern shore. The gates were all closed and secured, the trees were quiet, the herbivores roaming the beach were behaving normally. I rubbed the back of my neck, something felt off, the hair on the back of my neck was on end, I could not peg what was wrong but the air felt electrified, but if the animals did not sense anything wrong, I must be seeing shadows in the dark. I steered Shadowing home as the sun began to sink beneath the waves, and pulled him up short, when a flash of light caught my eye, I turned to look, but nothing was there.

"Light off the water," I told myself, rubbing my eyes. I was exhausted after a day of mining. I let out a sigh and flew the rest of the way home. I stopped by the watchtower before landing Shadowing.

"How was it?" Squirrel called over.

"All is clear," I called back, "Something feels off, keep an eye out," I said, he waved me off.

"We are as safe as we have ever been, maybe there is a giga out there or something, maybe we'll go hunting in the morning, and find whatever critter is out there," He said. I shook my head and went down to the sleeping quarters, leaving Shadowing to his nest. I collapsed onto my bunk and fell asleep within seconds, too exhausted to let my mind wander like it normally did.