Ark - Survivors Lost In Time Book 2- Time of Thieves

Day Eighteen

I spent the subsequent days of searching for Cradix, using the Divine complex as a starting point each morning. Still no one knew anything about Cradix location. It still days without word, no whispers in my ear any more. No gentle touches against my cheek, he had left me. I spent my nights with Mejo, in the company of his tribesmen, and my days searching. I had to find him, I could not give up. Mejo had let me in on a secret to do with my beacon, it was an Admin power, it was tracking Cradix, the faster the pulses became the closer I was getting. Through hours of flying back and forth I narrowed his location down to the Jungles South. With days of searching the forest I still had gleaned nothing, the forest was so dense, and the pulses of my beacon to inconsistent to narrow it down further.

That morning I lay naked against the furs of Mejo's massive bed, I stared at my beacon, willing Cradix's voice to come back to me, for his laughing blue eyes to float before me.

"You know that won't do anything just staring at it," Mejo called from the door to his shower, as he toweled himself dry.

"Thank you for that bit of information," I growled, dropping my arm to the bed. I climbed to my feet and dressed. "I will see you tonight," I said, as he came to my side, rubbing his towel against his dark hair. I kissed his cheek and ran my fingers lightly against him before disappearing out the door and out of the complex.

Ruin shot me a dirty look as I slipped through the main hall, Paul wished me a good morning, as did multiple of the other men I had gotten to know over the last few days. I went to Firewing, checked her saddle and set off.

We were in for another long day, the sky was heavy and dark with clouds. We had barely made it over the swamp when the rains started. I steered Firewing toward the trees, it would be next to impossible to see anything through the storm. I contemplated heading back to the Divine's camp, but I knew how the day would be spent from there. I pressed forward, I had given up flying a grid pattern it had gotten me nowhere in recent days, I just stared at my beacon and had Firewing fly in a straight line.

Lightning lit the sky in a blinding flash of white light, causing Firewing to buck for a moment, had the straps around my legs not been secure she would have thrown me from the saddle. I rubbed the back of her head, and soothed her fears, and we flew on. The pulses were coming quicker now. We were about halfway between the Center and home; I could see the faint blue of the obelisk in the distance through the din. Firewing bucked again as a blinding flash of white light came from the cliffs to our right.

It was not lightning this time, I stared through the rain to see a bronto towering over the trees, glow brightly then blow apart in a blaze of white light, I shielded my eyes. What could have done something like that to a dinosaur as large as a bronto. Firewing screeched in fear, and tried to fly quickly in the opposite direction but I could not let this stand. I pulled the reigns hard toward the cliff. If I had my bearing correct this was the area known as the beaver ponds, the cliffs were formed in such a way that their plateaus formed large ponds that the beavers flocked to because it was safe from most predators. What was left of the bronto still glowed dimly on the ground. I landed Firewing next to the remains and dismounted, I cautiously approached the carcass and touched it, the flesh was boiling hot.

I flinched as I saw another flash of light through the trees, and heard the dying screech of another animal. Firewing fluffed her feathers and squawked in fear but she stayed where she was. "I'll be back girl," I whispered, I really hoped I was not lying to her. I made my way through the trees pulling the sword Mejo had given me from my belt. I found a dead trike a few yards into the trees, further in I found a pair of dead dilos. My heart beat furiously in my chest, what was this, what was happening here? I snuck through the brush until I came to a clearing, a pond stretched out before me, what must have been a dozen beaver dams lined the shores, pairs of them splashed happily in the shallows. Whatever was killing the dinosaurs was leaving them alone.