Ascension

The Island: Chapter 2

Helena had already lost count of how long she had been rushing through the deep forests of that mysterious island. After an amount of time that could've been five minutes just like five hours, she finally reached the end of the jungle and found herself in front of seemingly peaceful and irregular plains. All of the resources she had collected had been lost, but she couldn't stay awake anymore. The strain of the previous run for survival was overwhelming to the point that she just fell asleep on the spot.

A sudden honking noise awakened her. Grass and clumps of dirt were stuck in her hair. How long had she been asleep? Where was she? Had everything just been a dream? But the sight of a herd of bizarre, duck-like dinosaurs a few hundred feet away was proof enough that she was still thriving on the same island she had almost lost her life on the night before. "This can't be good", she thought out loud. Her first instinct was to go and investigate over those weird creatures. Thus, she started stepping through the rough, wet grass and moved towards the herd. Those animals had the appearance of parasaurolophus, a long extinct, herbivore dinosaur species that featured a hollow horn on the head, used mainly for the production of very intense, honking acoustic signals like the one that tore Helena out of her sleep. She was so focused on observing their behavior that the sudden, deafening horn of what appeared to be the herd leader caused her heart to skip a beat. And out of the blue, the indefinite mass of parasaurs started to panic and began to speed into her direction, like a huge, living tsunami, careless of anything that would've crossed their way in that moment. Helena was petrified. All of her limbs had become uncontrollable, and she couldn't help but staring at the approaching cloud of dust generated by the hysteric amassment of dinosaurs running her way. But then, something (or someone?) suddenly grabbed her wrist and forcefully pulled her out of the living flood's path. Then, everything turned black.

Helena woke up to the intriguing smell of freshly cooked vegetable soup. Her head was bruising. "W- where am I?", she stuttered. The shape of a woman in her fifties started discerning in front of her. "You fainted", she said. Helena painfully managed to rise herself on her weak, shaking arms and looked at the woman, who was offering her a steaming bowl of soup. "Who are you? Why am I here?" The lady, who's name was Akana, turned out to be an eremite. She resided in a shore region called The Maw, in a tiny, wooden house hidden between some trees. "I see you had an unpleasant experience with some parasaurs earlier today". "Yeah, I was scared to death. What were they running from?" "Oh, nothing. You should know parasaurs tend to freak out because of every tiniest sign of danger. Their leader probably got frightened by a compsognathus, causing a chain reaction that led the whole cluster to uncontrolled panic. But once you tame them and train them, they can result into pretty useful creatures, particularly for weight transportation. I domesticated a whole herd of them", Akana explained. "Hold on", Helena mumbled, "you're telling me that the creatures on this island are tamable?!" "Indeed, they are. Most of them need to be knocked unconscious using tranq arrows, before being fed berries or vegetables. Some animals wake up really quickly though. To obviate that, they must be fed narcoberries. You can recognize them because of their black color, and they cause a really strong dizziness effect when consumed, leading to unconsciousness." After a little pause, Helena silently babbled: "Oh... that's probably why I suddenly fell asleep yesterday..." Akana snorted and broke out in seemingly endless laughter. "What? I'm new to this place. I don't even know how and why I ended up here to begin with". Akana apologized, although she kept giggling under her breath. "I'm really sorry... but I just... I can't". She couldn't even finish her sentence before she vociferously cracked up again.

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Image source:

https://ark.gamepedia.com/The_Eastern_Plains