Ascension

The Island: Chapter 3

Helena stayed at Akana's place for days. And days became weeks. And weeks became months. And day after day, she absorbed knowledge from her new friend. Knowledge about the island. Knowledge about the creatures that populated it. And about the other tribes that thrived on it. But eventually, the day arrived. Helena had to leave Akana's safe home and venture into the depths of wilderness again. The woman had given her a map, a handcrafted saddle for her future parasaur and a few parchment rolls to write notes, because Helena hadn't lost her biologist instinct, and she wanted to take advantage of the time she still had to spend on the island. As Akana gave her all of her gifts, a spontaneous question lit up in Helena's mind: "How am I supposed to carry all these things?" She was already trying to find a way to transport her goods, but Akana gently grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "Have you ever asked yourself why your left wrist sports such a weird implant?" "It's actually been the first thing I noticed when I initially woke up on this island". "Watch this", Akana replied. She touched the saddle with her wrist implant, and -Helena couldn't trust her eyes- it disappeared inside of it with a bright, green light beam. "H- how did you do that?!" "Your implant can digitally store objects. And it can do way more. You'll learn about its life changing capabilities once you have more experience". And then, she laid her wrist onto Helena's and beamed the saddle, the map and the parchment rolls into her implant. "Now go. The sun will set soon. You must find a shelter before dawn." Helena thanked for everything that mysterious woman had done for her, and stepped into the dark, eerie forest again.

She kept on wandering for hours. Gladly, she hadn't encountered any dangerous creatures along her way. Only a few parasaurs (they seemed to be insanely common) and a doedicurus... a doedicurus? "What the hell?", Helena thought loudly. The doedicurus, an extinct species of mammal related to modern day armadillos, never lived alongside dinosaurs. Actually, they thrived the earth alongside mammoths, over 65 million years after the kingdom of the lizards had already fallen.

Something wasn't right with this island. Almost as if it had somehow been created artificially. Almost as if the whole ecosystem was being controlled by something... or someone...

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Image source:

https://ark.gamepedia.com/The_Maw