A World Below Us (Ark Aberration/Final Fantasy 14)

Moving On

I opened my still heavy eyes. Daylight was seeping into our base. Alphinaud was fast asleep, leaning against one of the stone walls we put up to protect ourselves from the hallucination fungus. I felt exhausted from the night before, not to mention still saddened over what happened to Krile. I stood up and strolled over to the preserving bin. I pulled a few berries out and began to eat, tossing a few to Papalymo, who had just woken up. After he ate his fill, he yawned and went back to sleep in Alphinaud's lap. I smiled at the two. They both looked so cute... and yes, I thought both of them were cute. I shook my head and blushed. Then I immediately felt sad again after wondering what Krile would have looked like if she were snuggled with Alphinaud and Papalymo. Why was I like this? I was timid to go back outside, but we were in desperate need of metal. We already used all of ours for repairs and creating new weapons. For example, I had a crossbow now. I looked in the storage box for some arrows. I could only find odd green ones. I shrugged and threw them into a bag. There was a shuffling noise to my right. Alphinaud was stretching, and Papalymo jumped out of his lap. "Hey Jackie." Alphinaud said sleepily. "Where are you off to?" "We need some metal. I'm going to get it. Wanna come? I could use some extra arms to carry it all." I offered. "Oh, is that what you see me as now? A storage unit?" Alphinaud mocked playfully. "You know that's not what I meant." I replied, not returning his playfulness. "What's wrong? Is it Krile again?" He asked, immediately snapping out of his sass. I nodded, swallowing tears. Alphinaud put his hand on my back in an attempt to reassure me. "It's ok, crap happens. There's nothing we can do now." I said. Alphinaud nodded. My words echoed in my head. Nothing we can do. That wasn't how I meant to say it, but I began to feel discouraged about our little trip down to the Aberration world. What if we couldn't find a way out? I ignored my negative feelings and followed Alphinaud out the behemoth gate. "Where does metal spawn?" He asked. "Hm, well I know it spawns near the metal path swamp drop." I said. "Is that what you're calling it?" Alphinaud cocked his head. "No, but I'm tired. I don't feel like coming up with a name right now." I replied. Alphinaud chuckled and we kept moving. After a while, we had arrived at our destination and were already hacking a a shiny golden rock. "This is a very Rich deposit! How did you know this was here?" Alphinaud asked. "I came here with Papalymo once. This is where we-" I stopped and gulped. "This is where we first met Krile." Everything about this place reminded me of her. Papalymo whimpered. He could tell she was gone, and that she wasn't coming back. "I'm so sorry. She was a good ravager, something I never thought I'd meet." Alphinaud told me. As we journeyed back to our base, I felt another odd feeling. "I haven't seen any predators for a while. Isn't that weird?" I wondered. "Just be thankful instead of questioning it." Alphinaud replied. We neared the base. The behemoth doors were in sight. And so was a large spino that stood by the river. I put my finger to my mouth as we snuck past it. "That must be why there's no other creatures here! I mean, do you see the power of that thing?" Alphinaud whispered. I nodded as I watched the spino stand on its hind legs and swipe at a sarco over and over. It was distracted, so it didn't see the two of us pass by. We opened and closed the gates behind us and dropped the metal into the furnace. "Boom! Just like That!" I cheered, high-fiving Alphinaud.