Mike's eyes shot open, blinded by the searing light that wouldn't let up, his senses were overloaded by the various sounds and smells of the land around him. Water rushed underneath him coming to and fro as it washed up and the beach and back. Mike felt dizzy as he gazed up finally, his eyes had finally adjusted to the light that had been plaguing him.
He was on a beach as far as the eye could see, with dense and deep lush green forests and even from here Mike saw that the light had trouble penetrating the inner depths of the jungle and brush. Aside from the rushing waves Mike could hear various animals calling to one another but some were deep rumbles or high pitched squawks and Mike frowned in confusion... he's never heard of anything that sounds remotely like that.
His head turned to the side and his entire jaw would have fallen off and hit the floor if it could have because in front of him was a titanic reptile who's shadow fell over him blocking out the sun. The creatures long neck stretched gloriously towards the sky, its head had swivelled round to regard Mike with dispassionate disinterest before turning away to graze on the tallest tree's. It's body lumbered along, the ground was shaking beneath it with every step.
Mike's head was a flurry of movement taking in the landscape that was highly foreign to him. But there in the sky hovered a great glowing green structure and Mike craned his neck upwards to gaze at the object in sheer wonderment. It's structure was laden with sharp and precise curves, its was Alien in nature to him having never seen anything of its sort before and he was memorized by it, it was beautiful as it was ominous, it overshadowed everything around him. Mike then noticed there were two identical Obelisks in the sky with it, both glowed a different colour, one Red and the other was blue. Both however were further in the distance with Blue being the furthest
Mike lifted his left arm to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun. Mike's eyes widened in a panic as he realized there were was something implanted in his arm where it was seared into the flesh, Mike ran his fingers over the Alien metal, it was cool to the touch and felt almost like silk, it didnt have any noticeable weight either. He did however notice that it looked like the same symbol on the Obelisks, a diamond with a glowing outline of white.
Mike cautiously took his first step in this large and foreign world. His feet easily settling in the sand of the beach as he took step after step, he didn't even know where he was going or even where to go. He just needed to go somewhere that wasn't on a beach in the scorching sun.
As sand changed to grass Mike kept a weary eye after seeing what Mike could only assume was a Dinosaur, Mike pondered on what else was in this strange land, after seeing what looked like several Dodo's Mike watched on in disbelief and just made him even more confused than he was before.
Most of Mike's memories were somewhat of a blur, all he could recall was where he was before he woke up on this beach on a strange world that was Earthlike but possessed an otherworldly feel about it, Mike could only describe it as such. But the humidity of it was almost unbearable, only the cool shade of the dense foliage of the jungle was enough to keep direct sunlight off of him.
But it disturbed him that he had all his knowledge and knew who he was and yet his memories were foggy and it hurt to even try to remember his past, for now he had to deal with this amnesia and whether or not it was temporary or not. He dreaded to think that may be the case in the latter.
As Mike wandered through the edge of the jungle he noted how beautiful it was and how fresh seemed to be, slightly salty too due to his proximity to the Ocean, there were stone ruins scattered throughout the jungle. Whilst Mike was terrified the Scientific side of him was excited to be here, considering most of, if not all, the creatures that he had seen had been extinct at one point or another.
But the terrified side of Mike jumped at every sound, including the sounds from other creatures found here, although most of those things were mainly Parasaurs who regarded him with as much disinterest as the giant Sauropod did earlier, however, Mike needed to rest after much walking, deciding to sit in the shade a tree nearby he carefully sat down and watched the Parasaur's graze on the grass and bushes around them, occasionally they would call to one another, to Mike it was as amazing as it was beautiful.
A shrill whistle suddenly pierced the air and there was an almost bark like call emanated from the shrubbery not too far from Mike's Resting place. The Parasaur's looked up sharply as three brightly coloured Dinosaurs emerged from the darkened canopy of the woods, barking as they did so, feathers covered small areas of their bodies, they raced towards the nearest Parasaur that had turned and ran off trailing behind the rest of the pack.
Mike watched on as the three evidently carnivorous Dino's leapt onto the Parasaur, pinning it to the ground, their teeth and claws savage as they bit down and ripped at the Parasaur's body, the Parasaur called out to the others, crying for help to no avail the other's had fled leaving this one to die at the hands of these savage killing machines.
With a final whimper to its head hit the floor and breathed no more. Mike felt shivers go down his spine as he realized what these were. Their huge claws on either foot starting clicking against the floor. The Parasaur lay bloody and disembowelled.
This was a pack of Raptors.
There was another shrill whistle through the air and the Raptors turned their attention to Mike who immediately turned and bolted for everything that he was worth, the raptors gave chase, barking to one another as they closed in more prey. The raptors were faster than he was and he knew it but he pumped his legs for all he was worth, clinging to a feeble hope that he'd somehow outrun these things.
It was a false hope.
The Alpha leapt up and Mike felt the Raptor hit his back, letting out a shout of surprise Mike tumbled to the floor where the Raptor pinned him to the floor like it had with the Parasaur, Mike shut his eyes and waited for what he believed was about to be a painful death.
It never came.
The Raptors glowered at him with their amber eyes. Where there was whooping coming from behind.
"we are so eating well tonight!" Mike heard one of them shout
"you got that right" the second one said
Mike tried to increase his effort to escape but it was no use the more he struggled the more the Raptor dug its claw into him.
"Well, Well, well, look what we have a here" the second one said with an air of arrogance.
"What is it?" the first one said making his way over to him
"its a damn beech scrub"
"Really?" the first one asked, it had evidently peaked his interest. His footsteps grew close.
"Hey Joel! We got ourselves a beach scrub!" the first one shouted.
The first one smacked him on the head.
"Keep your voice down man!" he hissed angrily "Apparently there was a Carnotaurus here not long ago, you wanna mess with one of those because I sure as hell don't!"
"Sorry" the second one said sheepishly.
"Idiot" the first one muttered under his breath.
The one known as Joel stepped forth and examined Mike briefly, each of them was carrying what looked like a pick, a hatchet and a spear. The one known as Joel was dressed fairly better than the other two, his armour was of a strange material that Mike could not identify.
"You speak English?" Joel asked gruffly
"Yeah?" Mike answered back hesitantly
Joel let out a quick whistle and the Raptor stepped back, Joel hurled Mike painfully to his feet.
"Thanks" Mike said with a small smile.
Joel scoffed.
"You won't be thankful soon scrub" Joel said arrogantly, he withdrew his spear and jabbed him in the back with it, forcing him to walk, Mike did so if only to avoid getting nearly stabbed with it once more "you'll regret the day that you ran into us... now move!" Joel said forcefully.
The Raptors followed them close behind.
Yet as Mike walked on, none of them realized something, as they moved onto the beach and forced Mike along with every step they were being watched from further down the beach. A creature resembling that of a ferocious giant Eagle sat upon a cliff overlooking the beach.
The Eagle and it's rider watched intently as Mike was struck brutally again and again, both Eagle and Rider was eager to taste blood. The Eagle let out a small impatient cry. The rider stroked her hand softly through the Eagle's feathers
"Patience, Ravager" she whispered soothingly, her brown eyes narrowed in anger as she too watched this brutal display of inhumanity, no longer able to sit by and watch this continue on further, she lightly kicked the side of the Eagle which unfurled its wings, showing the red tips at the end of its feathers, it let out a shrill cry and it spread its wings and launched itself and his rider into the sky.
And like an unseen shadow, tame and rider, followed their trail, ready for the vengeance they were about to unleash upon them all... well for all but one.
(A/N) This short story was inspired by ARK: Survival Evolved. I love getting inspiration for all sorts of things lol this is intended to be a short story but knowing me i'll end up making it longer!
And dont worry I am still working on the Mark of Cain, hopefully new chapter for that shall be out by the weekend!
I wonder if any Ark fans read this will know the animal that our mysterious rider was using as it happens to be one of my favourites in the game as well! And who is this Rider... well only time will tell ;)
As always guys review! And until next time, Peace!
