This is a fanfiction about a survival/sci-fi video game called ARK: Survival Evolved, conceived by Studio Wildcard. I usually don't get attached to a game to the point that I write something about it, but ARK has a lore worthy of respect. The storyline can be reconstructed by reading the Explorer Notes, which help us understand what ARK is, its purpose and the characters who lived before our own.
Those who have never played ARK can follow the story with no problems as well, because all the rest will be seen through the eyes of someone who's just begun her adventure on the Island. Everything will be explained and, I hope, in the right way.
I'll use this story also to practice, I want to improve!
What to say? Enjoy the reading! As usual, if you spot any mistakes or typos, report them to me. Be kind in the criticisms, I don't get angry if you criticise in a constructive and polite way.
NOTE: this story is translated by a friend of mine, Roberto Turati. He's better than me in English so he gave me an hand for a better quality translation :)
1- The arrival
She couldn't breathe, because at each attempt the water threatened to drown her. She moved her legs and arms to reach the surface. It was dark and she couldn't see a thing, except for the sky full of stars. Where was the beach? She looked around her and, before panic assaulted her, she noticed a pillar of green light in the distance.
Instinctively, she started swimming in that direction and she hoped with all of herself to arrive at her destination before getting tired.
After a hundred meters, her feet touched something, or something touched them, since the water around moved. The girl gasped and sprinted forward to get further, fearing something could attack her. She kept on swimming towards the light. The sky was turning pink and, gradually, the land in front of her took shape. The low, sandy shore was not distant.
The girl kept swimming until something touched her foot again, then her belly and her leg. This time she clearly heard some squawks. She stopped and turned around. Behind her there was a group of creatures with long snouts, staring at her with those big eyes of theirs, looking like dolphins. Their skin was mostly grey, but their sides had all different color shades from one specimen to another. She didn't know how many of them there were, but they were following her. By now the Sun was rising and there was enough light for her to see everything. As she thought, the coast was close and she hurried to reach it. Unexpectedly, she was helped by one of those pinnipedians, which offered her its back.
Once she was safe on dry land, the girl realised her problems were not over. Her red curls had stuck to her pale freckled cheeks, her body was shaken by chills, because she was wearing nothing but underwear. She had nothing to eat and no shelter either. She looked around, disconsolate. The beach swarmed with life. Bipedal reptiles with elongated heads were moving in groups and, every now and then, they looked around and smelled the air. Gigantic turtles cheerfully scampered towards the water. Large and small birds flew just above the water and fished with their beaks.
Aurora looked up at the hinterland and sighted the source of the light beam which had allowed her to find the way: it was a metal tower floating in the air, at its two sides there was a rhombus surrounded by a green light arriving at the ground and crossing the immense construction.
She stayed idle watching it for a bit, enchanted, then she felt some tingling on her left wrist; she touched the itching spot, but instead of her skin there was an item in the shape of a rhombus, which appeared to have been implanted by someone; it shone with an azure gleam. Aurora passed her finger over it and, in front of her, like a hologram, a board appeared. She saw herself in the pane on the right, on the left next to her head there were some quadrants named with body parts. The bigger pane on the left had empty spaces and was entitled "Inventory". Inside of it was portrayed the picture of the implant in her wrist. Aurora put her finger on the picture, which reacted by showing the intel about herself: Specimen #2445096883, Name: Aurora Alighieri. Gender: Female. Species: Homo sapiens. Era 74. Attributes: Intelligence, Dexterity and Adaptability.
«What the...» she whispered.
All of that disconcerted and intrigued her. Where was she exactly? What was that metal structure that seemed to emit an immense power? What was the implant on her wrist needed for? Were there other people like her? She almost forgot she was feeling cold, but her body reminded her through intense chills.
"Intelligence, dexterity and adaptability" she thought, while looking around in search of something that might come in handy.
She found branches, huge leaves fallen from the local palm trees, plant stems to use as ropes and she found out what the purpose of the implant was, or at least she believed so: as she brought her wrist close to what she wanted to pick up, the implant scanned the object and engulfed it. The first time it happened randomly, but Aurora learnt quickly - she understood that the more things she harvested, the heavier she felt. The implant allowed her to carry around whatever she wanted, lowering the real weight considerably, but it had its limits.
Her harvest was interrupted by loud cackles. Aurora turned around and her blood froze. Five bipedal creatures of the same species were staring at her with interest. They had feathers along their spines, on their upper arms and on the tip of their tails. Each leg was armed with a menacing crescent-shaped talon pointing upwards, a distinctive sign of those Aurora knew as raptors. They stared at her, studied her with a perkygaze, then they looked at each other and sprinted forward.
The poor girl did the same, but in the opposite direction, towards the mouth of a river. She ran as fast as she could and dived as soon as she got to the water. The depth troubled her pursuers, although they didn't give up.
Aurora's bid for escape went on as far as the opposite shore. Every now and then she looked behind her, but the raptors, which had reached the riverbank, made a turnaround. They looked terrified.
Aurora stopped to look at them and sighed in relief, but what could have scared those predators? The answer didn't take long to show up. The ground under her feet trembled, the shadow of the girl vanished, absorbed by a huge one. The growl that came next didn't promise any good.
Some quiet seconds passed and Aurora started running, avoiding being grabbed in the beast's maw. But the distance between them was still really short and very little was required for her to become its lunch. The girl kept running, aware that only a small, narrow hiding place could save her. She headed to the rivermouth, again, but that creature was so huge that the depth of the water merely slowed it down.
Aurora kept swimming and turned around just for a few seconds, before carrying on her escape. The beast was so large it could devour her in only one bite. It had a somewhat elongated head, small red eyes with an evil scowl. Its teeth, curved backwards, must have been at least forty centimeters long. Its squamous hide was of an ochreous color with black shades on the head.
Finally Aurora reached the riverbank, but exhaustion and the creature's rapidity prevented her from taking another step. The mighty maw grabbed her from above down to half of her torso.
The girl screamed and wiggled her legs, in vain. After the pain, darkness set in.
Her hands squeezed the sand in a fist, the water softly caressed her legs and her green eyes suddenly opened. Aurora lifted her head and looked around. She sat up and massaged her head. What had happened? She remembered being captured by a gigantic creature and nothing else. She was now sitting on a different beach. It was a bay dividing two low coastlines. The presence of stripy horses calmly grazing marked the absence of any predators. Alongside them, three-horned creatures were nibbling as well, and also some others, fitted with rhomboidal plates along their whole spine.
This time Aurora really could sigh and relax. She gazed at the sky, she couldn't really understand how all this was possible, she was still alive and the implant was still in its place. She stood up and started walking in search of materials with which to build a shelter. For some odd reason, her inventory no longer contained the resources she'd harvested before the pursuit and she had to recover everything.
She already knew what to do, it was as if all of that was natural to her. She took dry leaves, blades of grass and thin trunks. She took a look at the implant, which showed her what she could craft with what she'd picked up: thatch foundations, walls and ceilings. It was a surprise to find out that the implant materialised what the girl wished for and placed it where she wanted, showing a tridimensional hologram first. So Aurora chose as location for her little house the shore of the small lake she found in the inner zone.
The rest of the day passed between the crafting of the campfire, spears and the perimeter checking. During her walk, Aurora had a look at the herbivores serenely grazing. The horses in particular captured her attention. They watched her, they seemed to want to come closer but eventually fled without getting too far.
The redhead pondered, something told her she could approach one of those creatures and she started to look for something which might be helpful, like berries or plants of some kind. She found some round, purple berries that her implant catalogued as "mejos", she took them and looked around, searching for the specimen she believed to be the least shy and fearful. And she cursed herself for this choice. Finding the horse she was looking for turned out to be a mammoth task. The beasts moved all together and got away as Aurora approached. She tried several methods to intrigue and drive them to close in. She tried putting the berries on the ground or pretending to be eating them, or she just walked around nonchalantly. Once the horses understood she was no threat, they calmed down, but still kept their distance. Then Aurora sat down cross-legged, the berries in front of her, and she waited. This time some horses came closer, but touched nothing. By now it was sunset and the girl went back to her hut. She caught a fairly large fish, using her spear, and roasted it on the campfire. Before going to sleep, she left some berries on a palm leaf right in front of the hut. The next morning, Aurora woke up at sunrise.
«Fine, another day begins!» she said with determination, while tying her hair in a high ponytail.
She opened the door and gasped, nearly falling backwards. The head of an equus suddenly appeared right in front of her, staring at Aurora with large, dark brown eyes. Its ears were pointed at the girl and the creature was standing in front of the hut. It had brown fur with black stripes.
The girl stretched her hand towards the snout of the animal, which slowly stepped back. Apparently it didn't trust her yet.
Taking advantage of the new space between the two of them, Aurora got out of the hut, she looked at the spot where she'd left the berries and saw they were gone, so probably the horse had eaten them. She breathed a long sigh and pretended to ignore the quadruped to make it understand she was no threat, she took her spear and focused on a not so big coelacanth swimming placidly in the small lake behind the hut.
The fishing was successful and the breakfast with roasted fish was ready; Aurora used a palm leaf as a plate and put the berries on it, too. The mejos were good and she understood why the herbivores competed to get as many of those as they could. The horse approached again, perhaps lured by the berries and the girl noticed it limped a little - its right hind leg was injured. Probably its own kind had isolated it so as not to have to care for it in case of an attack, and so the poor beast had to look for some food, without getting any because the herbivores were numerous and wouldn't stop eating.
Aurora had noticed a very odd detail, something that would normally take some time: the resources grew back during the night. The plants from which she'd harvested the fiber for the hut were back almost magically and the same applied to the rocks she'd smashed to set the campfire. There was something weird in that place, yet she couldn't figure out what it was.
It was the snout of the equus that distracted her from her doubts:
«Do you want some?» she asked, after receiving a second slight push on her shoulder.
The creature enjoyed the offer and Aurora took the opportunity to stretch her hand and caress it. This time the equus didn't retreat and enjoyed some petting after finishing the berries.
«You're such a good horse - she said sweetly - Stay here and rest as long as you wish, I'll bring you food when you need it»
Actually there was a great deal of work to do. First of all she needed to reinforce the hut and then build a fence with a trough, in case the horse decided to stay. For the moment her main worry was just the latter and, between the resource farming and replacing the thatch walls with the wooden ones, Aurora got herself the berries.
«It's turning out really well!» she exclaimed, satisfied.
She liked that system - she didn't have to work hard because the implant did everything for her, she merely needed to place the structures where she could. In her mind she was already picturing the position of the bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom and probably the workshop, since the implant had shown her also some smithies which would allow her to fabricate new items and weapons. Besides, that place looked peaceful to her, fitting for a permanent house. She carried on with harvesting more resources, using the stone hatchet and pickaxe she'd crafted shortly before and, although she didn't have to build what she needed with her own hands, the process was tiring. Every time it was necessary, she went back and moved again, in this way she wouldn't feel the weight of what her implant made and stored.
It was on her way back to the house that Aurora saw a raptor roaming among the herbivores and the panic meandered inside of her with unpleasant rapidity. The injured horse was the first thing she thought of. She removed the materials she'd found from her inventory to be quicker and wielded the spear, which appeared from nowhere in her hands. She ran towards the raptor, but a second one leaped from behind a bush and knocked her down. She blocked the creature's arms using the spear with both her hands, its sharp teeth were a few centimeters from her face and the big crescent-shaped talon of its left leg pierced her corresponding thigh; the pain was unspeakable and her eyes dropped tears. Right after, more raptors came from the East making all the horses run away and ignoring the triceratopses and the stegosauruses, prey too large and strong for them.
The members of that pack were very numerous and extraordinarily aggressive, voracious and quick, much more than the raptors Aurora had encountered the previous day. The equuses were attacked one by one by packs of five or six raptors, which later then passed on to their next victim.
Meanwhile the endurance challenge between Aurora and the raptor went on. Even though she was wounded, the girl wouldn't give in, despite the fear and pain that were not to her advantage. She relied on her adrenaline and her survival instinct, which in that moment were making it possible for her to resist. She rapidly bent her healthy leg under the predator's belly and pushed forward with her foot with all of her strength. She was surprised. She hadn't imagined she was so strong. The animal was knocked some meters away, but it got instantly ready to jump again. But Aurora was ready as well and positioned her spear with the tip pointed forward. The raptor leaped once more and landed on its victim again. This time something went wrong for the predator. During the assault, the tip of the spear did its job, stabbing the creature's abdomen. Aurora crawled away from the corpse of the animal and stood up. The pain in her thigh increased astonishingly; she had to resist, although she'd lost her hopes for the horse she'd befriended. The raptors were many, some had most likely already reached it.
She took a quick look at the little house and, to her great surprise, she spotted the equus hiding in the tall grass, blending in thanks to the color of its fur, so that only the head and the ears were visible. In the frenzy of the assault, the raptors didn't see it. Aurora ran towards the still incomplete house, but another raptor caught up with her. This one was very different from the others, twice their size. Its body was white and its feathers were red. Maybe it was a hallucination, but the beast seemed to be enshrouded with a red aura. The creature blocked the girl like the previous raptor had done, but there was no way to repel it. It was too strong and too heavy. Her injured leg burnt and the bleeding did its part as well. The spear broke beneath its weight and the pressure made by those clawing limbs, and the only available defense was her forearms, placed on her chest and face. The white and red raptor used its forelimbs to tear her skin and flesh, leaving dangerously deep wounds. The blood flowed along her arms and face, while exhaustion overwhelmed her. By now she didn't even feel pain anymore and hope was dying with her.
A terrifying roar made the earth and the air tremble. Something was running with heavy and irregular steps. It stopped, ran and slowed down, stopped again. Shortly after, the steps became more frequent, more creatures of the same or a similar size had joined the battle, maybe to hunt. Aurora saw nothing but confused and misted images; something had chased away the raptor from her by lifting it in the air and throwing it somewhere. A large winged creature flew into her field of vision, but passed beyond followed by many others.
Before fainting, the redhead could hear some agitated voices giving orders. Someone had approached her and had put a warm hand on her face, which was by now pale.
«Unless we hurry, she won't make it. Look at her arms...»
In front of her, human-shaped shadows were moving, perhaps visages. She breathed a long sigh and opened her mouth:
«Horse… my horse…» she mumbled, before falling back into the darkness.
«Her wounds have already partly healed» said a female, delicate-sounding voice.
«Good, that means she'll recover soon, she made us worry a lot. This was one of the worst attacks, besides being unexpected. An Alpha raptor...» added another female voice, with a more tinkling tone.
«What happened? I heard something about the malfunction of the turrets»
«Well - started the second voice, sounding embarrassed - There was no ammo. The guy who takes care of that is out in perlustration with Nick. Oh… look, she's waking up!»
«Don't stay so close to her, Jenny! You may scare her!»
«Oh, Sophie! I'm not that ugly!»
Aurora had listened to the discussion between the two women, but had conceded herself the luxury of dozing a bit longer. By now she felt better - she was weak but safe. What had happened at the small lake felt like a distant nightmare, but her wounds painfully pulsating beneath the bandage reminded her of the danger she'd put herself in. Her angst struck her like a boulder, forcing her to open her green eyes.
«Ah!»
She exclaimed and moved back towards the wall when in her field of vision appeared the face of an olive-skinned girl, with dark blue eyes and her hair shaved on one side.
«See?» crooned the girl called Sophie.
The stranger with black hair grinned, amused:
«Good morning, Sleeping Beauty among the raptors! Name's Jenny, I'm the deputy leader of the Defenders' tribe - she gave Aurora her hand - You've been unconscious for three days!»
Aurora frowned, confused. She stared at the outstretched hand as if she was hypnotised and then she shook it automatically. At that point, Jenny's face relaxed and she looked more at ease.
«Had we not intervened, you would've died, and so would have your equus»
That word brought back to her mind the reason why she'd fought so desperately instead of running away.
«Is it still alive?»
She wanted to be reassured, to know that the poor thing had another opportunity to live.
«It's in the stables. It doesn't have your healing ability, so it will take it a bit longer, but it's going to be just fine. It responds well to our care» replied the other girl.
She had long brown hair tied in a long lateral braid. Her oval-shaped face had wide brown eyes with a bright, sweet gaze. Aurora relaxed and leaned back against the wall behind her. It was all over.