Chapter 2: Instrumentum

I'm unsure how long I've been out. Must have been a while since the sun is starting to set. I get up tiredly and look around. Still on the dumb rock, still on the dumb island, still have a dumb stone in my arm. God, this whole situation is dumb. Speaking of situation, I look over the rock to see the pair of Dilos have wandered off somewhere while I was out. Good. One less thing to worry about, at least for now.

"Alright, Gregory," I announce to myself, "guess I should find something to start properly."

I look up at the sky. It was rather late, maybe around seven or so. The temperature was dropping quickly, and I know that is not a good thing. Human's aren't the most useful if they freeze to death. I suppose the smart thing to do is start what I was attempting earlier and gather things for a fire. I still have the rock and stick, only thing I need it to get something to tie them together. Now where would I get something like that?

I hop off the rock and look around. There are a few stones on the ground, a couple Dodos wandering, a dozen trees or so, and a lot of bushes.

"Huh, ok then. I can work with this. Maybe."

I go to the nearest bush and tug a little at the bushes branches. When I do, a few berries pop of and I get a little bit of, what I can only assume is, fiber. I pick up the berries and they follow what the stone and wood did. I open my holo-inventory thing and look at the berries. The blue berries appear to be called Azulberries, the red are Tintoberries, and some black ones called Narcoberries. Oh, hey. They even have little descriptions! They all seem to be relatively the same aside from the black ones. Let's see here...

Narcoberry (x3): This fairly common black berry makes you sleepy when you eat it. Bitter, but can be used to make black dye.

"Well," I say to myself, "don't want to eat those then." I look over and pick up the fiber on the ground and it goes into my storage. I think I now have enough materials to make a very primitive pickax. Hey, I gotta start somewhere. I take out my stick, rock, and fiber and tie them together. The pick is made and is then put into my inventory, to which I open it again. I see that my, as I will start calling it, experience bar filled up very quickly from that. It appears that different actions will raise the bar at different speeds.

I think hard and am equipped with my pickax. I come to assume the Specimen Implant is some how connected to my thoughts. I take note of this and turn to a large rock. I don't know what else to do so I simple strike at the rock, sending off small sparks along with some smaller stones, flint, and some strange, glistening hunk of rock. All three of the items go instantly into my Implant. Using tools appears to automatically pick up resources for me. That's pretty nifty.

I should get a bit of wood, too. Can't have a fire without fuel! Pretty much the only thing I ever actually learned in Boy Scouts. I go over to a tree and hack at it with the pick, giving me majorly some kind of thatch like material and very little wood. Pickaxes does not appear to be good wood gathering tools. Perhaps something better would be an... ax? That would make sense, but then again I'm not exactly the smartest so I could just be blowing shit out my ass.

I check my storage again to see what I have available. I have a fairly decent about of flint and thatch, as well as smaller amount of wood and stone. I take out some flint, wood, and thatch and set them in front of me.

"Alright, this should be easy," I assure myself, not having any idea what I'm doing, "Just have to, uh... ok."

I start sorting the flint into an ax-like shape underneath the wood and begin to tie them together. After a few seconds, I now have a primitive ax! I switch it out with my pick and go, as some people would say, 'H.A.M.' on a nearby tree. With it, I gather far more wood than with a pick, but also far less thatch. Seems like different tools are useful for different resources, yet still gather smaller amounts of the opposite materials. Looks like a good even trade off.

After gathering more resources of everything I need, I start assembling a small campfire. I set the fire ablaze and sit down. I look above at the stars and try to properly take in everything. Where am I? What purpose do I have here? Am I the only one? What do those Dodo Birds taste like? Why are there dinosaurs? God, I am far too tired and confused to think about this. And hungry. Holy shit, am I hungry. But I don't have anything big, and I doubt these berries will do much. Oh well, might as well try them.

I take out the Azulberries, assuming they will be the same as normal blueberries. I pop one into my mouth and am met with a fairly sweet taste, though slightly tart. Pretty good in my opinion. I'd give them a seven out of ten. I eat the last three and then pull out the Tintoberries. I eat one and wince at the very sour taste of them. Yeah, no. I will not eat these. I'm not in a situation to be picky, but I will be. Just the kind of guy I am.

I look back up at the sky and notice something. I may not have cared about Scouts of science, but I did memorize all of the constellations, and there was not a single known one up there. Every star appeared to be in a random order, not matching anything I'd ever known. This is strange. Then again, I was almost killed by dinosaurs less than two hours ago.

I put the thought in the back of my mind and stand back up. I look around and am greeted by the sight of a larger reptile down the beach. It was much, much bigger than the dilophosaurs, and walked on all fours. It had a vary large head with several long horns on it's face. It's extremely easy to tell that this creature was a triceratops. A herbivore. No fear with this one, thankfully. I walk up to the creature to examine it more closely.

I looked down and noted it was a male. It had a very distinctive set of colors, the majority of his body being a light tan, almost orange, with dark red spots over it's face and head, with a light green texture on his back. I've noticed that the males of these dinos appear to have more vibrant color schemes. At least, that's how it is for trikes and dilos.

The reptilian looks at me and makes a strange half bark, half roar sound, most likely telling me I'm a little too close.

"Whoa there, friend. I'm cool," I try to reassure the dinosaur. "Just checking you out is all. Is that okay?"

The large trike proceeded to do something I am very surprised at. It snorts and then appears to nod it's head, almost as if it understood me. Apparently I'm able to talk to prehistoric reptilian monsters. Neat. The creature turns it's attention back to a large bush it was grazing on and goes to eating off of it. It looked as though the trike is able to pick more berries from the bush than I am with my hands alone. I get an idea that this creature would make a very good farming animal. I wonder if taming of one of these creatures is possible.

I soon realize that I should be more focused on my own survival than trying to domesticate a giant creature. I leave the three-horned creature to return to my campfire, which at this time appears to have went out. I look into the fire to see if there are any remnants I may way to take. Just as I do, I notice small pile of chard wood. I pick up the pieces and they are put into my Implant. I open it and see that a new slot has appeared.

Charcoal (x7): Made from burning wood.

Well, that's not very helpful. I might be able to do something with this later, but for now I should toss it. How... do I toss things? Well, if this thing works with my thoughts, maybe if I just think about? I do just this, and suddenly a small cardboard looking box appears and falls in front of me. Surprised by this, I go up to the box and observe it. After a few moments the box disappears, completely out of existence. I'm startled by this, yet decide to blow it over. That is honestly one of the least surprising things I've seen so far.

Speaking of surprising things, I look behind me and see a giant pillar of light coming from an unknown source. I look up at the pillar and see a strange object falling from the sky inside of the light. I step away from it and wait while it comes to the land. Once it lands, I walk up to it cautiously, waiting for it to do anything. When I get up to it my Implant starts to glow the same white color as the light pillar. I raise up my arm and am greeted with a different gird, this one having a small amount of items inside of it.

Inside is a very primitive torch, some type of wooden club, several spears, and what looks like clothes. I see that next to this grid is my own inventory with everything inside it still. I think hard and suddenly, all of the items in the other grid is moved to my Implant. After this, my screen forcibly close and the object dissipates, similar to the box earlier. I will not look a gift horse in the mouth, and go into my inventory and equip the clothes. It gives me a little bit of warmth and some very minimum protection.

Well, so far I have a very nice amount of tools and some armor. There's a little campfire to keep me warm for however long night lasts here. There is almost no danger around me. And, now, I have a big friend right over there. I should be good for a time being. Although, tomorrow morning, I am going to have to start some type of base for myself. A roof over my head is always needed. For now, I just lay down next to my fire and close my eyes again, this time for the entire night, and not just waiting for enemies to leave. A normal night's sleep is much needed.

In a forest on the Island, a lady is preparing. Preparing for anything to come at her. As well as getting ready to go at anything. Just as she has for a very large number of years.

"I have had this Island for too long," she says to her large Dire Wolf, "we won't let any newcomer take it over, will we Lupo?"

The wolf let's out a loud howl in agreement, which leads the rest of the woman's pack to howling as well. The sound of a small wolf pack echoes across the Island.

In the freezing mountains of the north, a group of three look out to the forest near the Red Obelisk at the sound of Dire Wolves howling. The three look at each other in an agreed understanding. That sound always mean someone has arrived.

"Hmph. She is on varpath again," one of the men say in a very thick, Russian accent. "Should ve do somezing?"

The man closest to the fire looks up at the stars and laughs. "Oh, vot can ve do? Ven Alessandra gets like this, zere iz nothing left," the leader answers, having a slight French accent. "Three days. Zat iz ze rule we made. If zey are still alive, zen we help. "

"But for now," he says again, "let us get some rest. Zose Mammoth will not rest for tired hunters."