Greetings you wonderful bastards and welcome to another chapter of Primal Warriors. Oh boy let me tell you about writer's block on this one. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttt im pretty shure you guys want to just get into the story. With that little intro out of the way let's get this story going.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to ARK. They are owned by Studio Wildcard. The only thing I own are my OC's.

Chapter 7: Lost Companion

Alex's P.O.V.

I woke up with bright sunlight streaming through the tree canopy into my eyes. With a loud groan I sat myself up from the ground and tried to rub the tiredness from my eyes. I could really go for some coffee right now. After I let out a loud yawn, I was surprised to find out that it was already mid afternoon.

I got up and walked to a nearby tree to relieve myself. As I finished up I turned around to look around the "campsite". Diego was still sound asleep by the fire, seemingly having zero care for the day. A little further away the giant sloth was foraging on the outskirts of the grove. However something was missing…..

My eyes went wide when I realized that Sam wasn't at camp. Looking around, I could see that wherever she went, she took her spear with her. Slightly relieved, I figured that she must have gone down to the water to freshen up. But a thought came to me. Why didn't she wake me up? Even though the night beforehand was rough, putting it mildly, we decided to leave around midmorning. Now it was past noon and the area didn't look like it was disturbed at all.

Something seemed off and I had to make sure I wasn't going insane. I went as close as possible to the water without disturbing her in case she wasn't decent. I cupped my hands over my mouth and called out her name.

"SAM!"

The answer I got was a grumpy gorgonopsid that walked towards me grumbling and an annoyed sloth calling out to me, probably telling me to shut up. However, I didn't hear the answer I was looking for. Getting scared, I ran down towards the water to investigate, Diego following behind me, and my heart dropped in despair.

There was no one at the at the bankment, the water surface barely rippling in the wind. It would have been almost tranquil if it wasn't for the one object out of place, a spear resting in the grass.

I stood at that spot for a good few minutes, unable to comprehend what is going on. A number of things could have happen. She could be she fell asleep somewhere, hiding from something, or as a worst case scenario-.

I was deep in thought when I heard a disgusted growl and I turned towards Diego. He was sniffing at something in the dirt and and from the face he was making, he didn't like it. I went over to what he was sniffing and I picked it up to examine it. To my surprise it looked like a dart, the tip of it covered in some kind of fluid. I looked around and saw something in the mud by the water. Although there were a dozen different tracks from different animals that come down to the water to drink, two sets piqued my interest. They were both human, one smaller and barefeet than the other and and the other one looking like a type of shoe. The smaller one looked about Sam's size and I knew didn't walk at that spot at all since I got there.

With these two pieces of evidence, two revelations came to mind. 1) There were other humans on the island. I figured we would encounter some eventually since Sam's arrival. And 2) they took Sam for whatever reason. Luckily the tracks were easy to read and I knew which way they were heading. Acting quickly, I ran back towards camp and grabbed the essentials and ran back towards the river. When I got there however, Diego was standing at the water's edge before something bursted out of the water in front of us.

Binda somehow managed to follow us all the way from where we left the raft and find us here. The Baryonyx was looking around worriedly, making little chirping sounds, trying to find Sam. I sighed and walked over towards her, stroking her snout to try to calm her down. I wasn't a huge fan of her when she first came, mostly because of her causing us to move and all, but Sam loved the dinosaur and I got used to her being around. Knowing that Sam wouldn't want Binda to be upset and also trying hard not to get emotional, I did my best to calm her.

"Easy girl", I said softly to the dinosaur, keeping eye contact. "I don't know where she is but we will find her don't worry". I had no idea if she understood me but she calmed down at the sound of my voice.

After Binda was taken care of, we started moving along the tracks. They seemed to have followed the river and we moved alongside them. However after 10 minutes we ran into a problem and quickly lost the footprints. It seems that whoever took Sam was trying to cover their tracks. Unfortunately for them they didn't have a "bloodhound" with them.

Even though I had nothing to track the kidnappers with, we could still trace where they went with Sam's scent. I grabbed her spear and brought Diego over while Binda kept an eye out for anything suspicious. I let Diego sniff it and he turned inland away from the river into the nearby jungle and bolted for it. I tried to run after him but the Baryonyx had other plans. Before I knew it, I was tossed onto Binda's back and she started running after Diego.

Later I would realize that was my first time "riding" a dino. I have lept onto the backs of some of the larger creatures, but that was more like a rodeo. This was more like riding a horse, if the horse was a giant water dinosaur. If I could have described it in one word, it would be bumpy.Bumpy was putting it lightly as I was bouncing around on Binda's back, the only thing keeping me from falling off was my iron-like grip around the Baryonyx neck.

Binda ran straight into the jungle and we followed Diego's trail for several minutes before spotting him standing on a fallen tree trunk next to a clearing. I hopped off Binda, still shaken, and walked towards Diego to see what he found.

It was a campsite, recently abandoned. There was a small fire in the middle of the of the clearing and some other miscellaneous things around it. On the side was a cut up Dilo corpse, probably last night's meal. What got my attention though was on the edge of the clearing, at the base of a small tree.

Nestled at the bottom was a long piece of rope, cleary used to tie up someone. Whither it was Sam or someone else, I had no idea. But I still kept my hopes up that Sam was still alive. Diego walked up beside me and let out a whine, having followed the trail up to this point. Although his sense of smell was excellent, it seemed that whoever was here managed to better conceal themselves I let out a cry of frustration, whoever was camped here left hours ago, long before we ever got here. Who knows how much distance they have created between us.

I was going through my head on what to do when I heard a sharp call from Binda. Turning around to look at her, I soon began to hear noises of crashing coming from the forest nearby. Something was coming this way. Something big.

I quickly hid inside a massive tree trunk, Diego following close behind me. Binda, who couldn't fit inside the tree, ran back closer to the river to make a quick getaway in case something happens. Luckily there was a small enough opening in the tree to get a good enough view of the clearing. Several seconds go by as whatever was moving towards the area was eager to be there until it finally stepped out of the treeline and into view.

What I saw made me give a sharp inhale and pleased I moved so fast out of sight. It was a large theropod dinosaur, easily over thirty feet. It dwarfed even the Carnos that I was used to. It looked like a classical Tyrannosaur with its big head and smaller arms. But unlike a classic T-rex it had one noticeable feature that allowed me to identify the species.

It was covered from almost head to toe, well except for the feet, in a plumage of feathers. The feathers themselves were almost black in color, with a splash of red on top of its head and along its tail. It was a Yutyrannus, a species of dinosaur that was famous for helping support the theory that dinosaurs had feathers.

The large predator was attracted to the clearing by something. As it walked into the clearing, it began to sniff the campfire before smelling the area around it. I soon came to the realization that it was searching for the kidnappers, and must have found some way of picking up their scent. After a while It stood up straight and was ruffling its feathers before letting out a terrifying growl and turning towards a nearby forest path I didn't notice earlier.

It moved off down the path, shaking the ground with each footstep. We hid for several minutes before stepping out of our hiding place. On the river side, I could see Binda walking towards us, somehow knowing that the much larger predator was gone. I stood there for a good couple of seconds, scared half to death at what I just saw. That was the biggest predator I have ever seen, something I couldn't even come close to taking down with the weapons I hide. I prayed to whatever deity that exists that I managed to survive the a sudden thought came into my head.

This dinosaur managed to find out where the party went. And Sam is with that group, albeit not by choice. It might seem like the most stupidest idea I have done on this island, but this feather creature might be my best chance to find her. Going against my better judgment I started to follow the trail, with my two companions following me hesitantly. My only wish was that I get there first before the dinosaur does.

Sam's P.O.V.

I woke up groggily from an uncomfortable position. I could hear people talking nearby and and I could barely make out a fire. As my vision cleared I could now see I was tied up against a tree. I heard shuffling next to me and I looked over to see that I wasn't the only one tied up. It was another girl, roughly my age but smaller than me. She had darker skin and had short, black hair that was in a mess. She was asleep but by looking at her body I could tell that she looked worse for wear as she was covered in bruises.

I continued looking at her before hearing footsteps coming my way. I turned back towards the campfire and saw three men approach us from the fire while another two stayed by it. The one in front looked like he got in a fight with a cat and lost, since his face was covered in scars. He walked towards me before kneeling down in front of me and talking in an almost mocking tone, "Well would you look at that, Red is finally awake".

I stared at him, unable to answer him due to fear I was trying to hide. It mustn't have worked because he smiled at me and stroked my face. "Don't be scared, this will all be behind us if you cooperate, unlike your companion", he said, nodding towards the other girl tied up. Seeing the state of her and finding out the reason why cause my anger to rise.

"What do you want with me?", I asked in a bitter tone.

The only response I got from him was a evil smile and a "you will soon find out". He turned around back towards the fire but turned towards his companions, "make sure their both secured, the boss wouldn't want us to lose merchandise".

The two goons nodded and as the first guy walked back I called out to him, "you know I have friends right? They will find me".

He turned back towards me. "Oh, we know about your friends, we made sure we wouldn't be able to be followed by them". And walked back to the campfire without another word.

The two men made sure are ropes were properly secured before moving back to the fire as well. I sat there for a few minutes, thinking of the current situation, when I heard the girl next to me starting to wake up. She let out a quiet yawn before wincing in pain. I felt bad for her since she was hurting and I wasn't able to help.

"Hey hey hey easy there don't overdo yourself", I tried to reassure her. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sound of my voice. "Who-".

I quietly shushed her in case the others heard us. Wouldn't want them to find too much information about me. I spoke to her in a more quiet voice, "my name is Sam, what is your name". She winced slightly as she tried to adjust herself more comfortably. "The name is Taylor".

I smiled back at her. "Well Taylor", I said to her still in a quiet tone, "Looks like both of us are in the same situation. How did you end up with this lot?".

She thought for second for an answer. "Me and my friends encountered them a couple of times over the past couple of weeks. Me and my brother woke up in this place and got together and found others who were in the same situation as us. We managed to find a place nearby and settled down nicely. Then they came", she nodded towards the kidnappers. "We had no idea where they came from. One of the others in our group went to try to talk to them. They cut him down right on the spot". She went quiet for a moment before continuing. "After that, all hell went loose. We had to hide from them as they relentlessly tried to hunt us down. Last week, they managed to catch two of our companions. That was a different group than this one. And a few days ago, these guys caught me. All thats left out there is my brother and now I don't know what will happen.". She suddenly got sad and went quiet for a couple seconds.

Knowing she was about to cry, I tried to comfort her. "It's ok, we will manage to get out of this, trust me". She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at me "you really think so?". I nodded, "I have a friend who is probably looking for us right this second. You just have to wait a little longer and try not to overdue yourself".

She chuckled slightly, despite her pain. "Trust me, I can handle a lot more than a few bumps and bruises. I just hope your friend manages to find us soon".

I looked back towards the forest nearby, hoping for Alex to be out there looking for us. "Yea, I hope so to".

Sorry for the much later chapter. I planned to have this out before Father's Day weekend but sadly that was not the case. I also couldn't finish it during the weekend because the place I was at had terrible WiFi.

As you could now see, more and more people are showing up in ARK. SO may be good and some may be bad you just have to read and see. I will be starting the next chapter as soon as this is posted and might have it out really early. In the meantime, I'll see you all in the next chapter.

-Kaiju