Hello you wonderful bastards and welcome to the next chapter of the story. I decided to have another chapter up and early just because i'm feeling generous. In the past, additions to the story were due to both a busy schedule and ARK updates. Now that the game is approaching its official release and I have more time, chapters will come out much sooner. With that clarified let's get into the story.

Disclaimer: ARK is owned by Studio Wildcard. I just own OCs.

Chapter 8: A Deadly Gambit

Alex's P.O.V.

Three days.

Three days of tracking a giant feather monster through all sorts of terrain to find Sam. Despite all the trouble of the whole situation, I have to give the Yutyrannus credit. It does not give up on its prey. Or the yet to be properly seen kidnappers took something it wants.

Although we made good progress since her disappearance, we still haven't seen neither Sam or the people who took her. But we have found their campsites and occasionally seen a fire off in the distance. The only reason we haven't moved further was because of both not knowing the land our dangerous guide.

Since discovering it the giant predator has mostly avoided detection except its occasional footsteps which we heard if we got close enough to hear them. Personally I was happy for that. I didn't want to deal with the dinosaur as much as possible.

As for the land, it was getting more and more difficult to travel. Several rivers have cut through the earth, creating steep canyons that dotted the landscape. This made travel both difficult and dangerous, since many predators frequent these valleys. I saw many different species, from the small Dilos to much larger creatures like packs of Allosaurus. But none dared mess with the Yutyrannus, since it was the biggest creature in the area. We have heard several loud roars occasional and when we got to the source of it the area was devoid of animals.

The vegetation has changed as well. The forests became more drier and had tougher looking plants. Some of them were also covered in spikes. I even encountered some new animals as well, both accidental and intentional. I once found a sleeping theropod in the forest during the day and avoided it at all cost. Luckily it didn't wake up and we had no trouble. I also hunted down and shot down a bird that was taller than me. At first I thought it was a terror bird but on closer inspection it was actually a herbivore. It was covered in reddish-brown feathers that looked more like hair and it lacked "wings". It wa a Moa, a giant bird that once lived in New Zealand and one of the largest birds to have ever lived. But right now it was dinner and as I moved the body somewhere safe a much larger one came bursting out of the foliage and squawked at me. As soon as I jabbed at it with my spear however, it ran off back into the forest. Apparently they were very skittish.

After the third day, we noticed something was different. The Yutyrannus got seemed to get excited and picked up the pace towards its goal. We followed it as best as we could before finding it in one of the forests, crouched low and staring at something further ahead. Me and the animals gave it a wide berth before looking at the direction at where itself was looking.

It was a camp, situated high up on top of a cliff. Luckily we were on a taller cliff and we could see the camp below us. There were 5 men situated around a fire, busy eating from some sort of animal whose corpse I couldn't see. Nearby, I could see two individuals tied up to a tree. Even from the distance where features were difficult to distinguish, I could see a bit of red from one of the people tied up.

We had finally found the party. The problem was reaching them in the first place without being detected. Both the party and the dinosaur were proving to cause problems since they didn't allow us an easy rescue. Knowing that they would be here for a while, I set up camp in an area that would be difficult for predators. Thankfully the local vegetation was dry so it didn't give off much smoke.

After "camp" was set up, I sat down and started cooking dinner while feeding the animals, thinking about the next course of action. The best thing I could think of that is the quickest way was scaling the cliff. But that could be dangerous since I didn't have any climbing equipment and falling down could lead to my death. Also if one of them just so happens to look down over the side I would be in plain sight. That left the longer option where I would have to go around to find an area where they managed to get across. Unfortunately the Yutyrannus was in that direction so I would have to cover more ground to get around the dinosaur, which will cost time.

I sat there thinking of a plan to get Sam, when Diego let out a low growl and stared out towards the forest. Binda lifted her head where she was resting and growled in that direction as well. I grabbed my spear and started walking towards the direction they were looking. But before I moved a few feet, I heard a branch snap and someone let out a curse. A light colored blur blasted past me and Diego tackled whoever was in the bushes to the ground. I let out a whistle to stop Diego from killing the person and I motioned for him to bring the person into the open. The gorgonopsid dragged the individual out of the brush, who was squirming and trying to get out of Diego's grip.

It was a man, around my age and was slightly taller than me and stockily built. He had a darker complexion and had short, dark hair. Despite his size, he was no match for the gorgonopsids grip on him and was dragged all the way towards me before letting him go. I kneed him in the chest to make sure he didn't run and pulled a knife to his throat, while the animals were watching, making sure nothing bad happened while I interrogated him. The man threw his hands up in surrender.

"Please please don't kill me i'm not one of them", he pleaded"

"Then why are you spying on me?", I retorted, pressing the knife further against his throat. "And don't lie or i'll feed you to the overgrown lizard over there",I motioned over to Diego, who growled in response. Whether it was my "lizard" comment or to scare the man, I couldn't tell. I decided to stick with the scaring option.

The man gulped at the sight of Diego baring his fangs and did his best to answer. "Look, I know what it looks like, but I am not part of that group. They took my friends and my sister and I have been following them ever since,".

"How can I trust you are telling the truth?"

He thinks for a moment before coming up with an idea. "I saw your friend among the group as well. Red hair, pale skin right? She was tied up with my sister. I was thinking we could find a way to break them out".

From the outside, I still looked like I was going to carve him up and feed him to the animals, but on the inside my mind was racing. What if he was telling the truth? And what if he could help? Since I just met the guy, I shouldn't immediately believe a single word he was saying. But I was running out of options and time. Well what's the worst that could happen, I thought. But I decided to scare him a bit more.

"Let me make this clear", I said to him in almost a whisper, "if so somehow attempt to double cross me, your ass will be tossed to either my friend Diego or the Yutyrannus nearby. Got it?".

He nodded his head frantically, giving the obvious answer. I got up and helped him to his feet. "Name's Alex, you got a name or what?".

He rubbed his shoulder before looking at me. "Marcus", he replied

I smiled. "Well Marcus, if what you say is true, I guess we better sit down and discuss our options". We moved back to the fireplace, Marcus almost hesitantly since now he saw Binda. The dinosaur gave out a low gurgle to acknowledge the other human before going back to sleep. Marcus sat across from me at the fire and was waiting for me to speak. After poking the flames for a bit, I finally broke the silence.

"So Marcus, hoow long have you been following them?"

He thought for a second before saying, "A few days. My friends got captured a week earlier by a different group but my sister was found by this one a couple of days ago. I've been following them ever since".

"Well, how long have you been here?".

"I think at least a month".

This surprised me. I haven't found anyone else except Sam, and now it turns out that there has been people here for at least a month. Who knows how long people have been here. But that was a thought for another time.

"Alright, let's go over our options. Do you happen to have any type of tool that can help us?".

He reaches for his knife and holds it out. It was more like a sharpened stick, unlike the serrated bone knife I had. "This is the only thing I have on me. All our other supplies were either taken by the raiders or these little spiky looking dinos".

I thought for a second at the "spiky" dinos and then chuckled since I realized at what they were. Marcus gave me a strange look at my response so I had to stop myself from laughing to explain.

"Small dinos with spiky looking feathers on its back and an ugly face?". He nodded. "Those are Pegomastax, but I call them Pegos for short. Yea those little bastards can cause quite a bit of trouble. There easy to handle at least. Unlike the people that took our friends.".

"Well what kind of proposal do you have?", he asked. I was about to answer, but a loud roar from nearby answered for me. We both stood, eyes wide and weapons ready (Marcus not looking as intimidating with his "knife") and the animals got up and were ready for a fight. We stood there for a few seconds, listing, until we heard another roar further away, towards the enemy camp. We could even hear shouting from the men all the way from this distance.

It looked like the Yutyrannus had other plans.

Part of me was glad that the dinosaur was attacking. It was a great distraction while we got Sam and Marcus's sister out of the area. But a sudden thought came to me. What would happen if the Yutyrannus went after the girls?

I bolted straight for the camp, with Diego and Marcus following me, the latter calling out my name.

She was angry. Very angry.

She tolerated the little creatures inside her territory. She didn't care. She was an old an experience hunter and the little things couldn't possibly harm her.

But they took it. They took the one thing that meant everything towards her and ran of into the night with it.

She would not tolerate this. She went off after them. The things were difficult to track. They hid themselves well. But she could still smell the one thing she desired. Other predators tried to stop her. Most ran away at the sound of her voice. Others were not so lucky.

She travelled for many moons and could feel the tiredness in her bones. She was old for her kind, far past her prime. But despite her age, she would not let this atrocity stand.

When she reached the creatures lair, she waited. Waited to nightfall. When the moon finally reached its highest, she let her voice be heard. These things will pay with their lives for what they took!

After all, never separate a mother from her children.

Sam's P.O.V.

After traveling for three days with few breaks in between, saying she was tired was an understatement. The raiders pushed them through some rough terrain in an almost hurried pace. Sam was suspicious why, especially with the large bag the biggest guy was carrying, but didn't dare ask questions. Her new friend's apparent wounds warned her plenty.

Taylor was the only good thing this whole "trip". Despite being told to shut up constantly, we got to know each other quite well. She was a trainer back before she came here to the island and was happy to tell she gave quite a couple of black eyes to the raiders. l had to stifle a laugh so not to draw attention.

After the third day, we made camp on the edge of a cliff. One of the men. (who I would call Rough because of his hands), tied us up to a nearby tree and went back to join the rest of the group. Their leader, who I called Scarface and was the man I spoke to the first day, was handing out food to the others. He glanced at us for a second before continuing with the food. Bastard. That was as nice of a word he was going to get describing him out of only got food for breakfast and lunch to keep us moving, and sips of water during the day.

We were tied up for a couple of hours during the night as one by one our kidnappers started to fall asleep. The only one who was awake was Rough, as it was apparently his turn to keep watch. But eventually his eyes started to droop as he was falling asleep until finally passing out while still sitting. Me and Taylor locked eyes with each other and got started with our plan.

During our trip we did our best to discreetly "collect" objects that can help us in our escape. After several bathroom breaks and waiting for everyone to fall asleep we managed to find a sharp rock that could cut the ropes. The others never even bothered to check in case we had anything. Idiots.

As soon as Rough fell asleep, I soon began to cut through the rope. Although the stone was sharp enough to do the job, it still was taking longer than we thought. We just managed to get through the first binding before we heard a loud roar nearby. We stiffened and hid the rock away before the others woke up and noticed. Sure enough Rough woke up and rushed to wake the others.

This wasn't the first time we heard this roar. Throughout the journey, we heard it get closer and closer with each passing day, it's terrifying sound echoing across the canyons. But now we knew it was close to u since we could now hear footsteps. Coming this way.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, shaking the ground with each step. The men by the fire were holding spears and bows and aiming it towards the dark forest. Several seconds go by since the last footstep before a deadly growl came from the forest. Then a head emerged from the dark depths and I had to stifle a scream.

It was a massive dinosaur, covered in black feathers and a crown of red on top of its head. It stepped further out of the forest where it was revealed to be covered in the black feathers. It let out a roar which at this range made me want to crawl into a hole and hide.

The raiders, either really stupid or really brave, did there best to keep the predator away from them. The dinosaur didn't seem to care and grabbed one of them in its jaws, the person screaming as its teeth punctured his skin.

The others backed towards the fire as the dinosaur tossed the corpse of the man into a nearby tree which let out a loud smack against it. The predator moved towards the rest of the group before stopping due to one of the men throwing a burning log at it. Although the feathers didn't catch on fire, the beast could still feel the heat and didn't like it. It roared and stomped its way around the camp, bringing its tail onto two of the men, either killing them or severely damaging them. This left only one man and Scarface to face the dinosaur.

As this was going on I didn't notice that my ropes fell to the ground until someone was nudging me. I looked at Taylor standing over me with her hand outstretched to help me up. During all the chaos, she managed to cut both of our ropes. I took her hand and we ran into the trees, away from the carnage.

We ran into the woods, the sound of men screaming and the dinosaur roaring behind us. We ran at full sprint away towards another part of the cliff that was farther away. We stopped for a second to catch our breath before I was knocked down by something heavy. I got ready to defend myself before I felt a rough tongue licking my face. I opened my eyes to see a familiar face staring at me.

"Diego?".

The gorgonopsid gave out a small bark as conformation and let me sit up to pet him. Taylor, who was just about to leap at Diego with the sharp rock, stood there in disbelief.

"Wait, you know this animal?".

Before I could answer, two humans emerged from the forest where Diego came from. One I didn't recognize but looked a lot like Taylor, but the other one I would know from anywhere.

Alex wasn't probably prepared when I crashed into him with a hug. Tears were starting to form around my eyes as Alex wrapped his arms around me.

"Don't you ever leave me, please?", I asked him, tears streaming down my eyes. All I could hear was a quiet "I know", before hearing Diego let out a cry in pain. I turned quickly around to see an arrow in his side.

I looked further to see Scarface with a bow and arrow in his hands and the big bag from earlier resting nearby. He was all cut up from what happened back at camp but was otherwise fine. He was staring at me with a creepy smile on his face before saying. "Well this is sweet and all but i'm afraid I'll be leaving now. Sadly I can't go home just with this", he motions towards the bag which no one noticed it was shaking slightly. "So I'm afraid Red will have to come with me or else each and everyone of you will get an arrow through you. Your choice.".

He was smart to take care of Diego first. Due to the injury, the gorgonopsid couldn't do much against the man before getting another arrow in him. The others started to move on him, Alex actually taking a step towards him but I stopped him because I heard something. I told Alex to trust me and walked back towards Scarface.

The man was smiling from ear to ear as I stepped closer to him. But as soon as I got into arms length of him, I sprung my plan into motion. He was to stupid to believe me that he didn't bother to check if I had any weapons on me. That was his fatal mistake.

I grabbed the sharp rock I had and sliced his body all the way from his chest to his arm. He dropped the bow and cried out in pain while holding his now injured arm. "YOU BITCH!" he yelled at me. I smiled at him, now hearing the heavy footsteps coming towards us. "Have fun with the dinosaur asshole." and I ran back towards the others.

He was confused for a second before hearing a roar from behind and turning around and seeing the giant predator charging towards him. He tried to raise his arms to plead for mercy but it was worthless.

The dinosaur clamped its jaws around the human who was screaming from the pain. However it didn't notice that it wasn't standing at the edge of the cliff which soon gave away under its foot causing it to loose balance. It stumbled towards the edge and soon fell over the ledge and straight to the bottom, with a screaming human locked in its jaws. Several seconds later, the screaming stopped followed by a heavy thud from the bottom.

I stood there for a good second before falling towards the ground in exhaustion. A hand placed itself on my shoulder and I looked up to see Alex smiling down on me. I smiled up at him and we shared the moment before Taylor's brother spoke up. "Is it just me or is that bag moving?".

We looked towards the bag and sure enough, it was rocking back and forth vigorously. Alex helped me up and we walked towards the bag and as soon as we opened it and removed the item within I let out a small gasp.

Inside the bag was a large egg with crack forming around it. Before we could do anything pieces of the egg fell apart revealing the occupant inside. It was a baby dinosaur, around the size of a small turkey and covered in dark down with a few speckles of grey around its body. It opened up its big and eyes and looked back and forth between Alex and me before letting out an adorable little chirp

The next morning….

The great creature was laying against the rocks, its body to broken to let it move. It was barely alive when four humans and an injured gorgonopsid walked towards it. It let out a growl of warning at them causing most of them to step back. All except one.

The human stepped towards the dying beast carrying something in it's arms. Like her, the human had a crown of red on top of its head as well. When it moved it's hands, it revealed a tiny dinosaur in her arms that was waking up and staring at the bigger version of itself. It blinked its big eyes and let out a squeak at its mother. The great predator let out a little purr to comfort the little animal, which the baby appreciated. The mother and child reunion was brief as the life in the mother's eyes faded and she closed them for the last time.

And so the great predator has gone from this world.

Later the humans would burn her body so it wouldn't be left to the scavengers. They thanked the dinosaur for its help and silently promised to take care of its child.

As the body continued to burn, the skin fell off of its face to reveal a terrifying skull that resembled a dragon bathed in fire and roaring towards the sky.

And thats the end of the chapter. Now there are a couple of things to discuss.

I will be setting up a schedule for the story. Now I want to do this because I plan to write other stories besides this one. So having a specific day for this one could help sort things out in the future. For this story, i'll try to post every Friday so it will be something for you guys to look forward to.

I briefly mentioned the Moa earlier in this chapter and this is my 3rd OC prehistoric creature added to ARK. I'm going to be adding dossiers for every three creatures added to the story. I'm going to post them under the thread on since i'm going to move the story exclusively over here now.

And with that out of the way i'm going to ask one more thing. I want one of you guys to name the baby Yutyrannus. Leave a review for this chapter and I might have have a new named dino next week. So with that out of the way. See you guys on Friday.

-Kaiju