Yes! This story is not dead! But I will warn anyone who follows it that I may take a while between updates because of my other story at the moment. But I'm not giving up, especially now that I'm back into ARK in the real world too. Plus, I've greatly improved in how I format and do my writing, so I wanna see how far I've come since I started this story. Anyways, here's chapter 5!

To ArcticWolfGirl, I'm glad I can give off that vibe, it's what I originally had in mind when making this fic. It's just that ARK is so open ended it's hard to capture that survival feel in words. And yes, that makes both Lachlan and my luck haha

To DamontheSavage, glad to deliver (:

Team Prime ventured further inland than they were used to, venturing further upriver than Jack or Raf had ever gone. Miko gave Raf a turn riding Knockout as he was struggling to keep up with the others. As the group continued forward, they noticed a few new species, such as small Raptor-like creatures with large eyes and more pronounced feathers. The species name eluded Raf's memory, but the group deduced from its appearance that it was probably best to leave them be. They didn't seem to heed the group's presence either way.

The taming party finally came to a large grassland near the floating green obelisk. Many species of herbivores could be seen across the stretch, from Brontos to Stegos to Gallimimus. In the middle of it all lay a prone purple figure, collapsed in a heap in the middle of the plains.

"There!" Miko directed, spurring the party forward.

Jack immediately ran forward to examine the unconscious bird. "It's about to wake up!" he stressed. Quickly, he began feeding the birds narcotics until its unconsciousness rose again fully.

"Close one," he muttered. Raf then got ready to feed the flying reptile before running into a problem.

"Uh guys, Spitfire ate all the meat," he addressed. The little Dilo has consumed all 5 stacks of meat on the trek there.

"No biggie," said Miko, "I can get more with Knockout. But what can we take down?"

The group scanned the plains for any viable source of meat when their eyes fall upon a Stegosaurus locked in battle with a Carnotaurus. The stubby-armed hunter made several feints at the plated herbivore, trying to bait it into attack. The armored beast held its ground, waving its menacing tail around in intimidation. The Stego finally struck, swinging its tail at the Carno, which narrowly dodged the blow. While the Stego turned for another swing, the Carno rammed the herbivore's side with its horns, goring flesh and fracturing bone. The Stego roared in pain as it attempted to rebalance itself. The Carno used this to its advantage as it attempted to bite down on the head, however the Stego had recovered its footing and dodged the jaws aimed at its throat, allowing it to hit the hunter in the leg, badly injuring it.

"Get that homewrecker, spikey!" Miko cheered in a hushed voice

The two dinosaurs squared each other up again, waiting for the other to make a move. The Carno once again charged into the Stego's side with its horns, this time completely crushing the ribs of the plated beast as it screamed out in pain. The carnivore kept pushing, attempting to force the Stego on its side and expose its underbelly. The herbivore used this opportunity to once again batter the hunter's leg with its tail. Instead of letting it get away again, the Stego used its spikes to drag the Carno in closer. As the carnivore desperately tried to bite the Stego, it put its head in the direct path of another tail swing. The spiked tail collided with the horned skull at full force. The fallen hunter hung limp from the great herbivores tail until it slumped to the ground. The Stego grunted a victory roar before limping away from the scene.

Team Prime watched the whole spectacle of nature unfold with awe. Looking between each other, they took a minute before realizing this was the opportunity they were looking for.

"I'll get Knockout to harvest, you two watch over the Pteranodon," directed Jack.

Nodding, the two took Spitfire with them while Jack harvested the body of the Carnotaurus. Once the carcass was eaten, he went into the Utahraptor's inventory.

"Huh, prime meat? Maybe this will come in handy," he said to himself.

He then rushed back after realizing the rapid spoil rate. Coming to the fallen bird, he motioned his friends to the side as he added the prime meat with the regular meat. Instantly, the taming bar jumped up far more than regular meat gave them.

"Alright! That gave us like 4% more," shouted Miko in triumph.

"And his taking effectiveness is staying up. It says 56 levels," pointed out Raf.

While the two other members of his group were enjoying their little breakthrough, Jack kept an eye to the horizon. The sun was nearly down, and his primal instincts and common sense warned him that dangerous predators become more active at night. Not one to take chances, he turned to Miko and Raf.

"You guys get back to base before dark. I'll finish the tame and saddle it once it's done."

Miko whined, "No way Jose, this is too awesome to pass up! And we're not leaving you all alone out here."

"Yeah Jack, strength in numbers, right?" Raf added.

"Listen guys I know it's not the best solution, but we're not sure what else lives here yet. For all we know, that Spinosaurus from before can come stomping down the river, and I'm sure Knockout can't bail us out of that." Jack then stuck up a thumbs up, reassuring, "If anything, I'll hop in the bushes while I wait. Something that big should be able to miss me. A Raptor, Dilo, and 3 kids though? Not so stealthy."

Biting their lips, the other two members had to concede he had a point. "Fine," Miko caved. "But next time I get to finish the tame," she said before mounting Knockout. "Let's go Raf, sun's going down."

Raf hesitantly complied as he looked back worried. "Be careful Jack!" he called before taking Spitfire with him into the woods.

Now that his friends were gone, Jack stared at the fallen reptile. "Now it's just you and me, razor wings," he muttered, taking notice of the sharpness of the wings. "Huh, that's not a bad name."

And so he waited, picking berries and drawing in the dirt to pass the time. Man, I could really use some good old television right now he thought as he tried drawing the Pteranodon in the dirt.

Suddenly, another rustle in the bushes caught his attention. Well this ended badly the last time I went. Maybe I'll just hang back he thought. He kept his torch out though, and decided to humor his imagination as he looked to the bush. Immediately, he wished he didn't.

"Uhhhhh, I don't suppose you guys are herbivores, right?!" he panicked as he looked at 4 glowing pairs of eyes staring at him. Then, one of the eyes lunged out of the bush, getting ready to attack!

"Stay back!" he shouted, waving the torch in an attempt at intimidation.

Surprisingly, the glowing eyes hissed at the light, backing up slowly. This however gave Jack the chance to catch a view of his nimble assailant. It was a small therapod, roughly the height to his thigh. It was grey, ran like the wind, and had nearly hateful eyes. Jack shivered at the idea of fighting one of these.

"Yeah, keep your fangs to yourself!" he shouted at him, gaining more confidence as he watched them recoil. Unfortunately, the moment didn't last.

Ttsssss

"That's not good," he nervously sweated. Now, the little creatures were hissing with fury.

Grrrahhgrah

Behind him, Jack heard the sound of the Pteranodon waking up. Thanking whatever gods there were in this weird place, he started to sprint back to the bird, pulling out the saddle mid run.

"Come on Razor Wing, hold still!" he panicked, trying to get the saddle on the flying reptile. The little monsters were nearly on top of them when Jack clicked the last part of the saddle into place.

"Come on girl, fly!" he ushered, and with a snap of the reigns, they were in the air, flying away from the snapping therapies.

"Phew! You really saved my bacon there, huh girl? If you are a girl..." trailed off Jack as he leaned to the side and looked underneath him. "Yeah, I think girl," he concluded as he flew them back to base, using the obelisk as reference. This was enough excitement for one day.