Let's see how our heroes are doing!
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Approaching the water, Tristan carefully lowers one of the aquatic portal sticks into the water. Nearby, Vera does the same with the other. Within a moment, the portal soon flares to life.
Turning toward the manatees, Tristan pulls out some grass from the river bank and offers it too the manatees.
"Now, we're in a time well before the first hominids appeared, much less walked upright, so these guys have never seen humans before. That means they're wary of us, but don't have any real reason to fear us. So, hopefully, I can use this grass to get them to come through the portal quietly."
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While Tristan works to gather the manatees, Vera takes a look at the team on the land. They've almost finished building the funnel toward the portal. Soon, they too will need to bait the herbivores.
A quick glance toward the plant eaters reveals that the group is not entirely composed of leaf eaters. Among them are several types of dogs, a few other predators, and even what appears to be a group of saber toothed cats. Standing side by side with them were horses and what appeared to be camels.
While admittedly odd, the composition of the motley herd is not surprising. Predator and prey will come to a momentary understanding when thirst outweighs hunger. And given the hot and muggy environment the group is in, it is unlikely the truce will break anytime soon.
Then, suddenly, there's a loud splash from the river. Turning, Vera stares wide eyed as the she sees Tristan fighting with some kind of crocodilian. Worryingly, more are on the way. The manatees, panicked by this action, flee toward the portal, sending them to the safety of the present.
As the beasts of the land finally notice the struggle, Vera can only wonder what happened.
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Just before the attack
Tristan's plan had paid off. The manatees, having lost most of their initial fear, had decided to approach him and the portal. Some tried to snatch the grass out of his hand, while others had examined the portal. Three of the gentle creatures had already entered he portal.
He took a moment to glance
Just then, Tristan noticed something new. Approaching the group was what appeared to be a grey colored log. Oddly, though, it had a rather narrow front end. Along with a yellow
'Wait, longs don't have eyes... OH, SON OF A-'
Before he could finish that thought, the log burst toward him, revealing itself as some kind of crocodilian. It charged toward the manatees. Not wanting to lose any potential residents of the park, Tristan swam toward the predator and grabbed onto its mouth.
With the most dangerous part of the animal dealt with, Tristan maneuvered himself so that he could hold the crocodilian between his legs. By the looks of its snout, it looked like a gharial. Based on his knowledge, there was only one crocodilian in the region that looked like this and lived here: Gavialosuchus.
'But wait... gavials only eat fish'
Then Tristan remembered that he had seen a few baby manatees in the group he had encountered. Turning toward them, he was relieved to see that they had retreated toward the portal. For now, at least, they were safe from harm.
Just then, a loud splash made him turn around. What he saw made his heart sink: more crocodilians were headed toward him. Even if they couldn't eat him, it wasn't unlikely that they would try to kill him.
'I wonder if the rest of the team is having any problems.'
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Back on land, Vera was worried about Tristan. He surely couldn't hope to survive against that many crocodiles. Quickly, she decided to inform the rest of the team.
She never got the chance, though. Suddenly, seven large shapes emerged out of the brush. They looks like saber toothed cats, but they had strange growths on their lower jaws. They're arrival sent the drinking creatures into panic, sending them toward the funnel in a mighty stampede. The strange cats followed, eager to sink their fangs into fresh meat.
This kind of even would have been wonderful, except that the team was still in the funnel. The rest of the team quickly beat a retreat, activating the portal as they did so. Before the stampede could hit them, the portal flared to life, sucking in both the panicked plant eaters, the surprised predators, and the hungry cat-like creatures.
Relieved that one crisis had been solved, Vera turned back toward the water, only to nearly be knocked over as Tristan ran past her, carry the aquatic portal sticks in one arm and the strange crocodile in the other. Following him were more of the crocodilians, desperately trying to catch up. The crocodilians had not eaten for some time, owing to a recent storm wiping out most of the fish, and they were not going to pass up a meal when they saw one.
Taking advantage of their hunger, Tristan ran straight through the portal, with his stalkers soon following him through. After staring on in bewilderment for a moment, Vera signaled for the others to head through.
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Back at the park, the new residents were quickly split up. Of note were the camels, and the saber-toothed cats.
"Now, you see, these cats with the funny things on their lower jaws, aren't actually cats. They're barbourfelids. They're in the same family as cats, but they aren't too closely related. These fellers must be Barbourofelis, they're aren't any other barbourofelids known from the region you went back to."
Then, Bob turned his attention to the other saber tooths the group had saved.
"These must be Nimravides. These really are saber tooth cats. What were the odds of you rescuing false and true saber tooths in one go?"
The group, for the most part, can't really muster a response. Though, to be fair, it was probably because Alice actually seemed to be trying to figure out the odds.
Then Nige looked at the camels.
"These must be Aepycamelus. These creatures were the giraffes of their day: high browsing herbiovres, using long necks and legs to reach their food."
The tan furred creatures briefly stared at Nigel, before continuing with their meal. For now, at least, they didn't have fears to worry about.
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AN: Thank you Groudon65 for the suggestions, they were very appreciated. More suggestions are now being accepted, so don't be shy!
So, read, review, send me OCs, animal partners and suggestions; and vote on the poll.
This is Flameal15k, signing off.
