Following the pained roars, they scrabbled up a mountain slope to a large cave. Peeking around the corner, they saw a large brown bear, its body covered in gashes, panting exhaustedly, roaring in triumph.
Looking down, they immediately saw what had injured it. A big cat, resembling a lion but paler in colour and the size of a Siberian tiger, lay dead at its feet. Looking closer, they could see its skull had been crushed, possibly by the cave bear's paws. It was clear the two had had a fight and the bear had won; barely. Deep gashes littered its hide from the cave lion's claws.
Being careful not to enrage the bear, Will quietly said, "A cave bear – it weighed about the same as a Kodiak bear and was one of the largest bears to have ever existed. And the cat's a cave lion." Jack quietly snorted, "An ex-cave lion – must've woken the bear up during hibernation. And, if we don't do something, that's a soon-to-be ex-cave bear".
True to Jack's words, the bear only made two steps into his den before collapsing. Jack, Will, Alice and Raksha slowly entered the cave. The bear lifted his head and snarled at the new arrivals, however, he was too weak to get up; Raksha shrank back behind Alice. Jack quietly went, "Hibernation must've sapped a lot of his strength – fighting that cave lion must've been too much for him. Alice sighed, "Let me have a look at him, I've got vet training."
Before Jack or Will could say anything, Alice calmly approached the injured bear and immediately began to speak, her voice soft, soothing, "It's alright... it's alright now... I'm going have a look at your wounds and send you somewhere where you can get better..." The bear weakly lifted his head and snarled at this new arrival. As she got closer, she could see the relics of other injuries – some from other animals, but some from humans. Most gruesomely, one of the bear's eyes was a milky white –a Cro-Magnon must have blinded him with a burning brand. Jack, Will and Raksha gave her a look and Jack mouthed "Are you crazy?" What on Earth was she doing?
Alice, not changing her tone, said, "I know it sounds crazy ... but this works with lions... sometimes..." Alice looked at a large gash from the cave lion's claws on the bear's shoulder, before bending down to clean it, not changing her soft, soothing tone, "There we go, I'm cleaning your wounds and looking at you – it's alright, nothing bad's going to happen…" Once she had gotten a good enough look, she approached her three companions, "He's pretty seriously hurt – he's too weak to move on his own – I say we contact the park and get someone to transport him." Jack lifted his communicator and portal remote, "Read my mind, sis."
A few minutes later, Linda was standing by the cave bear, with Collete and Yolanda standing at either side of her, the portal reflected behind them, "Yep, he's in a bad way; he needs treatment and quick." She turned to Jack, Alice and Will, "Could you three help us load him?" Will nodded, "Absolutely."
And so Linda, Jack, Yolanda, Collete, Alice, Will and two other Prehistoric Earth veterinary personnel, loaded the bear onto a large stretcher and carried him the short distance to a PE veterinary truck, waiting on the other side. Once the bear had been loaded, the door of the truck closed and Linda, Collete and Yolanda got in it; before they left, Linda turned to Jack, Alice, Will and Raksha, "Don't worry; I'll make sure he gets the treatment he needs." Jack nodded, "Wish ya luck, Doc.", to which Linda nodded back, "You too." Once the truck had disappeared through the portal, Jack closed it. After a brief pause, Will said, "What now, exactly?"
Drew and Leon had been following the mammoths for approximately a day now – from their estimations, they were now in the area that would eventually be known as South Wales.
Suddenly, they were alerted by a loud, throaty bellow. Drew and Leon looked over to a nearby hillside to see two large animals fighting. They looked like stag fallow deer – only the size of a moose. Unlike a fallow deer, their fur was a solid, light greyish brown colour, like a reindeer. Their most distinctive feature, however, was their antlers – from tip to tip, they were roughly ten feet across. A small harem of slightly smaller females stood, waiting for the victor.
Drew and Leon knew what these were; the giant deer Megaloceros. Leon breathed out silently, "This must be their rutting season.", to which Drew smirked knowingly, looking over at the mammoths, who had stopped to feed on some conifers, "The mammoths are having a pit stop; I think we can make a little detour."
Ass they approached, they saw one male rear up and bring his antlers crashing down on his opponent. His opponent, however, wheeled around and made sure their antlers locked – the two wheeled around again and again as each tried to use the slope to give himself an advantage. As Drew and Leon looked closer into a dense stand of larch, they noticed dark, human-shaped figures, clad in animal pelts moving in between the trees like ghosts. "Cro-Magnons", Drew muttered. Leon nodded, "They must be waiting for the fight to end, so they can get the losing male. Stags get exhausted by the rut – easy prey."
Eventually, the males broke, with a clear loser – the older male, exhausted, was chased away by his younger challenger. He stood by the larch, breathing heavily, covered in cuts and drained by his ordeal.
Suddenly, he sniffed the air and stamped the ground. Three Cro-Magnons, moving silently through the trees, began to approach the Megaloceros, driving him closer and closer to the larch. He stopped short of the trees and prepared to charge, but stones pelted through the air by the Cro-Magnons kept him at bay. Suddenly, a spear pelted through the air impacted into the old stag's shoulder. He bellowed in pain and moved along the clump of larch, but as he did so, a fourth Cro-Magnon appeared out of the trees. The stag turned towards the wood, almost tangling
Throughout all this, the remaining stag and the hinds remained calm – they knew that they had nothing to fear, not when the weakened male Megaloceros was a far easier target. The panicked old stag ran, as fast as he could, with his pursuers stalking him, almost invisible against the trees, until they disappeared out of sight.
Once they were sure the Cro-Magnons were gone, Drew and Leon turned their attention to the other stag and the hinds. Suddenly, and much to Leon's surprise, Jack began walking towards the giant deer, slowly and deliberately. As Drew walked closer, the stag flattened his ears, pawed the ground again and snorted. Eventually, the stag had decided that Drew had gotten too close and lowered his head and began to slowly walk towards him, before suddenly throwing his head back and charging at him. When he had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal and the deer, not changing his course, charged through. The hinds, as if confused, followed the stag through the glowing orb.
Drew turned to Leon, smiling, "Piece of cake." Leon rolled his eyes, before looking over the hill at the browsing mammoths, "Anyway, I think the mammoths are heading off. We should get back to following them." Drew sighed, "Yeah." They headed down the hill to follow the herd of mammoths. As they headed towards them, the matriarch kept a wary eye on them – and Drew and Leon knew to not get too close.
Back with the Poland team, they were now searching other dens on the mountainsides, to find more sleeping cave bears. After a couple of duds, they eventually reached their first success – a mother with cubs. Quietly, Jack snuck into the cave, before suddenly blaring the horn; the mother bear shook her head and roared the intruding Jack before lowering her head and charging at him. When she had gotten close enough, Jack activated the portal, dived out of the way, and the bear, not changing her course, charged through. The cubs, as if confused, followed their mother through the glowing orb.
Over the next few hours, they found several more cave bear dens, at each repeating the process. The last one was particularly… exhilarating. Jack had miscalculated the charge point of the cave bear in question, a large male – which had caused him to drop the horn and had left him on the run, dodging the still-groggy cave bear's blows. The bear was interrupted by Raksha growling at it. Alice attempted to pull Raksha back as the massive, hulking bear half-groggily walked towards the source of this new, strange sound. Given time to recover, Jack managed to grab the horn and begin blaring it at the bear; when it had gotten close enough, Jack dived out of the way and activated the portal, just in time for the bear to charge through into the present.
After this, Jack, Alice, Will and Raksha were panting; several encounters with massive apex predators on the run was simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. Will turned to Jack and Alice and said, "Does this sort of thing happen to you all the time?" Jack made a so-so gesture with his hand and said, "Depends; sometimes it's a bit easier than this." Alice scanned the clearing and said, "Best get used to it – we've brought back a Megaloceros and a sleuth of cave bears, but still no mammoths." Jack shrugged, "We'll just have to keep on looking – remember, mammoths were pretty thin on the ground at this time…" Suddenly, a loud, pained trumpet, like an elephant's echoed through the clearing, quietening all four of them. After the bellows had quietened, Jack paused and said, "Or we could just follow that sound."
