After the incident with the Megaloceros, Adrian and Cynthia continued hiking through the pine forest, aiming to get to the steppes, where the mammoths would be. After about twenty minutes of walking, they approached the end of the forest and gasped at the vista that greeted them.

The vegetation was still lush with a range of sedges, club moss and dwarf trees competing for space with endless swathes of grass covered by a slight dusting of snow – it was early winter, so . Here and there clumps of trees such as larch and alder grew and in between them, herds of distant animals grazed, so far away that Adrian and Cynthia couldn't make them out.

Near to the edge of the forests, a herd of seven mammoths – five adult females and two calves – were either browsing on the pine trees or using their tusks to shovel away snow from their summer grazing grounds. The two calves were playing, ringed by their vigilant relatives.

A small crash of rhinos was also grazing on the steppes. They looked like the Coleodonta back at the park, only bigger – at six feet at the shoulder, some of them were almost the same size as a young mammoth. Their most distinctive feature, however, was their horn – it was almost three feet long and looked, for all in the world, like a unicorn's horn. One of the mammoth calves approached the grazing rhino and gave a trumpet in greeting. The rhino's dismissive snort sent the calf rushing back to his herd.

Adrian and Cynthia immediately knew what they were – the woolly rhino Elasmotherium, a relative of the Coleodonta back at the park. Suddenly, a large bull mammoth lumbered to the edge of the forests to browse on a stand of nearby pine. The rhinos and female herd kept a respectful distance – however, he paid them no heed.

Adrian looked at all these animals, "How are we going to get this lot back through the portal?" Cynthia smiled, "We do what we did with the Megaloceros. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Cynthia grabbed the horn and started blaring it. The mammoths and Elasmotherium stopped in their tracks and turned to look at the tiny human. Once she realised that he had gotten the two creatures' attention, Cynthia smirked. The two herds both narrowed their eyes, pawed the ground and prepared to charge. Cynthia turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Almost simultaneously, the two herds stampeded towards Cynthia at the same time. Cynthia ran, at a right angle to the stampeding herds, and, once they had gotten close enough, pressed the portal remote, activating the portal. Not changing their trajectory, the charging animals went through the portal, into the present. The mammoth calves, as if confused as to what had happened, followed their herd through the glowing orb. Now it was time to send the bull mammoth through the portal.

Cynthia ran up to the mammoth and and began blaring her horn at it. The mammoth looked aggressively at her, pawed the ground and began charging. Once the mammoth had gotten close enough, Cynthia activated the portal remote and the mammoth charged through, into the present. After this, Adrian breathed out, "I think it's time we went home."

After a few hours' sleep in the cave, Drew and Leon had followed the mammoths to roughly where the Channel Islands were today. As they had walked further, they noticed the terrain had become increasingly precarious; Drew turned to Leon and said, "If the blizzard whips up again, we'd best be careful. If you fell down those cliffs you'd be dead." Leon nodded, "Fossils have been found in this area of whole herds of mammoths and rhino piled on top of each other – they used to think Neanderthals had driven them off the edge; however, they found that the herds had just fallen off the cliffs and the Neanderthals had gotten to them later. Let's hope this doesn't happen here."

As Drew, Leon and the mammoth herd had hiked further into the hills, a small crash of woolly rhinos had joined the mammoths; Drew and Leon kept a wary distance from them. They might have the gratitude of the mammoths, but the rhinos were another matter. From the male they had encountered earlier, they damn well knew how dangerous an angered woolly rhino could be.

After following the mammoths for most of the day and shortly before sunset, they noticed that the wind was starting to whip up. They looked at each other – they knew what this meant. Another blizzard was starting to blow in from the west – they just hoped that this one would be less severe than the one last night, especially in terrain this precarious. As it remained, they had to be careful; one misstep and they were dead.

Unfortunately, in the next few hours after sunset, the blizzard increased in intensity to the point where visibility was reduced to zero. As the blizzard flurried, the matriarch bellowed out in indignation and alarm. The blizzard was so intense, visibility was practically zero– however, with nowhere to stop, the matriarch was forced to lead her herd through the blizzard. However, blundered by the reduced visibility, the matriarch made a wrong turn and ended up leading the herd in a more precarious area. Drew and Leon looked at each other; they had to do something or the whole herd would be accidentally led off the cliff.

Suddenly, Drew turned to Leon and muttered, "I have an idea." Before Leon could say anything, he ran out in front of the mammoths, grabbed his torch and began flashing the light, before running away from the cliff edge they were heading towards and running on to a safer area. Leon followed him, dumbfounded.

The matriarch briefly stopped the herd in their tracks and looked at Drew shining the light – this creature would be walking away from the cliff edges. If they followed him, they would be able to avoid the cliff edges. Letting out a loud bellow, the matriarch followed Drew, shining the torch through the blizzard. The woolly rhino crash followed the mammoths – the mammoths were probably following the light to safer ground. It would do best to follow them.

After about an hour of walking (and a few near-misses when a mammoth or rhino stumbled), Drew and Leon, with the mammoth herd and rhino crash following them, had successfully navigated the cliff edges and reached safer ground. At this point, Drew was able to activate the portal and he and Leon went through it, with the mammoth herd and woolly rhino crash following them through the portal, into the present.

When the blinding light from the portal had died down and the temperature of present-day Prehistoric Earth hit him, Drew looked up to see Kyle, Nikolai, Adrian and Cynthia watching him from the viewing platform with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Drew rolled his eyes, smiled at them and said, "I'll tell you about it later."

After all that, it was time for everything to be wrapped up. All the mission animals were moved into a new area called Ice Age March – an area with artificial temperature generators to accustom the Ice Age animals to the present.

The cave hyenas had been kept in a large paddock near to the herbivores and were all either napping in the sun or waiting for their next meal. The cave lion pair had been given an enclosure next to that of the hyenas. The female was napping in the sun, whilst the male was standing on a large rock, roaring a pronouncement to non-existent competitors that this was his turf. The cave bears had been given a paddock nearby, which had been divided into two – the females and their cubs were in one half of the paddock, whilst the males had the other.

The Megaloceros, Coleodonta, Elasmotherium and the two mammoth herds had all been given a single, climate-controlled grassy paddock, with patches of pine trees for the Megaloceros. They were all either resting in the sun, grazing or rolling in the mud.

The only two animals that had not been transferred to their new homes were Martha and the injured cave bear that the Poland team had found, who had been named Baloo. They were both trundling around recovery paddocks in the vet offices – they were both recovering surprisingly well, however, and, according to Linda, were just days away from being discharged.

Nikolai was keeping watch on Martha in her vet pen. As the mammoth walked around the recovery paddock, slowly but surely, Nikolai gave a look of pained sympathy. The mammoth walked by the bars of the paddock, leaning on them. Nikolai reached his hand out and ran his fingers through the mammoth's fur.

Nearby, Will was also watching Baloo the cave bear; but also musing about his feelings for Alice and the secrets that Cynthia had forced him to keep. He muttered under his breath, "It's all too much." As he sat, alone with his thoughts, the great bear suddenly ambled up to him and put its massive head on his shoulder. Will gave the bear's snout an affectionate rub. At least someone was worried about him

All was back to normal.

Rescue tally:

Mammuthus primigenius: 16 (4 males, 12 females)

Elasmotherium sibricum: 9 (1 male, 8 females)

Ursus spelaeus: 8 (4 males, 4 females)

Crocuta crocuta spelaea: 15 (8 females, 7 males)

Megaloceros giganteus: 12 (3 males, 9 females)

Coelodonta antiquitatis: 8 (1 male, 7 females)

Panthera spelaea: 2 (1 male, 1 female)

However…

The activity at the Novum smugglers' base was interrupted when a helicopter flew out of the stormy sky and landed at the helipad. Three people – two men and a woman – got out; each was clad in black BDUs and had the look of a professional killer. The two men were almost physical opposites; one tall and thin, the other short and stocky. The woman was a tall Asian woman, with dark hair and green eyes; she scanned the area with the look of a cobra looking at its prey.

A broadly grinning Frank walked up, extending his hand for her to shake, "Frank; Mr. von Grimm's put me in charge of this little operation. And you are…" The woman looked at him coldly, "Ursula Crabb, Novum covert-ops. These are my colleagues, Zander Hacker and Ed Baylor."

Frank held up a picture of a short, skinny-looking man with brown hair, "This is Duncan Kent. A guard at Theodore's Prehistoric Earth project – I'm sure you've been filled in on what they do at that facility…" Ursula nodded, "Yes, yes… it seemed unusual, but… well, you have to believe your eyes don't you?" She gave a predator's smile; Zander and Ed mumbled in affirmative.

Ursula coldly turned back to Frank, "You said we needed something… a diversion, as it were?" Frank smiled a crocodilian grin, revealing his discoloured teeth, "Now, Duncan's gonna do a small systems shutdown; let a couple of things out. Nothing much, just to keep them busy. However, just in case they get that under containment…" A large truck, in PE colours drove up to the meeting point, and the driver got out. Frank and the mercenaries turned to the back and saw vague glimpses of a large, bipedal creature bashing and snarling in its crate. Ursula turned to Frank and grinned, "I think this is everything we need…" Frank grinned in reply and rubbed his hands together, "Good. Let's get started…"

To be continued.