Darksage: Hello everybody! Darksage and Marc here with the final chapter of LNoW! Man, it has certainly been a journey. Just 3 years ago, we started writing this story. And now, it's finally coming to an end.
Marc: But while this story ends, another begins. The story of DaPPA carries on. Right now, production of Book 5 is underway.
Darksage: Before we leave you guys, we wanted to mention a couple of things. First of all, thank you all for your love and support on this series. Without you, none of this would have been possible. You guys are awesome. Second, we want to thank the artists that have created all the beautiful fanarts of our series. They're so amazing and you all do such a great job on them! Third, we've been receiving requests to get certain characters added into the story. We've already got a lot and while we would love to get them all included, we also need to keep in mind of the character roster. There are certain creatures we can integrate in there as mentions but for rescues, we've already got a lot on our plate. But don't worry, we're not ignoring them. That said, we have been getting requests to include characters like the heroes from Ice Age into our series. We're not going to include them in this series (Sorry guys!) but rest assured, we are going to revisit the Ice Age in the next book and we are going to do a rescue (or two).
Marc: If you are all wondering, the next book will encompass a series of rescues in different time periods as we are going to fall back on the MO of Prehistoric Park, but we're also going to incorporate something else in there.
Darksage: Remember Daniel? He's going to have a bigger role in the next book.
Marc: Another thing we'd like to mention is we're not going to post a sneak peek like we normally do in previous stories. We wanted to try something different for this one.
Darksage: Let's just say this chapter is a sneak peek in itself too ;).
Marc: Now there's one final thing we'd like to mention before we go. After the epilogue, we've got a little bit of a surprise in store for you guys. No, it's not a chapter or a new story idea. We don't want to say anything as that would be spoiling, but we do want to say it's got something to do with you guys.
Darksage: We're going to leave you wondering on that note. And with that, we'll take our leave. You know the disclaimer. We don't own anything except our OCs. See you guys in the bonus content!
Marc: Later!
It was late in the day and many of the keepers of Prehistoric Park were finishing their duties around in caring for the Residents and heading off to relax. With the return of the employees from Temporary Park as well as the new additions that remained during that period, the Park now had more than enough people to care for the many prehistoric animals; even the new additions from Cretaceous Alaska. That was what Hazel and her new group of friends, jokingly dubbed "the Crew" by other park employees, were doing at that very moment. The harrowing mission to the icy winter land of Alaska had gotten the once clashing group of individuals to become a tightly knit group that Hazel could proudly call her family.
Right now, Hazel and her friends wanted to kick back and relax at their new home the Cabin HQ. At the moment, she was trekking down the long path to the Cabin alongside her companions Chris Sinclair, his Protoceratops quadruplets currently trailing after him and alternating on who got to be carried by their "Daddy", and Ellis Rey.
"Man, what a day," Hazel sighed with content as she stretched her arms over her head. "I'm ready to sleep forever!"
She wore a white tank top along with a pair of black shorts with purple trims. Ever since she started working for the park, Hazel practically forwent the use of all of her tennis shoes in favor of heavy-duty work boots. The young woman discovered that the few sneakers that she did own weren't suited for the labor-intensive tasks of working in an animal sanctuary, much less a prehistoric animal sanctuary. She would only switch to her sneakers after the work is done. As always, the Asian woman wore her iconic black choker necklace and her signature heirloom dagger on her side.
On her right, Ellis nodded in agreement. "Amen to that Boss. My bro Marcus may not show it, but he knows how to crack the whip! And Espantos' personality doesn't make it any easier."
The 20-year old man took off his favorite orange Portal baseball cap to fan himself. Being part of the Prehistoric Park's engineering division; Ellis had more leeway in regards to what he wanted to wear. He donned a black t-shirt that depicted a yellow wrench and the words "Imma Tool" on the graphic image and a pair of well-worn blue jeans. Unlike Hazel, Ellis liked wearing tennis shoes, the one he wore today were grey and gold Nikes. It helped with his constant running about the park to attend to various machine projects AND in attempts to keep up with his fleet footed Terror Bird friend; plus, Espantos claimed that sneakers dug less into his back than boots when he was ridden.
"Maybe a little responsibility will do you some good, lazy bum," Chris neutrally said off to Hazel's left, any malice of the comment made null if the slight smirk on the 24-year old's face was anything to go off of.
Chris Sinclair was the most mature of the Crew, and his clothes reflected that. Instead of wearing casual clothes to work, Chris opted to wear the standard Prehistoric Park green collared shirt, slacks, and work boots; the attire that many Park Keepers wore. The only personalized items he possessed on his person was his silver training whistle, which he was pulling out of his adopted daughter Territia's mouth, and a vibrant red scarf that he wore as a belt, which he was constantly pulling out of the beaks of either Quarra or Beta; Prima was a little more responsible than her little sisters, taking after Chris' mannerisms. Chris only wore casual clothes during his days off or after work hours.
Ellis gave the older man a sour look.
"Oh yeah? Well you can go fu— Uh…" the young engineer caught himself when he saw that the Protoceratops sisters looking at him curiously AND Chris giving him a warning glance. "Erm… fu… Far away?"
"That's what I thought you said Ellis," Chris snarked.
"Boys, boys," Hazel got in between the arguing men. "Can we not do this until we get home first? We've all had a long day, we're tired, and it's already dinnertime. I'm starving!"
"Yeah, you're right," Chris conceded. "So, did anyone get any groceries for our place?"
"Dude, I've been busy working with my brother to make sure each and every piece of equipment in this place is working fine. Ever since Temporary Park, Marcus has been on edge about fixing everything. The guy's been hovering around me like a moth to a light! So don't look at me, I haven't thought about that," Ellis commented.
"I'll talk to Marcus on taking a chill pill. Anyway, I think there's a town that's an hour away and our storehouse is limited at the moment since we came back from Alaska," Hazel said. "Plus there is the Park's 'grocery' store, but I think they're still trying to get things together since everyone's back in the park. So no, I don't think any of us got anything."
The Crew's engineer scowled. "How did no one remember to get groceries!?"
"Well to be fair, we all did just move into this place this week. Plus, our duties have kept the five of us occupied," Chris mentioned as he scratched the underside of Territia's crest.
"I think there's a frozen pizza in the fridge," Hazel sheepishly suggested, trying to salvage the Crew's food situation.
Ellis huffed as he crossed his arms. "Well, that's not much of a consolation."
He then perked up as he sniffed the air a bit.
"Hey, do you guys smell that?"
Both Hazel and Chris took in the smell. It smelt amazing! Something appetizing wafted through the air, from what the group could guess, some type of meat dish with unique smelling herbs. The group's response was a simultaneous rumble from each of their stomachs.
"Whoa, what in the world is that?" Hazel questioned, her mouth salivating.
"Holy shit, that smells amazing!" Ellis exclaimed.
"Swear," the Protoceratops girls said together.
"Come on guys, let's get going. Whatever that food is, it's coming from the direction of our Cabin," Chris prompted his friends along, wanting to discover what the amazing smell was.
At the end of the dirt road was the open air Cabin. Like most open-air safari cabins, the Crew's cabin had wooden screen doors in place of most of the walls and some white curtains to protect them from the elements. And while this may seem unsafe, since wildlife could literally walk through their front door, many of the African predators tend to avoid Prehistoric Park like the plague ever since Nigel and his team started to introduce all of their out of time Residents into the environment. The Cabin's front door-walls were opened to reveal the inside of their base's kitchen and a certain Grecian-Ice Age duo.
With her back turned, Daisy White was tending to something on one of the counters while she softly sang an airy lullaby in her native Greek language. The lithe 19-year old Athenian wore a light pink blouse, a denim skirt, and black slip-on shoes. Because of her job as a vet, the Athenian wore a white fanny-pack with a red cross loaded with medical supplies for quick on the spot first aid. As usual, the bang of her chestnut blonde hair veiled the right side of her face, giving her a textbook "shy girl" look. Around the young woman's neck was her blue glass Grecian "evil eye" hanging on a black cord. Contently lazing about on the grass next to where Daisy was at was the elephant-sized Elasmotherium, Kerato. He had his eyes closed and was slowly swaying with the enchanting lullaby his partner was humming. Hazel was the first to climb up the steps of her team's home to greet the Grecian veterinarian.
"Hey there, Daisy. Whatcha cookin' there?" Hazel questioned.
Daisy yelped, not expecting company, as she turned to face her three arriving friends.
"Ah! I didn't expect you guys to come home so soon!" the blonde Greek exclaimed. "Gamóto (Damn it), you guys ruined the surprise," Daisy sent a quick scowl to her enormous Ice Age friend, "Kerato! Why didn't you warn me that they were coming?"
Kerato merely opened an eye to dully stare at the Grecian as he arched a brow.
Daisy's face gained a shade of red as she remembered her best friend's species was practically blind. "Shut up…"
"Surprise?" Chris started as he set down the Protoceratops in his arms with her sisters. "I hope it's a good surprise, White."
"Ména! (Meany!) I was just trying to do something nice to celebrate our formation of our Ómilos! Our Crew? So I decided to make us some dinner," the blonde vet said.
Walking off to the side, Daisy revealed the kitchen counter held several large dishes of food. One plate was filled with cut fried potatoes adorned with crumbled feta cheese; another had flat bread cut into triangles with some kind of white dipping sauce. Several platters had a variety of seasoned meats, each smelling better than the last.
Hazel, Chris, and Ellis' mouths all started to salivate at the presented meal.
"Oh. My. God… I love you," Ellis spoke in a dreamy tone. The Athenian tilted her head down letting her hair cover her now rosy face.
"Wow Daisy. This is an awesome spread!" Hazel said.
"Glad you like it," the Grecian said. She then went over to present each of the items she created. "The first plate is a side of Greek fries with feta. I know most places use normal French fries, but my Mitéra (Momma) taught me how to make it with cut potatoes, and frankly it tastes better. Next is another side of simple pita bread with some of my family's homemade tzatziki sauce. And over here is the main course and my absolute favorite food, an assortment of meat Souvlaki. We have some chicken breast here, some nice juicy beef, and some tender cubes of lamb!"
"Damn, you sure you're a vet and not a five-star chef?" Chris teased.
"It was just a little something I thought I could do for us to celebrate," Daisy said. "I wasn't sure what everyone liked, so I just made an assortment of my favorites. You caught me in the middle of making some vegetarian dishes for anyone who doesn't like meat AND for our herbivore partners."
At the sound of an oven timer going off, Daisy quickly turned to a skillet to retrieve what looked to be meatballs and put them on a few skewers, which she then set on the counter.
The culinary talented girl took a whiff of the heavenly smell. "Ah, nothing like freshly made falafels to end the day!"
Ellis was about to reach for a skewer of deep fried chickpeas, but was stopped when Daisy swatted his hand with a wooden spoon.
"No touch! This is for the vegetarians and herbivores."
Daisy plucked a ball off a skewer and cut it in half, which she then blew on it to cool off the piping hot food ball.
"Say 'Ah' Kerato!"
Said Elasmotherium simply opened his mouth, inviting Daisy to expertly toss one half of her morsel into the elephantine rhino's maw. As he was chewing, the Athenian took a small bite of her own half and moan, relishing in her own cooking.
"Not bad Flower," the Ice Age mega-fauna commented.
"Efcharistó polý ton kýrio Kérato! (Many thanks Kerato)" the blonde woman tittered.
"Are you sure you should be feeding Kerato that stuff?" Chris slightly criticized.
"Are you sure you should be feeding your girls chocolate peanut butter cups?" Daisy countered. The older keeper flushed in embarrassment as he averted his gaze.
"So… Uh, where is Veran-lite?"
"Huh, now that you mention it, Hanna was helping me taste test my food and drinks earlier. Now I don't know where she is," Daisy commented. "I think she said she was setting up something called a 'karaoke-machine' in the back?"
Before the assembled friends could respond, a purple pterosaur landed behind Hazel, Chris, and Ellis. The purple Sky-Scout had a worried look on her face as she walked up to the four humans and Elasmotherium.
"Hey, um… Hazel?" Flia cautiously started. "Do you know if your sister happens to be… In Season?"
This caused all of the humans in the group to gain a bug-eyed look.
"Why the heck would you ask me something like that!?" Flia's partner screamed with a flushed face.
"Well… Um… you guys should see for yourself."
"You guys go ahead. I'll bring out the food," Daisy said as she readied the food for transport, "Kerato, can you help the others with their problem please?"
The Ice Age Rhino merely grunted, but complied with his partner's request.
Flia led Hazel's group to the Cabin's backyard, and the closer they went, the group started to hear the distinct sound of music. The group approached the backyard and saw that there were a few picnic tables that were supposedly there to hold Daisy's exotic culinary creations, some seats, and a mini portable karaoke machine propped up on one of the tables next to a ridiculously large pitcher of a cloudy white liquid with ice cubes in it and a few juices and soda bottles. The three humans, four Protoceratops, Elasmotherium, and Pteranodon happened upon a most peculiar scene.
There were three individuals in the backyard. The most prominent figure was a tan Pteranodon with blood-red stripes and bright crimson on the underside of his wings. Nearby was a 10-ft tall yellow and black feathered Miocene predator that was uncharacteristically passive despite the upbeat music filling the air.
The third individual was a 17-year old human girl. Knowing her younger sister, Hazel was accustomed to seeing her in a classy attire, at least when they were growing up in their teenage years. Though, this was a contrast to the athletic clothing she wore before their whole adventure in Temporary Park. For today, due to it being a break day, Hanna wore a pink, open shoulder silk blouse with long skinny capris. Instead of wearing sneakers or working boots like the other employees, she wore gold caterine sandals, which had the gold pleated Coach symbol on the large straps. In her hands was a microphone for the karaoke machine and a plastic party cup. Right now, Hazel's dear sister was occupying herself with the music machine, sipping at her party-cup at odd intervals. The song, which slightly grated their ears, was Into You by Arianna Grande.
So baby, come light me up and maybe I'll let you on it
Hanna then hung off of Espantos' towering neck and started gyrating suggestively, much to the Terror Bird's discomfort.
A little bit dangerous, but baby, that's how I want it
The girl then pranced off as the feathered predator was openly weeping.
"I feel so unclean!" Espantos cried out.
"Don't worry bud, we'll get through this together!" Aeros said as he came up to Terror Bird.
A little less conversation, and a little more touch my body
Hanna then started to do a small jig with her shoulders and even winked flirtatiously made a come hither gesture at Aeros, making him more flustered and confused.
Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you! AW YEAH~!
The girl was now on her knees, singing to her imaginary audience, as she took another swig from her cup. Hanna's behavior was odd, as Hazel couldn't remember her sister cutting loose this hard for as long as she had known her.
"See! Hanna is acting weird!" Flia cried. The pterosaur felt an odd twinge in her when she saw Hanna winking at Aeros, much to her confusion. "Is it commonplace for the females of your species to do courtship dances to other species' males?"
"No, Flia. Hanna is just singing karaoke. It's something humans do for fun," Hazel informed. She turned back to see her sister wriggling and dancing on the ground, now senselessly babbling the song's lyrics through humming. "Though I've never seen Hanna like this."
At Hazel's voice, Hanna peered up at the Crew from her position on the floor and gained a huge grin on her face.
"Hey buddies! Nice to see ya!" Hanna stood up with a bit of a sway. "Welcome to the Super AWESOME PAR-TAY!"
"Han, are you alright?" Hazel questioned with concern.
"It's all good, Ate! I just feel so fucking GREAT! Hehehe!"
"Jesus, and I thought you were the crazy one, Boss," Ellis said to Hazel.
"Hey, is Daisy-Waisy's dinner ready yet? I'm like totes hangry right now!"
Now Hazel knew something was up. For as much of a preppy girl her sister was, Hazel NEVER heard Hanna use words like "totes" or "hangry".
"Hanna, you were supposed to help Daisy test her creations," Kerato said with a frown.
"Yeah, well, I was testing the punch. Daisy's Ozzie juice tastes DE-LISH!"
Chris arched a brow at the younger Veran sister. "'Ozzie juice'?"
With deft expertise, the Seattle born man snatched the plastic cup out of Hanna's hands.
"Hey hey hey! Give that back, that's mine!" Hanna whined. The 17-year old childishly tried to reach for her cup. Chris used his towering stature to keep the teen at bay by extending his arm out and pushing at her head. The 24-year old man paid no heed to the whining girl as he gave the drink he held an experimental whiff before taking a large sip. Immediately Chris gagged and promptly sputtered out what liquid that entered his mouth nearly drenching his friends with the spat out beverage.
"ACK!" Chris coughed hoarsely as he expelled the liquid in a spray. "What the HELL was that?!"
"Gah! Chris what the crap!" Ellis cried out, some of the older man's spit landing on the engineer's shoes.
"Ooh, what did you drink, Dad?" The Protoceratops siblings chimed together as they approached a few grass blades that held droplets of the drink to lick the remnants of what their father drank.
"Don't you DARE lick that stuff girls!" the father figure commanded his adopted girls, making them back away from the substance.
"Chris you're acting crazy!" Hazel said.
Chris simply offered the party cup to the Asian woman.
"Here, have a sip. You'll see what I mean."
Despite being slightly squeamish about drinking from the same cup as one of her friends, Hazel humored him as she took the beverage and took a curious slurp. The next second Hazel gagged and did a spit take as well.
"Oh my God! That tastes awful!"
"Dinner is served!"
The group turned to see Daisy precariously balancing two large platters with both her hands and one of her dishes steadily placed on the top of her head. As she placed the food on the picnic tables she took note of the sputtering Hazel.
"Is there something wrong Hazel?"
"DAISY! This drink tastes like fizzy liquorice-flavored gasoline!" Hazel cried out.
"Gasoline?" Daisy questioned. She promptly snatched the cup out of Hazel's hand and drank. The Grecian, nonplussed at the taste yet not disgusted, lit up in understanding. "Ah, I knew I added too much soda water."
She then made her way to the drink table and from a cooler on the ground pulled out a glass bottle with a few Greek texts on the label. Daisy pulled at the cork and tossed the topper off to the side. She then tipped the bottle into the pitcher that held the cloudy concoction where the nauseating beverage originated from.
"Daisy… What is that?" Hazel cautiously asked.
"It came from my Patéras (Father), it's a little present he sends me all the time for my birthday. It's my favorite brand of Ouzo, a bottle of Glykiá amartímata from the best potopoieío (distillery) in all of Greece."
"Ouzo… potopoieío… Glykiá amartímata…?" Chris mused aloud before his face lit up."Oh, what the hell! Veran, Daisy White in her infinite wisdom gave your sister moonshine!"
Hazel snapped her gaze to the lithe Athenian. "What!? DAISY! You got my sister to drink moonshine!?"
"Holy Fuck! Hahaha! That's awesome!" The young engineer cackled at the hilarity of the situation. "Don't worry Boss, I can fix this! Marcus did this to me when I got hammered so I would never drink again."
Ellis made his way to the karaoke machine in order to find the song to make Hanna stop drinking.
Meanwhile, Daisy furrowed her brows at her criticizing friends. "Ouzo is the byproduct of the creation of wine by using the fermented grape skin; it is NOT whatever 'moonshine' is!"
"Daisy, that IS what moonshine is," Chris flatly told. "Or the Greek equivalent of moonshine. You being from Greece has probably made you ignorant of what Americans name alcohol."
"Oh… then yes. Hanna did drink 'moonshine'. Such a silly name!" the Athenian said.
Hazel was just flabbergasted. "Daisy! Hanna is seventeen!"
"Yeah I know, Hanna offered to help since she said she wanted to sample Greek cuisine. I figured I would make some stuff I loved when I was her age," Daisy bluntly said.
"But even you aren't of drinking age to drink alcohol!"
The Grecian was confused at this point. "Drinking age? What are you talking about? I've been drinking wines since I was nine."
Hazel's eyes went bug-eyed. "Nine?!"
"I know, I'm a bit of a late bloomer," The Athenian confessed.
"WHAT?!"
"Hazel, Greece doesn't have a formal drinking age," Chris informed. "Families give small amounts of wine to their kids as young as six. They do this so that their kids can find their limits they're comfortable with when they're older. Unfortunately for us, Daisy's tolerance is VERY high, considering she drinks Glykiá amartímata."
"And how much alcohol does this… Gly-kia… Amarti-mata have?" the Crew's leader questioned with dread.
The eldest member of the Crew merely pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let me put it this way, Veran," Chris started. "At this point, Hanna would probably be safer drinking crude oil straight from the Alaskan Pipeline than drinking a bottle of Greece's infamous 'Sweet Sins'. It has about 14% alcohol without it being diluted. Unfortunately, your poor sister seems to be a lightweight too."
"WHAT!?" Hazel exclaimed again.
"SWEET SINS!" Hanna cheered, her face drunkenly flushed.
"Daisy, regardless of age, you made Hanna drunk!"
"Drunk!? Oh dear, I didn't mean for that to happen! When I asked her to test my Ouzito I asked her if she knew her limits. She just said that she knew, so I assumed she'd be okay," Daisy sheepishly admitted.
"Does she LOOK okay?" the Crew's leader scolded. "Does she SOUND okay?!"
The two older girls of their group of friends turned back to Hanna. Currently, the 17-year old was practically glomping Chris' body as the 24-year old was holding the pitcher of alcohol as far away from the tipsy teen.
"Chris, come on! I'm still thirsty! If you get me another cup, I'll give you a smooch on the lips!" Hanna flirtatiously winked at the older man.
"I'm not into jailbait, Hanna. You're piss drunk right now. Even if I liked you like that, I don't do brunettes or black hair. Redheads are more my speed," Chris dully retorted at the underage teenager.
At this point, Hazel adopted an eye twitch at the scene unfolding in front of her. She then turned to her engineer friend in irritation.
"Ellis, how's that solution coming along?!" Hazel bit out.
"Hold on… I almost… Got it! I got it!" Ellis cheered as he selected the specific song on the karaoke machine. It was Jump On It by The Sugarhill Gang.
Hanna's face lit up as she pranced towards the karaoke machine. "OH MY GOSH! I love this song!"
As the tipsy 17-year old began to inanely sing and bounce along with the party song, Ellis quickly brought out his phone and started up the camera function. As he focused the camera on the bouncing Hanna, the rest of his friends gathered around him in confusion.
"Really Ellis!? THIS is your plan?" Hazel criticized.
"A little too loud and excited for my tastes," Kerato grunted as he folded back his ears in annoyance at the music.
"I like it!" the Quadruplets cheered in unison as they rushed up to Hanna and danced along with the partying girl.
"I dunno…Hanna is acting REALLY crazy," Espantos commented on the scene unfolding before him. The Hazel, Ellis, and Chris all turned to stare at the Terror Bird. The humans of the group took a moment to process the irony of that statement.
The Phorusrhacos furrowed his brows questioningly at the stares. "What?"
Before anyone could comment, Kerato's nostrils flared as he turned back to the cabin's direction.
"Head's up, we got a visitor," the Ice Age rhino said.
This befuddled the Crew. When the Elasmotherium sensed someone that the group was familiar with, he usually ignored it and let the person approach the Crew. It has been awhile since the group encountered a new face, but it was probably inevitable considering that Prehistoric Park received an influx of new employees for the newly renovated Park.
The new face was a relatively average looking young man around Hazel's age. He wore the standard issue Prehistoric Park uniform: boots, a pair of khaki pants, and a green collared shirt with the park's emblem emblazoned on the left breast. His skin was well tanned, most likely from his continued employment from the two-year hiatus in the park proper.
Overall, the Asian man looked like a typical recruit that Prehistoric Park would usually hire. In fact, if the young man were hired earlier than he was, he would have been on the trip to the past with the rest of the Crew.
"Hey, um… I'm looking for Hazel Veran and her friends?" the man tentatively asked as he cleared the Cabin's corner.
"Who's askin'?" Kerato grunted as he edged forward, his mere presence intimidating the stranger. At this point, the curly haired man was a stuttering mess as Kerato pointed his enormous horn practically into the new Keeper's face.
"Knock it off Kerato and ease off the Rookie," Hazel chastised.
"Butt out, purple pest!" The Elasmotherium grumbled. Despite being nicer to the core members of the Crew, he still found others to be annoyances. All except—
"Kerato please," Daisy gently prompted as she boldly placed her hand on the side of the Megafauna's horn and pushed it off to the side. The thin Athenian didn't have the strength to actually push against Kerato's bulk. However, Kerato was always more pliable when it came to his "Little Flower's" touch.
"Right, sorry Flower." Kerato muttered, apologizing to his partner instead of the newcomer. Daisy didn't push to correct the massive rhino. This was as close to a sincere apology that the Grecian's partner was going to get. At the abrupt tonal shift, Ellis gestured with his hand and made a "Whipsh!" sound, signifying how whipped the Ice Age mammal was. Espantos and Chris chuckled discreetly at the joke.
As Daisy was stroking the Elasmotherium's side, Hazel turned back to the newcomer with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about Kerato. He's… a bit of a jerk."
"I WILL crush you, runt."
"Case and point," Hazel snickered. "Anyways, I'm Hazel. And you are?"
"I-It's Daniel… Daniel Rimbauer," the now named Daniel stuttered, recovered from the Megafauna's scare tactics.
"Oh yeah, you're that new guy assigned to my Crew, right?" Hazel then grinned and offered her hand for a friendly shake. Sometime after they met with the senior members to discuss finalizing the new program they developed, the park leader informed them they were getting a new recruit. It was quite a surprise seeing as they were getting a new addition so soon. They were quite welcome to the idea and they prepared themselves to train the new person. This must be him. "Welcome aboard!"
"Thanks Ms. Veran," the new teammate said, shaking her hand.
"Please, I prefer Hazel," Hazel giggled.
Then, something in her mind went off. While this young man was new and attractive, something that made her cheeks flare up and tried to suppress, there was something familiar about him. She could not place it, but it felt like they did meet before. Her attempts at trying to recall it had failed.
"Hey…wait a minute," Hazel scrutinized him, something that put him off a bit. "You look a little familiar. Have we met somewhere before?"
The young man chuckled before rubbing his forehead a bit. "Yeah we uh…we did meet. Not sure if you remember but my first impression wasn't exactly the best. You didn't see my best side and I did faint right in front of you. You know, when you guys got back."
The woman face palmed and then sighed in amusement. "Oh right! You were the guy that fainted in front of us when we got back from Temporary Park!"
He waved his hand dismissively. "Yes, that's me. I apologize for my behavior."
"No it's okay. I mean, it was your first time seeing live prehistoric creatures. So you acting the way you did back then was totally fine," she frowned and leaned a little closer to him. "You know, come to think of it, I feel like we did meet before that. I just can't seem to place where and when…"
He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head with a hand, almost too sheepishly. "Um, if we did I think I would recall too."
Hazel stared at him a moment more, her instincts continuing to act up. She did see him before, but she had no idea where. Daniel was a new employee, so that scratches off her roster of staff members. He surely was not an old friend from her school days otherwise she would know him. And he most certainly was not an acquaintance from her family. So where did she meet him?
She shrugged and smiled. It must be her excitement from coming back to the present along with nerves. Taking a deep breath, she continued her introduction by gesturing with her right hand to her human and prehistoric partners. "These are my friends. If you're going to work with me, you'll also have to work with us too."
The leader of the group then began to introduce her friends, starting with her first female member.
"The lady with the big fur ball is Daisy White. She's our future head vet from the mystical land of Greece."
"Giatí to kánei na akoúgetai pos i Elláda dioikeítai apó neráides? Ti drys." (Why does she make it sound like Greece is run by fairies? What a dork). Daisy muttered secretly in her native language before smiling at the newcomer. "Welcome to the team, Daniel. And don't worry about Kerato. Once you do something he deems impressive, he'll treat you with more respect… or won't threaten to kill you at least."
Hazel continued with her introductions. "The two goofballs near the punch table are our engineer Ellis Rey and his partner Espantos the Terror Bird."
"Hey, what up dude?" Ellis waved dismissively, not breaking his eyes away from his camera recording the youngest member of the Crew from making a fool of herself. Espantos, in a rare moment of maturity, rolled his eyes and approached Daniel.
"Hello new friend! Welcome to the flock. You will be our bestest friend! Forever…"
Hazel gained an uncomfortable look on her face.
"That was kind of—"
"I just realized how super spooky I sounded. Sorry!" the Phorusrhacos chuckled in mirth.
Daniel looked uncomfortable, but Hazel chalked this up as par for the course. People who first met Espantos were generally afraid of him at first. However, after getting their Communicators, many of the employees of Prehistoric Park found the big Terror Bird to be a joy to be around (in small doses of course). Hazel figured that her newest recruit would need to spend some time around her friends before he got used to Espantos' special brand of zaniness. Hazel cleared her throat to continue.
"Anyways, the old man is Chris Sinclair. He looks over the little Protoceratops sisters."
"You know, being three years older isn't considered old by any definition," Chris groused. The eldest member of the Crew came forward and shook Daniel's hand. "Welcome to the group, Daniel. Hope you've updated your will, because with Veran as our leader, you are VERY likely to die."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, jerk," Hazel giggled goodheartedly as she childishly stuck her tongue at the older man. She turned to the last member of her troop. "And last but not least is—."
"OMG! How are you?!" Hanna stumbled up to Daniel. The girl snatched up the young man's hands and shook it vigorously. As she was greeting him, Hanna kept up her happy hopping to the party song on the karaoke machine. "I'm Hanna! Hazel's younger, but SUPER sexy sister! I can't wait to do missions with you and the others! We can rescue birdies, lizards, fishies, bugs, DINOSAURS! Hey, I always wanted to see more dinosaurs. The rest of the Crew doesn't even have dinosaurs as partners; Chris doesn't count, he's more of the Quadruplets' dad than their partner. Ooh, OOH! I hope I can get a dinosaur partner! I TOTALLY want to rescue a Spino—!"
Hanna then abruptly stopped her bouncing. She gained a confused and queasy face a second later.
"Ate…I don't feel so— BLEEEEHHH!"
The once cheerful girl lurched forward and threw up the contents of her stomach. The constant drinking followed by the sudden churning of her stomach thanks to her spontaneous dancing; Hanna's body just did what came naturally. Unfortunately, she was facing directly in front of the Crew's new recruit Daniel.
"WHOA! Holy Shit!" Chris cursed out as he and the Crew recoiled.
"Oh dear…" Daisy sympathetically said.
"HAHAHA! Did you see that?! It flew like five feet!" Ellis cackled as he finished up his recording of Hanna's miserable moment.
"Ellis, you are NOT helping!" Hazel yelled at the engineer. She snatched Ellis' phone from his hands and threw it several yards away. "If you want to be helpful, go get the new guy a change of clothes! He's gonna need it."
Ellis relented, holding up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. Message received Boss," he turned to Espantos and gestured for him. "Come on bud. Let's give the girls some space. Help me find some stuff for the new guy."
The Terror Bird nodded, closely following his human partner into the Safari Cabin. Meanwhile, the drunken 17-year old continued to spew chunks.
"BBLLEEEEHHHH! OH GOD! I am SOOO sorry!" Hanna miserably lamented to the stunned Daniel. "My stomach feels like it's killing itself! Am I dying?!"
Hazel and Daisy slung Hanna's arms over their shoulders as they led the poor girl to the bathroom to continue her violent heaves in relative peace. Flia ducked in too to at least offer her sympathies along with the other females of the Crew.
Daisy looked over her shoulder to Chris. "Hey Chris? Can you bring the plates into the kitchen? I have a feeling that dinner is canceled."
The rookie Keeper nodded as he began gathering up the food to put away. He looked down to his adoptive daughters and gestured to the kitchen with his head. "Come on girls. Let's get away from the smell. I'll get you some Reese's cups."
The little Protoceratops girls cheered and bound after the tall man.
Kerato sighed as he shook his head. The Elasmotherium turned to the frozen newcomer with a rare look of consideration.
"What happened to you was freaking gross, New Guy. While you're like that, stay several dozen yards away from me," the Ice Age Megafauna grunted, coming as close to a sympathetic comment as he was willing to say. He trotted a distance away to scrounge for some grass far away from Daniel as possible.
The remaining figures in the backyard were the grossed out Daniel and Aeros the Pteranodon, who was sympathetically chuckling at the misfortune of the new guy. The crimson striped flyer trudged forward and nudged the human with his shoulder.
"Welcome to Prehistoric Park, Daniel. Hopefully we won't have something like that happening again."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
S.A.G.E.S. Headquarters...late at night
Director Lorrie Rain stared at the flames in her fireplace, the mundane events replayed throughout her mind. Today had been another busy day. With managing small environmental companies, making sure people weren't making a huge ruckus, looking over the numbers of animal populations, assigning scientists to find ways to find a way to help a coral reef grow faster, and monitoring agents on putting a stop to black market operations, it was just another day for her.
It was always the same; wake up, get dressed in stylish business outfit, go to work, then go home. Very rarely would she stay late. On days like that, it's because she had a lot on her mind.
In this case, it was on the progress of a certain agent in a certain park and the goings on in said park. She had just finished a meeting with Nigel Marven. He seemed to be more perked up than usual. Some questioning into the video call and she confirmed it to be from the completion of the park expansion. But after the call, she wondered about something else.
It was on the reports of the spike in manure shipments. She didn't need to ask Nigel about that. She already got the statistics from the inventory supplied by the park. It was astonishing that the shipments spiked. Now they're asking for more and more resources for the animals there too.
Over the two years, resource requests decreased a significant amount. During one of their digital meetings, he mentioned he moved his animals to another facility so the renovations could go unhindered. It was a strange move on his part since zoos technically wouldn't move a large number of animals to some other location for reconstruction, unless they're being moved to another area within said facility. Now that the manure shipments and the resource requests are like this, she can only assume the animals have returned. Still, the numbers were higher than before.
The door opening brought her attention to her right. She immediately got up from her sofa and straightened herself for a surprise visit. The director relaxed when she saw her associate, Jason, come in. In his hands was a manila folder filled with papers.
"Lorrie. Seems like you're pulling a late nighter," he greeted casually despite the fatigue setting on him.
"So are you," she blankly stated.
The man dressed in a black office shirt and pants lightly chuckled. His attire made him appear to blend into the shadows. "No, I'm about to go for the night. You don't usually stay up late unless you're really concerned. You always work to distract yourself from such things. Let me guess, something's bugging you?"
The woman sighed. "It's Agent Rimbauer. He hasn't sent a report in months."
"He's probably busy with fitting in with the group. Maybe nothing's happened so far and he's just biding his time. I wouldn't worry about him."
"Very well, but I do fear I may have misplaced my trust in him."
Jason cocked his head for a moment, brushing off the doubt. "He'll get the job done."
Her eyes narrowed at him. "What are you really doing here?"
The man took on a more professional tone. Working with this man for years, Lorrie knew he had an idea. He always fell into a more serious manner every single time. They were friends and colleagues, so she knew a lot of things about him. But if it was in regards to the workplace, he knew when to put on his business face, where nearly all humor went out.
"I'm glad you asked. It's about our suspicions on Mr. Marven. I figured we'd have the same concerns about him and our young operative. 2 years is really stretching it for an undercover mission. If progress continues without substantial reports, we may need to go a different route."
"What are you saying?" she inquired.
His response came when he handed her the folder. "I'm saying we should have a contingency plan."
Said file contained about fifty pages worth of information, so it was pretty thick. The title of the file was stamped in red. A single name showed in big, bold letters.
Agent Mattock.
Her stomach fell. It had been a while since she heard about him. He was currently off duty as he was on "break", but if he were called on an assignment, he would come in for a briefing. The agents that worked under her were competent and would get the job done. Very rarely would they fail on their missions and very rarely did she dismiss anybody.
Agent Mattock was indeed competent in his assignments. However, the director heard things about him that were rather...unconventional. So much so she'd rather not discuss them out in the open unless it was really necessary. She and her associate had the same feelings about him, hence why they placed him as a sort of "last resort".
As she scanned the papers, both to check up on his progress and look into his records, she gave no indication of her feelings. The only reaction she gave was a twitch of one of her eyebrows. What that entailed was something her associate could only guess. She was very good with keeping her feelings hidden.
"Surely you're not considering-" she tried to dissuade him from this path, only for her to be interrupted by him.
"I've reached out to a lot of people. Either they were busy with other things or they weren't willing to go through with it. I'm not saying we should carry out this contingency. We just need to be prepared just in case."
The director blinked and closed the folder. She placed it on a nearby tea table and looked back at Jason. "He's a little...unconventional in his methods."
"But he gets the job done," he replied.
Director Rain sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. He did have a point. "I'll consider it. While I do have a sneaking suspicion Nigel is hiding something, we still need to know what it is nonetheless. If both of our agents fail," she glanced back at him with a steely gaze, "I think we should consider paying him a visit ourselves."
Jason nodded. He let out a breath and folded his arms. A moment of silence passed and his expression softened again. He took one look at the flames to watch them dance before asking her a simple question.
"French roast or Colombian?"
A.N. Fun fact: This was actually meant to be a one-shot and entirely separate from the book, but we worked it out to turn it into Book 4's epilogue. Also, except for the final section, Marc was the one who wrote this chapter :)