Chapter 6: The New Rulers

Drew, Jack and Leon were currently at the docks waiting for Theodore to arrive. They didn't receive much from his message, other than that he was bringing additional help. Nobody knew who they meant, but they were about to find out.

A boat soon pulled up to the docks with the distinctive Novum globe logo on it. Three people disembarked from the boat; one was Theodore himself, looking around the park with a paternalistic smile. The other two were people he had never met before; the first was a bald, bearded man in a business suit who looked around the place with interest. The third person, a woman about the same age as himself, had short blond hair and wore white sweats and a black tube top. She was… quite attractive, Drew had to admit; Jack and Leon snickered. Drew gave them both a venomous glare, before snapping himself back to reality and heading off to greet Theodore. The old man warmly smiled and said "Ah, there's my favourite employee", as he shook hands with Drew. Drew looked around nervously, "Is this an inspection, sir?"

"Think of it as more an informal visit. I wanted to see how you were progressing, so I decided to see these things with my own eyes. My friend here is Percival Grimm; he's Head of Projects at Novum. He was particularly keen to accompany me here." Once he heard his name, the man looked at Drew and smiled, "Charmed to meet you, Drew; Theodore has told me so much about you. And it's von Grimm."

Drew, Jack and Leon looked at each other; there was something about the man that unnerved them. Whether it was the East Coast accent, the Wolf of Wall Street shtick or the faked chumminess that did it, he didn't seem trustworthy…

Theodore smiled fondly, " Novum is a big company and he, like I, has multiple fronts to observe, but he will send some of his hand-picked employees to help with the park. After the Brontoscorpio incident, the Novum board decided that they needed to be more involved in the running of the park." Drew nodded; it was, undoubtedly, difficult, but they'd get used to it. Soon he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw the woman looking at him with a menacing look on her face. "So you're my new boss?", she had as she leaned closer. Drew got nervous and was hoping Theodore would call her off. In response to this, she gave a chuckle; she was trying to prank him.

Jack and Leon chuckled and even Theodore was trying to suppress a laugh, "I see I was right about you two getting along. This is Cynthia Night. She was picked by the Novum board; I maintained you were fine with the team you already had, but they overruled me. She has experience dealing with dangerous animals, so I think she will work out just fine for you. I'm expecting you to behave yourself, Cynthia; I don't want you almost killing Drew as well." "Don't worry I'll go easy on him", she said, with a part-mischievous part-menacing grin, which made Theodore, Jack and Leon suddenly look worried and Percival roll his eyes.

As Theodore and Percival left, Theodore turned to him and said "Thank you, old friend, for accompanying me here. As you can see, there is no limit to what we can achieve with this place." Percival smiled enigmatically, "Don't mention it."

A little bit later Drew was in his office preparing for the next day's mission. He looked at the files of what to expect and was about to turn in for the night. He turned around and suddenly saw Cynthia on his couch reading the files. Drew jumped in shock and placed a hand on his beating heart. "How the hell did you get in here?!" She rolled her eyes and said, sarcastically, "I came in through the window, obviously." Drew gave her an indignant look, "Haven't you even heard of knocking?". She paused, as if thinking deeply, before smiling at him and saying "Nope, must be foreign." Drew sighed as she kept looking at the files. "So next up is the Dimetrodon huh?" Drew nodded in confirmation. Cynthia got a look of excitement on her face. "Yes! This will be so exciting I can feel it!"

"Dimetrodon are dangerous; we shouldn't take this lightly! The Permian was when the vertebrates had conquered the land; Dimetrodon was the first of the great terrestrial predators." Drew continued his rant, unaware of the fact that Cynthia was mouthing off his words. She was a piece of work, he reflected. The pair soon stopped to notice a thunderclap outside; it was storm season.

Cynthia went to the door and opened it. "Well that's my cue to leave. As much as I love danger, I'm not suicidal." With that she left Drew alone in his home as the storm began.

The very next morning, the staff looked to see that the storm hadn't left much damage; aside from a couple of knocked-down trees. However, at the Carboniferous House, the door slowly creaked open and a small head popped out. The small, green creature cautiously looked around, before it left the building and the door closed.

The next morning, Drew headed to the portal site. To his surprise, he found that Cynthia was already there with the supplies she'd need. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. Drew put the portal remote in his pocket, turned to her and said, "You ready for prehistory?" Her response was, "Bring it on!" Drew nodded at her and they entered through the portal.

After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, they gazed in surprise at the landscape that greeted them; the land was a mixture of forest and scrubland. The Earth was starting to look more recognizable; compared to the previous landscapes, this looked very much like a present day forest. It was just the creatures that were unusual.

A herd of large, pot-bellied grey creatures roamed around the land; they looked like large lizards, with large brown sails, with blue eyespots, on their backs. A few of the creatures took notice of the intruders but soon went back to feasting on the plants. "So, these are Dimetrodon then? I thought they ate meat." Cynthia asked.

Drew shook his head and responded, "No, these are Edaphosaurus; they're prey for Dimetrodon, though." Cynthia nodded as she began to look around the herd; there were at least 35 individuals. "So, what's the plan?", she asked him

"We'd need something to herd them all together, so we can use the portal on them all." Soon the herd began to look about uneasily, as the younger edaphosaurs moved closer to the centre. Cynthia grabbed her binoculars and looked around until she saw a yellowish-green sail in the distance. She looked down and saw a green head poke out from the rocks. This was, no doubt, a Dimetrodon.

Before she had time to blink, the large predator charged straight for the herd. The edaphosaurs tried using their large sails to confuse the large predator, but their attempts were in vain; the carnivore had already found a target. The edaphosaurs, with no options left, stampeded, with the dimetrodon tearing off in pursuit. This was a golden opportunity; Drew tossed the remote to Cynthia, closer to the front of the stampede. She pressed the red button and the portal whirred into life. The edaphosaurs all began to stampede through. However, the dimetrodon had managed to catch up to a juvenile on the edge of the herd and sank its teeth into its neck. The young edaphosaur didn't stand a chance as the predator's teeth slashed out its throat; it's life was over in an instant. The two explorers watched the predator claim its prize.

They were dumbfounded at what they had just seen; an actual Dimetrodon hunt. The first of the great terrestrial predators actually hunting prey. However, they were unaware that they were being watched; another dimetrodon was observing them from the bushes.

At about five feet long, he was only a juvenile; still hunting small amphibians and insects, with the occasional fish or egg. His sail was half the size; it was too cumbersome for moving about in the trees, where he had grown up. His body still possessed relics from this arboreal lifestyle; his tail was slightly more mobile than that of an adult and his claws were still curved. In fact, he had only recently started moving on the ground. He, too, had been attracted by the sound of the kill. Now, he couldn't just approach the carcass and start feeding; the adults of his kind were cannibalistic and were known to kill smaller Dimetrodon in fights over carcasses. Somewhere, in his primitive reptilian brain, he felt an emotion similar to dismay; what a disappointment it was to have to wait for what little would be left of the carcass. His attention turned to the two tall creatures in front of him. They were much larger than he was and he had never seen things like these before. But he was hungry; they would have to do. One of them would be a good meal; the possibility of sating his hunger overweighed any possible injury. They were distracted; a perfect time to sneak up and lunge. With a quiet hiss, he charged at them.

To be continued.