Part 2:

After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, the first thing that hit the two adventurers was the heat; other eras had been hot, but this was almost oppressive. They looked around and saw a vast expanse of sand, stretching for miles. Unlike the Permian, the ground was dotted by the occasional dead araucaria tree. The sky was cloudless and the ground superheated by the glare of a pitiless sun. The skull of a large tusked animal, like the Lystrosaurus, that had perished in the drought lay before them, with a whip scorpion crawling in its eye socket. "So this is the Triassic?", Adrian asked, looking around at the desolate landscape before them. Drew looked around, almost awestruck at the barrenness of the landscape, "Yeah. Nothing but sand and blistering hot sun for as far as the eye can see. Doesn't help that this is the dry season."

After a while, they managed to find a small river. Well, "river" was an operative term; it had dried out so much it was barely a puddle, sustaining a small growth of drought-resistant plants. However, surprisingly, it seemed that some of the smaller species were taking advantage of this resource.

About twenty small pterosaurs were either drinking or bathing from the puddle; they were covered in dark-brown fur, with a lighter underbelly. They had a surprisingly deep head, large and powerful clawed wings, comparatively small hind limbs and a long tail. " Peteinosaurus ", Drew identified, "One of the first pterosaurs. It's a perfect first rescue for this phase; let's start small for now. Something easy for Kyle and Nikolai." Silently, Drew crept up upon the pterosaurs and activated the portal, which the pterosaurs stared stupefied at, until, moving like a single entity, they all flew through the portal.

Drew's pronouncement of "something easy" couldn't have been more wrong. As they flew through the portal, they flew out of the holding pens and scattered all over the park. Kyle and Nikolai watched, dumbfounded as the pterosaurs scattered. There was only one keeper on duty at the holding pen; Cynthia had been hanging around a few minutes ago, but had gone on some sort of "business". "I thought I told him to wait on pterosaurs until we'd converted some of the holding pens into aviaries. He never listens to us.", Kyle said angrily, his eye twitching. "I don't think he didn't listen… strange." Kyle turned to look at him, curiously, "What?". Nikolai turned to look at him, "It appears your message was never sent; there must have been some sort of malfunction.", Nikolai said as he looked at the communicator, to which Kyle let out an aggrieved groan; of course it wouldn't have done. Things never went the way they were supposed to at Prehistoric Earth. Resigning himself to his fate, he said "Come on Koli, we've got the next few hours cut out for us; we have to go and round them up." Ignoring his hated nickname, Nikolai said. "May I suggest an alternate plan? I think luring them in with bait and then capturing them all as a group would be a better plan."

"They scattered off in all directions; they could be anywhere!", Kyle emphasised. "We can't lure them; we don't even know where they all are! We need to track them down." Nikolai gave him a perplexed look, "Exactly, they scattered; tracking them all down individually would take hours. I suggest that we use some bait to lure them all out into the open; it would be easier to catch them then. Your plan wastes time and makes us look ridiculous." The keeper at the portal looked awkwardly away. Tensions between Kyle and Nikolai had been running high for quite some time; it seemed that they were incapable of agreeing with each other.

A few million years before Drew and Adrian, the Ancient Mariner arrived on the coast of Triassic-era Switzerland. Alice looked out of the window; they'd landed in a bay. The sea was calm, the tide was low and the waves lapped gently on a nearby beach; she could see the indistinct forms of dinosaurs prowling the shoreline. There was no sound, aside from the lapping of the waves and the harsh calls of a distant pterosaur. It looked, for all in the world, like a beach in the Mediterranean; far from what it would look like over 200 million years in the future. It was a tranquil image of peace and serenity; Alice stared out and sighed at the beautiful vista before her. Meanwhile, Leon turned on the radar and began looking for any signs of life in the waters below. "So how many reptiles should we rescue?", Alice asked.

Leon put a finger to his chin in thought, "Let's see how many we find and then we'll decide." That was all he could say; Drew had left him in charge, supposedly. He knew only one thing; he was going to find that difficult, given that many people still thought he was a walking textbook, only hired because he was Drew's friend. Nodding in agreement, Alice steered the boat into deeper water to find more creatures; that was where all the ones they were looking for would probably be. Their first sighting didn't take long. Through their binoculars, they saw something lying on the rocks like a reptilian seal. It had dark green, leathery skin, a long neck and a crocodilian head, with a series of interlocking teeth, and webbed feet. Leon grabbed his binoculars to take a look. "Nothosaurus; one of the first sea reptiles", he told Alice. "Largely a fish-eater; not too dangerous, but it shouldn't be taken too lightly."

Alice nodded in affirmative, saying "I'll go in the water while you supervise from up here." She turned on her heels and headed off to put on her diving suit. Leon shrugged and looked out to the sea, and said, "Alright, I'll tell you if I can find any more."

To be continued