How doth the little crocodile

Improve his shining tail

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale

How cheerfully he seems to grin

How neatly spreads his claws

And welcomes little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws!

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

The two huge sauropods browsed tranquilly in Mesozoic Safaris. Each was tannish-green in colour, with a lighter underbelly and stripes on their tails. A small row of iguana-like spines ran down the middle of the back to the edge of the tail. One was significantly smaller than the other, its skin slightly lighter and its back spines slightly shorter. These were two male Argentinosaurus, the largest of all the dinosaurs. The large male had been named Thunder and the smaller male had been named Lightning.

Drew was sitting in Mesozoic Safaris, on his way to his office, watching the two sauropods. True, there was a mission today, but he figured he could stop off for a while, to see how Lightning was. The past couple of months or so had been hectic and there was a mission today, but the rest of his team were busy, so he could have a bit of a stop whilst he was on his way.

To be honest, Drew had personal reasons for visiting. Drew had found Lightning, seriously injured, in Cretaceous Argentina, and had spent a harrowing night defending him from a roving pack of Giganotosaurus, before Thunder's sudden arrival had scared them off. The two sauropods had spent a lot of their time together since they had been brought back to the park. Drew looked at his watch; he had to get to his office before his team got there.

A small group of Othnielosaurus were browsing on ferns near to the large sauropods. Suddenly, a loud, squealing noise echoes through the area and a Protoceratops appeared, shoving the Othnielosaurus out of the way and started eating the ferns. The smaller ornithopods retreated. The huge sauropods paid no attention to this.

Meanwhile, Leon was continuing his work with Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. It had been three months since he had begun his training programme; they had been both whistle-trained and responded to verbal commands. Now, it was time to do a test run; to see if they could herd the lure into a certain point. Leon, using a remote control, moved a dinosaur-shaped lure into the enclosure at high speed. As usual, the three allosaurs dived after the lure, pursuing it wherever it went, snapping at it like sheepdogs. However, suddenly, as Leon turned the lure towards the right fence, Drogon dived in front of it, snapping at it and causing it to move to the left. Leon smiled; this was turning out entirely as planned. As he attempted to move the lure left, Rhaegal blocked its way, forcing it to move back the way it came. Viserion hampered an attempt to move the lure towards the door. Eventually, the allosaurs boxed the lure into a corner. Drogon hesitated, as did the others, and turned to look at Leon, as if waiting for a command. Leon said, "Leave", and the three allosaurs backed off, allowing the lure to leave the paddock. After this, Leon threw them each a piece of meat.

Leon reflected; the training was almost done. Three months of tireless work and he'd almost done it; since he had started, certain events had convinced him that he had made the right decision in beginning it. He didn't want to be seen as a doomsayer, but he had a nagging feeling that someday, something would happen; something big, dangerous and toothy would escape and go on a rampage across the park. Having big, toothy apex predators on their side would tip the balance back in their favour. Leon smiled; he'd progressed well. It had been a lot of effort, but he felt ready to have them out in the field. Now, all they needed was a situation; hopefully, there wouldn't be one. However, it never hurt to be prepared. He briefly looked down at his watch and realised what time it was; he had to get to Drew's office.

Meanwhile, Drew and Cynthia were sitting in Drew's office, waiting for Leon to arrive. Drew was checking his watch, whilst Cynthia was looking around the room, rolled her eyes and tutted, "Late as always. Honestly, I don't know why you want " Suddenly, a voice said, "I'm here". He turned to see Leon walking towards him, a small smile on his face. "Where were you?", Drew asked, "You were supposed to be here five minutes ago". In response, he rolled his eyes and replied, "I was busy with the allosaurs; that's why I was late. Anyway, what are we going after?"

Drew smiled and showed them a picture of a giant crocodile. It looked a little like the Sarcosuchus already at the park, with the characteristic armoured body, four short, powerful legs and long, heavy tail that characterised them. However, its most striking difference was seen in its head; rather than a long, thin snout like the Sarcosuchus, it had the wide, short snout of an alligator. Leon smiled, "Deinosuchus."

Drew nodded, "Yeah. Deinosuchus was the largest crocodile that ever lived; at its largest, it was up to forty feet long. It was so big that it hunted large dinosaurs"

Leon turned to Drew and said, "Well, second largest; Sarcosuchus was a little bigger. Deinosuchus' closest living relative was the alligator; it's also been found in both freshwater and marine deposits, meaning it ventured out into the ocean sometimes, like the saltwater crocodile. There were no theropods in the region that reached its approximate size, meaning it was the region's top predator." Drew said, "Yeah. So, what are we waiting for?"

And so, they headed to the portal site. An employee entered the time period and location and the portal whirred into life. Drew put the remote in his pocket and, after securing it, turned to Leon and Cynthia, who nodded at him, before they went through the portal, into the past.

After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, the first thing that hit the three adventurers was the heat. They looked around to notice that they were standing at the bottom of a sand dune, overlooking a patchy forest. In the distance, they could hear the crashing of waves; they were evidently near the coast.

Cynthia looked around and turned to Drew, "So, what's the plan?" Drew was about to speak when, suddenly, a loud honking sound echoed from the nearby forest and they turned to see two dinosaurs walking towards them. Each was about twenty feet long and covered in black and tan stripes, grading to lighter colours on the underbelly. Their most distinctive feature was their enormous, tube-shaped crest on their head, which swept backwards from the back of the skull and was red in colour.

The team all looked at each other; they didn't need Leon or the info packs to know what these were. They knew they were Parasaurolophus. Given their size, and the size of their crests, they must have been quite young. The two hadrosaurs looked around, hesitantly, as if scared of something. Leon turned to Drew and asked, "Wonder what's got them so spooked…" Suddenly, a low growl came from behind them. The two Parasaurolophus, spooked, ran off, towards the coastline.

The team turned to see two large theropods walking over the sand dune towards them. They were big; each was about thirty feet long. There was a vague resemblance between them and the Tarbosaurus back at the park. However, they were slightly lighter in build than their heavily-built relative. On their backs, a bristly coat of feathers could be noted, and their bodies were brown with greyish-white stripes. Drew looked at his team, eyes widened in horror, "Get into the jeep."

As they got into the Jeep, it turned out Leon knew what they were immediately, "Albertosaurus. One of the most common theropods in the region. It hunted hadrosaurs, like Parasaurolophus; now we know what those two were scared by."

The two Albertosaurus moved closer to the jeep, curiously exploring this new arrival. They occasionally snapped at the tires. Drew, Cynthia and Leon looked at each other; they couldn't leave with the two theropods blocking their escape path and it wouldn't be long before they attacked the Jeep. This moment of thought was interrupted when Drew suddenly activated the ignition, causing the theropods to back off.

Drew turned to his team and said, "They're not used to the sound of the engine or the smell of the exhaust. It'll keep them at bay long enough for us to get away" The two theropods hissed and snapped in displeasure, before loping off indignantly. Once they had gone, Drew turned to his team and said, "We're headed for the coast to look for our targets." The Jeep drove through the scrubby forest, towards the coastline.