Alice Denham sighed, "Drew, can I not go on the mission today?" Drew looked at her, confused, "Why?". Alice breathed out, "Raksha needs me... I mean, I need to help hand-rear Raksha". Drew gave her a puzzled look and said, "Who?" Alice sighed and said, "The bear dog pup..." Drew said, almost flippantly, "Fine. You can stay at the park and do whatever". Alice grinned ear to ear and said "Thanks!", before heading off.
As Alice left, Leon Gilbertson, Cynthia Night, Adrian Sky and Jack Denham entered the room, looking curiously at Alice as she skipped away. "Oh, you're here. Good. Alice's not coming on this mission; she said she had something to do." The other four members of the team looked at each other, before Jack said, "So... what are we going after?"
Drew looked at her suspiciously and cleared his throat, ""We're going on a very special mission today", Drew explained, flicking through pages of the file, "we're going after our earliest ancestors". He briefly paused and continued, "For this mission, we are splitting the team; Jack and Leon are coming with me", he gestured to them, "to Ethiopia, 3 million years ago, to go after Australopithecus. Whereas you two", he gestured to Cynthia and Adrian, "are going to Kenya, 2 million years ago, to bring back Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Paranthropus bosei.". He then proceeded to hand them a small journal and a remote. "As you know, you use the journal to identify any animals you see and, of course, you have a portal remote. Be careful and remember; no species left behind."
And, so, they headed to the portal site. At the portal site, an employee entered the first time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. Shortly after, the portal opened again. Cynthia put the portal remote in her pocket and secured it. She turned to Adrian, who nodded and smiled at her. They went through the gleaming portal.
Afterwards, it was the Ethiopia team's turn. An employee entered the second time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. Drew put the portal remote in his pocket and, after making sure the remote was secured , he turned to Jack and Leon, who both gave him a thumbs up. He smiled at them and nodded, and they entered through the portal.
After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, the first thing that hit the three adventurers was the heat; other eras had been hot, but this was almost oppressive. They looked around and saw what had, evidently, once been a savannah; however, it was hard to believe that these plains had supported any sort of life. All of the trees had dropped their leaves and, almost skeletally, dotted the landscape. The grass was lower and the foliage less dense. The sky was cloudless and the ground superheated by the glare of a pitiless sun.
Looking around this desolate landscape, Jack muttered "Every freakin' time...", whilst Leon looked around and wondered "So where should we start?", to which Drew replied, "Do what we always do; look for a watering hole". Jack rolledhis eyes and said, "Strictly formula, eh, fearless leader." And the team headed off, in search of a watering hole.
Meanwhile, the Kenya team were being treated to a similar view. Adrian looked around and wondered "So where should we start?". Cynthia, meanwhile, was looking at the ground for tracks, "I think I know where to start; ape-man tracks heading roughly...", she gestured east, "Thataway". And the two headed off, to follow the trail.
After about twenty minutes, the trail took them to a small pond, around which stood a small stand of plants. Adrian and Cynthia followed the sound of primate-like snuffling to find about ten ape-men covered in reddish-brown fur, sitting in a clearing, digging for roots and tubers. They knew what they were immediately; Paranthropus bosei.
The largest of the ape-men stood up to look at the newcomers. The best way to describe it was as a humanoid gorilla or like some kind of Bigfoot. Despite barely reaching five feet tall, the creature's incredibly bulky and muscular build gave the feeling of a much larger animal. It had the immensely swollen belly of a large herbivore, an extravagantly sculpted head, with high cheeks, an immense jaw, and a saggital crest, like a gorilla.
The smaller creatures on the ground behind the big male huddled a little closer together. They were all females, with heavy breasts over those giant bellies, and as they stared at Adrian and Cynthia, they pulled their tubby infants toward them. But still they sat and ate, taking no notice of the two humans. One female picked up a hard acacia pod, placed it between her teeth and, pushing up on her jaw with her hand, cracked it easily. Then she began to crunch it down, shell and all.
Adrian looked at the troop incredulously, "How on Earth are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Cynthia turned to him and said, "I have an idea; it's been done with gorillas." That idea was to leave a pile of fruit in the clearing and to move a short distance away.
The big male bosei suddenly sniffed the air; he smelt fruit, a rarity in this time of year. He rose up onto his hind legs and walked over to investigate it, hooting to his troop that he had found food. Once he had gotten close enough, Cynthia and Adrian opened the portal. The australopithecine stared, transfixed at the glowing orb; his eyes almost shining with a strange curiosity. Slowly, and tentatively, he approached the portal and entered it, into the present. The rest of the troop followed their leader; once the last one had gone through, Adrian closed the portal.
Cynthia turned to him, smiling smugly, "One down, two to go..." Suddenly, several loud, primate hoots echoed through the air, as a scrawny, dark-furred ape-man ran towards them. Adrian and Cynthia looked at each other; what on Earth was he running from?
Meanwhile, back at the park, Yolanda was watching Alice feeding Raksha, in the park's nursery. Ever since the little bear-dog had been out of the critical care ward, Alice had been visiting her almost every day, feeding her, checking on her and playing with her. Yolanda smiled at the image, they had developed quite a close bond.
Suddenly, the door opened and Will Darrow walked in. His eyes darting around the room and twitching nervously, he walked up to Alice, who turned to look at him, smilling. Will, fidgeting nervously, said, "I was just wondering if you needed some help..." Alice raised her eyebrow and said, playfully, "Well, make yourself useful and pick up a rag; you can play tug-of-war with her." Will picked up a nearby rag and offered it to the tiny bear-dog pup, who sank her little teeth into it and pulled; it was surprisingly strong. Alice chuckled, and cooed to the little bear-dog, "Who's getting strong?". She looked at Will and smiled; after a few minutes, he smiled back.
Yolanda smiled at this; Alice and Will were really hitting it off. Her suspicions about them were right; all he needed to do was keep on trying and he'd be able to confess it all. Sharptooth, who was in the vet pens for a checkup, noticed this too; however, unlike Yolanda, he did not particularly care.
Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, Drew, Jack and Leon had followed the trail to the watering hole. There, they saw about eight ape-like creatures drinking from the lake; males, females and two babies. They were dark-furred and looked like a cross between a human and a chimp; whilst they had the long arms and protruding faces of an ape, they had human-like hands and feet and walked upright.
Drew, Jack and Leon all knew what these were; Australopithecus. As they looked closer, they noticed that the group were all showing different approaches to drinking; some were lowering their heads to the water, whilst others were cupping their hands and drinking from them. One female in particular was gathering leaves and scooping up water in them. The team also noticed one young male, possibly no more than three years old, standing a little apart from the group.
Alongside the Australopithecus, they saw a small group of strange herbivores drinking from the lake. They were large, with the biggest being about eight feet tall, and vaguely resembled the Chalicotherium back at the park; however, rather than the clawed hands of the Chalicotherium, they had more conventional, hoof-like feet. Their forelimbs were much longer than their hindlimbs, giving them a top-heavy look. They had mostly white fur, with brown fur on the head, arms, and legs, and zebra-like stripes along the back.
A group of enormous, elephantine creatures were on the other side, feeding on a lone acacia. They varied in size, from small calves to a large matriarch, standing ten feet at the shoulder and nine tonnes in weight. The only differences between them and elephants were their tusks, which hung downwards like fangs and their trunks, which were slightly shorter than those of elephants.
Leon knew what they were immediately, "The elephants are Deinotherium; a distant cousin of modern elephants. Those downward curved tusks are used for stripping bark off trees". Jack looked at the striped herbivores, "What are the striped herbivores, then? They look a bit like the Chalicotherium." Leon smiled, "The striped things are Ancylotherium; like the Chalicotherium, it's part of the chalicotheres. It's one of the last of its kind; the chalicotheres were extinct pretty much everywhere else." Drew smiled, "And we've got the perfect opportunity to bring them back to the park..."
They made a trail of plants to use as bait, allowing the hoofed mammals to follow it. Once they had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal, allowing them to go through, one by one, into the present.
Now, it was time to turn their attention to the apes. However, before they could do anything, they noticed the apes running hurriedly away on two legs. Drew looked confused, "What's gotten into them". Leon shrugged, "Maybe they think we're from a rival troop. Or maybe they're nervous of the Deinotherium..." Jack stared nervously and pointed at something nearby, "Erm... Leon? I think it was because of him."
Both Drew and Leon turned to see another Deinotherium, this one larger than the others, charge down the hill. This Deinotherium, a large bull, was noticeably more frenzied and erratic in its movements than the females and young; as he got closer, they noticed why. A strange smell filled the air and glands on the side of his face leaked a strange fluid - he was in musth. And, in his frenzied state, he was going to beat them flat.
"Oh crap."
