The end is in sight. Only one more chapter after this!

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In Prehistoric Arizona, the team is after a herd of gomphotheres, as the proboscideans are being tailed by their target tortoise. Needless to say, it's a slow-going mission.

The team has just about caught up with the tortoise, and the sun is beginning to make its way down the horizon at last, but this hardly has any affect on the heat the group is dealing with. And while they may have lasted through the past few hours of scorching sun, even with a fair amount of water to drink, the sun is finally taking its toll on the team: Tristan, Sean and Elise are sweating bullets, Aiden and Aileen are barely keeping up, and Tai and Violet have to be pulled by their siblings to keep them from falling behind. The rest of the staff are suffering similar problems. Nigel is the only one relatively unaffected, but he's more used to such strenuous adventures.

"How much farther do we need to go?" asks a panting Tristan, quickly taking a sip of water after he makes his question known. "We're running out of steam here, and I don't think we can go much longer without a break."

"I'm not sure," remarks Nigel. "But if we have to, we'll stop. I understand that you need to rest soon."

"Thanks."

Hopefully the team will find their quarry before that becomes a problem.

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Back at the park, Terence is still following the strange huimans. Every other person or creature in the park has already sought shelter from the storm, but the people he saw walking by his exhibit are just too interesting for the dinosaur to abandon.

The group has been traveling for a while now. They've stopped at each of the exhibits, examining the creatures within. Some, like the Quetzals, are familiar to him, while others, like the strange lizards with tiny heads and fat bodies, are unlike anything Terence has ever seen. They even pass by the ocean, somewhere even Terence is cautious to go: the great lizards within could easily bring even a grown tyrannosaur down, and Terence refuses to take any chances, especially in this storm. Though, to his good fortune, it seems even Hoffman's leviathans would rather seek shelter during this storm than try to hunt disoriented prey.

One thing still puzzles the giant predator about the humans, though: their reason for examining all of the park's residents. THe keepers he can understand; they feed all of the animals, though why is beyond Terence's ability to reason. But these humans just look at the residents, checking to see if they are okay, and, one time, putting a baby swift-runner back in its pen after it accidentally squeezed out of the bars. Terence had thought of trying to seize one for a meal, but his interest in the humans ultimately outweighed his hunger... at least for the moment.

Now, though, they were head toward the center of the park. As they advanced on the heart of Prehistoric Park, Terence noticed several new creatures in the holding pens: one was a large turtle, another was some kind of strange, dome-shelled mammal, while the last two were a pair of giant birds. Their appearance reminded him of a lesser quetzal, something that brought back childhood memories fraught with fear... and with happiness. But that was something he could not ponder for now.

What did interest him, though, was that the humans were gathering around the portal terminus. Some had drawn shapr sticks, others sharpened pieces of rock and stone. He could tell by how they held them and by how they acted that the sticks, rocks and stones were weapons, but their significance was beyond him. However, despite this, he is still rather worried about Nigel and Tristan, having figured out form his two previous encounters with the portal that they will return here soon.

And when the team returns, it seems they may receive an unfriendly reception.

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Back in the Pleistocene, the gomphotheres are finally slowing down, to the relief of the tired team.

At long last, the giants finally seemed to have reached the end of their journey, allowing the tea to catch up with them at last. As they do, they notice that, to their surprise, other creatures joined the herd, including a few camels, some dogs that are chewing on the long dead bones of a peccary, what appear to be toxodonts... and a group of giant tortoises, which the one traveling with the gomphotheres hastily moves to join.

It seems that, against the odds, the team has found even more of their quarry.

"Whoa, that's a lot of animals," remarks Tai. "...Wait, are those toxodonts?"

"Mixotoxodon," offers Sean, "the only ones of their group to successfully migrate northwards. These guys did pretty well for a while, but they're on their last legs now: the coming ice age will push tem into extinction."

"Well, not if we have anything to say about it," counters Elise, provoking a smile from Sean.

The smile fades, however, when a strange clacking noise fills the air, followed by several raspy bird calls. Looking Northwards, the team finds themselves staring at an octet of birds.

Very tall, hungry looking birds with very large, hooked beaks.

"Um, are th-those terror birds?" asks a stuttering Aiden, now rather nervous at the sight of the birds. The rest of the herbivores seem to share his opinion, as they are all getting nervous.

"Yep," replies Sean, "those are Titanis."

"Oh joy," Tristan. "Now we have to deal with giant birds. What's next?"

A loud yelp is the answer he receives, followed by... laughter? coming from the South.

Turning around, the team find themselves facing the strange carnivores that have been following them since the lake.

"What are those things?" questions Violet, both unnerved at the sight and exasperated at her brother for jinxing them. "And why do they look like hyenas?"

"They're Chasmaporthetes, the only hyenas to ever live in the Americas," remarks Elise, "and I think they are hungry."

"And were trapped between them and the birds," notes Tristan with both fear and annoyance. "This is just perfect."

Now trapped between two dangerous predators, the team needs to figure out how to escape, and soon, or else they might find themselves ending up as fossils.

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AN: Next chapter will be up in a few hours. Read, Review, and Vote on the Poll. This is Flameal15k, signing off!