Enjoy!

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With the gomphotheres now safely at the park, Nigel and co. are once again searching for glyptodonts. So far, though, they aren't seeing anything.

The Pleistocene sun now stood high in the sky, mercilessly beating down on the team as they traversed the mix of desert, forest, and scrubland. Their trek took them past mesquite trees, across chaparral fields, and around giant saguaros. At one point, the team was forced to navigate through a large grouping of cholla cactus, taking extra care to avoid getting any of the cactus stems impaled in their legs. Not for nothing was this cactus known as the jumping cholla. At times, they also found themselves hiding to watch for snakes that had been hiding under the cacti. They'd had a few close calls with some rattlesnakes, and once even seen a gila monster, but nothing bad had come out of this situations.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the occasional deer, javelina, or vulture, those were the entirety of the animals they had seen since the rescue of the gomphotheres. They hadn't really seen many animal signs either - a footprint here or a pile of dung there, but all of it had matched up with modern animals, not the ones they were looking for.

"Ugh, no animals," groused Tai. "Why aren't we seeing anything?'

"Well, normally, you don't see a lot of animals in the wild," remarked Sean. "Most large animals need equally large territories to sustain their bulk, so they tend to be spread out over a large area rather than dotting the terrain like bushes. In fact, the sheer amount of creatures we've rescued on the last couple of missions is, well, a miracle. I mean, the park probably has more than three hundred animals cow sized or larger in it that are extinct everywhere else in the world. Speaking of which, how are we going to expand the park if we get too many residents?"

"Well, you see, that's actually quite easy," answers Nigel. "The park's just one island of an archipelago, and we've been given permission by the local authorities to use the rest of the islands to expand the park as needed. The natives don't mind us using them, either, except for a few they claimed for themselves."

"...I can't believe I forgot that the park is part of an archipelago," replied Sean. "I mean, we saw the islands on the way here, and some of them are still visible from the one we're on."

Just then, the group heard a crunching sound. Instantly going quiet, the team forms up as one, then, slowly, begins advancing toward the sound, carefully making hteir way around several bushes and trees, leading them to a clearing. In the center are a herd of pronghorn like creatures, similar to the so called antelopes except for one trait: their horns are much larger.

"Are those pronghorns?" questioned Tai.

"Close, but not quite right - those are relatives of pronghorns. Tetrameryx, if I'm correct," replied Elise.

The grazing herbivores, oblivious to the presence of the humans, continue to feed, though some begin to move toward the denser parts of the scrub forest, putting them on a collision course with the group. At the sight of the advancing herbivores, Sean turns toward Nigel and gestures toward the portal device. Nigel can only smile - Sean isn't the only one looking forward to an easy rescue.

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Back at the park, Suzanne is helping acclimate the new arrivals.

Within the holding pens, the newly arrived gomphotheres are busy gorging themselves on the park's lunch service.

For Suzanne, this is the perfect opportunity to give them a checkup - some are already full, making them at least somewhat more docile than normal. Already, Suzanne has checked five members of the herd for signs of parasites and past injuries, and so far, they have all come out fine.

Suzanne's next charge, though, is a bit moe of a problem than expected: this one is one of the herd's calves. Normally, a calf, being young and curious, would be less of a danger than an adult, and that still holds true for this calf. IT's the calf's mother that Suzanne is worried about - the elephant matriarch is fiercely defensive of her calf, and Suzanne has no doubt that this female will act the same way.

"Come on, girl, I don't want to cause trouble, I just need to check your child," remarks the head vet, cautiously approaching the calf while keeping its mother in view. The female is eyeing Suzanne warily, but so far, she's remained calm. Suzanne will only attempt to run if the female pulls back her ears and curls her trunk, which are the primary indicators in modern proboscideans that they are about to attack.

Finally reaching the calf, Suzanne begins checking it over, oblivious to the mother's massive increase in ire. Unseen by the head vet, the gomphotheres begins to curl its trunk, and soon the giant begins to amble toward her. It doesn't take long for Suzanne to finish her checkup, though, and once she leaves, the mother calms down.

Hopefully, the rest of the mothers in the herd will be as compassionate as this one.

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Elsewhere, one of the park's residents is busy searching for a new home. The problem is, he's not supposed to be running free at the minute.

He found the new pond just a moment ago. Not too big, no strange water lizards in it other than the long snouted ones, no big fang tooths, seemed perfect. A moment underwater proves otherwise. Bad water, missing something, can't understand why. Not sure what missing, though what is missing makes water taste funny.

Annoyed, he exits the water, slimy skin picking up all kinds of sediments he does so. Skin needs to be kept wet all the time, especially in great heat like this. Heat just like home, yet different - more humid, not dry heat. Animals also different - more fuzzy things around than scaly ones, more fliers, less giant slimy four legged creatures in water, more giant scaly four legs in water. So different from home.

Suddenly, familiar smell wafts into nose. Is moist yet briny. Smells like home. He advances toward the smell. Only advances through tall green frond plants, though. Green and blue back patterns not good camouflage in green, yellow and brown fronds. Long fronds have other problems, too - can't see far in them, makes bad eyesight worse - the migrants eye's ae located on the top of his head, so he has trouble seeing around him. Predators could attack him easily here.

Sudden movement to his left causes him to go still. Coming into view is a giant scaly creature with a long neck and a long tail. The yellow backed creature walks right over him, its feet barely missing him. When the belly dragger is sure the giant has passed, he begins to move again, determined to reach the source of the smell.

For this temnospondyl, he will reach the sea or die trying!

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Back in Prehistoric Arizona, the team is finishing up the Tetrameryx.

Cautiously, the Five remaining herbivores stare at the time portal. All of the rest of their kind have gone through, lured in by the food they saw the strange tall walkers throwing into the glowing light.

A moment later, a loud crashing noise sends them charging through the portal. Where they once stood, Tai and Violet are holding onto each other, laughing and smiling at their role in the plan.

Setting up the time portal had been easy enough, and the team had plenty of bait to get the herbivores through. Tai and Violet had merely been an insurance policy - if some of the herbivores refused to go through, the duo would simply scare them through, making as much noise as possible to get the plant eaters to dart to safety. They'd had to get behind the herd to do so, but that was hardly a problem. Already, the rest of the team had emerged form hiding, smiling at the success of their plan as Sean deactivated the portal.

Elise, though, wasn't partaking in the minor celebration. Instead, she was looking at something behind Tai and Violet.

Something big, round, and covered in hexagonal scutes.

Something that was moving.

It sees that the team has at last found their quarry. Now comes the hard part - catching it.

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AN: Sorry about the wait. I've been updating a story on and this one has taken a bit of a hiatus because of that. I'll try to finish up this chapter by new year's day.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!