Okay, sorry about the wait, let's get back to our heroes!

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As soon as the team arrived on the other side of the portal, they were quick to begin searching for signs of their quarry. Ignoring the footprints leading toward the portal, they began examining the area for hints as to where their target may have been. Tracks, dung, fresh kills or signs of grazing, anything that would lead them toward their quarry. Unfortunately, the group is not having any luck so far. Not helping matters is the midday heat, which discourages activity from nearby animals.

"Ugh, no matter where we go, the heat is our enemy," noted Elise. "Why is Arizona always hot?"

"It's not hot in Flagstaff," noted Sean.

"That doesn't count - the monsoons are horrible."

"Touché. So, what do we do now? Break out the bait?"

"It's too hot for that," was Tristan's response.

"Maybe, maybe not. Who knows, something might just land in the palm of your hands, brother."

"Yeah, yeah, alright," responded Tristan, taking out some salad leaves. "Seriously, though, the odds of something coming out right now are-"

Before the eldest of the siblings could finish his response, a small fuzzy creature landed on his hand and began eating the plants he was holding, followed by a second of its kind. The two creatures briefly had a tug of war over a choice piece of greenery, before the second one promptly took up residence on his other hand.

"...Wow, I didn't think something would show up that fast," remarked Sean, an abnormally large bead of sweat rolling down the back of his head.

"Um, can someone tell me what just landed on my hands? I don't know if they are mammals or tritylodonts."

"I think those are Oligokyphus," responded Tai, "so I'm pretty sure that you have tritylodonts on your hands. Rather hungry ones, by the looks of it."

"I can see the indentations of their ribs against their stomachs, so yes to them being hungry. Can we open up the portal before more of them show up - I want to get the ones we have back to the park in one piece."

"Already on it," replied Nigel.

A moment later, the portal was open, and the two little cynodonts ran through it...as did several more of their kind, which seemed to pour out of the nearby trees.

"Why are there so many of them?" wondered Aileen.

"I have no idea. Maybe a predator is nearby?" was Aiden's reply.

Before he could get a response, the group heard a hissing sound coming from a nearby bush. Turning toward it, the team watched as a pack of small, carnivorous dinosaurs emerged, covered in black and green feathers.

"...Are those Coelophysis?" asked Sean.

"No, slightly different body plan. Must be Kayentavenator," was Elise's response.

"Okay. Can we take them?" questioned Tristan.

"...Oh yes we can."

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A moment later, in a nearby tree, a tritylodont watched as the strange, hairless bipeds proceeded to wrestle down the pack of feathery killers and carry them back toward the weird glowy thing. It ended up leaning too far forward and fell into one of the humans packs, and was subseqeutnly handed over to a bald hairless biped and put in a room filled with food. The mammal promptly gorged itself into unconsciousness.

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Back at the park, Matilda is still on the prowl.

Cautiously watching for signs that the humans had learned that she had escaped, Matilda continued on her path toward the poison gas fields, eager to sink her teeth into fresh flesh. Her reptilian companions had followed her, and all of them were looking forward to a good meal.

The sudden flicker of movement on the edge of her vision brought the tyrannosaur to a halt. Ahead of her, a truck drove past, but the driver was too busy guiding some of the park's camels toward some unknown destination for them to notice the escaped tyrant dinosaur. Ignorant to the escapee's presence, he quickly disappeared over a nearby hill, as did the camels. Matilda stared at him for a while longer, before continuing on with her march.

A new scent, however, was all it took to bring her to a halt once more. This one was incredibly peculiar - it was almost like a mushroom's, but different. She was sure it was some kind of spore based plant, but beyond that she couldn't be certain. She may have been a predator, but Matilda knew that mushrooms were very appetizing, especially ones that occurred on carcasses. Perhaps she could snag one for herself as an appetizer for the feast she was about to have? The mere thought of eating a mushroom made her mouth begin to water, and she soon diverted her course toward the new scent.

When she reached the source of the aroma, she was surprised to discover that no mushrooms were in sight. There were, however, strange trees, many just beginning to grow. Nearby, she could make out the forms of Bob, Alice, and Lucas hard at work organizing the plants in pots. Idly, Matilda noted that she could now make out the smell of peat, as well as that of moss and lichens. Additionally, she could see that the plants were growing on some kind of soggy ground. On firmer, drier soil, trees familiar to her were growing, as were several ferns.

Unknown to the giant coelurosaur, she had stumbled upon Prehistoric Park's nursery, where extinct plants were being cultivated for usage in future exhibits. The parks secrecy, for the most part, prevented any commercial usage of the plants.

Among the nearby grass, which had been cultured from the cuttings Nigel had acquired for Martha, two shapes caught Matilda's attention. They were clearly birds, but unlike any modern bird, they had teeth in their mouths. Additionally, each of them had two long tail feathers on their rumps, as well as a realitvely small tail fan. This was a mated pair of Aviasaurus, a bird from Matilda's time, and they were proving to be excellent escape artists, to the staff's chagrin. It only took them a moment to notice the female tyrannosaur, at which point they flew up and landed on her back and began to search for parasites.

Enjoying the birds' services for a moment, Matilda then continued on with her trek for food.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!