For a moment, Tristan lay frozen as the dog-like creature stared. That faded when the Coelophysis showed up and started screeching at the furry animal. As a squabbling match broke out, Tristan righted himself, attention now focused on the dinosaur.

"Hey, leave him alone!"

The dinosaur backed up at the exclamation, before turning her ire toward the human...only for all to be forgotten as a piece of meat flew her way. Soon, she was tearing into the flesh, briefly squabbling with another of her kind when it tried to steal a bite before he, too, received meat from the human.

As the two continued to feed, Tristan took stock of their appearances. While both had roughly the same color and feather patters, the new arrival had a fleshy wattle on its throat, not unlike a turkey or a rooster.

"Well, I guess we know how to tell the guys from the girls with you dinos."

"What was that?"

Turning around, Tristan found Michelle behind him, busy trying to wipe the dirt off of her clothes. He stared for a moment, before joining her in patting down her clothes...at least, where she let him.

"Nothing, just noticed that there might be a way to what gender the Coelophysis are without, well, looking under their belts...oh, and I think I found some cybodonts. And yes, I think they're the same ones from the show."

"Well, then let me get by their burrow - there's a snake camera in my pack, and I want to see if all of the babies are still alive."

"Be my guest."

Taking the invitation with some humility, Michelle quickly removed the camera out of her bag and sent it down the burrow...which, as it was still inhabited by the cynodonts, had some interesting results. Tristan could only stare on in confusion as Michelle's expression turned to one of surprise, followed by one of mild fear, before suddenly the camera was yanked hard into the burrow, sending its holder tumbling into the ground.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Probably should have expected them to do that. Also, all of the pups are still alive."

"Fantastic news. So, how do we get them out?"

"There's some pet carriers in our packs. Maybe you could bait the father out, then I snatch up the rest, and we put them in one of the carriers?"

The sound of a zipper opening was all she needed to hear. A moment later, and the trap had been set - some meat had been lain out in front of the carrier, with more stashed within. Tristan had taken up shelter behind a stump, while Michelle had flattened herself on the ground above the burrow.

It took a bit of waiting, but eventually, the male cynodont exited his burrow and, attracted by the smell of food, wander toward and then into the carrier. The minute he was inside, Tristan got up and sealed it, while Michelle worked to capture the rest. Though she did end up getting bitten, she'd made sure to put thick gloves on her hands, ensuring that she only felt annoyance from the bites. Soon, the parents and their pups were in the carrier, at first crying out like crazy, but calming down after some time had passed.

With one rescue down, the duo turned their attention to the female Postosuchus. Before they could even get near her, the archosaur hissed at them and stood back up trying to scare them off. As she did so, the pair finally got an idea of how she was doing - her eyes and nostrils had some discharge around them, and her skeleton was noticeable beneath her skin. She clearly hadn't been doing well.

Reluctantly backing down, the pair decided to take a break, though they did offer the female a slab of meat, which she greedily devoured.

Taking out a snack, Michelle turned toward her leader. "Can we tranq her and bring her back to the park for Suzanne to care for?"

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea right now - she's sick, yes, but she looks rather weak too. If we put her under now, I'm worried she won't get back up...Also, I'm kinda worried that the two of us won't be able to carry her back. By the way, how do you think Alice and them are doing?"

"IF I'm being entirely honest, there either on top of something tall trying to scare off the dinosaurs that chased them, or they are the ones doing the chasing now - they're too stubborn to die to a bunch of tiny theropod dinosaurs."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The carnivores watched on as the strange bipeds disappeared through the glowing light. Annoyed, they waiting for them to return - the hill may not be easy for them to climb, but it was easy to encircle, and there wasn't much shade up there, anyway. Eventually, the four bipedal creatures would have to come back down.

Then a strange noise filled the air, followed by quartet returning...on a strange creature with weird, rounded legs. Said creature was also bigger than a Postosuchus. Instantly, hunted and hunter were reversed, as the tiny dinosaurs began to flee the glowing eyed beast.

XXXXXXXXX

"...Your probably right."

"Eh, I know my friends. Oh, and could you do me a favor and give me some sunscreen - I think I could use a fresh coat."

"Sure."

As Tristan turned, however, he found himself looking a beaked dinosaur in the eye. One, two, three, four seconds they stared at eachother, before the dinosaur backed away. Michelle, who had been wearing sunglasses, lowered them when she saw the dinsaour, which was soon joined by four more of its kind, which promptly began to nip at the nearby vegetation, and hiss at the Coelophysis to keep their distance. The group was further joined by, of all things, what appeared to be a prosauropod, as well as very, very large pterosaur, who respectively began to try and steal the meat from the coelophysoids, to their ire.

"...Where did they all come form?!" exclaimed a confused Michelle.

XXXXXX

Back at the park, Bob is dealing with all of the new arrivals.

With great care, Bob was busy assisting the staff in lowering some meat into one of the holding pens. The minute the meat hit the ground, the Camposaurus and Chindesaurus started tearing it apart, occasionally snapping at each other as they did so.

Bob sighed as the carnage ensued. "They look like a mob of feral dogs - no coordination, no order of who gets to eat and when, just tearing everything apart. It's brutal. I hope Nigel and them aren't having too much trouble - Alice already came back and got an ATV, though why is still a mystery to me."

XXXXXXX

Speaking of Nigel, his group has finally retreated the Placerias.

The team had come to a stop about twenty meters from the tusked herbivores. In the time it had taken to reach them, many other animals had joined them - tiny, beaked reptiles, dinosaur look-alikes, and several creatures that looked vaguely like nodosaurs, but with upturned snouts.

"So, what are the armored creatures?" questioned Tai. "I'm pretty sure the dinosaur look-alike is Eucoelophysis, the beaked things are Effigia, but the armored ones I'm not sure on. The only thing that I can tell is that they are Aetosaurs."

While the rest of the group was still somewhat confused as to what the armored creatures were, Nigel already knew what he was looking at. "That's because there are several different species of Aetosaur right in front of us - the most notable are the Desmatosuchus, the ones with the shoulder spikes, but there are others. If we work fast enough, we might be able to rescue all of them"

Unfortunately, the chances of that happening were about to go out the window.

A growl caused the group to stare up the hillside behind them. There, about one hundred meters away, was large bipedal creature, with a color pattern resembling a crocodile. The creature hissed and bellowed at the group, bearing its sharp teeth, though it never closed in to attack.

Its presence, however, was enough to agitate the herbivores, who began to amble away. The team watched, helpless, as the quarry they had spent so long tracking slipped away. All the while, the biped continued to growl and hiss at them, and when it because apparent they weren't backing down, began to walk toward them.

"Anyone know what this is?" asked Aileen.

Sean responded first. "It's a Poposaurus. It's a crocodile relative, but it isn't a rauisuchian like Postosuchus. This creature's not trying to attack us, so I don't think it's hunting us. Odds are, its just trying to get us to leave its hunting grounds."

The minute he finished saying that, Elise turned to Nigel. "If it's trying to scare us off, can we just back away slowly after the herbivores? Maybe it will leave us alone?"

"That might work. Any other ideas."

There were none, and slowly, the group moved away, leaving the poposaur to reclaim its territory. Overhead, the once clear sky began to fill with clouds.

XXXXXXXXXX

Back with Michelle and Tristan, things have gotten rather crowded.

Now the previously barren area had become filled with life. More pterosaurs had arrived, lizards and lizard-like archosaurs had emerged from the trees, and more of the fuzzy dinosaurs had shown up, as well as another family of cynodonts, though these resembled rodents more than dogs. Michelle and Tristan could only just stare on at the oddity of the situation.

"Well, this spot of real estate seems to have gotten very crowded."

Michelle just huffed at that statement. "Maybe there's a spring nearby? Could you go and check?"

"Why me?"

"Because I'm tired."

"...Fine, but I'm not doing your work for you just because you are lazy."

With a sigh, Tristan got up and searched for a source of water.

He didn't have to look far.

Upon noticing that Tristan had stopped, Michelle lowered her sunglasses. "What do you see."

"I think it would be better if you stood up and saw for yourself."

Obliging, Michelle walked over to where her leader had frozen and found what had surprised him.

There was, indeed, some water nearby the group. Calling it anything other than a large puddle would have been an insult, however, as it was extremely shallow, and almost entirely devoid of life. The only evidence that anything lived in the puddle was a mixed group of amphibians and crocodile-like creatures, which were desperately trying to stay submerged as the sun beat down on them.

"Before you ask, the green amphibians are most likely Koskinodon, while I'm pretty sure the other thigns are phytosaurs. Probably Redondasaurus or Smilosuchus... or both. That's still possible."

While Tristan was still frozen in surprise at the sight of the aquatic creatures, Michelle was more proactive. "I don't think these guys are going to last much longer in this heat. I'll get the portal started if you're willing to lure them onto land."

"On it."

As soon as Michelle took out the portal device, though, one of the fuzzy dinosaurs charged her and tried to steal the sticks. Noticing his friend in danger, Tristan rushed over and managed to pry the dinosaur off, but it continued to harass them, attracted by the shiny appearance of the portal sticks, until finally Tristan baited it away with a carrot. The ensuring fight had scattered the contents of their packs, including a notebook from Tristan's. As the boy began to activate the portal, Michelle decided to examine the book.

"...Prehistoric Park Keeper's Guide? You're making one?"

"Might as well, we could use one."

"True...wow, these illustrations are good."

"I like to draw."

"I see...What are these glass shard...things in the back?"

"Um, well, I get bored and like to doodle? OH, and the portal's about to activate."

Just as it prepared to open, though, Tristan saw the temporal coordinates change, along with the physical ones. Now, instead of heading to the park, they would head to Arizona...roughly eighty million years earlier than they already were. Before Tristan could stop it, the portal opened.

This time, the portal looked somewhat different from before. While mostly normal, Michelle noticed that there seemed to be shards flowing through it. Glass shards, at that. Suspicious, Michelle prepared to ask Tristan something, only to be interrupted as several shapes darted through the portal, consisting of some amphibians, some fat looking reptilian creatures, and what appeared to be big lizards. Additionally, a wisp of hazy black stuff also flowed through the portal.

When it neared Michelle, she took in a breath and started coughing. Instantly, she realized what the black stuff was - wood fumes. Immediately, she sealed the portal.

Relieved that she had stopped one disaster, Michelle turned to question Tristan...just in time to see the female Postosuchus start growling at one of the giant lizards...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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