As the day dragged on, the injured Carnufex enjoyed the shade.

The female crocodylomorph had had a relatively normal life - sure, it had been tough, but that was hardly unexpected. Life was never easy for animals, thus all of the adaptations for attack and defense. Still, she had managed to live life to its fullest, though she had only just become sexually mature. In a few months, she would have become reproductively active for the first time in her life. If the season was good, she would likely have started a family.

A brief bit of discomfort in her left hind leg brought her thoughts back to the day she had arrived at the park. She and several of her kind had been pursuing a herd of dicynodonts, and while the herd had escaped, they'd managed to find a fresh carcass to sate their hunger. The arrival of the proterosuchids, though, had been unexpected. Rarely did those predators leave the water to hunt on land. They were far faster in the water, though their bulk often won them kills on land.

This time, though, the land crocodilians refused to back down. This much meat was worth fighting for, and thus the land predators had engaged their aquatic cousins in battle. At first it had been mostly displaying, but when neither party backed down, combat commenced. The predators had snapped and pawed at each other, trying to injure or intimidate their rivals into submission. The female had, to her displeasure, been the first to take a hit, knocking her out of the fight. She likely would have been killed, had the strange biped not saved her.

Though unable to truly understand the concept of gratitude, the female carnivore had decided to show the virtue to the human by refusing to attack him. Of course, that did not excuse him intruding on her territory - trust only went so far. She had been confused, though, when he had taken out the strange, fibrous object he had offered her earlier. It did not look appetizing, nor had it tasted particularly good, but she had still chomped down on it, if only to snatch it from the biped. When he had refused to release it, she had merely pulled on it until he submitted.

Yes, she had enjoyed the brief tug or war, but that was semantics.

Now, though, she saw the biped walking back up to her new range. Cautiously, she stared at him, idly noticing that he carried something in his arms. It resembled those strange tusked herbivores with really longs noses she had occasionally seen walk by, though only one had been within the size range she dared to mount attacks on, and as it never strayed too far from an adult, she knew better than to attack it. Her focus on the biped never faded as he walked right up to the edge of her new territory and offered her the strange object. He Stood their, waiting for...something.

When he did not leave, she ambled over to him, curious yet cautious. When she was within striking distance, he released the object. Immediately, she snatched it out of the air. It didn't really taste good, nor did it appear to have anything nutritional in it, but having something to sink her teeth into was always nice. Returning to her shade, she began to shake the object about, more or less ignoring the biped.

Said biped stared on at her for a while longer, then left.

XXXXXXX

Back in the past, Elise and Sean continued to cruise through the water, still fruitless in their search for the prehistoric whale. The rising heat was not helping things.

Already, Elise had removed her vest, while her brother had gulped down as much water as he could.

"See anything?" questioned Sean.

Elise merely gestured a 'no', then wordlessly asked the same of him.

"Nope...also, could you look away?"

"Why, brother dearest?" she snarked, wondering if he had drunken too much water.

"...I need to...relieve myself..."

….There were times Elis really wished she wasn't actually right about her guesses, and this was one of them. "Fine, just make sure to zip up before you turn back to me. And tell me if something comes up."

As the Elise gave her brother his privacy and the sound of water hitting water filled the air, the girl turned her attention back to the waves. Whenever she saw a ripple, she tried to determine if it was a whale, reptile or fish, but soon she began to drift off into her thoughts, unsure whether or not she would have any luck. For a moment, she though she saw a dragon life the ones rescued from the Paleocene, but when she tried to focus on the creature, it revealed itself as a log. The shallow water had forced them to turn off the sonar, lest it bounce off branches in the mess of the swamp.

It took Elise a few minutes to realize that the sound of her brother relieving himself of excess water had stopped. Turning toward him, she was surprised to see him holding up one of his palms in a stop gesture, before pointing toward the nearby shoreline. Looking toward it, she found herself staring at an interesting sight - on the banks was what appeared to be a herd of indricotheres...and, behind them, a group of carnivorous mammals.

Immediately, the duo was on full alert, already planning how to rescue the land mammals. Ironically, they failed to move their attention toward the waves, preventing them from noticing a serpentine, mammalian shape cutting through the water.

XXXXX

On the nearby shoreline, Nigel and Tristan watched as the prehistoric whale edged closer and closer to the boys siblings. More surprising still was the clear shape of a reptile cruising nearby the boat. For a moment, they considered yelling out to the duo, but decided against it - clearly, they had something else occupying their attentions.

Thus, cautiously, the land-based pair attempted to make their way toward whatever the water-bound siblings were looking at. Preferably without becoming predator meat.

XXXXXXXX

AN: Read, Review, and Vote on the poll! This is Flameal15k, signing off!