Terence stared intently at the portal, wondering why it was still open. What was taking Tristan and co. so long to come back home? Were they stuck? Did they need him to pull something out of a giant mudhole again?
A hiss pulled his attention away from the portal. Turning toward it, the Tyrannosaurus was surprised to see another tyrannosaur staring at him...except this one had a crest on its head, not unlike the park's Dilophosaurus. The crested creature briefly had a staring contest with its purebred distant cousin, before a new sound drew its attention toward the portal. There, Michelle and Tristan were lugging a length of rope into the present - it seemed a tow was needed after all.
As the duo prepared to hook up Terence for the tow, though, they finally noticed the presence of the crested hybrid. For a moment, nothing happened.
Then Tristan spoke: "...Is that a Tyrannolophosaur?"
"...Maybe," replied Michelle.
The crested predator stared on a while longer, before the smell of meat turned its attention toward a nearby holding pen, where one of the keepers had accidentally dumped some of the meat intended for Jane. Before the mistake could be corrected, the crested predator trotted into the exhibit and dug in. The keeper in question yelped in surprise, alerting Suzanne and Jane, who intently eyed to newcomer.
While all that was going on, the giant form of the female Brachiosaurus from Isla Nublar ambled toward the portal, following the shape of a balding man. Bob had been moving the herbivore over per Suzanne's request, as the vet wanted to look the old girl over again. Nearby, within a cage, a club tailed, armored reptile hissed, unhappy at its captivity.
Michelle and Tristan's eyes widened as they saw the caged carnivore.
Michelle was the first to speak. "Is that an-"
"Ankylocodon? Yes, and the only reason I even know what its name is that one of security team who helped me catch its friends is a very big Jurassic Park fan. Apparently, there were a lot of hybrids on that island and...do you need another tow?"
The duo shared a glance. "Can we used our sauropod friend?"
"Sure."
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Back in the past, the rest of the team was already hard at work pulling out the trapped creatures from the tar. The mammoth calf handled itself - one of the adults, either its mother or the matriarch, had already ambled over to youngster and was trying to pull it free, and appeared to be succeeding, allowing the team to focus on the bison and saber teeth. Already, one of the cats had been pulled free. Of course, whilst this one had been freed, the other cats and their prey were only become more deeply mired within the sticky fluid.
An air horn suddenly sounded, causing the mammoths to retreat in surprised. The source was Tai and Violet, who were trying to discourage other carnivores from attacking - hungry eagles and teratorns had eyed the trapped mammals, and were already looking for an opening, whilst on the ground, Pleistocene Coyotes were also trying to get in on the action. Worse still, another pack of saber teeth had arrived, and they were slowly working their way around the large set of tar pits to begin their assault.
"Would it kill Tristan and Michelle to hurry up?" groused Elise, just as another cat was pulled free of the mire. Fortunately for the team, it was too tired to try and attack them.
"No, but it might kill us if they don't," acknowledged Shaun.
Suddenly, the form of a bull tyrannosaur trudged through the portal, followed by a grown brachiosaur. Behind the two giants, Tristan and Michelle were carrying a length of rope, which they wasted no time in securing across the bison's waist equivalent. From there, they merely gestured for the sauropod to run off, allowing its ambling farm to easily tug the bovid free. As for the cats, instead of towing them free, the duo simply let Terence gently hoist them out of the muck with his jaws, so that they could be deposited in the holding pens in the present.
When the last cat was free, the team let out a collective sigh in relief, idly noting how the sky had darkened above them.
Then they realized they still had to get the mammoths into the portal..and maybe the other saber teeth as well.
"...How are we gonna do that?" wondered Vera.
As if the heavens wished to answer her, the group's hair stood on end as a lightning bolt impacted right behind the herd, igniting the grass near the tar pit. Sppoked, the mammoths stampeded toward the portal, almost trampling the cats and coyotes as they did so. Both hunter and hunted vanished into the portal, and after a few seconds of staring, so did the vultures and eagles, eager to search for trampled road kill.
The team lay frozen in shock for a moment, before simply walking through the portal, easily managing to outpace the flames. In moments, there was no evidence they had ever been in this location.
XXXXXXX
A few days later...
As Terence shook himself awake, the tyrannosaur's eyes fell upon a strange sight - before him was a strange box, with an outer covering that looked rather odd, including a ribbon and a bow. Ambling toward it, the tyrant dinosaur opened his maw to bite open the box, before stopping. Remember something he had seen Tristan do a few days prior, the carnivore closed its maw around the ribbon and tugged, causing the gift to come open easily. Inside lay a horde of food, as well as a few toys - a gift for Christmas. A gift the tyrannosaur really enjoyed.
A sudden growl alerted Terence to the yawning form of Jane, who had just opened her eyes and found a gift of her own. Carefully, and with a small amount of groaning, Terence showed his mate how to open the gift. Inside of this one lay items similar to Terence's horde, but this one also included a strange blue toy. Lightly gripping it in her maw, Jane was surprised when a squeak came out of the blue object. For a moment, Jane did not know what to do, but then she relaxed her maw, before tightening it again. When the squeak returned, she began to repeat the rhythm of tensing and relaxing her jaws, enjoying the squeaking sound she made. It was nice.
All around the park, the residents, old and new, enjoyed their Christmas gifts. The dire wolves had already begun to use a tug of war rope, whilst the elephant calf had begun to play with a new ball, now having many other young proboscideans, be they mammoths, mastodons, or gomphotheres, to share her toy with. The saber teeth were busy eating the remains of some beefalo, each family unit enjoy a carcass. Even the hybrids were enjoying their new homes.
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Next time, the team goes back to the Permian to rescue the most famous non-mammal synapsids.
(shot of Tristan and Nigel staring down a familiar, carnivorous, sail-backed creature, which holds a shark in its maw)
As well as some unknown contemporaries.
(Shot of Michelle watching a large amphibian hiss at a lng snouted sail back)
While back at the park, the ice age residents carve out their territories.
(Shot of one of the park's bull elephants staring down a bull mammoth).
All next time on Prehistoric Park: The Tale of the Sail
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AN: Here's the rescued species. Still need to put some numbers on them, though. Juveniles do not have gender assigned yet.
Paramylodon: 5 males, 6 females, 1 juvenile
Arctodus simus: 1 female.
Dire Wolf (Canis dirus): 8 males, 9 females
Camelops (20 males, 20 females, 7 juveniles)
Ancient Bison: 40 males, 50 females
Giant Bison: 30 males, 40 females, 5 calves
Shrub Ox: 15 males, 17 females, 4 calves
Teratornis: 7 males, 9 females
Dwarf Pronghorn (Capromeryx) - 12 males, 12 fmeales, 3 juveniles)
American Cheetah (Miracionyx) - 2 males, 2 females
American Horse - 13 stallions, 20 mares, 6 foals
American Lion - 6 males, 24 females, 8 cubs
Homotherium - 3 males, 6 females, 3 cubs
Smilodon Fatalis - 5 males, 17 females, 5 cubs
American Mastodon - 6 males, 27 females, 4 calves
Columbian Mammoths - 5 males, 23 females, 7 calves
Hemiauchenia (American Llama) - 11 males, 11 females, 2 juveniles
Small fauna (no numbers for these ones):
flat headed peccary
Pleistocene coyote
Woodward's eagle
La Brea Stork
La Brea Condor
Passenger Pigeon - 20 individuals that nobody noticed because they followed the mammoths into the portal, currently hanging around Nigel's den.
And that's a wrap! Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
