Here we go. Get ready for a safari of epic proportions!

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There is something missing from our world. The amazing creatures that time has left behind. But what if we could bring them back?

What if extinction didn't have to be forever?

We're going back in time on a safari with a difference as wildlife adventurer Nigel Marvin plunges into prehistory to rescue creatures on the brink of extinction. His plan is to bring them back to the safety of the present and give them a second chance.

This time, Nigel goes back to Prehistoric North America to rescue some of the most amazing animals to ever live.

Welcome to the ultimate wildlife sanctuary.

Welcome to Prehistoric Park.

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After 7 successful missions, Prehistoric Park is filling up quite nicely. The park is now home to seven types of tyrannosaurs, two colossal Deinosuchus, and Quetzalcoatlus, the largest flying animal to ever live.

Now, however, Nigel and his crew want to focus on rescuing more modern animals. Specifically, more mammals.

In his den, Nigel is looking over a spectacular array of animal skulls. Despite their various differences, they all share one thing in common: all belong to mammals.

"These skulls belong to all kinds of animals. This cat like one, for example, belongs to the saber toothed cat Macahirodus, while this elephant like one belongs to Gomphotherium. Both of these animals lived in the Miocene, and I would love to have some for Prehistoric Park.

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While Nigel gets ready for his next adventure, his youngest recruit is busy dealing with some of the park's newest residents, along with one of the oldest.

In a field by T. rex Hill, Tristan is busy chasing a ball. Following him are a black bear, a jaguar, a wolf... And two tyrannosaurs. The odd group of predators soon overtake the human, but in the end, the biggest predator soon catches the prize

Terence takes a moment to acknowledge his victory, then rolls the ball back to the human. Tristan rewards him with a tasty piece of steak. Terence, however, offers it to the smaller tyrannosaur with him, Bistahi.

Ever since Terence helped save Bistahi, the two tyrannosaurs have become practically inseparable. The staff have encouraged this friendship, as it has made Vistahi far easier to work with. So far, it has backfired on them.

As for the mammal predators, they are Tristan's

"My mom runs a vet clinic for both wild and tame animals. She grew up on a citrus farm with several animals and loved working with them, so she devoted her life to helping them. Ursus here was taken in after some guy hit him with a car. It really was an accident, so we let him go without a fuss*. Spots came in after he got washed out of his home by a flood. As for Lycan, he was rescued from poachers that were hunting his pack. I helped nurse them back to health so that they could be returned to the wild, but they don't really want to leave, so we've let them stay with us. My dad sent them here because they missed me. He also sent some of Lycan's pack here so that he wouldn't be lonely."

As Tristan takes the time to pet his friends, Nigel finally arrives.

"Oi, Tristan, how're you doing?"

"Good. Did you get everything set for our next mission?"

"I did. Also, I've already felt with the new recruits. I had to use Stan this time, though, because Terence was with you."

"Was he a problem?"

"No, actually. Stan is just as easy to work with as his son. All of Terence's family is, even Matilda. I think she's started to cool down a bit."

"What a relief. So, are we going to leave soon?"

"Yes, but we have one last thing to deal with."

"We do... Oh yeah! My friends are coming over today."

"They are. Now let's go greet them."

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Contrary to what one would expect, Prehistoric Park does have an airfield. It mostly acts as a landing point for supply helicopters, but it can also be used by planes.

This is where Tristan's friends were to arrive at. His father being an absurdly rich man, he let them use a personal plane of his. It wasn't too large, as a big plane would be too much of a disturbance for the park's residents, but it was still fairly large.

And right now, it was about to land.

Nigel and Tristan arrived just as the plane made its decent. Following them were Terence, Theo and Alamo (the male Alamosaurus), who Nigel had asked be brought with them. For now, though, they were to be kept out of sight.

As the plane came to a stop, Nigel took the time to go over what Tristan had told him about his friends. He also said that his younger siblings would be coming, except for two, who had other engagements at the moment.

So, when the passengers disembarked, Nigel knew exactly who each person was.

The first to get off, Alice, had long, brown hair, wore a white t-shirt and brown slacks, and had a haughty aura around her. She was the daughter of one of Mr. Saurus' friends, so she had been raised with considerable luxury and enjoyed the respect it brought her.

Contrasting her was Vera. She wore a green t-shirt, blue shorts, had black hair and had a significantly shyer aura around her. She was born to farmers and lived a mostly secluded life. It was rather ironic, then, that she and Alice were the best of friends.

Next was Lucas. The boy had blond hair, wore a tan shirt and shorts and seemed to be relatively laid back. His parents were journalists, and the park had been working very hard to keep them from noticing its existence.

Then, there was Marcus. The boy wore a brown shirt, blue pants, had short red hair and possessed a fiery aura to himself. He was on his way to professionally playing football, as the American's called it, so this was unsurprising.

Following him was Michelle. She had hazel colored hair, wore a red shirt and shorts, and was the calmest of the group. She was the one who convinced everyone else to come to the park.

Finally, there were Tristan's siblings. He had six in total, but only four had been able to come. The eldest ones, Drew and Elise, were on a camping trip and would not return for a few weeks, so it was impossible to contact them. Of Tristan's remaining siblings, the first off the plane was Eileen, the eldest of the remaining children. She wore a blue shirt, an orange vest, and tan shorts. She was 15 and made a point of acting as mature as she could for her age. Next was Aiden, who wore a black shirt, red pants, and a tan hat. He was 13 and was usually a odds with Eileen, as he tended to be far more laid back then she was. Following him was Violet. As her name suggested, she wore a purple shirt, along with a pair of yellow shorts and a camouflage patterned hat. She was 12 and was tomboy, enjoying the opportunity to hunt and go fishing, which her parents had only encouraged.* The last person off the plane was Tai, the youngest child. At 10, he wasn't the kind of person you'd see at the park, but he was wise beyond his age and was already reading middle school level textbooks, even though he had only begun primary school. He wore orange pants, a blue shirt, a tan vest and a brown hat.

Once everyone was off the plane, the crew began unloading the luggage. As they did so, however, they looked up at the sky for just a fleeting moment, but only Tristan and Nigel noticed. To prevent them from spoiling the surprise with a sudden outburst, the crew had been informed of the park's residents and were asked to keep them a secret until Tristan could explain them to his friends personally. So far, nothing had gone wrong, but the crew were now worried the secret would be spoiled via rogue pterosaur. Fortunately, none were airborne at the moment.

Once the crew entered the plane, Alice decided to start up a conversation.

"So, Tristan, why did you invite us here? I was looking forward to enjoying the summer in the Mediterranean, so you better have a good reason for me as to why I had to change my plans."

"You hadn't even booked your flight yet," remarked Vera.

"SILENCE, YOU FOOL!" roared Alice.

Vera responded with a stuck out tongue.

Lucas and Marcus could only snicker at the cat fight that was about to ensue. Michelle, however, did want to know the answer to Alice's question, as did Tristan's siblings.

"Yeah, why did you invite us over here?" remarked Michelle.

"Well, first I you guys to meet one of my dad's friends."

Then, Tristan gestured to Nigel.

"Everyone, this is world famous zoologist Nigel Marven."

Everyone stared at Nigel for a moment, until something clicked in Alice's head.

"Wait, you mean THE Nigel Marven, the man on Shark Week and the star of Ten Deadliest Snakes with Nigel Marven?"

"The same."

Alice's response could best be described as SQUEE. Vera was dumbfounded by this, as was everyone else.

"Wait, you know this guy? And you watch Shark Week?"

"Guilty on both accounts and I am not ashamed to admit it."

"... okay," remarked Marcus, "But that still doesn't answer Michelle's question."

"Well, my dad offered to fund this wildlife preserve for Nigel, and he needed some extra staff, so I wanted to know if you guys would help."

The group looked between each other for a moment, before coming to a conclusion.

"Okay, we'll help" remarked Violet, "but first..."

"Let me guess, I need to tell you my secret, my dear little sister."

"Yes, but that was annoying. I know that you are hiding something, otherwise you wouldn't ask Violet to change her plans."

"True. Well, the thing about this park is that the residents are... well, big."

"Define big,'" remarked the entire group.

Tristan's response was to look behind the plane, then say a single word:

"Terence."

"Who are you-"

BOOM

The group's thought's were cut off as a heavy footstep shook the world around them. As they tried to find their bearings, they turned around...

And found themselves facing a bull Tyrannosaurus.

The group was paralyzed the moment the saw it by combination of fear and surprise. A living dinosaur? Here? HOW?!

Before they could get an answer though, the giant predator walked up to Tristan and let him start petting its maw.

Before they could even have time to comprehend this, the giant predator was joined by a giant horned dinosaur and a sauropod and ANOTHER tyrannosaur.

As the group's minds just started to short circuit, Theo and Alamo approached Tristan. The boy was a very nice keeper, and after seeing Terence get be petted by him, they wanted to be pet as well. They knew the predator would not attacked them, as he wasn't very aggressive and was smart enough not to press his luck too much.

Bistahi had also come to be petted, but he was too mall to present a threat and was also ignored.

As his friends and family watched him pet three giant dinosaurs with dropped jaws, pale faces and bulging eyes, Tristan could only smile nervously.

"Welcome to Prehistoric Park, guys."

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The minute the group calmed down, Vera was the first to speak.

"You...work...on...a...wildlife...park...with...dinosaurs?"

"Yes, I do, it has other creatures on it from before and after the dinosaurs, and I'm asking if you want to help Nigel and me rescue and care for them. And before you ask, my dad knows about it, HE HELPED FOUND IT."

That shut the group up for a moment.

Eventually, Tai spoke up.

"I'll help."

"TAI!" remarked his siblings, "WHY!?"

"They're dinosaurs. Would you like to be one of the only people in the world to work with real dinosaur, without including birds in the mix?"

That caused everyone to stop and think for a moment.

Alice was the first to come to a conclusion.

"You know what, screw it. I don't care what plans I had, I'm going to spend this summer with dinosaurs."

Everyone else soon found themselves in agreement.

"Well," said Michelle," I guess we've decided on our course of action. So, where do we go next?"

"Well," began Nigel, "we were going to go back in time to rescue some more residents for the park. We're focusing on mammals for this trip and we packed enough supplies for all of you, since we weren't sure if you would come."

"Then let's get going, we can't waste anymore daylight." remarked Tai.

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Nigel's journey will take his team back to the Miocene epoch, time when a spectacular array of mammals roamed the Earth, some of which left no descendants. His target destination, Miocene North America, saw some animals found nowhere else in this time.

As the (now rather large) team head through portal, they can only wonder what kind of animals they'll encounter.

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On the other side the portal, the group finds themselves in lush scrubland. The area would resemble a desert, but for the large amount of bushes and sparse grass. A few trees dot the landscape, but they are very few and far between.

"So, where and when are we?" asked Eileen.

"We're in Miocene North America," remarked Tristan.

"This is a time when evolution really started going wild with mammals. You see, this is when grass started to take over the world and changed the fauna that dominated the land from browsers to grazers. Now, let's get stated searching for some animals."

With that, Nigel headed off in search residents for the park, followed by his rather odd looking team.

Unknown to them, however, one creature had already seen the group. It stood tall on two legs and had a razor sharp beak.

For many days now, it had been searching for food. The arrival of new predators had forced it to look farther and farther for food, as otherwise, it would lose it to the new killers.

Soon, it was joined by another of it's kind, a female. If it had been less focused on its hunger, the first beast would have tried to mate with the second, as it was male and it was the predator's breeding season.

Right now, though, its empty belly took priority to everything else. Slowly, the giant feathery killers began to stalk the humans, who were still blissfully unaware of their existence.

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AN: Writing the part with the introduction of Tristan's friends was one of my favorite moments in this story.

Now, the tid-bit at the end of the last chapter was rather vague on what I was going to rescue. Here's why: the Miocene is when mammals probably reached their greatest and most spectacular forms ever, with creatures like Chaolicotheres, Oreodonts, and Gomphotheres appearing on land, while pinnipeds and whales start to dominate the ocean. Yet, despite this variety, this time period is grossly underused in documentaries. As in, I can't recall any documentary EVER giving it that much detail. Therefore, I decided to give the Miocene the respect it deserves and focus on it in its entirety.

In short, this chapter will focus on the Miocene of North America from the beginning of the Miocene to the conclusion of the Miocene. This means that I will be rescuing multiple animals from a time period that is about 20 million years in length.

Therefore, this chapter will be 24 segments long.

Before you complain, I already have 14 of those segments written, with more on the way.

Additionally, I plan to rotate the away team roster, I just wanted to get them introduced. Roatations will begin at chapter 13.

Oh, and the predators who we get a peak into the minds of in this chapter are not terror birds, as Titanis did not appear until the Pliocene. You may want to look up Phorusrhacids on Wikipedia, though, as it will lead you t the group the predators belonged to.

Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.