We've almost finished this chapter, just this one and the next to read. Enjoy!

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In Prehistoric Arizona, the team has at last found their target: an entire herd of Sonorasaurus is approaching the river. While they have already rescued one of the giants, having a whole herd would be even better.

The team has moved up onto a small hill to get a better view of the giant herbivores. While most of them are either adults or fairly mature adolescents, within the herd are several smaller brachiosaurs.

"So, they live like elephants," states Sean, to which Elise and Tristan nod.

"So it seems," replies Nigel," the adults, they're on the outside of the herd, where they act as a shield for the juveniles. If anything wants to feed on the juveniles, they'll have to get past the adults, and that isn't easy when said adults are bigger than elephants."

As the herd grows closer, though, the team notices that they are not alone. Surrounding them are several types of smaller dinosaurs: some resemble the park's Denversaurus, while others appear to be iguanodonts. The remainder are a predator that doesn't resemble anything at the park.

"Any idea what those dinos are?" asks Violet, expressing the obvious question.

"Well, I think those ankylosaurs are Silvisaurus," remarks Elise, "but I'm drawing blanks on the other two. I mean, I know the other herbivores are iguanodonts of some sort, but I can't really figure out much beyond that."

"Well, maybe they're members of an undiscovered species," responds Tristan. "After all, only a tiny amount all of the animals that have ever lived have been fossilized. Most disappear without a trace."

"True... wait, if these are undiscovered species, then do we get to name them?" asks Tai.

"...I think we do," responds Sean.

"Can we save the names until after we rescue them?" asks Elise, who receives nods from her teammates.

"Alright, we are in agreement. Now how do we rescue them?"

"Well," begins Nigel, "they're heading toward the river. We should wait until they arrive first before we try to rescue them, otherwise if we try to open the portal, they might scatter... Well, there's still a chance they'll scatter if we use the portal at the river, but if they scatter now, it'll be a lot harder to track them down."

"Okay then," responds Tristan, "time to play the waiting game."

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Back at the Park, Vera is still with the Acrocanthosaurus. While the medical team has finally arrived, its clear that she doesn't want to abandon the predator just yet.

While the medical team is already around the sail-backed carnosaur, checking for injuries, Vera is already at its side, watching closely as the animal labors to breath. While each breath seems to be a challenge for this giant, it isn't wheezing or making any other strange sounds that would indicate sickness as the cause. Needless to say, the veterinary team is both baffled and worried.

If the vets can't figure out why the carnosaur is so weak, they won't be able to save it.

Distressed at the sight of the predator's weakness, Vera walks up to its neck and begins to pet it, trying to sooth its pain. The carnivore calms for a moment, but when a member of the team tries to sedate it via injection to the neck, it snaps at the offending vet, knocking Vera away. Only mildly stunned, Vera soon regains her footing and heads back to the beast's flank.

As she returns to examining its side, she finally notices something she missed early: the carnivores ribs are clearly visible against the skin. Vera knows that this isn't natural, as normally carnivores have a layer of muscle above this. The only reason that the ribs would show is if it is malnourished.

If it was malnourished...

Its starving!

The dots quickly connect within Vera's mind, finally offering an explanation to why the Acro is so weak: its very, very hungry.

Once this becomes clear, Vera quickly speaks with the head of the team with her and asks them to get some meat. Since the vets will still need to check it for other problems, she also asks that they get some sedative pills, allowing them to kill two birds with one stone (or piece of meat, as the situation may be).

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The bull acro is tired. All of the energy he had left had been devoted to charging after the sonoro. But it had been alerted by the two legs, forcing him to attack it too early. He hadn't been close enough to the giant herbivore when he launched the attack, so despite his speed, he hadn't been able to close the distance; the herbivore's stamina had won it the day.

He'd only just noticed the strange light appear before he burst through the portal, at which point his strength had faded to the point he could only trot, not run. The sonoro had already outpaced him by this point and had quickly begun putting distance between the two of them. As his prey had gotten further away, he felt a feeling of sorrow begin to enter his chest: he had missed his chance.

That feeling had passed, though, when he saw that another two legged creature was nearby, and within striking distance. If it were any other time, he would've exercised more caution with the creature, but not today: he was too hungry. Besides, the two-legged thing appeared to frozen in front of him, perhaps in fear.

With the last of his strength, the bull acro had lunged at the two legged pail skinned creature, which just barely jumped out of the way in time. The momentum of the lunge kept him moving forward, leaving him flat on his belly. Desperate to make a kill, he tried to stand up, but he could barely muster the strength to do so, and when he did, he soon found himself flat on his belly again. And this time, he couldn't find the strength to stand back up.

A feeling of resignation had passed through him. He realized that it was unlikely that he was going to get up at all. Now, he was helpless.

And, more than likely, he was going to die.

A sense of defeat quickly spread throughout the bulls mind and body. Muscles that had been working ferociously to get him standing began to relax. His breathing was beginning to become labored: the heat of the present day was getting to him. He'd drunk from a lake only a few hours earlier, but he hadn't drunk much before several terminoes had evicted him. On any other day, he would've attacked them, but he had been horribly outnumbered, and injured besides. If he had attacked, he would've been overwhelmed. And now the heat was slowly drying him out.

But the biggest change of all to the starving predator was in its mood: it had slumped over and closed its eyes: it was resigning itself to death. And this was the worst death that any animal could suffer: it would die without producing offspring, ensuring its genes would never be continued on into the future. In the great game of evolution, he had lost.

And it wasn't just him who had lost: the bull had no way of knowing it, but he was the very last of his kind in existence. If he had wandered across the united states, as far as the land would let him go, he would never find another of his kind. They had long fallen victim to climate change, sickness, or competition: megaraptorids, dromaeosaurs and tyrannosaurs had, 20 million years before, begun to displace them. This was compounded by the loss of the great sauropods: many of the gigantic ones had died away, leaving his kind to fight with the new predators for creatures that offered less meat or had stronger defenses than the mighty sauropods. Combined with the global change in climate, which was the cause of the sauropods disappearance, these had spelled doom for the carnosaur line. The megaraptorids would be able to hold on a little longer, but they too would soon be extinct. The future belonged to the coelurosaurs, whose smaller size let them endure this tumultuous time period.

With the bull acro's death, his genus line would reach its end, and Acrocanthosaurus would become extinct.

When he opened his eyes, trying to search for any creatures that had come to make a meal of him, the bull acro was surprised to notice that the strange tow legged creature had stayed near him. The reasons for its course of action were beyond him: perhaps this was a scavenger and was waiting for him to expire.

Well, if that was the case, he wouldn't go down without a fight: resigned though he may be to death, the bull hoped he could do so in peace. He hissed at the strange creature, only to see that it was not phased by his actions. After trying this tree times, he gave up and simply settled for glaring at the stranger.

As the time passed, he soon noticed that the stranger was not alone: more creatures like it had emerged. They had different color skin, though, and had strange things around their wastes and on the backs. It did not take them long to surround him, and despite his best displays, they refused to back down. With some resignation, the bull acro layid down and excepted his fate.

Needless to say, he was surprised that they didn't go for the killing blow. Instead, they merely looked over him, occasionally touching him and examining skin and feathery back. Why they didn't attack was beyond him; maybe they were trying to figure out which part of him tasted the best?

Then he felt something petting his neck. Turning around, he noticed the two legged creature he had tried to eat earlier was the one responsible. This confused him, but it also comforted him: it reminded him of his youth, when his own mother would like his neck as a sign of affection.

Unfortunately, the nice moment was ruined when another two legged creature walked up to him with some kind of sharp rock. Instantly on the defensive, the carnosaur snapped at the stranger, scaring it away, while also knocking over his new companion in the process. A pang of guilt passed through him for a moment, but it soon passed.

Then, to his surprise, his companion seemed to notice something and began communicating with another of its kind, though about what was beyond him. After a moment, the two left, leaving him alone with the pack of strange beasts.

While he waited to see how the creatures around him would react, he noticed something they did not: a little ways away was another one of the strange creatures, only this one had darker skin, and seemed to have a crown of feathers on its head. Nearby it was a strange looking mammal, which had a body similar to a crocodile. It stated at him intently before it retreated with the funny mammal, leaving the acro wondering if it was seeing things.

Then the acro detected a new scent in the air. While this new land had many strange scents, this one was familiar.

After all, the smell of blood never changed.

Soon, his companion returned, but this time, she had something with her: it was a strange stone thing that had round stones that rolled beneath it.

And on top of it was meat. LOTS of meat.

Instantly, the carnivore perked up. Still unable to raise himself, he desperately began snapping at the meat, trying to inch near it on his belly. To his surprise, the two leg took a piece off of the stony thing and offered it to him. Gently, he took it from her, the gulped it down. The meat had a strange taste, but was very satisfying. Feeling the pangs of hunger already beginning to ebb away, the acro looked back at the stony thing, eager for more.

A pattern soon emerged: his companion would offer him meat, he would eat it, then she would offer more. This was repeated until there was no more meat left. At that point, though, the acro no longer cared: he was full.

No longer a salve to his hunger, the acro finally realized how tired he was. Feeling content, he laid down once again, but this time, he felt much better. Belly sated and having cheated death, the acro soon entered the oblivion of dreamland.

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