It seemed that Matilda would not be able to avoid the humans so easily. She had left the nursery half an hour ago, but once again, she found the bald-headed one working with plants, this time supported by the little one called Marcus and the female one known as Vera. The smell of the female made the she-tyrant uneasy, for it was intermixed with that of the fin-backed carnivore she had seen earlier. She didn't like other large predators - competition for food was something all predators disdained. Indeed, she had spent some time going around her side of the hill, scent marking the area so that other apex predators would know not to enter her kingdom. She...tolerated...her brother and parents, but she secretly wished she could either evict Terence from the hill, or find a lair of her own - one adult tyrannosaur was enough. Her parents were of similar annoyance, but eventually, they would pass on.

Part of Matilda's dislike for her brother was an issue with her own restricted territory. Her father's lineage had been nomadic hunters, migrating across the plains of the southern United States in pursuit of migrating titanosaurs, in order to feast on the hadrosaurs that followed the wandering titans. Males occasionally broke from the pattern, securing a territory to raise young, but females were always migrants. Yet her mother's lineage had the opposite way of life: females would permanently occupy an area, while males were constantly on the move, occasionally stopping to mate with a female and help her raise their young. Right now, those two instincts were conflicting inside of Matilda, and she had no way to resolve them. A nomadic life was impossible for her - the island had too few animals to sustain her bulk indefinitely. Separating the siblings had worked so far, but now that they were mature, this would only be a temporary fix. Either they would need to receive entirely separate exhibits, or they would return to conflict.

An alternative strategy existed, though the keepers were not aware of this: as both tyrannosaur lines that the siblings had descended from were social creatures, they could reconcile if one dominated the other. This was also a source of conflict - with their parents getting too old to maintain dominance over their children, they had lost authority over the pack. If Matilda bested her brother and he acknowledged it, or the opposite happened, then the defeated dinosaur would submit and acknowledge them as pack leader. If/when that happened, the pack would stabilize, and no more conflict would happen. Of course, the siblings were so competitive that neither would back down until they were half dead, and the keepers had constantly stepped in to stop the fighting. Thus, a resolution to the dominance issue was unlikely to happen soon.

Oblivious to the female tyrannosaur and her issues, the humans continued to work with the plants, placing them into one of the park's exhibits - the boneheads, if Matilda was remembering the scents correctly. Sure enough, a couple of the herbivores emerged from the undergrowth and, after a moment of hesitation, begin to nibble on the plants, earning some ire from the keepers. Idly, Matilda noticed that one of the ankylosaurs was also advancing on the plants, with Bob trying to dissuade it from wrecking the vehicle used to transport the plants.

One of the bone heads took a bite out of a fern, then, to Matilda and Marcus' surprise, sneezed on the male human's face when he tried to take away the fern. When Vera attempted to help her companion, the bone head sneezed at her as well. Apparently, her backing up in surprise from the sneeze seemed to reveal something that looked delicious to the ankylosaur, who promptly charge into them, knocking the teens over as it began to dig in.

Matilda watched Bob help up the teens and call for help, before leaving the humans behind - her belly needed to be sated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back in Prehistoric Arizona, the team is still on the prowl for more dinosaurs. They appear to have lucked out.

The team had been lucky - the sound of running water had alerted them to a nearby creek, and after a few minutes of following, they had found what they were looking for.

Underneath the shade of a few conifers, a group of Dilophosaurus were busy lazing about. Nearby, a group of longnecked herbivores were busy feeding on some trees, while cynodonts were busy drinking from the creek, joined by pterosaurs and wary of crocodilians luring beneath the (admittedly shallow) waters.

"...I spotted some Dilophosaurus and Sarahsaurus in front of us," noted Elise. "There's some other creatures there too, but I don't know what they are."

"Pretty sure some of the cynodonts are Kayentatherium," intoned Tai. "As for the pterosaurus…..Rhamphinion?"

"Probably," noted Nigel. "Since none of the predators seem to be hungry right now, perhaps we can bait them individually? First the herbivores, then the predators."

The group was quick to agree to that plan. Then, slowly, they got to work baiting in the plant eaters.

XXXXXX

Back at the park, Vera and Marcus are working on cleaning out the Dakotaraptor Exhibit.

"So, just to be sure, we did get sneezed on by a thick-headed dinosaur, right?" asked Marcus

"Yes, we did," replied Vera. "Also, how long did it take these raptors to eat a whole cow?"

"About a week. I'm actually surprised they managed to pull the ribs off the main body."

Not far away, the raptors were watching the humans, waiting for them to leave.

"Can we hurry?" asked Vera. "I might like predatory dinosaurs, but their stares are creeping me out."

"Don't worry. We just need to drag these bones out of the exhibit, then we can say goodbye to North and South."

XXX

The two raptors watched on as the humans dragged the bones out of their territory, occasionally climbing the trees in their home to get a better look at the humans.

When the last bone was finally out, the raptors began to relax, happy that the humans were gone...until the male one slumped over on to a tree, hand on his head, crying out in...was that pain or annoyance. His female companion/possible mate immediately rushed to his side to comfort him, but when he opened his eyes, they widened in shock and appeared to focus on something behind the raptor pair.

But there was nothing there. A quick glance confirmed that.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Marucs, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three. Also, how many pink elephants do we have at the park?"

"Just the pink bull that got rescued from a circus a few...months...ago...why?"

"There's a pink elephant cow right behind the raptors...and I'm guessing you are seeing something strange as well."

"There's a bird-eating spider with wings on your head."

Confused, Marcus moved his hand through his hair.

"There's nothing there...can we go to Suzanne's clinic? I think we need to lay down."

"Sure...which was is that, again?"

XXXXXXXX

Some distance away, Matilda had returned to the gas field, and was once again hard at work dragging a carcass to the edge of the toxic valley. The sound of an engine, however, brought her actions to a halt.

Nearby, what looked like a truck, albeit one with a funny tire that seemed to cover three wheels, was busy trudging by, joined by another vehicle just like it. One had a star on its side, the other had some symbol that she couldn't really see because it had been painted over and scratched out, though next to it was a funny looking cross of sorts. The drivers stared at her for a moment, before moving on. Both of them had strange looking things around their faces.

Once she was done looking them over, safe from the fumes due to her height, she returned to dragging back the carcass to her waiting followers, who quickly dug into the adolescent Edmontosaurus' remains. How this one had gotten here was a mystery, as she had seen that all of the ones that lived in the park were still alive and kicking.

As she finished up her meal, Matilda returned to the field to pluck up another carcass - that of a nodosaur. Far lighter than the duck-billed dinosaur, this carcass she could easily hoist into the air. Following her was her satisfied entourage, all ready to return home.

XXXXXXXXXX

Back in Prehistoric Arizona, the team is putting their plan into action.

Having set up the portal, and put a huge smattering of greenery near its opening, the team waited to see if the herbivores would take the bait. At first, none did, but then one of the younger animals began to approach and start nibbling. Tai offered a branch to it, and after the herbivore had eaten enough of the leaves, threw it into the portal, with the dinosaur soon following. When the herd heard its cries from the other sides, the gradually began moving into the portal, eager to feed on the greenery. Soon they had all entered the portal, as had the plant eating cynodonts.

Smiling, the team readied up the bait for the predators who soon began to approach the portal.

XXXXXX

"...How'd we end up at the portal annex?" questioned Vera.

"...I don't know...should we back away from the portal?"

"As long as we don't get too close to the prosauropods."

A sudden roar behind them caused the duo to turn around in shock. There, staring right at them, was one of the park's Yutyrannus.

"How'd it get over here?" questioned Marcus.

"I don't know! Just back away slowly and hope it decides we're not worth eating."

The prosauropods stared at the duo, then at where they were staring. Nothing was there.

Oblivious to the fact that the carnivore was a figment of their imagination, the duo backed toward the portal...where, unknown to know, one of the Dilophosaurus was just beginning to make its way into the present.

XXXXXX

AN: Uh oh, cliffhanger.

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