With one group of animals already rescued, the team is in high spirits. Of course, if they can't find their targets, those spirits are for naught.

After finding a way to ford the river, the team continued on through the woodland, still searching for the Carnufex. They left no stone unturned, searching for foot pints, shed skin, teeth, carcasses, anything that could lead them to their target. So far, though, they had no luck. Above them, reptiles glided through the trees, searching for insects to devour. As they grew farther from the water, a silence overtook the team.

Lucas was the first to break the silence. "So, can we expect to see any dinosaurs here?"

"Unlikely," responded Tristan, "but not impossible - we haven't found any dinosaur fossils in this ecosystem, but they would have evolved by this point. The only oens we know that would havelived in Norht America at this point are ones we've already rescued - Chindesaurus and Caseosaurus. I don't think Coelophysis has appeared yet."

"Okay then. So what else are we likely to see?"

"Aetosaurs, some dicynodonts, basically everything we saw in Chinle. The local ecosystem is pretty much the same as any other ecosystem on Earth at this time. Supercontinent cause a lot of homogeneity for what lives where."

"I know. Kinda boring, isn't it?"

"Yes it is. Yes it is"

Above the group, reptiles continued to glide in search of food. Some began to land on nearby trees, fighting with other reptiles over the few insects they could find. The team actually paused from their marching to observe the outcome.

"Those look familiar," noted Marcus.

"Those are some type of Kuehneosaur," replied Nigel, "relatives of the Icarosaurus back the park. I think some of them are Icarosaurus, but I can also see another genus among them. Most likely Rhabdopelix, based on our location. As for the reptiles already on the trees, they look like drepanosaurs, probably Hypuronector. These are small creatures, but their importance to the environment cannot be understated."

Instantly, the team shared a knowing look. They could not leave these creatures behind.

XXXXXX

While the team decides how to rescue the animals, at the park, some of the new arrivals are still getting settled in.

Alice watched on in silence as the taeniodonts began to dig into the ground, pulling apart the rainforest soil with their claws. All around them, dirt piled up as the doglike creatures bored in the Earth. Once they felt they had gone deep enough, the emerged from the burrows and began to dig again, this time to find food. One got luck and found a potato plant the keepers had put into the ground. It greedily sank its teeth into the tuber while the rest of its kind continued to root about for food.

"These sure are dedicated burrowers."

"Yes they are, Alice. Yes they are," responded Vera, who was not to far away, watching the plesiadapids living in the trees.

"So, how are you doing with early monkeys?"

"They aren't monkeys, but I think they are adjusting well. One of them, though, seems to be having trouble moving through the trees."

"Oh. Well, hopefully it adjusts."

"It better. I think its mom really isn't happy with it."

XXXXXXX

Plesi stared at her daughter, confused and annoyed. Why couldn't she be different?

Plesi and her mate had cared for her two pups, Strong and Weak, since the two had been born. She had given them food and protection, as any mammalian parent should. But now she had reached her limits. There was only so much she could offer her young before they would need to rely on themselves, and she had long since reached that point with these two. Now, it was time for them to learn how to survive on their own.

That meant learning how to jump between trees. To her surprise, Weak had been the one to learn it first. She had misjudged her first jump, true, but she had learned from her mistake, and was now flitting through the treetops like an adult. Strong had made the jump afterwards, unwilling to be second fiddle to her weaker sibling, but she had done so without trying to judge the distance, without bothering to spot where she should land. The plesiadapid paid for this mistake when she fell out of the tree, and landed on some strange bipedal giant.

That was why Plesi and her family were where they were now. When Plesi and her mate had descended to find their lost child, joined by Weak, who didn't want to be left alone, the two had been noticed by the strange bipeds. All three had been caught, and the family was moved into this new forest, after passing through a strange light. Here, they found themselves living with creatures that they never knew existed, facing competition with primates unlike any she had ever seen. True, they had never run out of food in the short time they had been here, but she was still very uncomfortable here.

Plesi did not blame her daughter for their arrival here, where the dinosaurs somehow still roamed. That was just bad luck. What she did dislike about Strong, though, was that she refused to learn how to climb properly, how to jump between branches. IF her daughter could not learn that skill, then she would not be able to survive.

It was hard, true.

But it was life.

XXXXXXXXXX

Back in the past, the team is putting their rescue plan into action.

With the portal already online, the team carefully began putting their bait in place. Grubs and crickets were dispersed in front of the portal, themselves baited by plants and sugar. Ture, they had used the strategy in the previous mission, but it had worked there, so why change it.

Here, too, the plan worked. The insectivores were swift to end their conflict as they saw the new source of food appear, abandoning their fighting to pursue the insects on the ground. It was only a matter of moments before all were through the portal, where a waiting team of keepers began to put them into observation pens more appropriate for small creatures.

Their second rescue of the day completed, the team marched on, still searching for their intended rescue target.

XXXXXXXXX

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