With their new rescues (quite literally) in hand, the team continued their search for the elusive Carolina Butcher. Seeing no other leads, the team continued to follow the dicynodonts, who, despite having an additional half hour to get ahead of the team, were still within their sight. The distant storm, meanwhile, had grown closer, though it was still at least an hour away from them...at best guess. Its presence, however, created a sense of urgency - nobody wanted to attempt another rescue in the pouring rain, especially with regards to how the last one turned out. The clock was ticking, and nobody wanted to be here when time ran out.

Within its carrier, the Uatchitodon squirmed and hissed, trying to break out of its confinement. At least, it tried. After a few minutes of struggling, the tiny creature's strength began to fail. Deciding to save its strength for a later breakout, the predator curled up and did its best to make itself comfortable. In truth, it wasn't really sure what to do in order to escape. It had never encountered animals this large that stood upright. They smelled like traversodonts, but it didn't know if it could hurt them with its venom - cynodonts were vulnerable to its venom, and even giant Placerias fell before the lethal fluid, but these were a whole different matter entirely. What if they had venom resistance? What if their metabolisms were too slow for the venom to weaken them before it could escape. A million problems wandered through this reptile's head, all trying to help it answer just one - how could it escape these giants?

It wasn't entirely worried about whether or not they would eat it, for they had carried the carcass with them, and appeared to be omnivores besides, but that did not alleviate all of its fears. The male archosaurimorph, for that was what he was, could not tell if they saw him as food, enemy, or curiosity. Perhaps they merely wished to play around with him before eating him? It wouldn't be unsurprising - contrary to popular belief, predators did occasionally kill for sport. Every animal had its own way to relieve boredom, and for some, hunting was just as much about pleasure as it was food. Humans often thought themselves monsters for crimes they committed upon each other, but nature was a lot more brutal than they expected. Murder, rape, sport hunting, cannibalism, all happened in the animal world. If anything, perhaps it made humans a more noble species, if only because they could regret their crimes.

Indeed, this male had been a victim of such brutality. A year ago, he had been savaged by another of his kind while on the border of his normal feeding grounds. Such actions were common place in the animal world, but this one had not been out of territorialism, or the desire to secure mates. No, this attack had been motivated by anger. His assailant had been forced away from a kill by a Carnufex, and while he had had the luck of getting a larger feast soon after said eviction, he hadn't taken the loss well. When he had seen a rival basking in the sunlight, said rival's serene appearance had enraged him. Why could this creature have a nice day when he could not? Thus the rival had predator had charged the now captured male, inflicting deep wounds upon him. Though the wounds had long since healed, the victim could still remember where he had been struck, and felt those spots over while he laid in the carrier.

He'd managed to survive, but the venomous predator had suffered quite a huge amount of misfortune following this incident. His injuries had impaired his ability to function properly, leaving him unable to hunt large game. Scavenging had sustained him, but he had grow noticeably weaker, and now parasites were beginning to ravage his body. His attacker was long dead, having been killed in another battle with the same crocodilian relative that had evicted him from his meal, but if his victim had known this, and had the capacity for rational thought, he would have considered his rival the better off of the two. At least he got a quick end.

Now, all that the enclosed male could do was ponder what would happen next.

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Back at the park, Vera and Alice are working with the plesiadapids. Right now, the yare focusing on one of the juveniles.

Vera watched as the female primate scampered up the tree. Once she reached the canopy, she leapt toward an adjacent tree, only to slip and fall to the ground. She attempted this three times more, before reluctantly giving up and settling for hiding in a hole within one of the trees.

Turning to Alice, Vera frowned. "You think our plan will work?"

"I have no idea, but we have to hope so - if it doesn't, I don't think this little girl will be able to stay with her family long. Her mother will probably kick her out."

"True. La vida de un animal es aspera. If this one doesn't learn to climb, she's not gonna do well. I mena, we'll care for her, but he chances of breeding are going to drop down to zero."

"No doubt there. So, who goes first?"

"I'll do it."

Back on the trees, the female primate made another attempt to jump between trees, and once again fell. This time, though, she heard a loud noise as she fell. It was strange, irritating, and most of all scary.

She tried again, only to be met with failure, and the same strange noise. Turning, she saw that one of the strange bipeds was holding some kind of weird object with a big red part on it. The one holding it had her index finger on top of the object, and once she lifted said finger, the noise stopped.

Briefly, the primate tried to stare them off, but to no avail. In fact, all her actions resulted in was the annoying noise filling the air again.

Defeated on that front, the female primate turned her attention back to jumping between the branches. This time, though, she focused on her target destination, allowing her instincts to judge the distance. She waited until she was sure about her landing spot, before taking another leap. This time, she hit her target and didn't fall. Additionally, the noise did not fill the air.

"Well, she learning," noted Alice.

"This might just be a fluke, Alice - we need to let her try again."

"I know that. We need a least a day to condition her correctly."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Back in the past, the team, against the odds, has caught up with the dicynodonts.

Only meters away from the pony sized herbivores, the team quietly observed as they rooted through the ground, using their tusks to pull out juicy morsels from the earth. Joining them were a group of aetosaurs, who occasionally attempted to push the dicynodonts away from choice morsels. The crocodile relatives succeeded as often as the failed. Nearby, fish swam in a lake, uncaring for the reactions of the synapsids and archosaurs.

The team shared a look, before deciding to make their move. Cautiously, they began to set up the land based portal, while the camera crew assembled the aquatic one. The latter came online first, and using a piece of the dicynodont carcass as bait, the various ancient fish in the water, among them freshwater sharks, began to dart into the portal. On land, meanwhile, the team had finished setting up the portal, and was ready to bait in the herbivores. To their surprise, though, other creatures had joined the leaf eaters - dinosaur-like reptiles, a crocodile look-alike, rhynchosaurs, and actual dinosaurs!

Oh, and a group of predators hiding in the bushes that look exactly like what they were hunting for.

The team, silently praising their luck, decided to try and coax the herbivores into the portal using an old trick. Taking out a bright red tarp, the team waved it around, hoping to coax the dicynodonts into the portal. At first, none noticed, but eventually, one decided to examine them and went into the portal. Another followed, and soon over a dozen had entered the portal, with many of the others following suite. The team could only smile as more creatures entered the portal.

Eventually, the Carnufex made their move, and charged. Though they intended to attack a dicynodont, they ended up catching an aetosaur in the crossfire. The group stared on, bewildered, as the herbivores and smaller predators charged into the portal, abandoning the two trapped plant eaters to their fate. The shock quickly wore off, and the team responded by throwing the dicynodont carcass to the ground, which quickly took up the predators' attentions. As they moved in to secure the kill, their would-be victims vanished into the portal.

Just as the team readied to try and spook the crocodilians into the portal, though, five huge figures emerged from the water. They resembled rauisuchians, but with crocodilian snouts, which ended in a pronounced, curved overbite.

As the predators readied to fight, thunder rumbled overhead - the storm clouds now covered the sky, and the rain had finally arrived.

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