Annoyed with its lack of success in intimidating off the strange fish, the eurypterid had ultimately retreated - there was a limit on how long it could stay in air. Thus it had returned to the sea in search of other, easier meals.

It had, so far, been unsuccessful. First it had tried to go into a pen filled with Trilobites, but the fences had blocked it off. Then it had encountered a strange armored creature that looked like the strange fish, but different. The not-fish was almost as big as it was, and had hissed at the armored predator when it had first seen it. The eurypterid had tried to eat it, only to end up with some bite marks at the base of its tail. Now, not-fish were off the menu unless they were already dead.

Given that it had seen a lot of those things walking around the island, and swimming in the surrounding ocean, they would likely pose a problem with traversing the area.

Next it had tried going into another pen that had smelled like fish. It had barely had time to go into the pen when a big, big, BIG fish had swam above it, tearing into a large pile of fish meat as it did so. Okay, not going back there any time soon.

Then it had gone to a pen that smelled like not-fish.

It had just reached the edge of the pen when a giant not-fish leaped out of the water and tried to eat it, missing only by inches. Annoyed, the not-fish used its paddle-like limbs to heave itself back into the water while the eurypterid scampered off in fear.

New rule: NEVER GO BACK THERE!

After that, the arthropod had continued to cruise around the park, taking care to try and find ways to avoid the bipeds that fed it - couldn't let them take it back home yet, it wanted to explore. It made a point to stay away from the northern part of the island, though - too cold. Also, there were few foods to find there, preventing it from sating its hunger. It had snacked on many foods, among them several invasive lionfish, not that it knew that, and had added quite a few organisms to its diet, but still it desired to travel around a while longer - more things to learn.

XXXXXXXX

Sean, Elise, and Ted had long since left in their search for the runaway eurypterid, but their marine mammal charges were still waiting at the pier, now watching the videos the had left playing.

The crowd had grown larger and more varied in species as the group had left. Where had once only been dolphins and Allodesmus, now there were Enaliarctos, Macrodelphinus, the male Basilosaurus, some Hesperornis, and Desmatostylus. All of the mammals watched on as the videos of seals and sea lions doing tricks played.

Eventually, other creatures showed up in the videos: otters, more pinnipeds, dolphins, and killer whales all soon started appearing in the videos, all doing tricks. Weird little things with funny lines on them occasionally disrupted the view of the videos whenever the killer whales showed up - complaints about the treatment of the whales, not that the marine mammals and birds could understand that. All they saw was animals doing tricks, and getting fed for them.

Then one of the Allodesmus stopped watching the video and crawled up in front of the rest of the viewers. It looked at them for a moment, then, slowly, shifted its weight until its rear flippers were in the air, leaving the giant mammal only supported by its fore-limbs. It lasted a good five seconds before it had to bring its legs down.

For a moment, the rest of the group was unsure how to act. Then the other pinnipeds started trying to balance on their forelimbs, with mixed success. Some could lift their feet off the ground without falling, others managed to stand on their forelimbs for longer than the first, but most were somewhere in-between. One Enaliarctos slipped while trying to stand and knocked four of its smaller brethren into the water.

Still, none were discouraged - maybe if they did well, the humans would give them treats, just like the seals in the videos!

XXXXXXXXXX

Carefully, Alice pushed the wheel barrow forward. She really didn't want to spill it right now - dung was a mess to clean up.

Just a few more feet and she'd be at the dumpsite.

A few moments later, she arrived, and the cargo was unloaded. Alice sighed in relief - she had completed her task without any hiccups.

Then she heard a growl, followed by a snap and a distinctive groan.

Turning toward the source of the sound, she was surprised to see Lucas in the Carnufex pen. More surprising still was that one of the inhabitants was sinking its teeth into his left arm, or rather, trying to. He'd managed to cover said arm in a huge amount of cloth, and given that said cloth was not red or soaked in fluid, he evidently hadn't made any slip-ups yet.

Sighing, Alice flagged her friend down. He had some explaining to do.

XXXXX

"...Wait, you're trying to train it into a crocodilian police dog?" questioned Alice. Lucas could only sheepishly nod in agreement. "Was that why your arm was covered in cloth?"

"It looked like the stuff they use to train police dogs."

"You do know we have those kind of things in the keeper supply room, right?"

Judging by Lucas' dumbfounded expression, he had not. Alice couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

"Come on, I'll get you one of those."

"Really?"

"Yes. You're gonna get yourself tore to shreds if you keep this up."

Instantly, Lucas' expression turned to one of indignation. "And you think you can do better?"

"My mom trained police dogs before she married, and she passed it on to me. So yes, I think I can do better than you."

"...Okay," replied Lucas, a sheepish expression once again on his face.

XXXXXXX

Back in the past, Nigel and the team were still searching for worms. They had resorted to dropping dead fish into the water, hoping to see a reaction when they hit the ocean floor. For the past hour, they had been without any luck on this front.

Then Tai dropped a dead trout into the water from one of his pockets. When it was half a meter above the sediment, something shot out and tore the fish in half. As one half was pulled into the sand, the other was torn apart by several other creatures.

Tai smiled - they had found the worms.

Of course, the group was unaware that, mere meters away, the fish and the hunter had found them.

XXXXXXX

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