The eurypterid paddle through the water as fast as possible, trying to evade the humans following him. He didn't want to go back to his pen yet, he wanted to explore some more! Why couldn't they just let him do that?!

He may have been faster than them, but there was only so far he could go before he tired. Fortunately, it seemed that the humans tired before he did, as they soon gave up the chase. Once he was sure he had outpaced the humans, he descended into the sand and started digging, then tunnel a small distance until he was in a small cave network. Here, he would be able to hide until the humans finally gave up on finding him.

As he started to explore the cave network, though, he noticed that the area smelled familiar. Continuing through one of the chambers, he soon found an exit form the caves that lead him to a large, almost transparent wall. There, on the other side of said wall, he could see more of his kind.

Unknowingly, he had ended up back at his original exhibit, not that the staff had planned this. None had even known that the cave network existed.

For a moment, the eurypterid considered going back to his pen, before deciding to leave. He still wanted to do a little more adventuring.

XXXXX

As he continued swimming on, the sea scorpion came upon an interesting sight: a group of acanthodians swimming through the water. Though it had seen some of the fish swimming in tanks, it had yet to see them in the open water.

The park had, for the most part, restricted smaller fish to living in tanks, where they would be safe from large predators. These fish, however, had been moved here due to a maintenance issue with the main tank. As said issue had only happened after the eurypterid had first seen them, this was why it had never seen any of the fish in the coastal waters before.

Right now, the fish were being held in an underwater tank. One fish, though, seemed to be trying to get out. Desperately, it beat against the walls, trying to make them break. Eventually, reason dawned on it, and the fish stopped trying to headbutt the wall.

Instead, it tried to jump over it...and succeeded.

Said jump left it right in front of the eurypterid.

For a moment, neither creature reacted.

Then, the fish started to swim away, before coming to a stop at a nearby sponge.

The eurypterid stared, unsure how to react.

The fish swam right up to him, looked him in the eyes, then swam back to the sponge.

This time, the sea scorpion followed the fish. Once he reached the sponge, the fish swam further, before once again coming to a stop.

The eurypterid followed again.

Soon, the eurypterid was right behind the small blue fish.

XXXXX

Ten minutes later, and the fish came to a stop. Before it was a large carcass, already under attack from hagfish and other scavengers. This had once been a short finned pilot whale, who had succumbed to disease in the open ocean, with its bloated corpse coming to rest here.

While many pieces of the carcass had already been taken, there were still a few choice morsels left to eat, and the fish did not want to give those up. Already, it was tearing into the meat, though its jaw size meant it could only nibble at the flesh. It was soon joined by the eurypterid, who was eager to fill his gullet. His large size served to dissuade several of the smaller creatures picking at the carcass, except for the fish who had lead him here - in fact, she simply moved closer to him.

Nearby, a shark stared at the acanthodian, ready to sink its teeth in the small fish. Fresh meat was preferable to decayed flesh when available. Sensing an opportunity, it charged.

It promptly got manhandled by the sea scorpion and was forced to retreat.

Perhaps it could find an easier meal elsewhere?

XXXXXXX

Unnoticed to the fish and arthropod, there was a ROV right behind them, observing their feeding on the carcass. The humans controlling the machine stared on, curious, as the early fish and sea scorpion fed on the carcass.

This was certainly interesting behavior, to say the least.

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Back in the past, Violet and Aiden were attempting to coax the worms out of their burrows. Large amounts of bait had been offered, in an effort to convince the worms to leave their burrows and, by extension, make themselves easier to catch. Unfortunately, the worms refused to be moved.

This was problematic, as they could not safely transport the worms if they stayed in the substrate. The risk of injury was too high. Thus, they had been trying to get them to attack meat impaled upon a stick so that they could slowly pull the worms out, but that had failed miserably.

Just as the younger duo was about to put another piece of bait on their sticks, though, an acanthodian swam up to them. Within moments, the worms charged at it...only to find themselves under attack by a massive armored creature. Pulling back, the siblings quickly recognized the creature: it was one of the park's earlier rescues, Pterygotus. Why it was attacking the worms, though, eluded them.

Panic overrode reason as the team quickly tried to swim away from the giant sea scorpion. Fear also gripped the giant worms, who promptly emerged from their burrows and tried to navigate the water, moving away from the rampaging eurypterid and the humans. Sensing an opportunity, Nigel broke off from the group and, using a portal buoy, managed to send all of the annelids into the present.

Unfortunately, his actions had separated him from the group, and by the time he had rescued the worms, the team and their pursuers had long since left him in the underwater dust. In fact, they'd actually moved deeper into the waves, and found themselves in an interesting environment: surrounding them were what appeared to be mushrooms, for lack of a better word. This wasn't entirely a surprise - there were marine varieties of fungi, and mushrooms had been observed growing in rivers, but to see something like this was still rather odd.

Of course, the groups focus on the fungi prevented them from noticing the rapid movement in the sands around said fungi. Several large things were moving through the sand, and they were homing in on the humans.

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