Listener tailed the humans closely, only occasionally stopping to observe a particularly strange creature. So far, that had entailed giant sea lizards, sail-backed mammal relatives, humped mammals that somewhat resembled sauropods, an one or two saber-toothed creatures. Still, she didn't know where these humans were leading her, and that bothered her more than she cared to admit. Just how many creatures were there here? What had happened to cause all of them to live side by side?

Eventually, however, Listener's companions came to a halt, before pointing at something. Following their gestures, Listener was faced with a peculiar sight: a small group of plump, tusked mammals, which were busy rooting around in the ground, looking for small mammals. They were mostly grey in appearance, though the adults had a white band of fir around their necks, resembling a collar of sorts. Unknown to Listener, these creatures were very far from home - the only island these creatures were known to be native to was Trinidad.

While Listener had no idea what kind of mammals she was looking at, she knew what they were to her - food. And given that her human companions were carrying spears, it seemed they were in agreement here.

After taking a spear offered by one of the humans, Listener circled around until she was behind the herd, whilst the humans moved into position ahead of the rooters. Carefully, she advanced on the herbivores, careful to avoid spooking them, especially the juveniles - best not to surprise them, lest the hunt fail before it began.

She was just within striking distance when one finally noticed her. With a squeal, the herbivore bolted, but not before Listener sent a spear into its side. A few seconds later, another spear flew into the flank of one of the runners, causing it to collapse in a matter of seconds. While the humans secured their kill, Listener began to track her target.

She didn't have to go far - her spear had gone through the tusked herbivore's lung and heart, making for a quick death.

Listener was beaming at her success - she had successfully brought down a new type of prey in this new land, and had been the first of her clan to do so. Perhaps, later, she could teach the rest of her group howto hunt these beasts, but for now, her attention turned back toward the humans - they would know how to prepare this carcass.

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Lying beneath a tree, Alicia slowly opened her eyes. With nothing to hunt, food plentiful, and her dominion assert for now, she had decided to take a midday nap. Now, though, she was awake once more, and ready to search for more food.

As her vision came into focus, though, she found an unexpected and worrisome sight - another of her kind was looking right at her.

Immediately, Alicia stood up and prepared to go on the defensive. Before she could, though, the new arrival lowered its head, placed something on the ground, and pushed it toward her, before backing down.

Now fully awake, Alicia inhaled deeply, and a new smell filled her nostrils - that of fresh meat. And it was coming from what the newcomer had placed on the ground.

Soon, another scent filled Alicia's nose, this one coming from the allosaur in front of her - sexually-active male.

Instantly, Alicia's thoughts went from aggression to sexual selection. Only if the male before her did not meet her standards would she attack.

She started by looking at the male's head. The short feathers on the back of his skull were well developed, and his crests were a brilliant shade of red - signs of a healthy adult.

Next her attention turned to his arms, looking for signs of injury. Sure enough, there was a noticeable injury on one of his arms, but it showed signs of healing - evidence that this allosaur had been in battles before, and had been wise enough to run when he could.

Further examination of his body revealed more healed wounds and scars, evidence of a rough life, even for a carnivore. Clearly, this male had endured a lot.

A particularly interesting sight was the swollen bump on his central. When she had moved particularly close to him in order to examine it, he had taken a few steps back, revealing an almost unnoticeable limp.

Such an injury could easily have been fatal for a hunter, but this male had managed to endure it, somehow, as the wound was showing signs of healing.

If Alicia had the capacity to use a ten point rating scale, this male would've received an eight.

Thus, her inspection finished, she walked over to the gift meat and wolfed it down, before letting out a low bellow to the male. The message is clear: I'm interest in you, but I'm not yet ready to mate. You can stay, but don't come too close.

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Heartened by his success, Al retreated. It seemed he may yet secure a mate.

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Whilst Al vacated the area to give Alicia her space, at Coelophysis Creek, the resident early theropods were also attracting mates.

The young female watched as the displayed his wattle, whilst offering her a meal.

Most of his rivals were still displaying and dueling with each other for mates, but he had instead tried to win her over with a small meal whilst the others had been distracted. Additionally, he had also prepared a nesting site for her, only hidden amongst a clump of cycads - all the better to protect it from rivals, predators, and nest raiders.

The female accepted the meal, but she wasn't yet ready to breed, and the male knew it. Of course, right now, he wasn't interested in mating just yet - all he wanted to do now was secure this female as his own. And right now, he had succeeded in achieving that goal.

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Back in Cretaceous, the team continued to watch the sea reptiles, waiting for more hunters to arrive.

They needn't have waited long - two huge blips soon appeared on the sonar, followed by several much, much smaller blips. Examining them revealed the long, serpentine forms of a pair of mosasaurs...and following them, several similar, if far smaller, shapes - two adults and their young. Such as sight was heartwarming for everyone.

Yet that joy was soon replaced with dread as something else soon came into view - the unmistakable shape of a shark. Many of these shapes were following the mosasaurs, likely looking for an opening to attack the juveniles.

Now, the team knew they were racing against time - they needed to find a way to get the mosasaurs through the portal before they were eaten by the sharks.

And that was just the threats the team knew about.

XXXXXX

Beneath the waves, the Ginsu Shark zeroed in on its target. It had been tracking a group of plesiosaurs for a few days now, and it was very much ready to snatch a meal. Others of its kind had joined it, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

They needed to be - the hunter had already caught the scent of several mosasaurs, all of which were heading to this location as well. Soon, a bloodbath would ensue, and the sharks would prefer to get a meal quickly, lest they become more chum in the upcoming frenzy.

When the various prey animals finally came into view, the Ginsu Shark quickly began picking its target. The long-necked plesiosaurs were soon ruled out - too large, and they were too annoying to present easy meals. The various sea birds and pterosaurs were also quickly discarded as meals - too small, and way too maneuverable. The strange floater was also ruled out, as was the nearby sea turtles - too well defended, and with no knowledge of the strange floater, any assault on it would be done blind. All that remained was the short-necked plesiosaurs...and the biggest one was too busy catching a breather to notice the shark's arrival.

The shark quickly swam underneath the polycotylid, then charged, jaws open, ready for the kill.

It was jsut about to strike when something big and scaly slammed into it, knocking it aside.

Confused and enraged, the shark reoriented itself for another attack, and found the interruption to be a Deinosuchus. Normally a native of the coastline, the presence of the sea turtles had drawn this one, as well as several others, to the open ocean.

Panic soon followed, as the various creatures went berserk trying to either eat or be eaten.

All of that, however, was soon forgotten as a bright light appeared, which swiftly consumed both hunter and hunted...

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