"Any luck on finding Tristan's location in time?"
"No, Michelle. We've been trying for the last two days, but we're still having trouble getting a bead on his location."
Michelle sighed. "How long have you been up, Lucas?"
"Well, it's three in the morning, so about eighteen hours."
"Shouldn't you be getting some sleep? You're still growing, you deserve extra sleep."
"Was just about to turn in. Please tell me Tristan's Caelstiventus is secure before I go to sleep, though."
Michelle tilted her head in confusion. "Why?"
"It flew into my bed once while chasing a dragonfly. I almost had a heart attack!"
"...I'll keep that in mind."
"Thanks. Well, good night."
As Lucas made his way to his lodgings, Michelle sighed. The engineering staff had been working for two days now, but they were still no closer to bringing her friend home. How long would it be until they found a way to save him? Or would he never be able to return to the present? Was he doomed to die alone and forgotten in an ancient world.
Closing her eyes, Michelle buried those thoughts - negative thoughts would do nothing to make this situation better.
...Of course, right now, it was hard to think positive.
A metallic howl filled the air.
"SHUT UP!" yelled Michelle, sending the Dilophosaurus scurrying back into its makeshift pen.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tristan reconnected the last of the wires to the portal device. Then, after a moment, he set the sticks in the ground and twisted them.
For a moment, nothing happened, but then a portal opened up.
Barely able to contain his glee, Tristan leapt for joy...only to promptly be tackled to the ground as a trio of...people...emerged from the portal, which promptly vanished a moment later.
As soon as he recovered from the collision, Tristan retreated to a nearby tent. The three who had collided with him, after taking a moment to regain their bearings, pointed spears at him, shouting words and phrases who's meaning he did not know. Before they could attack, though, Marek, Korac, and Bhanigob had joined him, spears drawn.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Korac spoke.
"...Hernique?"
"..Korac?"
What followed was a disintegration of hostilities as Korac and Hernique lowered their weapons and embraced, with the others soon following suit. Watching the scene unfold, Tristan realized that these women were close to the men - either their siblings or, given that one was holding a baby, their wives. The boy did not dare speak until after the reunion was finished, unwilling to deny these people their moment.
When the Ice Age peoples had finished their reunion, Korac turned his attention toward Tristan. Using words the boy could not understand, he revealed the boy to be their host and gestured for him to introduce himself. Obliging, Tristan put a hand to his chest.
"Tristan."
Nodding, Korac's wife repeated the gesture. "Hernique."
Next was Bhanigob's wife. "Sela."
Last to speak was "Oona."
With introductions complete, Tristan turned his attention back toward the portal device - it appeared to be working now, but why had it failed? A quick examination revealed the source of failure to be rather banal - it was out of power. Sighing, Tristan readied to attach it to a solar charging system, only to realize he had failed to introduce one member of the camp.
Locking eyes with Korac, Tristan gestured towards Terence's sleeping site. Understanding in an instant, Korac quickly began talking to Hernique and her companions, directing them to turn their eyes toward Tristan.
Nodding, Tristan whistled.
Hearing the familiar sound, Terence shook himself awake. A new scent filling his nostrils, the tyrannosaur turned to look toward the new arrivals.
Hernique, Sela, and Oona froze. The strange bipedal predator stared at them, wondering how they would react. Thoughts turning to protecting their kin, the women held up their spears, only for Tristan to hold up a hand in caution. Then, he pointed to the tyrannosaur.
"Terence."
The tyrant reptile king turned to Tristan in confusion. When the boy repeated himself, Terence realized there were no commands or other ideas that needed conveying, and turned his attention toward drinking from a nearby stream.
The women's fears subsided slightly at this point - it was clear that the predator was, at least for the moment, not a threat.
Yet their expressions soon turned to ones of confusion as they saw Tristan walking toward the tyrant, an axe in hand. The tyrant dinosaur turned briefly to look at Tristan, who mere pointed at some nearby footprints - odd looking ones, they were. Understanding, the tyrannosaur looked down and smelled the tracks, before beginning to walk away, Tristan not far behind.
Whatever had attacked last night, Tristan needed to find out where they were from.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The insects moved the seeds, careful about which trail they took. The night hunters had passed through recently, killing several creatures in another of their rampages. The various carrion beasts dared not steal their kills - the meat was perfectly fine to eat, but these creatures were vicious killers, and if any of their kills were stilen, the sought repayment for them tenfold.
That was not important now, though - the seeds must be brought to the borders of the forest, and to place where the great cacti had died. The forest could not be allowed to shrink, lest starvation and mass die off occur. Some would die, but the rest must survive.
So focused on their actions were the creatures that they paid no mind to the human and tyrannosaur, instead continuing on their current path. Said path, ironically enough, would take them to the human's camp, but they did not know this.
Nor did they know how crazy the rest of the day would be.
XXXXXXXX
Tristan felt his stomach churn as he stared at the bison carcass. The poor creature had been practically eviscerated, its remains strewn out across the a rather large area. Choice chunks of meat had been removed and taken elsewhere to feast upon, while the rest of the carcass had been left to rot. Scavengers were nowhere to be seen - only insects were trying to feast upon the cadaver. More worrisome, however, was the fact that this was not the only carcass - six more were littered around the area, all in various states of dismemberment.
And surrounding all of them were a mishmash of footprints, all belonging to the creatures that had attacked the previous night. Just what were these beasts?
Hoping to find answers, Tristan trudged onwards, Terence not far behind. Looking over the footprints, Tristan meandered his way through the forest, paying little mind to the various creatures milling about. All, however, avoided the trail he was following - it seemed they all feared the monsters that had come this way. What savagery had these beasts committed that made everything else fear them?
Eventually, Tristan was forced to halt when at last he came upon one variety of creature that did not fear these beasts - in this case, wolves. A pack of future wolves, as he had decided to call them, were tearing into the corpse of an antelope, with one staring at him as a warning. That was hardly Tristan's concern, though - something else was on his mind.
For you see, the footprints continued on pass the wolves...right toward the structure Tristan had found the previous day.
Huh. So that's how it would be.
Suddenly, the wolves stopped feeding. A moment later, they began to bark like crazy. Immediately, Tristan was on the alert. Next to him, Terence was smelling the air, looking for signs of danger.
What was making them so -
XXXXXX
The drone watched as the creature attacked the boy from behind. A backhanded blow to the back of his skull knocked the boy over, relieving him of consciousness. Without a moment's hesitation, the predator bit into his clothing, making sure not to make any wounds, then ran off toward the research facility.
The drone could tell the boy was still alive, but it had doubts how long that would remain true now that he was being taken to the facility. Perhaps it could save him? With the beasts having killed its original masters, saving the boy was now a priority.
...Now how to convince the tyrannosaur to help it?
XXXXXXXXX
AN: Uh-oh. Tristan is in hot water.
Before you ask, the predator attacked so fast that Tristan couldn't react in time to hurt it. He's now running toward the facility.
I wager about five or six more segments before this chapter is over. And after that, we get to something long overdue.
Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!