The New Giants
Drew Luczynski sat in his office, waiting for his team to arrive. Thankfully, they wouldn't be here for another few minutes, so he had some time to himself. Truth be told, all was going well. The foreman had kept his promise to get the workmen shipshape – some were even talking about getting permanent jobs at the park principally because of, in ascending order of importance, beautiful surroundings, a considerable paycheck, and reduced exposure to "that asshole" Percival.
And in further good news, the time had now come for Alice to return to active duty on rescue missions. Apparently, she and Collete (turned out it was Collete she'd had the argument with) had talked things out. And, with Alice's suspension coming to an end, Drew reasoned that it was best to let bygones be bygones – water under the bridge. That thought gave him pause – he never used to think like that. Someone had once said about him, "Drew never met a grudge he couldn't hold". And, guilty as charged, he was the kind to strongly remember past slights, a fact that Leon and Jack had known all too well…yet, not today. Perhaps running the park had changed him – made him better able to avoid holding a grudge than he had before. Improved him.
There was also, apparently, something about the new staff with the Novum board – something Kyle had told Theodore, Bryce and Percival on their visit had caused some ructions in Novum's upper echelons. He knew that there was going to be an influx of new staff when the park opened; and considering that the park was pretty much being run by a skeleton crew, he certainly wasn't about to argue. But as well aware as he was about the need for new staff members, he still didn't know for certain just what the board were discussing or what they had planned…and to be honest, it – probably – didn't matter – just some boring twaddle.
Drew smirked at the thought; he didn't care what the people in suits did or said. Going back in time, rescuing animals, escaping some prehistoric apex predator armed with nothing but his wits...that was what he lived for. That was his spark – that gave his life meaning. Nothing else. And with all that in mind, who knew what this mission would bring?
His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. He turned to see Leon Gilbertson and Alice Denham walk in. Leon and Alice looked around, as if expecting to see other people in the room. Turning to Drew, Alice asked, "Is it just us today? What are we going after?" Drew smiled. "We are going after a very big target today," he responded. "Figuratively and literally." And at that, he showed his team a picture of an enormous mammal that looked like a cross between a giraffe, a rhino, and an elephant.
Leon, true to form, knew what it was immediately. "Paraceratherium," he stated as he pointed at the picture. "A distant cousin of the rhino and the tallest land mammal that ever lived – Paleoloxodon namadicus was heavier. A large male could reach up to fifteen feet at the shoulder and weigh up to 15 tons; bigger than most dinosaurs." Drew winked and said, "Right as usual, Leon! To find this giant, we're going back 25 million years to Mongolia in the Oligocene period. A land of the big, the bad and the plain ugly." At the joke, Alice and Leon chuckled and Drew said, "Now, with that out of the way… let's get started!" Leon nodded his head and hurried off to make sure that the holding pens team were ready for what was going to come. Alice, however, lingered and looked at Drew curiously, saying, "Everything is forgiven… right? Just wanted to get that clear." Drew smiled. "Yeah, of course," he responded. "You had a bit of a flare-up with someone – those things happen. Just leave it at the park next time." Alice nodded her head, a relieved smile on her face. "Thanks Drew," she said. "Anytime," Drew said before he then clapped his hands. "But enough of that. We've got work to do – first day back, you should be raring to go." Alice chuckled. "You're certainly not wrong there." And at that, they headed off to the portal site.
At the portal site, an employee entered the time period and location and the portal flared to life at the push of a button. Drew put the portal remote in his pocket and, after making sure the remote was secured, he turned to Leon and Alice, who nodded at him. He nodded in turn, and with a deep breath in unison they entered through the portal.
After the blinding light from the portal dimmed down, the first thing that hit the three adventurers was the heat. They looked around and saw what had, evidently, once been a scrubland; however, it was hard to believe that these plains had supported any sort of life. All of the trees had dropped their leaves and, almost skeletally, dotted the landscape. All of the green herbs were gone, and a stiff breeze painted the air with a fine dust, painting the scrub brown. The sky was cloudless, and the ground superheated by the glare of a pitiless sun.
Leon chuckled and quietly said, "50 million years and Mongolia's not changed a bit." Alice nodded her head. "I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it," she then stated before she then looked around and wondered aloud, "So...where should we start?" Leon chuckled. "You know the drill Alice. We look for a watering hole. As Drew's said, watering holes are like candy stores to animals in a drought," he then replied. "OK, where's the nearest waterhole?", Drew asked, annoyed at how easily Leon had beaten him to his own quote. Alice rolled her eyes and said, "Cool it, guys; arguing isn't going to solve anything." Leon winced. "Too true," he muttered. "Way too true."
Suddenly, a low trumpeting bellow, similar to that of an elephant, echoed through the landscape, quietening all three of the humans. The team turned to see a large animal walking towards them. As it got closer, they could see it in greater detail. It was gigantic, standing about nine feet tall at the shoulder, with four long, columnar legs supporting a powerfully built body. Its skin was thick, grey, folded and almost hairless, like that of an elephant or a rhino. A large horse-like head, with small, oval-shaped, orange eyes, stood at the end of a long, muscular neck, with a short, tapir-like trunk drooping over the mouth. It was a magnificent looking animal; combining the lumbering strength and power of an elephant, with the grace and majesty of a giraffe. Not even the slight scarring present on its back was enough to detract from the overall majesty of the beast. The creature briefly turned to look at them as it walked past, a vaguely curious expression on its face...only to then ignore them and continue walking off into the desert with a disinterested snort.
After the giant had left, Alice turned to Leon, who had finished recording the beast's bellow. "I'm guessing that's a Paraceratherium?" Leon nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah," he stated, calmly slipping his broadcasting device back into his backpack as he did so. "A male by the looks of it; a young one too. He's probably looking for water." Drew smiled. "Which means, if we follow him, we'll find a watering hole," he then stated before snapping his fingers. "Right then D-Bags! Let's get tracking." And so, after pausing just long enough for Leon to download his recording onto Alice's audio player, the team headed off into the desert, following the giant mammal's footprints.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back at the park, Jack was standing by the droma paddock, watching Duke and his pack. He closed his eyes and breathed out – Nikolai had told him about him and Kyle catching one of the workmen trying to break into his office whilst he and Adrian had been away on the previous mission, apparently because Percival wanted the latest on his and Khatin's dromaeosaur research. This had made Jack slightly paranoid – he suddenly became reluctant to leave his office door unlocked or unguarded and he'd ask security guards to randomly check the hallway where his office was whenever he was on duty in the park…like now.
He snorted – if the workman had succeeded, Percival wouldn't have gotten much. Their most recent study had been about self-recognition – whether the dromaeosaurs and troodonts were smart enough to recognize themselves in a mirror. They had done this by putting stickers on a dromaeosaur or troodont's throat – where they could only be seen using a mirror. When those with coloured stickers glimpsed themselves in the mirror, they removed the stickers from their throats – indicating that they were capable of self-recognition.
To be honest, he'd expected this – what had gone from a simple intelligence study, a curiosity to see how intelligent these animals were, had become something else. Jack had single-handedly proved that these animals, or at least the dromaeosaurs anyway, were not just incredibly intelligent, but trainable. What would that lead to? A chill went down his spine at that thought – a thousand possibilities arose and not one of them was good.
Suddenly, he heard someone clearing their throat. He turned around to see Collete standing behind him. She looked pointedly at him, "Jack, you weren't answering your walkie-talkie." Jack shrugged, a slightly sheepish look on his face, and said, gesturing to the dromas, "Sorry. I was busy." He gave her a curious look, any case, why are you here? Dropped in to visit?" Collete chuckled, her earlier pointed look giving away to a warm smile. Shaking her head, she said, "Not this time – I came to tell you that you're needed at the Zhenyuanlong enclosure." At his confusion, she sighed, "Given the plan with Xingcun was your idea, I'm surprised you've forgotten." Jack sighed; yup, he knew he'd forgotten something. "Sure. I'm done here anyway."
. . . . .
Drew, Alice and Leon hiked through the dried-out scrub, following the trail of the giant mammal. For three hours, there was no sight of the Paraceratherium but its tracks, or any sign of water plants, or anything other than a vast, desolate expanse of desert; however, after three hours, they got a good look at the Paraceratherium feeding on the last leaves of an almost-dead oak. After a few minutes, however, it had eaten the last of anything edible on the tree, before it moved on. They continued following it, until, several hours later, they came over a hill and saw a small stand of trees, surrounding a large pond. Compared to the desolate landscape that surrounded it, this was positively an oasis; a patch of dark green in the drabness of the desert.
Approaching the oasis, the team began walking through the small stand of trees. The trees, consisting of a mix of oaks and evergreens, were widely spaced, with herbs, large shrubs and bushes growing in their shade. As they approached, they saw the paraceratherium they had tracked taking a drink some distance away.
As they approached the lake, a grunt alerted them to a small herd of vaguely hippo-like animals gathered around the lakeshore. Leon was quick to identify them. "Anthracotherium," he stated. "A distant relative of today's hippo."
Alice nodded, "Let me guess, our first targets?" Drew let his trademark grin appear on his face, "Yup", he chuckled before looking to Leon, "You got a hippo recording on your gadget? You might wanna get it ready." Leon raised his eyebrow. "The old matador plan?" Drew chuckled. "Well, I was hoping on it," he admitted before then reaching into his bag and drawing out some lettuce. "But this time, I think we should try and do it the less reckless way. I mean, modern hippos are pretty dangerous." Alice whistled silently. "Good idea," she admitted. "What about the paraceratherium?" Leon stated as he gestured towards the indricothere they'd followed, "We'll deal with him later," Drew stated as he started handing a couple handfuls of lettuce to Alice, "An opportunity's fallen into our lap and we'd bet not waste it." "If you say so," Leon then stated before drawing out his broadcasting device.
And at that, Alice and Drew proceeded to leave a trail of lettuce, whilst Leon proceeded to attract the attention of the anthracotherium pod with a recording of a hippo's bellow. The sound caused the entire pod to subsequently turn their heads towards the rescue team, managing in the process to notice the trail of lettuce that Drew and Alice had left. "I really hope this works," Alice said to Drew. Drew nodded his head. "Me too, Alice," he stated. "Me too."
Eventually, a large male began to slowly lumber his way over towards the trio, intrigued. As the creature slowly made his way towards the group, gingerly taking bites out of the lettuce trail, Leon cautiously leaned closer towards his companions and whispered, "I think this is the dominant male. If he goes through, the rest of the pod shouldn't be far behind." Drew nodded his head. "That would certainly be helpful," he admitted in a similarly low whisper.
The apparent dominant male continued making his way towards the rescue team, continuing to take bites out of the lettuce trail as he did so. And exactly as Leon had predicted, the rest of the pod was quick to follow, with one of the adult females being the very first in line behind him, with all the other adults, plus the calves, being equally quick to follow behind her. And eventually, once the dominant male was about three feet away from reaching the end of the trail, Alice summoned the portal. The entire pod promptly halted their advance, grunting in confusion at the unfamiliar site. But after about a minute of warily glancing, the dominant male slowly lumbered his way straight into the portal and to the present, with the rest of the pod dutifully following. No sooner had the entire pod vanished into the present when Alice shut off the portal. "And just like that, our first rescue for this mission," she said, flashing a thumbs up with a proud smile on her face. Leon chuckled. "Definitely off to a good start," he admitted. "Damn right," Drew stated, his right fist raised in a triumphant fashion before he then turned his head in the direction of where the adolescent paraceratherium was. "And now for..."
At that moment, his face fell at the sight of the paraceratherium walking off to a stand of oak, disappearing into the sparse forest. "And there he goes again," he stated, his eyes now narrowed in visible annoyance. Leon lifted up his broadcasting device. "I can try to call him back with his vocals I recorded," he suggested. Drew was about to speak when a high-pitched bleating attracted the attention of the entire team. Following the noises, they saw the carcass of an adult paraceratherium, with a small calf standing nearby. The calf seemed to be in clear distress, mewling plaintively as it pushed the adult's corpse with its head.
Alice winced at the sight of this, before quietly saying, "That dead adult must be its mother – died in the drought." Leon turned to Drew. "I'm getting the feeling we should probably get the calf through the portal first?" Drew nodded his head. "Yeah," he stated. "The adolescent can wait. Right now, he needs help."
A sudden cry of alarm from the calf caused the rescue team to look back in the calf's direction in time to see a small float of nine large crocodilians – the largest being almost thirty feet long – with short, alligator-like snouts, slowly crawling out of the water and towards the carcass. The calf whimpered and cowered behind a rock. Fortunately, the crocodilians ignored the young calf in favour of the carcass of the adult – the lure of the immediately available meat outweighing attacking this small, whimpering creature.
...at least, that is, until some movement from the calf caused the nearest crocodile to turn its head in the calf's direction. Letting out a low hiss, it started advancing towards the calf, with the rest of the float swiftly following suit. Why not have the carcass .
At this, Drew looked back to Leon and Alice. "So… we intervene?" he stated. "Agreed," said Alice. "Yup," Leon stated. And at that, the rescue team hurried over to where the paraceratherium calf, its dead mother, and the astorgosuchus were positioned. Leon, the first to reach the astorgosuchus, played a recording of a crocodile's bellow to attract the astorgosuchus float's attention right. From there, the crocodiles turned their heads towards Leon, who played the recording a second time, at which point the float snarled and hissed angrily before charging right at him...only to end up barreling straight through the portal.
Panting and gasping in relief, Leon shut off the portal and looked to Drew and Alice, "That was a close one," Leon admitted. "Won't argue with you there," Drew admitted. "But on the bright side, at least you got them through and away from the calf," Alice stated, a look of pride on her face as she flashed Leon a thumbs up before then looking towards the calf, staring warily in the rescue team's direction. "Let's see if we can get this little fella to come through the portal as well."
From there, with Alice being as coaxing and reassuring as she could manage while Leon and Drew were drawing out offerings of lettuce, the team eventually managed to convince the nervous calf to finally approach them, they opened the portal and used the lettuce to coax him through. Once the calf had finally wandered cautiously through the portal to the safety of the present, Drew shut off the portal, panting and gasping as he looked to his companions. "That was a lot of work," he admitted. "You said it," said Leon before he and Alice looked concernedly towards their leader. "Worth it though, right?" Drew panted again, but nonetheless flashed a thumbs up and smile. "Yep," he stated. "Totally worth it."
All of a sudden, the sound of snarling at the park split the air in the distance, followed by the sound of a bellowing. For a couple minutes, the team looked in the direction the noises were coming from, clear intrigue on their faces. Then Alice and Leon looked to Drew, smirks on their faces as if they already of what. "Let me guess?" Alice stated. "We head off to see if we can rescue the animals making those noises?" "I know it's what I'd do if I were you," Leon stated. Drew chuckled, "You clearly know me too well. Onward, D-Bags!"
. . . . .
Kyle whistled slightly as he and the rest of the assembled holding pens team for this day's mission took a look at the haul so far. "Well," he stated as he then gestured at the bellowing pod of anthracotherium, hissing and snarling bask of astorgosuchus, and paraceratherium calf. "The trend is broken – he sent the apex predator through second."
"So much for Drew going soft on us," Maria whispered to Carmen. "No kidding," Aaron agreed. "Well regardless," Carmen stated, seemingly taking her being proven wrong about Drew's going soft on them in stride. "We've got work to do. Can't let these supercrocs start causing a bloodbath."
"You heard them everyone," said Kyle as he clapped his hands. "Let's get these animals moved! Knowing Drew, it won't be long before he sends toothier and nastier things." He then drew out his communicator. "And in the meantime, I'd best contact Dr. Eberhart. I get the feeling we might need her."
. . . . .
Meanwhile, at her office in the veterinary facility, Linda was feeling very aware of just how busy this day would be as she went over the list of observations she'd recently made in her rounds through the park earlier that morning.
It was a big day.
The breeding programmes' success had been both a blessing and a curse. Today, Arrax, one of the juvenile ceratosaurus naiscornis (an offspring of Lyanna's) was in for some minor injuries – an attack from his aunt Elia over the cow carcass. Diego and Shira's cubs were also nearing adolescence – and they had to be moved to a separate enclosure soon enough. Theo and the other young male ceratopsians at Hell Creek were beginning to mock-spar among themselves, with the mock tractor sometimes having to be employed, with the juvenile pachycephalosaurus also beginning to mock-spar among themselves.
And more new arrivals were on the way. Aside from Calisto, one of the female megatherium and three of the females in the American lion pride were all expecting, and two of the Clark's condors, Vladimir and Nekhbet, had laid a clutch of eggs.
For the injuries and illnesses, Raul – the smaller of the two bachelor Smilodon populator – was currently limping after being bitten by a snake, a kentrosaurus named Pierce had gotten a rib fractured after a fight with one of the other males, and, three days ago, Maugrim the cave wolf had to have an abscessed tooth extracted. Finally, according to Mohinder, the diplodocus matriarch Demeter was rather ill – and she needed a proper check-up. She shook her head in half exhaustion and half amusement - life at the park was busy as ever.
"Always something to be done around here," she muttered to herself before she then took a look at the nearby clock, wondering just how best to spend her time. The workload was getting pretty big – perhaps she needed something to temporarily take her mind off it. Demeter's current condition was particularly something she needed a temporary distraction from – whilst, fingers crossed, it was nothing serious… you could never be too careful. She'd heard that all the divisions would be bolstered with some new people – that day couldn't come soon enough.
The sound of her communicator going off startled her out of her thoughts, and she hurriedly drew it out and answered without checking who was calling. "Dr. Eberhart speaking, over?"
"Good to hear you Linda," said Kyle's voice on the other end of the line. "Feel like dropping by the holding pens?"
Linda raised her eyebrow. "Are there any injured animals?"
"None so far," Kyle stated. "But there is a paraceratherium calf that we think might need some observations from you and Khatin. Plus… you can never be too careful." At this, Linda nodded "I think I can probably manage that then," she said. "Just let me see if the rest of the team can handle everything else."
. . . . .
Back in Oligocene Mongolia, following the sound, the rescue team had finally come upon the creatures. At that moment, within a clearing, a small pack of large hyaenodonts were snarling at a large animal that looked like a cross between a gorilla and a panda with a horse's head. covered in soft, brown fur, grading to white on the head and belly, with dark eye patches. Its forelimbs were longer than its hindlimbs, giving it a hunchbacked look, and ended in long claws. The hyaenodonts were larger than the protohyaenodon, with the largest roughly the the size of a Bengal tiger, and with darker fur.
In that moment, the hyaenodonts snarled loudly, their fangs bared as if challenging their quarry to try to fight them off. Said quarry bellowed again, stomping its hands upon the ground multiple times as if trying to cow the predators into backing off.
Alice and Leon were very quick to identify both creatures. "The predators are hyaenodon gigas," Alice stated, "Biggest predator of their day." "Correct," Leon stated before he then pointed at the herbivore. "As for the creature they're hunting. I'd say that's… borissiakia, a chalicothere." The chalicothere bellowed again, rearing on its hind legs as if to try to scare off the hyaenodonts, which only snarled and growled even louder as they stood their ground. Drew whistled at the sight of this. "I'll say this," he stated. "This chalicothere isn't going down easily." Alice nodded her head and looked to Drew. "So how are we gonna play this?"
Drew was just starting to think about how best to answer this question when he and his companions noticed another hyaenodont quietly creeping up behind the chalicothere. "I'm starting to get the feeling we might only be able to get the hyaenodon," Leon whispered right when the hyaenodon climbed up the rock, pounced and clamped its jaws around the borissakia's neck. Bellowing in shock and pain, the borissiakia began to buck wildly, in an attempt to dislodge the hyaenodon. The rest of the pack took that opportunity to pounce on the borissakia, working together to pin it down, for the killing bite to be delivered.
The rescue team couldn't help but wince at the sight of this. "Geez," Drew muttered, "You wouldn't believe these guys are gonna be extinct in a few million years." Sighing, Leon said, sombrely, "That can't have been a pleasant way to die." Breathing out, Alice said, "That's nature for you."
The hyaenodon began to rip into the carcass, yipping and whooping in pleasure, as several pups joined them at the kill. As the creodonts feasted, Leon and Alice looked to Drew and Alice said, "So what are we gonna do now? The old 'tow the carcass' trick?". Drew started thinking to himself, weighing up the options...
Suddenly, a hyaenodon sniffed the air and whooped an alarm; the entire pack stopped ripping into the carcass and began snarling at the bushes, which began to rustle. As the rustling got louder, the Hyaenodon's snarling and whooping became more pronounced. Drew, Leon and Alice looked at each other, confused; what could scare the apex predators of this area so badly?
After a few minutes, they got their answer, when a strange creature shambled into the clearing. It was about the size of a water buffalo, dwarfing the hyaenodons, and with terrible power and weight in its deep, humped body. It was a fairly bizarre creature, resembling a cross between a hippopotamus, an alligator and a warthog.
The rescue team continued to observe the new arrival intently as the hyaenodon pack growled and snarled at it. Now, Drew, Alice and Leon were not ones to hold prejudice against any animal, but it was plain fact that this new creature was not well served by its appearance. It was ugly beyond redemption. Its skin was a tannish brown and it was covered in bristly hair, like a wild boar or a warthog. The thing had the gait of a hyena, with hunched shoulders, long forelimbs and shorter hind quarters, yet it had cloven hooves on its feet. Its head was a freak-show photo-fit of pinched, squinting eyes, flaring nostrils bristled cheeks and a giant, long-shouted mouth full of spittle and ugly, discoloured teeth the size of tent pegs. It emitted a bovine grunt at the hyaenodons.
Leon knew what they were immediately. "Entelodon," he said. "Part of a rather odd group of animals called the entelodonts. They look a lot like pigs but were more closely related to hippos. They were omnivores; they could eat everything from plants to mea." Alice nodded her head. "And it looks like that one wants the hyaenodon pack's kill…"
Suddenly, the bushes rustled again and several more entelodon emerged. At the sight, Drew chuckled, grinning deviously, "Perfect." The entelodon sounder grunted, bellowed and squealed angrily, whilst the hyaenodon whooped, snarled and yipped in respoonse angrily in response.
For several minutes, the hyaenodon and entelodon all snarled and roared at each other, sizing each other up and waiting to see who made the first move. Drew, Leon, and Alice chose to take advantage of the opportunity to sit and watch the situation. Disputes over carcasses in the wild sometimes lasted for hours – especially during a drought.
As the hours wore on, the entelodon started getting bolder, making mock charges at the hyaenodon and snapping their teeth at the creodonts to try to intimidate them into fleeing. The hyaenodon, however, stood their ground, snarling and whooping defiantly at the interlopers. The hyaenodon had a slight advantage in numbers, but the entelodon had size and power. Simply put, the odds were looking awfully high in the entelodon's favour...
All of a sudden, one of the younger female hyaenodon lunged towards a large boar entelodont. However, the boar swung his head in time to send her flying, eventually landing against a large rock. Alice winced, at the impact… as the entelodont came charging at the injured hyaenodon, squealing like the devil as it rammed right into the carnivore's side head-on. The entelodont resumed this for a few minutes, headbutting the hyaenodon in the side, pulling on her forelimb and kicking at her with its hooves. Their resolve broken, the remainder of the hyaenodon pack turned and fled into the bushes as the entelodonts advanced on the carcass and began tearing into it with gusto, crunching through flesh, skin, and bone while the luckless hyaenodon whimpered in pain.
Leon shook his head and looked to Drew. "We've waited long enough," he said before then pointing at the feasting entelodons, "There won't be much left of that carcass in the next few minutes. If we don't act now, we'll miss the opportunity." "In more ways than one," Alice noted as she gestured towards the injured hyaenodon. "If we don't do something, she's going to die." Drew nodded his head. "Agreed," he stated before giving his teammates a determined look, "Let's get to work." In agreement, the team started making their way over towards the entelodonts, reasoning that it would be easier to get the critically injured hyaenodon through the portal if the entelodonts weren't around.
However, as the three humans approached the carcass, the nearest swiftly took notice of them, at which point it pawed the ground with its right hoof and bellowed angrily at them, alerting the rest of the sounder. However, Leon stepped forward seconds after Alice and Drew had stepped back, drawing out his broadcasting device and playing a recording of a hyaenodon snarl he had taken earlier. The sound caused the sounder to visibly bristle up before bellowing at the apparent rival. Alice and Drew grabbed Leon and pulled him backwards. "What do you think you're doing?" Alice hissed, clearly concerned.
Leon smiled, in an attempt to mirror Drew's devious smirk, on his face, and said, "We make some noise and attract their attention. It's commonly thought that, like rhinos, entelodonts had poor eyesight, but fantastic senses of smell and hearing. When they move towards us, we open the portal." Drew and Alice looked to each other, and then back at Leon while nodding their heads. "Sounds like a plan," said Alice, who let go of Leon's shoulders and drew out her audio player, "And you know what? Let me help you. The sooner we get these through the portal, the better." At this, Leon smiled and nodded, and he and Alice proceeded to repeatedly play the recordings at the same time.
As this wore on, the entelodon became visibly angrier and angrier, bellowing in outrage and pawing at the ground like bulls before eventually all charging towards Leon and Alice. At this point, Drew leaped into position and summoned the portal – the entelodonts, moving too fast to stop or change direction, all went barrelling through the portal and into the safety of the park, moving as if a single entity. No sooner had the entelodon gone through, Drew turned to his team and said, "Good job. Now you two go see if you can get the hyaenodon calmed while I head back and get some help."
A full five minutes later, right as Leon and Alice had managed to calm the hyaenodon with soothing words and meat, Drew returned from his brief trip back to the park with Linda and several assistant vets close behind. "We'll take very good care of her," Linda stated as she and the other vets placed the hyaenodon, now on a medical stretcher, upon the back of the jeep. "Don't worry Doc, we know you can do it," Drew stated in gratitude, as Alice said, quietly, "Good luck," said Alice. And at that, the Jeep went through the portal, back to the park. Once the portal had closed, Alice and Leon looked to Drew. "Well then," said Alice, looking visibly relieved, "What do we do now?"
Drew was just in the midst of thinking of what to do next when hissing and snarling, barely audible, could be heard from the carcass, at which point he pointed in the direction the noise had come from with his trademark grin already once again on his face. "There's your answer."
. . . . .
Kyle shook his head side to side as he observed the entelodon sounder currently milling about in the holding pen where the main portal was positioned. At this point, with Linda having temporarily left to drop the injured hyaenodon off at the veterinary facility, the rest of the staff assembled at the holding pens could now properly observe the entelodonts. "Not quite the apex predator, but definitely close," he stated.
"Technically, Drew did bring back the apex predator," said Bristow, gesturing in the direction Linda had driven off in, "However… yeah, she's half-dead." Kyle nodded, "True," he admitted. "It could count… but obviously, Drew's going to bring back more…" Joe shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, mate," as Farnsworth rolled his eyes, grunting "Whatever," before gesturing towards the entelodon. "Perhaps maybe we should get these things moved?"
At that very moment, one of the males squealed of rage and charged at the walls, whilst the others snapped and charged at the fences. Kyle nodded his head. "Wise suggestion," he stated before looking to the rest of the holding pens team. "Let's get to work everybody! And, be careful – these guys look like they could take your arm off."
"Yes sir," shouted all the other assembled keepers and guards present. At that moment, Tina directed a brief side glance towards Horace. "So… which division do you think Alice'll put in charge of these guys?", she asked. "Mine? Or yours?" Horace shrugged. "Can't say for sure just yet," he stated. "But they'll be a handful, that's for sure."
. . . . .
Khatin sat in the Yixian forest walkthrough, silently observing the animals going about their daily business.
These big, mixed exhibits, aside from helping with "immersion" (a word that made Khatin's eyes roll every time he heard it), also enabled animals to interact with each other in a semi-natural setting, making his behavioural observations that little bit easier. Despite appearances, however, this was no true ecosystem – carnivores would never be granted access to potential prey or vice versa. Now, they had resigned themselves to the microraptorines snacking on some bird eggs or vice versa every now and again, but they hoped that a constant food supply would be able to negate that.
His thoughts were interrupted by the staccato squawking of the pseudosordes, probing the bark for insect larvae. Looking up, Khatin had been surprised at how unsurprised he had been by the discovery of late-surviving non-caelidraconid pterosaurs.
Khatin was well aware of the Signor-Lipps effect – a principle that stated how, due to the incompleteness of the fossil record, the earliest and latest known occurrences of a taxon (or group or lineage) almost never truly represented the ages of the actual earliest and latest organisms belonging to it. The most common application of this effect was the youngest-known fossils of a lineage failing to represent their actual extinction date. This had happened in pterosaurs before – they were thought to have dwindled to a single group (the azhdarchids), until pteranodontid and nyctosaurid fossils had been discovered in Morocco and other fossils previously identified as azhdarchids (seemingly around the principle that those had been the only group of pterosaurs that had survived by that point) had been re-evaluated, confirming that these two additional groups had survived to the Maastrichtian alongside the azhdarchids.
And, at the park, they'd had their own encounter with the Signor-Lipps effect – the late-surviving Devonian anomalocarids had been a surprise. On a semi-related note, apparently, there were some voices in the Novum board talking about, once good enough populations had been built up, commercially farming them…although they had to check how they tasted first. Khatin rolled his eyes. "You couldn't make it up," he muttered under his breath before resuming his observations.
Observing the psuedosordes, he briefly pondered that perhaps more late-surviving rhamphorhynchids would be found – however, if he had to put money on it, there would be none post-Turonian age, since all the previous Campano-Maastrichtian missions had found none. The Aptian and Turonian turnovers probably put paid to them.
A wheezing, snorting sound interrupted his thoughts to see a juvenile Psittacosaurus, roughly the size of a bulldog, snuffling around by his feet. Khatin smiled – this juvenile, who Leon had named Toph after a character from some anime, was the first of her kind the team had encountered in that clearing. Smiling, Khatin threw down some palm nuts, which the psittacosaurus ate eagerly – realizing he didn't have any more, the little primitive ceratopsian mock-snapped at his boot (to which he rolled his eyes fondly) and snuffled away, rooting around in search of more food.
After Toph had left, Khatin continued his observations when, suddenly, a high-pitched squawking alerted him to a small theropod, roughly a foot long, with iridescent black plumage. Khatin looked at the small dromaeosaur with quiet surprise – of the three smaller microraptorine species, the microraptor were mostly nocturnal, preferring to hunt in lower-light conditions. The iridescence was, paradoxically, used for camouflage – both to hunt insects and small lizards and evade predators in the dark Yixian canopy.
This Microraptor, a male called Guido, seemed to have been attracted by the mealworms Khatin had brought with him. Putting some on the ground by the floor next to him, Khatin watched as the microraptor greedily ate, scanning the air to check for non-existent predators. Once he had eaten, Guido hissed almost in thanks at Khatin and scampered up the nearest tree.
After Guido had left, Khatin looked to his watch – going on somewhere else was a plan to get the orphaned Zhenyuanlong adopted by one of the adult pairs. He hoped it would work. For that matter, he also would probably need to drop by the veterinary facility - there was an orphaned paraceratherium calf there that he needed to help make some observations on.
. . . . .
After about ten minutes, the rescue team finally reached the clearing – and they saw two separate groups of carnivore were confronting each other over a dead, vaguely rabbit-like creature. To the left was a group of dog-like creatures roughly the size of a Scottish terrier with long bodies, short, rounded muzzles, rounded ears, and long thin tails. Unusually for canids, their feet were completely flat on the ground like those of bears. Their fur was dark brown, becoming paler on the flanks and bellies, and with coal black stripes on their haunches and along their tails. There were seven in all, two adults and five pups, the latter of which were standing behind the adults.
The other predators looked vaguely like wildcats, with short sabre-teeth, with dark golden yellow fur covered in black spots, grading to white on their undersides. There was one adult, a female, snarling and swiping her paws at the bear-dogs – three cubs stood behind her. The adult bear-dogs snarled back, crouching in preparation for a lunge, tails stiff between their legs. At that moment, it looked as if the incoming confrontation could go either way. On the one hand, the adult canids outnumbered the felid two-to-one, but on the other, the felid was slightly larger.
Leon was very quick to identify both species. "The dog-like creatures are cynodictis," Leon stated. "Part of a family called the amphicyonids, distant relatives of bears and dogs. They're amongst the first true carnivorans." Turning to the cat, Leon said, "That's a nimravid of some kind… nimravus, probably. They're not true cats but are closely related feliforms – they look like miniature sabre-tooths due to convergent evolution". Narrowing her eyes, Alice said, "I remember you saying a couple of indeterminate nimravus species were known from Mongolia – guess this is one of them. The smaller one, I suspect." Drew nodded his head. "Well done both of you," he stated. "Now all we need to do is decide just how to get them to the park…"
At that very moment, the mother nimravus snarled in displeasure and turned around to leave, evidently deciding that the kill wasn't worth the risk. Suddenly, sniffing the air, she walked towards a dead rabbit that Drew had left. Once she had gotten close enough, Drew summoned the portal and, using a small hook attached to a small, remote-controlled truck, dragged the dead rabbit through the portal – driven by hunger she went through the portal, her cubs following her. "Well that was easy – the old 'tow the carcass' trick et microcosm," Alice stated once Drew closed the portal. "Yup," said Drew. "Saving the big show for the cynodictis." Leon rolled his eyes.
At that moment, a dog-like snarling caused the team to look back in the direction of the cynodictis in time to see the family standing behind them, their attention caught by the portal, with the adults looking wary while the pups seemed curious. Then the male snarled again, eye narrowing as he kept its gaze focused on the three unfamiliar creatures. Alice looked surreptitiously at Drew. "Mean little bastards, aren't they?" she whispered to Drew. Drew chuckled, "Guess 'Small Dog Syndrome' has always been a thing."
The male abruptly let out a loud bark, with the female joining in. At this, Alice raised her portal remote. "Let them come rushing?" Drew nodded his head. "Yeah – save our energy. These guys are only small." And at that, he very visibly stepped his left foot forward towards the Oligocene canids. As he did this, the two adult cynodictis yelped and snarled as they both charged towards the rescue team, with the pups hurriedly rushing after their parents for protection. Once the cynodictis were about two feet away, Alice summoned the portal just in time for the entire family to come barreling through, moving as if a single entity. Once the pack had vanished through to the park, Alice closed the portal. "And just like that, two more species for the park," she stated confidently. "Good job Alice," Leon stated, flashing her a thumbs up. "Took the words right outta my mouth," Drew stated with a nod of his head. Alice chuckled and then looked calmly around the area. "So...what now?"
Drew pointed back in the direction they'd come. "Let's head back to that borissiakia carcass," he stated. "At this point, there might be scavengers present that we could rescue."
. . . . .
Back at the park, Henry Ramon was relaxing on a bench in Ice Age Mount nearby the steppe bear paddock. At that moment, he'd spent most of the day helping out with the opening day preparations, and the break was very much appreciated. "Considering how much work I've been doing to help prepare this place for opening day," he muttered under his breath, "I shudder to think of how busy once the parks open." He then nodded his head. "Of course, I'm sure it will all still be plenty of fun around here once I get a full handle on how to balance my work and my leisure."
He nodded his head once more, a small smile of warmth coming on his face. He had to admit, as busy as it was, he still quite enjoyed his new life at the park. So far, the established staff were still very friendly and welcoming to him, many of the animals had proven quite intriguing to watch, and it was nice to catch up with old friends. All in all, busy work or not, life at Prehistoric Park was definitely something to enjoy.
The sound of a low growling caught his attention, and he turned his head to look into the steppe bear paddock in time to see one of the two adolescent males, Kenai if he remembered correctly, standing nearby the paddock wall, staring at him curiously. A younger female was somewhere nearby, with a small, dark-furred cub.
As far as he knew, Kenai and his brother Denahi (who was some distance away, eating some leftover salmon) had been rescued from the Ice Age – their other brother had been killed by ape-men (who Jack and Nikolai had encountered) and whose body had been kept by Khatin… because of the manner of this death. Koda, meanwhile, had inexplicably shown up at the park the day before Christmas Eve via means that the staff still didn't quite understand – allegedly, Jack, Collete, Yolanda and Will had found him whilst having a lock-in in the park bar. A few weeks later, Koda had been "adopted" by Nita, one of the younger females – both the adult females had their own cubs to feed.
The adolescent males seemed to tolerate him – according to Alice, whilst male bears could reproduce at two or three, they generally did not do so successfully until they were older… until they were big and strong enough to fight larger males. In addition, Nita was smart enough to keep her distance.
Henry nodded his head. Over the weeks that had ensued since he'd first come to the park, he'd spent a lot of time by this paddock. And at this point, he would be lying if he were to say that he didn't feel a slight kinship of sorts with the bears – he'd always been fond of bears, even as a child. According to Alice Denham, they were among the most intelligent carnivorans.
It was nice to have some downtime. He had a lot to prepare between now and the opening – co-ordination with the PR firms in San Francisco and London, and the agencies in New York and Tokyo, was often difficult. For good reason, the agencies couldn't yet be told what the resort's real attraction was going to be.
Theodore had cautioned Ramon that it was likely that he'd have odd jobs pushed on him sometimes. That was completely fine – it was all part of the job. Sometimes, yes, he'd have to handle press conferences when an animal got out and maimed someone or co-ordinate a VIP tour… but all that was in the future.
Anyway, Henry got up from the bench – his break had gone on long enough. He then looked in the direction of the main staff office building. Perhaps now would be a good time to head back to his office there and resume wrangling with the agencies? It would certainly get his mind off of the busy days to come.
. . . . .
Upon returning to the dead borissiakia, the team found that, in their absence, it had attracted attention – two lynx-sized cats that looked like larger versions of the nimravus they'd seen before were having a stand-off. One was noticeably larger than the other – and three cubs stood behind the smaller individual.
At the sight, Alice nodded, "Well., that's the larger species." Drew nodded his head. "Yup," he said, "And we've got a pair in prime position." Leon nodded in agreement. "So what do we do?" Drew chuckled. "You know what they say," he responded. "The oldest tricks are usually the best."
And so, after a brief trip back to the park, Drew and his teammates got a winch attached to a pickup truck back at the park hooked to one end of the chalicothere carcass while the nimravus were still engaged in the stand-off. And on a signal from Drew, the pickup truck was set in motion, dragging the carcass away towards the portal. The adult nimravus, their prior animosity forgotten, hurriedly rushed after the carcass, ending up running straight through the portal, with the cubs following their mother. Closing the portal, Drew looked to his teammates. "Gets 'em every time."
Alice nodded, "Old tricks are always the best… what's our next move?" Drew briefly pondered this, before pointing back in the direction of the watering hole, "We head back to the watering hole. No way that paraceratherium carcass hasn't attracted attention."
. . . . .
"Right, what's the plan here?"
Jack and Collete were standing at the Zhenyuanlong exhibit, along with Adrian, Hugo and Yolanda. Today, Jack was implementing a plan he'd been putting together for weeks – integrating the juvenile Zhenyuanlong, who had been named Xìngcún, after the Chinese word for "survivor" amongst the larger 'pack' of his kind.
At that moment, two adult zhenyuanlong, recently fed, were napping in the sun in the very center of the paddock; this pair had been named Huángdì and Huánghòu. As it had turned out, the Zhenyuanlong had not been a true pack, but a temporary association. Shortly after their arrival, squabbles had begun and the group had split into four pairs, each occupying a different territory. The only times the four groups interacted was when feeding… which had been key to Jack's plan.
Jack explained, "Right, every time we feed them, there's a hierarchy; one pair gets first pick of the carcass", he gestured to the two adult Zhenyuanlong sleeping in the paddock, "with the other three pairs lower in the pecking order. We're introducing the juvenile to this pair first, because, if they take him in, he's less likely to be attacked by any of the others."
And, so the plan was in motion. Yolanda put the pet carrier down, opened it and Xìngcún gingerly walked into the enclosure, wobbling on unsteady legs. Jack turned to Collete, and said quietly, "If anything goes wrong, if we hear so much as a growl, we tranq them and get him out of there." Collete nodded.
After Xìngcún had walked a considerable distance, Huángdì and Huánghòu turned to look at him. They walked towards him and sniffed him eagerly; they could tell that he was of their kind, but not their kin. Jack and the others waited tensely; the next few minutes were crucial. The adults could possibly attack, or even kill, Xìngcún. However, Huángdì and Huánghòu were currently appearing more curious than aggressive, their movements quiet and measured, as if not to frighten Xingcun, as they let out quiet, reassuring vocalizations. Eventually, curiosity satisfied, Huángdì and Huánghòu walked away. Xìngcún stayed rooted to the spot, as if uncertain as to what to do next. The adults stood still and turned to look at him, with Huángdì regarding him and cocking his head, as if indicating for him to follow them.
However, Xìngcún was still apprehensive, and he continued looking around worriedly as if waiting for a cue, before then finally walking a few uneasy steps. Suddenly, Huánghòu walked back towards him, gently picked him up in her jaws, and put him on her back. He cheeped happily as she nuzzled him with her scaly muzzle. All three dinosaurs briefly turned to look at the humans before disappearing into the bushes. The team all looked at each other, smiling ecstatically; their plan had worked on the first attempt. A lonely little dinosaur had found a new family.
Colette nodded her head, a clear look of relief on her face as she placed a hand on Jack's left shoulder. "Thank goodness that went alright," she said. Jack smiled, directing a surreptitious glance of affection towards Colette as he did so. "Much agreed Colette," he stated. "Much agreed. Hugo, Adrian, and Yolanda likewise nodded in agreement with smiles on their faces. Adrian noticed, however, a slight flash of… resentment in Yolanda's eyes. He resolved to inform Linda of this. After all, with everything that was going on, the last thing anyone needed was someone in a mood.
. . . . .
Back in Oligocene Mongolia, the rescue team had finally returned to the watering hole. And as Drew had suspected would be the case, the paraceratherium carcass that they'd left behind there had indeed attracted scavengers.
Four species of small carnivorous mammal were present and eagerly feasting – a male of the smaller nimravus species, they recognised, but the other three, they didn't. One was marten-like, with reddish brown fur covering their bodies, tannish white fur on their chins and underbellies,with striped, raccoon-like tails, covered with fiery yellow orange fur with black stripes across their backs and tails. The largest of the four species was a wolverine-sized creature covered in tannish brown fur with light greyish brown fur on their tails and underbellies, with bear-like heads and paws. The mammals were accompanied by a small flock of vultures that resembled the cathartornis back at the park, but with grey feathers and whitish skin. The lighter colouration made them seem oddly graceful.
Watching the scene, Drew turned to Leon "I take it the vultures are an undiscovered species?", to which Leon said "Sort of. I remember reading something about indeterminate cathartid remains in the area… as for the mammals…", trailing off, before turning to Alice, smiling, "I'll let you have this one. Would you like to have a go?" Alice smiled and nodded, before breathing in and saying, "The miacids are amphicticeps, the mustelids are palaeogale, and the wolverine-bear things are… amphicynodon?", turning to Leon for confirmation. Leon nodded and Drew smiled. "Right then," he stated. "I'd say it's time we use the old carcass towing trick again."
This decision made, the tow truck and winch were once again prepared. And on signal from Drew, the tow truck was set in motion, dragging the paraceratherium carcass as it went. The scavengers, snarling and squawking in surprise, were quick to pursue the carcass, going straight through the portal, into the present. Once the carcass and the scavengers were through, Drew closed the portal. "Yep," he said, "Nothing like old school."
"Now what do we do?" Alice asked. Drew nodded his head. "The same thing I did with Adrian and Jack back in Yixian," he stated before gesturing around the watering hole. "We'll set up a bunch of traps around the water hole – for the smaller stuff. Once we've got the traps set up, we'll explore around – most animals'll be gathering here."
And so, once the traps had been set up, the trio headed over towards the ring of trees. After fifteen minutes, they calmly began exploring and observing. For some time, they found no animals present, when Leon abruptly said, "I think I found something." At this, Drew and Alice looked to Leon in time to see him pointing towards a small hole in the side of a tree. Curious, they carefully made their way towards Leon, working as cautiously as they could. Once the team had gathered, Alice and Drew looked into the hole alongside Leon in time to see a pair of owls, with tannish gold feathers and white spots. Both owls were looking curiously in the team's direction. "I've read about these," Leon whispered. "They're heterostrix. A species of owl – was discovered here only recently." Alice nodded, smiling at the owls, and whispered, "They remind me of the oraristrix back in La Brea". Drew nodded his head in agreement. "And we have a perfect opportunity," he whispered. He then looked to his two teammates. "Take a look inside the bait bags," he whispered. "There should be some dead rats in at least one of them – this is a drought and I don't think they've eaten for a while."
Making sure to stay quiet so as to avoid scaring the owls, Alice and Leon looked through the bait bags and eventually drew out a dead rat, which they handed to Drew. A determined look on his face, Drew cautiously extended the dead rat within the owls' line of sight. The owls, equal parts curious and hungry, proceeded to shuffle fully to their feet and carefully make their way towards the entrance of their hole. At Drew's signal, Alice summoned the portal just close enough to the tree for Drew to easily toss the rat through but far enough away as to not startle the owls. The owls, eager to claim this apparent free snack, were quick to jump out of their hole and fly through the portal after the dead rat. Once they had gone through, Alice closed the portal. Drew flashed a double thumbs-up to his team mates, proud grin on his face. "Good work, team," he stated. Alice nodded her head. "Happy to help," she said. "Should we head back to the water hole now?" Leon asked. Drew nodded his head. "I think we've left the traps unsupervised long enough," he stated. "Let's see what they've caught for us."
. . . . .
Yolanda Hall walked through the recovery pens, looking through her case notes. She was alone; Linda was at the portal site, preparing for the rest of the animals that would be brought back from today's mission and Beth and Harry were on routine assignments around the park. After coming back from the Yixian exhibit, where she had been part of Jack and Collete's plan to get Xingcun adopted by one of the adult pairs, she'd been placed on duty in the recovery pens.
Whilst most of what had come up today was comparatively minor – minor injuries and checkups – there had been two animals from the mission that had needed serious care. Turning a corner, she came upon the female hyaenodon, sleeping in a recovery pen.
Yolanda sighed – the female creodont had come to them half-dead, with injuries including two broken ribs, a maimed front leg, and lacerations to the throat and torso. Linda had been concerned as to whether the hyaenodon would survive the operation – Fortunately, after six hours of surgery, they had managed to stabilize her.
Sniffing the air, the hyaenodon stiffly got up, briefly looked at her and scanned its surroundings groggily, before returning to its sleeping area. Yolanda sighed again – the hyaenodon had a long road ahead. Shaking her head, Yolanda moved on.
Walking down the hall, she came upon the orphaned paraceratherium calf that Drew, Alice and Leon had saved from the jaws of the astorgosuchus float. At the little creature, still nervously scanning the air at all the strange new sights, sounds and smells, she gave a pained look – maybe if the team brought back an adult (or an adult herd), they could get him 'adopted'. They'd done it with Xingcun – whilst, obviously, a paracerathere and a dromaeosaur were very different creatures, perhaps there was hope.
Based on Khatin's observations, they had surmised that the little creature was just over a year old – old enough to eat solid food, but not old enough to be fully independent. He'd need to be integrated with his own kind – and soon. Yolanda sighed and moved on. At that moment, as stressful as the high workload this day was bringing, she had other thoughts on her mind that were making her feel especially unhappy that day. And right now, she was starting to get the feeling she needed to take a break from her current duties at the veterinary facility to have time to herself. And she knew just the place to fulfil this wish.
. . . . .
At the cave lion paddock, Yolanda sighed once more, her hand on her chin as she observed Simba and Nala. She couldn't help but notice just how close the two young adult cave lions were positioned to each other as they napped together upon a large rock within the center of their shared paddock. So far, it looked as if the cave lions might – another success for the breeding program. "You two are so lucky," she whispered under her breath, her hazel eyes narrowed melancholically as she stared at the big cats. "It's so easy for you to hang out in each other's company." She then turned her head in the general direction of Jack and Colette. Her mind briefly flashed back to just how often she'd happened to catch sight of the two hanging out by the droma enclosure, at which point she sighed again. "Why can't I do that with Leon?"
Immediately after saying this, she hung her head in guilt. She hated thinking negatively about her friends. But even so, part of her couldn't help but feel jealous at just how easily Colette and Jack appeared to have strengthened their bond to the point that Colette seemed to so easily find time to hang out with Jack and watch him perform his dromaeosaur training work on a seemingly regular basis when she herself was still only managing to watch Leon's work with the cave lions and smilodon fatalis from in hiding on a semi regular basis without Leon even knowing she was doing so, with the times in which they both hung out together in mutual awareness of each other's company so far only occurring with the kind of air that would normally be seen between mere close friends.
She sighed again, remembering how many months at this point she'd trying to deny it – part o her was still aware how busy things were, but…. at the same time, regardless of how much Colette and Jack would likely deny it, the feelings they had for each other were undeniable – was she starting to have the same for Leon...
"Hey there. Why the long face?"
Eyes widening, Yolanda turned her head in time to see Cynthia standing nearby with a small smile on her face. "Oh...hey there Cynthia," she eventually managed to say, a slight smile forming on her face, to which Cynthia chuckled and said, "Good to see you," before walking over to Yolanda and leaning upon the railing by the cave lion paddock. Her smile turned to a look of concern, "Seriously though, is everything alright? I mean, you look kinda… down."
Yolanda sighed, turning her head back in the direction of the cave lions more. "Let's just say I need somebody to talk to," she eventually said – this was a half-truth, yes, but… really, it was correct. Cynthia looked at her suspiciously, before eventually saying, "Well I suppose I could keep you company for a bit". At this, Yolanda quietly said, "Thank you", and Cynthia nodded, before quietly noting, "I see you really seem to like the cave lions." Yolanda sighed and nodded, "You could say that. They're one of Leon's favourites animals." Cynthia chuckled. "That doesn't surprise me one bit," she admitted before directing a slightly capricious look towards Yolanda. "He was always a bit of a cat person – particularly big cats. That hasn't changed."
At this, Yolanda directed a look of curiosity towards Cynthia. "If you don't mind me asking," she said, "just what was Leon like back in school?" Cynthia sighed, hanging her head briefly. "I'm gonna be completely honest with you," she said. "As far as I'm concerned, he was kind of a wimp." She looked back at Yolanda. "Jack's told me that you were there for what Fiona said… and, yeah, it's pretty accurate." She shook her head side to side. "Full disclosure, Leon and I didn't really get along… for a bunch of reasons. However… the Leon I knew wouldn't have done that with the crassygyrinus."
Yolanda silently whistled, a slight wince starting to form on her face at the image of Leon then versus Leon now – perhaps the park had changed him… as it had them all to a degree. "I take it I probably might not have liked hanging out with him if I'd known him back then?", she then said, a slight hint of nervousness in her voice. Cynthia shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not." She looked back at the cave lions. "Hell, you might have convinced him to stand up for himself a bit…" At this, Yolanda couldn't help but let out a brief chuckle, "Well that's comforting," she admitted, "And at the very least, he's certainly been a better person than he was back then."
"Can't argue with you there," Cynthia admitted, before turning to Yolanda, an intrigued expression on her face, saying slowly, "You seem to have a rather high opinion of Leon." At this, Yolanda chuckled. "How could I not?", she then said before turning to look into the cave lion paddock, "I mean, he did save my life." At this, Cynthia raised her eyebrow in intrigue – there was something more that was going unsaid… but she decided not to bring the matter up.
As it so happened, Cynthia wasn't the only one who was wondering the true depths of Yolanda's feelings for Leon. Linda, who had been walking past, had managed to overhear enough of the conversation to get the gist. She let a small smile come on her face as she continued to surreptitiously watch – she'd come to Ice Age Mount in the first place because Adrian had informed her over comms that Yolanda had been a bit moody. Having overheard the conversation, she'd figured out why. She nodded her head, small smile still on her face as she remembered what Yolanda had talked to her about… and how she could get through it. She resolved that she needed to have a chat with Yolanda in the near future...
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back in Oligocene Mongolia, Leon, Alice, and Drew had returned to the water hole and were busy checking the small animal traps they'd left. And as luck would have it, a sizable number of small animals had been successfully caught. Several traps closest to the edge of the water contained multiple reddish brown frogs with slate gray spots. Three other traps, on the other hand, contained a pair each of reddish brown scaled and tannish gold striped amphisbaenids.
But what really caught the team's attention was the sizable number of small mammals amongst the animals caught in the traps. The first mammal species sighted in the traps was what appeared to be a small sengi-like creature. Next were two species of hedgehog-like creatures, one of which was covered in ash grey fur and tannish gold quills and the second of which had slightly darker grey fur and muddy brown quills. Next was a vaguely moonrat-like creature with coal black fur, fleshy colored underbellies and legs, and canary yellow fur on their cheeks, the backs of their necks, and the very tops of their heads. Next up were a small colony of vaguely shrew-like animals with reddish brown fur on the majority of their bodies, tannish cream coloured fur on their underbellies and upper portions of their legs as well as the very tips of their snouts, jet black fur covering their heads and necks as well as their upper backs, and completely hairless feet, lower legs, and tails.
Four species of lagamorph had also been caught – three species of pika, one of which had sandy tan fur and white spots, one had reddish-brown fur, and the third of which had dusty gray fur, and a rabbit-like creature with sandy gold fur.
Most of the small mammals, however, were rodents – with eight different species represented overall; a vaguely gerbil-like creature covered in orange brown fur, with snowy white fur on their snouts and cheek, a sandy tan furred creature that looked like a cross between a mole rat and a marmot, a small colony of reddish brown furred mice-like creatures, two species of gundi-like creatures, one of which was covered in sandy gold fur and possessed rather large hind feet similar to those of a jerboa, and the other of which had reddish brown fur and had relatively equally sized feet on all four of its limbs, a dusty grey marmot-like creature with an oddly squirrel-like tail, a small group of vaguely mountain beaver-like creatures covered in tawny gold fur with large hind feet adapted for jumping, eight vaguely bamboo rat-like animals covered in reddish brown fur with dusty grey stripes across their backs and a small colony of mole rat-like creatures covered in dusty grey fur with snowy white stripes across their backs.
Leon, naturally, was swift to get to work on identifying them all. "The frogs are macropelobates," he stated while pointing at the amphibians, "and the amphisbaenids are crythiosaurus." Then he started pointing at the small mammals. "The leptictids are didymoconus. The gold quilled hedgehogs are amphechinus and the brown quilled ones are exallerix. The moonrat-like creatures are palaeoscaptor and the shrews are tupaiodon. The vole-like critters are cricetops. The mole rats are cyclomylus and tsaganomys. The mice are eumys. The big footed jumping gundis are karakoromys, and the other ones are tataromys. The squirrel tailed marmots are pseudocylindrodon. The mountain beavers with jerboa style hind feet are selenomys. The bamboo rat-like critters are tachyoryctoides. The sandy colored and white spotted pikas are desmatolagus, the reddish furred ones are ochotonolagus, and the gray ones are sinolagomys. And as for the rabbits, those are procaprolagus."
Alice whistled, "You've really done your research," she stated, to which Drew chuckled, "That's Leon for ya,", before drawing out his portal remote. "And now, let's get 'em through the portal." And so, once Drew had summoned the portal, the trio spent several minutes carefully scooping up all the traps and carrying them over to the park. And once the last had been carried away, the portal was closed once more. "Right then," said Drew. "Let's get searching for more animals."
At this, Leon pointed in the direction of the ring of trees. "I get the feeling we're about to not need to look very far."
Eyebrows raised, Drew and Alice looked in the direction Leon was pointing in time to see a sizable number of multiple herbivores slowly making their way towards the water hole. A swift glance was enough for the team to determine there to be at least five species present amongst this incidental combined herd. The borissakia, they recognised, but the others…
Two species of pecorans – one small and with tannish fur and one larger, gazelle-like species with dusty grey fur with white underbellies. The next largest species was a herd of vaguely antelope-like creatures covered in sandy tan fur. The next group to be identified were a small herd of borissiakia –
However, the most impressive animals amongst the group were a small herd of paraceratherium – mostly females with calves. At the sight, Alice smiled and said, "A whole herd of paraceratherium". "Not only that," Drew chuckled, "But a herd of borissiakia", before turning to Leon, "For the other creatures, Leon… you're up." Leon nodded. "The pecorans are eumeryx and psuedomeryx – eumeryx is the smaller one, psuedomeryx is the bigger one. The primitive bovids are... probably palaeohypsodontus."
The sound of thunderous bellowing caused the entire large combined herd to pause in their movements and turn their heads. The rescue team did the same. And in that instant, they were all just in time to see a paraceratherium, larger than all the others, walking towards the lake. "A bull paraceratherium", Leon said, quietly, "We are standing in the presence of the largest land mammal that had ever existed – and the second largest to ever exist." Drew nodded, "God, this was a great target."
The giant male walked down to the lake, lowered his head and began to drink – once the herd arrived, they began drinking to. Alice looked to Drew. "Alright then," she said. "Now that they're all here drinking, how are we going to get them through the portal?" Drew smiled, and proceeded to draw out a cabbage from one of the bait bags. "We entice them through with food," he said. "After all, even with the drink they're currently getting at this water hole, it's probably been a while since they ate."
After pausing just long enough to allow Leon to gather recordings, the trio proceeded to lay a trail of cabbages and other park kitchen vegetables. And once the trail was set, Leon proceeded to play one of his newest recordings from one of the adult paraceratherium, which swiftly caught the attention of all the paraceratherium, with the rest of the herbivores turning their heads to see what had caught the larger animals' attention. At the sight of the trail of food, one of the paraceratherium calves, a male by the looks of it, came curiously over to the end of the trail and sniffed at it before eventually taking a gingerly bite out of a cabbage. After chewing and swallowing the bite, it bleated happily, before following the trail further – the other herbivores, plus the large paraceratherium bull, began following the trail. Whilst the sight of the portal initially startled them, they all eventually ended up resuming going down the trail, hunger outweighing fear. And once the herd had vanished through the portal, Drew closed it.
"Good job everyone," Drew said before the sound of a low rumbling in the sky caused the trio to look up just in time to see that storm clouds were gathering. The trio's eyes widened at the sight of this. "Oh my," Leon said, as Drew whistled and said, "This could get rough." Another boom of thunder split the air, followed by a torrent of rain suddenly starting to fall from the clouds! Hissing in surprise and discomfort, Leon looked to Drew. "I repeat," he grumbled, "Now what do we do?" Drew gestured towards the nearest direction, "We do the smart thing and find shelter and quick – this'll be a quagmire in a few minutes"
. . . . .
Nikolai stood at the Ice Age Mount herbivore paddock, watching the animals. He took most of his breaks here – alternating with the Carboniferous dome, where he could visit Felix and Melancholia. Watching the herbivores go about the daily business was somehow calming – it provided some relief from the sometimes stressful duty of keeping the park safe.
The day after the Microraptor mission, Jack had come to him after the attempted break-in to ask whether it would be a waste of resources for Nikolai to have security guards periodically check his office – to make sure that no-one broke in again. Whilst initially thinking this was disproportionate, Nikolai supposed there was good reason for Jack to be paranoid – they both knew the ramifications of Jack's research and, understandably, were both eager to avoid it falling into the wrong hands.
Anyway...
He was specifically focused on Martha, Ellie and Achilles, who were all drinking from the lake together. The three animals seemed to associate with each other a lot – he supposed that, whilst Martha and Ellie were still not officially part of the main herd, it was nice to have some companionship. The rest of the mammoth herd seemed to tolerate them - sometimes, Lyuba would come up to them, curiously. None of them made any effort to chase her off – the worst she got was an irritated snort from Achilles every now and then.
Perhaps Martha and Ellie would be accepted soon – the herd seemed more willing to associate with them than they had before. However, it was nevertheless a process that took time – you couldn't rush it or lengthen it. It happened when it happened. And for however long it took, they'd have Achilles and Nikolai to keep them company whilst they waited.
The sound of higher pitched bellowing and braying caused him to briefly look in the direction of where the main Ice Age Mount herbivore paddock connected with the megaloceros paddock, even if with a single reinforced chain-link wall separating the two paddocks from fully uniting, just in time to see Achilles' still quite young son Cornelius and a tarpan foal named Hermey engaging in what appeared to be some kind of impromptu play date with the scar nosed megaloceros fawn Rudolph. At that moment, it was easy to notice how, despite the fact that Cornelius no longer had the splint that had been on his hind leg earlier that year, the male woolly rhino calf was noticeably moving rather cautiously as if trying his best to avoid running the risk of breaking his leg all over again. But while this detail was certainly worth noticing, Nikolai was currently paying more attention to his apparent interspecies bond with Hermey and Rudolph, something that somewhat mirrored the bond Achilles had with Martha. He shook his head side to side in amusement. "Like father, like son," he muttered.
Suddenly, his communicator rang – grabbing it, he said "Captain Koshkin speaking, what is the emergency?" Bristow's voice chuckled over the communicator, "No emergency, Captain – just calling to tell you that you should really see what Drew's got for us."
At this, Nikolai raised his eyebrow and said, "The Paraceratherium, I take it?" Bristow's voice chuckled, "Somehow, a label doesn't do 'em justice – you really need to come down here and see 'em for yourself."
Nikolai sighed – spectacle aside, with such gigantic animals, he supposed the more hands, the better. He said, over the communicator, "I can end my break early – I'm on my way." Bristow's voice was quick to respond. "Sounds good Captain," he stated. "We'll see you there." At that, Nikolai ended the call. Turning to Martha, he said, "My apologies, but duty calls," before he left.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, at the holding pens, the team was staring in a mixture of awe and surprise at the massive gathering of large herbivores in the pen where the portal was positioned. "Hoowee," Mohinder stated as he and the rest of the assembled keepers and security guards observed all the animals that had newly been brought to the park. "Drew's really outdone himself this time." Horace shook his head side to side in bemusement. "No kidding," he grumbled. "He's certainly keeping us on our toes this mission," Tina admitted.
Kyle, meanwhile, shook his head side to side in equal parts bemusement and exhaustion. Already he could tell that this latest load of animals would be quite a handful, especially with the gigantic bull paraceratherium. "This ought to be fun," he grumbled. Bristow whistled in response. "That's one way to put it," he admitted, an almost excited grin on his face, "Dropped the Captain a line – figured he had to see these things in person." Farnsworth nodded his head. "Even so," he stated. "We should probably start rounding them up." He then looked to Kyle, his eyebrow raised in suspicion. "For that matter, any idea where Linda went off to? I get the feeling she could be pretty damn helpful." Kyle sighed heavily. Not too long after the arrival of the smaller Hsanda Gol animals, Linda had departed to supposedly take care of a brief errand – she had not yet returned. "I'm sure she'll come back as soon as she's able," he muttered before clapping his hands in 'chop-chop' fashion. "But right now, we'd best get to work. For like you said, waiting for her and Nikolai to show up beforehand won't exactly do us any favors." But even as he said this, part of him still couldn't help but wonder, where was Linda?
. . . . .
As it so happened, Linda was currently in her office at the veterinary facility, with a slightly nervous looking Yolanda sitting directly across from her. Yolanda gulped, wringing her hands nervously, "Did I do something wrong?" Linda shook her head. "No Yolanda," she said, placing a hand reassuringly on her assistant's shoulder in the process with a comforting smile on her face. "You're not in trouble. Adrian simply informed me of that you seem a bit… sullen today and I just wanted to see if everything was alright."
Yolanda's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh," she said, clearly caught off guard, before she hung her head, a slightly embarrassed look on her face, before sighing and saying, "In that case, I'm sorry to have worried you." Linda nodded her head. "Apology accepted.", before placing both hands on her desk and leaned her head forward towards Yolanda. "Though if you don't mind, may I ask when you first started feeling the way you're currently feeling about Leon?" Yolanda's eyes widened again, and then she let an awkward half smile come on her face alongside an embarrassed blush. "Was it really that obvious?" Linda shrugged. "I read between the lines during your little talk with Cynthia," she admitted.
Yolanda hung her head slightly, now feeling even more embarrassed by the news that her boss had watched and overheard her earlier chat with Cynthia. Realising this, Linda gave her assistant another reassuring smile and pat on the shoulder and said, "Seriously though… When did it start?" Sighing, Yolanda looked to the side and said "That depends", to which Linda raised her eyebrow. "On what?" Yolanda sighed. "How long I was denying it." Linda briefly straightened up, before smiling and said, "Not counting that." Yolanda sighed and said, "Well in that case, I'd say a couple of weeks", before rubbing a hand nervously through her hair, "I thought he was a pretty good friend before that, but…"
Linda gave an amused smirk and said, mock-teasingly, "What about Jack, Will, and Adrian? Have they not been good friends to you?" Yolanda let a slight chuckle escape her. "Oh, they've been plenty good friends to me – hell, I'd call Jack my best friend" she admitted, "But... it's a little different" Linda leaned forward. "Different how?" Yolanda sighed and hung her head. "Don't know. I know you think I do… but I don't." Linda thought to herself, carefully considering what her assistant had just said. "In that case," she eventually said. "Just what exactly about Leon got you liking him so much right now?"
Yolanda nodded her head. This was something she could easily answer. "Well, he's smart and nice and funny…" she admitted, before she then scratched the back of her head, a slight nervous smile forming on her face. "But after the dimetrodon mission and that whole thing with the crassygrinus… he started letting down his walls – made me see what he's really like." She then hung her head, as the bad memories came slithering back into her mind, " "Honestly," she stated. "He's the kind of guy I wish could have been available for me when I was in school."
At this, Linda placed her hand back on Yolanda's shoulder once more, a clear look of sympathy on her face as she remembered what Yolanda had told her – something that she wasn't sure any other people knew. "A friend like Leon probably would have been invaluable to her back then," she thought to herself. She then nodded her head. "Well know this Yolanda," she said. "However things unfold between you two in the future, know that you'll have my support, every step of the way." Yolanda lifted her head, a clear look of gratitude on her face at her boss's kind words. "Thanks Linda," she eventually managed to say before nodding her head. "You're honestly the first person I've directly allowed to be told about my current situation." Linda chuckled. "A fact I consider a great honor," she admitted before nodding her head and standing up from her desk. "Come on," she said. "Why don't you come with me to the holding pens for the remainder of the time I'll be needed there today? I'm sure you'll greatly appreciate the company."
Yolanda thought to herself. "Well," she then admitted. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt." And at that, she stood up from her chair and departed from the office alongside Linda, head held high and her usual smile back on her face. Already she felt a lot better than she had earlier. Linda similarly was in good spirits, feeling both relieved that Yolanda's earlier seeming dispirited mood hadn't been nearly as bad as it could have been and touched as to just how correct her earlier suspicions upon overhearing Yolanda and Cynthia's conversation had turned out to be. "Leon really is lucky to have won Yolanda over like this," she thought to herself, a look of motherly pride on her face as she directed a brief glance towards Yolanda. While well aware that Yolanda's birth mother was very alive, well, and involved in her daughter's life, Linda couldn't help but feel at times that her assistant was the closest thing she'd ever have to a daughter of her own. And naturally, in that position, she soon found herself thinking some especially appropriate thoughts involving Yolanda's current situation with Leon. "If they become romantically involved," she thought to herself, "Leon had better turn out to be a great man for her; and by God he'd better turn out to be better for her than the man I used to think was the one for me ultimately ended up turning out to be."
. . . . .
Back in Oligocene Mongolia, Drew, Alice and Leon sat sheltering in a cave on a large hill as more rain fell in a few hours than had fallen in the last few months. Eventually, the storm finally ended and the team got out of the cave and looked at the changed landscape. The landscape was now criss-crossed with small rivulets, with even the driest ground now caked in mud – and the lake had doubled in size. The parched scrublands were now soaking – even the trees had water dripping from their branches, with some handing precariously.
"Wow", Alice said, as she looked around the changed landscape, "The rains really changed this place." Leon shrugged, "That's the law of the desert". train of thought was interrupted by a small, whining noise, like a sad puppy.
Following the sound, they found an area half-submerged, with a bedraggled and shivering cynodictis pup looking forlornly at a collapsed burrow. The team looked at each other – they knew what had happened; the pup's family had died when their burrow had been flooded. Steeling herself to the best of her ability, Alice walked cautiously over to the pup, reached down and picked up the pup, gently and quietly carrying it through the portal, back to the park. When she came back, her head was still hung in sadness. Leon and Drew both looked at her in concern. "Are you ok?" Leon asked. "Is the pup alright?" Drew asked. Alice sighed. "I'm alright," she said. She then looked to both her teammates. "And before you ask Drew, yes so is the pup. She's being taken to the vet offices as we speak." Leon sighed in relief. "That's good," he stated.
Then the silence was shattered by the sound of an animal bellowing panickedly; at which point the team quickly looked at each other, a silent message passing between them, and then hurried off in the direction the noises were coming from. Following the sound, the team came upon the adolescent male paraceratherium they'd first encountered, stuck to his knees in quicksand. Gaping in horror, Alice eventually managed to say, "He must have been here when the storm hit, and then gotten trapped when the rains turned it into a quagmire." She then looked to her two teammates. "We have to help him!"
Leon and Drew had just started nodding their heads in agreement when some familiar whoops and snarls split the air. Eyes widened once more, the team turned their heads in that direction in time to see the hyaenodon pack they'd encountered earlier, their yellow eyes agleam with hungry glee. The paraceratherium also caught sight of the carnivores, at which point he continued to struggle, letting out quiet, anguished bellow. Alice snapped her head back in Leon and Drew's direction. "Now we really need to act fast!" Leon nodded in agreement and looked to Drew. "You got a plan?"
Drew smirked. "As a matter of fact, I do." He pointed to Alice. "Alice, keep the hyaenodon pack occupied. Leon and I will take care of the paraceratherium; we're gonna do what we did to help Arlo back at Morrison." At this, Alice nodded her head. "Sounds like a plan," she said, already drawing out her audio player and selecting the hyaenodont snarl recording she had available. "Excellent," said Drew. "Now let's get to work D-Bags! We haven't got a moment to lose!"
At this, Leon and Drew hurried through the portal before swiftly returning through with a jeep with a towing mechanism attached to the back. As the paraceratherium turned its head and leaned forward, bellowing in panic, Leon threw down a corset-like sleeve, which Drew hurriedly attached to the winch before running as close to the quicksand as he could and wrapping the sleeve into place around the adolescent paraceratherium male's torso, wrapping a large belt around its rump for good measure. Preparations made, Drew ran towards the jeep, which Leon had already climbed into position at the driver's seat for, and flashed a thumbs-up. Leon nodded his head, a determined look on his face, and started slowly moving the jeep forward.
At the thumbs-up, Alice nodded – now was her cue. Determined glare on her face, she drew out her audio player, attached a megaphone to it, and played the snarling hyaenodont recording at full volume. The sound was enough to attract the attention of the hyaenodon pack, who turned to loo in Alice's direction, snarling and whooping indignantly at her. Alice, undeterred, played the recording again and began, slowly, moving backwars as the hyaenodons began to advance towards her. Once they had gotten close enough, Alice dived out of the way, summoning the portal as she did so. The charging hyaenodons, moving too fast to stop, all went rushing through the portal for their trouble, moving as if a single entity.
Meanwhile, Leon was slowly moving the jeep forward and pulling the adolescent male paraceratherium – every time the paraceratherium pulled forward, he moved slightly forward in the mud. Eventually, the paraceratherium had gotten close enough to pull himself out - Drew detached the torso sleeve from the winch and Leon activated the portal. While initially startled, curiosity eventually won out over fear, and he proceeded to walk, unsteadily, through the portal and into the present. This done, Alice ran over to her teammates - at her arrival, Drew smiled and flashed her a thumbs-up, "Taking a page from both Leon's book and mine. Well done" At this, Alice chuckled and said, "What can I say? You guys have rubbed off on me. Makes up for the Eocene?" Drew chuckled, smiled and winked, "You betcha," before clapping his hands. "I think it's time we all went home."
And so, once Alice and Drew had joined Leon in the jeep, Leon summoned the portal and drove the jeep through to the park.
. . . . .
An hour or so later, all the new arrivals were transferred over to their new homes in the Hsanda Gol Formation exhibit zone. The paraceratherium, borissiakia, anthracotherium, palaeohypsodontus, and the pecorans had been given a large scrubland paddock in the very centre of the exhibit zone. It was decided that they could share the paddock together, since they were all herbivores and unlikely to harm each other. They were all either feeding, taking a drink at the paddock's lake, or resting in the sun. A large platform had been built over the paddock, to serve as a "feeding station" when the park ultimately opened.
Whilst the large bull, Big Roy, was keeping to himself, the adolescent – who had been named Gamin – was browsing near a stand of . Meanwhile, the two younger orphaned males, with the calf who'd been rescued from the astorgosuchus being named Reuben and the scar backed adolescent being named Gamin, had managed to successfully be adopted by the larger herd, with the male calf Reuben's age already amongst the herd so far having no issue with the matter in his young age.
The hyaenodon pack, who had been given their own large paddock, were all napping in the sun, waiting for their next meal whilst the entelodons, their neighbours, were all either feeding on the plants or rolling in the mud pit they had been given. The larger nimravus species were being kept in their own separate paddock to the left of the hyaenodons, split into two – with the mother and cubs having one side and the male having the other. Meanwhile, the astorgosuchus float had a large pool all to themselves to the right of the entelodon paddock – they were all either patrolling their new territory, lazily floating about in the water, or basking on the shore.
The small carnivores had been given a cluster of exhibits to the left of the main herbivore paddock – the cynodictis family were in a small exhibit at the centre; the parents were napping in the sun, whilst their pups were playing. The smaller nimravus species had a separate paddock directly behind the cynodictis, split into two, with the mother and cubs having one half and the male having another. The leftmost paddock in this cluster served as home for the amphicticeps, which were all happily feasting upon a freshly provided chicken carcass. A similarly sized paddock to the right of the cynodictis paddock served as home for the palaeogale, which were all currently either scouting for threats directly above ground, or napping in the burrows that had already been prepared for them. The paddock to the south of the cynodictis paddock, meanwhile, was now home to the amphicynodon, which were all currently feasting heartily upon a freshly provided pig carcass.
Positioned to the immediate right of the main herbivore paddock were two aviary style enclosures, one of which was noticeably smaller than the other and designed with nocturnal residents in mind. This aviary enclosure in particular was now home to the heterostrix duo, named Kiki and Tombo, who were currently resting quietly in their brand new tree hole home within as they settled into their brand new living space. The larger and more diurnally designed aviary exhibit nearby, on the other hand, served as home for the newly rescued committee of Oligocene epoch vultures, which Khatin had excitedly dubbed indricornis mongoliensis. And at that moment, the alpha male and female Howl and Sophie were currently resting in a large nest that they'd made for themselves at the very top of a large tree in the exhibit's center while their underlings in the committee all scouted for threats or preened their wings.
Finally, all the smaller animals were all happy and healthy inside their respective exhibits within an large exhibit building themed after the Oligocene Mongolia deserts to the immediate south of the main herbivore paddock, with the macropelobates all lounging in or near the manmade 'pond' within their terrarium close to the building's front entrance, the crythiosaurus similarly lounging upon whatever surfaces they felt like resting upon in their own terrarium positioned next door, and the various small mammals all doing as they pleased within their own separate exhibits.
Meanwhile in the vet offices, Alice and Yolanda were looking over the orphaned Cynodictis, a female that Alice had affectionately named Raksha, as she walked unsteadily around her recovery pen. After a brief checkup, she had been sent over to recovery. Alice and Yolanda looked over the little mammal, scared in this new environment, and felt a pang of sympathy; the family they already had couldn't take her in, since they had pups of their own. They were going to have to hand-raise her themselves.
At that moment, Yolanda took a quick look towards the holding pen where the injured female hyaenodon, whom Yolanda had named Yenna, was currently still napping to sleep of the results of her surgery. Her pack's holding pen was right next to her – enabling Yenna to be reintroduced to her pack.
Rescue Tally
* Amphechinus aymard (12; all adults; 6 male, 6 female)
* Amphicticeps shacklefordi (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Amphicynodon velaunus (7; all adults; 2 male, 5 female)
* Anthracotherium adiposum (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 5 male, 8 female)
* Astorgosuchus bugtiensis (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 3 male, 6 female)
* Borissiakia betpakdalensis (9; 5 adults, 4 youngsters; 5 male, 4 female)
* Cricetops dormitor dormitor (10; all adults; 4 male, 6 female)
* Crythiosaurus mongoliensis (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Cyclomylus iohensis (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Cynodictis elegans (8; 2 adults, 6 youngsters; 4 male, 4 female)
* Desmatolagus gobiensis (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Didymoconus berkeyi (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Entelodon dirus (6; all adults; 2 male, 4 female)
* Eumeryx culminis (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)
* Eumys asiaticus (27; all adults; 13 male, 14 female)
* Exallerix hsandgolensis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Heterostrix tatsinensis (2; all adults; 1 male, 1 female)
* Hyaenodon gigas (9; 5 adults, 4 youngsters; 3 male, 6 female)
* Indricornis mongoliensis (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Karakoromys decessus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Macropelobates osborni (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Nimravus pumilianis (7; all adults; 4 male, 3 female)
* Nimravus tatalgolicus (5; 2 adults, 3 youngsters; 3 male, 2 female)
* Ochotonolagus argyropuloi (11; all adults; 5 male, 6 female)
* Palaeogale ulyesses (13; all adults; 7 male, 6 female)
* Palaeohypsodontus asiaticus (17; 10 adults, 7 youngsters; 7 male, 10 female)
* Palaeoscaptor acridens (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Paraceratherium transouralicum (14; 9 adults, 5 youngsters; 5 male, 9 female)
* Procaprolagus mongolicus (13; 8 adults, 5 youngsters; 3 male, 8 female)
* Pseudocylindrodon mongolicus (11; all adults; 4 male, 7 female)
* Pseudomeryx gobiensis (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)
* Selenomys mimicus (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Sinolagomys tatalgolicus (9; all adults; 4 male, 5 female)
* Tachyoryctoides pachygnathus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Tataromys plicidens (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)
* Tsaganomys altaicus (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)
* Tupaiodon morrisi (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:
The rescue team sets their sights to surprisingly more recent than normal.
(Drew, Adrian, and Leon walk across a large sandy beach with smiles on their faces.)
To rescue the animal that defines extinction.
(A small group of dodos stand nearby the base of a tree while looking in curiosity towards Drew and his companions.)
While back at the park, a clash of the titans is brewing…
(Gamin and Big Roy bellow loudly at each other while stomping their front feet in alternating fashion.)
All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined; By Our Bootstraps!
Author's Note: Happy 2023, y'all!
