Bethany sighed in contentment as she once again sat on a bench in the Carboniferous Dome. As per usual, she'd chosen to spend her break there. And at that particular moment, with two whole weeks having now passed since the day of the woolly mammoth mission, it was safe to say that she had a lot on her mind. She had to admit, the news that the park would now be allowed to start preparing for opening to the public was a bit of a game-changer.
She nodded her head. It would be quite interesting to see what it would be like to have the park crowded with people after practically two years now of only the staff and animals occupying the area. Admittedly, she had a feeling that, work-wise , her life would be largely unchanged. After all, illnesses, injuries, births and checkups would occur as they always had. But at the same time, she also couldn't help but feel rather excited nonetheless about the park opening. After all, perhaps she could aid the keepers in presentations when the park opens. At this, she smiled even more - despite her rather intimidating and aloof appearance, she'd always been a sucker for working with kids.
Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a clacking noise behind her. This, combined with the sudden feeling she had of being watched, caused her to turn her head, smile still on her face, in time to see Selqet and Neith staring her way from their respective vivariums. She chuckled. "Good to see you too, girls," she said. She had to admit, over the months that had passed since the Carboniferous mission, she'd really come to enjoy being in Selqet and Neith's company. And it certainly helped that Selqet and Neith seemed to have become used to her company as well. "Just wait until the public get a look at you," Bethany said warmly to the two arachnids.
After another couple minutes, Neith and Selqet both grew bored of watching Bethany and crawled back into their respective burrows. Bethany smiled and stood up from her bench. It had been nice to have some private time in the dome, especially considering how rare it was going to be in the future. But now, her break would soon be ending, and it would probably be for the best for her to start heading back to the veterinary facility. But right as she was about to start heading towards the dome's entrance, she paused, her eyes narrowed as she realized that just maybe she had time to quickly check one other thing...
...and sure enough, she caught sight of Larry perched upon the railing for the proterogyrinus paddock. Bethany shook her head, a bemused smile on her face. "You just can't help yourself, can you Larry?"
The petrolacosaurus escape artist warbled in response to his name, bobbing his head up and down while also swinging his tail side to side. Bethany chuckled, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance. As always, she could never stay angry at Larry for long, despite his frequent escapades. Nevertheless, now that she'd caught sight of him once again outside the petrolacosaurus and hylonomus terrarium, it was best that she take him for a ride for a bit and place him back inside the terrarium.
Chuckling still, Bethany walked over to Larry, her right hand extended. Once she was close enough, Larry crawled onto her hand, staying perfectly still, as she then lifted him up so that he could get into position for a ride on her head. From there, she calmly made her way over to the petrolacosaurus and hylonomus terrarium with Larry perched atop her head.
. . . . .
Harry felt very relaxed and calm as he sat upon a bench in the Hanson Formation exhibit zone, watching Elvis and Priscilla the cryolophosaurus. So far, even two weeks after the game changing announcement, he still felt mildly surprised at just how little his life at the park had changed so far – at the same time, he couldn't help but appreciate it. After all, considering how they were busy enough already, the last thing they really needed was anything else.
The sound of low bellowing from Elvis and Priscilla attracted his attention back to the cryolophosaurus duo in time to see them nuzzling their heads together. The sight of this made him smile – and now that he thought about it, he'd found the subject for his next painting...
The sound of hissing from the paddock next door alerted Elvis and Priscilla. Curious, Harry turned to see Goulet, the male psuedodilophosaurus, hissing at the two cryolophosaurus, his blue "ruff" of protofeathers puffing outward. Harry shook his head side to side. Clearly Goulet had not forgotten his near death experience at Elvis's jaws, and he wanted the cryolophosaurus to know that fact. Hopefully this'd just be noise – another fight was the last thing they needed. He shook his head – now wasn't the time to be worrying about these things. If something happened, they'd deal with it. That was what they did.
His thoughts went once more to opening day – he'd been looking forward to it… for more reasons than one. As a thanks from Theodore, the staff had been given a hypothetical "VIP list" – of old friends, partners and family members, who would be invited to the opening day event. Not all of them had taken the opportunity – however, Harry had put his wife Jinnifer, their daughter Caitlin, and their sons Dennis and Nialls forward.
He smiled at the thought of his family. He'd had a video chat with them the day immediately after the news had broken… and it had taken all his willpower not to give the whole game away. Fortunately, he was able to inform them that, at some point in the near future, they'd be able to come to Florida and see what he had been doing first hand. He nodded his head. "I always felt that I'd need to really make it up to them." He turned to look at Elvis and Priscilla, who were currently ignoring Goulet in favor of taking a drink in their paddock's lake. "And I'd say letting them be among the first to see the park'd be pretty good dor that." At this rate, opening day couldn't come soon enough for him.
. . . . .
Yolanda was in a very good mood as she observed Diego, Shira, and their cubs from safely on the exterior side of the smilodon fatalis paddock's viewing area. Diego was taking taking a nap upon the large resting rock in the very centre of the paddock, Shira lying next to him whilst cleaning Iorunn with her tongue, and Ka-Zar and Blag playfully wrestling each other at the base. At the domesticity of the sight, Yolanda giggled, before turning her head to look in the general direction of Sarasota, thinking now about the momentous news. It was no secret that she was excited. After all, it would certainly be interesting to see how the world at large reacted to the park's existence.
She then thought to herself further. Now that she thought about it, she was still having trouble deciding whether to submit her family for inclusion on the VIP list for the park's opening day. On the one hand, her family were pretty busy – however, it had been a while since she'd last seen them and it'd be nice to see them again… especially her niece and nephew Mabel and Mason. She giggled again at the thought of her niece and nephew. It was always a lot of fun for her to be around them, and they'd probably really enjoy visiting a place like Prehistoric Park – and she'd like to introduce them to the friends she'd made, like Jack and Leon...
At the thought of Leon, she raised her eyebrow even further in intrigue. She had to admit, the last time she and Leon had personally hung out together had been on the same day of the momentous announcement, consisting of the two of them relaxing together at the La Brea Grand Vista within hours after Drew had opened the announcement envelope and read the news aloud. And with how busy she and Leon had both ended up being in the weeks that had followed, perhaps some time to hang out'd be nice. She placed her hand on the back of her head, a small blush and slightly perplexed look of embarrassment starting to come onto her face – she seemed to have Leon on her mind quite often nowadays, and she couldn't help but wonder why. Sure he'd become a very good friend to her ever since they'd first properly gotten to know each other on the day of the dimetrodon mission, but surely that was all he was...right? She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Now was not the time to get distracted by uncertainty – the park was set to open next summer and they needed to focus on that. And besides, she was holding romance at arm's length after her previous experience...
...assuming that that could be called "romance"...
Eyes widening, Yolanda shuddered, and then hurriedly looked back at Diego and his family, desperate now to try to get her mind back on simpler and happier things. "Happy place," she thought to herself. "Happy place, happy place, happy place. Get in your happy place."
. . . . .
Linda was currently feeling in fairly good spirits as she observed the various inhabitants of the Hell Creek main herbivore paddock from the viewing area. Everywhere she looked, the paddock's inhabitants seemed to be going about their business as normal. The ornithomimus were all milling about their unofficial territory within the paddock, squawking and warbling to keep in touch. The ceratopsian herds were both browsing together in the very centre, with the juveniles engaging in playful tussles, with the pachycephalosaurus browsing on shrubs nearby. The edmontosaurus were all gathered by the paddock's lake as they proceeded to either drink, bathe, playfully splash around, or even take a light swim. The ankylosaurs were gathered at the edges of the lightly forested area at the paddock's rear as they either browsed upon the bushes or rested in the sunlight. And of course, Custer the alamosaurus could be seen deep within the paddock's rear forest as he browsed upon the leaves. In general, life had not really changed for the inhabitants of the Hell Creek main herbivore paddock since the game changing announcement from Novum two weeks prior.
At this thought, Linda nodded her head with an understanding smile on her face. In a way, she knew exactly how the animals felt – the vets' lives hadn't really become any busier after the announcement than they'd already been prior to the announcement, occasional need to assist with the preparations notwithstanding. And of course, after opening day, things'd not really change much or the veterinary division – the same illnesses, injuries, births and checkups would come as they always had, something she couldn't help but feel relieved by. She winced in sympathy as she remembered just how many of the other staff had reacted about the preparations for opening day – in addition to their normal duties. She could understand why, but nonetheless, business was business, and all of them knew that it'd all be worth it in the end.
She nodded her head, looking in the general direction of Sarasota as she thought some more about the park's upcoming opening day. She had to admit, while not as much as some, she did feel pretty excited about the park opening to the public. Even now she could still remember just how excited she'd been when she'd first found the full truth about Prehistoric Park – and she was very much looking forward to seeing how others would react, seeing all of this.
The sound of a trumpeting honk from not too far in front of her caused Linda to look back at the paddock, and then downward, just in time to see Carina standing by the viewing area she was standing at, looking up towards her from her position on the ground. Evidently she'd just finished drinking at the lake and come over to see Linda. Linda chuckled, a warm smile on her face once more. "Good to see you too, girl."
Letting out another, quieter honk, Carina reared up to full height onto her hind legs, her head coming inches to Linda's face. Linda chuckled, and patted the edmontosaurus matriarch on the head. "You sure can be a real softy, can't you?" Carina honked once more, and then eventually lowered herself back down onto all fours. Once Carina had fully settled back down, Linda chuckled, drew out some ferns she'd picked out from the park kitchens, and threw them down for Carina to snack on. "Good job Carina," she said as the edmontosaurus ate, "Good job."
A higher pitched honking from behind Carina caused the edmontosaurus to look over her shoulder. Linda looked in the same direction, and smiled at the sight of one of Carina's offspring walking towards his mother. Chuckling, she remembered the day the edmontosaurus herd's eggs had hatched - several weeks after the infamous Shutdown – and how watchful the herd had been with the small hatchlings, who had grown quite a bit in the intervening time. Turning to Linda, Carina honked, as if in goodbye, and walked back off to her herd. As she watched the edmontosaurus leave, Linda nodded - everything was going well for the edmontosaurs.
At this thought, she started taking another look around the paddock, feeling very curious now as to whether the same could be said for the other residents…. and she found herself taking note of some details that would probably be worth looking into. To start, she took note of just how the juvenile ceratopsians were getting and how spirited their mock-sparring had gotten – and noted that it would probably be a good idea to keep the tricera-tractor ready. Something similar might also need to be done for the pachycephalosaurs. In addition, the juvenile ornithomimus had grown significantly – maybe it was time to talk to Khatin about integrating Flotsam and Jetsam into the larger foc Finally, she couldn't help but once again take note of how Custer was the only one among his kind – whilst this didn't bother him, it was probably a situation that needed to be rectified soon.
She let out a low chuckle. Yep, there was definitely still a lot of work… but she was confident that the park had what it took to make it through. After all, they'd been through so much… and she was confident that they could make it. And at the end of the day, they had the park – and the park had a future. There was nothing more important than that.