Chapter 11 – Of Scales and Feathers
We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast of PP: Reimagined with this message:
Remember the OC contest Drew and I had for Prehistoric Earth? Well, Flameal15 probably does. Well, LionGleek and I have decided to do it again! We want YOU to suggest us a few new OCs for Phase Two. Details will be revealed in the reviews.
Drew sat patiently in his office, a calm smile on his face. It had been a week since the castoroides mission – and Jack and Leon's team-building exercise. They'd proven they could work together – however, he was still nursing a bit of a grudge about it, so they'd be staying at the park once again this time.
He heard the door open and see Adrian and Alice enter. Looking at them, he said, half sarcastically, "Cutting it close, don't you think?"
"Sorry about that," said Adrian, as he and Alice looked at each other.
Drew nodded and said, sulkily, "Eh, don't be late again."
Alice and Adrian nodded nervously.
"Still no Jack and Leon? They have successfully completed the team-building exercise," Alice stated.
"I have to agree," said Adrian. "Yolanda was pretty glowing about their teamwork. I wouldn't exactly say it's fair to reward them this way."
"Still don't trust them just yet," said Drew. He nodded his head. "That and I really hold grudges," he then added in before chuckling darkly.
Alice thought to herself, and then looked to Adrian. "Uh-huh. That's a bit weird."
"Eh, whatever." Drew shrugged non-committally, before clapping his hands, still grinning. "But never mind that. You're probably wondering what today's target is, right? Or rather, targets?"
Adrian and Alice nodded.
"Excellent."
Drew turned on the projector in time for it to broadcast an image of a large phorusrhacid and another image of a giant caiman. "Tada!"
"The bird's some kind of phorusrhacid," Alice stated, "And the caiman's…purussaurus?"
"The phorusrhacid is definitely kelenken," said Adrian. He looked at Drew, his eyebrow raised. "It seems like we're back to old habits."
"Heck yeah!" Drew said. "I was a bit insistent that the target be a bit…cooler this time!"
"As per usual," Alice noted at his reaction, a wry look of amusement on her face.
"Exactly."
Drew turned off the projector and stood up from his desk. "Let's get to the portal site."
. . . . .
Half an hour later, Drew, Alice and Adrian were gathered at the portal site. Drew gave his two team mates a double thumbs up. "Let's get it on."
The attending technician entered in the necessary coordinates and summoned the portal. And from there, the rescue trio eagerly made their way through to the past.
. . . . .
Once the blinding light from the portal died down, the first thing that hit Drew, Alice and Adrian was the humidity. They looked around to find themselves in a large, swampy rainforest. Alice snorted. "10 million years and the Amazon hasn't changed a bit." Drew moved back, to rest against a gigantic log. "South America hasn't really changed latitude-wise for millions of years," he explained. "Conditions have changed very, very little. That's why all the predatory marsupials and most of the weird ungulates died out – bunch of animals arrived from the north in the Great Interchange and displaced most of them."
Suddenly, the 'log' moved, and Drew took a step back in surprise and turned to look at it – the 'log' was, in fact, a gigantic snake! It looked like a boa constrictor – except it was about thirty feet long! The creature looked at them, unblinking, before slithering off into the jungle.
Frozen in surprise, Alice turned to Drew and said, "Leon didn't mention anything about giant snakes in his info-packs."
Drew shrugged. "He must've left it out."
Adrian gave Drew a withering glare and quietly said, "Leon's never done that before – I think this is something new."
At this, Alice sighed, "Jack would have loved it here. Giant crocodilians, turtles, snakes…" She shook her head. "This all seems right up his alley."
Drew shrugged and said, "Eh, his loss." Alice gave him a look – it was Drew's fault that Jack hadn't been there. At her expression, Drew rolled his eyes and was about to speak when he was interrupted by a loud chittering from a nearby tree.
Walking towards it, the team saw a medium sized group of monkeys sitting near it, looking at them. The troop consisted of at least eight different species, all different sizes and appearances. Two of the species looked like howler monkeys, with the larger one of the two being dark-coloured and the smaller one being red-coloured. A third species looked like an uakari while another species looked like a white-bearded saki. There were also some dark brown capuchin-like monkeys, a small group that heavily resembled modern spider monkeys, and the final two species present looked like marmosets.
Looking at the monkeys, Alice said, "They're going to be difficult to identify – Leon would probably know. And I'm amazed that we've found something this early – we're never normally this lucky…are we?" Chuckling quietly, Drew whispered, "Get the fruit – I've got a plan."
Leaving a pile of fruit by the bottom of the tree, they waited until the monkeys had approached the bottom, attracted by the fruit, before opening the portal. Curious, the monkeys followed the glowing light all the way into the present. Once the last one had gone through, Drew shoved the fruit pile through after them before shutting the portal off. Turning to his team, smiling, he said, "This is looking to be the easiest mission yet! Let's go find some giant caimans!" Alice and Adrian looked at each other sceptically, before following him into the rainforest.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back at the park, Leon was busy doing his rounds. Admittedly, part of him was both saddened and annoyed that Drew hadn't put him back on mission duty – however, he supposed he couldn't complain about the matter too much. After all, it certainly allowed him the opportunity for gaining further keeper experience. And as it so happened, he was currently in the midst of handling two of the most common recipients of his brand of care, the smilodon fatalis pair Diego and Shira.
At that moment, he couldn't help but smile as he noticed that the two smilodon fatalis were sitting on the rock that marked the boundary between their two territories. "You get her Diego," he whispered under his breath as he nodded his head. "Another species to add to the breeding program list."
He had to admit, in the months that had followed Diego's rescue, he himself had come to quite like working with the mighty sabre-toothed cat. He'd always been fond of big cats – and he was rather happy that he was now working with prehistoric big cats. Aside from Diego and Shira, he'd worked with Lafcadio and his pride, the homotherium pack, and even the smilodon populator. Yet despite all that, Diego and Shira were his favourites. In fact, he was even starting to slowly form a bond with Diego, something that honestly kind of surprised him.
"Wonder what got me to feel the level of kinship with him I've currently got," Leon thought to himself as he continued to observe Diego and Shira nuzzling each other at their territory boundaries, "What an intriguing mystery indeed..."
"I see you're having fun."
Leon turned his head in time to see a smiling Yolanda standing behind him. He smiled in response, "You could say that."
Yolanda giggled, walking closer to him in the process. "It's always nice for me to see my friends happy," she stated as she made her way towards him. She then came to a stop directly next to him, leaning against the railing positioned in front of the reinforced glass wall positioned upon the smilodon fatalis viewing area. "I am sorry though," she then said, quietly, "For Drew not letting you accompany him today. From what I've heard of today's mission, it sounds like it would have been a lot of fun."
"It's ok," said Leon. He nodded his head with a look of acceptance on his face. "Drew's always been a bit vindictive - Jack and I did almost get him killed or cost him his right arm. He'll come around." He paused, "Eventually."
"If you say so."
Yolanda nodded, turning it in the direction of the viewing area itself. Her smile returned at the sight of the nuzzling Diego and Shira. "Nice to see how they've progressed. We might have cubs soon enough," she said happily.
"You can see it too, huh?"
"What can I say?" Yolanda nodded, giggling in the process. "I'm a real romantic."
Leon chuckled, and nodded his head in agreement. "That you are," he agreed. And indeed he knew this to be the truth. Especially after how often he'd hung out with her while on break ever since the fateful day they'd first befriended each other. He looked back at Diego and Shira, Yolanda doing the same.
"You really do like working with them, don't you?" Yolanda asked.
Leon nodded his head, easily determining that Yolanda was referring to Diego and Shira. "Sure do. Granted, in general I enjoy working with all animals, even if slightly less so with spiders." He nodded his head. "But yeah, Diego and Shira have really come to grow on me; especially Diego."
Yolanda giggled, "A lot of people have been bonding with specific animals"
"I know that. Still feels nice though to have an animal companion amongst the roster. Especially after what I've heard about several other staff members here having similar such animal companions of their own."
"True enough."
Yolanda looked back towards Diego and Shira, her eyebrow abruptly rising at the sight of the two smilodons slowly walking straight towards the reinforced glass wall of the viewing area. "Hello there," she said, a clear tone of intrigue to her voice as she watched the smilodon duo approach. Leon, his own interest piqued from how interested Yolanda seemed to be in what she was now seeing, turned his head to face the direction she was looking as well, only to silently whistle at the sight of Diego and Shira approaching. "Looks like they feel in the mood for an up close introduction with you," he stated.
"Well consider me willing," said Yolanda. Leon chuckled, and shook his head side to side in bemusement as Diego and Shira loped the rest of the way that remained before they finally came to a stop close enough to almost have their faces resting against the glass. Smiling, Leon placed his left hand against the glass. "Hey there Diego," he said, speaking entirely out of habit after how long he'd worked with the mighty prehistoric big cat before this moment. "Nice to see you to Shira." He pointed at Yolanda. "See this girl here? This is my other friend Yolanda."
Yolanda waved her hand at the two saber-toothed cats, bubbly smile still on her face. "Nice to meet you," she said.
Both Diego and Shira let out low grumbling growls in response, with Shira even lightly snapping her right front paw against the glass between herself and Yolanda's face. She and Diego both growled once more in seeming stoic acceptance.
"Whoa there," Yolanda said, giggling in the process as she watched Shira lower her paw from the glass. "Someone's certainly exuberant."
"Yeah, don't worry, she and Diego will get used to you if you spend time with them long enough." Leon nodded his head. "I mean, they've certainly gotten used to having me around. Especially Diego. I mean, most of the time he can act very tough and antisocial. But spend enough time with him and you can see his softer side."
Yolanda directed an amused look Leon's way, "That kinda reminds me of you."
Leon raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"What you just said," Yolanda explained. "I've seen the way you interact with people. Around those you don't know all that well, you always seem to be guarded and wary. But around people you know, you relax and let down the barriers and you care about them very much." She pointed at Diego, who was still staring at them, "In other words, kinda like how you described Diego."
Leon looked at Diego, and then thought to himself. "Huh," he eventually managed to say. "I've often been told how I tend to make myself look rather standoffish and aloof without meaning to." He nodded his head and looked back at Yolanda. "And I suppose when you put it that way, I honestly can see now how Diego and I actually do have a respectable amount in common."
A low coughing roar was emitted by Diego from behind the glass, as if in agreement. This did not go unnoticed by Leon and Yolanda, as the former raised his eyebrow in bemusement while the latter giggled.
Eventually the smilodon pair turned away from the glass barrier and stalked off in different directions. As this happened, Yolanda nodded her head and smiled at Leon. "I know I've probably said this before," she said. "But I really do like it when we get to hang out together like this."
"I know exactly how you feel." Leon nodded his head, a smile of his own on his face. And indeed he did. Ever since he'd first befriended her, he'd always enjoyed being in her company; a fact that honestly still surprised him. He'd taken months to fully start letting down his walls around Drew and Adrian, how he was still gradually building himself up to feeling fully comfortable around Jack and Alice, and how rarely he'd felt comfortable with being around girls. And yet, ever since he'd first properly met her, he always felt so...comfortable and happy around her, without really knowing why. He'd only really felt like this about somebody once before...
His communicator went off before he could think on the matter further. Drawing his communicator out, he answered. "Gilbertson speaking, over?"
"This is Taymor, over," Kyle's voice responded from the other end of the line. "Are you busy at the moment?"
Leon looked at Yolanda, who shrugged. "Not at the moment," Leon responded. "I just finished checking on Diego and Shira. Is there something you need?"
"You could say that. Drew just sent back a bunch of monkeys, and we wanted to see if you could identify them all."
"I'll be there soon," said Leon, before hanging up the call and then nodding at Yolanda. "Sorry, duty calls."
Yolanda nodded her head. "I should probably be heading off soon anyway." She gave Leon a quick hug before then turning and heading back towards the vet offices. "See you later Leon."
"Right back at you Yolanda," Leon responded, flashing her a thumbs up in the process. And once he'd done so, he turned around and headed off in the direction of the holding pens, eager to put his animal knowledge to good use.
. . . . .
"So, any you recognize?"
Leon narrowed his eyes in concentration as he carefully observed the eight species of monkey curiously exploring their new surroundings or eating fruit. He thought long and carefully, as Kyle, Nikolai, and the rest of the keepers and security guards in the area waited for him to answer. Eventually, he turned to face Kyle.
"These two species are stirtonia," Leon began, pointing his finger at the two howler monkey-like species. "The dark black ones are the type species tatacoensis, and the red ones are the victoriae species." He pointed at the species that resembled uakari. "These I'm pretty sure are carlocebus." Then he pointed at the saki-like species. "And these are very likely homunculus." He looked carefully at the ones that resembled capuchins and spider monkeys, briefly pausing as if trying to remember something. "The ones that resemble capuchins are acrecebus, and the spider monkey-like ones are solimoea." He then pointed at the two species that resembled marmosets. "As for these guys, the black ones are micodon and the tawny colored ones are lagonimico."
"Impressive," Tina said dryly. "You recognized them all."
"Thank you," said Leon, completely missing out on the sarcasm, causing Tina to raise her eyebrow.
"Looks like we won't need Khatin to drop by for this lot," Horace noted.
"Indeed we won't," said Kyle before he nodded in approval at Leon. "Thank you very much. We'll make sure to call you back if we need you."
"Understood sir," Leon said, nodding his head. He checked his watch. "I'll go see where else I'm needed." He started walking away. "Best of luck, everyone," he said politely as he walked off, waving at them as he departed.
Kyle nodded in acceptance before then looking back at the assembled team of holding pens keepers once Leon was gone. "Alright everyone, let's get to work on transferring these monkeys to an appropriate holding pen. But stay on your toes. More animals will very likely be arriving in the near future."
"Yes sir," said all the assembled holding pens keepers in unison while the security guards nodded their heads in understanding.
. . . . .
Back in the Miocene Amazon, Drew, Alice and Adrian had walked through the jungle and come to the banks of a river. Alice said, inaudibly, "The Orinoco river delta – bit bigger than it is now." On the river bank, a small herd of animals was drinking. A group of large rodents, looking like giant agoutis was drinking alongside several miniature ground sloths, a group of large mammals that looked like elephant-tapir hybrids, using their trunks to squirt water into their mouths and a small flock of large, black-and-white flightless birds . Alice turned to Drew and said, "The rodents are phoberomys, definitely and the ground sloths are...hapalops? Yeah, hapalops. I'm guessing the big ones are astrapotheres of some kind – I don't know what the birds are" Drew smiled, "Four for the price of one…"
Suddenly, a phoberomys lifted its head and sniffed the air, before letting out a squeal of alarm. The herbivores went rigid and turned to the undergrowth – for a second, there was quiet…before a small group of slate-black reptilian creatures suddenly tore their way out of the undergrowth and towards the small herd, who, moving in unison, began to run back into the forest…right to where the team were hiding. Drew activated the portal and sent the herbivores through, moving as if a single entity.
The running crocodiles stood in the clearing, confused as to where their prey had gone. Drew took the opportunity presented by this to stand in the clearing and start blaring the horn. The crocodiles turned at Drew and snarled, advancing towards this perceived rival. Smiling, Drew began to move further and further backwards, before diving away as the crocs leapt towards him, activating the portal as he did so. Once the last of the crocodilians had gone through, Drew shut the portal off. "Oh yeah," he cried out, as he punched the air. "Still got it!" Alice rolled her eyes and said, "Alright, Captain Modesty, what do we do next?"
Drew was about to speak when, suddenly, the sound of small animals chittering interrupted him. He waited a minute before saying, "We find out whatever made that sound." Following the sound, they saw a group of small, otter-like marsupials by the riverbank – each was about the size of a weasel and covered in brown fur. Looking at them, Alice said, "I think they're cladosictis. Small predatory marsupials. I'm guessing we just use bait?" Drew sighed and said, almost sulkily, "Yup."
And so, they left a pile of dead rats by the riverbank and waited for the small marsupials to stop drinking. The nearest sniffed the air and the whole group began to advance towards the dead rodents. Once they had begun feeding, Drew activated the portal – the animals recoiled in surprise at the light before, curiously, beginning to approach it. One by one, they went through the portal, into the present.
Once the last one had gone through, Drew closed the portal. Adrian turned to him and asked, "Okay, what's the plan now?" Drew smirked, "The day is still young – and we have giant caimans to find. We'll stick by the riverbank – that's where either purussaurus or some of the other giant crocs from that time will most likely be found. Onward!" At this, Alice and Adrian rolled their eyes and followed Drew along the riverbank.
. . . . .
Jack Denham stood at the droma paddock, a smile on his face. Whilst he was a bit sad that he still was barred from active mission duty, meaning that he couldn't bring back their first "super-croc", he at least had a bit more time to focus on the training program.
Weirdly, it had almost given him a bit of a purpose – thanks to Kyle and Nikolai it had gained new importance. Would the dromas ever be needed? Hopefully not – but, if all else failed…
Prior to Nikolai and Kyle's request, Jack had already whistle-trained them and trained them to respond to verbal commands – now he was going to train them with a lure.
He'd convinced a rather skeptical Darrel to make him a remote-controlled, dinosaur-shaped lure; and, as a laugh, he had painted the lure bright purple. The lure was an approximate simulation of a dinosaur – seeing it moving, the dromas' chase instincts would be activated, allowing them to chase and corner it. The aim was to get them to wait until Jack's command, before they attacked it.
Jack stood over the droma enclosure, looking at the pack. Lifting the remote control, he opened a door and moved the lure into the enclosure at high speed. Seeing it moving, the dromas dived after the lure, following it – with Duke and Cassie leading the chase, as the older female Jane (according to DNA testing, Duke's mother) and the four youngsters followed at different angles, surrounding it. Eventually, Jack turned the lure into a wall, allowing the dromas to corner their "prey". One of the younger males took a few steps, jaws open, towards it when, suddenly…. A piercing whistle-blast echoed through the air. The dromas stopped in their tracks and turned to look at him. Jack threw them each a piece of meat; it was imperative that they be rewarded for, instead of immediately attacking a lure, to stop whenever he blew his whistle. It was a start. It was better than nothing.
Suddenly, he heard someone clapping slowly behind him and he turned to see Collete Dubois standing behind him. Jack raised his eyebrow and asked her, "What are you doing here?" Collete shrugged and said, "Drew's team have brought back several more animals – the team at the portal need you to identify some." She paused, seemingly thinking to herself. "The captain was very confident that you would know what they were," she then added on.
Jack smiled, "Well, at least somebody has some faith in me! I'm almost done with the dromas anyway."
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back at the smilodon fatalis paddock, Leon was on break and sitting near the viewing area, Diego now lying peacefully against the glass from the other side. Yolanda was right – he'd bonded with Diego because, in a way, the Smilodon reminded him of himself. It felt weird, but he had something important on his mind that he needed to unload – and, unlike some people, Diego wouldn't spread the word.
"It's kind of weird, you know?" Leon stated, "It took at least until the end of that project back when we were thirteen for me to become close friends with Adrian and Drew, and I'm still acquaintances at best with Jack and Alice. Yet with Yolanda, after a couple hours, it felt like if I've known her my entire life. Crazy isn't it?"
He nodded his head. "But at the same time though, there's just something...different." He rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, smiling. "I mean, whenever I'm around her, I always feel so warm and happy inside." He sighed. "She's the first girl I've ever felt this way about. It's confusing, but exciting at the same time, and I'm really not sure what to do." He looked to Diego. "You know where I'm coming from, right?"
In a rather serendipitous bit of timing, Diego let out a low grumbling snarl, as if in understanding. Leon smiled. "Glad to see you understand." He nodded his head. "You're a really good listener, you know.", to which the great cat let out another grunt.
Leon chuckled, and nodded his head. "I wonder if anybody else does this," he said out loud. However, Yolanda still weighed on his mind – he'd only ever felt this way about somebody once before…
. . . . .
Approaching the portal site, Jack and Collete saw Kyle, Nikolai and a few of the keepers looking over four of the containment pens. Noticing their arrival, Kyle turned to Jack and said, "Cutting it a bit close, isn't it, Denham?" Jack rolled his eyes, "Sorry, had to finish up with the dromas" and moved to look into the five nearest pens.
In the first pen, a small herd of giant rodents, resembling oversized agoutis, were milling about, as if confused in their new surroundings. In the second, a small group of miniature ground sloths walked around, clambering on some of the walls, whilst in the third, there was a group of rhino-sized animals that looked like a cross between an elephant and a tapir and in the fourth, a flock of large, flightless birds.
The animals in the final pen, however, were nothing short of bizarre. They looked like a cross between a black caiman and a Komodo dragon, with slate black scales, semi-erect limbs and yellow eyes. They sniffed around the pen, searching for food. Now, Jack didn't know, but he had a hunch that these were the animals that Kyle wanted him to identify.
As if reading his thoughts, Kyle said, "We know the giant rodents are Phoberomys, the ground sloths are Hapalops, the larger herbivores are Granastrapotherium and Khatin believes the ratites are a new species, but we don't know what the running crocodiles are, aside from the fact they're carnivores. Nikolai seemed to think you could identify them." At this statement, Jack smiled at Nikolai, who gave a curt nod in response.
Turning to look into the pen, Jack observed the reptiles, muttering under his breath, "Some kind of sebecid, definitely. Doesn't narrow it down much – too small to be barinasuchus though…" He then snapped his fingers, a confident smile on his face, before then saying, "I'd say Langstonia. One of the top predators of the Miocene Amazon." Kyle glowered and nodded, "Right – because of course they are. Here was I hoping he'd save the top predators for last." Jack shrugged, "You know him – always the show-off." He paused. "Anyway, I think I might stick around and help you guys – from what I know, quite a few giant reptiles lived at that time." Nikolai nodded, "Thank you, Denham."
Jack chuckled, and gave a mock salute. "I won't let you down, sir!"
Kyle facepalmed, Nikolai shook his head in bemusement, and even Colette rolled her eyes...
...but not without a slight twinge of amusement appearing on her face in the process.
. . . . .
Back in the Miocene Amazon, Drew, Alice and Adrian were still walking along the riverbank, searching for purussaurus. However, their search had proven fruitless thus far – there had been a few false alarms with large floating logs, but of giant crocodilians, there was no sign. Their only success so far since the cladosictis had been a small group of darter-like birds, which Adrian had identified as a species of macranhinga and subsequently sent through the portal.
Climbing over a large log, however, they came to a surprise. A small group of familiar-looking giant snakes were resting on a riverbank. Alice looked at the snakes and said, "You have got to be kidding me." Drew, regarding the giant snakes, smiled. "A perfect chance to bring them through the portal, don't you think?"
Alice was about to speak when, suddenly, a low alligator-like rumble came from behind the group and a small group of crocodiles that looked like giant versions of the Langstonia came lumbering over the hill, towards the snakes and largely ignoring the three humans. Alice sighed. "We're stuck between a rock and a bloody hard place." Drew smiled, "I think we can get two for the price of one again."
Adrian was about to ask him as to how when he suddenly lunged at the giant sebecids and began blaring the horn at them. Stopping their approach towards the snakes, the giant crocodilians turned to look at Drew, who chuckled and blared the horn at them yet again. Snarling, they advanced towards him. Smiling, Drew began to move further and further backwards, before diving away as the crocs leapt towards him, activating the portal as he did so. Once the last of the crocodilians had gone through, Drew shut the portal off.
Now it was time for the snakes, who had moved down the riverbank slightly at the commotion. Alice turned to look at Drew and said, "How on Earth are we going to get this lot through the portal? Maybe bringing Jack along wouldn't have been such a bad idea," she said pointedly as Drew glowered at being corrected. It was a moment before Drew said, "I think I have a plan."
That plan was for all thee of them to start banging a large stick on the forest floor – snakes heard through vibrations, so they would come and investigate. After a few minutes of drumming, the snakes began to slither towards the team, their unblinking eyes locked on them. Alice gave Drew a nervous look – even the smallest one was big enough to swallow them whole, after all. As the nearest one got close enough to them to strike, it began to move its head – at that point, Drew shouted, "Now!" and Alice and Adrian dived out of the way, leaving Drew on his own. Drew turned and ran away from the snakes, who began pursuing him – once they were close enough, he opened the portal, diving out of the way before they had time to strike. The snakes, unable to change their trajectory, went through the portal, into the present.
Once the last of the snakes had gone through, Alice and Adrian walked towards Drew, the former shaking her head. Once she got nearer to him, Alice said, "Kyle is going to be pissed off with you – in the space of an hour, you've sent him three different kinds of large predatory reptile." At this, Drew smiled, "Oh, I'm sure he'll see the funny side…"
. . . . .
"You have got to be kidding", Kyle said, as he regarded the giant snakes slithering around in the freshwater holding pens, "You have got to be bloody kidding". He turned to Jack. "Can you identify these?" Jack shook his head, "Nope – I didn't think there were any giant snakes slithering about at that time – I thought they'd all gone extinct in the Eocene. This means… it's something totally new. From the appearance, they're boas of some kind, however, which is pretty good. Not venomous." Kyle sighed, "Great."
Kyle then turned to the several giant versions of the Langstonia who were now roaming through a holding pen in search of food. These had been rather challenging to manage – one of the portal staff had almost lost an arm trying to get them into a holding pen. Looking for identification, Kyle turned to Jack, who said, "Barinasuchus – the largest sebecid. To be honest, I was actually hoping they'd get these guys. This and the new giant boa...I'd say I'm stoked to see what gets brought back next."
Kyle sighed – he wasn't.
. . . . .
After their encounter with the snakes, Drew, Alice and Adrian continued walking along the riverbanks. As they went deeper and deeper, they noticed the ground became muddier and more waterlogged and noticed a very potent stench filling the air. Sniffing the air, Alice said, "Smells like rotting meat. Which means…there must be a corpse nearby."
Sure enough, they turned the corner and saw the corpse of a giant crocodilian, some fifty feet long, with a flattened duck-like snout, lying on the bank with a massive wound in its side. The corpse had begun to bloat, indicating it was several days old and the stench of rotting meat filled the air, as a swarm of flies buzzed around it.
And the flies weren't alone – an assortment of scavengers were at the carcass, eagerly ripping off semi-rotting flesh and bolting it down. They included three species of terror bird - the smallest was like a miniature version of the phorusrhacos back at the park, roughly four feet tall and was using darting motions to tear off small chunks of flesh. The second was larger and more heavily built, with black feathers.
The third species of bird at the carcass, on the other hand, was nothing short of freakish. It looked like a cross between a cassowary and a marabou stork. Their bodies were covered in short brown feathers, with a completely bare neck and head, and its long, pointed beak was filled with tooth-like serrations. They were eagerly tearing off pieces of meat from the carcass as a small group of roughly dog-sized mammals darted around them, pulling off chunks of flesh.
The new terror bird species, however, were not the strangest creatures at the carcass. That honour went to a group of large terrestrial crocodiles, each some ten feet long, who were ripping huge chunks off the carcass, even bolting down bone. Their shorter, broader, almost bulldog-like snouts distinguished them from the langstonia and barinasuchus.
Adrian was quick to start identifying as many of the animals as he could. "The smaller ones that look like phorusrhacos are andalgalornis," he explained as he pointed at the birds in question. "The black feathered ones are devincenzia," he continued as he pointed at the black feathered ones. Then he pointed at the dog-sized mammals, looking to Alice as he did so. "And I'm guessing those are prothylacinus?"
Alice nodded in the affirmative.
"Awesome." Adrian nodded his head. "But that third terror bird species and those strange crocodilians? Odds are those are undiscovered species."
Seeing the squalid atmosphere, and with Adrian's identification work finished, Alice turned to Drew, "How the hell are we going to get this lot through the portal?" Drew smirked. "Something stupid."
After Drew had contacted the park, he ran towards the carcass, making sure to avoid rousing the wrath of the squabbling creatures and carefully hooked the winch into the thigh of the dead animal; the winch was attached to a park jeep on the other side. Drew ran back to the portal and gave the thumbs-up signal and the winch began pulling the crocodile carcass away. The scavengers took notice of this and began to move towards it, hissing, squawking and snarling, all united in a desire to not lose their meal. Within minutes, the crocodile carcass was yanked through the portal by the jeep dragging it. The scavengers, moving too fast to stop and eager to avoid losing their meal at the same time, dove through the portal after the carcass and into the present.
No sooner had all the scavengers gone through the portal when Drew stepped back into the past. "We should probably take a brief pit stop at the park," he said before pointing back towards the river. "Given how sludgy the ground's been, we might be best getting a canoe."
"Sounds reasonable," said Adrian. Alice nodded her head in agreement. And so the trio went through the portal to acquire the canoe.
. . . . .
After their brief return to the park, the team returned to the Miocene Amazon with a large canoe with which to travel the river delta in search of purussaurus. Adrian was manning the oars, whilst Alice and Drew looked for purussaurus. It was decided an oar-powered boat be used instead of a motor-powered one, despite the reduction in speed, because the purussaurus would be attracted to a motor's vibrations – and facing them in the middle of the water would not be an advisable idea.
They had been sailing for hours, however, with no sign of any purussaurus, when a fish suddenly jumped out of the water and onto the boat. It looked like a piranha – only twice the size. At Alice and Adrian's shocked looks, Drew smiled and went, "Megapiranha – the largest piranha that ever lived," before picking the fish up, being careful to avoid its bite, and throwing it back in the river. And it took only seconds afterward for the trio to start seeing glimpses of an entire shoal of megapiranha in the muddy water. Drew smiled. "I know what we can occupy ourselves with until we find some purussaurus." He looked to Alice. "Alice?"
At Drew's nod and subtle implication, Alice whipped out a piece of meat from the bait bag for the purussaurus and threw it into the water. The shoal quickly leapt on it. Whilst they were feeding, Drew dropped a portal grenade and pressed the button on the remote – in a burst of light, the entire shoal disappeared through the portal into the present. Once this had been done, Drew picked the floating portal grenade up and put it in his pockets, before turning to his teammates. "Right, now that's out of the way, let's get back to looking for purussaurus."
Alice suddenly turned to look towards a shoreline, where several large, crocodilian shapes were basking. "And I think we've found some. Head towards that shoreline, Adrian." "Aye aye, captain", Adrian said, half-jokingly, and giving a mock salute.
. . . . .
The team reached the shore in time to find two groups of giant crocodiles basking – neither of them, however, was purussaurus. The first group looked like enormous gray scaled gharials – from head to tail, some thirty feet long. The second, however, were far more bizarre-looking – they had long, broad, almost duck-like snouts, with large throat pouches like those of a pelican. Evidently, it was this species that the carcass from earlier had belonged to. Basking alongside them was a group consisting of two species of turtle – one that looked like a large Amazon side-necked river turtle and another that looked like giant matamatas. Drew shrugged. "Not purussaurus, but, hey, I'm not complaining. Gryposuchus and mourasuchus are still pretty cool. And hey, we'll get to rescue some stupendemys and chelus columbiana as well. More the merrier."
Suddenly, a low rumble came from nearby and several crocodilians that resembled giant black caimans hauled themselves out of the water and onto land. The largest of the crocs in this small group was about thirty-five feet long. Unlike the other two crocodilian species present, these ones had short, broad snouts, with powerful, crushing teeth. The turtles began to move nervously away as the giant crocodilians lay on the beach. Adrian turned to Drew and said, "That our target?" Drew nodded and said, quietly, "Get the bait bag."
After Adrian had passed him the bait bag, Drew walked out on to shore and emptied the entire bag on the shoreline. After a few minutes, he began blaring the horn. All the animals on the beach began to stir in that instant. The purussaurus and gryposuchus, followed by the turtles, moved towards them, attracted by the smell of the bait. Once they had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal, sending them through, into the present. Once the last one had gone through, Drew closed the portal.
The filter-feeding and lime green scaled Mourasuchus had remained behind, uninterested by the smell of meat, but their attention was nonetheless attracted by the horn's blaring. Drew smiled, and began blaring the horn again. The large crocodilians, attracted by the noise began to walk towards him and the portal – eventually, one by one, they went through the portal, back to the park. After the last had gone through, Drew turned to his teammates and smiled, "Let's go home."
. . . . .
Upon arrival at the park, Drew and his two companions took the time to briefly stop and watch as Kyle and the rest of the team gathered at the holding pens got to work on herding the newly brought back Miocene crocodilians and turtles to appropriate holding pens. Drew chuckled. "I see you've got your work cut out for you."
"Easy for you to say," Kyle grumbled, shaking his head side to side as he glared at the massive prehistoric crocodilians that the team were struggling to lead away from the portal – in particular, the prussaurus and the gryposuchus. An alligator-like bellow from one of the purussaurus was enough to startle one of the holding pens keepers into briefly stepping backwards a few feet.
Drew chuckled again, and then looked elsewhere around the area. "I see Jack's helping out." Kyle sighed, "Yes, it was Nikolai's idea,", briefly glaring at Nikolai, before turning back to Drew. "Leon's with the research division – they're studying the new terror bird and crocodile species."
Adrian and Alice nodded, before directing subtle glares towards Drew, who narrowed his eyes and glowered irritably at them, before turning back to Kyle, "Well, best of luck. We're heading back to the Miocene real soon. Specifically, the La Pampas Plains. After all, there's another famous terror bird from there that we still plan to rescue today."
"Looking forward to it already," said Kyle, almost resigned to it.
. . . . .
Half an hour later, Drew and his team arrived in the Miocene Pampa plains. And when the glowing light of the portal died down, the first thing they noticed was both how the plains hadn't changed much in ten million years. "Nice to see that this place hasn't changed that much either," said Adrian.
The sound of herbivores bellowing not too far away attracted the team's attention, and they looked in the direction the noise was coming from to see two herds of small horse-like animals grazing in the nearby field while a warren of rabbit-like animals with long furry tails watched and scampered about. Alice was quick to identify them all. "The dark brown horse-like ones with white zebra-like stripes are diadiaphorus, the tannish orange ones with grey underbellies and giraffe-like patches are thoatherium, and the rabbit-like animals are protypotherium." She looked to Adrian and Drew. "I'd recommend we get the protypotherium through the portal first. Something small first."
"Sounds like a plan to me," said Adrian.
"Read my mind," Drew agreed as he nodded his head. "Let's see if they're feeling hungry."
After gathering up some grass, they laid a trail on the dustier portions of the ground as a means of luring the protypotherium. And after about a minute or two, the entire group started tentatively following and eating the plucked grass trail. Whilst they briefly recoiled at the sight of the portal, the careful efforts of the rescue team ensured that they didn't scatter and flee back to their burrows. Eventually, curiosity got the better of them and they slowly made their way through the glowing vortex to the present. Once the entirety of the warren had vanished, Drew closed the portal. "Good job," he said. "Now let's take care of the..."
The sound of panicked whinnying and avian screeching attracted the team's attention back to the diadiaphorus and thoatherium in time to see both herds stampeding towards them while a pair of gigantic condor-like birds descended towards them. In a flash, Drew summoned the portal once again in time for the stampeding herbivores to come barrelling right through, moving as if a single entity. The entire thoatherium herd made it through the portal, but an elderly diadiaphorus male had been left behind as one of the birds viciously sank its talons against his back. With an audible crack, the animal fell to the ground, dead, as both birds alighted and began to feed.
Adrian whistled silently, a look of stunned awe on his face, "Argentavis," he whispered. "The largest ever flying birds."
"Relatives of the teratorns," said Alice. She looked to Drew. "What's the plan?" Drew grinned, an almost maniacal look on his face. "Something crazy."
Before Alice had time to ask, Drew strolled right up towards the argentavis and start whooping loudly while wildly waving his arms around. The two birds looked in his direction, their eyes immediately narrowing at the sight of him. Shrieking irritably, they turned to directly face him, arching their backs, extending their wings to full length, and bending their necks in a threat display, shrieking loudly at him. This didn't work, as Drew continued whooping loudly and waving his arms, at which point, the two argentavis jumped towards him and away from the carcass. This was what Drew had been hoping for – he hurriedly ran towards Alice and Adrian with the birds in hot pursuit. The instant he had made it past Adrian, Adrian summoned the portal. The two argentavis, moving too fast to stop, could only shriek in surprise as they stumbled through the portal and into the present.
"Woohoo!" Drew yelled as he punched the air, and said, in a mock Texas accent "I've still got it, y'all!"
Adrian rolled his eyes. "Consider yourself lucky I was here to help."
Alice nodded her head in agreement. "What now?"
Drew chuckled, and pointed in a random direction. "We continue onward," he responded, a confident tone to his voice and his usual trademark grin on his face. "We still haven't found the Kelenken yet. So we'd best get moving."
. . . . .
"And he goes and outdoes himself again," Kyle grumbled at the sight of the two intimidatingly large vulture
"What will be, will be, Kyle," said Nikolai. He nodded his head towards the argentavis, his usual stoic look on his face. "Your team should be prepared for whatever eventuality."
Kyle glowered at Nikolai. "Must you always say that, Nikolai? I've told you time and time again that they know what they're doing. Without my team, your lot wouldn't get anywhere."
"I do not care for your tone, Kyle," Nikolai growled.
"Like I said before," Kyle retorted. "Takes one to know one."
"Here we go again," Horace grumbled, pinching his nose in annoyance.
"Tell me about it," Tina hissed, her eyes narrowed into a glare at them. This was really starting to get old – they were honestly starting to think that it would take someone dying in the holding pens to get them to stop this bickering. And even then, it probably wouldn't be enough.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back in the Miocene, Drew and his two companions had come to a stop at a dusty field where they saw a small group of creatures resembling nine banded armadillos with long aardvark-like snouts digging for food, alongside a small group of large tan furred star-nosed mole-like creatures. Alice nodded, "Stegotherium and necrolestes, if I recall correctly" she said.
"Certainly look cool," Adrian added before he looked to Drew. "I'm guessing we're gonna save them?"
"Oh yes," said Drew before he looked to Alice. "You still got some grubs from the park kitchens?"
Alice nodded her head, at which point she opened up the bag and started laying a trail of the dead grubs. And upon catching the scent, the seven armadillos started gingerly following and eating the trail, with the seven mole-like beasts following close behind, all of them calmly plodding along straight through the portal as they reached the end.
"Well that was easy," said Drew once the portal had closed. "Shall we move onward?"
The sound of growling, snarling, and squealing from the left quietened everyone. "I think that answers that," said Alice dryly. The group moved on, coming to a stop at a small clearing at the border of a large forest, where two carnivore groups were confronting each other over a freshly dead protypotherium. The group to the right was a pack of dark-brown-furred dog-sized marsupials that resembled a cross between a dog and a weasel – the pack consisted of six adults and three youngsters.
The other creatures, meanwhile, were simply bizarre. They appeared to be dog-sized armadillos with fangs. In response to the borhyaena's snarl, they squealed aggressively.
"I think I know what these are," Alice stated as she pointed at them, "The marsupials are borhyaen, and the carnivorous armadillos are macroeuphractus."
Adrian shook his head side to side in bemusement. "Carnivorous armadillos," he mused to himself. "Prehistory is just full of surprises."
"Indeed," Drew chuckled, "In other words, perfect new animals to rescue."
Eventually, the macroeuphractus won out, sending the borhyaena pack scampering straight towards the rescue team...only to then end up running right through the portal that Alice summoned. The flashing light of the portal attracted the attention of the macroeuphractus, which started to lumber over towards the portal and went through. Once the portal was closed, Alice looked to Drew. "I'm guessing we move on?"
"Read my mind," said Drew before he gestured deeper into the forest. "Onward, d-bags!"
. . . . .
"So we're in agreement then?" Khatin asked. "Foetodon sordicus is what we'll be calling them?"
Will, Matt, Kaisumi, and Leon all nodded their heads in agreement. At the moment, they and Khatin were gathered around the holding pens containing the two newly discovered species from the Miocene Amazon, with the seven sebecids messily chowing down on a pig carcass while the ten bald-headed phorusrhacids scouted the area. The large ratites stood, eating some fruit, in a pen nearby - they had been named pinatono amarus, due to their cassowary-like natures.
"Fine," said Leon. He nodded his head. "Roughly translates to 'dirty stinking-tooth', after their rather messy eating habits. Good job, Matt for the suggestion."
"Certainly rolls off the tongue better than yours," said Matt. He thought to himself. "What was it again? Talcumisuchus? Talrocisuchus?"
"Tlalocisuchus," said Leon, who then winced at the memory. "And in all fairness, it sounded perfect in my head."
"It's alright mate," said Will as he patted Leon comfortingly on the shoulder, "You get points for effort."
"But to make a long story short, they have been officially named," said Kaisumi. She then looked at the ten-member flock of terror birds, her green eyes narrowed into a wary glare. "And the sooner the same can be said for these feathered odorants, the better."
Will rolled his eyes. "You make them sound demonic."
"I have to agree," said Leon, his eyebrow raised in half amusement and half confusion. "Does the smell bother you that much?"
"Can you blame me?" Kaisumi asked nervously before pointing her finger at the nine guilty birds. "I mean look at them, they stink like the devil." Matt chuckled, "They're scavengers, what do you expect?" Kaisumi glowered at him, but not without a slight twinge of amusement, as Will and Leon shook their heads in bemusement.
Listening to this, Khatin briefly thought to himself,
The four younger staff members all looked to the chief researcher to see him drawing his notepad and pen and writing something down. He nodded his head once he'd finished, slipped the notepad and pen back in his pocket, and looked proudly. "I've got the perfect name for them now," he then said before gesturing his left hand towards the phorusrhacids. "Plumadaemon pinguis."
The four younger staff members looked at the plumadaemon flock, and then back at Khatin, nodding their heads in approval. "Nice ring to it," Leon admitted.
"Well that settles it, then," Khatin stated as he clapped his hands together. "Let's let Kyle and his team know that they can be transferred to their new paddocks."
. . . . .
Back in the Miocene Drew, Alice, and Adrian came to their next stop at a small lake. And as they watched, two different groups of rather unique looking herbivores were peacefully drinking. Five of the creatures present looked like a cross between a panda and tapir with dark brown and white fur. The other four animals present looked like slightly smaller versions of the granastrapotherium, using their trunk-like upper snouts to vacuum up water and squirt it into their open mouths, like elephants.
Alice identified them quickly, "The elephant-tapir hybrids are astrapotherium," she explained. "And the panda-tapir things are homalodotherium." She looked to Drew. "Two for the price of one?"
"Two for the price of one," Drew confirmed, with a gleeful smirk.
The sound of a low purring growl suddenly split the air, and both the rescue team and the drinking herbivores turned their heads in the direction of this noise in time for their eyes to widen at the sight of a tawny-furred cat-like creature with large sabre-teeth walking down to the lake, accompanied by three cubs. The creature began drinking, its cubs following it. The herbivores resumed drinking, whilst being slightly on edge at the presence of the predators. Looking at it, Alice said, "Those...are patagosmilus. A marsupial that looks like a saber-toothed cat; even though it isn't. Part of the same family as thylacosmilus. I say we handle the herbivores first…"
She was interrupted by a rustling in the bushes that alerted all creatures present. Seconds later, another patagosmilus burst out of the bushes, towards the herbivores. Both herds bolted away from the lake to escape the predator, charging right in the direction of the rescue team, who summoned the portal in time for both herds to barrel through, moving as if a single entity. Once the dust had cleared, the male patagosmilus snarled in displeasure at his lack of success. The team noticed that the female and her cubs had gone. Suddenly, the male sniffed the air and loped off. Drew turned to his team, "I say we follow him – he's probably on the scent of something."
Silently following the male, they entered a clearing to see a dying, elderly astrapotherium, lying on its side. The female patagosmilus slowly approached it, followed by her cubs, before sinking her fangs in the astrapothere's underbelly and tearing a hole through the stomach lining, sending the guts flying out. The sabre-toothed marsupial began to feed on the entrails, as her cubs approached her. The male patagosmilus suddenly came charging out of the bushes and snarled aggressively at the female – he wanted the carcass.
The team, realising that this was an opportunity, started blowing their airhorns at them. The warring predators immediately turned to look at the rescue team, their antagonism forgotten. Both lunged into a furious charge towards them...only to shriek and skid helplessly through the portal for their trouble, moving fast to stop themselves. No sooner had the two adults slid through the portal and into the present when the three cubs whimpered in fear and hurriedly rushed through the portal as well to join their mother for protection. Once the predators had all vanished through the portal, Drew closed it.
"Good work everyone," said Drew.
Adrian chuckled. "I'll bet Leon will be happy to see these at the park."
At that, Drew sighed. Before he could muse on it further, the sound of llama-like noises, coming from somewhere to the right of the lake, attracted his attention. "Looks like we'd better go see what's making that noise," said Adrian. "Yeah," said Drew. "Let's go."
. . . . .
Colette Dubois was currently on break, and she was spending it at the dire wolf paddock, watching the pack as they feasted upon a sheep carcass. She couldn't help but smile as she watched the pack feed. She'd come to enjoy hanging out around the dire wolf paddock while on breaks. The alpha male, named Nero, she'd even managed to start forming a small kinship with.
She nodded her head, a small smile on her face as she watched Nero, his melanistic mate Lara, and the rest of their pack continue their meal. Weirdly, Nero was like her in a lot of ways. After all, they both could be very tough, firm, and seemingly aloof – however, they both cared very strongly and were fiercely protective of those they had bonded with; Jack and her fellow security guards in Colette's case and his pack in Nero's case.
She nodded her head once more, smile still on her face as she continued watching the dire wolves. So far, things seemed to be going well, Kyle and Nikolai notwithstanding.
"Having fun with the dire wolves, I see."
Collete tensed up, eyes widened, and she turned around to look behind her just in time to see a smiling Jack standing behind her. Hurriedly regaining her composure, she managed to respond. "Oh no, nothing like that," she managed to say, her usually stoic expression returning as she attempted to keep her earlier emotions hidden. "I was just...watching them...yes, watching them. To make sure they didn't escape. That's all."
"Yeah, sure you were," said Jack, a cheeky smile on his face, clearly unfooled. He nodded his head. "I just got here from the holding pens. More animals arrived, and Nikolai said all hands to the pump. Obviously, I'm paraphrasing."
Colette looked at her watch and nodded, "Understood," her blue eyes narrowed and attentive. "Let's get going then."
. . . . .
Meanwhile, back in the Miocene, Drew and his team had come to a stop deep within the middle of a large expanse of grassy plains outside the forest they'd been exploring earlier just in time to see a small herd of orange and white furred litopterns that looked like trunkless the macrauchenia back at the park. At the moment, the whole herd, including two young calves, were peacefully grazing upon the grass as a light breeze flew through the area.
"Theosodon," Alice said confidently as she pointed at the grazing litopterns. "Local herbivore and relative of the macrauchenia."
Drew chuckled, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Something tells me the macrauchenia won't mind if we bring back these here cousins of theirs."
Adrian shook his head in bemusement. "Well in that case, how shall we proceed?"
A sudden vicious squawking noise interrupted Drew right as he was about to answer, and the rescue team looked back towards the litopterns in time to see them now panicking and hurriedly starting to stampede towards them as eight tall and intimidating looking terror birds chased after them. All eight of these birds, six of which were full grown adults and the remaining two of which were young subadults, had dark steely gray feathers almost completely covering their bodies apart from their legs, feet, and beaks (which were all a dirty yellow), and amber eyes that were now narrowed intently as they worked to hunt down the stampeding theosodon. The only feathers that weren't gray were on the birds' wingtips as well as in the form of tufted 'crests' on the tops of their heads. Said 'crests' and wingtip feathers were jet black in color on four of the birds, while the remaining four had these same feathers colored a tawny gold 'dirty blonde'. All three of the rescue team members quickly recognized these birds as none other than their secondary main target for this mission, the mighty kelenken itself.
Seeing a golden opportunity for a rescue, Drew drew out his portal remote and summoned the portal as the stampeding litopterns came closer. As the stampeding herd continued to advance, a squealing caused Alice to look behind her and see six small, horned armadillo-like creatures burst out of the grass behind her and the team and start scampering off, startled by the stampeding herd as. Alice briefly weighed up her option...
...but then she caught sight of something else that caused her eyes to widen; at which point she bolted off in the direction of the horned Miocene armadillos, hurriedly drawing out her portal remote in the process. Adrian noticed out of the corner of his eyes, and he directed his confused face towards her right as the theosodon herd reached his and Drew's position and barrelled straight through the portal, moving as if a single entity. Unfortunately, the kelenken had caught up to an elderly female who had been the rest of the herd – with a kick to the abdomen and a blow to the skull, the litopern was dead.
Narrowing his eyes, Drew shut off the portal to conserve its energy. "And just like that. Just our target to go. After all, I do love me a good challenge."
"Uh Drew?" Adrian asked, still looking in Alice's direction.
"Yes?" Drew stated.
The sound of the portal going off behind him caused Drew to look in the same direction Adrian was looking just in time to see the peltephilus scamper straight through Alice's portal. After she shut it off, she looked straight at Adrian and Drew, who were both staring at her in confusion.
"Ok?" Said Adrian. "What was that all about?"
The sound of a feline whimpering and meowling from behind Alice caused the entire trio to look in that general area in time to see three small cat-like creatures coloured similarly to baby jaguars playfully wrestling on the dusty ground a couple feet behind Alice. The three cubs, continued to play as Adrian and Drew directed their attention to Alice, as if in realisation. And sure enough...
"I saw the peltephilus heading straight towards those three cubs," she explained, "All this grass between them and the cubs prevented the peltephilus from seeing the cubs, and I had a feeling that they would potentially end up trampling them if someone didn't stop them. I rushed into position between the two groups and summoned the portal so that the peltephilus would go through." She turned her head to look at the still playfully wrestling cubs. "They're thylacosmilus."
Drew chuckled. "Taking a page out of my book." He gave her a thumbs up, a proud smile on his face. "Well done Mrs. Denham."
"Agreed," Adrian said as he nodded his head with a smile on his own face...
...which then turned into a wide-eyed nervous look as he caught sight of something else coming into view from not too far away from Alice and the three cubs. "Um Alice?" Adrian stated nervously. "You might want to summon your portal again real soon."
"He's right," Drew abruptly stated, his own face taking on a similarly horrified look. "And by real soon, he means right about NOW!"
"Huh?"
A roaring from behind her attracted her attention in time for her to blanche at the sight of an adult female thylacosmilus, presumably the cubs' mother, crouching nearby; ready to charge at what they clearly seemed to think to be a threat to their offspring.
"Oh great," Alice managed to say before the female thylacosmilus roared at her and pounced at them, fangs bared...
...only to end up sailing straight through Alice's portal, with her cubs following. Once the entire family had vanished through the portal, Alice shut it off once more, panting and gasping in visible relief and lingering fear from the close call she'd just had. "Hoo boy," she said, bending over slightly and placing her hands tiredly upon her knees. "That was a little too close for comfort."
"Agreed," said Adrian. Drew nodded his head in similar agreement. "Don't worry Alice," he said. "Take a breather whilst we handle the kelenken. Of course, we'll still have to find a male Thylacosmilus" Suddenly, a thylacosmilus roar echoed through the air, followed by Kelenken squawks. "Speaking of which." He looked behind him to see the kelenken facing off against a thylacosmilus – which, due to its lack of a pouch, was probably male.
He looked to Adrian and the still panting Alice. "Alright, here's the plan. We're gonna do what we did with the dead mourasuchus in the Miocene Amazon for these guys."
"You got it Drew," said Adrian. "What he said," Alice added in, panting again immediately afterward. Drew smiled, "Let's do this."
After Drew had contacted the park, he ran towards the carcass, making sure to avoid rousing the wrath of the squabbling predators and carefully hooked the winch into the thigh of the dead animal; the winch was attached to a park jeep on the other side. Drew ran back to the portal and gave the thumbs-up signal and the winch began pulling the litopern carcass away. The predators took notice of this and began to move towards it, squawking and snarling, all united in a desire to not lose their meal. Drew smiled – this was going great…
Suddenly, he tripped on one of the carcass' limbs and landed, sprawled in a dust pocket. Once the dust cleated, Drew looked up to see the kelenken looming over him – whilst the thylacosmilus had followed the bait, the kelenken hadn't. Perhaps, this hadn't been such a good plan after all. "Oh fu..."
The lead kelenken charged towards him, beak readied for a blow. Drew hurriedly dodged just in time to avoid his head being split open, before dodging a kick from the first attacker's mate. For what felt like an eternity, Drew tried to avoid the terror birds' attacks, managing to escape by finding a gap in the phalanx. Seeing Adrian and Alice, his mind came up with a new plan.
It took only a minute for Drew to hurriedly bolt past his two companions as the angry kelenken continued to chase after him, but in the panicked Drew's mind it might as well have been an hour. Regardless, once he'd made it past Adrian and Alice, Adrian drew out his portal remote and summoned his portal and the terror birds tore through. Once they were all through, Adrian shut off his portal before he and Alice both looked behind them in time to see Drew now panting and gasping, on his knees. "You OK, buddy?" Adrian asked.
Panting still, Drew flashed Adrian a thumbs up. "I'm good," he gasped. "Could be better. But I'm good."
"I suppose that's better than nothing," said Alice.
"Agreed," said Adrian, before he looked at Drew, "Let me guess? Time to go home?"
Drew nodded his head. "Yeah," he gasped. "Let's go home."
. . . . .
Several hours later, once all the dust had settled, all the newly rescued animals had been successfully transferred to their brand-new homes. A large grassy paddock, complete with a large lake, served as home to all the pampas herbivores of Miocene Argentina. At that moment, the theosodon, diadiaphorus, and thoatherium herds were all grazing, the four homalodotherium were peacefully browsing on a tree, whilst the four astrapotherium were bathing in the large lake.
Several smaller paddocks nearby were home to the smaller animals of the Miocene plains. The protypotherium warren had been given a grassy paddock filled with burrows, and all the prehistoric rabbit-like creatures were roaming around their new territory. The peltephilus lived in the paddock next door, with all six of the horned armadillos leisurely shambling about in search of food. The necrolestes all lived in a similarly sized paddock pockmarked with burrows and were currently exploring their brand-new burrows. A larger paddock nearby served as home for the stegotherium, who were all sniffing about in search of food. A similar paddock nearby was home to the macroeuphractus, which were likewise sniffing about as if looking for food. And finally, in a medium sized grassy paddock, the borhyaena pack were feasting heartily upon a fresh sheep carcass.
The second segment of the La Pampa Plains Zone was a large building; which was appropriately themed after the forests and wetlands of the Miocene Amazon. In the very center of the building was a large freshwater lake surrounded by land dotted with tropical foliage, which served as home for the four purussaurus, all of which were now basking on the land portion of the exhibit.
The paddock next door was similar and served as home for the four mourasuchus, all of which were peacefully floating along on the surface of the water as they lay in wait for their next meal. Another nearby paddock was home to the gryposuchus. Concrete and reinforced glass walls hidden by foliage divided the three crocodile paddocks.
Directly behind the giant crocodile exhibits were three tank-like exhibits that had immensely strong reinforced glass keeping their occupants separated from the outside world where guests would view them. One large tank at the rightmost position of that particular wall served as home for the megapiranha, with the entire shoal leisurely swimming about as they explored their new surroundings. The leftmost tank, slightly larger than that of the megapiranha, had both water and land segments, and served as home for the four cladosictis. The largest two tanks, with both water and land segments, was home to the stupendemys and chelus columbiana. The giant boas, now called boa giganteus, had a large forest tank nearby to the right of the crocodile enclosures – all five of the giant snakes were slithering through their new home, searching for food.
Directly in front of the crocodillian paddocks were various forest paddocks. It had been decided that the granastrapotherium, phoberomys, pinatono and hapalops could share a paddock, since they were both herbivores and unlikely to harm each other. The paddock next door contained the prothylacinus pack, who were currently exploring their new territory, with a nearby paddock containing the devincenzia, andalgalornis, and plumadaemon. Near the entrance, a large forest paddock with a small drinking lake served as home for the langstonia, who were all exploring their new home, whilst a similar paddock next door served as home for the barinasuchus, with the foetodon living nearby. A large forest-themed paddock at the center was home to the various species of monkey, each sticking to their own kinds as they explored their new home. And, to the left of the crocodilian paddocks, was a small aviary that served as home for the small flock of macranhinga.
The third and final segment of the La Pampa Plains exhibit zone were three grassy paddocks and a large aviary. One served as home for the kelenken, who had managed, after a few brief tussles, to reestablish their old pecking order, whilst another served as home for the thylacosmilus, with the male, Salvador, standing upon a rock in the very centre of the paddock and roaring to announce to nonexistent competitors that this was his turf while the female and her cub slept in a separate section of the paddock. Another paddock served as home for the patagosmilus, all of which were currently fast asleep in their dens. And finally, the aviary served as home for the argentavis pair. And at that moment, the male, named Hannibal, was perched on a branch of a tree in the center and squawking to announce his dominance while his mate Imilce and the Andean condor pair who they were being kept alongside ripped into a cow carcass.
And even as all this was happening, Leon and Yolanda couldn't help but happily take note of Diego and Shira nuzzling each other and seemingly growling affectionately while lying together upon a single large rock directly positioned in the centre of the paddock that allowed it to have a side each positioned on both of their territories.
Later that evening, the entirety of the mission team were gathered in the meeting room, with Drew standing at his usual spot at the head of the table as Alice and Adrian looked meaningfully and Leon and Jack gazed expectantly at him.
"You're all here," Drew began, a pokerfaced look. "because I want to tell you something very important." He directed his gaze straight towards Jack and Leon. "About your suspension."
Jack and Leon gulped, and looked at each other. Drew narrowed his eyes. "I've been holding it off for a bit – partly because, well, I'm the grudge-holding type." Alice and Adrian glared upon hearing this, and Leon and Jack felt their hearts sink...
...but then Drew lifted his finger as if to emphasize a point. "However," he then stated, "After that team building exercise, I was really surprised to hear…" He took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "That everybody seems to be vouching for you."
Leon chuckled nervously while Jack nodded his head with a look of proud acceptance on his face.
Drew gestured towards Alice and Adrian. "And these two have been pretty clear that a discussion's been long overdue." Adrian nodded his head, a rare look of smug satisfaction on his face.
Drew rolled his eyes and then looked back at Leon and Jack. "A lot of people have said that. Somebody, and I'm not gonna say who, said delaying this discussion made me look like, as I quote, 'a liar, an unreliable leader, and a very shitty friend'." Leon and Jack looked at each other, wondering whether it had been Collete or Yolanda who had said that. They supposed they'd never know.
Drew nodded and sighed, "Therefore, after much badgering, I've made a decision." He nodded at Jack and Leon, with a calm smile, "Welcome back."
"Yes," Jack said, a wide grin on his face, whilst Leon said, "Thank you," in a more calm and collected tone. "But, you're on your last warning," Drew smiled and mock-tutted.
"We understand," Leon and Jack said in unison.
"Excellent." Drew clapped his hands, "You're all dismissed. As soon as Theodore has told me the when and what for the next mission, I'll tell you all."
At this, Leon, Jack, Alice, and Adrian got up from their seats and left the room, leaving Drew to nod his head and get to work on cleaning up before he returned to his own living space.
And just like that, things were once again going smoothly at the park, complete with an assortment of new animals. All was at peace… for now.
Rescue Tally
* Acrecebus fraileyi (13; 7 adults, 6 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)
* Andalgalornis steulleti (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Argentavis magnificens (2; all adults; 1 male, 1 female)
* Astrapotherium magnum (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Barinasuchus arveloi (5; all adults; 3 male, 2 female)
* Boa giganteus (5; all adults; 3 female, 2 male)
* Borhyaena macrodonta (9; 6 adults, 3 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)
* Carlocebus carmenensis (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Chelus columbiana (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Cladosictis patagonica (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Devincenzia pozzi (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Diadiaphorus caniadensis (13; 9 adults, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)
* Foetodon sordicus (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Granastrapotherium snorki (6; 5 adults, 1 calf; 2 male, 3 female)
* Gryposuchus columbianus (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Hapalops sp. (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Homalodotherium cunninghami (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Homunculus patagonicus (11; 8 adults, 3 youngsters; 6 male, 5 female)
* Kelenken guillermoi (8; 6 adults, 2 youngsters (subadults); 4 male, 4 female)
* Lagonimico conclucatus (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Langstonia huilensis (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Macranhinga ranzii (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Macroeuphractus oetesi (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)
* Megapirahna paranensis (19; all adults; 10 male, 9 female)
* Micodon kiotensis (13; 9 adults, 4 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)
* Mourasuchus amazonensis (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Necrolestes patagonensis (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Patagosmilus goini (5; 2 adults, 3 cubs; 3 male, 2 female)
* Peltephilus sp. (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Phoberomys pattersoni (13; 10 adults, 3 youngsters; 6 male, 7 female)
* Pinatono amarus (5; all adults; 2 male, 3 female)
* Plumadaemon pinguis (9; all adults; 5 male, 4 female)
* Prothylacinus patagonicus (11; all adults; 5 male, 6 female)
* Protypotherium australe (17; 10 adults, 7 youngsters; 8 male, 9 female)
* Purussaurus brasiliensis (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)
* Solimoea acrensis (9; 7 adults, 2 youngsters; 4 male, 5 female)
* Stegotherium sp. (7; all adults; 3 male, 4 female)
* Stirtonia tatacoensis (5; all adults; 3 male, 2 female)
* Stirtonia victoriae (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Stupendemys geographicus (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)
* Theosodon patagonicum (11; 9 adults, 2 youngsters; 6 male, 5 female)
* Thoatherium minusculum (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)
* Thylacosmilus atrox (5; 2 adults, 3 youngsters; 2 male, 3 female)
Next time on Prehistoric Park: Reimagined:
The gang heads to Madagascar to rescue a cannibalistic dinosaur!
(Two adult carnivorous dinosaurs, one with young bellow at each other.)
As well as the oddities of Cretaceous Madagascar!
(Several gigantic frogs are seen gathered nearby a drying pond.)
But drama is afoot back at the park…
(Zephyr and Cirrus are standing face to face and shrieking antagonistically at each other while Nimbus and Sirocco watch in the background.)
All next time on Prehistoric Park: The Oddities!