A Mammoth Endeavor

First off, Merry Christmas everybody! Consider this the Christmas chapter, because it's set in an Ice Age and there's snow.

Guest Tran: There's going to be a Pteranodon in a prominent role in Phase Three – pay attention to Kaisumi's scene in the last chapter for a hint of his role (and Kaisumi's role in Phase Three). I would suggest giving Byron a large, intimidating-looking (but herbivorous) animal as an AP – in order to give him a protector.

Drew sat in his office, waiting patiently for his team to arrive with a smile on his face. It had been a week since the events of the estemmenosuchus mission, and he'd been looking forward to this mission...among other things. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and he looked in the direction of his office's door in time to see Leon, Jack, and Alice enter the room. "I presume you've called us here to give us the brief?" Leon asked.

Drew nodded his head, trademark grin on his face, and pressed the remote for the projector. "Today we're going to Pleistocene Europe to rescue an animal that you should all be familiar with." The projector broadcast the image of a large woolly brown furred woolly elephant onto the whiteboard. "The woolly mammoth." He paused for a minute. "Found thoughout Eurasia and North America during the Pleistocene. I was always waiting for this one."

Alice raised her eyebrow. "And I presume that the fact that we're two days away from the Novum board giving us their final decision had something to do with it?"

Drew grinned cheekily. "What can I say, Ms. Denham? They always say go big or go home. And on that note…" He nodded his head. "Adrian and Cynthia are staying behind – Adrian to help train that harpactognathus Willoby hatched and Cynthia… I don't know." He let a warm smile come on his face. "However," he then added. "I'm letting you guys bring a plus one – call it a reward for your service."

Leon, Jack, and Alice's eyes widened in shock at hearing this. "Wait, seriously?" Leon asked. "Well, alright then," Jack yelled, clearly excited. Drew raised his eyebrow in amusement. "Yup." He nodded his head. "You've got an hour – be there or be square."

At this point, Alice nodded and then looked to Jack and Leon. "You heard him boys," she said. "Let's get a move on."

. . . . .

"So…Nikolai…we're going after woolly mammoths today."

Nikolai Koshkin turned to look at Jack Denham. Half an hour had now passed since Drew had briefed them – and Jack knew exactly who he wanted to take with him. "I know – Leon sent me the info-packs yesterday." Jack sighed, "Oh, yeah", before smiling awkwardly, "Listen, Drew's letting us bring a plus one – and I thought…"

Nikolai snorted – Jack was trying to impress him again. "I could accompany you?" Nikolai then asked. "I don't know – you're going after quite a large animal. I might be needed at the park…"

"Oh, I'm sure Collete and Willoby can handle things while you're gone," Jack admitted. "A change of scenery would be nice for you. Take a bit of a break from your normal duties."

Nikolai mused on this – to tell the truth, he had been interested in going on one of the missions for a long while. To see a vanished world with his own eyes… Denham had ulterior motives, to be sure – a further attempt to impress him, but… he was right. As if sensing this, Jack said, quietly and sincerely, "I owe it to you, Nikolai – you had faith in me when Drew and Kyle didn't. This is me repaying the favour. "

The sound of rustling bushes caused Jack and Nikolai to look in the direction of the noise in time to see Felix and Melancholia rise up from their hiding spots and gaze curiously in the latter's direction. Chuckling, Nikolai picked up some nearby plant matter and lifted it into place near the two giant millipedes' heads and both eagerly ate. "Since we are both sharing insights," Nikolai stated as he observed the feeding Arthropleura, "I suppose I should tell you… I'm worried, Denham. That I haven't found it."

Jack looked perplexed, "Found what?" Nikolai said, "My animal partner. I'm sure you've noticed that people have bonded with certain individual animals. You with Kaa and Duke, Kyle with Rommel and Abrams, the komandir with Terence and Gideon…"

At this, Jack smiled, "Hey, the Arthropleura like you…" Nikolai shrugged, "It's not the same."

Jack shrugged, "Maybe this is some sort of premonition – you might find your animal partner accompanying us on this mission." Nikolai gave him a look, "Very well, Denham – if that's what you want, I will.

. . . . .

"So let me get this straight," said Will Darrow as he sat on a bench near the arctodus paddock alongside Alice, who was currently smiling happily. "You want me to come with you on today's mission?"

Alice nodded her head. "That's correct," she said. "Drew said that he was feeling generous enough to let us invite a plus one…"

"I see." Will thought to himself. "Why me though? Couldn't you have asked Kaisumi? Or Matt?"

"I could have," Alice admitted, "But… Pleistocene fauna is a specialty for you, so I didn't want you to miss out." She placed a hand on Will's shoulder. "What do you say Will? Like old times?"

Will let out a low chuckle, a slight blush forming on his face. "Well in that case," he then said. "I'd be honoured." He briefly looked in the general direction of the research facility. "Though I will have to get it all cleared out first."

. . . . .

By the end of the hour, Drew, Leon, and the Denhams, plus Nikolai and Will, had all arrived at the main portal site, fully prepared. Leon couldn't help but nod his head in approval as he surreptitiously took a glance at Jack and Alice standing alongside Nikolai and Will. He had to admit, the two keeper siblings had made good choices of companions to accompany them for today's rescue mission. But at the same time, he also now couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy; he'd considered asking Yolanda but had ultimately decided against it. And there was nobody else he could think of.

Drew, unaware of his best friend's inner turmoil, nodded his head in approval of the sight of Nikolai and Will, and then lifted his finger as if about to indicate to them all that it was time to go...

"You didn't think we'd let you leave without saying goodbye did you?"

Drew and the rest of the assembled team for that day's mission looked towards the entrance to the main portal site in time to see none other than Cynthia, Colette, and Yolanda standing nearby, with Cynthia having her hands on her hips and a cheeky smirk on her face while Colette had a poker faced glare and her arms folded across her chest and Yolanda had a warm smile on her face as she rubbed the back of her head. Jack and Leon looked to Drew and Drew nodded his head. "Ok," he said. "But make it quick."

In a flash, Yolanda rushed over towards Leon while Colette and Cynthia proceeded to much more calmly make their way towards Jack and Drew. Yolanda walked up to him and said, quietly, "Be careful out there, Leon". Leon gave her a shy smile, "Will do. What do you say we meet up when the board give the okay?" Yolanda giggled. "Looking forward to it already."

Colette, meanwhile, had her hands on both of Jack's shoulders and was directing a firm, yet also concerned, glare towards him. "You make it back in one piece now, OK?", she said, a firm, but not entirely unkind, tone to her voice as she directed her icy blue eyes down towards his golden hazel ones. Jack chuckled. "Don't I always come back like that?" "First time for everything", Colette said. She looked to Nikolai. "Same thing goes for you Captain", before pointing at Jack and saying, softly, "Keep an eye on him, please."

"Don't you worry now," said Nikolai, a fatherly look on his face, "I'll keep him out of trouble." Jack rolled his eyes, but nonetheless directed an appreciative look towards the grizzled security chief. "Warms my heart that you two care so much." Colette and Nikolai rolled their eyes, but not without a small smile coming on their faces.

Cynthia, meanwhile, had her finger on Drew's chest. "I'm warning you Drew," she said. "Try not to get into too much trouble out there. I haven't forgotten how you said you felt when it looked as if I were lost forever in that sandstorm last week and doomed to die out there, and I really don't want to have to undergo a similar experience with you getting lost like that somewhere in the Ice Age. So please try to make it back alive alright?" Drew rolled his eyes in mock annoyance. "No need to worry Cynth," he said in a half dismissive and half genuine tone. "Everything will be fine. Trust me, I'll be back before you know it." "Good," said Cynthia firmly. She pressed her finger a little harder against Drew's chest, her eyes narrowing half threateningly and half capriciously. "You'd better."

After saying this, she looked in the direction of Yolanda and Colette in time to see that they'd both finished giving their goodbyes. Nodding her head, she looked back at Drew one more time. "Good luck," she then said before stepping back and away from Drew, who nodded and looked to his assembled team for the day. "Right then," he said. "Let's move!"

The attending technician entered in the appropriate coordinates and the portal opened. And at that, with a deep breath in anticipation, the assembled rescue team, two temporary guest members included, confidently marched through the shimmering vortex and into the past!

. . . . .

In a flash of light, the portal opened up in the snowy plains of Pleistocene Poland and Drew and his team stepped out. And upon stepping out of the portal, which swiftly closed behind them once they'd all made it through from the present to the past, the first thing that struck the rescue team, plus Nikolai and Will, was the cold – this was a first for them. Nikolai was the only one not as caught off-guard.

"Blimey," Will stated, shivering in spite of his parka. "This is cold."

"You probably wouldn't last very long in Russia then," Nikolai stated dryly, before looking to Jack. "I have a feeling that this isn't the first time you and the team have experienced extreme temperatures like this?"

"Extreme temperatures, no. Cold, yes.," Jack admitted.

"You get used to it over time," said Drew. He nodded his head. "Come on everyone, let's take a look around and get our bearings in order. You never know what might be lurking around the corner."

"Da," said Nikolai. "Komandir Drew brings up a good point. Let's observe."

The team, complete with its two guest members, looked carefully about the area around them. At the moment, they appeared to be standing in a vast snowy plain. Powdery snow blanketed brown grass and dwarf birch trees, their leaves clearly long since shed, dotted the landscape in almost skeletal fashion; all while a chilly wind moved through the plains. Noticing grass barely visible amongst the snow, Leon "It must be the beginning of winter here right now," he said, shivering briefly despite the parka, "Which means we probably shouldn't linger. This snow's only gonna get lot worse sooner or later."

"No kidding," Alice agreed, shivering briefly herself, "Perhaps we should set up a campsite somewhere."

As one, all eyes looked to Drew, who nodded his head. "Probably wouldn't be a bad idea," he admitted. He looked at the ground they were standing on. "This might be a good enough spot." He looked back at his teammates. "Come on," he said. "Let's get to work setting up a base camp – first priority."

"He's right," said Nikolai. "In an environment like this, it's best we set up a safe zone. You never know when danger could come upon you and we need a place where we could regroup."

"Um guys?"

All eyes looked to Will, who now appeared to be rather nervously looking at the area behind him. "I think it might be a bit too late for that."

"What do you mean?" Leon asked, only for him and the rest of the team to look in the direction Will was looking; at which point all eyes widened in surprise and mild horror. "Oh fu..."

In that instant, a sudden blizzard came upon them!

. . . . .

The blizzard roared in, as visibility was reduced to zero in seconds. Nikolai mentally swore as he tried to search his way through the icy wings for his companions. Suddenly, he heard Jack's voice screaming, "DREW?! LEON?! NIKOLAI?! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!" Running up to Jack, saying "I'm here, Denham." Jack smiled, "Thank you…. Do you know where the others are?" Nikolai shook his head, "No – I was going to ask you the same thing. Our visibility has been reduced to zero and the blizzard will likely cut off our communications. The best course of action would be to find a cave and see if we can weather out the blizzard there." Jack looked out in the blizzard, a worried expression on his face, and said, "Fine", and they headed off in a northwesterly direction.

To the southwest, Alice, holding Will by the arm, led him through the blizzard. Eventually finding a small grove of pine trees, they sat down and got their bearings. Alice smiled at her companion and said to him, playfully, "First time?" Will nodded, to which Alice said, "Yeah – we've lost the others and we're on the southwest. I say we find a cave, weather out the storm and then find the others…. I hope Jack's okay." Will smiled and said, "I wouldn't worry – he can get himself out of a bad situation. And, besides, hopefully, he's found Drew or Nikolai – they can keep an eye on him."

Meanwhile, Drew searched through the icy winds, mntally swearing like a sailor as he stumbled and staggered around, desperately trying to find his way through the blistering whirlwind of snow. He knew that the rest of the team were nearby somewhere, but where? And how was he to find them? Up was down! Left was right! All sense of direction was completely out of whack! Suddenly, he almost ran into someone, who said, with Leon's voice, "W-who is this?" Drew smiled, "Don't worry, Leon – it's me. You see any of the others?" Leon shook his head as they looked out at the snowstorm – there was no sign of their teammates anywhere.

"Drew", Leon said, quietly, "I think we've lost the others."

. . . . .

Unaware of the chaos her ex-boyfriend and his team mates had just gotten into, Cynthia was watching intently while on break as Adrian worked patiently to help first officer John Willowby train the baby harpactognathus Forestock to serve as a security animal.

The small pterosaur flew through the air, flapping its wings as he slowly caught hold of an updraft. Circling around the area, he scanned the ground intently. Over the past few months, the small pterosaur had grown slightly – his wingspan was now roughly two feet across, a third adult-size.

Cynthia had been surprised to find out that, unlike most birds, pterosaur hatchlings could fly right out of the egg – the scaphognathines mostly fed themselves, despite still being protected by their parents. To be honest, watching the baby pterosaur fly was pretty soothing – it got her mind off her near-death experience in the sandstorm on the Permian mission. Jack's pep talk had been pretty helpful, but it still weighed on her mind…

Adrian and Willoby watched, hearts in mouths, for any stumbles. However, Forestock was flying around eagerly, exploring the area like it was the most natural thing in the world. Willoby gave a proud smile and said, "I knew you could do it" and Adrian gave a look and said, "Good job." As if in affirmative, Forestock warbled. For at least five minutes Willoby watched as Forestock flew around, scanning the ground, before lifting his right arm and saying, "Alright, Forestock," he said. "Time to roost."

At that, Forestock proceeded, as trained, to return to his perch at Willoby's side. "Good boy, Forestock," he said as he carefully drew out a small strip of meat and gave it to him as a reward. "Good boy," he repeated as Forestock carefully ate his treat. Adrian said, "He's going to be pretty useful one day – I would, however, say wait until he gets a bit bigger, maybe about three-quarters adult size. At this stage, he's small enough to get smacked round…"

As Willoby left, with Forestock in tow, Cynthia walked up to Adrian and said, "Where are you off to next?" Adrian gave her a curious look, "The quetzalcoatlus aviary – why?" Cynthia smiled shyly, "Just wondered if you'd be available for a chat."

. . . . .

Drew and Leon had been trudging through the blizzard for about twenty minutes, eventually reaching a pine forest, with Leon saying, "Drew, do you know where we're going?! We should be trying to find the others – we don't know what they might run into…" Drew turned to Leon and said, "What, you mean Alice, Jack and Nikolai who can quite famously look after themselves?" He paused, "I'm sorry, Leon, it's just that panicking isn't going to help – we find a cave to weather out the blizzard and hope we can find the others there."

Suddenly, they were alerted by a loud, throaty bellow. Drew and Leon looked over to a nearby hillside to a herd of animals in the clearing. They looked like fallow deer – only the size of moose. Unlike a fallow deer, their fur was a solid, light greyish brown colour, like a reindeer. The males' most distinctive feature, however, was their antlers – from tip to tip, they were roughly ten feet across. A small harem of slightly smaller females and their fawns stood in the clearing, weathering out the blizzard."

Drew and Leon knew what these were; the giant deer Megaloceros. Leon breathed out silently, "I think they're waiting out the blizzard, like us.", to which Drew smirked knowingly, looking over at the mammoths, who had stopped to feed on some conifers, "The mammoths are having a pit stop; I think we can make a little detour."

Ass they approached, they saw one male rear up angrily – however, it didn't seem directed at them. As Drew and Leon looked closer into a dense stand of larch, they noticed three dark, human-shaped figures, clad in animal pelts moving in between the trees like ghosts. "Cro-Magnons?", Drew muttered. Leon shook his head, "No… too big – they must have been stalking the deer, using the blizzard as an advantage. The deer won't be able to see as well – easy prey."

Suddenly, and much to Leon's surprise, Drew began walking towards the giant deer, slowly and deliberately. As Drew walked closer, the stags flattened their ears, pawed the ground again and snorted. Eventually, the stag had decided that Drew had gotten too close and lowered his head and began to slowly walk towards him, before suddenly throwing his head back and charging at him. When he had gotten close enough, Drew activated the portal and the deer, not changing his course, charged through. The hinds and their fawns, as if confused, followed the stag through the glowing orb.

Drew turned to Leon, smiling, "Piece of cake." Looking over his shoulder, he noticed the dark figures had gone. Leon rolled his eyes, "Anyway, I think we should be finding a cave to weather out the storm." Drew sighed, "Yeah." They headed down the hill to find a crash of large rhinos congregated by a barely frozen pond. Their most distinctive feature, however, was their long horn – it was almost three feet long and looked, for all in the world, like a unicorn's horn. Leon quietly said, "Elasmotherium – I didn't know they lived this far west." Drew said, "Perfect opportunity, don't you think?"

Leon was about to ask what Drew meant when, suddenly, Drew ran towards the herd blaring the horn. Noticing the sound, the herd turned to Drew and began to stamp and bellow – once he had gotten close enough, they charged Drew, who activated the portal and dived out of the way – unable to change their trajectory, they charged through, into the present. Drew smirked, "Ole." Leon rolled his eyes and said, "We don't know what's happened to the rest of our team – you don't need to get yourself killed in the bargain." Drew scoffed, "Part of the fun."

After the rhinos, they continued moving through the forest until they came upon a herd of two species of horse. One looked like a Prezvalski's horse, but darker-coloured whilst the other looked like onagers, only slightly larger and darker in colour. Leon quietly said, "Tarpan and European ass – they're grazers normally, so they must be in this clearing to weather out the storm."

Suddenly, one of the stallions snorted and Drew and Leon turned to see a spotted shape move through the bushes. Drew said, "I don't think we're alone…"

Suddenly, something, moving so fast it was a blur, pounced out of the bushes and towards the horses, who stampeded. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Drew turned to Leon and said, "Hurry, set up the portal!" Leon did so, setting up the portal in the herd's rough trajectory – unable to change their course, they barrelled through it, into the present.

Now, Drew and Leon were able to get a good look at what had caused the stampede – it was a leopard, slightly larger than those today. The big cat snarled in disappointment at his prey suddenly having disappeared. Leon said, quietly, "Cave leopard", to which Drew said, "Now we're talking."

Before Leon could say anything, Drew suddenly whipped out the horn and began blaring it at the leopard – causing the big cat to snarl and begin to move closer to him. Once it had gotten close enough, it pounced – Drew dived out of the way and activated the portal. Unable to change its trajectory, the leopard pounced through. Once the leopard had gone through, Drew closed the portal and said, "Oh yeah." Leon rolled his eyes and said, "Let's find a cave to weather this storm out."

. . . . .

Elsewhere in the snowy plains, Alice and Will were doggedly trekking their way through the blizzard. "This reminds me of that blizzard when we were twelve," Alice managed to sputter as she shivered in her parka, trying desperately to keep herself and Will talking.

"I'm surprised you remember that," Will muttered.

"How could I not?" Alice asked. "The two of us and our families were snowed in together for almost an entire week!"

"Oh yeah, that's right," Will responded. "Brr, that was quite an experience."

"No kidding," said Alice.

The wind and snow started getting stronger, and the duo were forced to hang their faces to keep the biting winds and ice out of their faces. "Blimey," Will growled. "We really need to find somewhere to weather this monster out."

"I know Will," Alice managed to say. "I know. We'll find some place to take shelter soon. I'm sure we will."

Five minutes later, she and Will came stumbling upon a cave entrance set into a large rocky mountain wall. Not wishing to question their luck, the duo eagerly went inside, panting and gasping in relief. "This should definitely work," said Will, "Provided of course, this cave isn't already occupied."

"I certainly hope it isn't," Alice stated, gasping briefly as she worked to get herself warmed back up as swiftly as possible. Suddenly, she noticed a quiet, heavy breathing in the cave. "Will," she whispered. "By any chance, do you have a torch?"

Will nodded his head and drew out a flashlight. "Had a feeling it might be useful," he explained.

Alice accepted the flashlight, pointed it towards the much darker interior portions of the cave, and switched it on at full brightness...right in the pockmarked face of a bear, which roared at them! Alice's eyes widened in fright. "Oh shi..."

"RUN!" Will shrieked as he and Alice hurriedly bolted back out of the cave, with the startled and angry bear shuffling to its feet and chasing after them!

Panting and gasping in fright, Will and Alice ran as fast as they could down the slope and away from the cave, the bear following close behind and roaring in rage at them. However, the bear soon slowed down and came to a stop, panting and heaving as Alice and Will came to a stop three yards away and turned to face it. The bear, a massive brown furred creature, looked like it was close to collapse. "Judging by the size," Will stated in a low whisper as he and Alice continued watching the bear. "I'm guessing that's a cave bear; weighed about the same as a modern day Kodiak bear and one of the largest bears ever to exist." There was a brief wobble in the cave bear's front legs, and with a weakened growl, it laboriously turned around and started slowly making its way back towards its cave – as it moved away from them, Alice and Will took note of a detail that they'd failed to notice; it was limping on its right hindleg and there were gashes on its back.

"Oh dear," said Alice. "That can't be good."

Then things got worse, with one last growl and, the cave bear collapsed onto the snowy slope, at least a yard or so away from the cave entrance, groaning in defeat. "Something must have woke it up."

"No kidding," said Alice. "Something nasty." She sighed, and then looked to Will. "You stay right here," she said. "I've got vet training."

Before Will could say anything, Alice calmly made her way over to the exhausted cave bear, immediately beginning to speak as she did so. "It's alright," she said, her voice soft and soothing. "Everything's alright now. I'm gonna have a look at you and then send you somewhere where you can be more comfortable and recover properly..." It was at this point she made it to directly in front of the bear, and he lifted his head and snarled at her, opening his eyes in the process. As Alice stood still from her current position, waiting for the bear to calm down, she noticed how he was riddled with scars, clear relics from myriad past injuries. Several of them appeared to have been inflicted by other animals, but many others appeared to have all too clearly been inflicted by humans. Most gruesomely, the bear's left eye was a milky white, likely from a Cro-Magnon blinding him there with a burning brand.

Will, remaining still at the spot where Alice had left him, raised his eyebrow with a concerned look. Alice noticed and flashed him a thumbs up for the sake of reassurance. "I know what I'm doing," she said loud enough for her friend to hear her, not once changing her tone she'd been using while talking to the bear. "I mean, sure it may look crazy, but this kind of thing has worked with lions...sometimes." While Will narrowed his eyes, Alice got down on her knees and carefully extended her hand towards the still cave bear's right shoulder. The bear growled, a wary look in his single good eye, but was too tired and weak to do anything else, and eventually calmed down with a low grunt as Alice patted her hand upon his right shoulder. "There there," she said, not once changing her soft and soothing tone. "There we go. I'm not going to hurt you. It's alright. Nothing bad's going to happen. You'll be safe real soon, I promise." She looked over the bear and back to Will. "Whatever cut him up did it non-fatally," she said. "But he's too weak to move; especially with that one leg of his he's limping on. He'll freeze to death out here."

"I'm guessing that means he's going to the park?" Will said.

"Damn right that's where he's going." Alice nodded her head. "Let's contact the park and see if we can get someone to transport him."

"Consider it done," Will said, already drawing out his communicator and portal remote he'd been provided for the mission.

A few minutes later, Linda was all bundled up and standing by the cave bear, with a similarly bundled up clad Yolanda and Colette standing at either side of her, the former for veterinary assistance and the latter for defence just in case the bear tried to attack, with the portal glowing and reflecting behind them. Linda nodded her head as she continued examining the bear. "Yep," she said. "He needs treatment – urgently."

"Couldn't agree more," said Yolanda. She shivered. "Gee whiz," she hissed. "I'm freezing out here."

"Join the club," Colette grumbled, her teeth gritted and visibly chattering.

Linda looked to Alice and Will. "Think you two could help us get him loaded?" Will nodded. "Absolutely."

And so, Linda, Colette, Yolanda, Alice, and Will, plus two other Prehistoric Park veterinary personnel proceeded to load the exhausted cave bear onto a large heavy-duty stretcher and carried him the short distance between them and a veterinary truck waiting immediately on the other side of the open portal. Once the bear had been loaded, the back door of the truck was closed, and Linda, Colette, and Yolanda boarded the driver's section. Before they left, Linda peeked out the driver's side window and looked to Alice and Will. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll make sure he gets the care he needs." Alice nodded. "Good luck," she said. "You too," Linda said while nodding back. And at that, she got back into the truck and got the vehicle moving. Once the truck had travelled far enough away, Alice closed the portal. After a brief pause, Will looked to Alice and said, "So...what now, exactly?"

Alice gestured towards the wall where the cave was located. "I managed to catch sight of a couple other cave entrances," she said. "If you think you can handle the cold long enough, I'm willing to have us check those other caves to see if we can find anything else."

Will nodded. "I think I can manage."

And so, for the next fifteen minutes, Alice and Will dutifully entered and explored all six of the additional caves they were able to find next door to the one where they'd found the first cave bear they'd just rescued. The first two caves turned out to be empty, but the next three each contained cave bears – two adult males and two females with two cubs each. Naturally, all six of these cave bears ended up sent through the portal. The last three caves, on the other hand were inhabited by steppe bears – whilst in two of the caves, the four adults (two male, two female) were easily coaxed into rushing through the portal by an additional incentive in the form of fresh salmon from the Prehistoric Park kitchens, with the three cubs in the area eagerly rushing through the portal after the four adults for protection. In the last cave, however, the two adolescent males they had found were strangely nervous about going through the portal – as if they'd been attacked.

The two would-be rescuers were at first confused, even going so far as to close the portal so they wouldn't waste its power while they were trying to figure out the reason behind the current difficulty. But then Will noticed an unidentified object lying behind the two snarling young adult male bears in the darkness that remained inside the cave, and he pointed his flashlight just enough in that direction to reveal the object to be the body of another adolescent male bear...

…that was lying ominously still, riddled with open and still visibly bloody wounds, had at least two spears sticking out of its back, and appeared to be lying in a pool of its own dried blood!

Alice's eyes widened and she slapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh God," she whispered.

"I'll say," Will said, nodding his head with a saddened look on his face. "That dead bear behind them must be their brother." He looked to Alice. "What are we gonna do?", he asked. "They're still riled up." Alice sighed, and then nodded her head solemnly. "Please know I don't feel happy having to do this," she said as she drew out the backup audio player that Leon had given her back in the La Brea tar pits mission before then causing it to play a recording of a grizzly bear's roar.

The two steppe brown bears tensed up, snarling even more viciously than before with their eyes widened and clearly alert at the sudden bear-like roaring. Alice nodded her head, and then played the recording a second time; at which point both bears let out an outraged roar in unison before they both bolted in her and Will's direction, with the larger of the two managing to bump into the smaller one and causing it to briefly stumble to the side and falter in its movement long enough for the larger of the two brothers to gain a decent lead ahead and be the first to come skidding through the portal, with the smaller one following it. With both steppe bears gone to the safety of the future, Will looked to Alice as she closed the portal once more. "I'm guessing we'll be leaving him here?", he then asked while pointing at the bloodied carcass. Alice nodded. "I think so," she said. "We could do a post-mortem, but… what's there to find out?"

Will nodded in understanding. "However…. we can still find out what happened to him…" he then said as he bent down to one of the wounds on the dead bear's shoulder. Something was sticking out of it - a spearpoint. Removing the bloodied spearpoint, Will noticed some details. It was big – so big Will could barely hold it in his hand. The next thing he noticed was that it had long, serrated barbs down its side. It looked awfully familiar… He lifted his communicator and said, "We've found a dead steppe bear – who died in a rather… mysterious way. I think Khatin might need to take a look at it."

"Now what?" Alice gestured towards a nearby 'alcove'. "We'll camp out in this cave for now," she said. "See if we can weather out the storm. We'd best keep a watch, though."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Jack and Nikolai were hiking through the blizzard – Nikolai had estimated they were heading in a roughly north-westerly direction. The storm was interfering with their communications, so they had decided to find a cave, weather out the storm and see if they could contact the team after – and bringing back any animals they could find on the way.

Entering a clearing, they found a herd of two species of bovine – one herd of which looked like a European bison, only with longer horns and larger, and the other that looked like oversized versions of Spanish fighting bulls. Jack said, silently, "Steppe bison and aurochs – ancestors of the domestic cattle." Nikolai said, "I think I know how to get them through the portal."

Walking up the herd with one of the marking flags they'd used for setting up base camp, Nikolai waved the flag around – the lead bulls of the auroch and bison herds both began to bellow at him, riling the rest of their herds up. Eventually, they all charged at him – Nikolai turned to Jack and yelled, "Now!" and Jack lifted the remote and activated the portal, the entire herd charging through. Once the herd was through the portal, Nikolai pointed up a hill and said, "Roughly north-west of our position, there's a cave – we could weather out the storm there. And Jack? Good job." Jack smiled at him.

After hiking up to the cave, Jack said, "How did you know how to get that herd through the portal – do they teach that in the Spetsnaz?" Sitting in the cave, as the blizzard roared around them, Nikolai shook his head and said, silently, "In Mexico, I ended up having to work at a bullring – my job was to eject troublemakers and pikers." At Nikolai's tone, Jack said, "How did you feel having to…?"

Nikolai looked at him, "Watch it? I felt sick – although, I was drunk morning, noon and night for most of that time, so the memories are blurry." Jack gave Nikolai a look of pained sympathy and moved to say something, before Nikolai suddenly covered his mouth with his hand and muttered, "Be quiet." Jack gave Nikolai a curious look… before looking at the walls of a cave and suddenly realising why.

The cave looked like a butchery – meat ranging in size from flayed hares to haunches of woolly mammoths hung from the wall and roof, strung up with rope. Walking up to a haunch of auroch, Nikolai said, quietly, "That's interesting… the meat's salt-cured." At this, Jack's eyes widened and he said, "I'm not a paleoanthropologist, but I don't think people knew about that back then…"

Nikolai said, "That's what I'm thinking too… And I'm also thinking we need to leave." Jack looked at him curiously, "Why?" Nikolai said, quietly, "In a place full of scavengers, you don't leave your meat store alone for long…." Jack's eyes widened and he nodded, "Okay."

What Nikolai had not told Jack was the footprints he had seen entering the cave – he didn't want to risk worrying him. He didn't have an explanation for them himself – however, what he had seen alarmed him.

They looked like naked human feet, but they were massive, first off, at least seventeen inches long and, from the depth, the creature that made it must have weighed over seven hundred pounds. A closer look had noted something else – the big toe was slightly off to the side.

That was strange, too.

. . . . .

Kyle nodded his head, a satisfied smile on his face as he and his assembled holding pens team for the day observed the herd of extinct cattle and bison that now graced the main portal site with their presence. "Aurochs," he said. "Good choice."

"These should be pretty easy to handle after all those bears, the leopard, and the giant hairy rhinos," said one of the other keepers amongst the holding pens team.

Kyle let out a low chuckle. "Don't get too comfortable now," he said. "An auroch is just as capable of being dangerous as any modern day bull." He looked to the assembled team. "Alright everyone, let's get to work!"

"Yes sir!"

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Drew and Leon were still trudging through the blizzard, in vain search of a cave. Blundering into a clearing, Drew and Leon looked around, with Leon saying, "Well, at least it isn't as bad under cover." Suddenly, whispers in a strange language were carried, almost wraith-like in the air, and Drew said quietly, "We aren't alone."

Following the whispers, group of tall, dark-skinned humans, clad in animal pelts, stood over the butchered corpse of a tarpan. Leon quietly said, "Cro-Magnons" under his breath. At the sight of Drew and Leon, they went rigid and lifted their spears in fear. Leon hid behind Drew, who raised his hands and said, "Look, we're unarmed – no weapon in my hands. It means no fighty-fighty."

As Drew looked, the Cro-Magnons were noticeably furtive – like petty thieves anticipating the return of the householder. Eventually, realising they meant no harm, they lowered their spears – Drew smiled, "See – I know you can't understand me, but we mean no harm. Just listen to the tone of my voice or something."

Still not understanding Drew, the hunt leader pointed at them and uttered a command to his subordinate, who tossed his spear, which landed at Drew's feet. Drew picked it up and nodded to the hunt leader, who nodded in reply, and then pointed his arm in a roughly westerly direction and said something in his language. Drew knew what this meant – there was somewhere, some distance away where they could get shelter. Drew and Leon walked off, in the direction the hunt leader had pointed.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, miles south of Leon and Drew, the blizzard's severity had reduced; a development that Alice and Will were taking thorough advantage of as they trekked through the snowbanks. "I'll admit," said Will, a giddy looking smile on his face as he observed the environment around him. "When it's not in the midst of a fiendish blizzard, this place actually looks rather beautiful with all this snow."

"I can certainly agree with you there," said Alice, a smile on her face as she nodded her head and observed the environment, before turning her head to look behind her. "I do hope the others are doing alright though."

Will placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure they'll be fine," he said. "It takes more than a blizzard to stop them."

Alice smiled warmly, "Thanks Will." Will chuckled. "Any time Alice."

The sound of a loud trumpeting bellow splitting the air ahead of them caused the duo to briefly come to a halt, eyes widened in equal parts shock and awe. Then they looked at each other. "I think that might be a mammoth," said Will.

As it turned out, a mammoth that had made the noise. Specifically, as Will and Alice soon took note of upon entering a large snowy valley, it was an adult bull mammoth; and what was standing in front of it. Standing right in front of it was what appeared to be an early human carrying a large bundle of wood. He was fairly short, appearing only to be about five feet tall, but he was also built like a wrestler. He also had a conspicuously large nose, his long hair and beard were a fiery red, and he was clad in animal furs. All this was enough for Will and Alice to determine that he was most likely a Neanderthal. He appeared to be moving fairly urgently, as if trying desperately to stay ahead of the mammoth long enough to find out how best to get out of the way of the beast… a task that would be far more complicated.

A ten-member crash of very large rhinos were currently grazing in a clearing within the same valley as the mammoth and the Neanderthal. They looked vaguely like white rhinos, only considerably bigger, with much longer horns, and covered in thick dark woolly brown fur. Three of them were calves and the remaining seven were adults. As the neanderthal moved closer, one of the adults suddenly sniffed the air and snorted aggressively, pausing in its grazing in the process. The rest of the crash followed, and all bellowed warily when the sound of another trumpeting bellow from the mammoth, plus the combined smell of it and the neanderthal, reached their attention. The Neanderthal turned his head away from the mammoth to look behind him, and his eyes widened at the sight of the now very wary looking woolly rhinos threateningly snorting and pawing their feet, all while the still angry looking bull mammoth came to a stop, stomped his feet, and trumpeted antagonistically at the Neanderthal. At this point, the Neanderthal went rigid; at this point, if he stayed where he was or blundered into either the mammoth or the rhinos, he would definitely be killed. He was trapped.

Alice looked to Will. "He needs help," she said. Will nodded his head. "Agreed." He drew out the airhorn and blared it as loud as he could. The mammoth and rhinos all tensed up, clearly surprised, and then turned their heads towards the tiny humans in the direction the sudden loud noise had come from. Once she realized Will had successfully gotten the beasts' attention, Alice smirked, a confident look on their face as she cautiously reached into her parka pocket and drew out her portal remote as well as her audio player. In a flash, the mammoth and all seven of the adult coelodonta narrowed their eyes, grunted threateningly, and began to paw their feet as if preparing to charge, with the mammoth aggressively waving his trunk side to side in an intimidation attempt. The Neanderthal, meanwhile, was now feeling quite confused about the sudden loud noise and what the two strange beings he now saw in the direction said noise had come from were. But at the same time, he also quickly took note of how the mammoth and coelodonta were distracted and no longer focused on him; at which point he hurriedly ran away as fast as his legs could carry him, making it to a safer position.

The woolly rhinos charged first, as Will quickly ran, at a right angle to the charging rhinos, straight into what he believed an ideal position. And once the incoming rhinos had gotten close enough, he hurriedly summoned the portal. Moving too fast to stop, the entire crash went charging right through the portal and into the safety of the park. Now it was time to ensure the same could be said about the mammoth.

Alice, seeing that Will was still perfectly fine, turned in the direction of the mammoth, which was now stomping its feet antagonistically while still bellowing and swinging his trunk in Will's direction, and played a recording of a modern bull elephant's trumpeting bellow at full volume on her audio player. The mammoth looked aggressively at her, now even angrier than it had already been before now that it had heard what it took to be a rival's bellowing. And soon, with an outraged loud bellow of its own, it pawed its left front foot and charged towards Alice. And once the furious mammoth had gotten close enough, Alice summoned her portal, at which point the beast charged straight through to the present.

Will nodded his head at the sight of this even as Alice closed her portal. "Well done." Alice smiled, and flashed her friend a thumbs up. "Right back at you." She looked in the direction she and Will had initially been heading before their recent experience with the mammoth and woolly rhinos. "Let's keep going. We might find animals." "Sounds like a plan," Will agreed.

The Neanderthal, meanwhile, observed this whole scene and he had to admit, he was rather confused. These two odd newcomers were very strange hybrid looking beings, with the facial appearances of a Cro-Magnon, yet the skin of his own kind. And they were also dressed in clothing that was totally unfamiliar to him. He was also curious as to how they'd managed to make the bull mammuki and herd of rhinani he'd been trapped between seemingly vanish in a burst of light; but he soon reasoned that this was perhaps an illusion similar to the kind he'd seen Cro-Magnon witch doctors perform.

But regardless, he could now tell that the two strange beings would soon be in great danger. For as he continued to watch them, he noticed that they were heading in the direction of what he knew to be the territory of what his kin called a pardrai, or spotted one. And he knew that being in such a place, particularly at nightfall, could be very disastrous indeed. He himself was only as close to the area as he was because he'd been forced to take a detour over the course of the blizzard that had unexpectedly unfolded while he'd been out collecting firewood for his tribe. And while he knew that the lupon or hyenadhi would be quite likely to flee at the sound of shouting or sight of fire, the strong pardrai and opportunistic leonai only feared mammuki, rhinani, and urzhadhi. And the last of those three he knew to be in the midst of their snow sleep. And those were just the beasts…

They were heading towards the hunting grounds of the Kzamm – he shuddered at the name. The Kzamm were men, great hairy men of prodigious size, strength and ferocity, that he feared more than any beast. If they were not careful, they would be hunted like vermin and killed – if they were lucky. The only creatures the Kzamm even vaguely feared were mammuki and rhinani – the only creatures that could surpass them in strength.

That was likely why the duo had presumably been following the mannuki, for the sake of hopefully causing any predator to stay away for fear of incurring the wrath of the greater beasts. Of course, such a tactic was very risky, as it could easily lead to them trading death by pardrai or leonai claws or Kzamm spears for death at the tusks or trampling from a mannuki. But regardless, they had saved his life. He owed them a debt.

. . . . .

"So… care to tell me why you're being so evasive?"

At Jack's question, Nikolai turned to look at him – he hadn't told Jack about the footprint in order to not worry him, but he'd been looking over his shoulder for most of the trek, in case they ever saw whatever had made that footprint he'd seen outside the meat store. He didn't fancy their chances if they ever ran into it. As they headed over the hill, they saw a large cave – something to weather out the blizzard in. Jack turned to Nikolai, "You think we'll have better luck this time?" Nikolai shrugged, "With the best will in the world, yes."

They headed towards the cave entrance, before Nikolai said, "We should check – in case anything else decided to weather out the blizzard in here. Looking into the cave, they heard a loud, trumpeting bellow… and a large, female mammoth came charging out of the cave to greet them.

Barely getting out of the way in time, Nikolai and Jack stood, rigid, as the mammoth stamped her foot, bellowed and walked back into the cave. Jack said, "Well, I'm glad we checked – we'd have been stains on the floor if we hadn't." But Nikolai was quiet – something about the mammoth's behaviour was odd. "Why didn't she beat us flat?", Nikolai said, quietly, "She almost seemed like she was guarding something."

Following the mammoth into the cave, they saw what the mammoth had been protecting. Another adult female mammoth was lying on its belly on the cave floor, breathing laboriously. The other mammoth stood over it, like a guard. As they moved closer, they noticed deep wounds on her back and sides. "Nikolai", Jack said, quietly, "What did that to her?"

Nikolai was about to ask the same question.

. . . . .

Kyle couldn't help but whistle as he observed the bull woolly mammoth and ten-member crash of woolly rhino that were now present and warily observing the unfamiliar environment around them. "Well this certainly makes a nice new addition," he said.

"Great, just great," grumbled one of the other keepers in the holding pens team. "More rhinos."

The keeper next to him nodded her head. "We get what we get."

Kyle nodded his own head in agreement. "Agreed. Hardly any sense crying over spilled milk." He clapped his hands. "Let's get to work! We'll have more mammoths by the end of the day."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the holding pens, Horace Northup and Cass Cheng were on break as they observed the herd of megaloceros that had arrived at the park earlier. "I'll admit, they really are spectacular," Cass noted as she observed the mighty prehistoric deer, with the four stags all currently proudly displaying their mighty antlers as they calmly strutted about the pen while the eight hinds and four fawns browsed peacefully; though not without two of them seemingly acting rather rough with one of the remaining two. "Glad you think so," said Horace, a warm smile on his face as he and Cass continued observing the herd. He had to admit, he was already looking forward to working with these mighty beasts personally once the time came for as much.

At the sound of a higher pitched bellowing, the duo looked back towards the fawns in time to see one of them now standing seemingly protectively by the one who'd seemingly been getting treated considerably more roughly and bellowing at the two apparent bullies in a 'knock it off' fashion. The two 'bullies' were similarly bellowing back at her as if saying '*you* knock it off, we're trying to play here'.

Horace sighed, rolling his eyes in mock annoyance. "And I thought Kuzco and Manco were a handful to deal with," he grumbled.

Cass chuckled. "Well look on the bright side," she said. "At least this means it won't be boring to work with them."

Horace chuckled. "I suppose that's true."

Cass chuckled, looked back towards the fawns, and promptly raised her eyebrow in intrigue as she saw that the two 'bullies' had gone running off to play exclusively with each other while the seemingly bullied fawn and its defender were walking towards her and Horace with apparent looks of curiosity on their faces. Horace soon noticed this detail as well, and his own eyebrow rose in amusement. "Well now," he says. "Looks like these would like to come up close and personal."

"I see no reason why we shouldn't let them," said Cass. "You'll probably be working pretty closely with them in the future, so its best we let them get a good idea of what you'll be like very early on."

The two fawns came to a stop, with the one who'd seemingly been getting bullied tilting its head quizzically. And it was at this point that Horace and Cass noticed that it had a small scar nearby its nose. "That probably must have hurt," Horace noted. "I'll say," Cass agreed. "I wonder where he got it." Horace shrugged. "Probably from a carnivore attack," he reasoned. "But at the very least, he's certainly appearing well healed from whatever it was."

His attention was drawn back to the two fawns when the one with the scar near its nose grunted in curiosity, seemingly still staring quizzically at him. Cass chuckled. "Well this one's certainly a curious fellow."

"I'll say," Horace agreed. He smiled. He had to admit, the curiosity this one was currently showing towards him felt rather endearing. Deciding to make a little test at forming a bridge for future work with the little fawn, he reached over towards a nearby bucket of what he knew to be common food given to deer at zoos, hoping to see if this fawn would be willing to eat it. For a brief moment, the fawn continued to stare quizzically at Horace even as the small sample of 'deer food' was extended to him. But then, he eventually tentatively took a bite, which soon became several more as the fawn evidently found itself quite liking the taste, even allowing its defender from earlier to have a couple bites as well. Cass giggled as she watched this happen. "Looks like you're off to a great start with those two already." "Agreed," Horace stated with a chuckle of his own.

The sound of a more mature sounding bellowing ended the impromptu feeding as the two fawns looked towards the center of the pen in time to see their respective mothers quite pointedly looking their way. One of the two does called again, and both fawns looked to Horace, a seeming 'see you later' look on both their faces, and then turned around and rushed off to return to their respective mothers. Horace nodded his head as he watched this, completely unabashed. "I'm sure I'll win them all over at some point or other," he said stoically. "I'm sure you will," Cass said in agreement before she then leaned her head on his left shoulder and linked her right arm with his left arm. "You've certainly won a decent amount of other hoofstock over all, plus multiple keepers."

Horace chuckled, surreptitiously directing a half companionable and half flirtatious look towards her that she didn't notice. "That's certainly true," he said. He had to admit, the young Cheng sister had proven quite a good friend ever since they'd first bonded over the course of the day of the La Brea Tar Pits mission. But at the same time, after how much time had since passed that first interaction, he was starting to feel as if he were perhaps starting to like her as maybe more than just a mere friend.

And as it so happened, Horace himself wasn't the only one who was currently reaching this conclusion about his current dynamic with Cass. Cass's older sister Tina, who was currently surreptitiously looking their way from her position near the holding pen that currently contained the male cave leopard, which was itself currently feasting upon a freshly provided goat carcass in the very centre of said pen. Tina nodded her head, a half warm and half wary look on her face as she continued briefly directing her attention to her sister and the hoofstock keeper. "I'll give you a chance," she whispered under her breath towards Horace. "But if you hurt my sister in any way, then I promise that you will regret it." In a rather serendipitous bit of timing, the male cave leopard managed to deal a particularly strong bite to the goat carcass, leaving an audible crack.

. . . . .

Back in Pleistocene Poland, Drew and Leon had never felt more relieved as they rested and worked to regain their energy and body heat a yard or so within the interior of the cave that the Cro-Magnons had kindly pointed them to. "Man this hits the spot," Drew stated, gasping in relief with his hood down and mittens off as he and Drew leaned against one of the cave's interior walls. "I'm sure it does," said Leon. He looked around. "We probably shouldn't get too comfortable just yet though," he said. "After all, for all we know, something dangerous could be in here."

"Leon, come on," Drew said, his usual cavalier and confident tone to his voice. "I highly doubt the Cro-Magnons would have bothered to send us here if this cave were already occupied."

"They certainly wouldn't have if they *knew*," Leon pointed out. "However, we shouldn't get too comfortable."

"Leon, you're worrying too much," Drew responded, slightly impatient. "Come on, we hiked all the way here – let's savour the lull and wait ..."

As he was saying this, he took off his backpack and let it fall to the cave floor with a loud thud...

...which was promptly followed by a low growl erupting from the back of the cave!

Drew promptly stumbled backwards and away from the darkness in the back of the cave, eyes widened in fright and barely managing to avoid falling flat on his backside. Leon, likewise startled, just barely managed to fumble his flashlight out into position and switch it on; at which point he and Drew saw a young male cave lion crouching defensively with its back against the back wall of the cave, its yellow eyes narrowed warily, a cautious snarl, and its tawny gold fur and thick scruffy auburn mane dazzling in the light of Leon's flashlight. The lion snarled, its eyes narrowing further as it glanced warily at them, yet also perhaps seemingly in...

...pain?

Then Leon noticed another rather important detail, and his eyes widened. "Drew," he whispered, "Look at his left side." Drew did so, and his eyes widened as he saw the vicious looking gash. "Oh dear," Drew said. "You said it," said Leon. He nodded his head. "From the looks of it, it was probably an auroch." He looked to Drew. "He'll definitely need medical attention once he gets back to the park. You there for now while I see if I can calm him down." Drew raised his eyebrow, half irked that Leon was giving him orders and half nervous about how Leon was going to walk up to a big cat – even an injured one. But eventually, he nodded his head to indicate that he understood and that Leon was free to get to work.

With a deep breath, Leon cautiously started moving towards the lion, his right hand slowly extending out towards the beast as he made his way over. "Easy now," he said, his voice as soft and soothing as he could manage. "I'm not going to hurt you." The lion snarled, his yellow eyes remaining narrowed and his head briefly leaning forward as if to try to startle Leon into backing away, but then slightly winced as if the movement had aggravated his wound. "Now, now, it's alright, it's alright," Leon said, just barely managing to avoid losing his soft and soothing tone. "Like I said," he continued while also still slowly making his way towards the lion. "I'm not going to hurt you."

For what felt like an eternity, Leon continued slowly making his way towards the lion, speaking calmly and soothingly the entire time to ensure that the lion was hopefully calmed down as well and would have little reason to feel the need to attack. The lion snarled a couple more times, but finally calmed down enough to let Leon place his hand gently upon its brow. As Leon stood absolutely still with his right hand firmly upon the lion's furry forehead, the lion panted heavily in a mixture of caution, curiosity, and exhaustion. "There, there," Leon said soothingly, his voice miraculously hiding his nervousness, "Everything's ok. You'll be safe now. I promise. Just relax and stay calm. You'll be taken very good care of real soon. I can assure you of that." The lion snarled one more time, his yellow eyes narrowed once more, before he relaxed.

Drew nodded his head. "Good job there," he whispered. "Didn't think you could do it."

Leon nodded his head, and then looked at Drew. "Think you can manage a quick trip back to the park to contact the vets and get some of them back here? I think I should stay to keep watch over him."

"Read my mind," said Drew, already drawing out his portal remote and communicator.

A few minutes later, Linda and Yolanda had once again come to Ice Age era Poland. "Colette would have joined us," said Linda. "But she was busy assisting at the holding pens."

"Fine by me," Drew said, nodding his head. Leon perked up. "So, Will and Alice are alright then?"

"Far as I know they still are," Linda responded. "And knowing Jack and Nikolai, I'm sure they're probably fine."

"Regardless," Yolanda said, a reassuring smile on her face as she pointed towards the lion. "We'll take good care of him."

"I certainly hope so," Leon said, a warm smile of relief on his face directed towards Yolanda before he nodded his head and regained focus on the current task at hand. "Right then," he said. "I'll see if I can help get him through."

In the end, it took almost 15 minutes to get the lion through, but, eventually, they succeeded; at which point he collapsed exhaustedly onto the truck floor and passed out from the burning pain in his side, growling weakly from pain and exhaustion.

"Right then," said Linda. She looked back to Drew and Leon and flashed them a thumbs up. "You sure you two don't want to come back with us?"

Drew nodded. "We need to find the others and bring back more stuff."

"I understand." Linda nodded her head. "See you later," she then said as she walked back through the portal.

"We'll take good care of that lion Leon," said Yolanda as she to departed back through the portal alongside her boss. "Make sure you come back safe and sound."

"Will do," said Leon, confident smile on his face as he flashed a thumbs up to Yolanda.

Once the two vets had departed through the portal with the rescued lion, Drew closed the portal. He turned to Leon. "Right then," he said, a firm look of authority now on his face. "Let's wait for the storm to settle down – before we look for the others."

"Yeah," Leon said, nodding his head in agreement.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Alice and Will were still resolutely trekking their way through the snowy plains of Pleistocene Poland, hoping to find either the rest of their team or more animals to rescue. Eventually, they heard the sound of leopard-like growling and wolf-like snarling split the air about a mile or so to their left. Will looked to Alice. "Investigate?"

Alice nodded, "Investigate."

A few minutes later, the duo arrived at a small valley surrounded by high cliff walls. And within this valley was a large leopard and a pack of grey furred wolves that looked slightly bigger than the dire wolves back at the park. And they were all snarling and growling at each other as an almost completely frozen dead tarpan lay between them. "A cave leopard and a pack of cave wolves," Alice stated, a look of awe on her face as she watched the two opposing carnivore species confront each other over the frost-bitten carcass. And as she and Will continued to watch, they soon noticed that there were six pups crouching defensively right behind all the adults in the cave wolf pack, with one of them being very conspicuously albino. Clearly this must have been one of their first hunts. They also took note of how relatively small and slim the leopard was – a female, most likely.

Will eventually looked to Alice. "What's the plan?"

Alice looked back at him, determined look now on her face. "We split up and move into position behind both sides," she said gesturing towards the areas directly behind both the cave leopard and the pack of cave wolves. "And once we're in position, we work to attract them through the portal from there. I'll take the leopard, you take the wolves."

"As you wish."

The two split up, Alice to the left and Will to the right, and carefully stalked over towards their planned positions...

...only to then jerk to a halt, eyes widened in stunned horror as they both ended up stepping on twigs that snapped in half very loudly. The leopard and wolves immediately tensed up, ears up and eyes widened in alarm, before snarling at the sight of the intruders. Will grimaced, his black eyes half closed and his teeth gritted as he realized just how royally screwed he and Alice now were. "Oh Hell."

With a savage howl in unison, the entire cave wolf pack burst off in Will's direction while the cave leopard snarled and started barrelling over towards Alice! Mentally swearing, they both hurriedly tried to reach for their portal remotes, but it was proving rather difficult to find them in the current immensely compressed time frame they had, and their respect would be assailants were already approaching fast! "Shit," Alice hissed bitterly. Already it was starting to look as if this would be the end for her and Will! Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea...

Suddenly, two small stones sailed through the air in opposite directions, with one hitting the charging leopard on the side of her head and the other hitting the leading male wolf on the side of his head, causing the both of them to stumble and skid to a halt, with the remainder of the latter's pack soon skidding to a stop as well in concern for their leader. The leopard snarled indignantly, and so did the lead male cave wolf. Then the sound of loud incoherent screaming turned everyone's attention to the Neanderthal Alice and Will saved before jumping up and down and wildly waving his fists while yelling wordlessly as loudly as he could. At first they were both stunned, but then they both realized that it was now very much time to take full advantage of the extra time they'd just been given.

Will hurriedly reached back into his pocket once more, and his eyes widened before a grin then came on his face as he drew out what turned out to be a single portal grenade that Khatin had allowed him to bring along. Hurriedly priming it for the appropriate time and location, he threw it right into the midst of the cave wolf pack; at which point it almost instantly went off, with all 14 of the wolves, adults and pups alike, howling in surprise as they were all suddenly sucked into the vortex and vacuumed away to the safety of the present. Alice, likewise, quickly managed to finally find her portal remote and summon the portal into view right behind her before looking back at the leopard. "Hey you!" The loud yell from Alice caused the cave leopard to look back at her and away from the Neanderthal; at which point it roared at Alice once again before then lunging in her direction. But at literally the exact same time the leopard lunged, Alice jumped and rolled aside just in time to get herself completely out of the pouncing big cat's reach. At which point the leopard, unable to change its trajectory in mid air, went sailing through the portal and into the present.

For a brief couple seconds, Alice and Will panted and gasped as they got their breath back. Then they both looked in the direction of where the Neanderthal was still standing, having stopped his frantic efforts at making noise now that the carnivores meant to be distracted by said efforts were now gone. A satisfied smile on his face, the hominid gave them both a curt nod each before rushing away out of sight once more. Alice and Will quickly understood what this meant. By sending the bull mammoth and crash of coelodonta through the portal earlier, they'd saved the Neanderthal's life. And now the debt was repaid.

After the adrenalin of that moment, the two looked at each other. Now what were they to do? Then Will noticed something important out of the corner of his eye, and he looked towards the sky just in time to notice that the sun was slowly starting to reach the point that it would start descending further and further towards the end of the horizon. He looked back at Alice. "Maybe we should be heading back to the caves – we don't want to eb out herea t night."

Alice nodded her head. "It probably would be a good idea to start heading back north at this point regardless," she said. "The blizzard's gone, so we might be able to find the others." She looked determinedly at Will. "Let's start heading back the way we came," she said. "If we're lucky, then just maybe we'll travel far enough to reach the others."

. . . . .

"We've got to do something."

Jack's voice was almost inaudible amid the injured mammoth's pained bellows and the other mammoth's stamps and bellows of alarm. Nikolai said, quietly, "I know – keep a careful eye on the other mammoth. I'm going to do something."

Jack said, quietly, "I'm sorry, but what can you do? Not to be rude." At this, Nikolai quietly said, "I had medical training in the Spetsnaz – when I got assigned to this project, I asked for a crash course in veterinary medicine, as well, in case an escaped animal came back worse for wear. I think I can treat the injured mammoth – however, it'll only be temporary." Jack muttered, "That's if you can get close enough – she'll see us as predators…" Nikolai turned to Jack, "Well then, we'd best let her know we mean no harm." Calmly walking past the mammoth, Nikolai raised his hands, as if revealing that he wielded no weapons – the mammoth relaxed, only slightly.

Reaching the injured mammoth, he got out some wipes and began cleaning her wounds – to ensure that they wouldn't get infected. At a couple of points, he removed broken spearpoints from the wounds – they were large, big enough to fit in his hand and barbed, almost harpoon-like. Once the wounds were cleaned, he got out a skin stapler and began to staple the wounds closed – a temporary measure until she could be properly stitched up.

The other mammoth had been quietly observing him this whole time – unsure of what to make of this strange behaviour. Nikolai turned to her and said, "You see? I mean you no harm." There was a brief moment of quiet as the two creatures regarded each other… before suddenly, a quiet squeal from Jack had them both charging over. Once they had arrived, they quickly realised what had gotten Jack so concerned.

Several large, dark brown-haired bipedal shapes stood out in the snow. The mammoth stamped and bellowed at them, whilst Jack said, quietly, "Nikolai… what are those?" Nikolai was wondering the same thing – he'd initially thought they were bears… however, with the benefit of a closer look, he realised… they weren't. They were big and hairy, yes, but they were shaped more like massively built humans – all, uniformly, over six feet tall and heavily muscled. Even the shortest towered over him. They all wielded large spears, with barbed, harpoon-like tips. They were covered in dark brown hair – however, a closer look revealed that some of them were wearing animal pelts… it was hard to tell which was their natural hair and which was fur.

This was a hunting party, clearly – and these were the ones who had injured the other mammoth. That was why the mammoths had hid in this cave – a hope that they would evade their pursuers. However… it hadn't worked out like that.

The largest one, some eight feet tall, in the band was clearly their leader – he was covered in scars, wore an auroch-horn helmet and wore a necklace made from lion teeth. He raised one muscular arm and barked a command in a chattering language – Nikolai didn't need to speak it to know what it meant.

A call to attack.

. . . . .

"Leon was not kidding", Linda Eberhart breathed out, regarding the anesthetized cave lion, "He's in a bad way."

Stepping back, she turned towards a tech standing near the magnifier, "Excuse me, can you move the lamp over so I can get a closer look?" The tech nodded, "Yes ma'am" and moved the device over; the cheetah's body was illuminated in the glow, revealing the wounds on her side. A spearpoint had been found in the wound- however, the vets had managed to remove it - all they needed to do was disinfect and clean up the wound.

Linda looked through the loupes at the wound and said, "The wound's infected and he's probably lost a lot of blood – but the cut is pretty clean. Right, before we do anything, we need some antibiotics". She looked over at one of the surgeons and said "Harry, antibiotics?" Harry handed her some big cat antibiotics, and she gave the cave lion the injection needed, "Alright, time to get to work". She turned to Yolanda and said, "Yolanda, pass me the swab will you?". Yolanda nodded and passed Linda the swab, to which Linda replied "Thank you", as she wiped the wound with it, before flushing the wounds , turning to a nearby vet tech and saying "Sutures, please ", as the vet tech handed them over, "Keep the light on the bite; this will require utmost care". Linda worked meticulously and carefully on stitching up the wounds; after what seemed like an eternity, the operation was finally over. Linda breathed out "There, that should be enough", before nodding, "Right – let's get this guy to one of the recovery pens."

Meanwhile, at the quetzalcoatlus aviary, Cynthia and Adrian were standing and watching the giant pterosaurs milling about. Throwing all caution to the wind, Adrian said, "I'm guessing this is about the sandstorm." Cynthia sighed and said, "Not completely – it's about what's been happening over the past two months. I messed things up and Jack gave me a bit of a pep talk…", to which Adrian nodded and said, "Yeah, he is a good listener." Cynthia sighed, "Point is, you know me from back in the day – back from when I was with Drew. So I thought a chat with someone I knew would be helpful…"

Adrian sighed, "Yeah – listen, when you were with Drew, I didn't take sides, even though you thought I did. You both did bad things – I never forgave Drew for skipping your grandma's funeral. He was my friend, but that didn't mean I liked everything he did – you did much the same when his uncle died. You were paranoid about him spending time with his cousin." He sighed, "Point is – when you hit rock bottom, there's nowhere else to go but up. Look at Leon. Look at Nikolai. This place is about new starts." Cynthia smiled and said, "Thanks."

. . . . .

Back with Drew and Leon, they had walked to the bottom of a hill with an overhang. A closer look revealed that a herd of mammoths was walking towards the overhang – five adult females, an adolescent male and one small calf.

As they watched the mammoths turned into the overhang, they noticed the calf was tiring – his mother was sticking close to him, but the blizzard was rapidly reducing their visibility and they had lagged significantly behind. This was attracting the attention of other creatures.

As the blizzard flurried, a brief bit of movement noted the presence of a predator – Leon looked in that direction, his eyes narrowed as he watched intently, trying as hard as he could to find whatever it was he could have sworn had moved...

...it moved again, and he finally managed to just barely get a good look at the creature. It was a cave lioness, the same age as the male, but with snowy white fur and greyish-blue eyes. And it didn't take long for him to realize that she was stalking the mammoth calf. Noticing this, Leon cautiously looked to Drew. "Drew," he whispered just loud enough for Drew to hear. And when Drew immediately looked his way, he surreptitiously pointed at the lioness. And upon at last managing to catch sight of her, he made a silent 'oh', flashed Leon a thumbs up, and nodded his head. "Got it," he mouthed.

The cave lioness had advanced towards the mammoth calf – noticing its presence, the calf took a few steps back and cowered, as the big cat advanced closer, tensing her body in readiness to pounce.

Suddenly, all creatures present paused to hear a loud, honking sound. They turned to see Drew, holding the horn high and honking it. The big cat ignored the mammoth calf and advanced towards Drew, a snarl on her face. Drew muttered, "That's right, kitty; keep following the sound."

Drew smiled as he saw the cave lion leave the mammoth calf; the big cat had been distracted. However… it was now advancing towards him. Even desperate from hunger, it could easily outrun him and he didn't have anything to defend himself with. Damn. Perhaps this hadn't been such a good idea after all. The snarling big cat advanced towards him; the mammoth calf scurried back to his herd and hid behind his mother, as if in terror of what was going to happen next, as the cave lioness prepared to pounce…

When suddenly, a portal grenade landed between them and went off, putting a portal in-between them – unable to change her trajectory, the cave lioness pounced through the portal, into the present. As the portal closed, Drew turned to Leon, who'd thrown it, and said, "Thank you."

After the adrenalin of that moment, Drew and Leon looked to see the mammoth calf, reunited with his mother, heading into the overhang. Drew and Leon silently slunk behind them – to weather out the storm where the mammoths could not detect them. However, as they approached the overhang, the matriarch turned to look at them and gave a mild, irritated grunt – saving the calf had earned them their gratitude. Drew smiled and activated the portal, using grass to lead the mammoths through it, into the present. Leon turned to Drew and said, "Now can we focus on finding the others?" Drew said, "Yeah."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Will and Alice had made surprisingly good progress. In fact, they'd even managed to successfully go past the area where they'd been before the blizzard. Now, they were now pausing for a brief break to get their breath back. And it wasn't long before they both noticed a large cliff looming in the distance to their right...

...and also some very odd looking shapes that appeared to be directly underneath the cliff's edge.

Will looked to Alice, eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Think this might be worth exploring?"

Alice nodded her head. "Yeah," she said. "I say yes."

"Okay," said Will.

And at that, the two headed off towards the area shadowed by the large cliff. And immediately after they got close enough, the strange shapes they'd seen were quickly revealed to be the remains of dead woolly mammoths and coelodonta, in varying states of consumption. Will whistled, looked around open-mouthed and turned to Alice, quietly saying, "They must have all fallen off the cliff – in a blizzard the edge'd be invisible." Alice shook her head. "Yeah," she confirmed. "All those carcasses lying in the snow would be a draw to scavengers..."

A sudden almost laughter-like barking yelp from somewhere amongst the various mammoth and coelodonta skeletons interrupted Alice and they turned to see a clan of cave hyenas emerge from the bones. Alice quickly counted them as they all came into view; there were fourteen total, with seven adults and seven cubs. They all looked very similarly to modern spotted hyenas, only slightly larger. And as she and Will watched, they all came to a stop, one by one, directly between them and a particularly old looking mammoth skeleton, with the alpha female taking the lead, before the rest of the pack surrounded them, glaring warily at them as they snarled territorially.

Will silently whistled. "They don't look happy," he whispered. Alice nodded her head. "Yeah," she whispered back in response. Deciding to test things out, she took a slight step forward. The matriarch hyena snarled; at which point Alice stepped back, and the hyena relaxed. "OK," Alice whispered to herself. "That rules out directly approaching them." She looked surreptitiously to her left, and her eyes widened upoin realising one of the mammoth caracasses still had meat on it – indicating to Will, she quietly said, "Bait."

And so, working carefully to avoid incurring the wrath of the hyenas, Alice and Will managed, with a decent amount of effort, to get chunks of the leftover mammoth meat torn from the main carcass, which they then proceeded to dangle in front of the portal. The hyenas all growled and snarled, with a hungry glare in their eyes. "Yeah, that's right," said Alice as she and Will kept dangling the meat in front of the portal. "Some nice and juicy meat, all for you." At that moment, the alpha female let out a particularly loud snarl and moved forward, jaws open. At this, Will and Alice tossed the meat through the portal. "Go get it."

With a loud growl in unison, the ravenously hungry clan bolted in the direction of the tossed meat, with Alice and Will jumping aside just in time as they barrelled through the portal. Once they were all through, Alice closed it. "And just like that, we have cave hyenas," she said. "That we do," said Will. Suddenly, Drew's voice crackled through their communicator, "Anyone-this-Drew-give-your-positions-northeast" Alice grabbed her communicator and said, "We're to the southwest of you by the place we were before the blizzard."

. . . . .

The ape-men made their presence known with a hail of spears – the injured mammoth was missed as Jack, Nikolai and the other mammoth narrowly missed being hit. Jack, despite himself, chuckled, "Well at least they're lousy shots." Nikolai shook his head, "That was an intimidation exercise – to make us scatter so they can pick us off." Jack said, quietly, "So what do we do?", to which a steely Nikolai said, "We face them together." Jack gulped, as the hunt leader pointed to the cave and roared, before charging forward, his band following him.

Nikolai and the healthy mammoth stood protectively in front of Jack and the injured mammoth – bodily protecting them from the oncoming hunters. Watching the advancing ape-men, a terrified Jack said, "What do I do?!" Turning to him, Nikolai said to Jack, "Protect the injured mammoth! We'll hold them off!"

Turning away from Jack, Nikolai turned to see one of the ape-men charging towards him, spear brandished in its left hand, before the mammoth charged towards it and slapped it away with her trunk. Nikolai turned to the mammoth and said, "Thank you." Looking behind the mammoth, he saw another ape-man, lifting its spear, aimed at the mammoth – Nikolai shoulder-charged it, knocking it to the floor. Its spear flew harmlessly through the cave, landing on one of the walls. The rest of the band retreated a few steps, scoping out weaknesses in the line. Turning to the mammoth, Nikolai said, "Now we're even."

Watching this, Jack suddenly felt oddly weak – as if he couldn't contribute to the situation. At the sound of a grunt, Jack turned to see a huge ape-man, easily eight feet tall, looming over him, staring coldly. Jack recognised this one from the distinctive facial scars, horned helmet and lion-tooth necklace – this one, who had commanded the band outside the cave, was clearly the leader of the hunt.

Despite being terrified, Jack said, as bravely as he could, stepping in front of the injured mammoth and lifting his arms to bodily protect her, "S-stay back! Y-you're not getting this mammoth! Not if I have anything to say about it." The ape-man looked at him and let out a low chortle, as if finding this pale, puny creature's defiance amusing.

Before Jack could do anything, a huge, meaty hand reached out and grabbed Jack's throat. Jack gasped and spluttered as he was lifted easily three feet off the ground to eye-level with the ape-man. Jack managed to choke out "N-Nikolai... help!"

At Jack's cry, Nikolai turned to see the hunt leader gripping Jack by the throat. "Oh no, you don't", he glowered, before briefly lifting the gun to shoot the ape-man. However, in the dark, he couldn't - not without the risk of hitting Jack... and he couldn't rush the ape-man without the risk of the others attacking him with his back turned.

As Jack looked, mute with terror, and began to ineffectually struggle, the scarred ape-man glared into his eyes, a cold expression on his face, before he began to squeeze his grip around Jack's throat. As the creature's grip tightened, and Nikolai watched, staring in helpless rage, Jack began to choke and splutter as his vision began to dim…

Suddenly, a loud bellow echoed through the cave, followed by a loud crack, and Jack felt his throat be released as he fell to the floor. Coughing and spluttering, Jack looked up to see the large female mammoth standing over him – the ape-man hunt leader, picking himself up off the floor, stood rigid in fear at the enraged mammoth. At the ape-man's terror, Jack smiled, "You can dish it out, mate… but you sure can't take it, can you?"

One of the hunt leader's subordinates ran up to him, still picking himself up off the floor, and muttered something in their chattering language. The hunt leader noticeably glowered at his subordinate, before getting up, rearing to his full height and letting out a low bellow. At their leader's call, all the ape-men turned and retreated out of the cave. The hunt leader was the last to go, glowering at Jack, Nikolai and the mammoths, before following his subordinates. Nikolai immediately rushed to Jack's side and said, with an air of quiet concern, "Are you alright?" As if reading Nikolai's thoughts, the mammoth placed its trunk on Jack's shoulder, as if to reassure him. Jack smiled weakly "Fine, thanks… both of you."

Suddenlly, Nikolai's communicator crackled into life and Drew's voice came out "-ack, Niko- Drew calling-where are you-." Nikolai said, "We'll send up a flare, komandir - you'll be able to find us… and contact the park when you get there – we might need to transport something big back with us."

. . . .

Two days later, all the newly rescued animals had successfully been transferred over to their new homes within the freshly constructed Ice Age Mount exhibit zone. This zone in particular was divided into three large subsections due to the specific environmental requirements necessary for the rescued animals with every enclosure equipped with climate technology.

The first section located directly at the entrance to Ice Age Mount was a gigantic paddock designed to be themed after an Ice Age steppe, which naturally served as home to the vast majority of the rescued Ice Age herbivores. At the moment, all of the aurochs, coelodonta, elasmotherium, European ass, and tarpan were leisurely grazing in the centre of the paddock alongside a herd of modern European bison and a slightly smaller herd of saiga antelope that had been transferred from zoos while the woolly mammoth herd drank and bathed peacefully at the large lake at the far right of the paddock, the two adult sisters Martha and Ellie browsed upon some bushes a couple yards to the left of the herd, and the single adult bull mammoth George lounged around by himself in the very back of the paddock far away from the rest of the paddock's inhabitants.

The second section consisted of three paddocks and was themed to resemble a large pine forest. And of the three paddocks that made up this section, the largest was where the megaloceros herd now lived alongside a sounder of modern day wild boar and a herd of modern day moose, with all three groups currently in the midst of browsing for food. The other two paddocks were comparatively smaller, with one of them serving as home for a pack of modern day wolverines while the second served as home for a pack of modern day grey wolves.

The third section, which was naturally at the very back of the overall zone and closest to the zone's exit, consisted of six appropriately sized paddocks themed after ice age valleys and steppes that came with large rocky caves which served as indoor dens.

And at that moment, all of the newly rescued animals that now dwelled within these paddocks were all settling in within their new homes. The cave bear sleuth was currently browsing on some berries, while the heavily scarred and single eyed male Baloo took a nap within a cave he'd claimed specifically for himself. The steppe brown bear sleuth was gathered around the makeshift lake and river within their paddock, where they were drinking, bathing, and feasting upon fresh salmon that had been thrown into the paddock for them to eat, with two males named Kenai and Denahi engaging in a spirited tussle over one particularly large pile of salmon.

The cave wolf pack was currently settling in well within their next paddock, with all the adults scouting around the paddock's boundaries while the six pups alternated between napping and play wrestling in the center of the paddock. The cave hyenas were all feasting upon a freshly provided cow carcass within the central cave inside their new territory. The male cave leopard Makucha was currently scouting around his new territory while the adult female Sabor was chowing down on a freshly provided pig carcass inside the cave she'd claimed for herself in her new territory. And finally, the male cave lion Simba was taking a much needed nap for the sake of resting to recover from his injury and subsequent veterinary treatment while the cave lioness Nala cautiously explored the rest of the paddock she now shared with Simba.

All six paddocks were located right next to each other so as to allow for ideal stimulation via the natural enmity between the six species and also designed to allow for easy transfer of the animals between paddocks in the event that they proved nomadic enough for as much to be necessary.

Naturally, all the animals newly rescued from Ice Age Poland managing to successfully settle into their new homes couldn't have been more opportune. For now, on this day, the Novum board had sent a letter revealing their decision re: the park's opening.

"Moment of truth", Drew stood, holding the letter, a smile on his face, before he opened the envelope and read out what was being said, "We have decided… to let you prepare to open the public!" The staff all cheered in celebration – they'd passed with flying colours and the board had decided that it was time.

Later, Jack and Nikolai were standing by the herbivore paddock. Jack smiled and said, "How'd you enjoy your first mission?" Nikolai said, quietly, "It was certainly… memorable." He paused, "I think I've found my animal partner, Denham." He pointed at the Martha, "We're both fighters, we're both protectors and we made a good team against those ape-men…" "And you're both pretty scary at first glance, but with a softer side", Jack chimed in. Nikolai smiled quietly, "That too." Suddenly, Martha's large trunk flopped onto Nikolai's shoulder, as Jack laughed, "I think she agrees too."

Rescue Tally:

* Aurochs (19; 10 adults, 9 calves; 10 male, 9 female)

* Bison priscus/steppe bison (17; 10 adults, 7 calves; 6 male, female)

* Canis lupus spelaeus/cave wolf (14; 8 adults, 6 pups; 8 male, 6 female)

* Coelodonta (10; 7 adults, 3 calves; 3 male, 7 female)

* Crocuta crocuta spaela/cave hyena (14; 7 adults, 7 cubs; 7 male, 7 female)

* Elasmotherium sibricum (7; all adults; 1 male, 6 female)

* European ass (9; 6 adult, 3 foals; 3 male, 6 female)

* Mammuthus primigenius/woolly mammoth (13; 12 adults, 1 calf; 1 male, 12 female)

* Megaloceros giganteus (20; 16 adults, 4 fawns; 10 male, 10 female)

* Panthera pardus spelaea/cave leopard (2; all adults; 1 male, 1 female)

* Panthera spelaea/cave lion (2; all young adults; 1 male, 1 female)

* Tarpan (13; 9 adult, 4 foals; 7 male, 6 female)

* Ursus arctos priscus/steppe brown bear (9; 6 adults, 3 cubs; 4 male, 5 female)

* Ursus spaleus/cave bear (7; all adults; 4 male, 3 female)

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

The crew go back to Jurassic Africa

(The crew look on in awe at a giant brachiosaur)

To bring back more of the giants of the Jurassic

(A stegosaur swishes its tail menacingly at a large theropod)

All next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Nchi Ya Majitu!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So now you know what killed the capybara in Pleistocene Florida and made the spearpoints in Babar and Eshe – these undiscovered ape-like hominids, principally based on wildman cryptids from North America and Eurasia (e.g. Bigfoot, yeti, almasti). Basically, we have mammoth-hunting Bigfoots.

The Ape Men (which is what we call them – the Neanderthals call them the Kzamm) are going to appear sporadically throughout the universe - they'll be smart, they're going to be advanced (well, comparatively) and, whenever or wherever they turn up, they're going to be bad news.

So… yeah, mammoth-hunting yetis, naturally-occurring time portals and wild dromas in the land around PP – remember when I said Phase Two was the start of the story being less grounded? I meant it.