Drew Luczynski smiled, a toothy grin on his face, as he watched the t-rex family happily feasting on a cow carcass. It had been two weeks now since the mission, and he was pleased to see that the t-rex family were adjusting to their new lives. He silently observed the feasting family, taking note of how the light of the sun shone on their leathery brown scales and the dark feathers around the bases of their necks rustled in the light breeze. He chuckled when he saw Matilda try to steal a bite from Terrence, only to be discouraged by a snarl from a disapproving Rexy. Matilda reluctantly returned to her portion, letting out an irritated grumble, whilst Terrence began eating his own portion faster.
"Ah, sibling rivalry," Drew whispered to himself. "Never changes."
He nodded his head as he continued observing the t-rex family. Ever since they'd been brought back, Drew had spent a lot of time hanging around the t-rex enclosure, noting their individual personalities. From what he'd managed to observe, Rexy was clearly the one in charge – she was the most dominant and the most intelligent, being more calculating and intelligent than her mate. Tyrannor, meanwhile, whilst deferring to his mate, was more aggressive and irritable than the more collected Rexy. Naturally, he was more prone to losing his temper, to the point where the keepers were almost used to it. Terrence and Matilda, meanwhile, both took after their parents; with Matilda being hot headed and prideful like Tyrannor and Terrence proving calm and methodical like Rexy. Drew couldn't help but take another close look at the two adolescent rexes. Their feathers were shorter than their parents, with vague hints of feathering still left on their arms.
Suddenly, he noticed that Terence, having finished his portion, was now walking towards him. That was surprisingly usual - the young male Tyrannosaurus had taken a surprising liking to him over the past two weeks. At his arrival, Drew smiled, "Hey there, bud. Big sister still pushing you around?", to which Terence cocked his head. Drew smiled, "I'll take that as a yes." Tentatively, Drew reached out and rubbed the side of the tyrannosaur's neck. Remarkably, the tyrannosaur turned to look at him, as if confused, but made no move to attack him.
After a few minutes, Terence snorted and walked away, back to his parents and sister. A smiling Drew shook his head side to side to clear his thoughts – he had other things to do today. He directed one last look at the eating t-rex family, before he then turned around and walked away to head to where he'd next be needed. "The next mission may not be till next week," he thought to himself. "But man, today's gonna be busy."
. . . . .
A couple hours later, Drew was hanging around the main herbivore paddock at the Morrison Formation zone, observing the various large herbivorous dinosaurs going about their business. He was quite pleased to note that everything seemed to be at peace.
He took a look at where the various sauropod herds were positioned, a small smile on his face as he caught sight of Shorty and Arlo browsing together from the same tree. While he wasn't personally invested in the sauropod, he was happy that, despite his rejection, Arlo had managed to find some company.
The sound of somewhat rhino-like grunting caused Drew to turn his attention to the animals closest to him the stegosaurus. At that moment, the main herd was peacefully browsing on nearby ferns and bushes, whilst the two juveniles, a female named Tippy and a male named Spike, were having a play-fight. Drew also noticed two of the three adult males, Thaddeus and Striker, browsing from a stand of cycad in their enclosure. His eyes narrowed upon realizing that one was missing. Where was Gideon...?
The sound of a low grunt caused Drew to turn his head and see Gideon standing right there by him. At that moment, the wall was the only thing keeping the mighty creature from walking right past Drew. Drew and Gideon stared each other down, both equal parts curious and wary. As Gideon continued to keep his orange eyes focused on him, Drew couldn't help but very slowly nod his head. After all, Drew had spent quite a lot of time hanging around the inhabitants of the Morrison Formation herbivore paddock; enough time that Gideon might have ceased to see him as a threat. Whilst Gideon wasn't ready to let his guard down just yet, Drew couldn't help but see that Gideon's behavior towards him had changed subtly in recent days. The first times Drew had visited, Gideon had bellowed at Drew, and swung his tail threateningly to scare him off. But now, almost two full months later, Gideon was now approaching Drew quietly and behaving non-aggressively. "He certainly knows the dangers of becoming complacent, that's for sure," Drew thought to himself.
Eventually, Gideon snorted, nodded his head, and turned around to walk over to Striker and Thaddeus. Drew nodded as he watched the mighty stegosaurus walking. He had to admit, he couldn't help but think about the bond that seemed to be forming between him and Gideon. In fact, considering how he'd noticed several members of the park staff, rescue team affiliated or otherwise, forming bonds between themselves and at least one animal, he couldn't help but wonder if the same was happening between him and Gideon. He chuckled at the irony, "Stegosaurus was always one of my favourites after all." But even as he thought of this, there was a small part of him that was reasonable to remember not to get too comfortable about the idea of 'befriending' Gideon. Anyone who worked with animals knew that, regardless of how close of a bond ended up forming between a person and an animal, calling the animal a 'friend' was never a good idea. Look at where Timothy Treadwell ended up – and, whilst a Stegosaurus wasn't likely to eat you, it could still kill you. But nevertheless, he was confident that, as long as he was careful, he could still form a bond with Gideon.
He nodded his head, filing all these thoughts to the back of his head – today was certainly turning out to be a good day so far.
. . . . .
That evening, Drew shut off his laptop once he'd finished his last bit of work for the night, sighing in a mixture of exhaustion and contentment as he sat at his desk in the bedroom of his personal bungalow in the park's 'staff living quarters'. He had to admit, as he'd suspected, today had indeed been quite a busy day. But it had nonetheless been a good one as well. After all, he'd certainly had plenty of reason to enjoy himself over the course of his breaks that day. And even while actively working, he'd had good reason to be happy thanks to the fact, as far as all the other staff members he'd asked while making his rounds were aware, everything was largely going smoothly, which he was always happy to hear. All the staff were doing their work properly, preparations and plans for the currently expected future events to come were unfolding on schedule, and the animals, while at times understandably proving somewhat difficult to take care of considering the fact that they'd been brought to the current time period from a considerable number of years in the past, were nonetheless at least proving to not be impossible to take care of. Simply put, even with all the issues popping up every now and then, life was unfolding quite smoothly at the park at the current period in time.
He nodded his head, a warm smile on his face. Life in general was going very well for him at the moment. Of course, considering just how often life in general seemed to have gone well for him even before this current evening, he quite frankly ought not to have been so surprised. After all, from a very young age, he'd lived a life that he honestly felt quite happy with more often than not. He'd first truly realized as much over the course of his time in middle school. He chuckled as he remembered the way things had been in middle school. From almost his very first day in 6th grade, he'd been the school golden boy. He'd been the star of the school's basketball team, president of the debate club, high ranking enough on the school's popularity tiers to have been just a hair's width away from dethroning the school quarterback, etc. All the girls had wanted him, and all the guys had wanted to be him; and he'd been darn proud of the fact for every minute. And the fact that he'd always had straight A's; albeit edged out by Leon's; had certainly helped as well. Granted, he was not blind to notice that some people seemed at times to have been rubbed the wrong way by how he acted. But even they couldn't help but still admire him.
As if that weren't enough, he'd managed to gain two good friends – surprising ones, too. Even now he could remember how surprised he'd been when he was paired up with the class weirdos in the 8th grade biology project. But over the course of the project, they realised that more connected them than separated them.
His smile grew wider as he remembered how this string of successes had only continued to grow after graduation from middle school. He'd continued to get straight A's and maingain his image as the big man on campus through both high school and college. Yes, there'd been the occasional blip – the one relationship he'd had had ended badly.
And as if to make it all the sweeter, he'd been able to enjoy it alongside his new friends Leon and Adrian. And the string of successes had miraculously only continued to grow after graduating from college to the point that he was now a big player at Novum, and co-ordinating the Prehistoric Park project – he even had Leon and Adrian working alongside him once again.
He sighed, and shook his head side to side. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. After all, as important as it was to not completely dismiss and forget about it entirely, focusing on it too much could just as easily end up distracting at best and downright harmful at worst. He nodded his head, clenching his right fist firmly as he started concentrating on how things were going for him nowadays. Perhaps ironically, he needed to focus on the now – however, the future was looking very promising indeed.
As he had this thought, he took a quick look at the areas where he'd been stung, thanking his lucky stars once again that the scorpions' venom was made for much smaller animals. After all, the team couldn't really survive with two members down. Nodding to himself one more time, he got up from his desk and headed off to bed. Whilst life was good for the now, the future held promise – for both him and everyone else. And, as their leader, it was up to him to make sure that he remained at his best ability to continue to ensure as much.