Bethany Williams sighed in contentment as she sat on a bench in the Carboniferous Dome. She'd chosen to spend her break here; this was one of her favourite places in the park, due to the abundance of giant arthropods, amphibians and reptiles.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a clacking sound from behind her. She turned, smiling, to see the pulmonoscorpius out of their burrows and moving around the vivarium. Noticeably, Selqet was standing by one of the walls, rearing up threateningly as Scorpio did the same.
Beth chuckled - over the weeks since the Carboniferous mission, she had become rather fond of Selqet. While normally guarded and aggressive, she could also be quite friendly towards beings she trusted whenever she so happened to be in a good enough mood. As Bethany had this thought, her smile as she remembered how, just the previous day, she'd gotten the pleasure of being able to carry Selqet around on her hand through the entire dome – something that, by all accounts, she rarely let anybody else do.
Deciding to focus on the scorpions again later, Bethany looked towards the opposite vivarium where the megalorachne lived. At that moment, she noticed all ten of them were currently outside their burrows. That was a rarity. For the most part, the spiders kept to their burrows until food was involved – they were ambush predators, after all. As Bethany had that thought, she suddenly had a feeling that she was being watched. A look into the megalorachne vivarium further confirmed it – the first megalorachne that had been captured, a female named Neith, was standing right by the frontmost wall of her segment, her beady black eyes staring right towards her.
The vet nodded her head. At every visit she'd made over the last few weeks, Neith had become quite interested in her, watching her from outside her burrow. She'd half-jokingly put this down to Neith liking her. Some arthropods were quite intelligent - there was a species of jumping spider that used complex strategies to hunt its preferred prey, other spiders. And, the megalorachne were still a new discovery. Who knew how intelligent they could turn out to be? She nodded her head. "Khatin'll be on that, I have no doubt."
After another couple minutes, Neith finally grew bored of watching Bethany and turned around and crawled back into her burrow. Bethany smiled and stood up from the bench. Her break was ending soon and she needed to get back to the vet offices. However, right as she was about to leave, she paused. Her eyes narrowed. She had that feeling of being watched again. And this time, she also had a feeling that it was something that wasn't supposed to be there.
She turned her head to see a small, light-green scaled lizard standing on the railing that separated the bench from the pholidogaster pool. It was a petralacosaurus – and she could guess which one it was. "It's nice to see you again, Larry."
Larry the petrolacosaurus warbled in response to his name, and bobbed his head up and down while swinging his tail side to side. Bethany chuckled, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance. She could never stay annoyed with Larry for too long, no matter how many times she caught him outside the terrarium where the petralacosaurus and hylonomus. Now, whilst the staff didn't like playing favourites, they had become quite fond of Larry – despite the exasperation of his repeated escapes, his friendliness, mischievousness and habit of riding on staff members' heads made him quite adorable.
Chuckling, Bethany walked up to Larry, her right hand extended. Once she was close enough, Larry crawled onto her hand and stayed perfectly still as she lifted him up so that he could get into position for a ride on her head. Out of the corner of her eye, noticed a pholidogaster staring hungrily at Larry. "Sorry," she said as she turned and walked away from the pholidogaster with Larry safely positioned upon her head. "But you're not eating him."
As she walked towards the hylonomus and petrolacosaurus terrarium, she managed to take notice of what was going on in the proterogyrinus paddock. At that moment, Yunnan and Andrias were feeding on a heap of salmon, snarling and hissing at any interlopers. She chuckled at the sight of this. Even now, she could still remember the incident when Yolanda had accidentally gotten knocked into the crassigyrinus pit.
The sound of Larry warbling in seeming confusion on her head caused her to chuckle again as she looked up towards him. "We are so lucky you're the only one who gets out. If any of the others did that, we'd be looking for them all day." This was correct – Larry was the only inhabitant of the vivarium that didn't immediately dart off into the undergrowth when the keepers came in. Nodding to herself, she resumed her trip to the hylonomus and petrolacosaurus terrarium, Larry riding proudly and happily on her head. Once she had placed him back in, she left the dome.
. . . . .
Harry Carver couldn't help but smile as he watched Broken Jaw and his family feasting on a cow carcass. It had been two months now since they'd corrected the allosaur's jaw, and there was no doubt that Broken Jaw had made a full recovery.
He smiled fondly as he watched the mighty allosaurus europaeus heartily feast on the cow carcass alongside his mate, son, and daughter. While he was yet to bond with a specific animal the way some of the staff had, he had to admit that he always enjoyed hanging around the enclosures of the many animal families. In particular, he'd come to notice quite a lot of such arrangements amongst many of the theropods; a far cry from the bloodthirsty monsters they were once believed to be.
Broken Jaw and his family were an obvious example. The allosaurus fragilis were also a close family unit, with pretty much all the younger animals being the offspring of the alpha pair Santino and Demona. And of course there were the raptors. Even the t-rex family, despite the fact that Terence and Matilda were starting to fight, were still good to observe. But out of all the confirmed family units amongst the carnivorous dinosaurs, he had a fondness for Broken Jaw and his family in particular.
Smile still on his face, he drew out his wallet, opening it up so he could a get a clear view of a very important photograph he kept in there alongside all the money, cards, and identification material. The picture in question was of himself smiling alongside his wife Jinnifer, their two sons Dennis and Nialls, and daughter Caitlyn. Yesterday, he'd managed to have a video chat with them - things were still going smoothly for them back in Ireland despite him being so far away. He nodded his head, closing his wallet and slipping it back into his pocket in the process. "I'll arrange it so they can be here when we open," he thought to himself. "I'll need to make up for being away for so long."
At the sound of low grumbling coming from the allosaurus europaeus paddock, he looked back at the feeding family in time to see the two juveniles in the midst of yet another tug-o-war over a scrap of meat while their parents looked on. He chuckled at the sight of this, remembering when his kids used to bicker over things. Maybe that was why he liked coming here – it reminded him of his family.
He nodded his head one more time before checking his watch. At that moment, he had only five minutes left before his break time ended and he'd need to get back to work. This information in mind, he turned around and started on his way to the Morrison Formation zone, to do a checkup on the ceratosaurus nasicornis. He chuckled at how appropriate it was – from observing theropod family to checking on the first theropods the park had bred.
It had been on request from Jack, who handled most of the matters concerning the theropods – in particular, he was concerned about the three females, Vermithrax, Elia and Lyanna, who would be laying soon. Jack's team would keep Rhaegar, the male, distracted, to avoid him thinking that Harry was threatening his consorts.
It'd be eventful. But then, that was the job.
. . . . .
Yolanda Hall nodded her head, a warm smile on her face as she observed a pair of phorusrhacos walking over to rejoin the other three pairs in the paddock they all shared. The pair in question, a male named Phil and a female named Aurora, had undergone a routine check-up today – nothing was wrong. As Yolanda watched, the other six terror birds all let out low squawks as if to acknowledge their return, before returning to their present activities, with Phil and Aurora heading over to the small lake for a drink. Yolanda chuckled. Sometimes, the terror birds reminded her of the raptors – well, they were distant relatives, after all.
Her smile faded upon thinking about this, for thinking about the raptors reminded her of Jack and his rivalry with Leon. Yesterday, she'd found out that both had been suspended from taking part in rescue missions until further notice. She then felt her heart sink even further as she'd remembered why they'd been suspended. During the Devonian mission, the tensions between them had blown over...and Drew had nearly been eaten by Dunkleosteus. And from what they'd told her, their only chance at being released from their suspension was to prove, somehow, that they could work together. Allegedly, Drew had something in mind – from what she heard, it was going to be humiliating.
She hung her head, sighing heavily in the process, as she watched the birds. She hadn't yet voiced this aloud to anyone, but she couldn't help but feel bad for both Jack and Leon. She wasn't taking sides – she was friends with them both. She'd bonded with Jack quite early – they both had similar senses of humour and had similar personalities. As well as this, she was also good friends with Alice. Leon, meanwhile, she was honestly surprised about how much he'd grown on her – he and Jack were total opposites, but somehow, he'd managed to win her over. She felt a twinge of sympathy for them – they'd gotten themselves suspended over a stupid grudge.
Her eyes than narrowed into a glare as she thought about this last detail. While she'd initially been rather ambivalent over the rivalry before she'd met Leon, she was now quite annoyed by it. From what she'd been able to gather, the two actually had more in common than they realized. And she would make it clear that she was not choosing sides. Simple as that.
Anyway. Focus. She opened her eyes, her earlier smile returning at the sight of the phorusrhacos still getting on. Her lapse in attention hadn't been that catastrophic.
Her communicator went off, prompting her to swiftly draw it out and answer. "Hall speaking," she said. "Over?"
"Eberhart, over," said Linda's voice on the other end. "Status on Phil and Aurora?"
"So far so good," Yolanda responded, reflexively giving a thumbs up. "Things have gone smoothly."
"That's good to hear." There was a brief pause. "If there's nothing else to be done at the phorusrhacos paddock, think you could join me at the Santa Cruz main herbivore paddock? I want to do a few checkups."
"Say no more," Yolanda responded. She nodded her head, hazel eyes agleam. "I'm on my way."
She ended the call, turning on her heel as she departed the phorusrhacos paddock to join up with her boss. As she left, her thoughts briefly returned to Jack and Leon. "Maybe I'll have a chat with them later" she thought to herself, "Maybe I could offer to help them out with their team-building exercise."
. . . . .
Linda Eberhart, meanwhile, was standing near the rear wall of the main herbivore paddock at Santa Cruz Savannas, waiting patiently for Yolanda to arrive. As she stood there waiting, she took note of all the animals within that she'd soon be checking up on. The doedicurus and glyptodon were all peacefully browsing on some bushes, whilst the ground sloths were browsing from the trees. The hippidion, neolicaphrium, and both species of deer and litoptern were all peacefully grazing, but not without Kuzco occasionally taking part in some of his usual shenanigans. The toxodon, josephoartigasia, and the female notiomastodon herd were all drinking, bathing, or swimming within the large lake. The five bull notiomastodon were all having a dust bath in their separate paddock. She'd have her work cut out for her
She took a deep breath, and then exhaled. As per usual, she had a busy day ahead of her. "Here's hoping Yolanda doesn't take too long," she thought to herself.
The sound of a low bellowing snort from not too far ahead of her caused her to turn her attention that way, and she let a small smile come on her face at the sight of the bear-like face staring up towards her. "Hello Sid."
Sid the megatherium snorted and playfully reached his arms upward and lightly slapped his clawed fingers against the wall. Linda chuckled, giving the giant ground sloth a brief pat on the head. She smiled as she continued to look down towards the megatherium. Ever since the Pliocene mission, she'd grown quite fond of him. She'd first encountered him when treating some wounds on his shoulder that she guessed were the result of a lucky strike from the arctotherium he'd been found fighting. And in the days that had followed, his placidity and goofiness endeared him to most of the staff – even when there. Really, the best way to describe him was 'big, strong...and a bit of a dope'.
Of course, she was not about to let her guard down around him by any means. After all, despite his placidity, the fact still remained that he weighed three tons, was as tall as a giraffe and had viciously sharp claws on his hand. And, according to Drew and his team, he'd given an arctotherium quite a good fight in the Pliocene.
The sound of another low bellowing snort from a couple yards or so behind Sid caught both their attentions. They looked to see Camille, the other two megatherium and six glossotherium browsing from the trees in the clearing. Sid looked to Linda once more, as if asking for permission to join them.
The head vet chuckled, and gave him another pat on the head. "Go ahead buddy," she stated. "You've got a clean bill of health – I'm not gonna stop you."
Sid grunted happily and shambled off to join his fellow ground sloths feeding. Linda smiled as she watched him go. "It sure feels nice," she thought to herself, "Having a little bonding time." She nodded. Whilst she did not like playing favourites, she liked Sid.
She sighed in contentment as she watched the ground sloths feed. It was times like these that she really felt glad that she'd accepted the head vet job. Granted, it was new horizons and things were difficult at times – however, the satisfaction at seeing the animals happy and healthy more than made up for it. At the end of the day, all animals needed their creature comforts just as much as any human – prehistoric animals were no exception to this rule. And she felt proud to be working to ensure that the animals received the best care possible.
"Reporting for duty."
At the sound of Yolanda's voice behind her, Linda smiled, and turned her head to look at her young assistant. "Glad you're here," she then said before sliding her equipment bag back over her shoulder, "Let's get to work".