Cady and Suzume watched as Kaien and Karin gently made their way out of the tree, with neither of the younger duo trying to hide the smirks on their faces. The older Japanese keepers were the last of those spooked by the stampede of pareisaurs to exit the trees – their fellow members of the old guard had come to their senses more quickly, while the other trainees had easily been coaxed into returning to the dirt with false claims that the trees had epiphytes that irritated the skin like poison ivy.

Cady's mother, who had also been present but had the fortune of being near a large rock to hide atop, didn't even bother to avoid laughing. "You know, I think that's the first time you two have been scared that badly."

The Japanese duo gave her a glare, which only made her laugh harder. "Relax. I'm just having some fun. Besides, now you can join in describing embarrassing times with the other keepers."

The pair glared at her for a moment longer, but then their expressions softened – incidents like this were common enough that nobody would hold it against them. Plus it would be fun to see who had the most embarrassing experiences regarding new arrivals – the mass breakout notwithstanding.

XxXxX

"…Wow, these are good."

Cassandra smiled at Sean – he was looking over the last of the hypothetical exhibits she had asked Miles to create. The boy was seated nearby, smiling at the praise his senior coworker had offered.

Since her first meeting with the Thurman boy, Cassandra had been giving him different scenarios that factored in numerous animals under consideration for rescue. Some were merely existing residents who were lonely – the Elasmotherium, Cave Bear, and Argentinosaurus all came to mind. Others were more ambitious, being creatures that were only just in the consideration phase – sprassodonts, rhabdodonts, and early homininds came to mind. Cassandra had even thrown in a few entirely fictitious animals like giants, unicorns, Bigfoot, and Mongolian Death Worms to see how Miles would react – dragons had also been a consideration, but those were already overused in speculative biology discourse. The results had exceeded her expectations, which meant that her part in his training was over. Tomorrow, he would be sent to the park's engineering, construction, and landscaping teams to work on the next portion of his orientation – communicating his ideas to those who could give them shape. Theory and practice hand in hand are what lead to success.

"I heard you get along best with pterosaurs," said Miles.

"Flying animals in general," clarified Sean, "but yes, I am partial to pterosaurs."

"Well, I have some aviary and terrarium exhibit designs for them on page five."

Raising an eyebrow, Sean turned to the page in question. There, two designs were present – one, equivalent to the exhibits in a normal zoo where you could see tropical birds, small mammals, and reptiles up to large snakes in size, while the other was march larger, akin to something out of Jurassic Park's aviary. The former showed a myriad set of pools, branches, and nesting areas, as well as feeding stations stocked with dead rodents and reptiles, one f which was being devoured in a sketch by a crested pterosaur – Darwinopterus, given the shape of said crest. The other pterosaur was also crested, but much larger, and its mess of cliffs, open spaces, and woodland was stocked not with fish or meat, but fruit. This exhibit was the home of Tapejara, though sketches of pterosaur heads next to said drawings indicated that it could also house Tapejara's larger relative, Tupuxara.

"…Nice. You got two extremes of pterosaurs, both in diet and size. I am very impressed."

"Thank you. So, um, are either of those two in the immediate pipeline for, well, acquisition?"

Sean looked to Cassandra, who pulled out her notes. "No. Nigel wants to go for larger fare for now. But that could change soon."

Suddenly, an alert appeared on Cassandra's computer, which instantly caught the trio's attention. "…Who's Buster?" asked Miles.

"An overall pain-in-the-ass dinosaur," groaned Cassandra, annoyance briefly lessening when Sean patted her shoulder.

XxXxX

Buster watched as the strange-clawed synapsid grasped the tree branches, completely ignorant to the scuffle that had happened just outside its pen.

The small dinosaur found itself in the familiar position of having a human pinning his downy body to the ground, only calming once a sock was shoved over his head. Incidents like these had become regular nuisances for the park's staff – while the Coelophysis was not a large animal, he was still a predator, and one that had an incredibly broad pallet. Living in a coniferous forest exposed the early dinosaur to a great many different ways to fill his belly, ranging from large insects, to fish, to synapsids, and other archosaurs. While the fossils believed to represent cases of cannibalism had since been determined to contain the skeletons of Hesperosuchus, but any carnivore would resort to fratricide if it was hungry enough. All of this made it important that they were kept away from the smaller residents of the park.

Thus, it was unfortunate that the Coelophysis exhibit had been accidentally damaged by a backhoe shortly after the animals had settled in. Taking advantage of the opening, the theropods had scoured the park, and found that pigeons, rats, and modern beetles were all to their liking. While the pack had eventually been recaptured, several, such as Buster, had decided they did not like being contained when so many new options for eating were now available. Thus, they had started trying to break out at every opportunity. They always watched the keepers, waiting patiently for someone to forget that the door into their exhibit was only supposed to be open once the safety door it was behind had fully closed. Occasionally they tried to climb fences. Once, they had even imitated Phil the Terror Bird and got under a fence through sand-bathing.

Fortunately, they were easy enough to recapture once found – and given their tendency to focus on finding new edibles whenever they escaped, even if they were not immediately hungry, finding them usually wasn't too hard. At least this time, his mate Corazon had not escaped with him.

With a groan, Tristan hoisted the Coelophysis into the truck and made his way back to their exhibit. The browsing Borissiakia briefly watched him leave, before returning to enjoying the leaves.

XxXxX

Marge smiled as the blue collared, domed-headed herbivore raised its head above the water's surface, allowing its eyes and nostrils to access the air while keeping the rest of its body submerged in the cool water. Nearby, other heads breached the surface as the whole herd took a moment to adjust to their new home.

Many of the dinocephalians that had just been rescued were semi-aquatic animals, so giving them exhibits with large lakes, ponds, or rivers had been deemed a priority. Among them were these Tapinocephalus, one of the more common herbivores of the time. It seemed that they split territory with the Moschops – those herbivores preferred dry land while the Tapinocephalus prowled swamps and similarly wet areas. Doing so kept them from directly competing, unless the Moschops were particularly thirsty and decided to try their luck in a swamp. It also meant that when they were forced together, they could usually live in peace, for the Moschops would usually avoid plants on the shoreline or within the water unless they were extremely hungry. This also helped protect both herbivores from carnivores – the Moschops could watch out for other, predatory dinocephalians like the mighty Anteosaurus, while the Tapinocephalus could focus on aquatic threats like temnospondyls. When one let out an alarm cry, it not only alerted both to the predator, but where the threat lay – if the Moschops called out, it was time to abandon the ground. If the Tapinocephalus sounded the alarm, though, then everyone was to get onto the land.

Other dinocephalians were already enjoying their new homes – the female Anteosaurus had long since found a nice rock to take a nap on, enjoying her position in the tropical sun. In another exhibit, the long snouted, red-faced and green-bodied Jonkeria searched through fake burrows for edible morsels. So too did the Jonkeria's larger cousins, Titanosuchus. As for the other rescues, they too had settled in nicely, to the relief of the staff.

Hopefully, Nigel's next rescue would be just as easy on them. Though that wasn't necessarily what they should be concerned with right now.

XxXxX

"Make sure those fire extinguishers get over to Exhibit X-1 ASAP – the containment procedures for those residents can be particularly difficult, and I'd rather avoid this place going up in flames."

"Yes, Mrs. Thompson," replied the teamster as he loaded the last of the supplies into his truck. "I'll make sure no one gets extra crispy."

""Good. Have a safe drive. And make sure to check on the Titan Beetle larva after this - those don't breed easily."

'They do under you,' mentally noted the teamster as he started his truck.

As the car rolled away, Ai turned to face Nigel, who had decided to meet her by one of the newly-completed restaurants – Sweet Tooth Deserts, of which many were located around the park. In a tropical island, being able to keep cool was imperative, but then again, being able to enjoy something sweet wasn't bad either. Tristan and Michelle were seated nearby, having just finished up some ice cream.

"So, Nigel, why did you ask to meet me here? Does it pertain to the next mission?"

"Correct."

I nodded. "Of course. So, what will you be rescuing?"

"I will not be going anywhere."

"…What?"

Nigel took a deep breath. "I can teach people all that I know regarding these wonderful creatures in the past, but in the end, most of our rescue team will need learn through experience. So while I review candidates to join them, I believe that Tristan and Michelle should go on a mission without my supervision to test whether they can handle their current positions."

Ai waited a moment, then glanced at her son. "Did he already talk this over with you two?"

The duo nodded.

"…Well, then I am okay with that. But could you run it with the rest of the board?"

"Sure. I can do it right now."

"Then do so – I need to have a talk with my son and his exe."

"Very well. See you later."

As soon as Nigel was out of earshot, Ai started her grilling. "Any ideas for the mission?"

"Yes," said Michelle. "Nigel asked that we go after something that he's already rescued, since he can provide references for bringing the species back. After that, finding the target wasn't hard – can't go wrong with the six-foot turkey."

Ai rolled her eyes. "Having more than two Velociraptor would be nice. More Protoceratops would also be good."

Tristan smiled. "Thanks for approving of our plan. Now, if you have anything else to ask-"

"I do."

"…Shoot."

Ai sighed. "We're going to start drafting plans for advertising the park soon."

"So?"

"That means calling in the experts. And I know you have a friend who specializes in that field."

The duo was silent for a moment, then their moods became sullen. "…Oh. This is what we are talking about."

"Yeah. Now, if you don't want her to-"

"No, it's fine," said Michelle. "We were already planning to give her an offer."

"…Nice. Just remember, you get the final say in this – she's your friend…er, acquaintance."

"We know. And however much of an ass that she and her dad can be, I think she deserves a spot here," replied Tristan.

"Well, then, get the email ready."

XxXxX

The red-head glanced through the email once.

Then she did it again.

Then she took a third glance.

Finally, what she read sunk in.

The main thoughts that Emily Myers had at the moment could be summed up in three words:

"What. The. Fuck?"

XxXxX

Next time: for their first solo mission, Tristan and Michelle travel back seventy five million years to Cretaceous Mongolia to rescue one of the most famous of all dinosaurs - Velociraptor!

(shot of the duo watching a raptor trying to guard the carcass of a ceratopsian)

But they will soon find that there are far more raptors in the area than they are prepared for!

(Shot of six different raptor species all running from something)

While back at the Park, Nigel sees who is ready to keep pace with him...

(shot of Nigel looking through a set of documents)

And a new arrival threatens to put the park's precious balance in disarray!

(Shot of a red-headed girl getting off a tram)

All next time on Welcome To Prehistoric Kingdom: The Swift Thief!

XxXxX

Took me long enough to get this out. Anyway, read and review at your leisure! This is Flameal15k, signing off!