Colossal Sloth/Transcript

"Why am I not coming on the mission today?" Drew looked at Leon, confused, "Why are you asking?". Leon breathed out, "You know damn well that this is one of my-". Drew rolled his eyes and said "I just think your talents are better utilised here". Jack sniggered under his breath, "Three guesses why – he doesn't want to have to keep you out of trouble.", to which Leon gave him a look. Realising there was no way to win here, Leon sighed and stalked off, with Jack following him.

As Jack and Leon left, Adrian and Alice entered the room, looking curiously at their leaving teammates. "Oh, you're here. Today, We're going back to Pliocene South America, after a creature you should both be familiar with", Drew smiled and pulled out a picture of a large cat; it was immediately recognisable to Adrian and Alice, who looked at it with surprise. Drew smiled at them before continuing, "Smilodon, the greatest of all the cats." Adrian looked at Drew, flabbergasted, "This sort of thing would be a dream to Leon." Drew looked around the room, "He wanted to, but I thought he'd be better utilised here. Anyway, let's get heading off!"

They walked to the portal site and got in the Jeep; Drew got in the driver's seat, Adrian in the passenger seat and Alice in the back. An employee entered the co-ordinates into the portal and the portal whirred into life. The Jeep drove through, ready to bring back the deadliest mammal predator…

. . . ..

In a flash of light, the jeep containing Drew, Alice, and Adrian exited the portal and into the late Pleistocene plains of Santa Cruz, Bolivia...right in the middle of a stampeding herd of peculiar llama-like creatures. The size of large camels, they were covered in dark tannish-orange fur, grading to creamy white on their underbellies and greyish-black on their feet, lower legs, and faces. However, their most noticeable feature was short, tapir-like trunks.

Eventually managing to navigate the panicked herd, the team escaped onto open ground outside. Once they'd safely brought the jeep to a stop and had a breather, they all looked back towards the herd, who were now peacefully grazing.

"I've read about these," Alice said as the three humans watched the grazing beasts. "Those are macrauchenia."

"They do have trunks," Adrian said quietly, before looking at Drew. "How are you planning on getting them through?"

Drew was about to speak when a macrauchenia lifted its head and let out an alerted grunt, causing the rest of the herd to go rigid. Suddenly, two large birds burst out of the bushes towards the macrauchenia herd, running at breakneck speed. Their beaks were a thick orange with black tips, their bodies and wings were covered in chestnut brown feathers grading to greyish-white on their chests, necks and heads, with black, quilled feathers on their heads, with long featherless legs tipped with three sharp talons – the second of which was larger than the others. And they were clearly quite fast, as it took mere seconds for them to reach the herd's position as the litoperns ran at breakneck speed.

For a brief moment, the rescue team gaped in surprise at the new arrivals chasing after the macrauchenia. One look at the birds was all they needed to identify them… and it was the last thing they were expecting, "Those birds," Adrian managed to say, "They're phorusrhacos."

"Didn't they go extinct before now?" Alice stated.

Drew whistled, and shook his head side to side. "Few of them hung on, it seems. We can figure out how later."

Alice and Adrian looked to see that the animals were heading towards them. "Fair point," Alice admitted. "Let's get them," said Adrian, smiling excitedly.

The trio hurried over towards the location the macrauchenia were stampeding towards, making it there just as the panicked herd was reaching it. Adrian got into position and activated his portal and the brilliant vortex of light burst into existence. Too panicked to care about the appearance of the portal, the herd tore through the glowing orb… except one.

An old Macrauchenia had been left behind – as it ran desperately towards the portal, a phorusrhacos delivered a hatchet-like blow to the Macrauchenia with its beak, causing it to collapse. This caused the macrauchenia to stumble just long enough for the second to knock it to the floor. Restraining its throat with one formidable talon, the terror bird delivered a single blow with its beak, crushing its windpipe in an instant. The team couldn't help but wince at this.

The two terror birds proceeded to start feasting, ripping chunks of meat off with their beaks. As this happened, Adrian nodded his head. "We need to get them through the portal before they leave." Drew and Alice nodded… before, suddenly, the sound of barking and snarling attracted the entire trio's attention. They looked back at where the kill site to see that a pack of medium-sized dog-like creatures, resembling a cross between a jackal and a hyena, had arrived. The two groups of predators faced each other in a tense standoff, staring each other down. The dogs kept a wary distance – the birds could kill any one of them.

Alice pointed at the dogs. "I'm guessing that those are theriodictis."

Adrian nodded his head grimly. "This could go either way. The dogs have numbers – however, the terror birds are bigger."

Drew nodded in agreement. "Let's see what happens," he suggested. "If nobody leaves, we can have two for the price of one.

Eventually, the theriodictis slunk away, rather than risk injury from attacking the terror birds. The birds, ignoring them, resumed tearing into their kill. The team looked at each other – there were echoes here of a bygone age.

Drew smiled at the sight of this. "Well Adrian," he stated. "We have an opportunity."

Adrian nodded in agreement, "What's the plan?"

"You and Alice handle the birds," Drew responded immediately. "I'll take care of the dogs."

"If you say so," said Alice, as she and Adrian headed towards the birds while Drew moved towards the Therodictis. Upon getting close, Alice and Adrian both lifted their airhorns. It was Adrian who acted first.

"HEY!" He yelled, blaring his horn, and the two phorusrhacos immediately turned their heads in his direction and started advancing menacingly towards them. At the right moment, Alice opened the portal and the birds, moving too fast to stop, bolted right through the portal, which Alice subsequently closed.

"And just like that," Adrian stated, a gleeful grin on his face, "we have terror birds."

"Yup," Alice agreed. "We should probably check on Drew right about now..."

"Incoming!"

Alice and Adrian turned their heads, their eyes widening in surprise at the sight of Drew running from the theriodictis. After their surprise had worn off, Alice and Adrian opened the portal immediately after Drew ran past, causing the theriodictis to tear through the portal, moving as if a single entity.

"Alright then," Drew said. "What do you say we head back to the jeep and see if we can find some more animals?"

"Count me in," said Alice.

"Yup," Adrian agreed.

. . . ..

Back at the park, Leon was sitting, on his break, still remembering what Jack had said when they had left the office. Leon narrowed his eyes at the thought – Jack had been getting on his nerves this morning, about his not coming on the mission today. It didn't make sense – Drew knew that prehistoric big cats were a personal area of interest of his, why hadn't he let Leon come?

Leon sighed – he knew perfectly why. Fact was, when Leon had been hired, many thought he was a walking textbook and not up to the task required. He hadn't been an employee of Novum before Drew had suggested him to Theodore and his experience was patchy at best. The incident in the Jurassic hadn't really helped, with the story about him tripping, requiring Jack to bail him out spreading around the park like a virus.

It had a knock-on effect in how everyone perceived him. On the compy mission, Drew had kept him back to keep him out of trouble. Drew had asked Leon to stay at the park on both the last mission and this one to keep him out of trouble. He hadn't even been asked to help with the compy escape because he needed to be kept out of trouble.

He sighed. He had spent enough time angsting. Time to get back to work.

. . . ..

Back in prehistoric Santa Cruz, the rescue trio had reached a small river and found a herd of large capybara-like rodents, only much larger - the biggest was the size of a hippo. They were all covered in dark brown fur, with the adults having light tan spots that the juveniles lacked.

Alice said. "I think those are josephoartigasia," she explained. "Largest rodent that ever lived."

Drew smiled. "Let's get them through."

Using plant material as bait, the rescue trio were able to lead the giant rodents through the portal. "I have to admit," said Adrian, "I was not expecting giant rodents. Prehistoric life can be full of surprises."

"You just figured that out now?" Alice asked, a slight teasing tone to her voice.

Adrian chuckled. "Well, I was suspecting it," he explained.

"Like giant armadillos?"

Adrian and Alice turned to look at Drew, who was looking at four large, brown creatures browsing in a clearing - they looked like a cross between an armadillo and a giant tortoise, with body armour consisting of thick, non-overlapping scutes and a long tail tipped with a spiked, pestle-like club.

As the three watched, the four creatures sniffed around, swishing their tails side to side, ready to fight if danger arrived. They all knew what it was immediately; the glyptodont Doedicurus. A relative of armadillos, but the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Adrian eyed the mace-like tails. "With those tails, they look pretty dangerous – it'll be hard getting these guys through the portal."

Drew chuckled. "Yeah – however, I have a plan."

"Of course you do," Alice stated, shaking her head side to side in bemusement.

And before long, Drew put his latest plan to action. Walking in front of the doedicurus, he would provoke them, one by one, into charging towards him, by waving a blanket around in the air and yelling as loudly as he could manage. After he got the glyptodont charging, Alice and Adrian would activate the portal, allowing the glyptodont to barrel through. Once all the doedicurus had gone through, Adrian couldn't help but shake his head, "Just like always."

"Haven't lost my touch," Drew stated, a smirk on his face.

"That doesn't sound reassuring," Alice noted dryly.

Suddenly, the roaring of a big cat echoed through the air, causing the team to go rigid – immediately followed by the low, groaning bellow of a bear and a piercing bird-like shriek. The trio looked at each other.

"That's our target right there," Alice noted. "Sounds like there's other things there too."

"Well in that case, let's head off," said Drew, smirking confidently, "Let's see if we can find these hopeful new residents."

Leaving the jeep by the river, the trio entered a clearing in a stand of myrtle. Turning a corner, they saw a pair of bulky looking sabre-toothed cats snarling over a Macrauchenia's corpse – it appeared that they were defending their kill.

The animal they were facing was nothing short of terrifying. It resembled a spectacled bear, with a much shorter muzzle and much, much larger – at the shoulder, it was taller than a human. Perched in a tree branch above the bear was a pigeon-sized bird resembling an Andean condor. The lack of a fleshy 'crest' on the top of its head indicated that it was a female. It watched the fight with a completely calm gaze.

Alice pointed at the confrontation between the feuding carnivores. "Those are smilodon," she noted. "Males by the looks of them. I guess the bear's arctotherium. I'm guessing the bird's a wingegyps. That was the little condor, right?"

"Yeah, it's a wingegyps." Adrian nodded his head, "It's probably waiting to scavenge off whatever's left."

The two male Smilodon roared in unison at the bear, fangs fully bared in challenge. In reply, the bear roared, reared up to its full, terrifying height, before bringing itself down to all fours and snarling. This display ended the fight, with the two smilodon retreating, abandoning the carcass. Satisfied, the arctotherium sat on its haunches and started to rip apart the dead litopern, eagerly tearing off chunks of meat. The wingegyps remained at its post, scanning the area intently.

Adrian lifted his finger to his chin, thinking carefully to himself over how the bird was behaving. The bird was acting like more than a following scavenger… He then tapped Drew and Alice on the shoulders to get their attention. "I'm going to test a little theory," he explained. "Be ready to come out with the portal, just in case."

"If you say so," said Alice, already having a bad feeling.

Adrian slowly started carefully sneaking his way towards the feeding arctotherium. However, the wingegyps managed to see him coming, as it let out an alarmed, high-pitched squawk. The bear lifted its head, gazing first at the squawking bird, and then straight at Adrian. The bear snarled, narrowed its eyes, and roared at this new challenger. Praying that Alice and Drew would be prepared, Adrian slowly stepped backwards, away from the snarling bear. At the critical moment, he turned his back and started running towards Alice and Drew. The arctotherium roared, chase instincts now triggered, and tore after Adrian...only to end up barrelling right through the portal, just as planned. The wingegyps, confused, took of its perch and followed the bear through the portal, into the present.

After the portal closed, Drew gave his friend a thumbs up. "Not bad," he said, an approving smile on his face. "Not bad at all."

"Two for the price of one," Alice noted. She nodded her head. "Pity we lost the sabre-tooths."

"No worries," Drew reassured. "I'm sure we'll bump into them."

"And there's other species, too," Adrian stated. "And more arctotherium and wingegyps."

"Exactly."

The sound of an arctotherium roar, followed by an unfamiliar bellow got their attention. They looked each other, "I wonder what that could be," said Alice. Drew smirked, "Only one way to find out."

. . . ..

Meanwhile, back at the park, Jack was standing by the Morrison Ornitholestes paddock, observing the two theropods explore their enclosure In the six weeks since they had been brought back, Jack had spent a lot of time working with them – both to help Khatin make behavioural observations and practice for whenever they brought back the Ornitholestes' evolutionary descendants.

He whistled and the Ornitholestes came running over, almost standing to attention. From his observations, he and Khatin surmised that the Ornitholestes were about as intelligent as a domestic dog – they showed play behaviour, could recognise their own names, distinguish between different people and even learn simple commands.

Suddenly, he heard someone clapping and turned to see Collete Dubois standing behind him, her head cocked and with a blank stare on her face. Eventually, she said, in her husky growl of a voice, "I see training's going well." Jack smiled awkwardly, "It's not really training – it's just me helping Khatin with behavioural observations. These guys are on the ancestral line to the raptors – it's practice for when we bring some of those back." Collete shrugged, "Sounds interesting."

Jack looked over at her. She intrigued him. When everyone else was socialising off-shift, she never participated. Some took that as a sign of haughtiness – however, Jack wasn't convinced; maybe she just liked being on her own. Some people were just like that. He didn't get why; he'd talked to her a couple of times and he'd thought her just highly professional and just a bit aloof. A thought briefly passed his mind; Collete was… rather attractive.

Why had he thought that? It didn't make sense, to briefly think that about someone he'd probably only interacted with twice in six weeks; it didn't make sense. To get his mind off the question, he said, "So, why are you here? Dropped in to visit?" Collete chuckled, a rarity for her and said, "No, I was just asking-"

She was interrupted by Leon walking towards them. Standing by the side of the Ornitholestes enclosure, he turned to look at Jack, he said, "You didn't tell me you were working with the Ornitholestes." Jack chuckled in reply, "I was helping Khatin do some behavioural studies – I didn't need to tell you. Being friends with Drew doesn't put you in a position of authority."

Leon rolled his eyes, "Regardless, I'd like to be informed the next time somebody does behavioural observations on the animals – I'm doing my own observations and I thought, for the interests of collaboration…" Jack waved his hand dismissively, "You can ask Khatin for the notes." Leon glowered at Jack.

Suddenly, an announcement came over the tannoy, "Could any available personnel come to the Morrison herbivore paddock?" Collete said, "That's why I came here – they're reintegrating the male Apatosaurus into the group and they need people to come and help." Jack gave Leon a look, "I'm done with the Ornitholestes – I can help out over there." Leon nodded, "Yeah – I think I will, too."

. . . ..

Back in the past, the rescue trio had reached the source of the noise. And the sight that now lay before them did not disappoint. An arctotherium, seemingly female, was snarling at a pair of gigantic creatures resembling a cross between a grizzly bear and a gorilla.

The two new creatures were both covered in shaggy dark brown fur with streaks of grey, immensely bulky and muscular with short stiff furry tails, with one being slightly taller. Both of the creatures bellowed loudly as they swung their viciously-clawed forelimbs at the bear, who snarled in reply, keeping her distance from the claws. A pair of wingegyps, one male and one female, circled the battling mammals.

"Judging by the size," Alice stated, "I'm guessing the ground sloths are megatherium."

Adrian, meanwhile, was looking up towards the wingegyps. "I hope we can get these mammals through without risking the wingegyps flying away. Give the one we already got some company."

Drew only smiled, clasping his hands together in anticipation. "I've got a plan," he stated confidently, smirking with excitement.

The trio acted fast to enact Drew's plan – once everything was ready, Drew picked up a pebble and tossed it at the back of the female arctotherium's head, to which the bear stiffened. A second pebble followed. The megatherium also paused, seemingly confused this bizarre sight. The bear turned her head at Drew and snarled, before charging towards him, followed by the wingegyps pair. However, Adrian jumped in front of Drew and activated the portal, allowing the bear, moving too fast to stop, to end up barrelling right through the portal. The wingegyps pair, unable to change their trajectory, also flew through the portal.

Once the prehistoric bear and vultures were gone, the portal was closed and the trio looked over at the two megatherium, both of which were now directing their gaze at the unfamiliar mammals. The megatherium weren't letting their guard down around these strange creatures. "This could be difficult," Adrian whispered.

Alice nodded in agreement – if they weren't careful, the sloths could kill them. Noticing a pair of long thick wooden branches lying nearby, Alice surreptitiously pointed out to her two companions, to which Drew smiled, already thinking up another idea.

Acting carefully, to avoid the risk of attack, he and Alice moved over to the two branches and picked them up, each of them holding one of the branches towards the two giant ground sloths. For what felt like an eternity, the taller of the two sloths started to slowly move towards the branches, with the other following. Scarcely daring to move or breath, the trio tried their best to stay patient as the ground sloths successfully approached them, sniffed out the two branches, and then started gingerly eating the leaves that were growing upon them. Once the sloths had finished eating their fill, they looked at each other, and then began sniffing and inspecting the three humans.

"I think we've earned their trust," Alice whispered to Drew as the shorter of the two sloths sniffed at her. "Yup," Adrian whispered as the sloths began to sniff them.

Drew nodded his head, carefully drew out his portal remote, and summoned the portal. For a brief instance, the two sloths reared back, before grunting in curiosity at the mysterious vortex of light, and slowly approaching it, both of them vanishing through as they shambled over towards it and straight into the park. Once both sloths were gone, Drew closed the portal. "That takes care of that. What next?"

The sound of feline roaring and snarling filled the air, followed by the sound of vulture-like shrieking. Immediately after, the sound of phorusrhacos squawking split the air from the opposite direction alongside a raspy squealing similar to the doedicurus'. The trio looked each other in the eyes, uncertain as to how to proceed. Eventually, Drew sighed, and shook his head. "This may not be ideal," he stated. "But right now, we're splitting up."

"If you say so," Adrian groaned.

"Just remember to be careful," said Alice.

Drew smiled. "I always am."

With that Alice and Adrian split off from Drew to investigate the area where the phorusrhacos squawks and glyptodont squeaks were coming from while Drew headed off to investigate the area with the roaring cats and squawking vultures, before meeting up at the Jeep.

. . . ..

"So what's it like? Being his friend, I mean?"

Adrian thought carefully to himself over how to respond to Alice's question. To be completely honest, his relationship with Drew was somewhat complicated – whilst he didn't want to lie to Alice, he didn't want to smack-talk about Drew behind his back.

"Ok, I can see that look," Alice stated. "You might as well be honest."

Adrian thought to himself, and then nodded. "Honestly, it's kinda complicated."

"How so?"

"Don't get me wrong," Adrian stated, briefly defensive. "I'm not saying I hate him – he's still my friend."

"Oookay."

"That being said," Adrian explained. "As much as I like being his friend...well..." He sighed, before standing still and briefly sighing. "As you've probably guessed, he can be a bit of a handful at times."

"Well I can certainly agree with you there." Alice nodded her head in agreement, slightly sheepish. "I mean, sometimes he can act like such a dick. Yet at the same time...I don't know...it's like there's a charm to him that makes you forgive him – he can get away with anything so long as he's charming."

"You're not the first person to say that," Adrian admitted. He nodded his head. "And honestly, he's been like this for a long time. Heck, he was like that in middle school."

"Really now?" Alice asked, interested. "I take it he must have been popular."

"That's an understatement – he was a hair's width away from dethroning the quarterback. Honestly, if it weren't for our teacher partnering us up in 8th grade Biology, I don't think we'd have interacted at all." Adrian shook his head yet again. "I think, mentally, Drew's never really grown up. He still ignores it when people criticise him. He still uses his charm to keep people from criticising him when he acts like a dick. And he still goes headlong into situations, because he's still so confident that everything's going fine to great for him the way it seemed to always do back in school."

Alice couldn't help but nod. "Gotta admit," she said. "You and Leon must be seriously loyal to put up with all of that."

"Sort of," Adrian admitted. "I'd say Leon's more his friend than I am."

Alice raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Adrian sighed. "Let me put it this way. Leon is a bit… clingy. I keep people at a distance, but Leon's totally different – he latches on to people. Focuses on their approval above all else - because he thinks that they'll like him."

Alice winced. "Yikes, talk about needy."

"Well I can't say I blame him." At Alice's look of curiosity, Adrian sighed. "You know how he's autistic, right?" Alice nodded, "Well, he wasn't properly diagnosed until the summer after we all met. Even after that, life's still been difficult for him. I mean, the world isn't kind towards people with his condition, and he's aware of that fact. He was pretty much friendless before he met us – the day he met us was probably one of the best days in his life and I think that's made him a little desperate. He doesn't want to be alone again."

For a brief while, Alice kept silent. "That...sounds like quite the story," she eventually admitted.

"Yeah", Adrian sighed.

"I'll keep that in mind." She looked at Adrian. "I have to admit though, I was honestly not expecting you to be so talkative right now. It's been almost a month and you haven't said a word otherwise."

"I suppose it depends on the person. I do talk to friends."

"You're saying I'm your friend?"

Adrian paused, now completely uncertain just what to say. "Um...," he managed to say. "Well...I..."

"I'm just messing with you." Alice gave Adrian a light punch on his shoulder. "You know, I don't get to talk like this with Jack or Will or Matt – it's nice, having somebody to talk to. We should chat like this more often."

Adrian thought to himself, eventually letting a small smile and a slight blush to come on his face. "When you put it like that…," he stated, before nodding his head. "I'll think it over." After this, they turned to look at each other, briefly – at once savouring and regretting this moment.

As they turned the corner, they heard phorusrhacos squawking and glyptodont squealing, breaking them out of their thoughts. In that moment, they remembered their original intentions. Adrian directed a sheepish look at Alice, "Well, then…" before Alice said, awkwardly, "Should be going.

Filing their earlier conversation to the backs of their minds, the duo headed to the source of the noises, hoping like mad that they'd find something.

. . . ..

Meanwhile, Drew had his eyes narrowed in concentration at what he had seen. The male Smilodon from before confronting a flock of large, California condor-like birds over the carcass of a large elephant-like creature. Drew knew that these were a flock of gymnogyps howardae.

"This is gonna be difficult," he thought – with Adrian's skill in falconry, Drew wondered whether bringing him might have been a good idea. He watched the confrontation for a while, trying to figure out how to rescue both groups when the sound of a bear roaring suddenly filled the air. Both groups tensed up and turned to see an arctotherium charging its way towards the carcass. The Smilodon and vultures decided to beat a hasty retreat. Drew cursed the lost opportunity – however, he noticed two other arctotherium walking out in different directions

The three bears, one male and two females, came to a stop at the carcass, sniffed at it, and began to eat, with a pair of wingegyps descended from the sky and landed nearby. Waiting until the bears were too focused on eating to notice him, Drew slowly came forward, drawing both his portal remote and his airhorn. Once he was ready, he activated the airhorn, alerting the three arctotherium, who turned their heads towards Drew. Clearly thinking him a hopeful challenger over the carcass, they all charged towards him, roaring in unison while moving as if a single entity. The wingegyps pair likewise took off and flew at Drew as if hoping to scare off what they thought would want to try to eat even more of the carcass and deny them the chance of eating any leftovers. Drew waited until almost the last second before opening his portal. The bears and vultures, unable to change their trajectory, ended up going right through the portal. Drew couldn't help but whistle after the portal closed, "That was scary," he muttered to himself.

At this point, he turned around and made his way back to the meeting place. "Wonder what they're getting up to."

. . . ..

Alice and Adrian peeked carefully from their hiding spot behind a boulder to see a pair of phorusrhacos trying to hunt six glyptodonts. Unlike the doedicurus, they had more fur on their heads, legs, and feet and were slightly shorter. Unlike the mace-like tails of the doedicurus, these glyptodonts' tails looked more like oversized pinecones. Their final distinguishing feature was a patch of armour on the top of the heads

"Glyptodon, do you think?" Alice noted.

Adrian nodded, "Unusual prey for terror birds."

"My guess?" Alice stated. "Those terror birds must be seriously desperate."

The sound of a shriek drew the duo's attention back in time to see one of the birds hop backwards to dodge the tail of one of the glyptodons, who grunted viciously at the would be target. Adrian winced. "Points for effort." Eventually, all six glyptodons grunted and squealed, lifted their tails, and swung them side to side threateningly. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, the two terror birds reluctantly beat a retreat, squawking bitterly in defeat. "And there they go," Adrian grumbled.

Alice shook her head side to side. "What will be, will be." She looked at the six glyptodon. "But, we don't have to leave empty-handed." She looked at Adrian. "Think you can help me with some plant matter?"

A few minutes later, Adrian and Alice had gathered up a heap of plant matter that they then proceeded to try to entice the glyptodons with. The glyptodon gave them a confused look before cautiously approached the food, sniffing. Whilst the glyptodon were eating, Adrian opened the portal while Alice picked up the remaining plant material and tossed it through the portal. The glyptodons gazed curiously at the glowing vortex, before slowly shambling their way through the portal, into the present. Once the six glyptodon were gone, the portal was closed, and Alice gave Adrian a thumbs up. "Shall we turn back now?"

"Yeah," Adrian responded, nodding his head immediately afterward.

. . . ..

. . . ..

Drew couldn't help but shake his head with a bemused look on his face at the sight of what he, Alice, and Adrian had just stopped the jeep for. A yard or so away, feasting on the corpse of an elephant-like creature, was a gymnogyps flock. In fact, it was the same flock, he'd encountered before. He chuckled, "Déjà vu, huh?", before turning to Adrian "Do you think you can help me get them through?"

Adrian shrugged. "Sure."

After a few minutes, the trio were able to convince the entire flock to depart the pachyderm corpse and go through the portal. No sooner had the birds gone through, a strange commotion from a nearby tree attracted the team.

"Might as well see what's going on over there," Alice stated as she and the boys started walking over. Following the sounds, they caught sight of a pair of ocelot-like cats stalking a panicked colony of creatures that looked like an odd mix between a rodent and an ungulate.

"I think the cats are leopardus vorohuensis," Alice explained while pointing at one of the cats. "And the other animals look like mesotherium."

"They're certainly odd-looking," Adrian stated.

"All the more reason to rescue them," said Drew. "Let's get to work everyone."

Sure enough, Drew and Adrian had managed to lure both leopardus vorohuensis away from the mesotherium and into the portal through using beef jerky strips as bait while Alice had managed to get the mesotherium through the portal using bait. Once they were out of the way, Drew lifted his fist in a victory gesture, smile on his face. "Let's get moving guys. I'm on fire!"

. . . ..

About half an hour later, the trio reached a large watering hole, where various animals were gathered.

Some of the animals were recognisable. A herd of creatures resembling white-tailed deer were grazing a couple feet away from the southern edge of the water while a herd of red deer-like deer were peacefully drinking from the water, whilst a small herd of dik-dik sized creatures were grazing near some small rocks. A herd of orange-brown horses with zebra patterns on their bellies, upper legs, and the bases of their necks, were grazing nearby. A small flock of very tiny lapwing birds were wading through the shallower parts of the water while helping themselves to what they could find on offer involving their natural food.

However, some animals were odder. A herd of animals that resembled bulkier versions of Macrauchenia coloured in dark grey fur on everywhere but their legs with zebra patterns, and shorter snouts, were drinking at the water hole. Browsing from a small grove of myrtle, alongside a pair of megatherium, were a group of slightly smaller giant ground sloths with tan patches in their brown fur. Five elephant-like creatures were leisurely drinking and bathing in the water, with a larger group, including two calves, was browsing on the myrtle, alongside the sloths. A large herd of creatures that resembled a cross between a hippo and a buffalo, were either swimming in the water or grazing on the banks.

Alice seemed very pleased with herself as she pointed out the various animals. "I read the dossier," she said as she did her work. "The deer are antifer crassus and morenelaphus brachyceros, whilst the little guys are neolicaphrium and the horses are hippidion. The macrauchenia relatives are xenorhinotherium. The birds are viator picis. The other ground sloths are glossotherium. The elephants are notiomastodon. And the mammals by the water are toxodon."

Drew chuckled, a gleeful look on his face. "It's gonna be fun getting this lot through the portal."

"I vote we get the viator picis out of the way first," Adrian suggested. "They're going to be the easiest." Drew rolled his eyes.

Respecting Adrian's wishes, the trio worked to carefully get all the little birds through the portal. Once they were gone, they started making their way over in the jeep to where the toxodon had been heading, reaching the top of a hill when they saw the herd stampeding away from a pair of smilodon. The trio's eyes narrowed – they couldn't help but notice the Smilodon looked awfully familiar. Filing this thought to the backs of their minds, they positioned themselves in time to allow the toxodon herd to stampede through the portal, into the present – however, one elderly toxodon had been left behind.

And after a brief struggle, the herbivore lay dead as the two cats started to dig in, clearly quite hungry as they viciously ripped into the carcass. As the cats feasted upon the dead toxodon, the carcass attracted spectators. Two wingegyps perched patiently upon a nearby boulder, waiting for the opportunity for scraps. Suddenly, a loud, hoarse squawk echoed through and two phorusrhacos emerged from the clearing, hissing viciously – they wanted some of it.

The two Smilodon regarded these intruders nervously; for good reason. Those vicious looking claws and large hatchet-like beak could seriously injure one of them. The larger of the two males stepped forward, swiped his paw at the nearest bird, and snarled threateningly. The bird simply walked towards the carcass, lunged its head forward and yanked loose a large chunk of meat, before hissing defiantly, its prize still hanging from its beak, as its comrade approached the carcass.

The two Smilodon roared at the birds, attempting drive these interlopers off, with the terror birds hissing back. Eventually, however, the Smilodon managed to drive the two birds off – as they backed off, the larger male swiped at the nearest bird, causing it to drop the large hunk of meat it had been carrying.

The terror birds waited some distance away; they would have to wait their turn. Looking at the chunk of meat that one of them had dropped, the gears began to turn in Drew's head…

"I've got an idea."

On Drew's instruction Alice prepared the winch, sneakily hooked one end to the chunk of meat, making sure that the two terror birds saw this, before making her way back to the jeep and getting into the driver's seat, revving the engines back up, and started to drive away, dragging the meat chunk along behind the jeep. The birds bolted off after the Jeep, following the meat. Once the birds had gotten close enough, she triggered the portal and drove the jeep through, the two birds following.

. . . ..

Once Alice had returned, she was happy to see Adrian standing near to where the wingegyps pair had been, flashing a thumbs up in her direction. She smiled, and then they both looked to where Drew was still waiting. He rose out of hiding, and blew through the air horn, gaining the attention of the bachelor smilodon pair. At the sight of him, the two brothers roared and then rushed towards Drew. However, Drew triggered the portal just in time for the two males, unable to change their trajectory, to dive right through to the present.

Once the two smilodon bachelors were gone, Drew gave another thumbs up to his two companions. "Good work everyone."

"You said it," said Alice.

"Agreed," said Adrian.

The trio chuckled, and then took a look around the environment. At this point, they noticed something rather odd. "Is it me?" Alice asked. "Or have the predators seemed really desperate?"

"This must be the dry season. It's the shape of things to come," said Drew. The trio looked each other in the eyes nervously. The Ice Age would cause the environment to become cooler and drier – that, combined with the arrival of humans in the Americas, would finish off most of the animals here.

Suddenly, they heard a commotion, and turned to see a single male deer running away from a panting female smilodon. The cat was trying desperately to catch up to the deer – however, the deer managed to escape. The Smilodon gave an almost dejected-sounding huff and started to slowly walk back the way she'd come. Slowly following the cat, the rescue team saw the smilodon come dejectedly to a stop in a small clearing with five females and a male with a broken fang lay, accompanied by a pair of wingegyps. They all clearly looked hungry.

This incredibly depressing sight was all the rescue team trio needed – for the first time, they all knew what they were thinking. One by one, they shot all seven of the big cats with tranquilizer darts, whilst the two wingegyps were lured away by Adrian with offerings of raw steak. Once the two birds had been sent through the portal, Adrian rejoined Drew and Alice and helped them load the pride onto the back of the jeep. However, shortly after they were finished, the sound of a low growl stopped them in their traps, and they turned to see a pack of dogs resembling the therodictis, only bigger and lighter in colour, accompanied by two pairs of wingegyps, behind them, staring with hungry eyes.

"Crap."

. . . ..

Meanwhile, at the Morrison herbivore paddock, Linda and Kyle were beginning the plan to integrate Arlo into the larger Apatosaurus herd. The plan had been very simple; release Arlo into the paddock and allow him to introduce himself to the group. However, just in case things came to worse, security personnel were on standby with hosepipes. When Kyle gave the signal, the door of the containment truck opened and the young sauropod emerged into the paddock. He briefly looked around, pausing to sniff his new surroundings. Seeing the Apatosaurus herd in the distance, Arlo began to walk towards them.

Watching the Apatosaurus walk towards the herd, Jack's train of thought was interrupted by hearing Linda mutter, "Come on, come on" under her breath. Jack noted that she was getting really invested in this. Whether that was nice or weird was sort of curious.

Arlo walked towards the herd and let out a long, low, trumpeting bellow in greeting. Bron began to move towards the young sauropod but was stopped by a glare from Gertie. Arlo walked closer and closer to the herd and eventually stopped, his neck and tail lowered in submission, hoping to be accepted into the group.

Bron advanced towards the young male, looming over him menacingly. Despite Arlo being thirty feet in length and six tons in weight, next to the seventy-foot and eighteen-ton Bron, he looked downright puny. After a few nail-biting minutes of silence, Bron bellowed aggressively at the younger male. Arlo went rigid in terror as the larger male came charging towards him – the only thing he could do was turn and retreat. He ran down the hill, as fast as his legs could carry him, with his tail in between his legs, before coming to a stop some distance away and looking at the herd.

The assembled group all looked at each other – this was a bad outcome, but not the worst. They knew that bringing an adolescent male into an established group came with risks, but their investment in what had happened had made that sort of sink into the back of their mind – now, they were reminded of it. The only consolation is that Bron hadn't attacked Arlo.

However, something surprising happened. As Arlo stood, reflecting on his loneliness, one of the young male Brachiosaurus, Shorty, walked towards him and began browsing next to him, looking at him as if in concern. The staff looked at each other – it was some sort of consolation, at least. Even if Arlo had been rejected by his own kind, at least he had found some company.

Watching the scene, Leon sighed, "Well, that was a failure – maybe if we'd done some more observations of the herd, I could have worked something out." Jack shrugged, "Maybe Drew, Alice and Adrian are doing better?" Meanwhile, Collete cast Linda, who was looking utterly heartbroken, a disapproving look.

. . . ..

If Jack had been aware of Drew, Adrian, and Alice's situation, he might have taken those remarks back. After all, they were now confronting a hungry pack of protocyon and four wingegyps were looking to make a meal of the unconscious smilodon pride – and anything else that was in their way. Adrian had been keeping them back via the airhorn - however, the protocyon pack and their wingegyps were slowly starting to get braver. And Adrian knew it, too. "I hope you guys are be ready soon," he managed to hiss to Drew and Alice while keeping his eyes on the pack. "Our guests aren't exactly impressed with us."

"Almost done," said Alice as she finished tying the last knots on the blankets covering the smilodon.

"Just another couple of seconds," Drew hissed as he finished securing the blankets before hurrying over to the driver's seat of the jeep, with Alice getting in the passenger seat. "And done!"

"Good!" Adrian yelled as he hurriedly got himself into an appropriate position on top of the blankets secured over the unconscious saber-toothed cats. "Let's move!"

The sound of the engines revving up was music to Adrian's ears. With a united howl of rage, the protocyon tore off in pursuit of the jeep, snarling in hunger. The four wingegyps took off and followed them. Adrian watched the animals, remaining calm – all he had to do was wait. After what felt like an eternity, he finally heard Drew yell, "NOW!"

In a flash, Adrian summoned the portal and the entire protocyon pack yelped in surprise as they all found themselves skidding through the portal, unable to change their trajectory, with the four wingegyps following. After the last one had gone through, Adrian shut the portal off and the jeep came to a stop. Alice and Drew both leaned out the windows, a concerned look on the former's face and a giddy smile on the face of the latter.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked.

"Wasn't that fun?" Drew asked.

Adrian directed a withering glare at Drew. "We have different definitions of fun." He looked to Alice. "But yeah, I'm alright."

"Well that's good," Alice stated, However, her face stiffened, and she sniffed the air. "Guys?" She stated. "Is something burning?"

Adrian and Drew sniffed the air and turned to look...

...only for their eyes to widen. "You could say that," Drew said, with a voice from beyond the grave. Alice looked and gaped in shock and horror at plumes of smoke rising up from near the watering hole, illuminated by an unnerving orange glow.

"How?" Alice asked, stunned. "Storm clouds," Adrian stated, pointing his finger right up at the sky, where storm clouds now hung like an oppressive blanket, interspersed with an occasional lightning bolt. "Storm clouds mean lightning… and with this dry grass, we're standing on a giant tinder box."

Drew nodded his head, looking determined. "Let's get moving," he growled, swiftly drawing out some breathing apparatus "There's no time to lose!"

The trio hurriedly put on their breathing masks, double checked the blankets to ensure the tranquilized smilodon pride were secured, and then hurtled over the hill in the jeep to the watering hole, which was now surrounded by flames.

The jeep came to a stop right in front of where they could now see the animals, huddled in terror. The vegetation surrounding the lake had been consumed by flame, with animals huddled together as they coughed and wheezed from the smoke. The herbivores had been joined by four phorusrhacos, two female smilodons, and an adult female arctotherium now standing protectively over two cubs.

The sight and sound of the terrified cubs was enough to goad Alice into action. Looking to Drew, she said, "What's the plan?!"

Drew spoke quickly, "Alice," he stated calmly, but authoritatively, "You handle the carnivores. Adrian, you handle the terror birds. Leave the herbivores to me. Whatever you're doing, do it fast." His two companions nodded and rushed into action.

Approaching the phorusrhacos, Adrian drew out his airhorn and blew into it, emitting an ear-splitting noise. The four terror birds, panicked from the fire, turned their heads and began to snap and hiss at him. As they moved closer and closer, Adrian slowly took several steps back, keeping himself and the birds as far away from the flames as possible. Once the birds had gotten close enough, Adrian lifted up his portal remote, summoned the portal, and then bolted towards it. The terror birds, their chase instincts activated, tore after him, all four of them running through the portal.

Alice approached the two female smilodon and the arctotherium family, the half-full bag of raw steak in her hands, her voice soft and soothing, "It's alright... it's alright now... I'm going to send you somewhere away from the fire…" One of the female smilodon snarled and swung her paw at this strange unfamiliar creature. The other female growled and the mother arctotherium bellowed in rage and despair while her two whimpering cubs cowered.

Drew gave her a look and mouthed "Are you crazy?" What on Earth was she doing?

Without looking at Drew, or even changing her tone, she explained, "It might sound crazy, but this works with lions...sometimes." Immediately after, Alice opened the bag, allowing the scent of the uncooked meat to come wafting out. The two cats and the mother arctotherium started slowly moving towards Alice, attracted by the scent of the meat, with the arctotherium cubs following their mother. Alice began to slowly walk backwards, her tone unchanging even as the two smilodons and the arctotherium family followed her, their attention entirely on the meat, "There you go...keep coming towards me...I'm just going to do something, and..."

She activated her portal remote, summoning the portal into existence. No sooner had the portal burst into life when she threw the meat bag through and dove out of the way as the two female smilodon and the mother arctotherium barrelled through the portal, with the arctotherium cubs following after her. With all the carnivores now taken care of, Alice looked towards Drew. "Now what?!"

Drew looked at the herbivores, before looking back at Alice. "Go through the portal" he said with a deceptive calm. "I've got this."

Alice briefly paused, but then nodded her head and hurried through her own portal, making it through just seconds before it closed. Drew watched her leave and looked back at the herbivores. Staring determinedly, he got into the Jeep, lowered the window and leaned his head out, moved his left arm, holding the portal remote, into position, before slamming his right hand repeatedly upon the horn function in the steering wheel. The sound of the blaring horn from the jeep attracted the attention of the herbivores, who all turned to the source of the sudden noise was coming from, just in time to see the portal burst into life. "Hey!" Drew yelled, honking the horn repearedly, "Follow me!"

The fear of the fire quickly overrode any fear of the portal. With an ear-splitting bellow from the matriarch, the entire notiomastodon herd started charging towards the portal, with the five males following close behind. Shortly after, all the other herbivores moved in quick succession, with the ground sloths shambling along at the back. After the last herbivore had gone through the portal, Drew revved the jeep up and tore through, with the tranquillized smilodon pride still in the back.

Immediately after making it through the portal and into the park, he brought the jeep to a stop near the ladder. He then hurriedly got out of the jeep, rushed to the ladder, and climbed up while all the animals were still disoriented from the change in scenery. Reaching the top, he had just enough time to catch his breath before he heard someone clearing their throat. He turned his head to see Alice and Adrian standing nearby. Gathered behind them were Leon, Jack, Kyle, Linda, Yolanda, Nikolai, and Colette, all of whom were staring at him in surprise.

As Drew found himself gaping right back at the group, with a sheepish look, Kyle's eyes narrowed, "What the hell happened?"

Drew nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with his fingers. "Long story." To this, Jack and Collete gave each other a perplexed look.

After all that, it was time to wrap everything up. Once all animals had been given clean bills of health, they were all were transferred to their new homes in the newly constructed exhibit zone, Santa Cruz Savannas. Most of the rescued herbivores had been given a large grassy paddock, themed to resemble the Pleistocene plains. They were either roaming around, resting in the sun, grazing, drinking, or wallowing in the large lake in the exhibit's centre. The only herbivores that had not been kept in the main paddock were the male group of notiomastodon, who were had been given a paddock all to themselves, until they could be fully integrated.

In a small enclosure nearby, a small pen, with an underground viewing system had been set up for the mesotherium, whilst the leopardus vorohuensis pair were being kept in a forested enclosure nearby. The flock of viator picis were kept in a small aviary nearby

The eight phorusrhacos had been given a large paddock and, after much squabbling, the four pairs had managed to establish a pecking order. They were now either taking dust baths, patrolling the new territory, or lying around in the sun, waiting to be fed. The gymnogyps and wingegyps were kept in a large aviary nearby – although there were still discussions in the case of the latter, since thet seemed to have a symbiotic relationship with the carnivores. The mateless female, who had been named Yzma, seemed especially close to in the lone adult male arctotherium she'd been found alongside.

This arctotherium, named Kronk was eating some honey in the section of the arctotherium paddock he'd established as his territory, with the others also roughly keeping to their own areas. Three other large paddocks nearby were home to the Smilodon pride, now including the two females rescued from the fire, and the protocyon and theriodictis, with paddocks designed to allow rotation in the future. So far, both packs of prehistoric wild dog were either resting in the sun or patrolling their new territory, whilst the females of the Smilodon pride were resting in the sun, whilst the enormous male, named Broken Fang roaring an announcement that this was his turf. The two adolescent males, named Raul and Carlos, were currently resting in a smaller, separate paddock nearby, having no interest in trying to challenge the older and stronger male.

For most of the mammal team, the new influx was much appreciated – after all, it was some of the bigger stuff. Arlo, despite not being integrated into the larger Apatosaurus herd was living in the Morrison herbivore paddock and seemed to have found a new friend in Shorty.

Life was going smoothly once more at Prehistoric Park…. For now.

Rescue Tally

* Arctotherium bonariense (8; 6 adults, 2 cubs; 3 male, 5 female)

* Antifer crassus (39; 26 adults, 13 fawns; 18 male, 21 female)

* Doedicurus clavicaudatus (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

* Glossotherium robustus (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

* Glyptodon clavipes (6; all adults; 3 male, 3 female)

* Gymnogyps howardae (10; all adults; 5 male, 5 female)

* Hippidion principale (27; 20 adults, 7 foals; 9 male, 18 female)

* Josephoartigasia monesi (19; 14 adults, 5 kits; 9 male, 10 female)

* Leopardus vorohuensis (2; both adults; 1 male, 1 female)

* Macrauchenia patachonica (54; 43 adults, 12 calves; 27 male, 27 female)

* Mesotherium cristatum (36; 27 adults, 9 kits; 17 males, 19 female)

* Morenelaphus brachyceros (27; 18 adults, 9 fawns; 10 male, 17 female)

* Megatherium americanum (4; all adults; 2 male, 2 female)

* Neolicaphrium recens (19; all adults; 9 male, 10 female)

* Notiomastodon platensis (18; 16 adults, 2 calves; 6 male, 11 female)

* Phorusrhacos longissimus (8; all adults; 4 male, 4 female)

* Protocyon orcesi (27; all adults; 13 male, 14 female)

* Smilodon populator (11; all adults; 3 male, 8 female)

* Theriodictis tarijensis (19; all adults; 9 male, 10 female)

* Toxodon platensis (26; 19 adults, 7 calves; 8 male, 18 female)

* Viator picis (18; all adults; 9 male, 9 female)

* Wingegyps cartellei (13; all adults; 6 male, 7 female)

* Xenorhinotherium bahiense (36; 29 adults, 7 calves; 15 male, 21 female)