Blast From the Past: Challenge #00686-A321: Ancient Beasts
Australian Pelicans are like something out of Jurassic Park - like they remember when things like them ate things like you, and are just biding their time. (I literally asked a zookeeper "do they run off with toddlers?!?" when I saw one for the first time)
[AN: I have not met any other kinds of pelicans, so I just assumed they were all like that. And for the record, they prefer fish.]
Irwin glared at the current batch of temporal tourists. Another bloody baby buggy. "Folks, you’re going to have to wait a few minutes before you can walk the path."
"What? We paid for an hour. Our time’s already running out."
"Were you told at Current-side that babies had to have extra protection?"
"We signed the waiver," said the husband. "It’ll be fine. Nobody ever gets hurt on these things."
"Yeah nobody gets hurt because we take every precaution to make sure nobody gets hurt. Which means having a stock of buggy cages here at Past-side and fitting all the baby buggies with them."
"You want to put my daughter in a cage?" yawped mother.
Irwin sighed. She hated these kinds of tourists. She activated the hologram. "These are the gigantic pelicans we keep telling tourists not to feed. Of course, the tourists ignore us and flick them sandwiches, chips and stuff like that. Then when the food runs out? They go after small children. Last time that happened, Harry lost his arm. We’ve been using cages ever since. You either wait for a cage or go back for a refund because I’m not letting you out there to blame us for your idiocy."
They stared at the pelican. They stared at Irwin. They looked at their darling little brat, who was far too young to appreciate dinosaurs, anyway.
"We’ll… go back for a refund," said mother.
"Smart choice," said Irwin.