“Come on!” cried Russell Tusks. “We’ve got to stop it before it eats all the plants!”
Tusks and Miss Wu ran out of the hotel into the exotic garden. Immediately they could see evidence of the dinosaur’s feeding frenzy; leaves bitten in two and teethmarks in stems and trunks. They could hear crunching and munching sounds and ran in that direction.
“It’s found the ferns!” whispered Tusks.
“Oh, no!” whispered Wu. “Poor ferns!”
They reached the fern section and there it was, chomping away on a large mouthful of them.
“Stop!” cried Tusks. ”Those are irreplaceable!”
“I can’t stop!” said the dinosaur. “I haven’t eaten anything like this for seventy million years! It’s so delicious!”
“If you eat those up, it will be the last time too!” said Tusks. “This is the last surviving patch of Pteridophyta vulgaris in the world!”
“I can’t help that!” said the dinosaur, selfishly.
“Well,” said Miss Wu. “You’d better enjoy it while you can! Don’t you want some seasoning with it?”
“No, I’m fine,” said the dinosaur “It’s.....”
Suddenly, Miss Wu took a large silver pepper pot out of her pocket and shook it violently at the dinosaur. Pepper shot out of the holes and the dinosaur, Wu and Tusks all started sneezing violently.
ACH-CHOOOH! AHHHHCHOOWH! AAAAAA-CHOOOOOOH!
Miss Wu sneezed like she’d never sneezed before, but it was nothing compared to Tusks, whose ears flapped like great, round wings and his trunk curled and uncurled like a party horn. But that was also nothing compared to the dinosaur, who cocked its head back and whacked it’s great tail on the ground as it sneezed, causing it to jump high into the air. Each time it landed, the pepperpot shot out more of it’s firy contents.
This went on for several minutes until Temples, the airship co-pilot and Singsong, the flight attendant, having regained their composure after their fright, rushed in with napkins covering their beaks and threw a large net over the dinosaur; actually it was the walrus’s king-size hammock. They put a salver over the pepperpot and waited for the sneezing to subside.
“Good job.....ACHOOOOOOHHH!” said Tusks, not quite completely recovered.
“Well done!” said Miss Wu, followed by ACHOOOOH!
“Let me go!” said the dinosaur. “AAAAACHHAAACHCHCHCOOH!”
Temples and Singsong held on to the net until the dinosaur stopped sneezing and jumping, and then tied the ends of the net together.
“A lot of damage done,” said Tusks, looking around at the half-eaten plants and trees around them. “This rare Brussellus Sproutus is going to need some tender, loving care. And look at that poor Venus Fly-trap cowering and shivering in the corner! Still it could have been worse!”
“I’m hungry!” said the dinosaur inside the net.
“Well, you can’t eat any more exotic plants!” said Miss Wu. “I’ll get you some cabbages and lettuces and onions from the vegetable garden.”
“And some carrots?” said the dinosaur.
“Yes, carrots too,” said Wu.
“Runner beans?” said the dinosaur.
“Yes, runner beans too,” said Wu.
“Marrow?” said the dinosaur.
“Yes, marrow too,” said Wu.
“Thank you!” said the dinosaur.
“You’re welcome,” said Wu.
“And by the way,” said Tusks. “We never found out how you got here!”
“I was rescued by an airship, and then I fell off and landed on your roof!” said the dinosaur.
“The airship!!” cried Wu.
“Where is it?” said Singsong.
“I hope Capt. Cookie is all right!” said Temples.
“I hope so too!” said Miss Wu.
© David Severn 2013
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