Dan The Dinosaur

• Anna Twomey, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2008

Once, a very long time ago when the dinosaurs ruled the world, there was a T-Rex that ruled Egypt. He had a large army, but everybody else was his slave. Nobody had a name. He had the slaves whipped severely if they didn’t work hard enough. The slaves had to build the King’s pyramids, palace, get his food and do all the other work in the kingdom. Some died of starvation and whippings.

One of the slaves did not obey the king. He was whipped many times, but still would not listen. The king warned the disobedient slave, that if he didn’t do his job, he’d be banished from the kingdom. The slave didn’t mind the idea of being banished, and after one last beating was chucked out the door. Finally picking himself up the now free slave thought to himself; “Now that I’m free I will have a name! From now on I am Dan.”

After walking really far, taking a boat and walking still further, he was in India, and was now the most tired dinosaur in the nation. All the dinosaurs there were small and fast. He stopped to lie down outside a nearby house, where he fell asleep.

At midnight, the caring wizard that owned the house put a magical chair outside near the exhausted Dan, and went back inside. In the early morning when the stars were still in the sky, Dan woke up. Seeing the chair and a dinosaur nearby, he asked her if she owned it, but she said; “NO!” Sitting on the chair, he felt something strange. Looking down, Dan saw the chair floating. ”Wow!” he whispered. He felt himself going upwards.

The chair had been wobbling around in the air for a while and by now he could steer it. In the far distance he saw the Great Wall of The Chinese Land. Coming down to land in China, Dan saw a dinosaur stuck on a mountain top, so he landed there, sat her on his lap and flew back down to lower land. She said: “Thank you so much! Will you marry me? I am the princess!” “Whatever!” said Dan.

The King and Queen liked his unusual ways and so did many others. He did cooking and chores like everyone else. Everyone here had a name. The news about him spread far and wide. King T-Rex heard about him and asked if he might have a meeting on the Carky Mountain of Tibet. That is what happened.

The T-Rex king apologised for treating Dan and the other dinosaurs badly and decided he’d be a better king if everybody had names and took turns doing chores as they did in China. The T-Rex King did this and everyone in his kingdom was much happier, especially him because he found a wife and had seven boys and six girls.