Dinosaur Boy

Ellis Delmonte

Description

Hidden in water reeds near their home, Maxy and Dan find a huge egg covered in strange markings. They hide it and keep it safe, hoping that it will hatch. And it does! Out comes a scared little creature, half human, half reptile. At first it is helpless but soon grows into Dinosaur Boy, clever and friendly but desperately lonely, sent to Earth from a distant, dying planet. He tells them of a second egg and they search everywhere, all the while hiding from bullies and a dangerous world. Only luck, daring and the kindness of strangers can save them.For ages 9 and over

Informations

• Publié par: Hawkwood Books
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908577177
• Langue: English

Extrait

Table of Contents
Title and Credits
Egg
Hatch
Baby
Name
Alone
School
Search
Deadline
Discoveries
Scrap
Ambush
Siege
Flight
Capture
Custody
Message
Explanations
Departure
Signal
Word of Warning...
Dinosaur Boy
Ellis J. Delmonte

For Ana
Text copyright©2010 Ellis J. Delmonte
Cover design©Ian M. Purdy
All rights reserved

Epub Revised Edition © 2013 Compiled with Jutoh
ISBN: 978-1-908577-17-7
Print Edition ISBN 978-0-9555096-7-4

Conditions of Sale
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means
without the permission of the publisher.



Hawkwood Books 2013
Egg
It bobbed on the oily water, fragile and helpless. Reeds stroked it, silence caressed it, mystery surrounded it.
The two children knelt down for a closer look.
It was definitely an egg, but huge, floating about two feet below the edge of the grassy bank, just out of reach.
“Careful,” said Dan.
“Hold my legs,” said Maxy.
Dan knelt down behind his sister and gripped the back of her legs. Maxy, her dark, curly hair falling into inquisitive eyes stretched out, belly down, inching forward, willing the egg into her hands.
“Got it!”
She snaked up and sat with the egg in her lap, wiping it down carefully with her sleeve.
“Oh!” she whispered. “It’s beautiful!”
The egg was about half the size of a rugby ball and beneath the mud and slime they could see faint but definite patterns of swirling lines, hundreds of them, maybe thousands of them.
“It’s magic!” said Dan.
It looked like it could be magic, some kind of spell woven into the dazzling lines, but nothing magic happened. There was, however, something else about the egg which was unusual.
“It's warm!” said Maxy.
Dan touched it.
“It is!” he said. “Do you think it’s …?”
“Alive?” Maxy finished the question and Dan nodded. “Could be.”
If it was alive, they asked each other what might be inside - an ostrich, an eagle, a giant chicken? Dan, who read books by the dozen, didn’t remember ever seeing an egg like this.
“Perhaps it got washed down from the sea,” he said, “into the Thames and then into the canal. It could have come from another country, you know, migraining or whatever it’s called. Can I hold it?”
Maxy carefully handed the egg to her brother who took it gently into the palms of his hands.
“It’s definitely warm,” he said.
They waited and watched, half expecting the shell to crack and tiny wings to start flapping, but nothing happened.
“Do elephants lay eggs?” Maxy asked.
“No, they're mammals. Mammals don't lay eggs.”
Maxy was always impressed with her younger brother’s knowledge but Dan wasn’t a show off, he was just very bright with a memory that their teacher had once said was prodigious, and anything prodigious had to be good.
Having rescued the egg and touched it first, Maxy felt protective towards it and when Dan gave it back she cradled it with great care.
“Mum will be mad,” said Dan. “You're all mucky.”
Maxy didn't seem to hear him.
“I don’t think mum and dad would like it in the house,” Dan said, “especially if it hatches into something big.”
“But we can’t just leave it, it’ll die!”
This needed serious consideration. They went quiet, trying to think of somewhere warm and safe where they could take the egg. Maxy came up with the first idea and sometimes first ideas are best. She whispered it in Dan’s ear.
“I’d be scared to go down there,” he said.
They lived in a tall block of flats which had a large, disused cellar. Workmen had used it when the block was being built, but now it was a spooky, empty, dark and forbidding space.
“It’ll be perfect,” said Maxy. “No one ever goes there.”
Dan looked doubtful. Even Boxer Heathley and Shado, the local bullies, didn’t go in there, but he couldn’t come up with any other ideas. Maxy tucked the egg inside her jacket and they made their way to the steep stone steps that led down to the cellar.
“Well,” said Dan, “go on.”
“Alright,” answered Maxy. “I'm going.”
Dan waited a moment but Maxy didn't move.
“I told you we'd be scared,” said Dan.
Maxy looked crossly at her brother, walked down the steps, pushed open the door which creaked as such doors always creak, and stepped inside.
“It's pitch black,” she whispered. “I can't even see my hand. We need a torch, Dan. There's one in my bedroom. And a blanket. We need a blanket, too. Will you get them?”
“I don’t want to leave you here alone,” said Dan.
“I’ll be alright,” said Maxy. “Be quick.”
Dan hurried away and Maxy whispered to the egg in an almost conspiratorial way, “Don't worry egg,” she said, stroking it gently and wondering what lay inside, “everything will be alright. Dan's gone to get some light then we'll make you comfortable and warm and look after you. You’ll be safe here.”
She looked around at the dark, scary nothingness and tried to believe that it really was safe, but it was a bit of a struggle. She breathed a sigh of relief when Dan returned, huffing and puffing.
“I've got them!” he said.
He had a torch and a rather fetching, colourful patchwork blanket. A beam of light lit up a small section of the blackness.
“It's still dark,” said Dan.
They’d expected the torch to light up the whole area but of course it didn’t, it just lit up one small patch at a time. Most of the dark remained as deep as before. They tiptoed their way into the far corner.
“Put the blanket down here,” Maxy whispered.
Dan crumpled the blanket into a soft pile and Maxy laid the egg on top, tucking the edges in to keep it warm but leaving a small gap at the top in case whatever it was decided to hatch.
“There,” she said, “that will keep you cosy and safe.”
They looked at the tucked up egg and wanted to sit with it and keep it company, but they had to go.
“We’ll come back every day to make sure you’re alright,” said Maxy. Then she turned to Dan and said, “We mustn’t tell anyone, not our best friends, not mum not dad, no one.”
“Alright,” said Dan. “I promise.”
“And I promise,” said Maxy, “cross my heart and hope to die.”
“Me too,” said Dan.
They turned away from their strange discovery, cautiously opened the cellar door, peeked out to make sure the coast was clear, climbed the stairs and made their way home.
Left alone, the egg, somehow aware of the gentle, caring hands into which it had fallen, allowed itself to change.
Hatch
Late into the night, Dan studied a book about birds’ eggs while Maxy, who was too excited to sleep, lay in bed wondering if the egg had hatched. She crept into Dan's room just before midnight.
“Well,” she said, “have you found anything?”
Dan didn't look away from the book.
“Not yet. There’s nothing like it here.”
“It must be like something,” said Maxy.
“Well it isn't,” replied Dan. “It's really big, that's one thing, and those lines, I can’t see anything similar, nothing at all.”
Maxy sighed and said, “I wish tomorrow would come! It may have hatched already and wonder where we are.”
“I don't think so,” said Dan. “Even small eggs take a few weeks. This one might take months, or years, or it might … it might die.”
“No!” whispered Maxy, alarmed. “Don't say that! Of course it won't die!”
“Well I hope not. We'll have to look after it, keep it warm and everything.”
“We can do that,” said Maxy. “We can do anything.”
“If it hatches,” said Dan, “it’ll need lots of food. Parent birds have to feed their young hundreds of times a day.”
“We can do it,” said Maxy, desperate to show Dan there was nothing they couldn’t do.
“What if it’s dangerous?” Dan asked.
“It didn't feel dangerous,” said Maxy, “not when I was holding it. It didn't make me scared. You know what I mean?”
He did. The egg had been warm, delicate and fragile. Something like that couldn't be dangerous.
“I don't think I'm going to sleep at all tonight,” said Maxy, but she did; they both did.
Before school they went down to the cellar, full of trepidation, but the egg was where they’d left it, still, snug and quiet.
“Hello Egg,” said Maxy. “We've brought some things to keep you warm,” and she showed the egg three hot water bottles. They put one on either side and the third underneath it, slipping the wobbly rubber between folds in the blanket.
“Do you think it can hear you?” Dan asked.
“It might,” said Maxy. “It’s like talking to plants and mum said Prince Charles does that so it must work.”
Dan wasn’t sure if this was true but he hoped it might be. He also hoped they would be there when the egg hatched, because if whatever it was came out and saw nothing, just dark, it would be very lonely and scared.
“Let's leave it a note,” he said, “in case it comes out and is afraid of the dark.”
Maxy thought this was a beautiful idea so they did it. She took some paper and crayons from her satchel and wrote,
‘Dear Thing in the Egg. Don't be afraid and don't run away or fly away. We'll be back to feed you. Love Maxy and Dan.’
They tucked the note into the blanket, said goodbye and tiptoed away.
School seemed to drag on forever. Their minds were on the egg and it was all Maxy could do to stop herself telling everybody about what they’d found. Dan thought about it too, but he hadn’t the slightest wish to tell anybody. He busied himself in the school library searching for information on creatures which might possibly lay giant eggs. He had a pile of books in his satchel as he and Maxy headed home, impatient to visit the cellar.
A harsh, sneering voice seemed to clamp down on them from behind.
“What you got in your bag then, gold?”
It was Boxer Heathley.
Dan didn’t answer.
“Let’s have a look,” said Boxer, and he tried to snatch the satchel.
“Get lost,” shouted Maxy.
Boxer Heathley was a lot bigger than both Maxy and Dan and he just laughed. He shouldn’t have been called Boxer at all because he knew nothing about the noble art; he should have been called ‘Thumper’ or ‘Slugger’ but you’d have to be big or brave to question it, and generally he didn’t bother big or brave people. The same applied to Shado, a scowling boy