Asher, Toffee and the Dinosaur Friend

Once upon a time, a long time ago there was a big kid named Asher who loved to learn all about dinosaurs and play dinosaurs with his dog Toffee. Asher loved playing with Toffee but sometimes he felt a little lonely and wished that there was one more friend to play with at home. One day while he was playing dinosaurs with Toffee he had the best idea he had ever had. He wanted a real dinosaur friend, and he knew just how to get one: Asher would need to build a rocket ship that could travel through time.

First, Asher gathered his materials. For the body of the spaceship, he used his power wheels car. This was perfect because it already had a steering wheel, a seat belt and a big battery which were important. He knew he couldn’t make the trip back to dinosaur times without Toffee so he used a jump rope to attach plastic laundry baskets to the power wheels, and placed in it some kibbles as a snack plus swim goggles to protect Toffee’s eyes during the flight through space time. Next he wrapped the whole rocketship in tin foil to make it heat resistant, and because real rocket ships are shiny. Finally he added some extra batteries for power, a fan to help the rocket ship take off from the ground, three alarm clocks, an hourglass and his mother’s watch connected with wires to make it a time travel rocket ship, a dinosaur tooth from his fossil dig kit so that the rocketship would know where in time to land, and his four-leafed clover for luck. 

That night when his mom and dad tucked him in and kissed him goodnight, Asher stayed awake and waited until he heard them walk through the house to turn off the lights, then go into their room and brush their teeth. He waited until the house was completely silent. He woke Toffee and and together they crept down the stairs and out to the back patio. 

Toffee wanted to go and sniff for squirrels by the fence but when Asher explained about the mission and showed him the snacks, he hopped right into the rocketship. Asher helped Toffee with his goggles and then they were off. Asher set all of the alarm clocks, turned over the hourglass to start it, placed the dinosaur tooth and the four leaf clover on the dashboard and started up the rocket ship. The fan sputtered at first but as Asher eased his foot onto the gas pedal the fan evened out and then began to kick up a powerful wind that grew and grew until it swirled around the rocketship. The hourglass glowed fluorescent purple and began to spin. As the rocketship lifted off Asher could see history swirling around him like a great wind. He saw back to his first time riding a bike, his mom and dad hugging on the day he was born. He saw cowboys riding horses in the Wild West and pirates searching for treasure on the open sea. He saw King Arthur’s court and the knights of the round table. He saw a wooly mammoth and a saber toothed tiger. He saw all of the continents on earth moving together to form the supercontinent Pangaea, and as the rocket ship began its descent into dinosaur times he could see herds of dinosaurs moving around on the land and in the water doing dinosaur things. There were big plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks so that they could reach into the tippy tops of trees to eat the most delicious leaves. There were flying dinosaurs with wings that stretched as wide as 12 hula hoops so that they could soar above the trees and zoom through lush landscapes and over bubbling volcanoes and see everything for miles and miles. And there were meat eating dinosaurs that were fierce hunters but that also enjoyed playing together and laying out in the sun on a quiet day. 

Toffee whined because he was a little scared of flying but Asher gave him a pat on his head and told him it would be okay. When the time traveling rocket ship landed Asher looked around and saw that they were in a lush forest beside a crystal clear pool of water. A beautiful waterfall was flowing into the pool, and the mist from the waterfall made it look like they were in a cloud. 

As they were looking around Asher saw Toffee perk up his ears and cock his head to one side as though he were listening to something, then he pointed to a nearby pile of boulders with his paw and whined to let Asher know that something was there. Asher was a little scared in case it could be a dangerous kind of dinosaur but he had come all this way to make a dinosaur friend and he wasn’t going to give up now. Slowly, cautiously, he approached the boulders until he started ot hear what Toffee’s sharp ears had picked up - it sounded like crying. Scrambling up onto the boulders Asher found a strange and beautiful dinosaur whose leg had become trapped between two big rocks. He saw that she was a little scared of him to he talked to her softly and said “It’s okay little dinosaur friend, I’ll help you/”

The dinosaur was purple and blue and her body was covered with tiny feathers. She even had two little wings but they looked like they would be too small to ever let her fly. WHen she saw that Asher was nice and gentle she started saying something to him in dinosaur language that sounded like “Leeloo, leeloo, leeloo” and so Asher decided to call her Leeloo. The rack was too buig and heavy for Asher to move even with all of his might and with Toffee helping. He was getting discouraged when Toffee barked, ran off by the trees and came back dragging a long heavy stick.

“Good thinking, Toffee!” Ashery said, and he wedged the stick between the two rocks and pulled on the other end with all his might until finally, slowly, the rock began to move and the beautiful little dinosaur was able to wriggle free. She kept saying “Leeloo, leeloo and looked like she expected Asher to understand but he didn’t so he shrugged his shoulders and said to her “sorry, I can’t understand dinosaur language.” She said “Leeloo to Toffee but Toffee didn’t understand either - instead, he sat and barked, cocked his head sideways and offered the dinosaur his paw to shake to show that he was friendly. 

The dinosaur looked at them for a moment and then turned away and looked back saying “Leeloo” and making a motion with her head that seemed to say, “follow me!” Asher and Toffee did and Leeloo led them around the lake, behind the waterfall, along a rocky outcropping and then through an opening in a cliff face that Asher saw opened onto the most beautiful forest he had ever seen. The trees were as tall as the ancient redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains but their bark was pink and their leaves were long and hung down from the tops like lengths of fuzzy yarn, and if you tasted the moss it was like cotton candy. Leeloo led them through this forest to a clearing that was filled with beautiful pink fireflies, and there she turned around and said, “This is the enchanted forest where I was born. it’s special because no matter what language you speak, when you come here every kind of dinosaur can understand every other kind of dinosaur. Thank you for saving my life. I’ve never seen any dinosaur that looks like you. What part of the land do you come from?”

Asher was completely astonished to hear this dinosaur speaking but he was even more shocked when Toffee replied, “We’re not dinosaurs - I’m Toffee, and this is my boy Asher. It’s my job to take good care of him and make sure he’s safe.” Asher, overcoming his surprise at hearing them both speak, explained about the rocketship and how they had traveled through time nad how they had hoped to meet a real dinosaur that could be their friend. Leeloo said that she had lost her family and had left the enchanted forest to look for a friend herself, when her foot had gotten stuck in the rock fall. They all talked about their lives and the things they liked to do and then Leeloo showed them the games she liked to play in the enchanted forest, like tickling the trees until they gently picked you up and swung you through the air on their leaves. 

After a long time Asher started to go quiet and Leeloo and Toffee asked him what was wrong. Asher said he was having so much fun, more than ever before now that he had two friends, but that he missed his parents and he was worrying that they might wake up back in human time and see that he was missing and be sad. 

Leeloo sid that he should go home and that she would lead them back to the rocketship. Sadly, because tey knew they would miss Leeloo, Asher and Toffee followed her out of the enchanted forest, through the opening in the cliff face, past the rocky outcropping, and behind the waterfall back to where the rocketship lay waiting. Asher got into the rocketship and then was surprised to see Leeloo hop into the laundry basket right next to Toffee. “Are you sure?” he said. “Leeloo”, Leeloo replied but from the glint in her eye he could see that she had made up their mind to come back to human times with them. 

Asher yawned because he was starting to get sleepy, then he started up the rocketship and turned the hourglass to take him back to human time. When he woke up the next morning he was on his back porch, snuggled up between Toffee and a beautiful new dog with feathery fur and a white marking on her back that looked just like tiny wings. “Leeloo?” he said and the new dog smiled and said “woof!” 

Asher’s parents came down and said, “Asher, Toffee, what are you guys doing down here? And who’s this?” “Trust me, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” said Asher. “This is Leeloo. She lost her family and she’s come to stay with us. You’re going to love her. And they did, and they all lived happily ever after.