The Sinosauropterx Adventure
by Vincent Ku Lap Yin 6A
This short story was written for the Hong Kong Young Writer’s Awards Competition. This year’s theme is about the Sinosauropteryx, a Chinese dinosaur from the Cretaceous period..
“Before I start, have you ever seen a feathered dinosaur? And where do you think it was found? Argentina? Brazil? Germany? South Africa? Let me tell you, the first feathered dinosaur was found in China.” Steven said as he pointed at a picture on a museum brochure.
“In the 1990s, a fossil hunter named Li Yumin found the world's very first feathered dinosaur. Scientists called it the Sinosauropteryx, which means ‘the China dragon bird’. The Sinosauropteryx lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, 125-122 million years ago. It is a meat-eating dinosaur and it ate small animals, including mammals and lizards. Since then, more than 40 dinosaur species have been found in the province of Liaoning, including more than 24 pterosaurs (winged reptiles) and more.” explained Steven, my crazy scientist friend that invents futuristic gadgets.
“It will be a pleasure to visit the Early Cretaceous Period…” Kyle said with a sigh.
“Actually, we can!” exclaimed Steven.
“How–We can use your newly invented time machine!” Kyle said as his thought interrupted him
“Hmm, how does this thing work? Kyle wondered.
“Let me turn this on,” said Steven, then he pressed a few buttons on the round thin panel. The time machine started glowing and flashing. All of a sudden, the tiny laboratory filled with books and maps turned into a narrow glass tunnel filled with blue and purple smoke and there were stars shining .Bright blue lights started flashing and the time machine panel beeped loudly. Before Kyle knew it... bang!
“Where are we?” Kyle screamed loudly.
“Don't be such a freak. We’re in the Early Cretaceous Period.” Steven said calmly.
“But where?” Kyle said while wind blew on his face.
“Um…The time machine can tell what place we’re in!” he said excitedly, then we swiped to ‘Location’ on the virtual projection.
Tony, the robotic voice whispered, ”We are in the Early Cretaceous Period of northeastern China, and in the area of…”
“Ok, please stop it, Tony . That’s enough information” he said as Steven pressed a navy blue button and a digitally projected screen popped out on the panel. Then he swiped to “Off”.
“Let's start our adventure!” shouted Steven thrilly, at that moment he took out two small bags in a compartment in the thin panel.
“Uh, where are the dinosaurs? We walked for almost two hours, and found none.” Kyle signed hopelessly.
”Is your time machine broken…”
Stomping sounds interrupted him. The sand ground was shaking and they felt like someone was behind them.
"RUNN!" shouted Steven, then they ran down a hill and into a cave. The cave was lit with twenty candles.
Huffing and puffing Kyle said. “Phew, we finally escaped from that horrible thing-What was it?" as he sat on the rocky floor.
"Silly, it’s the Sinosauropteryx, it roa…Huh, what is this?" He said as he walked to a narrow path in the cave that was covered with rocks and mud
"Let's go in!" Steven said excitedly, then Steven went in. The path led to a room ,there were two eggs, there were little cracks on each of them.
"Roar..."
"Uh-oh, the dinosaurs are coming! What are we going to do?" asked Kyle panicked.Crack! They heard some squeaking. When they turned around, their eyes widened,-the egg hatched.
The little dinosaurs were feathered. "What are we going to do? The dinosaurs are coming. We have to protect these little dinosaurs."
"Yes, but how-We can use the Survival Mud Sprayer! If you press the button on the handle, it can spray mud on the dinosaur, the mud will become solid so it can survive."
"Ok, let's spray mud on it now...Don't, because the solid mud can only make the creature inside survive 122-125 hundred years. The mud will freeze them, so they can have a narrow chance of survival." explained Steven as he took out his inventions from his bag.
He took a deep breath and whispered, ’Here goes nothing’ then he sprayed the mud spray onto the two little sinosauropteryxs. Then they froze into mud statues in 5 seconds.
"Let's escape now before it’s too late!' Kyle reminded Steven, and they climbed up the cave. When they went back to the surface of the cave and saw there were huge dinosaur foot tracks that went deeper into the cave.
"This is a great chance to escape. Let's sprint back to the time machine–where is it?"
"Don't worry, I've put a tag on the time machine. We can locate the area of the machine. You can see it on your watch. They followed their watches to the time machine.
"So, it should be here-but where is it ?" said Kyle worriedly.
"Don't freak out yet. Before we went out, I pressed the hidden button, just in case the dinosaurs chew the wires." Steven said proudly as he pressed the 'Show' button and the time machine popped out of thin air.
“Wow, that was impressive!” exclaimed Kyle. Steven pressed a few buttons on the round thin panel. All of a sudden,the deserted desert turned to a thin glass tube. As they raised up the pitch black tube filled with sparkling tiny stars, red and yellow smoke filled the tube, but this time it felt like a million years to arrive back to 3023.
"Uhh, we finally arrived. Is there something wrong with your time machine?" said Kyle, annoyed.
"No..." said Steven as the TV reporter cut him mid-sentence.
"-We have great news! A team of fossil hunters found two baby Sinosauropteryx fossils in a cave where trees and rocks blocked the entrance. They have also found giant tracks leading dippers into the cave. We will do more research about that. Thank you for your time." announced the reporter.
"Did we make that fossil?" asked Kyle.
"Yes, kind of…" said Steven.
"So what do you mean is that we created two fossils ?" Kyle asked, shocked.
"Yes, we created history," said Steven delightedly.