'Come on Paphu, hurry up, we will be late for school!' called out Tupo.
'Yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming! You're rushing as if anything interesting ever happens there!' replied Paphu in a grumpy voice.
'Well, we learn fascinating new things every day!'
'Really!? Fascinating!? That's not the way I would describe it...' concluded Paphu as they entered the school.
The young dinosaurs loved playing together and were the best of friends, however, Tupo liked school and Paphu did not. The young triceratops was creative and inquisitive. Learning about other species, counting, how to build a shelter and problem solving was so much fun for him! Tupo's favourite pastime was painting stones with colourful dyes he created from plants and insects. He also designed new types of shelters which were not always practical but which were always innovative and beautifully decorated.
Paphu was the opposite. Learning about communication, safety, using tools and how to work together, all seemed like pointless lessons to him. The only subject he found useful, was studying the differences between edible and poisonous food.
'Paphu, go and study, please! Don't you have any homework to do?' often urged his mum.
'Do I have to?' asked Paphu in a bored voice 'I'd rather help you and papa!'
The young parasaurolophus liked doing things, not talking or thinking about them. Paphu was energetic and he loved running, bouncing and playing.
It was a sunny bright day and the teacher decided they would make a school trip that day. The whole class went to see a brand new dinosaur, which was discovered recently. It was called oksoko avarsan and it must not have been around for long. It was one of those strange dinosaurs who were starting to fly. The whole class quietly climbed a hill, hid in the bushes and observed how these fascinating semi-flying dinos played together. Oksokos were significantly smaller than Tupo and Paphu, and looked like a cross between a blue dinosaur and a red parrot. They had colourful feathers and simple wings instead of front legs, with two claws remaining in each. 'Can we play with them?' fascinated boys asked the teacher.'No, you may not. Oksokos could be dangerous, because they eat meat as well as plants. So a group of them could attack you.'
Tupo looked terrified however Paphu wasn't put off by the teacher's warning.
'I wonder, which games we could play together...' he whispered to his friend.
'Football could be fun!' replied Tupo observing oksokos jumping high up the branches of the trees using their simple wings. 'You wouldn't have learnt about oksokos if not for this school trip.' commented Tupo. 'Besides, we would have missed a perfectly wonderful day together' he added, still hoping his friend would make friends with learning. Paphu just frowned in response.
When the two friends were not at school, they played their favourite games and went on walks discovering new places in the forest and creating new toys.
'We learn much more when we roam in the forest than we learn in the classroom' said Paphu during one of their nature walks.
'We learn and discover a lot but it's not the same' responded Tupo. 'When we are at school we learn things that generations of dinosaurs learnt before us and we learn a lot in one day. There is nothing creative or complicated that we can learn on our own.'
'Maybe, but at least what we learn is practical and we can use it. What we learn at school, we will never use!' commented Paphu angrily. As he was saying these words, he shouted falling into a deep pit in the ground. It was clearly a trap as it was covered by leaves and twigs. Paphu stopped shouting and looked up and around himself.
'Where are you?' asked confused Tupo seeing that his friend disappeared from the face of the earth.
'I'm here! Down in the hole!' responded Paphu.
Hardly believing his eyes Tupo was now looking down into the pit with terror painted on his face.
'I couldn't see any hole. It was covered. It must be a trap! What are we going to do?!!' replied Paphu in one breath, more and more scared now.
'Don't worry. We will get you out of there!' said Tupo reassuringly, despite feeling overwhelmed by the situation. What were they going to do!?
'It must have been a T-Rex. What if it comes back soon!?' said Paphu in a shaky voice, adding 'I'm scared'
I'll get you out of there. Trust me' reassured Tupo adding 'How deep is the pit?
'I have no idea' responded his friend.
'Well, they taught us at school how to measure it. Let me get a long stick and I'll measure the depth of the hole with it.'
'Okay, but please hurry!'
Tupo found a stick and quickly measured the depth of the pit. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as he thought.
'Now, we need to build a ladder you can use to climb out of there. I will get some more sticks and rope made from hemp plants.'
'Yes, that's a good idea. Do you know how to do it?' asked Paphu a little puzzled.
'I'll throw some ropes and sticks down there so you can tie them together. Plus one end of the two long poles which we will use to make a ladder. I'll start so you can follow my example. If we can work on two different ends at the same time, we will work twice as fast.' suggested Tupo.
'Sounds great! I'm glad you paid attention in the construction class! Just please be careful when you throw the sticks not to hurt me,' agreed in a cheerful voice Paphu, happy that they had a plan.
'Let me collect some sticks quickly.' A few minutes later Tupo had all the supplies ready. He bundled them up together and lowered them attached to one side of the ladder, being careful not to hit Paphu with the load.
The boys worked swiftly and thanks to their dexterity and cooperation, they constructed a simple ladder in minutes. Paphu swiftly climbed up out of the pit whilst Tupo was watching out for a T-Rex. Luckily none was approaching.
When Paphu finally got out, they quickly ran and hid in the bushes behind big boulders to rest before returning home. No sooner did they manage to hide though, that a T-Rex appeared out of nowhere. She looked hungry and she had really huge teeth! The T-Rex approached the trap and on finding it disturbed but empty she started sniffing around it and following the tracks of the boys with her nose. Any minute now, she would find them behind the rocks! As the T-Rex approached Tupo and Paphu, suddenly, colourful oksokos jumped out of the trees one by one distracting the T-Rex successfully. Seeing this, our dinosaur friends knew that it was their chance to escape danger and so they ran as fast as they could! They worried a little about small oksokos who clearly saved their lives but didn't dare to stop to turn around, in case the T-Rex was following them. When they were far enough, the young dinosaurs stopped to catch a breath and turned around. What they saw surprised them greatly! There were a dozen of oksokos jumping all around the T-Rex confusing and tiring her out. Finally, exhausted T-Rex gave up and collapsed on the ground to rest. Oksokos cheered their victory and then left in a hurry before the beast regained its strength.
The two friends now sighed in relief and went back home. The following day after school, Paphu and Tupo paid a visit to oksokos to thank them for saving their lives. Oksokos were a little shy at first, because they didn't know anybody in the valley yet, but then, got really excited at making new friends.
'Thank you so much for saving us yesterday. That was really brave of you!' said grateful Tupo. 'But how did you know that we needed help?'
Oko, the oldest of the siblings, blushed responding 'We have been observing you from high up in the trees. When we saw that you were in trouble we jumped in to help. Besides, we love messing with the old T-Rex!' joked Oko.
'Yeah, he nearly had us for lunch! Thanks guys!' said cheerfully Paphu.
'No worries! You'd have done the same for us.' replied oksokos in a chorus.
'How can we ever repay you?' asked Paphu.
'You can play with us,' said Oko smiling, 'We are new around here and we don't have any friends, yet.'
'We thought you were dangerous' admitted shily Tupo.
Oko laughed in response 'we eat small animals that's true! But you are by no standards small! Insects are our favourite food'
'Yuck!' responded Paphu and then blushed realising he was being rude.
Nevertheless, Oko and Tupo burst out laughing as they found the situation hilarious. Paphu happily joined in. Later, they all played hide and seek together until the sunset.
'You should join our school,' said Paphu to Oko at some point. 'It's fun and we learnt a lot of useful things there! Plus, we could spend more time together that way'
'Sounds awesome! We would love that!' replied Oko on behalf of his siblings.
'I'll just have to convince the teacher first that you're not dangerous' said Tupo and all of them laughed. 'I guess even the teacher gets it wrong sometimes!'
On their way back home Tupo looked at Paphu and said 'I can't believe what you have said earlier about school. Do you mean it?' commented astonished Tupo. 'Fun?'
Paphu smiled: 'Well, it is fun because you are there with me. And if the trap incident taught me anything, it's that the stuff we learn at school can come handy in the least expected moment!'
