Mysterious Magical Dino

By Elizabeth A Conard and Russell A Shuler

First, it was an accident, the wonderful kind. When Blair rubbed her family's treasure, an ancient dinosaur bone, and said, "Dino, I wish Logan and I could go to where Dad found you," she couldn't have imagined what would come. Whoosh. Instantly she and her brother were whisked to the top of a strange hill in India. What next? Their mysteri

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth A. conard
• Release date: Jul 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798218036058

Book preview

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Mysterious

Magical Dino

by Elizabeth A. Conard

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Also by Elizabeth A. Conard

How to Become a Champion:

A True Tale of how Christy Reaches the Top

Tori and the Terrible Tiger

Tori and the Magnificent Manatee

Contents

Chapter 1 Where am I?

Chapter 2 The Fall

Chapter 3 Back Again

Chapter 4 The Gun Shot

Chapter 5 The Tonga

Chapter 6 Kidnapped

Chapter 7 Boat Ride to Marble Rocks

Chapter 8 Exploring Madden Mahal

Chapter 9 The Fort

Chapter 10 Back in Time

Chapter 11 Jewels? Eggs?

Chapter 12 Thieves

Chapter 13 The Taj Mahal Being Built

Chapter 14 The Taj Mahal Second Time

Chapter 15 Deep Time

Chapter 16 The Salt March

Chapter 17 Harbin Ice and Snow Festival

Chapter 18 Dino’s Magic

AUTHOR BIO

Elizabeth, known to family and friends as Betty, often climbed the hill where her dad stumbled on the ancient dinosaur bone. She often took it down from the top of the bookcase to show to visitors and gradually learned the stories of the numerous dinosaurs of India where she was born and raised. Her parents were college professors there for many years. She attended college in Iowa and taught in high schools there before moving to Florida. Her physician husband and she have raised three children in Bradenton, Florida and she is active in the assisted living industry and community activities there.

© 2021 Elizabeth A. Conard

All rights reserved. Published in the United States.

This is a work of fiction. Although some characters are historical figures, and some incidents are true to history, other names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

ISBN– 9798218036041 Paperback

ISBN– 9798218036058 Epub

Cover and book design by Russell Shuler.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to those who

always wanted to hear more about our family dinosaur bone and:

Dad who discovered the bone.

Brother Phil and Sister Barby who played with the bone with

me when we were little kids.

Tori who always wanted to hear another chapter about

the wonderful talent and skills of the magical bone.

Blair and Logan who let me use their names

for the main characters.

Chapter 1

Where Am I?

I rubbed the strange-shaped bone Dad kept in the bookcase. Dinosaur bone, you’re about seventy million years old, I whispered to it. That’s so unbelievably long ago, I wonder what it was like when you dinosaur guys roamed around.

I measured the bone against the length of my arm. It was a little longer than from my wrist to my elbow, with a flat area on one end and curved slightly on the other. What part of a monster dinosaur was it from? Was he in a ferocious battle and torn away?

Hey, I’ll tell on you. We’re not allowed to play with that, a voice came from the kitchen where my younger brother, Logan, had eaten breakfast.

It’s okay, I replied. I’m not hurting it. Just rubbing it for fun. I wish we could see where Dad found it and explore around there.

Suddenly, my heart gave a big jump. The bone moved in my hand! It wiggled and stretched out about four inches. What on earth? I was so astonished, I dropped it.

Logan knelt to pick it up but let go quickly and screeched. It’s hot. It burned my hand.

I stared down at it. The bone was wiggling again. It’s like it’s alive.

Quick, put it back or we’ll be in trouble. Logan looked scared.

I can’t, I said. It’s grown. It won’t fit on that shelf anymore.

I knelt by Logan to look over the bone more closely. I brushed the sand off my hands and the bone as I studied it. Sand? Where had that come from? Not from our wood floor. What was happening? The distant sun was sinking down toward the horizon and a brisk breeze blew my ponytail around to slap me on my cheek.

Cool place. Logan interrupted my panicky thoughts. I like this greenish sand. It’s weird and as hot as our bone was when I tried to pick it up. He rubbed the grains around in the palm of his hand. I’ll bet this is the exact spot our dinosaur bone came from. Maybe this green stuff is his poop.

Hush. My heart pounded as I stood up and looked around. Was I dreaming? We were all alone on the top of a tall hill. There were no trees and no grass, but there were several holes nearby as if someone had been digging around here. Some of the holes were shallow and one looked deep. Down one side of the hill, I could see twinkling lights of a town as twilight began and on the other side, it looked like there was a small airport.

I bent down and picked up the bone. It wasn’t hot or white anymore. It was cold and a greenish gray. Logan beamed. He was loving this. He snatched the bone from me and rubbed it just like I had. Hey, what’s up, Dino bone? he asked it.

I grabbed it back. Stop, Logan. We’ve got to figure out what’s happening. What’s this bone doing to us?

I began to get scared. What was this strange place? Were we in danger here? I shouted as loudly as I could, Anyone here to tell us where we are? Can somebody help us?

Hey. Calm down, Logan twirled around and around, his arms in the air. This is super great. I’ll bet we can find the rest of our good ol’ dinosaur. The whole skeleton, maybe. He laughed and then stopped suddenly. Hi.

A boy appeared at the edge of the top of the hill. He looked like he was my age. He strode toward us, his hands on his hips, his dark eyes narrowed, and a frown on his face.

What are you doing here? the boy exploded. This is sacred ground. It is forbidden for anyone to come here without the guards. Show me your permission slip.

As fast as I could, I put my hand holding our dinosaur bone behind my back. How dare he be so demanding and bossy! The boy glared at me and kept walking toward us. The bone jiggled again, so much, I almost dropped it. Without knowing for sure what I was doing, I tried to jam it into my back jeans pocket. Silly me. Of course, it would be way too big, but I wasn’t thinking straight. It tugged some more. I would drop it for sure if it didn’t stop moving so much.

I wish I could hide you, bone, I muttered. My hand holding the bone felt prickly and then it happened. The bone shrank and fit inside my back pocket, magically and perfectly.

Logan stood with his mouth open staring at the boy. Who are you?

I am Ranjit. He scowled. You are hiding something, he growled. Give it to me.

I stood perfectly still, then held out both of my empty hands. What? I asked.

Logan gasped and walked around me, a puzzled expression on his face. Now, for sure, Ranjit would know something strange was going on.

I cleared my throat. Hey, listen. We’re looking around because our dad and mom told us about dinosaur bones. They used to be teachers here in … I hesitated. Were we in India? I went on, I mean when they were teachers here ayears, Dad discovered a dinosaur bone I guess this is where those giant dinosaurs used to live.

I smiled my best smile. Ranjit, is there a special name for this place? Tell us about it.

The boy still looked angry, but said, You don’t know where you are? Where are you from? England, America or Australia? Never mind. I’ll tell you about this place. The hill is called Burra Simla, ‘Big Hill.’ The kind of dinosaur excavated here was a special Indian species named Rajasaurus. Ranjit tossed his mop of black hair off his forehead and stared at me. That’s a special species that is different from other dinosaurs anywhere else in the world. The paleontologists say it was a therapod. That means meat-eater.

Now he was showing off. He looked like an ordinary boy, dressed in tan shorts and a short-sleeved shirt that had a logo on the pocket. I ignored his bragging and kicked at the dirt. I wonder when anyone dug here last. Someone made these holes.

Well, we know it wasn’t the Raja dinosaur himself, Logan giggled. He couldn’t be digging here ‘cause he’s not been around for millions of years. He grinned his lopsided grin and started spinning around again. Hey, Ranjit, since you know so much, how could the scientists tell how long ago this dinosaur lived, anyway?

Ranjit looked back and forth from one of us to the other. Have you not heard of carbon dating? He looked very irritated. The paleontologists know everything about OUR special dinosaur. It is found only here in India. It is OUR dinosaur. He spit out the words. OURS.

I stepped between him and Logan and talked fast before Logan could have a chance to spout off and tell Ranjit we have a MAGIC dinosaur bone. At least that’s what I think our bone is - a mysterious bone that can do magic.

Oh, Ranjit. Don’t mind Logan’s questions. I tried to smile reassuringly at him. He’s only twelve and I’m three years older so I know a lot more about dinosaurs than he does. By the way, my name is Blair and we’re both so excited we’re here where your famous Rajasauras dinosaur was found.

Ranjit actually smiled at me. Yes, it was here and all my life I have watched the digging. I am fifteen, too, like you. He raised his eyebrows and squinted at me. I have seen many of the bones. Our museum here is trying to put together the dinosaur’s skeleton, but there are bones missing. Did you know that?

He turned and stomped toward a hole with a mound of dirt not far from us. They will reward anyone who brings them a missing bone. Here I saw them dig up a femur bone.

Logan and I followed him and peered into the hole. I felt Dino wiggling again. Ranjit, you know what? I asked. I hesitated. I really didn’t