Danny and the Dinosaur Redux

Daniel found a tiny red egg amongst the clover. As was his habit when his parents were late picking him up he tried to measure every foot of the playground. When he reached step number 427 he noticed that there were scattered red shards and sticky yellow paste in front of him. Upon closer inspection he found that they were the mashed remains of some small nest. Only 3 eggs remained whole and Daniel picked them up and put them in his shirt pocket. His parents arrived at step number 750.

When he got home he did his chores, forgot to mention his homework, and went upstairs to his bedroom. Sitting down at his desk he fished the eggs out of his pocket and placed them under his desklamp. Three whole eggs were down to 2. He swept the remains of the crushed red egg into the wastebasket and put the two remaining eggs into his lego castle with the lamp light shining on them.

The next morning at 4:51 Daniel awoke to a sound like that of a puppy only lower and smaller. It came from the lego castle. Daniel hurried over. One of the little red eggs had hatched and a miniature ankylosaurus was rolling in the remains of the other egg. Three whole eggs were down to 0 and 1 ankylosaurus.

During the next 16 days the tiny creature grew in size and personality. Daniel discovered that it would only eat clover, Cheerios, and carrot shavings. Each morning he carefully placed the creature in the increasingly smelly Lego castle. Each afternoon he took it to play in the field behind his house. Each evening it slept on his bed until 6:22. By the end of the month it was 6 inches long and Daniel was out of Legos. Rather than risk losing the ankylosaurus to dissection or worse Daniel decided to release it into the nearby woods. The dinosaur treated the excursion like any trip to the field until Daniel placed it in a patch of clover and walked away. The little dinosaur let out a buzzing yelp and lumbered after him. Daniel, with tears in his eyes, ran until he could no longer hear the cries of his pet. The next day the clover patch had been munched upon and the dinosaur had left.

Each year on March 3 Daniel would return to the clover patch and, without fail, he would find a nest of small red eggs.