If you visit Horsmarlonerpool train station, you can catch a train in two directions. North, to the Skylands, or west to the Pastures. But if you’re very lucky, and you’re friends with the engines and their drivers, you can go to other places, too.
One small line branches down to the harbor, and another one goes to the airport. Well it just so happened that on this day, as Amira and Dylan stood waiting for a train up to the Skylands that Shampoo the engine chugged into the platform with a rake of goods wagons.
Amira had an idea.
“Fancy an adventure,” she said to Dylan.
“But we’re already going on an adventure. To the Skylands, remember?”
“Yes but it takes a long time to get there, and I’ve got a better idea,” winked Amira, and then turned to Shampoo as he settled in the platform with the big hiss of white steam.
“Morning, Amira!” puffed Shampoo. “Morning, Dylan.”
Amira smiled. “Are you off anywhere exciting, Shampoo?” she asked.
“Oh, only the harbour,” said Shampoo. "I’ve got these wagons to unload onto a boat to Holland.”
“Mind if we, errr, tag along?” said Amira.
Dylan looked at her. What was she thinking? They didn’t want to go to the harbor. Did they?
“You’d better ask my driver,” said Shampoo.
“Oooooh, I don’t see why not!” said the driver. And so Amira and Dylan hopped onto Shampoo’s footplate, and soon they were headed out of the station - towards the Skylands - but before too long the track branched off to the right and the whole train slowed down as the rails beneath them now were a bit older and a bit more wobbly.
Looking out of the dirty front windows, they could see that they were getting close. Dylan had forgot how much he loved the harbor. It smelt funny, but good funny, and there was always the squark of seagulls overhead, the sound of cranes turning, and the huge honk of ship horns.
“Thanks, Shampoo!” said Dylan and Amira excitedly as he hissed to a halt and they climbed down onto solid ground.
There was even more action that normal happening down at the harbor.
They were building a new pier for bigger ships to dock at, and that meant putting a big bucket down into the dirty water, and scooping out all the mud and yuk from the bottom so it got deeper and deeper and the big ships could sail in properly.
A big yellow crane dunked the bucket, pulled up the mud and yuk, twisted around, and dropped it onto a big, smelly sloppy pile. And then twisted around, and then dunked it in again, and —-
BUBBLES! Huge bubbles erupted from the middle of the harbor.
That was strange. The crane driver pulled the bucket back up, and then lowered it over the side of the pier again.
B-BLOB! B-BLOB-B-BLOB! B-BLOB! B-BLOB-B-BLOB!
There were the big bubbles again.
How was the bucket going down into the water and mud HERE, but big bubbles were coming up in the middle of the harbor over THERE?
They needed some detectives. They needed two people who were good enough at swimming and brave enough to go down into the darkness and have a look for themselves.
Amira was already putting on a diving costume. “Come on, Dylan,” she said. “You too.”
Dylan put on his black diving costume and together they climbed over the side of the pier and down into the water. They put the glass masks over their faces, and put their heads under.
Well if it was murky at the surface, it was even dirtier as you got deeper. But soon, they were at the bottom, where the crane’s bucket had been digging.
Dylan turned on his bright, bright torch, and there, at the bottom, sticking out of the mud, was a green scale.
Amira dug around the scale with her hands and saw that it was part of something far bigger. It was the shape of a big thumb, but here - right at the end - was a big claw, and it was rough at the bottom…
It was a toe! A big green toe!
Amira and Dylan swum back to the surface and took off their masks and snorkels.
“There’s a big toe down there!” they shouted.
But then, the water in the harbor began to swirl and fizz. And all the boats who were loading and unloading their cargo began to rock. And the seagulls stopped squawking. And then, with a huge explosion of water, a dinosaur as big as an office block rose up out of the harbor and yawned so loudly that everyone covered their ears and the big yellow crane shook.
“Who was tickling me?” said the creature. “I was just having a nice few million year nap, and someone started ticking my toe.”
Amira and Dylan, who were both very bold and brave, stepped forward.
“I’m sorry to have woken you,” said Amira. “But I have to admit it was us. But we didn’t know it was your toe. In fact, we didn't know you were down there at all. We’ve… we’ve not been here as long as you.”
The dinosaur looked puzzled. But everyone around the harbor looked either terrified, or just gawped.
But Amira knew the right thing to do when you meet someone new.
“My name is Amira,” she said. “And this is my friend Dylan.”
She held out her hand. Properly.
The dinosaur sat down in the water on his hind legs, both feet sticking up out of the water, and starched his his head with one of the claws on the end of his little arms. And then he reached out too.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Leonard.”
“HURRRRR-III-CAAAANE” shouted the Harbour Master, and all of a sudden sirens began to whirl.
“What’s that noise?” asked Leonard the dinosaur. “I’m awake now, I don’t need an alarm.”
“It’s the hurricane alert!” said Dylan. “It means a storm’s coming and all ships have to return to the safety of the harbour”
“It’s too late!” shouted the Harbour Master! “The storms coming in too quickly, and Anna and Pietro are out there on their boat!”
“Anna and Pietro?” cried Amira. “But they’ll be whipped up by the storm!”
“Friends of yours?” said Leonard.
“Yes! And they have a little green boat!” said Dylan. “It’ll never survive a hurricane.”
Leonard lifted himself up, and with the biggest green legs you’ve ever seen, waded out of the harbor towards the sea. Well, he didn’t have to swim. He was so big, that the sea only came up to his middle.
He saw the black clouds moving in, and he felt the wind against his face, and then he saw Anna and Pietro’s little boat.
They were terrified to see a monster coming towards them, and even more terrified when it picked up their entire boat in one hand. But they were relieved when - two minutes later - they were put gently down in the middle of the calm harbour.
Leonard had been snoozing for so many millions of years that he didn’t need to sleep for a few million more, and so from that day forth he lived in the harbor and became friends to ship captains from all over the world. Everyone in every port in every port knew about Leonard, the dinosaur who saved ships, and they couldn’t wait until they had a delivery to make in Horsmarlonerpool so they could visit him.
And when they needed a new pier dug out, they didn’t need a crane and a bucket anymore. Leonard did it with one scoop of his hand. And when a big load of cargo needed to be picked up from a ship and put down on to the dock, Leonard picked it all up on a rope with one little claw. And whenever he wanted a nice friendly conversation, Amira and Dylan would ask Shampoo the engine to take them down to the harbour - where there was a new station built, right next to Leonard’s brand new comfy bed.
