William came all the way from China for the summer holidays. His baby sister Emily came too, with round cheeks and a soft little snuffle. In Plymouth, England, Grammy waved from the door, and Gramps said, "Here come my seaside explorers!"
William held up his small green dinosaur. "Longtail came too," he said. Emily went "ba-ba-ba," and patted Longtail’s nose with one tiny hand.
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The next morning, the beach waited under a pale blue sky. The sea went hush, hush, hush, and pebbles clicked under William’s shoes. Gramps carried the bucket, Grammy carried Emily, and William carried Longtail.
"We are going on a dinosaur adventure," whispered William. Stomp, stomp, stomp. He made Longtail walk across the sand, leaving little toe marks behind.
Then William turned to fetch a shell. Oh dear! Longtail was gone. The bucket was empty, except for a sparkling shell and one strip of floppy seaweed.
William bent down so close his nose nearly touched the sand. He saw marks. Not little marks. Enormous dinosaur footprints went across the beach, one after another.
Follow the stomps where the bright shells glow.
"Did the shell say that?" William asked. Grammy’s eyes twinkled. Emily kicked both feet and made a happy "guh!"
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William followed the footprints. Squelch went his shoe in a soft patch. Plip went a crab into a rock pool. Whoosh went the breeze, lifting his hair.
The footprints led past a sandcastle, round and lumpy. They led past Gramps’s towel, stripy and red. Then they stopped beside a dune with sparkling shells all around it.
William peeped over the top. Wow! There lay a huge dinosaur made of sand, with pebble eyes, seaweed spikes, and a long tail curling towards the sea. On its nose sat Longtail.
"I found him!" William cried, and his knees bounced up and down. Gramps popped up from behind the dune with sandy elbows. "The Plymouthasaurus needed a king," he said.
Emily gave a squeaky laugh. She waved her biscuit, and a crumb landed on the sand dinosaur’s nose. A gull waddled close, looked at Longtail, and went "awk!" as if it had met a cousin.
William laughed so hard his sunhat slipped. He gently picked up Longtail and placed him in the sand dinosaur’s pebble crown. "You may be king," he said, "but you must not wander off."
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They built tiny dinosaur nests from shells. They made baby footprints with Emily’s toes, pat pat pat, while she wriggled and gurgled. The sea crept nearer with a soft shush, and William waved goodbye to the sandy Plymouthasaurus.
Back at Grammy and Gramps’s house, the windows glowed gold. Emily slept against Grammy’s shoulder, her little hand curled like a shell. William tucked Longtail beside his pillow.
"Tomorrow," whispered Gramps, "we might find another footprint."
William smiled into his blanket. Outside, Plymouth grew quiet. The sea said hush, hush, hush, and Longtail stayed right where he belonged.
