Quick Story: Ronda & the Dino Professor

Bedtime Stories
Jul 20, 2017 · 6 min read

In this series, we use our “Quick Story” feature to generate random storypoints and build a small bedtime story around that.

Join the fun and let us know how your kids liked this quick story!

Ronda & The Dino Professor

by Viktoria Windhab

One day Ronda was skating down the main street of Pleasantville, her hometown. For Ronda, nothing is more boring than Pleasantville. There are only old people like her parents who work all day and have no time to play. So, Ronda has to find herself something to do.

Ronda is frustrated and skates on and on until she leaves the boring town behind her and reaches the woods. After a while, the street ends but Ronda doesn’t want to turn around and skate back. She takes her skateboard and walks deeper into the wood. A little fox crosses her path and jumps into the coppice.

Suddenly the wood ends and Ronda stands on the verge of a great lake. She never saw such a beautiful lake with that perfect green color. Ronda wanders around but soon even that beautiful nature bores her. She starts throwing stones into the lake and kicks down some little trees.

„What are you doing?“ Ronda turns around and sees an old man with thick glasses and tousled hair. „Nothing. What are you doing here?“ she replies. The old man looks around, searching for something… „Ha! I know, I am looking for food” he responses happy to recall what he was doing one minute ago.

Ronda is confused. „In the wood? Shouldn’t you go to the supermarket or a Restaurant or something?“ The old man shakes his head, „No, why would they eat restaurant food?“.

She gets even more confused, „Who?“, she asks. „My dinosaurs.“, the old man responses proud.

Ronda doesn’t believe her ears, „but they died off a long time ago… I thought…“.

The old man shakes his head again, „Indeed they are extinct“. He walks past Ronda, who doesn’t understand the world. „But if they are extinct, why are you looking for food?“, she follows him, curious what this is all about.

„Oh, they live. In my laboratory at the university.“, he smiles and shows Ronda a Polaroid of four little creatures looking scared into the camera. „This is Li, Filo, Maggie and Mr. Snuggle because he hates snuggling.“ He seems very proud.

Ronda looks at the picture „But when he doesn’t like to cuddle, why did you name him that way?“

„Because…“ and the professor goes on. Ronda blinks and pinches herself, this must be a dream. But she doesn’t wake up. It drives her crazy! So, she follows the professor who is crawling on the ground pulling out some roots and putting them into a bag.

„I need much more…“ he mumbles. Ronda starts crawling on the ground and searching for roots. On one of the roots dangles a little worm. As soon as he recognizes Ronda he jumps off the root and vanishes into the wet ground. She stands up and hands it over to the professor. „Oh how nice of you, thank you.“

With that, he goes on to an hot-air-balloon. He turns around to Ronda, „Do you want to come with me?“. Ronda nods and quickly jumps into the basket. Real dinosaurs, imagine that!

The professor pulls in the anchor and the balloon takes off. Soon the lake within the wood looks like a little puddle. The professor enjoys the wonderful view over the lake, the wood, and the city but where is Ronda.

The Professor finds her huddled in one corner whispering, „It’s fine, we are up in the air, everything is just fine… It’s fine…“. The professor sits down beside her and taps her shoulder clumsily.

„Dear dear. Everything is fine, nothing is going to happen… if the weather stays sunny“. Ronda looks up in the sky. Big dark clouds rise up and start to gather around the little balloon. A blast catches the balloon and carries it away from the city and the wood. Ronda closes her eyes and grabs the professor’s arm. „Ouuuuch! Dear dear, everything will be alright“, he tries to calm her down but Ronda leeches even more on to the professor’s arm.

The basket starts to shake heavily in the howling wind. Then suddenly, a bang and the basket bumps against something really hard and stays dangling in the air. Ronda opens her eyes.

The professor stands up, looks around and scratches his head. Now Ronda gets up and very carefully tries to catch a glimpse of the situation. The Balloon burst and the frazzle sticks in a little tree.

She looks down and immediately crawls back into the corner of the basket. The balloon sticks in a little tree up a high mountain. Ronda starts to cry, „We have to stick here forever and ever!“. The professor scratches his head, „Why are you crying?“.

Ronda looks up, not knowing what to say or think. „There is no need to cry. We just have to find a way to get out of here.“ The professor starts to check every string and every frazzle. He even takes a sample of the dust of the mountain. Ronda watches him with big eyes. „Okay yes, that’s not gonna work“. He sits down next to Ronda, proud of his finding.

„Why aren’t you freaking out?“, she asks. „We are stuck.“ but the professor shakes his head, „No, there is always a way“.

He takes off his glasses and shows them to Ronda. „These are magical glasses, you see.“ Ronda just shakes her head, „But there is nothing magical in your world“.

„My world?“ He asks.

„Yes, your grown-up world where you grown-ups all work and don’t do anything else.“

The professor scratches his head, „You think grown ups don’t have fun?“. Ronda shakes her head. The professor laughs.

„Well, that depends on what you do. My work, for example, is like playing a game. And I can build myself everything I want to.“

Ronda is fascinated, „Really?“, the professor nods. „Watch”.

He pushes a little button at the bow of the glasses. A glowing hole in the basket of the balloon appears. Ronda gets big eyes and pushes herself even more into the corner. The professor smiles at her, „Ladies first.“ Ronda shakes her head, „No.“

The professor shrugs of the shoulders jumps into the hole and — has vanished. Ronda looks after him, but he’s nowhere to be seen within the glowing portal.

Suddenly he sticks his head through the hole „are you coming or not?“ Ronda hurries down the hole and lands on a very messy table.

She looks around and sees in the other corner of the office a playpen with little dinosaurs in it. The professor comes along with her to the playpen and opens it.

Li, Filo and Maggie greet him with excitement and jump up high onto him. Only Mr. Snuggles stays calm and watches the scene. Ronda steps into the playpen and very slowly Mr. Snuggles comes over to sniff.

Ronda touches his head and pets him. Although he seems very shy he stays. „I think he likes you.“, the professor smiles at them, „would you like to help me with dinner?“

„Yes of course!“, Ronda shouts out immediately, which makes the dinosaurs flee back into the opposite corner of the playpen. „Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.“, she says quickly. But Mr. Snuggles is already on his way back to her.

Tipps for telling this story:

Make this story as funny as possible and fill in specifics and details together with your kids.

How does Ronda talk? How about the professor? Does he forget what he wanted to say? Or has he got a funny squeeky voice?

Fill the story with more details, sound effects, and dialogue and let your kids join in. But most importantly, have fun!

Let us know how it turned out.

Here are some more tips about telling an engaging bedtime story: Three Tips for the Perfect Bedtime Story

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