Aimes & Pawson Pass The Time

[Sophie ♥]

Aimes & Pawson Pass the Time

Written by Sophie & Pudding

Art & Characters by JuiceBox

 

Aimes & Pawson is an ageplay children’s picture book intended for adult audiences. You can buy the full version with pictures on Amazon or by joining our SubscribeStar.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXN7J86C 
https://www.subscribestar.adult/sophieandpudding

Our goal was to create a book for story time or bedtime, with no sexual themes and maximum Little feels! Some of the words can be quite big - upwards of 10 letters long! - so you may need an adult to read it for you.

This story takes place in the spring, when Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson are stymied by the rain.

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Chapter One

 

Deep in a faraway jungle, there was a cave. That cave was once home to a family of bears, and long before that it was home to a colony of prehistoric bats, but today it was home to two explorers: a young woman named Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson. An unexpected storm had chased them inside, and though Aimes was fast enough to avoid the worst of the rain, Pawson's tiny legs struggled to keep up.

 

"Do you have a towel in there?" Pawson asked, trying to shake the rain water out of his fur like a dog. Unfortunately, teddy bears didn't have that ability.

 

"I have a rag," Aimes offered, sitting down on the cave floor so Pawson could reach into her backpack. "It might have some food on it though."

 

Pawson took his chances, taking out the little rag Aimes would use to wipe her face after a meal. It looked clean enough, so he started drying off his fur.

 

"I hate spring," Aimes pouted, looking out at rain. It poured down with no end in sight. "Rain comes out of nowhere."

 

"It helps the flowers wake up," Pawson explained. "They sleep an awful long time during the winter."

 

"Yeah, well it's getting in the way of our expedition," Aimes sulked.

 

Aimes wasn't a very patient woman, and she didn't like that something as silly as the weather was stopping her from having a good time. She briefly considered pressing on, despite the rain, but the downpour would soak her diaper in no time at all. She would hardly be able to walk, let alone continue her adventure.

 

"We don't have a choice," Pawson said, wringing out the rag. "The rain will stop eventually. Just give it time.”

 

"But I don't wanna give it..." Aimes perked up as she finished the final word of her sentence: "Time..."

 

Aimes tilted her head and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. It was a posture Pawson knew well, and if he hadn’t been so busy trying to dry his fur, he may have raised a protest before Aimes did anything silly… not that it usually mattered. Once Aimes had an idea in her head, it was hard to change her mind.

 

Aimes pulled off her backpack and set it in her lap. She rooted around inside until she found a little toy clock with plastic hands and colorful numbers. It didn't work anymore, not since Pawson lost the winding key, but all the gears and stuff were still inside. Then Aimes grabbed her toolset of plastic screwdrivers from the bag's side compartment, along with a bubble-blowing gun.

 

Using her screwdrivers, Aimes started taking apart the clock. She haphazardly took out all the gears. Then she unscrewed the frame of her bubble-blower and started replacing the internal mechanisms with the gears from the clock. Aimes couldn't remember exactly how they went, but she managed to fit them all inside just the same. Finally, she screwed the cover back in place and held up the bubble-blower.

 

"Now I just need some water," Aimes said, more to herself than to Pawson. But Pawson was dry - or as dry as he could be - and was once again paying attention.

 

"Water for what?" he asked.

 

"For my time machine," Aimes said. She got up off the ground, opened the liquid chamber on the bubble-blower, and held it under the pouring rain.

 

"I don't think I've ever seen a time machine that looks like that," Pawson said.

 

"And how many time machines have you seen, Pawson?" Aimes countered as she tapped her foot in place, waiting for the rain to fill the time machine’s water chamber.

 

"Well, I don't think that's important…"

 

"It toe-toe-lee is important! If you've never seen a time machine, how can you say what one looks like?"

 

Pawson sighed and watched in resignation as Aimes pushed the little stopper back into the handle of the would-be-time-machine and gave it a good shake.

 

"Anyway," Aimes continued, "if this works, then we can travel through time a few hours and get away from this stinkin' rain!"

 

"Speaking of stinkin’-"

 

"Quiet, Pawson! I'm doing science!"

 

Aimes shook the bubble blowing gun a few times and pointed it at the cave entrance. The rain outside was still pouring down. Aimes pulled the trigger on her bubble-blower and a huge bubble started to form on the end of it. It kept growing and growing until it touched the walls of the cave. Then, with a snap, it pulled itself apart and coated the cave entrance in a thin film of soapy water. But on the other side of the transparent wall, the rain had stopped. Actually, it looked sunny and bright, with tall trees and massive bushes. The dirt in front of them tan and dry.

 

"Toldja," Aimes said smugly, looking down at her childhood friend with a bright smile. Pawson's skepticism was replaced with wonder for just a moment before it shifted back to skepticism.

 

"I don't know about this," he said.

 

"Come on," Aimes whined. "I want to keep exploring."

 

With a sigh of reluctance, Pawson walked alongside Aimes out of the cave entrance, through the soapy wall, and into the bright light of day without disturbing the water tension of the bubble. Then, after both of them had crossed through, the wall collapsed in on itself with a quiet pop.

 

"It's hot," Aimes said, fanning herself with her hand. The sun was beating down on both of them, and it looked like it hadn’t rained in days. She reached for the baby bottle on the side of her backpack, but found - after putting it to her lips and sucking a few times - that it was empty. Maybe she should have prioritized her drinking water over the time machine.

 

"Where to, Miss Time Traveler?" Pawson said without a hint of teasing. Truthfully, he was a little impressed with his friend's ingenuity.

 

"Well," Aimes said, "we need water. But as you pointed out earlier, I need a change first. Stand guard, okay?"

 

Aimes hurried into the cave and Pawson stood watch at the entrance. When it came to protecting Aimes, he took the role very seriously. He crossed his plush arms and stood as tall as he could: a towering two feet and three inches. He took in the sight of every bush, every tree, every pattern in the dirt, looking for any sign of danger. Unfortunately, Pawson was looking the wrong way.

 

"Run!" Aimes shouted, dashing past Pawson. The teddy bear blinked a moment, then turned around to see a swarm of giant bats swooping out of the cave toward him.


 

Chapter Two

 

Running was much easier for Aimes than it was for Pawson, but the stubby little bear did his best to catch up as a wave of leathery wings flapped above their heads. The downdraft knocked Pawson onto his tummy. When Aimes noticed, she doubled back, grabbed him by the paw, and kept running with him at her side.

 

The bats were much larger than any bats Aimes had ever seen before, although her experience with different breeds of bats was more limited than breeds of cats. She could name at least four types of big cats without any trouble at all, but she only knew two types of bats. Soon, the screeching and flapping subsided as the bats dispersed into the bright blue sky and Aimes and Pawson stopped running to catch their breath.

 

"I wonder what spooked them so much?" Aimes wondered out loud. Pawson shrugged his fuzzy little shoulders.

 

"Maybe bats have good noses?" he answered, not entirely serious.

 

"I think they have good ears."

 

"It could be both, like with dogs?" Pawson liked to talk to Aimes about hypotheticals. She was a very bright girl, but sometimes it reminded Pawson how much she still needed him.

 

"Does that mean bats are colorblind?" Aimes asked.

 

"I think they are actually blind." Pawson said. "Or close to it."

 

"Got it." Aimes nodded. "So that's why there are no seeing-eye-bats."

 

"Yup. That's the reason." Pawson sighed, taking stock of the jungle around them, but Aimes had already started looking at something else on the ground. Egg shells. Big ones. Aimes squatted down, leaning forward to get a closer look.

 

"Maybe we shouldn't touch those," Pawson cautioned.

 

"They must be from an ostrich," Aimes said, poking the shell with a single finger to turn it over. "They lay the biggest eggs in the world, you know. And these are much bigger than any egg I've seen."

 

Aimes sat herself down on the ground once again, pulling off her backpack to fetch one of her picture books. Fish. Berries. Birds. Eggs! She grabbed it by the spine and opened the cover.

 

"Should we really be doing this right now?" Pawson asked, looking back toward the cave. It was just out of sight.

 

"Bats don't attack people, Pawson," Aimes said. "We just startled them, and they startled us."

 

"Startled isn't the word I would use," Pawson muttered, taking a few steps around the bend to get a better look at the surroundings. Meanwhile, Aimes skimmed through her picture book, looking for an egg that matched the pattern of the shell she found. It wasn't an ostrich egg, that much was clear.

 

"Uh... Aimes..." Pawson's called, but Aimes was still searching for a match. Her picture books were very thorough, going so far as to include things that couldn't actually be found. That very reason was how Aimes identified the egg.

 

"Aimes?" Pawson said again, a little more urgently.

 

A tyrannosaurus rex? Aimes thought. But that was a kind of dinosaur, and those had been extinct for millions of years. Aimes continued comparing the egg to the picture in the book when Pawson finally got her attention.

 

"Amelia!"

 

"Oh my gosh, what?" Aimes turned around to see Pawson looking up at something. Curiously, she got to her feet and walked around the bend to see what was so important.

 

In front of them, the jungle opened up into a vast plain of tall grass and bushes. In the distance, Aimes and Pawson saw a herd of dinosaurs - the kind with the long necks - eating from the tallest trees. For a moment, both Aimes and Pawson were awash with wonder, until their natures caught up with them.

 

Both of them spoke the exact same words at the exact same time:

 

"We have to go!"

 

The two of them looked at one another. When Pawson said ‘go’, he meant go away, away from a dinosaurs, away from wherever they were. But when Aimes said ‘go’, she meant go closer, toward the dinosaurs, toward adventure. And Pawson knew, when the two of them were at odds, who would usually get their way. His attempt to stand his ground was feeble, because Aimes had already slung her pack over her shoulder and started toward the dinosaurs.

 

"What if they eat us?" Pawson asked as they walked through the brush, checking behind him every so often.

 

"They're veggie-sauruses, Pawson. They’re like big cows, and cows never hurt anybody."

 

"That's not true," Pawson said nervously. "Bulls have big horns!"

 

"Yuhhuh, to protect the cows."

 

There was really no convincing Aimes otherwise, and no amount of Pawson’s concerns or thick shrubbery they had to push through could make a dent in her adventurous spirit. As the two of them got closer, the ground trembled and shook, but not from earthquakes. The creatures were the size of houses and ships, and they would walk from one place to the next without much grace. Even when they moved softly and slowly, the ground would rumble.

 

"See, Pawson? They're calm and happy! If there were any meat-asauruses around, these ones would all be in a tizzy. You worry too much!"

 

"You don't worry enough," Pawson countered. This was a bigger deal than just getting trampled on or eaten by dinosaurs; the whole space-time continuum could be at stake. "If we really travelled back to prehistoric times, then any action we take could affect the future." Then, in a moment of clarity, Pawson asked: "We can get back to the present, right?"

 

"Of course," Aimes said with confidence. "If we walk backwards through the bubble, it should take us back to where we started. But we need water, remember?"

 

Pawson sighed. Aimes was so much easier to manage when she and Pawson were the same size, but humans grew quite large and teddy bears didn't. The only way to get his way these days was to compromise.

 

"We can go see the dinosaurs," Pawson conceded, "then we find some water and return to our time. In the meantime, don't touch anything.”

 

"Sooo... when you say not to touch anything," Aimes pondered, trekking onward toward the dinosaurs, "what does that mean exactly?"

 

"It means don't touch anything, Aimes."

 

"So like... we're walking. Isn’t that touching the ground? And the plants?"

 

"And I don't like it," Pawson said. "But if it's the only way we can get back to the present then that's all we can do."

 

"So walking is okay. What about disturbing all those bats?”

 

"I’d rather not think about it," Pawson sighed. That was quite the interference, and it could mess with an entire ecosystem.

 

"What if I had a part of that T-rex egg in my shirt pocket?" Aimes asked, "That’s okay, right? They're all about the same, in terms of time travel problems?"

 

"Aimes."

 

"Pawson."

 

"Why do you have part of a dinosaur egg in your pocket?" Pawson knew that his friend wouldn’t have asked if she hadn’t already done it.

 

"You distracted me!" Aimes said. "I had to put it somewhere."

 

Before Pawson could say anything else, Aimes pushed her way out of the brush and onto the flattened grass. A huge long-necked dinosaur stood towering above her, dozens of feet high. As it took a gentle step, a tremor shook the ground and Aimes vibrated along with it.

 

"This is so cool," Aimes said excitedly, hurrying toward the huge dinosaur. When she got up close, she put her hand on its foot, ignoring all of Pawson's advice.

 

"Aimes!" Pawson called after her. "No touching! We don't want to change the future!"

 

"Oh, right." Aimes took her hand off the dinosaur just as it lifted its foot to step away. She looked up at the giant creature before tilting her head in thought. Pawson finally caught up to Aimes, just in time to notice that thoughtful look on her face. He would recognize that look anywhere: Aimes had an idea.

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three

 

"We are looking for water, right?" Aimes asked her companion.

 

"Yes?" Pawson said cautiously.

 

"I bet our dinosaur friend can see all kinds of rivers and lakes," Aimes said, "since he can see over the tops of the trees."

 

“Yes, I'm sure that he can," Pawson agreed. He tucked himself behind Aimes for fear of getting stepped on. "But we can’t ask him. I don’t speak dinosaur, and I don’t think you do either."

 

"That's a good point, Pawson. But…"

 

Aimes knelt down, nearly knocking her best friend over as she slung her bag around in front of her and began to look through her belongings. She hummed a triumphant tune when she found what she was looking for and held it above her head: a bright red baby rattle.

 

"Wait here, Pawson," Aimes said. She left Pawson’s side and hurried into the dinosaur’s line of sight. She waited until the long-necked dinosaur lowered his head, then she started jumping up and down. She shook the baby rattle with big sweeping motions to make extra noise and movement.

 

"Excuse me Mister Dinosaur, or Missus… or…" Aimes realized that she didn’t know the dinosaur’s gender. Then she shook the thought from her head and shook the rattle twice as hard. "Excuse me! Down here, please!"

 

Pawson groaned; he was sure Aimes’s plan wouldn't work. But sure enough, with a curious expression - if dinosaurs could have such things - the dinosaur began to lower its long, long, long neck towards the small human woman making all the racket.

 

Aimes shook her baby rattle a little to the right, then a little to the left. The dinosaurs eyes didn't move, but its head imperceptibly tilted one way or the other, as if following the sound. Soon, its head was so low and so close that Aimes could reach out and touch it.

 

Aimes put out her hand, then hesitated. She looked over at Pawson, who stared with wide eyes and shrugged his shoulders. With Pawson's blessing, Aimes took a step forward and put her hand on the dinosaur's nose, which was as tall as she was. The scale was unbelievable, like she was just a small rabbit touching the nose of fully grown elephant. In all her adventures, she had never experienced such a size disparity.

 

"Excuse me," Aimes said, still resting her hand on its nose. "Would you mind if I climbed on your neck? I'm looking for water, and I'm too small to find it."

 

The dinosaur didn't answer, but after Aimes removed her hand it didn't stand itself back up. Slowly, Aimes moved around the dinosaur's head until she came to the neck. She reached up to climb on it, but was just a little too short.

 

"Pawson, gimme a boost!" Aimes hissed, trying not to scare off the dinosaur. After a moment of disbelief passed, Pawson hurried to help his friend onto the neck of the dinosaur. It would have been a lot smarter if Pawson went up instead - he was much smaller and much lighter - but truthfully he didn't want to. Anyway, Aimes would never pass up an opportunity like this.

 

Pawson wasn't very strong - as one might expect from a teddy bear - but he could be used as leverage when Aimes needed it. She put her foot on his paws, so the seat of her diaper was right in his face, as she climbed onto the dinosaur's neck. It wasn't a very modest position for Aimes, but she wasn't a very modest woman. She found pants too restrictive, and they just made it harder to change her diapers.

 

"Just...a little more....ah-huh!" Aimes got onto the back of the dinosaur’s neck, near the top where it met with its head. She almost stood up in celebration, but the dinosaur shifted its neck and Aimes had to grab tightly to the back of its head to keep from falling off. She squeezed her thighs together tightly to hold herself steady.

 

"Be careful!" Pawson called from the grass.

 

"I’m fine," Aimes assured him, then addressed the dinosaur. "I don’t know your pronouns, and I think it might be rude to keep calling you Mister Dinosaur, so I’m going to call you Alex because anybody can be named Alex. I promise, if I ever learn dinosaur, I’ll ask you for your proper name."

 

Maybe Aimes was waiting for the dinosaur to acknowledge her, but this time the outcome was more in line with Pawson’s expectations: Alex didn’t seem to be listening.

 

"Now Alex," Aimes continued as the neck moved again and the dinosaur’s snout moved over to Pawson, "could you pretty please take me up high so I can look for water?”

 

At first, the dinosaur didn’t seem very interested in anything but the magenta teddy bear on the ground. Then Aimes said:

 

"Oh, don’t worry about Pawson. He wants to stay on the ground, don’t you Pawson?"

 

"Uh, yes…" Pawson agreed, taking a few small steps away from Alex as its face got closer and closer. "I’m going to wait here."

 

That seemed to do the trick, because the dinosaur left the teddy bear alone and stood back up at its full height. The speed at which Aimes rose from the ground was frightening, but it maybe frightened Pawson more than Aimes herself. Soon, she was high above the treetops and looking out at a vast landscape of trees and cliffs. She clung tightly to the back of the dinosaur's head, squeezing her thighs together and pressing the front of her diaper against the dinosaur's rough skin. After a moment of awe, she noticed a glittering river in the distance.

 

"Pawson! That way, a few miles!" Pawson looked up at the direction she was pointing and drew a little arrow in the ground with his foot.

 

"Thank you so much Alex, but I need to get down now," Aimes said, but the dinosaur didn't respond. It reached its head upward, toward a tall tree, and took a leaf from one of the branches with its mouth. The tilt of the dinosaur's head knocked Aimes backward and she slid a few feet down Alex's neck.

 

"Okay, um..." Aimes looked down at Pawson thirty or so feet below her. Carefully, she clamped her arms around Alex's neck and lowered her thighs, then shimmied down the dinosaur until she wound up on its back.

 

"Are you okay?" Pawson shouted from the ground, full of worry.

 

"Doin' great," Aimes smiled. She looked around for a way down and noticed the curve of the tail. It wasn't all that different to a slide, if she thought about it. "I'll be right down Pawson!"

 

"How?" Pawson said, fretting and tugging at his ears, but Aimes had it all under control. She crawled along the back of the dinosaur - because Alex’s skin was too uneven to walk on - until she reached the dinosaur’s tail. She sat down at the top of the tail and pulled the slightly damp rag from her backpack. She shimmed her diapered butt onto the rag, so it was between her and the rough dinosaur skin, and swung her weight forward. Aimes zoomed down the tail just like a slide! It was a little rougher than the slides she was used to, but the padding on her butt helped ease the discomfort. When she got to the bottom, she tumbled off Alex’s tail and into the flattened field of grass.

 

"Aimes!" Pawson hurried to where Aimes was lying in the grass, but she sat up and waved at the dinosaur.

 

"Thank you, Alex!" Aimes said.

 

"Goodness," Pawson sighed. "You might have gotten yourself hurt!"

 

"I was perfectly safe," Aimes assured her friend.

 

"And what if you'd fallen off?" Pawson challenged.

 

"You'd catch me." Aimes winked at Pawson and dusted herself off. Then she took Pawson by the paw, and together they set off toward the river.

 

 

 

 

Chapter Four

 

"Are you sure this is the right direction?" Pawson asked.

 

"I'm sure," answered Aimes. "Either way, the river was pretty long. If we keep going in this direction, we’re bound to run into it."

 

"We haven't seen any other dinosaurs in a while," Pawson said. To him, that was a good sign, but Aimes had a different perspective.

 

"I know, isn't that a shame? I was hoping to meet some other kinds. You remember when we were at the bookstore and you said..." Aimes put on her best Pawson voice, which sounded a lot more like a slightly deeper Aimes voice. "You don't need a dinosaur book. We aren't going to run into any dinosaurs."

 

"I could not have seen this coming," Pawson admitted. If it was up to Aimes, she would bring an entire library, and packing light was essential when everything you owned had to fit in a backpack.

 

"I would like to see like one of those ones... you know, with the..." Aimes spread her hands out like fans and put them behind her ears, like a lizard’s frill. "You know, this one? But I think they're meat-asauruses, and I’d rather be a friend than a food." Aimes waved a bug out of her face and pushed through another shrub.

 

"I would say we're having rather good luck, considering..." Pawson struggled to keep up with Aimes even in the best of times, but the tall shrubbery of a prehistoric jungle was particularly frustrating. Finally, the both of them emerged into a small clearing of flowers and Aimes stopped to stretch.

 

"Wait here, okay?" Aimes said to her teddy bear. "I'm going to get changed."

 

"Don't go far," Pawson warned.

 

Aimes didn't go far. She walked around a tree and found a plush place in the grass. She wondered idly what the ramifications of leaving a dirty diaper in the past would have on the present, but the slide down Alex's tail certainly made Aimes more eager than ever to change. Plus, if Pawson wasn't concerned about it, what reason did Aimes have to worry?

 

Aimes had just unfolded the fresh diaper and set out her supplies when she heard Pawson shout: "AIMES! HELP!"

 

Aimes and Pawson had been best friends since Aimes was an actual baby; she knew the difference between a cry for help and a literal cry for help. She quickly got to her feet, grabbing the baby powder and wipes as she went, and sprinted into the clearing of flowers. Sure enough, standing only a dozen or so feet away from Pawson, was a tyrannosaurus rex!

 

Or, well... a small one, maybe a child. It looked a lot more like a lizard on two legs than it did a dinosaur, but it was only a foot shorter than Aimes. It took a step toward Pawson, then turned to look at Aimes.

 

"Just stay still," Aimes told Pawson. If her childhood books about dinosaurs were right, then T-rexes had trouble seeing things that weren’t moving. Pawson did what he was told, and Aimes stood quietly in place as the little T-rex got closer. Then she saw the little thing sniff its nose. She tilted her head. Aimes got an idea. If it was using smell to track her...

 

Aimes twisted open the lid on the baby powder and threw it at the T-rex. It hit the dinosaur in the side, and a huge white cloud of baby powder filled the air.

 

"Run!" Aimes shouted at Pawson. He turned around and ran into the woods with Aimes close behind. When she caught up to him, Aimes grabbed Pawson’s paw to help him keep up. The sounds of cracking branches echoed behind them as they were chased through the woods. Suddenly the trees fell away and Aimes and Pawson found themselves looking up at a large, rocky wall. They had nowhere else to run.

 

"We have to turn back," Pawson urged, but when they did, the little T-rex was waiting for them. A large splotch on its skin was white with powder and it growled softly.

 

"Stay still," Aimes said again, but Pawson didn't. He put himself between Aimes and the T-rex, spreading his arms out in her defense and trying not to tremble. If anyone was getting eaten by a meat-asaurus, it was going to be him, though Pawson didn’t consider that stuffing and fabric probably wasn't the T-rex's diet.

 

The T-rex took a step closer and looked around. It tried to sniff and then let out a sound that could only be described as a whimper. Aimes tilted her head again, touching her chin.

 

"If it wanted to attack us," Aimes whispered, "why didn't it?"

 

"Maybe the baby powder confused it?" Pawson suggested quietly, whispering to the woman standing behind him.

 

"But it didn't attack us even before the baby powder," Aimes argued. "And if it's from that clutch of eggs I found earlier, why was it all the way out here?"

 

They both came to the same conclusion at the same time: it was tracking them.

 

"It must be that eggshell I took!" Aimes said. "It must have a kind of smell!"

 

"I'm sure there are easier smells to track you with," Pawson sighed.

 

"Hey!" Aimes pouted. "I've tried to change twice since we got here!"

 

"Can we focus on the T-rex wanting to eat us, please?"

 

Aimes did just that. She looked at the little T-rex, who, until that moment, hadn't roared. But when it did - when it opened its huge jaw to whine - Aimes noticed something curious.

 

"Its teeth hasn't come in yet. See? How can it eat us with no teeth?"

 

"With powerful jaws?" Pawson countered. "With claws on its... finger things."

 

"Hm, I know what it needs," Aimes said, swinging her backpack off her shoulder. The motion drew the T-rex's attention and it took a step closer.

 

"Aimes, you said not to move!"

 

"Just one sec," Aimes said, rooting through her bag again. "Ah, here we go."

 

Aimes had her back to the wall - figuratively and literally - and Pawson was doing everything he could to get in the way of the little T-rex. The meat-eating dinosaur opened its mouth, only a foot from Pawson's head, and Aimes tossed something inside.

 

"Was that… a chicken nugget?" Pawson asked, bewildered. The T-rex chomped down on it with its toothless gums and swallowed the mashed nugget whole.

 

"A dinosaur chicken nugget," Aimes corrected, holding up the little plastic bag of dinosaur-shaped nuggets. "Because T-rexes eat other dinosaurs." She took another nugget out of the bag and tossed it into the dinosaur’s mouth.

 

"Where did you get those?" Pawson asked.

 

"From my backpack."

 

"You have to keep them cold, Aimes!"

 

"But they taste so much better when they’re warm," Aimes shrugged, taking a bite of one of the chicken nuggets before tossing the other half at the T-rex.

 

"No wonder you always have a tummy ache," Pawson muttered to himself. At just the thought of it, he felt a little queasy. Then again, since Pawson was a teddy bear, he didn’t eat all that much to begin with.

 

Despite Pawson’s disapproval, Aimes was very pleased with herself. She gave her last nugget to the dinosaur, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough to sate a growing T-rex.

 

As the dinosaur finished the final chicken nugget, Aimes started to sift through her pack once again, umming and ahhing until she found what she was looking for. This time, she pulled out a pink and yellow teething ring, the biggest one she had. Honestly, it was probably too big for Aimes anyway. The next time the T-rex opened its mouth - expecting another chicken nugget no doubt - Aimes tossed in the teething ring instead.

 

The dinosaur bit into the teething ring few times, pushing it around the insides of its mouth, and started chewing where its back teeth should have been. Then, after a minute of awkward chewing, the T-rex turned around and wandered back into the woods.

 

"Wow..." Pawson shook his head in disbelief. "How did you know that would work?"

 

"I get cranky when I don't have things to chew on," Aimes shrugged. "I was going to give it a binky, but I don't think it would have been able to keep it in its mouth."

 

Pawson wanted to correct Aimes that a binky was for sucking, not chewing, but he was too impressed with Aimes in that moment to ruin her fun. Once again, her quick thinking had saved the day.

 

"Come on," Aimes said, waving Pawson forward. "If we follow this cliff we should find the river."

 

 

 

 

Chapter Five

 

As they walked, they talked about the dinosaurs and their adventure so far. This was so much better than a rainy day! Mid-sentence, Pawson interrupted her.

 

"Be quiet, Aimes." Her eyes went wide and the teddy shook his head, cupping one paw over one ear. "I think I hear water."

 

Aimes heard it too. They both hurried toward the sound and, before long, Aimes and Pawson found themselves looking at the crystal clear river. A ways downstream, there were dinosaurs drinking from the water, and high in the sky where they hadn't even looked before, there were silhouettes of massive flying creatures against the evening sun. They both stared in awe for a moment, taking in a sight that no human - or teddy bear - had ever seen before.

 

Then Aimes remembered why they had come to the river in the first place. She approached the shore and knelt down next to the water.

 

"It's so clean and clear, Pawson, look!"

 

"Probably because the dinosaurs didn’t put a bunch of junk in it like people do," Pawson said, but Aimes was already pulling off her backpack. She took her baby bottle out of the side pocket, unscrewed the cap, and held it in the stream to fill it up. Once it was full, Aimes twisted the teat back into place, sat down on the grass by the riverbank, and suckled on the bottle with a happy smile. After a long minute, Pawson finally asked:

 

"What about the time machine?"

 

Aimes popped the nipple out of her mouth. "What about it?"

 

"Don't you need to refill the time machine bubble blower?" he asked.

 

"No, we still have a ton of water in there."

 

"But... but then... why did we need to get water?" Pawson asked.

 

"I can't drink the water in the bubble machine, Pawson," Aimes said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There's soap in there. I would get sick."

 

Aimes put her bottle back between her lips and sucked down more of the clean river water. Pawson stood there for a long while, thinking about the day they had, about the time machine that could have been used at any time, and finally took a seat beside his best friend in the grass. After Aimes had finally quenched her thirst, she refilled the bottle in the river just to be safe. Then she wrapped her arm around Pawson and looked up at the dozens of different dinosaurs peppering the landscape.

 

"What a fun day," Aimes said cheerfully. "Don't you think?"

 

Pawson sighed and leaned into Aimes. The sun was setting on the horizon, and so too was their adventure through time.

 

"Better than a rainy one," Pawson admitted.

 

Aimes and Pawson had to look for a new spot to use the time machine bubble blower, because the cave was much too far away. Eventually, they found a cluster of trees that were close enough together. The large bubble clung to branches and tree trunks and dirt on the ground, making a transparent wall filled with soapy swirls. On the other side, it was pouring rain. Aimes pouted.

 

"It will stop eventually," Pawson reminded her.

 

"I know," Aimes sighed.

 

Aimes and Pawson put their backs to the bubble and walked through it in reverse. Once they were on the other side, the time bubble popped and rain splashed off the rims of their hats.

 

"I suppose we should find a cave," Aimes suggested. The rain was already soaking through her shirt.

 

"Or we could keep exploring," Pawson shrugged. "For just a little bit."

 

"Yeah?" Aimes smiled brightly. "Thanks Pawson!"

 

It wasn't long before exhaustion caught up with Aimes, and waddling around in a rain-soaked diaper certainly didn't help. Within the hour, Aimes and Pawson found a canopy to hide under, and Aimes finally got the change she had wanted for a hundred million years.

 

As she curled up in her spare shirt and a fresh diaper, the rain became a drizzle and the sun shined through the canopy.

 

"Look at that," Pawson said, nodding toward the sky. "It just took a little bit of time."

 

But Aimes was already fast asleep.

 

 

 

Sometime Later

 

Aimes and Pawson were browsing around a local bookstore when Aimes came up to her best friend with a book of dinosaurs in her hands. It wasn’t small, and the papers were thick and glossy as most picture books were. Pawson knew what she was going to say before she could even say the words.

 

"What are the chances we're going to run into dinosaurs again," Pawson asked, crossing his arms.

 

"Come on," Aimes whined. "It's just one more book, and who knows when we’ll come across another bookstore. We’re setting out tomorrow morning on another adventure."

 

"And you have to travel light," Pawson reminded her. "No more books."

 

With a sigh, Aimes stepped away and flipped through the pages of the book she wouldn’t get to keep. It had realistic depictions of a lot of dinosaurs, with their names and a few traits about each one. But one page was more interesting than the rest. She turned back to her teddy bear.

 

"Hey, Pawson. Look at this." Aimes turned the book around so Pawson could see the rendering of a young T-rex chewing on a rather familiar teething ring.

 

"It's a shame we didn't have this book," Aimes said wistfully. "It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

 

After a long pause, after a lot of thought, Pawson nodded his head. "One more book couldn’t hurt," he conceded.

 

What were the chances they were going to run into dinosaurs again? Higher than one might expect.

 

[End.]