Count tea rex

There was once a dinosaur that loved to drink tea. He would roam the land daily, searching for his perfect tea leaves. So he could make his delicious drink.

The poor dinosaur could never understand why none of the other dinosaurs would help him. "Do none of you want to come with me to find the tea leaves? I can show you afterwards how to make a good cup." It always ended in a laugh, joke or tease. "Dinosaurs don't drink tea. Never have and never will. Grow up, will you? Your arms are too small to hold the cup and teapot. It looks weird hanging it on your tail."                                                                                                                                              "Why not try a cup? You might be surprised?" the dinosaurs continued laughing, pushing past him and going on their way. Leaving him to go on the search alone.

Johnny collected his tea leaves and headed back to the house. A strange creature was ahead of him. It was a bat that grew bigger, launched within a moment, bit his neck, and fell straight to the ground. A hazy was the only way to explain how Johnny felt afterwards.                   "What have you done to me? Why am I changing from green to blue?"

Johnny looked at the vampire. He was melting and trying to be sick. His skin was pale "My apologies. I'm Damon. I've to feed on blood to keep myself alive. You're a dinosaur, but there wasn't any blood inside you. It had a sweet, milky taste. What was it?" this made him laugh and smile.                                                     "It’s tea.”                                                                                                                               “What is tea?"                                                                                                      "It's a refreshing drink. You must come with me now and try it."

Damon and Johnny headed back to the house. Of course, Johnny made the tea as he usually did.  Damon drank the tea. It surprised him that Johnny was back to being green.                                “That doesn’t make any sense. How on earth were you able to break the vampire curse? By taking a drink?”                                                                                      “Tea is the cure for everything in my world. It's a pity no one else sees it that way. They all think I'm crazy.”                                                                                 “You’ve to admit it yourself: a tea drinking vampire dinosaur isn’t something you hear about every single day of the year, now is it?”                                                                                “No I suppose your right Damon. You barely touched your tea? Didn’t you like it?” Damon looked at him. “No, it was too sweet for me.”                                                                               “At least you didn’t laugh at me. All I asked you gave it a go. It’s not for everyone’s liking, but it’s my way of living. I couldn’t survive without my tea.

 “You’re a different type of dinosaur, Johnny. Most creatures don’t know how to deal with things that are different. It’s nothing ever to get disappointed over. Promise me you’ll never go and change your to make others happy.”   

Damon left Johnny a little while later. It got him thinking about the missing count. He had heard rumours from the dinosaurs and vampires. There was no way of knowing unless he tried a little experiment.  

Damon returned that evening.                                                                                   "I need to bite into the side of your neck again. After you transform into a vampire. I want you to drink tea again to see if it undoes the curse again." 

"Okay, but why?"

 "I think you’re someone vital. I don't want to say anything. I could be wrong." 

"Okay, fire ahead." Damon bit into his neck. Once again, the taste made him feel ill. As instructed, Johnny drank his tea. Within seconds, the vampire disappeared again.  

Damon stood there in amazement.                                                                      "You ‘re count, Tea, Rex. We were told many years ago that you had disappeared."

"Hold on. I’m what?"

"You’re Count Tea Rex. The leader of this dinosaur pack and the leader of the vampire pack. We’ll all follow in your footsteps." Johnny felt confused by the news. He knew there was no way the dinosaurs would accept him. A vampire would kill him as well. “How can this even be possible?”                                                                         “Your parents must have been either related to the royal family. Or they were the royal family. Since they’re gone now. The responsibility falls back on you to lead us.” “You’re trusting me with a lot of responsibility. I can’t do it.”                                  “I understand that you are nervous, master. This is your rightful land. No other dinosaur should be claiming it as theirs. I’m sorry this was too much information all at once for you.”  Johnny was struggling with the pressure of his new responsibility.    “I’ll leave you alone, Master. So, you can get your head wrapped around this.”  

It took many weeks for anyone to see Johnny again. Many of them were getting worried about him. Usually, he would’ve been out and about collecting his tea leaves. There was no sign of him. None of the tea leaves had been touched. Had Johnny given up drinking tea?    

All the dinosaurs went in search of him. 

No one could find Johnny anywhere. He had seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

After Damon had left, Johnny decided to do some digging. If he was supposed to be a ruler of all the dinosaurs. He wanted to make sure first before he made a fool of himself.

Rumours spread from dinosaurs to vampires about Johnny’s disappearance. Damon knew he had to find him and began searching high and low. He believed he shouldn’t have told him the truth of his history.  

It was one very dark night when the vampires were out on their hunt was when Damon came across him. He had come to an unusual clearing.                         "Any reason why you’re out here all on your own? You’re covered in muck? The dinosaurs are freaked since you haven’t been around.” Johnny looked up and sighed.  “The other dinosaurs don’t care about me.  They’re probably freaking out because they can’t slag me. They never cared about me and never will. All I ask of you, Damon, is please don’t ever lie to me”                                                                           “I’m not lying to you at all?”                                                                            “There are other places to get tea leaves. I made up my mind. I’m not going back and been the laughingstock anymore. I’ll never be taken seriously as a leader.              “You need to trust me. That power of controlling the dinosaurs lies deep within you. All you must do is believe in yourself.”                                                                 “No, little vampire friend, I don’t have to do anything. I’m done, and that’s final.” “You can’t give up and leave. We all need you and your weird ways of doing things.”                          “I told you. I’m not going back to them. That is final. Now, I would like you to leave me alone. You’re starting to fry my brain. I’m getting very confused and will end up making mistakes.”

Damon didn’t know why. He felt nervous around Johnny. A dark hue hung over him, and the darkness was taking over. All the happiness was gone. He was being fuelled by anger.                      “You can always call me if you ever need a friend.” Johnny looked at him.                                  “No, you’ve let me down. You’re in with all the others trying to trick me. I know you talk behind my back. My guard will always be up, so I don’t get hurt.”                 “I put a lot of the time telling you your family history. Not once have you ever said Thank you. Maybe I wasted my time.”

Damon left and didn’t look back once. This wasn’t how he was meant to turn out. Why was he a completely different dinosaur now?  

That night, Johnny twisted and turned in his silk lined coffin. The vampire side had taken more hold of him. All he felt was anger and a craving for blood. He had been unsuccessful in finding any tea leaves. His search for blood scared him, as he hated the creature he was becoming.   

Johnny’s hunt was getting further into a dark forest. He didn’t know where he was and started feeling very scared. He called out to his little vampire friend, but no one ever came.

Damon had hurried back to all the dinosaurs.                                                          “I know who the count is.” The dinosaurs looked at him                                     “The count disappeared a long time ago. He doesn’t exist” Damon laughed                     “I would say you would like that since you’re the head of the pack. The count does exist. Like it or not. He needs your help”                                                    “Who is the count?”                                                             “Your tea loving friend” The dinosaurs laughed                                                 “Oh come on little guy. You can’t expect us to believe that Johnny is Count Tea Rex. He has no leadership abilities?”                                                                                “I couldn’t believe it either. I have tested it. He’s the leader of this pack. I’m afraid something may have happened. He’s saying that there aren’t many tea leaves. It’ll turn him back into a vampire. There may be no way of saving him.”                              “All he needs is a good cup of tea. He’ll be back to his Johnny self. Trust us, we know Johnny. He loves his tea.”                                                                                   “I don’t know if tea will save him this time. I think he has gone too far over the edge. I’ve never seen him get angry.  Have any of you?”    

The leader of the dinosaur group couldn’t argue with Damon any longer. None of them had seen Johnny in ages, and no one had ever heard of him getting that angry. Johnny always seemed to be happy, calm, and cool. Constantly carrying around his tea, never having a care in the world. One of the dinosaurs asked a vampire.           “Did you have the tea?”                                                                                         “The tea wasn’t that bad. It was overly sweet for my liking, though. But all of us vampires have tried it. Not laughing in his face. Different is good. You never know you may like tea.” The group of dinosaurs now saw their errors. The leader didn’t want Johnny home, but the rest did.                                                                           “We need to find Johnny and bring him home where he belongs.”                     “No, stop it, all of you. You were more than happy to let me ruin you for years. You don’t need Johnny.”

All the dinosaurs huddled around Damon and the vampires in search of answers. “That won’t be too easy. Johnny doesn’t want to come home. He’s fed up and has given up being part of this pack.”    

The dinosaurs knew it was time to put their games to an end. They began to search high and low for Johnny. He was nowhere to be found.                                     “You need to take us to Johnny. We must apologise to him,” Damon laughed for a few minutes                                                                                                                                        “It’ll take more than a simple apologise. Johnny is so angry.”                                  “I promise the dinosaurs will make it up to him.”

Damon led them to where he last saw Johnny. However, he was no longer there.                               “This isn’t good Johnny has probably gone into the Dark Forest. He’ll get angrier the further he gets”                                                                                                          “Is there anyway of getting him out of the Dark Forest?”                                    “Only a darkness creature like myself can go into the Dark Forest”                  “That’s perfect you can go into the Dark Forest and find Johnny for us then”            “I don’t see why I should fix your mess?”                                                                 “You want Johnny out of there too”                                                                               “I hope you realise this is blackmail”                                                                “Johnny needs us. We need you to find him.” Damon didn’t have much of a choice.

Damon headed into the Dark Forest. He had been searching for many hours and wasn’t having much locating Johnny. The Dark Forest was full of creepy noises. Finally found Johnny sitting in the mud.                                                                     “Johnny, you need to get out of here and accept your new responsibility before it’s too late.” All he did was laugh,                                                                                 “The others aren’t worried about me. They’re under the pretend leader's command. You can’t trick me into going back to being slagged again.”                                   “No, Johnny, they have accepted you as their leader. They’re worried that if you stay here for too long, something bad will happen to you.”   

Damon was starting to feel very strange. He looked up to see the full moon appearing. Then, this creepy-looking house appeared out of nowhere. Ghosts started to surround Johnny. “Come to the darkness.”

Johnny and Damon ran out of the Dark Forest. They never stopped until they reached the other dinosaurs.                                                                                          “You’re no longer your happy-looking self. What have we all done to you.”

The dinosaurs wondered how they were going to return Johnny to normal.            “Tea is the answer.” So, the dinosaurs started to look for tea leaves to make Johnny tea. All the dinosaurs made Johnny’s different cups of tea. He tried all of them, but none were to his liking.                                                                                    “Alright Johnny prove to use how bad our tea is. I challenge you to make us all and yourself a cup of tea.”                                                                                                  “I don’t know if I should bother wasting my time making you all tea. You’ll never accept it’s goodness”                                                                                                     “I think you’re scared to accept the challenge. Come on leader show us how to make the most perfect cup of tea.”                                                                                  “Fine I’ll show you this once” The dinosaurs were happy they tricked Johnny into making tea. They hoped now it would undo his vampire bite.

Johnny made all his cups of tea. All the dinosaurs drank it as well. None of them like it expect one.  

They watched in amazement how the tea returned Johnny back to the loving, caring dinosaur he used to be.

Johnny looked at all the other dinosaurs in confusion                                     “Why are all of you here?”                                                                                 “Johnny, we need you to come back to the mainland and take over as our ruler” He  looked at all the other dinosaurs                                                                                 “I don’t think you would ever accept me as your leader. I think it’s better that I go my own way.” The dinosaurs knew that they had to convince him different                                                      “You would leave your homeland to go out and be on your own?” Johnny looked at them and started getting a little steamed                                                          “I don’t think it is a good idea to push me”                                                               “Come back to the mainland and be our leader. We need Count Tea Rex more than we ever realised.” He didn’t know what to do and was still so confused. He walked away from all them.

 Johnny looked at Damon                                                  “I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid they’re lying to me?”                                “Johnny, you’ll only know they’re lying. If you go back to the mainland,”                 “Come back to the mainland with me, little friend and invite all the vampires to come to live in the mainland too.”

Damon disappeared a few minutes later.

Johnny looked so different now. He looked like Count Tea Rex now.

Johnny returned to the mainland. All the dinosaurs had never been so happy to see him in their lives.                                                                                                                                            

One of the female dinosaurs approached Johnny a little later that day                      “The other dinosaur may not have liked the tea, but I did” Johnny looked at the female “You like tea too? You’re like the most perfect person for me.”

The vampires and the dinosaurs lived on the mainland under Johnny Count Tea Rex leadership.

Every morning turned out the same. Johnny would arise from his silk lined coffin. Pale skin and confused. He would need to pull himself down the corridor. The kitchen was a beckon of hope. He flipped the switch. The tea passed his lips. “Awh I was dying for that.”