Before the dinosaurs became extinct, the people were greedy and wasteful. They chopped down the forests, polluted the great ocean and made the air difficult to breathe.

Through their telescopes, the astronomers could see that the neighbouring planet was covered with lush vegetation and clear oceans.

Large spaceships were constructed.

The dinosaurs were relieved to see the people go.

On the new world they built another polluted civilisation just like the last.

Then tyrants took over the planet.

The tyrants started to fight each other.

They bullied scientists into making bigger and faster bombs.

One scientist, called Professor Possomly, had invented a new fuel and powerful explosive.

She didn't want to work for the local tyrant so he had her kidnapped.

Minda Melch, a small red dragon, saw the tyrant's guards kidnap Professor Possomly.

She flew off to warn the professor's grandchildren, Moogie and Koliander, who were with their class building an air raid shelter.

Professor Possomly was the only relative the children had left and they were upset.

Their teacher told them to carry on digging.

That night, Moogie and Koliander baked a huge bell blossom pie.

They took this to the foot of the pinnacle where the tyrant's fortress overlooked the region.

The Scabicakus guarded it.

Minda Melch had discovered that the monster loved bell blossom pie. The tyrant's soldiers had to carry slices of it in their knapsacks or it would have been eaten them instead.

At the sight of the pie the monster's tongue flickered hungrily.

'What you want?' It growled.

'Will you fly us up to the tyrant's fortress?' asked Moogie.

The Scabicakus carried Moogie and Koliander up to the roof of the tyrant's fortress then went back to devour the pie, dish and all.

As soon as it was finished, the Scabicakus uttered a piercing wail and roused the fortress guards.

Moogie, Koliander and Minda Melch dropped through a skylight on the fortress roof and into a garret full of old armour and weapons.

The tyrant' s guards were waiting for them.

The tyrant told Moogie, Koliander and Minda Melch that Professor Possomly was going to make the most powerful bomb ever known. With this he would wipe out all his enemies and rule the planet.

The children couldn't believe that their grandmother would do such a thing.

When the bomb was finished, Professor Possomly told the tyrant that it was very complicated and someone would have to fly the rocket. They would obviously be blown up with it.

Now he no longer needed her, the tyrant ordered her to do it.

Moogie, Koliander and Minda Melch would have to go with her.

If they tried it to trick him, he would kill of the rest of their family.

Professor Possomly, Moogie, Koliander and Minda Melch were bundled into the rocket.

Everyone else took shelter in their bunkers.

Deep inside his fortress, the tyrant pushed the launch button.

Koliander was puzzled. 'But we don't have any family left?'

The rocket roared up into the flame filled sky.

But it did not come down on the tyrant's enemies.

The rocket kept going up and up until the war torn planet was left far behind.

Eventually it reached another world.

This was the planet their ancestors had come from.

It was no longer polluted but full of greenery and sparkling shallow seas.

Some of the dinosaurs were not very friendly so Professor Possomly made a monster scarer to frighten them off.

Professor Possomly, Moogie, Koliander and Minda Melch made their home with the dinosaurs.

At night they watched the other world as the tyrants dropped more and more bombs on each other.

The tyrants never stopped fighting.

Eventually nothing was left - no creatures, no air and no water.

That is why there is no life on Mars today.