The Boy Who Lived with Dragons

by Andy Shepherd

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Welcome all you dragon-seeking desperadoes!

  Chapter 1. Solaris the Destroyer

  Chapter 2. Into the Dragons’ Den

  Chapter 3. S’mores Galore

  Chapter 4. Attack of the Mutant Pigeon

  Chapter 5. A Mound of Trouble

  Chapter 6. Carroty Cowell and the Mud Monsters

  Chapter 7. A Grim Old Day

  Chapter 8. A Flicker of Help

  Chapter 9. The Fog Clears!

  Chapter 10. Slugs, Sunflowers and Slime

  Chapter 11. Sneakier Than a Ferret with a Meatball Sandwich

  Chapter 12. More Trouble Than a Rocket-Propelled Bull

  Chapter 13. Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fiery Inferno!

  Chapter 14. Blabbermouths Can’t Keep Dragons

  Chapter 15. Suspicions and Secrets

  Chapter 16. Dragons and Discoveries

  Chapter 17. Things That Go Bump in the Night

  Chapter 18. Liam the Invincible

  Chapter 19. Revenge of the Monstrous Marrow

  Chapter 20. The Hedge That Hung On

  Chapter 21. When Things Are Not What They Seem

  Chapter 22. Super-Sized Trouble

  Chapter 23. Sometimes It’s the Little Things

  Chapter 24. Deal or No Deal

  About Andy Shepherd

  About Sara Ogilvie

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright

  For Ian, Ben and Jonas,

  for always cheering me on

  Welcome all you dragon-seeking desperadoes!

  I’m guessing you’ve picked this book up for one of two reasons.

  Either:

  You’ve been hearing about how we grow dragons and you want to get in on all that juicy fire-breathing action.

  In which case you need to go find yourself one of these:

  Or:

  You’ve found yourself a dragon-fruit tree already, hatched yourself a dragon and now have no clue what to do next.

  How do I know this? Because neither did we.

  After I found the dragon-fruit tree in Grandad’s garden, and Flicker – that’s my dragon – hatched out in my bedroom, things changed pretty quick. Not just because it sort of affects how you look at the world – I mean, if you can find a dragon in your bedroom on an otherwise normal Sunday, what else is possible? But also because he wasn’t the only one. Not after my best mates Ted, Kat and Kai decided they wanted one too.

  But just like you would be, we were too busy getting ourselves dragons to really wonder what having a dragon would actually be like.

  I bet it all sounds magical, doesn’t it? Growing a dragon. And it totally is, don’t get me wrong. But let me tell you, when the fire-breathing really kicks in and you’re getting singed every five seconds, it’s like having a very unpredictable volcano in your pocket. Then it all starts to feel a bit less magical. Just something to bear in mind, my dragon devotees.

  So get some oven gloves, be prepared to hide your holey pants and, above all, listen up. Because I’m about to show you what living with dragons is really like.

  ‘My pants!’ Ted cried as I opened the door. ‘Grab them!’

  OK, I know it’s not what you usually expect your best mate to say when you walk into their room, but listen, once you have a dragon you need to be prepared for anything.

  ‘I can’t lose another pair out the window! That’ll be the fourth in the last two days,’ he wailed.

  I ducked as Sunny, Ted’s golden dragon, swooped over my head. He’d crawled into Ted’s pants and was wearing them like battle armour. A fiery blast shot out and scorched the lampshade as the dragon circled above us. Flicker had been happily curled up in my pocket, but now he wriggled his way out. He hovered beside me while I tried to grab the pants, before they disappeared out of the open window.

  ‘They better be clean,’ I wheezed, dropping them and coughing on the trails of smoke the dragon’s breath had left behind.

  ‘They were until he got in them,’ Ted moaned. ‘Now they’re probably singed – or worse.’

  We both knew what he meant by worse. You see, dragon poo has this pretty unpleasant habit of exploding when it dries out. And sure enough, seconds later, Ted’s pants detonated spectacularly. Sunny zipped up to the top of the wardrobe while we stood there with foul-smelling shreds raining down on us.

  ‘So, things going OK then?’ I grinned. ‘You know, in among the exploding poo and being on twenty-four-hour Scorch Alert?’

  Ted burst out laughing. ‘Well, that’s Sunny for you.’

  Ted had actually named his dragon Solaris the Destroyer. I think he was imagining him as his superhero sidekick and wanted to give him a name that could conjure fear in all Ted’s enemies. Or at least in Liam Sawston who is our arch-nemesis. Not that we were about to share the secret of the dragons with him – we were spending most of our time trying to make sure that nosy parker didn’t find out about the dragons!

  But let’s face it, having a dragon called Solaris the Destroyer in your pocket kind of gave you the edge a bit. Anyway Solaris the Destroyer only lasted a day because by his second morning Ted had decided to call him Sunny. Officially this is because Sunny is his dragon’s alter ego, like Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. But really – and this is just between us – it’s because Ted is scared of the dark. And Sunny is the best nightlight ever. The little dragon curls up next to him and glows, casting comforting orange light around the room. So Ted ended up feeling he was far too friendly for a name like Solaris the Destroyer. But like I say, that’s just between us.

  I was going to call my dragon Scorch, after the first night I got him when he singed everything in sight. But the thing is, he changes colour. He flickers. So Flicker just suited him. Most of the time he’s red, although even then he can’t always decide what shade to be so he ends up shimmering through bright crimson all the way to deep ruby. When he’s settling down to sleep on my sister Lolli’s lap his scales ripple turquoise, a colourful quiver of contentment. But if Tomtom, our cat, starts stalking him, he flares electric orange. The best thing is when I lie in bed with him curled up next to me and he starts glowing like a hot ember. And I fall asleep with him warming my dreams.

  ‘Where’ve Kat and Kai got to?’ Ted asked.

  The twins, the other two members of our superhero squad, were always late and so it was no surprise that they still hadn’t appeared. In fact, now they had two dragons to contend with they had the perfect excuse.

  Ted’s stomach gurgled like an angry drain and he grinned apologetically.

  ‘What you mean is, “Where have the snacks got to?”’ I said.

  ‘Well, yeah. Those too. I can’t keep anything edible in my room these days. Not when I leave Sunny in here on his own. Did you know a blue whale eats the equivalent of six thousand chocolate bars a day? Well, I reckon Sunny would have a good go at smashing that record if I left him to it.’

  Flicker, who’d settled next to me, sneezed, sending a glittering spray of sparks into the air. As usual – thanks to my lightning reflexes – they were all snuffed out before they’d even landed.

  ‘Impressive,’ nodded Ted. ‘Sunny’s less into the non-stop sparking. He’s more of a one-blast kind of dragon. And he usually only does it when he’s eaten. Honestly, he has the most fiery farts. And talk about an explosive belch!’

  ‘But didn’t you say he eats all the time?’ I said, looking round his room and realising there was less evidence of burning than you might expect.

  ‘Yeah,’ Ted said with a shrug. ‘But mostly I can tell it’s coming and point the right end outside in time, before he causes too much da
mage. That’s why I have to hide the snacks. If I know when he’s eaten, I know roughly when he’s likely to blow up!’

  It wasn’t foolproof though – as we were about to find out.

  When Kat and Kai pushed open Ted’s bedroom door they were met by a cascade of flaming wrappers. Sunny had clearly hidden a secret stash of goodies up on top of the wardrobe and had been munching away as we waited. A fiery belch from him had set them alight and sent them flying.

  Kai took the opportunity to bash Kat over the head with a rolled-up comic. I’m not sure one of the burning scraps had even landed on her. I think it had more to do with the argument they’d obviously been having on the way over.

  ‘No way. Dodger would beat Crystal no question,’ he was saying, still brandishing the comic as his dragon, Dodger, wriggled out of his pocket and started zipping back and forth above us.

  ‘As if,’ Kat replied, grabbing the comic off him. She reached into her bag and lifted out her dragon. Crystal, with her bright purple scales swirling into electric blue, shook her head and the little spikes hanging like icicles under her jaws sparkled in the morning light. ‘Crystal’s way faster. And anyway she could ice her way to victory.’ And she batted Kai on the arm with the comic for good measure.

  ‘All right, you two,’ I said, jumping in before the disagreement could erupt like one of Sunny’s belches. For all their ‘We stick up for each other, don’t mess with my twin’ thing, they couldn’t half argue. It looked as if having a dragon didn’t change things that much. If anything, it had just given them something else to compete over.

  Ted was already unloading Kat’s bag, pulling out crisps and ripping open chocolate bars and stuffing them into his mouth whole.

  ‘Good grief, Ted,’ laughed Kai. ‘You on starvation rations here or something?’

  ‘Sorry, guys,’ Ted mumbled through another mouthful, wiping the chocolate off his face. ‘You wouldn’t believe how much Sunny eats! It’s lucky Mum buys everything in bulk, but most of the snack supplies that are meant to last a month have been eaten in the last forty-eight hours. I had to restock it with my own stash. And I’m on thin ice anyway, thanks to Sunny using Mum’s hatbox as a toilet and demolishing Dad’s birthday cake. Mum still thinks that was me.’

  ‘Ew,’ grimaced Kat. ‘That’s gross.’

  ‘Not the hatbox, the cake,’ Ted tutted. ‘Anyway, I can’t risk him getting me into any more trouble.’

  ‘OK, so, seriously, how is everyone getting on?’ I asked.

  One of the reasons we’d arranged to meet was to check how the dragons were settling in. It had been five days since the night where we had camped in Grandad’s garden, crept down to the dragon-fruit tree and caught the dragons. And five days since the flaming fiasco of flying cabbages brought about by our other even grumpier nemesis, Grim, my Grandad’s next-door neighbour and a man who made the Grinch look friendly.

  Ted handed me a marshmallow, expertly toasted by Sunny.

  ‘He’s great at flame-grilling, although I wouldn’t recommend jellybeans. I’m still getting those off the carpet.’

  ‘And look at this,’ Kat said. She reached over to Ted’s table and picked up a glass of orange juice. She held it in front of Crystal, who blew an icy breath across the surface of the drink. We all watched – and then flinched – as she made to throw the contents of the glass at us. But instead of splattering us, the orange juice stayed in the glass. Crystal had frozen it solid. Kat grinned.

  ‘Thanks to Crystal, we’ll have a never-ending supply of ice lollies in the summer.’

  Ted’s eyes lit up. He was probably imagining giant bucket-sized lemonade lollies.

  Obviously not wanting to be outdone, Kai jumped in.

  ‘And Dodger is the best sneak thief ever. Because he’s like one of those chameleons, changing colour to blend into his surroundings.’

  As if to prove the point, a family bag of popcorn rose up out of Kat’s bag and flew towards Ted, narrowly avoiding bashing him in the face. Invisible against the blue quilt cover, none of us had even noticed Dodger sneaking towards the open bag.

  Everyone looked at Flicker now sitting quietly on my shoulder, his tail curled around my neck. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the little pulse of turquoise ripple through his scales that meant he was settling in for another sleep.

  I couldn’t offer toasted marshmallows or ice lollies, and Flicker couldn’t camouflage himself and turn pickpocket like Dodger. Ted, Kat and Kai were so excited about what their dragons could do – they all had something special to brag about. But flickering different colours didn’t feel that useful. So I quickly changed the subject.

  ‘Come on – let’s take them out to the den,’ I said.

  Ten minutes later we all crawled into the hedge that ran along the edge of the park and through to the space we’d cleared inside it. It had always been a bit of a squash and more so since the dragons had arrived. But it was still a totally brilliant hideout. People walking their dogs strolled right past us and never knew we were there. Except when we got the giggles. But even when anyone peered into the undergrowth they usually couldn’t spot us.

  I reached into my pocket and fished out a stalk of broccoli, feeding it to Flicker on my shoulder. A little pulse of heat warmed my neck as he happily chewed on it.

  Ted had already found the perfect marshmallow-toasting stick and was busy threading a long line of pink and white gooey blobs onto it.

  ‘You going for the world’s largest s’more?’ Kai asked, as Ted pulled out a packet of biscuits.

  ‘Largest snore?’ I said, confused.

  ‘No. S’more,’ Kai said. ‘You know, a biscuit-and-marshmallow sandwich like they have round campfires in America.’

  Ted snorted. ‘I wish. Deer Run Camping Resort hold that record: 121 kilos!’ Then he added, ‘That s’more was taller than me and more than twice as wide. Took 104 people to make it.’ He gazed into the distance and gave a happy sigh.

  I laughed. Trust fact-tastic Ted to actually know this.

  ‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Kat.

  We all watched as she held up a piece of bark in front of Crystal, who obligingly took a bite out of it. Kat moved the piece of bark and the dragon bit again. She did this over and over until she was left with a zigzag pattern down each side.

  ‘Now, if I fasten this onto one of these bigger branches with a bit of melted marshmallow, can one of your lot help out with a little fiery breath – and I mean a little fire?’

  ‘Sunny’s been feasting on marshmallows all the way here – he’s due a fiery belch about now,’ said Ted. ‘Here you go.’

  Ted held his yellow dragon and pointed him towards the piece of bark.

  Sure enough, Sunny started glowing golden and the next second a fiery blast scorched the branch. Kat waited for the heat to die down and then grabbed the blackened bark, peeling it off.

  There in front of us was a spiky-edged emblem emblazoned on the wood.

  ‘Cool!’ Kai said. ‘I want a go.’

  By the time we had finished, each of us had marked a corner of the den with our own dragon-chomped design. I’d tried for a star shape, which might have been a little ambitious. Still, I was pretty pleased with the wonky three-pronged sort of piece of star that Flicker had nibbled for me.

  ‘This place looks awesome,’ Kai said.

  ‘Welcome to the Dragons’ Den,’ Kat said with a grin.

  Over the next few days, any time we weren’t at school or sleeping, we met at the Dragons’ Den.

  ‘We’re going to need our own recipe book at this rate,’ Kai said, when I crawled through the gap to find the others one afternoon. He was sitting surrounded by all sorts of packets of biscuits and marshmallows, ranging from the tiny ones you stick in your hot chocolate to giant fist-sized ones. Plus a mixture of sweets – and sweet wrappers, thanks to Ted and Kat happily chewing their way through handfuls of them. ‘We can call it S’mores Galore!’ he added.

  It was true that we’d come up with some pretty
awesome customised s’mores. My personal favourite was a ginger biscuit and chocolate wafer combo with jellybeans sandwiched into the centre of the marshmallow.

  ‘Anyone for another slushy to wash it down?’ Kat asked, waving a beaker at me.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, taking an enormous slurp. ‘Hide and seek?’ I asked, turning to the others.

  They groaned. ‘You mean so you can beat us again and smash your record to find us all in under ten seconds?’ Ted asked.

  I grinned. It was true that currently the score was twenty-six finds to me, zero to anyone else. Flicker might not have the skills of the other dragons when it came to freezing, toasting and camouflage, but he was the best seeker ever. With him on my side I couldn’t lose. Every time his diamond eyes spotted one of the others, he hovered next to their hiding place and flickered like a beacon, leading me right to them.

  Just as Ted shoved another s’more into his mouth, Kat grabbed my arm and put her finger to her lips. We all sat as still and silent as we could, Ted doing a brilliant impression of Horatio the Hamster, Mr Firth’s class pet – an animal who believed there was no limit to what he could cram into his cheeks.

  Kat edged closer to the gap in the hedge, peered through and then quickly pulled across the branches we used to cover the entrance.

  ‘It’s Liam,’ she hissed. ‘He’s coming this way.’

  I looked around at the dragons perched on the branches above us and kicked myself for not being more careful. What if he’d seen us disappearing into the hedge and was out to discover our den? What if he’d seen the dragons?

  None of us dared breathe. In fact, I was starting to wonder if Ted actually could breathe with his mouth so full. His eyes were beginning to bulge. I could hear Liam’s footsteps getting closer and it sounded as if he was muttering to himself. He was only metres away now. Branches started shaking. He was kicking the hedge or bashing it with a stick. I had images of a sharp spear jabbing into our den and poking us till we squealed. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he could hear my heart, thumping away like a drum signalling our position.