OK, so maybe you’d be totally cool if you found a dragon in your bedroom. Maybe it wouldn’t phase you at all, and you’d know just what to do. You’d be all like, ‘Hey, cool, that’s a cool dragon. I’m cool about that.’ But me, I didn’t have a clue about what to do and I definitely wasn’t feeling cool about it. I mean – it was a dragon. It might only have been big enough that it could sit on my hand and so far its fire-breathing had only produced a spark, but hello, IT WAS A DRAGON!

It made the strange fizzling-match sound again.

And the most I could manage to get out at this point was a whispered ‘Whoa’.

Then we stared at each other. For a really long time.

My head is always brimming with ideas and stories. Miss Logan says my imagination is like a geyser gushing out ideas twenty-four hours a day. But right then it was like the geyser had been sat on by one of those enormous elephant seals with the weird shrunken trunk and all I could squeeze out was:

There’s a dragon …

in my room …

on my carpet …

right …

now.

Talk about stating the obvious! Then, bit by bit, the elephant seal flubbered away and the geyser spluttered back to life. I pictured my dragon shooting out mighty flames and me riding across the sky on its back. And I thought, I’M GOING TO HAVE THE MOST UTTERLY, MIND-BLOWINGLY, AMAZINGEST PET OF ALL TIME. (Move over, Liam ‘I have the best bike/scooter/radio-controlled biplane and obstacle-leaping hamster’ Sawston, and make room for my DRAGON!)

Suddenly the little creature took a flutter-hop towards me. And for a second I wondered if it would turn out to be as mean as all the books said and launch itself at my face. Maybe it’d send flames at my eyes. Or scratch me with its sharp claws. This could be a DANGEROUS pet.

I’d probably go into school with scars and have to explain how I’d had to wrestle my pet to the ground before I could get out the door. I guess that might not be ideal. Not on a day-to-day basis anyway. I started weighing up the pros and cons, remembering the cuddly class guinea pig, then comparing it to a ferocious limb-shredding, fire-breathing reptile. But even with possible loss of limbs, there didn’t seem much contest: a dragon would make a really cool pet. And the more I watched it, the more I realised that this particular dragon didn’t look very mean or dangerous. In fact, as it tilted its head to one side and hiccupped out a little smoke ring, the word that kept popping into my head was ‘cute’.

I stayed as still as I could. I remembered something about letting dogs sniff your hand before you say hello to them, so when it didn’t move again, I slowly reached out my hand, resting it on the carpet just in front of the little creature. Another flutter-hop and there was a dragon sitting on the palm of my hand. An actual live dragon!

It kept its wings half unfurled as it swept its head from side to side, inspecting my fingers, which were now warm from its breath. I could feel its claws treading into my skin like a cat trying to get comfy. I didn’t dare move in case it disappeared in a puff of ‘this can’t really be happening’ smoke.

Slowly I got to my feet, keeping my hand as steady as I could. Suddenly he – I decided to assume it was a he – started jiggling from foot to foot, leaning forward as if he was about to launch and then pulling back. Like I did on the diving board at the pool, wanting to dive but hating the moment when I’d have to step off into nothing but air. I thought about how baby birds learn to fly, and also how I’d seen their tiny bodies on the ground sometimes. The ones who had flown too soon. Was it the same with dragons?

Before I could open my mouth to speak, he had taken the plunge. For a moment the tiny dragon was flapping upward, nose thrust forward, his wings shimmering. But then he blew out a smoky puff and began to drop, and my heart sank. I lurched forward to catch him, but just before he landed in my outstretched hands he flapped and rose again. And he was off, soaring away over my bed. Still reeling a bit from side to side, but most definitely aloft. I watched as he swooped back round and landed with a bump on my desk. In my relief and excitement – because let’s be clear, a dragon had just flown round my bedroom! – I clapped my hands and gave a whoop of delight. The little dragon lifted his head. He let out another smoky hiccup, this time followed by a tiny orange spark and then he hopped towards me.

Things I noticed from close up:

Glittery wings

Scales that rippled through every shade of red

Eyes like diamonds

Hot smoky breath

Sharp claws (three at the front, one at the back of each foot)

Arrowhead tail (which he didn’t seem to be able to control very well, because every so often he would whip it around and bash himself, and then twist his head round in alarm as if he was being attacked)

Two little horns – one longer than the other

Things I did not notice:

Tomtom