Thanks to Kai spotting the remains of an old bonfire tucked away behind a tumbledown shed, we found the perfect place to settle the dragons. They followed us there and we left them happily diving into the piles of ash, while we headed straight for the crocodiles.

‘Whoa, look at them,’ Ted said as we stared through the glass at the motionless creatures. ‘They’re the armoured tanks of the animal kingdom, the fiercest crocodiles of them all. You wouldn’t stand a chance with one of them.’

‘Look, that one’s got eggs,’ said Kat.

‘Doesn’t look very scary,’ said Liam, giving a fake yawn. ‘Bet it’s stuffed. I haven’t even seen it move yet.’

Only Liam could fail to be impressed by a fifteen-foot-long prehistoric-looking crocodile. We watched him heading off until he disappeared behind the donkey’s enclosure.

‘Come on, let’s look in those barns,’ said Kai, pulling Kat away.

The first barn we went into was home to a sow and her piglets, plus chickens, geese and ducks who were free to wander as they pleased. There was also a really cool maze made out of hay-bales that you could wander your way through, or, like Jack and Mahid, run along the top of.

But it was while we were playing in the maze that the first odd thing happened.

‘There’s a bull out there that blows smoke rings out its bum,’ Dylan said as he leaped onto the hay-bale next to us.

‘You what?’ said Ted.

‘Yeah, this mean-looking old bull in that field over there, it just raised its tail and we all thought it was going to do a poo but it actually blew this huge ring of smoke out. Weird, hey?’

Ted and I looked at each other.

We dashed outside in time to see a huddle of fascinated kids watching the bull intently. Thankfully whichever dragon had been sending out smoke appeared to have moved on.

‘OK, we have a slight problem,’ said Kat, who had run over to meet us. ‘Crystal is trying to hatch one of those crocodile eggs!’

The little dragon had managed to get in through the skylight, and as we peered in through the window we saw her perched on top of one of the eggs. The mother crocodile was slowly coming out of the water, heading for the nest, her eyes fixed on Crystal.

‘She’ll eat her!’ Kat cried. ‘Quick, do something.’

But it was too late. The crocodile’s mouth was opening wide, its jagged teeth poised, ready to snap down on poor Crystal.

‘Look! It’s eating its baby,’ Shanaya cried from behind us.

‘No, no,’ soothed Miss Logan. ‘The mother protects the babies by carrying them round in her mouth. They’re very good parents. Look, it says here that mother crocodiles look after their babies for up to two years. Most reptiles just lay an egg and leave.’

‘She thinks Crystal is her baby,’ Kat whispered with relief. ‘I do think we should still get her out of there though,’ she went on, ‘before that crocodile realises her baby has wings.’

We needn’t have worried. Crystal obviously didn’t appreciate being carried around in a cavernous toothy mouth. And, as the mother opened her jaws to lift up another egg, the little dragon shot out, skimmed across the water and flew out through the open window. We followed her round to the back of the barn in time to see her let out an icy blast which froze the little duck pond in the field. But it wasn’t over yet.

‘Look – I think that ostrich thinks she’s attacking her egg,’ Kat cried.

Crystal, having spotted the enormous ostrich egg at the mother’s feet, had decided to have another go at hatching something. But the mother ostrich was not impressed. She plumped up her feathers and started chasing the dragon around the field.

Geese, chickens, ducks and peacocks squawked and scattered as the huge bird flapped its wings wildly, running this way and that. Seeing an ostrich ice-skating across a frozen pond would have been enough for most of the class, but at this point Dodger took up his place at the rear of the bull once more. This time he let out not only smoke rings but a brilliant shot of flames.

‘Told you,’ cried Dylan. ‘Rocket-propelled bull!’

The bull was understandably freaked out by the fire blasting from his rear end and started stampeding towards the gate. He only came to a stop just in time because a piglet landed on his head. Crystal had started collecting piglets and dropping the squealing creatures one by one into the paddock.

‘I think it’s time we rounded them up before this really gets out of hand,’ I said quickly. ‘You grab the piglets before they get trampled,’ I told Kat. ‘Me and Kai’ll try to catch Dodger. Ted, keep your eyes peeled for Sunny and Flicker!’

I held out some ash. But the dragons were having way too much fun. And with a huge bonfire to play in, my feeble handful didn’t hold much appeal.

Where was Flicker when I needed him?

‘Found him,’ called Ted. And I looked across to where he was pointing.

It wasn’t Flicker, but he had found Sunny. The dragon had discovered the picnic tables, which were now laden with Mrs Caldwell’s home-cooked scones, oddly shaped buns and some wobbly-looking custard tarts. But it was the huge bowl of jam that started the food fight. Sunny had wriggled his way into the bowl and was flicking blobs of it out left and right. One of them landed with a splat on the side of Ella’s face.

‘Oi!’ she shouted, as strike two hit her slap in the eye.

Assuming the jam had been a missile from Jack, who was stuffing his face with scones and cream, Ella let off a return shot with a trebuchet improvised from a spoon. The lump of flying butter missed Jack but hit Stefan. Within seconds half-eaten scones and tarts were whizzing across the table, covering everyone with jam and gloopy custard.

And then things really started to hot up. And by hot I mean fire-sizzling hot. Flicker shot across in front of me and into one of the barns. I dashed after him. When I got inside I nearly choked on the heady smell of blooming flowers. The place was a mess. Everything had been left to grow unchecked. Most of the plants were way too big for their little plastic pots, and others had latched onto the walls of the barn and were climbing up towards the roof, which was actually more holes than roof. I spotted Flicker whizzing madly round between the stems of some huge blue flowers.

Suddenly the tickle in my nose got worse and I sneezed. Oh no! If I was sneezing, then this was most definitely not the place for Flicker. But even as I thought it, I saw the little dragon hovering in mid-air.

‘Flicker! No!’ I yelled.

But it was too late. A ripple that started at his tail shuddered through him and a sneeze exploded out – and a fiery sneeze at that. I saw one of the blue flowers ignite and like a flaming domino fall towards its neighbour, spreading the fire in an instant.

But strangely the fizzling flowers were not what had my attention. Because flapping out of the flames was a dragon.

And it wasn’t Flicker.