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.