 Piccadilly Press presents The Boy Who Lived With Dragons, written by Andy Shepard and read by Ewan Goddard. Introduction 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 and find yourself a dragon fruit tree. 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 Flickr, 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 mate, Ted, Cat 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 holy pants and, above all, listen up, because I'm about to show you what living with dragons is really like. Chapter one. Solaris the Destroyer. My pants! Ted cried as I opened the door. Grab them! Okay, 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 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'd 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 okay then? I grinned. You know, in among the exploding poo and being on 24-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 Sauston, 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... Sample complete. Ready to continue?