George Webster with Helen Harvey

  George and the Dragons

  Lava Goes Wild!

  Illustrated by Tim Budgen

  Scholastic

  Published in the UK by Scholastic, 2026

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic, 2026

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  Written by Helen Harvey

  Text © George Webster, 2026

  Cover and inside illustrations © Tim Budgen, 2026

  Makaton illustration on pages 28, 93, 127, 150 based on UK Makaton © The Makaton Charity, 2022

  www.makaton.org, “Makaton” is a registered Trade Mark and Service Mark of TMC

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted by them.

  eISBN 978 0702 34425 1

  iISBN 978 0702 34426 8

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  To all my teachers and teaching assistants and to all the staff at Rawdon St Peter’s Primary School, and to everyone at Aireborough Supported Activities Scheme who took me on so many amazing adventures when I was little.

  This is a story about me (George) and my amazing, incredible and ever so cute pet dragon, Lava.

  Lava is tiny. She’s small enough to fit in my coat pocket (although she prefers my backpack or the front of my jumper). She has fiery red scales and a golden belly, and she likes collecting shiny things and eating spicy food. I found her at the bottom of my garden, behind the shed, on my seventh birthday after wishing, wishing, wishing for a pet of my very own.

  After I found her, we had the most amazing adventure learning how to do real magic and using our new magic skills to wow the crowd at the school talent show.

  But that’s another story. . .

  This is also a tale about my best friends, Jason and Faiza, and the time we all got lost in the wild woods.

  But my friends and I have everything we need to survive in the wilderness, including:

  This is how it happened. . .

  Chapter 1

  “We’re completely lost,” wailed Faiza. She spun round on the grass, gazing at the looming trees that surrounded us. Her yellow dress twirled. “We’ll never make it back to the castle before nightfall. We’re going to be stuck in the haunted forest all night!”

  It was Sunday morning. Jason and Faiza had come over to my house to play with me and Lava. We were in the middle of a game Faiza had invented called the Forest of Ghosts. In the game, we lived in a huge castle in the middle of a haunted wood. Faiza was a princess, Jason was a wizard, I was a knight and Lava was our dragon guard. Faiza always thinks of the most amazing games to play.

  “Don’t worry, Princess,” said Jason. He wore a tea towel tucked into the back of his T-shirt as a cape and held a long stick he’d picked up from under the hedge. He brandished the stick like a magic wand. “I can conjure a tent for us to sleep in. Snerkle, flick, BOOM!” He waved his wand like he was doing a spell.

  “And I’ll make a fire, and Lava can light it, so we’ll be warm,” I added. I started to pile some sticks up in a heap next to Faiza, whose eyes were wide with pretend fear. “Don’t worry, Princess Faiza. We’ll be safe together. We can fight any ghosts that come to haunt us, can’t we, Jason?”

  “I can do anti-ghost magic,” said Jason, twirling his wand.

  “And I can do ghost karate,” I said. I did a few punches and kicks to demonstrate.

  “OK,” said Faiza. “Then I’ll make us enchanted necklaces that will protect us from ghost attacks.”

  We each got to work. Jason did spells to make a magic tent, Faiza made daisy-chain necklaces, and I found more sticks and leaves to put on my fire.

  When I had finished piling up all the sticks, I looked around for Lava. I needed her fire breath to set it alight.

  “Lava! Where are you?”

  “I think she went to check on the eggs,” said Jason. “I noticed her flying up to your bedroom.”

  Just then, we heard a scrabbling noise coming from above, where my bedroom window was slightly open. I turned just in time to see Lava launch herself from the windowsill.

  “Eep, eep, EEP!” she squeaked as she flew.

  Lava soared through the air, her wings flapping on either side of her hamster-sized body. Her red scales gleamed in the sunlight and her golden belly glittered. Sparks exploded from her mouth – pink, gold and orange mixed together.

  “I think that means she’s happy and excited and also wants us to do something now,” said Jason, who is really good at translating dragon sparks.

  Lava landed clumsily on my head, knocking my glasses off one ear.

  “Ow, Lava!”

  “Eep, eep, EEP, EEP!” she yelled.

  “Not so loud!” I warned. I didn’t want my mum, dad or little sister to hear the noise and come and investigate. They were all in the living room and they still didn’t know I had a pet dragon. I’d already kept her a secret for two weeks.

  I tried to pull Lava off my head, but she grabbed my hair in her little claws and wouldn’t budge.

  “What is it, Lava?” asked Jason.

  “Is it the eggs?” said Faiza. “Are they hatching?”

  “Eeeeeeeeep!” Lava screamed, and she jumped off my head and flapped back up to the bedroom window. “Eep, eep!” she announced from the windowsill with a burst of orange sparks. That’s the colour she uses when she’s being bossy.

  Faiza, Jason and I looked at each other.

  “I think it’s happening!” exclaimed Faiza.

  “They’re hatching!” said Jason.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled.

  We forgot about our game as we ran inside.

  Chapter 2

  We rushed up to my bedroom and slammed the door shut. I dived on to my belly and peered under the bed.

  In the gloom, on a nest made from my old dressing gown, lay two eggs: one blue, one gold.

  Lava squeezed under the bed and scrambled into the nest, fussing with the eggs. She nudged the blue one so it rolled slightly, and I saw something new. It had a thin, jagged crack running down one side of its shell.

  I gasped. It was really hatching.

  “I want to see,” said Faiza, getting on to her hands and knees and nudging me aside. Jason knelt on the floor next to Faiza and we squashed together, side by side, so we could all see the eggs under the bed.

  I should explain about the eggs.

  You see, even though me and Lava are best friends, Lava still felt a bit lonely. She wanted some friends who were dragons, like her. Faiza had the idea that we could use three plastic Hatch-Your-Own-Dragon eggs that she had at home. But the first one we tried hatched into a plastic dragon toy. Lava was so upset she nearly burned the school down!

  So for the other two eggs we decided to try some magic. At the school talent show I performed magic tricks and I got everyone in the school to wish on the eggs for a real dragon.

  After the show, the eggs had changed. They didn’t feel like plastic any more. They were warm and smooth, like real eggs.

  Ever since that day, Lava had protected the eggs in their special nest, waiting for something to happen.

  “The crack is getting wider,” said Faiza next to me.

  There was a little tapping sound from inside the egg. A piece of blue shell flaked off. A tiny claw poked through the hole.

  Nothing happened for a moment. Lava squeaked anxiously.

  Then the tapping started again. More shell fell away. Soon there was a big hole in the side of the egg.

  We held our breaths.

  A tiny face peered out; a face with blue scales, curly horns and sparkling ice-blue eyes. . .

  The eggshell fell open. A tiny dragon stood on top of the broken pieces, looking around at our faces with curiosity. She had gleaming blue scales with purple markings, a slinky body, and a long, thin tail that whipped to and fro.

  “Mrrrr?” she said, sniffing the air.

  “Eeeeep!” yelled Lava, bounding over to the new dragon and nuzzling her enthusiastically. Golden sparks rained from Lava’s mouth as the two dragons rubbed foreheads.

  “She’ s soooo cute!” said Faiza. She reached out her hand. The blue dragon leaned forward to sniff Faiza’s fingers. Then, slowly, gently, she licked them with a forked tongue.

  “Oh! That tickles!” said Faiza, but she had the biggest grin on her face.

  “What are you going to call her?” whispered Jason. He didn’t take his eyes off the dragons.

  “I’ll have to think about it,” I said.

  “She looks just like a mixed slushie,” Faiza said, as the dragon took a few wobbly steps across the dressing gown. “You know when you get red and blue flavours mixed together and they go purply-blue and swirly?”

  “Slushie! That’s a good name for a dragon,” I said. Faiza and Jason smiled in agreement. Slushie began exploring the nest, nuzzling underneath folds of fluffy dressing gown. Lava pushed pieces of broken eggshell out of the way.

  “I can’t believe there are two dragons under my bed,” I said, watching them.

  “It might be three soon,” said Jason, pointing to the golden second egg.

  There was a faint tapping sound. The egg wobbled from side to side.

  Chapter 3

  There was a …

  … tap – tap – CRAAAACK and the golden egg split in two.

  “Oh my goodness!” said Faiza.

  “Awwww!” I said.

  “Spurkle floop!” added Jason in Flitlish, which is a language he made up.

  Sitting in the halves of the shell, panting slightly, was another dragon. While this dragon was the same size as Slushie and Lava, she was a very different shape: short and round – like a rubber ball with stubby legs.

  Her scales were sparkling gold with silver speckles. Even in the shadows under the bed, she shone.

  “Hooooo,” she called faintly.

  Her eyelids fluttered as if she was tired from the effort of hatching. Lava hurried over and licked a flake of shell that had settled on top of her new friend’s head. The little golden dragon sighed sleepily.

  “She looks like a disco ball,” I said, as Slushie wobbled towards the yawning dragon. Slushie’s slinky tail whipped one way then the other.

  “Like she’s been dipped in glitter,” Faiza agreed. The golden dragon’s eyes fluttered closed. Slushie’s eyes narrowed and a tiny puff, like a little cloud, floated out of her nostrils. It drifted past the new dragon’s shining scales.

  “Glitz,” Jason whispered.

  “What?” said Faiza.

  “Glitz,” said Jason a bit louder. “That’s what I think you should call her.”

  I tried it out. “Glitz. It suits her.”

  At that moment, Slushie reached the snoozy dragon, nudging Glitz with her long blue snout. But she nudged a bit too hard, and Glitz’s eyes sprang open as she tumbled sideways, rolling upside down. She wiggled her stubby legs in the air until Lava pushed her the right way up.

  “Hoo!” Glitz hooted at Slushie. Then she tucked her little legs in and rolled towards the blue dragon. Slushie couldn’t dodge in time. Glitz bounced into Slushie like a bowling ball and the pair fell out of the nest and on to the dusty carpet under my bed.

  “Eep, eep!” said Lava springing after them.

  “What’s happening?” said Faiza. “Are they all right?”

  Lava jumped between the new dragons who barrelled between my too-small roller skates and a crown I had made during an art lesson at school.

  “They’re playing,” explained Jason. “My kittens play like this too.” Jason has two kittens at home. Lava met them once, but they thought she was a bird and tried to catch her.

  “I think they might hurt each other,” said Faiza. “Maybe we should stop them.”

  “They’ll be OK,” Jason disagreed. “Baby animals learn by playing. When my kittens are playing, they let each other know if the game has gone too far by hissing or yowling.”

  “Be careful, Lava,” I said. “They’re much younger than you.” This was something my mum and dad sometimes said to me when I played too rough with my little sister, Lauren.

  Lava flopped on to her back, panting golden sparks. Glitz rolled away and came to a stop next to a stinky, old slipper. She sniffed it curiously then sneezed.

  “Achoo!”

  Silver speckles flew from her nose. Maybe she could breathe sparks, like Lava.

  Slushie squirmed and pounced on her own tail. Her tail lashed around as she tried to lick a piece of fluff off the end. Then the fluff got stuck to her tongue which she waggled from side to side, trying to shake it off.

  “Come here, Slushie – I’ll help,” giggled Faiza. Carefully, she pulled the fluff out of Slushie’s mouth.

  A shiny charm bracelet dangled from Faiza’s wrist. Slushie couldn’t take her eyes off it.

  “Do you like gems?” asked Faiza, pulling the bracelet off and showing Slushie. “My favourite is the blue one.”

  Slushie opened her mouth wide. Her tiny teeth sparkled. Then she chomped on the bracelet.

  Faiza laughed.

  “It’s not for eating, silly!” she said, but Slushie skittered away, dragging the bracelet with her mouth.

  “Slushie, give it back,” I chuckled. “Faiza has to go soon. She can’t go without her bracelet.”

  “Are you keeping Slushie here then?” said Faiza. “For yourself?”

  “And Glitz too?” added Jason.

  “Of course,” I said. I wasn’t sure why my friends were asking. Obviously the dragons were going to live here with Lava and me.

  “Won’t your mum and dad notice there are three dragons living here?” asked Jason. “They’re not exactly subtle.”

  “I’ve kept Lava a secret, haven’t I?” I retorted. I didn’t mention that there had been a couple of near misses – like the night we ordered a curry and Lava snuck downstairs and tried to taste every dish. She loves spicy food!

  “And how will you feed them all? Aren’t they going to be a lot of work? What if they make too much noise and get found out?” said Faiza. “It would be much easier to just look after one.”

  “But it’s too late to just have one,” I said, utterly confused. “I can’t put Slushie and Glitz back in their eggs, can I?”

  “I just thought. . . ” said Faiza, watching Slushie and Glitz play tug of war with her bracelet.

  “Thought what?”

  “Thought. . . ” Faiza trailed off. She gave Jason a look, like there was something they were both thinking but not saying. “Never mind,” said Faiza at last. “It’s nothing.”

  But even though she said it was nothing, I had a wriggly feeling in my belly that I couldn’t ignore – a feeling like something was wrong.

  Chapter 4

  Later that day, I thought about how I could look after three dragons. My friends were right. It would be a lot trickier than looking after one.

  After I’d put on my pyjamas, cleaned my teeth and said goodnight to my family, I pulled my bedroom door closed so no one would see inside.

  The three dragons had all climbed on to the bed. I don’t know how Slushie and Glitz had got up there. They were still pretty wobbly on their legs, having only hatched a few hours ago.

  Lava stood in front of the two dragons like a teacher in front of a class. She flapped her wings up and down, once, twice. Then she ran to the edge of the bed and launched herself off the side. She soared round my bedroom in a huge circle, before sweeping down to land – flump – back on the bed.

  “Eep, eep!” she said to the dragons. She nudged Glitz towards the side of the bed.

  Slowly, Glitz flapped her golden wings, once, twice.

  Lava shot out encouraging orange sparks.

  Glitz took a clumsy step towards the edge. She flapped her wings again, harder.

  I realized what was happening a moment after Glitz jumped.

  “Glitz, no!”

  I threw myself on the floor. For a horrible moment the little dragon plummeted downwards. I stretched out my hands to catch her as she tumbled—

  “Hoo!” said Glitz in surprise as she landed in my cupped hands. She was so smooth and round and shiny.

  “Lava, you have to be careful,” I said, placing Glitz on the carpet. “They’re only young. They’ll fly when they’re ready.”

  Lava snorted green sparks in annoyance. She didn’t like being told off. Poor Lava. She’d never been an older sibling before. I’d been a big brother for years, so I already knew what to do – and what not to do.

 

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