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  Mew kept trying to squeeze his head in between Itsy and Bitsy to get more than his share of strokes, and Katie explained to him tenderly that he had to be patient. Now she had adopted them as her own, she declared them to be the sweetest pets she had ever had and asked them what colour collars they would like. She explained to Danny that Itsy wanted yellow, Bitsy wanted blue and Mew said he thought a collar might prickle and so he didn’t want one, thank you all the same.

  Danny gathered some more of the refreshments and started feeding the tadpoles. Mew was by far and away the greediest, hungrily chomping down everything from custard creams to lolly pops, while Bitsy preferred chocolate muffins and the only thing he could find that Itsy liked was a lemon lolly that she licked while he held it for her.

  Just then the boat started to slow and the voice came over the loudspeaker announcing: ‘The tour is about to finish, please return to your seats.’

  Katie gave Itsy and Bitsy a kiss each on their foreheads and Danny put the last of Itsy’s lolly in his pocket to save for her. Mew got two kisses and an extra pat (to last him until she could see him again, Katie explained). They sat back up in their seats, the hatch closed and the boat started to rise to the surface again.

  As the boat gently coasted to the shore, Katie looked back fondly as her new friends disappeared behind them and she resolved to visit them again very soon. The boat announced: ‘We trust you enjoyed your tour and hope to see you again soon. Please make your way to the exit.’

  Danny swung open the door to discover they had been delivered right back to the place on the riverbank from where they had set off. He helped Katie out of the boat and they stepped back onto dry land once more.

  Chapter 5

  The very instant their feet touched the ground they found themselves magically restored to their original sizes. The boat once again resembled a toy down at their feet, the river was once more a small stream and the towering blades of grass could now be trodden underfoot.

  The children gazed at the stream, the setting of their whole adventure now laid out in miniature before them. They could make out the newts, the sticklebacks and the pond skaters darting to and fro. The occasional ripple on the surface told of a chub snatching at a passing morsel. How gentle it all looked now and yet how amazing their journey had been. They turned, sighing with happiness, and wandered back up the path to where Katie had first discovered the snicket in the hedge.

  As they walked, Danny couldn’t help wondering who the amazing boat belonged to. He remembered the beautiful lettering on the backs of the seats, especially the letters on the larger one – ‘NF’. Surely these must be the initials of the owner or owners of the boat and he determined to discover the names that matched them.

  A few minutes later, emerging back on the path, they heard their parents calling for them and duly ran to catch them up and to tell about their amazing adventure! They explained about the snicket and the secret path; about the magic grass that had called the dragon; about wishes and boats and being made small. All this and more they told and told, until they arrived back home, exhausted by the effort of reliving their experience over again.

  Getting ready for bed, their parents didn’t seem to be very surprised at all at their story, saying what good imaginations they must have, and how clever they must have been to have fitted in all that adventuring in one little walk. The children insisted that they had been away for what had seemed like hours and that surely they must have noticed. But curiously they really didn’t seem to have been missed at all.

  Katie grew sad. Could they possibly have imagined it all? Could she and Danny both have had exactly the same imaginings?

  Her thoughts turned to her little Mew, no doubt by now snuggled up tight for the night with all the other tadpoles in some cosy corner of the stream. And she thought of the dragon, what about him? Where did he live and would they ever see him again?

  Just before her eyes closed in grateful sleep, she looked across the room to where Danny lay in his bed. He was looking straight back at her, eyes shining, arm outstretched and in his hand she could see he held a tiny stick. A curious, tiny, yellow stick. Then, she recognised it for what it was … Itsy’s lolly! It was the tiny yellow stick that came from Itsy’s lolly! Her eyes closed in blissful satisfaction and she drifted off to sleep, dreaming dreams of her next visit to the magic boat and the next time she would meet her wonderful new friends…

  A Trip to the Fair

  Chapter 1

  In the pause that you get between bath time and bedtime, where clothes are gathered and folded, curtains are drawn and hot drinks are made, it is sometimes, just sometimes, possible to fit in an adventure. Sometimes, quite a big adventure.

  And it was during one such sometimes that the children discovered the backdoor ajar, the evening air to be cool and welcoming and that no-one noticed when they slipped out and ran hand-in-hand down the lane to the path through the woods!

  They ran until the path met the stream and then stopped, panting, at the edge. Their eyes were wide with excitement as they saw that, just as before, the tiny boat was moored at the bank all ready for them.

  They remembered exactly what they had to do from last time and they both started hunting amongst the reeds and grasses for a particular type of grass. The particular type of grass that, as well as growing green and strong and as well as being home to coots and moorhens and the occasional pheasant, had another use that they (and only they) knew of!

  Danny plucked a blade from a small patch a little way

  down the bank and showed it to Katie

  Danny plucked a blade from a small patch a little way down the bank and showed it to Katie. She examined it closely, nodded in agreement and holding her breath, waited while he put it to his lips and blew. Once more they thrilled at the sweet song of the grass and as the sound slowly died away they closed their eyes and listened.

  At first there was nothing, but then (and it was so quiet that they might have imagined it) they heard the distant reply. The dragon had heard the whistle! As they listened, the dragon’s call grew louder and louder, until they could hear the beat of his wings and the snort of his breath and then – over their heads he flew, wings glinting in the sunlight, nostrils flaring, breath hot on their backs. Katie threw her arms around his neck. The dragon smiled. Even though it hadn’t been long since the children’s first visit, he was very pleased to see them.

  They were desperate to tell the dragon all about their incredible adventure on the miniature boat. He peered down amongst the reeds, Katie trying to guide his chin so as to provide him with a view of the tiny craft, while Danny held back the surrounding reeds and grasses.

  They told him of the underwater tour and of their new friends the tadpoles, and asked the dragon if he knew who owned the boat or where it had come from. They told him about the cockpit and the controls and the environmental hatch, the twin chairs with the mysterious initials – ‘CF’ and ‘NF’. The dragon thought deeply, scratching his chin with one enormous claw, before finally speaking: ‘Children, I do believe you have found one of Noosum Foosum’s inventions.’

  ‘New some what?’ asked Danny, confused.

  The dragon brought his head down so that it was level with Danny’s. Its eyes were as large as the boy’s whole head and they twinkled as he repeated the mysterious name: ‘Noo-sum Foosum.’

  ‘Who’s he?’ asked Katie, stroking the side of the dragon’s head carelessly.

  ‘Ah, well, I have never met him myself,’ confessed the dragon, ‘but word of his inventions travels far and wide, and I have heard that he lives round these parts.’

  ‘So do you think he left the boat there ‘specially for us to use?’ asked Danny.

  ‘Well, I don’t know if it was you he had in mind, but if what I have heard is true, that’s exactly the sort of thing he would do.’

  ‘Come on then! Let’s go! Let’s go on another adventure!’ shouted Katie, jumping up excitedly. ‘Please magic us small again Dragon – we c
an’t fit without your help.’ she added.

  The dragon’s smile slowly faded and disappeared.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Katie.

  The dragon sat slowly back on his haunches and explained that their last adventure had sounded so wonderful, and that he was sad to think he was about to miss out on another one.

  The children thought about this. Then, Katie had an idea. She asked him, ‘Dragon – where does the magic come from that makes us so small?’

  The dragon thought for a while and then replied that he always just made the magic himself.

  ‘But if it’s your magic which makes us smaller, couldn’t you magic yourself smaller too?’ she reasoned.

  The dragon thought. Then he thought some more. Then his expression changed so that he wasn’t looking sad any more, instead he was looking hopeful, maybe even a bit excited! He asked Katie if she thought he should try.

  ‘Yes, yes!’, ‘Try, try!’ The children were jumping up and down, holding hands, shouting for the dragon to try the magic. The thought of the dragon being able to come with them on their adventure was just too wonderful to bear. So Danny asked the dragon to magic them small so that they could fit onto the boat, but this time he added that the dragon should magic himself small too!

  They closed their eyes and the dragon worked his magic.

  Chapter 2

  Opening their eyes, the children found themselves stood in the cockpit of the boat, just as before. But this time they found that the dragon was there too.

  ‘The magic worked, it really worked!’ Katie shouted. She couldn’t believe it. And nor could the dragon. He sat blinking, as if not understanding what had just happened. But it had happened and there he was, made small, just the same as the children – in fact made even smaller than the children! Danny scooped him up and popped him up by the windshield of the boat so that he could see out.

  They explored the cockpit of the boat – the layout was exactly as they remembered from their last adventure. Danny laid his hand on the big lever which seemed to be the main control and carefully examined the different settings again. ‘Slow ahead’ or ‘Halt’ (where the lever currently rested) didn’t sound very exciting. Then, in a moment of decision, he pushed his hand forward and moved the lever to ‘Full ahead.’

  The engine started with a jolt. This immediately caused the dragon to slide uncontrollably down the instrument console and to scrabble around to try and gain purchase on something. Slipping helplessly over myriad green and red indicator lights and several important looking dials, his progress was finally halted when he managed to hook a talon onto one particular dial labelled ‘Destination’. This dial was then further marked with smaller labels declaring: ‘Upstream’, ‘Downstream’, ‘Underground spring’, ‘Waterfall’ and many more, but the particular one that the dragon’s talon seemed to have selected was marked ‘Funfair’!

  Sure enough, it was not very long at all before the boat rounded a corner and they heard the familiar sounds of a funfair and saw its coloured lights dancing in the distance to welcome them.

  Danny moored the boat and they jumped off. By this time the dragon had become more accustomed to being small and was happy to fly along by himself, hovering about waist height.

  They entered the fair and the first thing to meet their eyes was the candyfloss stall – covered from top to bottom with glorious, pink candyfloss! There was candyfloss in bags, candyfloss on sticks, candyfloss made into unusual shapes – even the counter was pink!

  They asked the lady for two children’s sized stick-fulls and one dragon sized stick-full please. She gave them a big stick-full each. Not only did it taste like the best candyfloss ever, but it didn’t go all hard and funny after you had taken a mouthful or two like normal candyfloss would. It was still fine and beautiful and fluffy and delicious right down to the last bite. The children ate theirs straight away. The dragon seemed a little uncertain and only took a small bite of his. He seemed to like it because, as soon as he’d had the first bite, he quickly took another and then another! After he’d eaten half of it, he started to complain that it was tickling his nose a bit and sure enough he started to sneeze.

  ‘Per-choo!’

  Out of his nose came a little ring made of dragon smoke and candyfloss, which proceeded to drift along all by itself!

  ‘Per-choo!’

  Out came another, all pink and fluffy, yet smoky too…

  Out came another, pink and fluffy, yet smoky too; and this one Katie caught on her arm. She wore it like a bracelet and said that it was the most beautiful bracelet in the world, all made of dragon smoke and candyfloss.

  The dragon stopped sneezing after a while and they came next to the hook-a-duck stall. The children got their hooks and started waving them over the heads of the little ducks as they bobbed round and round. When they had explained to the dragon that they were trying to hook-a-duck, he flew up and grabbed one with his claws! The man behind the counter didn’t seem to mind and the children didn’t want the dragon to feel bad that he had done it wrong, so they told him: ‘well done,’ and let him choose a cuddly seahorse. The dragon looked very pleased indeed and flew along with the seahorse tucked between his legs, pretending that he was under the sea and telling unseen turtles and jellyfish to mind out of his way.

  They went from one stall to another, one ride to the next, from bumper cars to carousels, from toffee apples to donuts. And when they were full to bursting of sugary treats, they decided to set off back to the boat.

  The dragon kept accidentally plopping down to the ground, as his wings by this time had become a bit too sticky for flying. So as they passed one last stall Danny got two helium balloons and tying one to each wing, asked the dragon if that was any better. The dragon declared that it was and asked if he could keep the balloons for when he was big again, as his wings quite often got tired.

  They walked to the boat, the dragon gently bobbing along beneath his balloons as Katie patted him forwards. Each pat produced a little sound from the dragon, a bit like a cross between a cat’s purr and a low whistle. As they walked, Danny tried to think about whether the balloons would magic big when the dragon did or whether they would just stay small.

  The boat-trip back didn’t take long and they soon arrived at the point on the river where they had first found the boat moored. Danny tied it up and they climbed off and scrambled up the bank.

  Now, this is the time when on their last adventure the dragon’s magic had worn off and the children found themselves big again. So Danny, Katie and the dragon, all three, shut their eyes and waited to see what would happen this time…

  After a little while the dragon couldn’t bear it any longer and he opened his eyes to see what had happened – but when he did, the children had gone! He was all by himself. What’s more, not only had the magic worn off so much that it had made the children completely disappear, but it had also nearly made the river itself disappear, which was only really a bit of a trickle now. The dragon sighed sadly, as he hadn’t had chance to say a proper goodbye to the children and he didn’t know when he would see them again.

  He had just begun to stretch out his wings ready to fly off when he thought he heard a little noise. Strange, he thought to himself. His wings didn’t normally sound like that. They had a kind of squeaky sound to them, instead of their normal whooshy kind of sound.

  He flapped the left one… Squeak. Then he tried the right… Squeak. Then he tried them both together… Squeak, squeak.

  Just as he was wondering when he had last had them oiled, and whether they needed re-doing, he heard another sound. This one was not a squeak though. It was still quite squeaky but this one was kind of distracting, like it was trying to get his attention. He looked left, right, forwards and behind him, but nothing. He was just about to put it down to his wings once more when he heard it again, this time a bit louder and this time accompanied by a sudden cramp in the end of his tail.

  Now, all this while, the children hadn’t disappeared at
all – they were still small! They were still waiting for the magic to wear off and, right now, Danny was hanging on to the end of the dragon’s tail, prodding it as hard as he could to attract his attention.

  ‘DRAGON! DRAGON! DOWN HERE!’ Danny shouted as loud as he could.

  The dragon looked down. ‘Tail?’ he asked, looking quizzically at it. The dragon’s tail had never spoken to him before, but he supposed that it was just something that happened to tails when they needed oiling too. He told the tail that if it could just hang on, he thought he had some oil back in his cave.

  ‘NO, NO! THAT’S NOT IT. IT’S US! LOOK!’

  The dragon peered under his belly trying to see. ‘Scales?’ he tried. Maybe it was his scales. That might make more sense on account of them being all a bit sticky with candyfloss still. He resolved that once he got back to his cave he would give his whole tail a nice sulphur bath, scales and all, hoping that would sort it out.

  Meanwhile, Katie had somehow managed to climb a nearby beech tree and by now was about as high as the dragon’s head. Despite her small size, she managed to pick a particularly hard looking beech nut and she threw it as hard as she could at his nose! This did the trick. He peered into the branches to investigate. He was astonished to discover Katie on her perch and as astonishment turned to joy, he offered her his nose to climb on to and gently lowered her back to the ground.

  So the dragon finally realised that the children hadn’t disappeared and that the river hadn’t been turned into a trickle. It was simply that the magic had worn off and he was now back to his normal size again. The children also showed the dragon the source of the mysterious squeaking – it was of course the helium balloons! They hadn’t been magicked big when the dragon changed size, and were trapped between his scales and his wings. The dragon popped them with a claw and smiled a happy smile as he remembered bobbing along beside them on the journey back to the boat.