COPYRIGHT

  First published in Great Britain 2024 by Farshore

  an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

  1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

  farshore.co.uk

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  Macken House, 39/40 Mayor Street Upper,

  Dublin 1, D01 C9W8

  Text copyright © 2024 Farshore

  Illustrations copyright © 2024 David O’Connell

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

  A CIP catalogue record of this title is available from the British Library

  PB ISBN 9780008641894

  Ebook ISBN 9780008641900

  Version: 2024-08-03

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

  NOTE TO READERS

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  Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008641894

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Note to Readers

  Chapter One: Spooky Stories

  Chapter Two: Poo Mountain

  Chapter Three: Attack of the Zombicorns

  Chapter Four: Creature Scare

  Chapter Five: Midnight Feast

  Chapter Six: Fly and Spy

  Chapter Seven: Let’s Go Ghost-hunting!

  Chapter Eight: Knock Knock …

  Chapter Nine: Robo-ogre

  Chapter Ten: Dragon-napped!

  Chapter Eleven: Terrifying Headless Ghost Dragon

  Epilogue

  About the Publisher

  1

  SPOOKY STORIES

  As the bright October moon shone through the window, Theo flicked on the torch and held it under his chin.

  ‘Are you ready for a spoooooky story?’

  ‘Yeah!’ Theo’s little brother Dex clung to the bars of his cot and jumped up and down.

  Theo cleared his throat and opened the book in his lap.

  ‘The cat says … MEOOW!’

  Hmm. That wasn’t very spooky.

  ‘The dog says … WOOF WOOF!’

  Theo and Dex looked at each other. It was no good. Theo would have to make a tiny little adjustment to the story.

  ‘The terrifying headless ghost dragon says …

  ROOOOOOAAAAAAAR!’

  ‘Theo!’ called Mum from downstairs. ‘That’s too scary for Dex’s bedtime story!’

  ‘Aw!’ said Theo. ‘But he loves it!’

  Dex beamed up at his brother with his one-toothed smile and clapped his little hands.

  ‘Hee-hee!’ he giggled. ‘Drago!’

  ‘Nice one, Dex!’ said Theo.

  ‘What did he say?’ said Dad, appearing at the door with a basket full of laundry. It was a strange hobby to have, Theo thought, but he must love washing clothes because he did it ALL THE TIME.

  ‘I taught him to say Dragon!’ said Theo, proudly ruffling Dex’s hair. ‘Well, nearly …’

  ‘Just what we need,’ said Dad, rolling his eyes with a smile. ‘Another dragon-obsessed boy in the house.’

  ‘DRAGO! DRAGO! DRAGO!’ chanted Dex, bouncing up and down in his cot.

  Dad sighed and put down his basket. ‘No spooky dragon stories before bed, or he’ll never sleep,’ she said, taking the book off Theo. ‘And that goes for you, too. You need an early night before dragon school in the morning.’

  ‘All right,’ said Theo. He gave his brother a goodnight high-five. ‘Night night, Dexy. No more “Drago” for Dad, Okay?’

  ‘BUM!’ yelled Dex.

  ‘Oh, much better!’ laughed Dad. ‘Goodnight, Theo!’

  Theo headed down the corridor to his own room. He stepped inside, kicked off his fluffy dragon slippers and leaped into bed, screwing his eyes shut and willing himself to sleep. He just wanted to be able to fast forward to the morning so he could get back to Dragon Towers, the most awesome school in the world EVER. He’d been home a whole week for half-term and even though he’s had loads of fun, he couldn’t wait to be flying dragons again.

  But sleep did not come. Theo couldn’t stop thinking about all the fun things he was going to do with his friends and their dragons. At Dragon Towers everyone had their own dragon best friend, and every dragon had its own special magic power. There were ice dragons, tornado dragons and thunder dragons with earth-tremblingly loud roars. His friend Jasmeet’s dragon Zen could shoot out jets of water and he had made them a water slide down the stairs. Even the lessons were dragon-themed, so none of them were boring. In their maths lesson they’d met a calcu-dragon who could do any sum you asked.

  Theo looked around his room. There was his Dragon Rider jacket hung up, ready to wear. And there was his nearly completed Dragonia sticker book (he had a few swaps for his friend Felix when he saw him). On the wall was the huge poster of First Rider Ada and her fire dragon, Faust. Just seeing it gave him a thrill, remembering that he had actually met – and flown – with them in real life. Ada was just as awesome as he had hoped, and Faust, if a little bad-tempered, was as fearsome and cool as he’d imagined a fire dragon would be.

  Then Theo glanced at his bedside table, where there was a picture of him and a happy-looking dragon with a huge mane licking his face. Wanda was Theo’s dragon. She was a bit different to the other dragons – she was more friendly than fearsome, she preferred hugs to fire-breathing and when they soared through the air she usually got distracted and chased her own tail. But Wanda always made Theo laugh – and Theo thought that a Wanda dragon was the best dragon of all.

  He couldn’t wait to see what Wanda thought of his fancy-dress outfit.

  It was nearly Halloween and the headmaster had told them all to bring their best spooky costume. Theo LOVED Halloween. He had been a bit disappointed he was missing his friend Sami’s haunted-house party, but it sounded like Dragon Towers was planning something special as well. He hoped it was something super scary! Maybe they would go trick-or-treating with the dragons? Or apple-bobbing with the teachers? Maybe not. He couldn’t imagine their grumpy teacher Sir Jolly dunking his head in a barrel of Granny Smiths.

  Theo reached under his pillow and pulled out an old book he had borrowed from the Dragon Towers library. It was full of ghost stories from Dragonia, the magic land where the school was. The book said that Dragon Towers was thousands of years old … and it was rumoured to be haunted! He had just got to a chapter about the school’s forbidden tower, which was home to a terrifying headless ghost dragon that would roam the halls, looking for –

  ‘Theo?’ said Mum.

  ‘Aaagh!’ said Theo, dropping his book.

  ‘Get to sleep!’ she said. ‘Goodnight!’ She switched off the light.

  ‘Night!’ said Theo. He lay down with his head on the pillow and waited for the creak of his mum’s footsteps on the stairs. Then he crawled down under his dragon duvet, flipped open his book, pulled out his torch and softly clicked it on.

  ‘The terrifying headless ghost dragon …’

  Theo yawned his way through breakfast. He had slightly overslept, his dreams full of shadowy dragons and Sir Jolly with an apple in his mouth.

  ‘All packed?’ said Dad, spooning porridge into Dex. ‘Ready to catch your orb-thingy?’

  ‘Yep!’ said Theo. The path to Dragon Towers was revealed by a glowing orb that led Theo to a dragon door – a shimmery portal that zapped him straight to Dragonia. The only problem was, he never knew where the portal was going to appear, or where he would come out at the other end. The last time it had dropped him in mid-air right above the castle! Plummeting through the sky had been a dramatic way to arrive. He hoped this time it might be a little less dangerous.

  Theo strapped on his backpack, let his parents each give him a kiss on the head and high-fived Dex. It was time to go to Dragonia! He opened the front door and there, hovering right in front of his nose, was the magic orb. It wore a little sheet with eyeholes cut out – the orb was dressed as a ghost!

  ‘WOOOOOOOO!’ said the orb, and then immediately it whizzed off down the road and Theo had to run to keep up. It took a right at the traffic lights, zoomed along the street, across the allotments and straight through a pumpkin patch.

  Theo bounded through a hedge and saw the orb zip around a corner, past a church and then slow to a stop. He caught up with it and looked around. They were in a graveyard, with an early morning mist creeping around the tombstones.

  ‘WOOOOOOOO!’ said the orb.

  Theo gulped.

  Then the orb vanished in a puff of glitter and the dragon door appeared, casting a spooky glow. Through the magic portal lay Dragon Towers, his friends and his dragon – and that made Theo feel brave enough to take on anything! He took a deep breath and stepped forward.

  ‘Time for another adventure,’ he said, as he walked though the dragon door and into an inky-black void. The door disappeared quickly, leaving a very confused pigeon staring at the spot where it had once been.
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  2

  POO MOUNTAIN

  Stars and rays of light whooshed past Theo on all sides as he was sucked through the portal. He felt like a ball shooting through a vacuum tube at the soft play centre where Dex went. Then just ahead of him the dragon door appeared again. Theo braced himself and stepped through … on to solid ground. Phew!

  Theo was glad to see that he wasn’t hundreds of metres up in the air like last time, but something was … odd. It wasn’t something he could hear or see, but something he could smell …

  There was a loud flushing sound.

  ‘Ugh!’ Theo clamped his hand over his nose. ‘The dragon toilets!’

  He rushed out of the building that the dragons used as their loos. They didn’t use normal human toilets, of course. A dragon toilet was a large hole in the ground where they could put their … well, there was no other way to describe it but an absolute mountain of poo. Every so often it was flushed away by a waterfall, diverted from the Dragonia river.

  Theo ran outside and stopped when he was clear of the stench.

  ‘Well, at least I didn’t land in the loo,’ he said to himself.

  Dragon Towers loomed in front of him, its mighty turrets reaching up to the sky and its many gargoyles frowning down. Theo was a short walk from the big entrance gates, in an area of the castle grounds he never been in before. And when he walked around the side of the castle, he realised why.

  He was right next to the Forbidden Tower.

  The tower was crumbly and ancient and all the pupils at Dragon Towers knew not to go there. He remembered what his book said about it being haunted …

  As if on cue, a great black cloud rolled across the sky, casting a chill in the air. A dozen bats flew out of the upper windows of the Forbidden Tower, shrieking as they went.

  Theo started walking more quickly. He knew that the terrifying headless ghost dragon from his story was just that: a story. It definitely wasn’t lurking in the Forbidden Tower right now, waiting to jump out and get him with its ghostly claws … But all the same, he thought he’d quite like to be in the cosy first-year common room with his friends and their dragons as soon as possible. He couldn’t wait to see their Halloween outfits!

  Theo hurried past the tower, not running in case anyone saw him, but walking very fast, like a speed-walker in the Olympics with a big lunging strides and wiggly hips. It was quite a fun walk and he thought he might do it more often.

  As he walk-wiggled past the Forbidden Tower, thinking about all the fun stuff his friends might be doing for Halloween, Theo laughed to himself. He’d almost freaked out for a moment there!

  ‘Just a silly story,’ he said out loud. ‘I’m not scared of you, ghost dragon!’

  ‘RAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGH!’

  A ghostly roar rang out from the Forbidden Tower. Goosebumps sprang up on Theo’s arms and he felt a shiver down his spine.

  ‘RAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGH!’

  Now even his goosebumps had goosebumps.

  Theo heard a stomping sound behind him and turned to see a large shadow looming over the path. He braced himself for whatever horror was to come …

  A fuzzy blur shot out from round the corner, leaped on Theo and knocked him to the ground. He looked up to see a grinning purply-white dragon with an icy-blue mane.

  ‘Wanda!’ said Theo, his heart still thumping fast. ‘Am I glad to see you!’

  Wanda licked his face with her huge, slobbery tongue. It was her way of saying ‘good morning’. Then she licked his face twice more, which was her way of saying ‘how are you?’ and ‘I want ice cream for breakfast’.

  ‘Thanks!’ said Theo, wiping drool off his cheek. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here!’

  Wanda yelped happily, and then dipped her head for Theo to climb on to her back.

  ‘You’re right, Wanda – it will be quicker if we fly!’

  As Wanda bounded up into the air and Theo bumped around on her back, he knew that this might not be strictly true. Flying with Wanda often took the same time as walking because she would get so distracted and forget where she was meant to be going. But it would be way more fun!

  Wanda caught her foot on the top branch of a tree and did an accidental loop-the-loop, while Theo clung on to her back. She turned the right way up again and, instead of heading to the castle, flew straight towards a cloud shaped like a pineapple. Theo lifted his hand in the air and brushed the cloud wisps. Then Wanda saw a troll aeroplane and flapped over to wave at the trolls.

  ‘Hello, trolls!’ yelled Theo, waving too.

  The trolls all solemnly turned around and pointed their bums at the tiny plane windows. This might seem rude, but from his Creatures of Dragonia book Theo knew it was actually the official troll greeting.

  Wanda was so busy waving that she flew straight into another cloud, and Theo got a face full of cold water vapour.

  ‘This is SO much fun!’ he spluttered as they shot out the other side. He wiped the droplets off his face and patted Wanda’s neck. She chirped back at him merrily and Theo beamed.

  Now – was there somewhere they were meant to be?

  ‘Theo!’

  Far below them, in the garden at the front of the castle, was Theo’s friend, Maeve. She was waving up at them, along with the rest of the class and their dragons. Theo could see that Dragon Towers had created a fantastic autumnal display of pumpkins and gourds dotted through the hedges.

  ‘Just coming!’ Theo yelled back.

  He gently nudged Wanda’s neck and she began to swoop back down to the castle. Well, that was easier than he’d thought. Usually it took a while for Wanda to calm down when they were flying.

  ‘Good job, W-AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGH!’

  Wanda’s head whipped round, pulling Theo with it as they spun in a circle. Wanda was chasing her tail! The wind whooshed past Theo’s ears as they spun quicker and quicker. He screwed his eyes shut and felt the G-force pull at his cheeks. Surely she couldn’t spin any faster?

  Then with a big CHOMP, they stopped. Theo could breathe again. He opened his eyes to see that Wanda had caught her tail in her mouth, forming a circle with her body like a big dragon-y donut.

  And then they fell.

  For the second time that day Theo braced himself as the Dragon Towers garden approached very, very fast.

  There was a loud SQUELCH as they crash-landed in something soft and sticky. Orange goo flew up all around them.

  ‘What was that?’ Theo panted, wiping some of the goo out of his eyes as he and Wanda roly-polied over the grass.

  ‘That,’ growled Sir Jolly, ‘was my prize pumpkin.’

  3

  ATTACK OF THE ZOMBICORNS

  Once Theo had cleaned all the prize pumpkin goo off himself and Wanda – and offered to try to stick the pumpkin back together again, to which Sir Jolly said a firm ‘no’ – he discovered that he wasn’t the only one whose dragon door had dropped them off somewhere spooky.

  ‘Mine dropped me in a corridor under the castle, and I got covered in cobwebs!’ said Felix, brushing the sticky strands off his neon purple T-shirt. All Felix’s clothes were super stylish – and he usually had a few spares with him because his stink dragon, Delilah, had a habit of showering him with dung.

  ‘I was dumped in the woods and chased by a ghost!’ said Jasmeet. ‘Well, it wasn’t a real ghost. Just an old sheet on a zip wire. It was pretty quick, though – until I raced it five more times and its batteries ran out.’

  Her lazy water dragon Zen, who was napping face-down with his tail in the air, gave an impressed-sounding snore.

  Theo told them about his trip to the dragon loos, and the spooky wailing noise in the Forbidden Tower.

  ‘Ah, I’m very familiar with that smell,’ said Felix. ‘Delilah wears a perfume called An Absolute Mountain of Poo. The wailing sounds spooky, though!’

  ‘You must have been imagining things, Theo,’ said Jasmeet. ‘That tower’s completely abandoned and has been for years.’

  ‘Yeah, maybe,’ said Theo. ‘What about you, Maeve? Any adventures so far?’

 

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