Normally she would do this on a Sunday afternoon, but tomorrow she was going to her Daddies house and would probably not have time to do it, so Mommy was baking and Boo was stuck trying to do her homework.

Obviously she would much rather be cooking with Mommy, but apparently writing a story about the Great Fire of London was more important.

Despite only being nine years old, she loved to cook with Mommy, but also she loved to be top of the class. She was already way ahead of all of her friends.

What she was not enjoying, was her homework. She had been listening in class, of course, and she had taken notes, obviously, but the more she stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of her, the less she could figure out what to write.

The smell of baking coming from the kitchen did not help, and mommy singing along to something that she was listening to on her headphones? That did not help either. The sound of the rain on the window ?

No help at all. Absolutely no help at all.

Boo decided to go to her room to see if there were any books there that would help, or even to see if she could find any information on the internet, she had left her MyPad on her bed.

As she opened the door there was a an odd sound, like the rustled of oily parchment. If you have never hear the rustle of oily parchment, well, everyone knows the sound made when a dragon re-folds his wings ? Well it is similar to that.

Looking in the direction of the sound, she noticed a pair of dragon legs and a long tail, which she also assumed belongs to a dragon, revealed at the bottom of the curtain. Boo, unlike most young girls of her age, is very brave and also very curious.She is also a little bit cross as the dragon appeared to be standing on her favorite blue skirt, the one with the pleats that looked great with her woolly tights.

‘Erm, excuse me, are you a dragon’

Her voice was fairly quiet, but there was no hint of nerves.

The curtains swished back with a swoosh.The dragon that was revealed was bending down slightly to avoid hitting his head on the rather tall ceiling, he was about ten feet tall and had piercing green eyes, scaly skin and huge razor sharp claws.

‘Are you going to eat me’ asked Boo.

‘I do not eat little girls.’ he said in a surprisingly mellow voice.

He then scratched his head, ‘do you have any chocolate ? Dragons love chocolate….’

‘What are you doing here’, she asked,  not taking her gaze away from him for a moment.

‘Hiding, obviously’

But I saw you, your feet were sticking out’

‘I could not see you, therefore you could not see me’

Boo explained that was the silliest thing that she had heard all day and that she needs to find a book, she is stuck on a question for her homework.

‘Books are great, but there are better ways to research something’

Boo frowned, ‘You mean on the internet ?’

The dragon giggled, and if you have never heard a dragon giggle is it one of those sounds that is very hard to explain, perhaps next time you see a dragon, you should tickle him just to experience it.

‘No, no the internet, we can just go ?’.

Boo frowned, ‘Dragons are silly’

‘hmm, let me prove I’m not, what did you need to look up ? ‘

Boo explained that the teacher said that we need to write a story about the great fire of London and that she was struggling to write anything at all because everyone was going to write a version of the article that they had found on wikipedia and they would all be the same.

‘The one that started in Pudding Lane and my old friend Thomas Farriner’s place ?’

Boo smiled, ‘you are making this up’

The dragon also smiled and showed rather too many teeth ‘Would you like to see for your self ?’

Boo shook her head ‘That’s not possible….’

The dragon explained that they can go and look and they will be back in no time at all – Mommy will not notice because dragons are magical creatures and they can arrive just after they have left, in the blink of an eye, so to speak.

So, Boo climbed onto his back, and as impossible as it may sounds they flew straight out of a window  that Boo felt was way too small even for her, let alone a 10ft dragon with huge wings

They flew west, very, very swiftly causing Boo to hold on tight. despite the very cold air, she soon realised that the dragon was keeping her warm – her pigtails streamed out behind her and she made a mental note that if she gets to go this again, she will borrow a pair of mommies sunglasses to keep the wind out of her eyes.

Below the landscape was changing, the motorway that they were flying over had vanished, woods are appearing, roads became tracks. Boo shouted at the top of her voice – ‘Where are the roads going ?’

The Dragon answered, seemingly in her head ‘They have not always been there, we are traveling back to 1666 as well as traveling to London. Boo wondered if she was dreaming or if this is real, dragons, time travel ?

After just a few minutes of extremely rapid flying, they are approaching London, but it was not a London that you or I would recognise.

Boo was astonished at how little time the trip had taken, her mommies boyfriend has a motorbike and he tells tales of travelling from London to home in 45 minutes and her mood always tells him off for it, but this was just fantastically fast.

Dragons fly very fast indeed it would seem – he started to explain about how he once out-ran Concorde while suffering with a sore wing, then remembered that the little girl on his back is only nine years old and probably does not remember Concorde and decided to explain another day

They gently touched down in the heart of London, but it was not the same London that Boo and her mommy visited a few weeks previously, the streets were narrow and winding, rather than pavements the streets look and feel like compressed dirt people were pushing carts and riding horses, there are no cars yet. It also smelled, horribly.

Boo wrinkled her nose. Nobody seems to notice them, the Londoners go about their business and walk right by them, Boo asked if Dragons were more common in this era. Dragon explained that people only see what they want to see and only people that are truly open to seeing the wonders of the world can see him.

Boo thought about this for a while before declaring that he is the silliest dragon ever.

As they walked through the streets, the dragon pointed out that back in 1666 the only people living in London were very, very poor, they lived in very dangerous houses, they had no running water, no electricity either. A hot bath was only possible if they warmed water on a wood and coal fire. Boo considered for a moment before declaring that this is pretty icky, but then she also complains that Mommy makes her have a shower every day, whereas Daddy lets her go the whole weekend without washing behind her ears.

As they turned on to Pudding Lane a delicious smell started wafting in their nostrils, the dragon suddenly has a glint in his eye (he was very hungry – flying uses a lot of energy). Boo noticed too that the dragon was drooling a little, especially so when plump people pass by, she imagined that they could quite easily be dragon snacks.

Boo remembered that she had a small bar of chocolate in her pocket and she offered it to him

‘Dragons like chocolate’, he grinned and inhaled the chocolate bar and the wrapper and the foil.

As they approached a tiny bakery, proudly proclaiming ‘Thoms Farynor Baykeyry’, the dragon quickly explained that spelling was a little different and very creative in the 1600’s, but as so few people could actually read, it did not matter too much if it was all jumbled up.

Boo and the dragon squeezed into the shop. At the front there is a display of extremely lumpy looking pies, some with feathers sticking out from under the pasty, one even had what looked suspiciously like a singed chicken foot emerging at a rather jaunty angle.

The oven fire had gone out as the baker had no money, his assistant was also sick, so there was little hope of baking today, the owner was busying himself making pastry, hoping that someone would buy some pies, so he could buy some fire wood. Boo nudged the dragon and pointed at the cold oven. Getting the hint, Dragon breathed on the oven and the baker was able to load up the racks with the lumpy pies that he had made already.

Boo loved cooking, so she decided to get involved – she suggested that feathers and feet are perhaps not a good idea and she suggested that people might like to eat pies that require less effort. Together they invent the chicken and fungus (mushroom) pie.

The new pies were a huge hit, and soon the baker is able to buy fuel for the oven, but as the dragon is enjoying his job so they stack the fuel away for the morning. During the afternoon they sell out of the new pies again and again, the dragon continues to breathe on the oven cooking the pies and they make a small fortune. Late in the evening the baker closes up shop, thanking Boo and the dragon, giving her two of his newly created pies.

They leave and take flight above the slums of London.

Boo asks if the baker will be OK. The Dragon explains that he and his family escaped the fire, which was started in the kitchen a little after midnight that night as he prepared for the early morning baking session. However, within a couple of years he had opened up a new ‘Chicken and Fungus Pie Store’, in the newly rebuilt London which was a great success.

As they fly higher, time shifts again and they watch the four days of the fire, compressed into just half an hour, the fire started, as predicted in Pudding Lane, but spread quickly, the wooden homes and stores burning easily, within a day it had threatened the entire city. High winds fanned the flames and the people fled in boats, on horses, in carts and on foot. The city authorities demolished rows of buildings to form fire breaks, but the winds allowed the fire to jump the flames.

Eventually the weather cooled, the winds dropped and the fire was extinguished.

Boo and her Dragon landed on the steeple of a church and surveyed the damage. Boo picked up a sketchbook from her backpack and using a burnt stick as a pencil sketched the scene, figuring that it might be useful for her homework project. She then gave the Dragon one of the pies as she had noticed that tell-tale glint in his eyes and was not convinced that she might not become a dragon snack.

‘Time to go home’

As they flew eastward, the trees diminished, the trails become roads and buildings flew up from nowhere,  within a few minutes of leaving they approached Boo’s home and flew straight back through the open window. landing lightly in Boo’s room. She jumped off the dragons’ back and landed lightly on her feet.

Quickly she crossed to the door and peeked out, there was still the delicious smell of baking in the air, Mommy was dancing to unheard music on her headphones and as the Dragon had promised, no time had elapsed.

She turned to thank the Dragon for her adventure, but he was snoozing lightly on her bed.

A few minutes later Boo was back at the dining table, writing quickly and easily, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she did so. Mommy took a look at the picture and started to read over her shoulder to check her spelling.

‘Boo, my sweetie, you are supposed to be writing about the great fire, not Chicken andFungus Pies’.

The next day Boo handed in her homework, she had spent many hours writing all about narrow lanes, wood and tar buildings, dirty streets and pies with feathers, she had written about how the fire spread and how after four days it was finally doused, she had included the view from the Steeple of Barking Church of the devastation and had even included a slice of Chicken and Fungus pie.

Her teacher read it and even tasted the pie before awarding her an A++ with three gold stars.