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Luma and the Pet Dragon

Luma and the Hiccupping Dragon

First published in 2023 by Welbeck Flame
An imprint of Welbeck Children’s Limited,
Part of the Welbeck Publishing Group
Offices in: London – 20 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JW &
Sydney – 205 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills 2010
www.welbeckpublishing.com

Design and layout © Welbeck Children’s Limited
Text © 2023 Leah Mohammed
Illustrations © 2023 Loretta Schauer

Leah Mohammed and Loretta Schauer have asserted their moral right to be identified as the Author and Illustrator of this Work in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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, electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners and the publishers.

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

ISBN 978 1 80130 031 5
eISBN 978 1 80130 032 2

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Disclaimer: Any names, characters, trademarks, service marks and trade names detailed in this book is the property of their respective owners and are used solely for identification and reference purposes. This book is a publication of Welbeck Children’s Limited, part of Welbeck Publishing Group, and has not been licensed, approved, sponsored or endorsed by any person or entity.

The
Grumpy
Dragon

Chapter One

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Luma’s eyes shot open.

She stretched over, the tip of her finger just managing to tap the large round button on the top of her new rainbow alarm clock.

‘Yay!’ Luma grinned. ‘It worked!’

The clock had been a present from Nani to help Luma learn to tell the time and this morning was the first chance she’d had to use the alarm bit of it.

‘Yowl,’ came a sleepy yawn from under the covers.

Luma lifted the duvet.

Timir was curled in a ball, his little dragon tail tucked under his chin.

‘Timir?’ Luma said. ‘It’s time to get up.’

‘Not yet,’ Timir murmured. ‘I am snoozy.’

Luma giggled, gently sliding him towards her and stroking his scaly ears.

‘We have to wake up now,’ she said.

‘I’ve got to get everything ready for my playdate.’

Timir’s eyes flashed opened and then immediately narrowed. ‘Harrumph!’ he said.

Luma groaned. ‘You can’t still be grumpy?’

Recently, Luma had made friends with a new girl at her school called Ella. The other day she had gone to her house and only just made it home before bedtime.

Timir had been very upset.

He had refused their night-time cuddles, kicked his yo-yo, teddy and duck out of his bed and settled down to sleep without Luma – although, he only lasted ten minutes or so before wriggling in beside her.

‘I do not like Ella,’ Timir moaned.

‘You haven’t even met her yet,’ Luma said. ‘She is very nice.’

Luma climbed out of bed and went to open the curtains.

‘Luma? Where have you gone?’

‘I’m right here,’ Luma said.

‘But where are my snuggles?’

‘We just had snuggles.’

‘Not enough snuggles.’

‘I don’t have time now… look,’ Luma said, pointing to her clock. ‘We only have, um, two hours, I think, before Ella arrives and I have to get everything ready to play with.’

‘Why?’ Timir whined.

‘I told you before, we’re not going to be here long,’ Luma said. ‘We’re going to the soft play centre after lunch.’

Timir did a snorting huff.

That was another reason he was not too keen on Ella. Luma may have mentioned the rather large ball pit and twisty slides she was looking forward to… and the fact that pets (including dragons) were not allowed.

‘What if you use your flame to help me get the teddies ready for the tea party?’ Luma said. ‘We could have more snuggles after?’

Timir jumped down and trotted towards Luma’s teddy pile. He grabbed their favourite zebra teddy by the tail and… ran off towards his bed.