It’s obvious that Rose feels the same way. Pickle is flying next to us, and Rose is sitting on his back and grinning. Behind me Win cackles with laughter.

As the dragons’ wings fall into a rhythm, my thoughts return to the Box.

Like everything in Roar, it began as a game in Grandad’s attic. Grandad got a new fish tank and it came in this massive cardboard box with a cartoon goldfish printed on the side. He gave us the box to play with and Rose and I pretended it was a boat, then a house, then a cave. Then we forgot all about it.

Until Rose decided to play a trick on me.

The next time I went into the attic, the Box was sitting in the middle of the room with the message What’s in the box, Arthur? written on the side in blue felt-tip pen. Of course, I had to have a look. When I pulled back the cardboard flaps, I saw a clown sitting inside and grinning up at me. “Hello, ARTHUR!” it cried . . . or, rather, Rose cried.

Rose had put on a yellow curly wig and drawn a clown smile on her face with one of Nani’s lipsticks. When she jumped out of the Box, I discovered she was wearing Grandad’s “smart” shoes. For some reason it was these pointed shoes that freaked me out the most. Even now, the thought of her chasing me around the attic in those clomping shoes sends a shiver down my spine.

Of course, I got my revenge. A few days later I scribbled out my name and wrote Rose on the Box instead. Then I hid inside dressed as her scary gymnastics teacher, Bendy Joan.

Next Rose got into the Box dressed as a ghost (a sheet with holes ripped in it).

Then I hid inside wearing Grandad’s wetsuit and a skeleton mask.

It went on like this until the Box was covered in our crossed-out names and we’d run out of scary things to dress up as.

But that wasn’t the end of the Box. The next time we crawled through the cot and into Roar, a cardboard box was sitting there waiting for us. It was big and square, and it had a jolly goldfish printed on the side.

“Arthur!” Rose’s voice pulls me back to the present. Vlad and Pickle are flying so close that their wings are almost touching. “We’re nearly there!”

While I’ve been daydreaming we’ve flown into the Bad Side of Roar. Sheer cliffs have replaced the sandy beaches, waves rise out of the water, and thick clouds have swept over the sun. I shiver and wonder how the Lost Girls put up with the gloominess, but then I remember that they used to live in the Tangled Forest. Perhaps they like it in the dark.