Dragon Little lay unconscious in the forest of the giants and did not move. My sharp dragon ears caught her breathing from my hiding place, kilometers above her. My sharp dragon eyes could see between the leaves how her chest was rising and falling with slow breaths.
She was alive and lying on top of a leaf bigger than an entire body, between blades of grass three times as high as her.
Bonny’s Revenge, their flying pirate ship, lay on the ground far, far away in the middle of the forest, turned on its side, its mast stuck in the ground, the cannons to one side stuck in the ground as well.
Tied to the mast was the long rope that, on its other side, was tied to Ymir the Giant’s stolen gold. But the gold was no longer there. It had vanished.
The rest of Ymir’s planet had also disappeared when Dragon Father disappeared. Ymir disappeared as well, blinking out of existence, as did his house.
The only things that had remained behind on the giant’s planet were the forest, the ground around the forest, and Bonny’s Revenge.
There was silence on the planet, but not within the ship. Within the Infinite Prison in the belly of Bonny’s Revenge, more than a hundred incarcerated villains spent their days in their own cells. They did not disappear as well when Dragon Father vanished daily. No doubt, with the ship upturned, they had all been slammed against a wall which was now their new floor. I heard rumblings, grumbles, and questions. But no one had broken out of his/her/its cell.
After a few minutes of silence, Dragon Father appeared on the ship.
Dragon Father always appeared at exactly the same spot in exactly the same position on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
He had vanished a few minutes earlier, as I told you yesterday, when the giant swatted the ship and he had been thrust against the mast.
I hear that dreamers wake up in fear when that happens. After a few minutes, they are able to settle in, calm down, and fall asleep again.
When Dragon Father appeared, the giant’s planet shimmered into existence immediately, just as it had been when Dragon Father disappeared. The gold returned to the basket. Ymir the Giant appeared at the edge of the forest and began to walk into the forest, searching for that gold.
Dragon Father, standing on an overturned deck, fell down to the ground. He blocked his fall with his arms and quickly stood up.
He looked around, concerned.
“Joy!” he shouted. “Joy!”
But there was no response.
“Joy!”
He looked around, his concern clearly growing.
He looked up at the overturned ship.
A jetpack appeared on his back, and in an instant, he was thrusting his arms against the top side of the deck at full throttle, trying to straighten his ship.
But the ship did not budge.
“Joy! Joy!” he kept calling as he tried this.
The ship still did not budge.
He now flew to stand sideways and upside-down on the deck, hands on the wheel.
By pushing, prodding and turning, the ship slowly rose from the mud.
It stopped after reaching the height of the trees, pulled down by the weight of the gold in the basket.
A sword appeared in Dragon Father’s hand and he cut the rope tied to the mast.
The gold basket fell down to the ground.
Now the ship could move up freely.
Dragon Father returned to the wheel.
Bonny’s Revenge quickly floated high above the forest.
Dragon Father ran from one railing to another, looking down. “Joy! Joy!” he yelled.
But he could not see her and could not hear her.
“Holy shit,” he said, holding his head in his hands. “Holy shit!”
Tomorrow I will tell you what he did to find his four-and-a-half-year-old girl.
—Told by The Red Dragon