Dragon Little slept for a few hours. She slept on the highest leaf of one of the trees in the forest of the Land of the Giants. Her body was black and blue all over, and she had not eaten or drunk for a day and a half.
She woke up with a start when the wind returned. When Dragon Father returns to the dream, the wind returns with him.
She sat up and looked at Bonny’s Revenge, far above her and to the side. Her home, the wooden flying pirate ship that had proven itself invincible so far, began to move. Dragon Father always returned to its deck.
She moved slowly, in pain, tired, exhausted, dehydrated and hungry.
Dragon Father returned to search for her in the forest, with growing panic. He moved trees out of their places. He questioned more giants which he summoned from his imagination. He coasted endlessly through the forest, calling her name.
But he was almost never close. And when he was close, he did not hear her.
Dragon Little cried but did not move from the leaf. She whined and groaned and licked her chapped lips. But she did not move from the leaf. Those had been his instructions.
Dragon Father searched for her for hours and at some point stopped and grabbed his head, walking around himself.
Then he continued the searched.
It was all fruitless.
After seven hours, he disappeared, and the ship, once more, was too high for Dragon Little to reach by herself.
Dragon Little collapsed on the leaf and cried.
She knew, as did I, that it would be sixteen hours or more until he returned.
Until she fell asleep, hours later, she did not leave the leaf. This second day she did not even have to pee over the side, as she did the day before, there were not enough fluids in her.
I have never appreciated her strength more than on those few days. Perhaps she did have what it would take to survive outside the Dream, with all the monsters who are looking for her.
Eventually, she fell asleep. I knew that she would not survive another day dehydrated.
Tomorrow I will tell you how it ended.
—Told by The Red Dragon