‘The Squashbuckler Diaries’ are the daily tales of Joy Shelley’s Life in the Dream. The ‘Lost in Dreams’ books will tell the story of what happens to her at ages 6, 9, 12, 15, and so on. The diaries tell us what happens before, after, and between the books.

#273: Backwards Day: The Fight

Dragon Father and Dragon Little chased the Jolly Pirate’s spaceship, backwards.

It was Backwards Day, after all, and all flying was done backwards. Bonny’s Revenge was so much faster than the villain’s spaceship that even though they were flying back first, they still had to try very hard not to overtake it. 

The Jolly Pirate joined the rest of his pirates on a small meteor, in their base. 

“What now?” Dragon Little asked, as they both looked over the railing at the pirates’ meteor base. 

“Now we fight them!” Dragon Father said. 

“Yaaiiiiii!” Dragon Little had been exasperated by this day, in which they had given treasure to the pirates and even released the Jolly Pirate from the Infinite Corridor, something they had never done before. 

“...And lose!” Dragon Father added.

“Aaaaarrrrr! Daaaad!” 

“Joy, trust the--” 

“No!” 

“It’s Backwards Day. We always win. So now we lose.” 

“No!” 

“Come on. How hard do you think it is to lose? Maybe you can’t do it?” 

Dragon Little crossed her arms. She was not going to be manipulated like that. 

“It’s fun. It’s a challenge. It’s something new. I’m doing it!” 

He leapt off the ship. It was a hundred foot drop, but he caught a rope that was hanging nearby, clung to it, swung down, and landed safely in the middle of their base. “En garde!” he exclaimed, unsheathing his sword. 

Five pirates and their leader, the Jolly Pirate, drew their swords immediately, surrounding him. 

“Oh, no,” Dragon Father said, not sounding at all worried. “What will I do?!” 

The fighting began, as they attacked him two at a time. 

I could see the difference between his regular fighting style and this one. He was purely defensive, rather than attacking. He fended off hits that were too close, but not others. 

Once he let them hit his sword right out of his hand, but when they didn’t take advantage of it, he sighed, and slid on the floor to regain it. 

After five minutes, he hit two of the pirates accidentally, and they were out of commission. 

Dragon Little was standing on the plank and looking down. 

“You’re doing terrible!” she shouted down. “You’re winning!” 

“Well come here,” he said while swinging his sword to defend himself, “and show me how to do it.” 

She sighed heavily. “All right.” 

And with that, she leapt off the plank.

—Told by The Red Dragon

#274: Backwards Day: Losing

#272: Backwards Day: Doing the Unthinkable