“Very mature, Dad!” Dragon Little came out of the cabin, complaining about the way Dragon Father woke her up by singing very badly. She was holding her toothbrush and toothpaste in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” Dragon Father came out immediately after her. “Is this going to be a thing, now?”
“What thing?”
“This ‘very matuuuuure, Daaaaad’ thing you’re doing? It’s like the fifth or sixth time you told me that in about two weeks. Are you hanging out with teenagers on the street or something? Did you pick this up from television? Are you fifteen?” All these three statements of course were impossible for Dragon Little: There were no teenagers in his dream, no streets, no television, and she was not yet and likely would never survive to fifteen.
“You’re being very immature for the last few weeks,” she said angrily, “and it’s annoying! Stop it!”
Dragon Little jumped on the plank, reached the edge, and put the toothbrush and toothpaste in her mouth.
“Stop it, huh?” whispered Dragon Father as he went to the wheel. “Can’t wait till you’re actually fifteen. What’s that going to be like?!”
Dragon Little held tight to the plank, and hung from it upside down, the way she did every morning. Dragon Father tilted Bonny’s Revenge so the plank was closer to the ocean. When Dragon Little’s ponytail almost touched the water, he stopped.
Dragon Little brushed her teeth as she did every morning, hanging upside down from the plank and using the ocean water.
When she was done, she shouted, “I’m done!”
“Great,” Dragon Father muttered, and then swung the wheel suddenly in a way that dipped Dragon Little and some of the plank into the ocean. He immediately swung it back and straightened the ship.
Dragon Little, who had not let go of the plank, was coughing.
“Oh, man, oh, man, I’m sorry,” he ran to the plank
Dragon Little said nothing. A determined look on her face, she climbed back to the right side of the plank and stood up.
“Are you all right?” Dragon Father asked, worried.
Dragon Little walked back on the plank and jumped to the deck. “Let’s go on adventure,” she said.
“Okay, okay, I admit!” Dragon Father shouted after her as she went to put the toothbrush and toothpaste back in her room. “That was immature! Not the other things!” he was yelling now, while she was in her cabin. “But this definitely! I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again!”
Dragon Little came out of her cabin again. “Let’s go on adventure.”
He looked at her for a couple of seconds. “Did you hear me say I’m sorry?”
“Let’s go on adventure.”
He looked at her for another few seconds. Then he nodded. “All right, then, let’s go!”
—Told by The Red Dragon