Dragon Little called for her, “Mary!”
She searched for her in all the spots where Mary would hide during hide-and-seek. “Mary? Mary?”
She looked for her in the Infinite Prison below deck.
“Mary? … Mary? … Mary?”
“Pirate Girl, are you looking for Mary?”
“Dad! I want Mary!”
“It’s okay, Joy. I’ll bring her back.”
“You can’t cry when we’re off to fight witches! Come on, Joy! Stop, stop! We have to get the witches before they kill the princess!”
But Dragon Little cried and cried.
“What would you like for breakfast today, milady?” Dragon Father bowed to the just-awakened Dragon Little.
“The same thing as always, midaddy,” she mimicked his voice and bowed back.
Dragon Little turned around to look. She saw the rope was no longer there.
“Dad!”
“Aaaaah!” His scream was getting more and more distant.
Bonny’s Revenge was parked a few kilometers above the ocean. Dragon Little, now tied to the ship, walked over to the plank, and climbed on it.
Dragon Little’s eyes closed slowly. Then, after a minute of two, she whispered. “What’s ‘dreams’, dad?”
I wept in my hiding place, far away, my sharp ears hearing every note. And Dragon Little fell asleep on Mary who kept on singing.
And then Dragon Father disappeared. And with him all of the fallen villains and their weapons.
Dragon Little (my little Joy) jumped up and down and cackled.
The Ice Pirates had defeated Dragon Little and Dragon Father. They abandoned them at the top of a glacier, and taken Bonny’s Revenge to their stronghold.
Three flying elephants appeared in the sky before them, flying towards them and away. “How many elephants, Joy?”
“One… Two… Three!”
“Yes! Three! That’s right!”
There are no other people Dragon Little can talk to except the villains. And there new adventures are never created out thin air while the dreamer is gone. And so she has befriended some of the villains. And sometimes, as on this specific day, she torments some of them in her own way.
“You want her?” he told the Evil Forest Fairy King. “Here, take her.”
“Dad?”
“Don’t worry, Joy, it’ll be fine.”
Joy stopped jumping on the mast and looked at him. “What’s goddamnit?”
Dragon Father stopped in place, suddenly going red in the face. “What?”
Dragon Father raised his voice, “These robots are going! To kill! Us! Get dressed!”
Dragon Father laughed. “Squashbuckling! Ha ha ha! You know… that’s what you take a squash and buckle it into a car! Ha ha ha! I love it!”
“I mean it, Captain Badass. I haven’t seen Joy anywhere all day. Have you kidnapped her?”
Captain Badass sighed again, but could not resist. “She is there, right there on your back.”
The wind swept him up into the eye, it spun him around quickly, and just as quickly plopped him down on his feet, where he had begun.
“Cool!” Dragon Little jumped. “Me too me too me too!”
“Your evil plan will never work, Monkey King,” Justin spouted at him. “Tweedle-Weedle-Dee!”
This ist how I knew, even at age 2, that Joy, my Dragon Little, would have the power to change the world.