“Ahoy!” Dragon Father yelled. “We’ve reached the South Pole!” 

The South Pole Dragon Father gave Mars in his dream was full of ice and ice craters, massive glaciers - and, the truth ist, now that it existed - some great hiding places for dragons such as myself within massive ice tunnels. 

Both Dragon Father and Dragon Little were now excited. It had been a long day for them, first trying to go around the Earth and failing, and now going to Mars to prove that Mars is round not only from above but also from the surface. It was quite a long day for them, and both were tired.

But now both Dragon Father and Dragon Little were excited to be on the cusp of proving the other wrong. They looked outside even as Bonny’s Revenge sped past the glaciers. 

“Any minute now,” Dragon Father shouted against the wind, “the south pole will be left behind and we’ll be moving north towards the warmer surface. Eventually we’ll get to the North Pole, go around it, and then back to where we started.”

Dragon Little shook her head. “You’ll see.”

The ship sped forward, but the ice glaciers only got colder and higher. 

It took them an hour to get to the south pole from Mars’ equator. But now they have been going for half an hour and it had only gotten colder. 

“That’s so strange,” Dragon Father mumbled to himself. 

He then shrugged and flew faster. “Let’s keep going!”

The glaciers got higher, and there were more ice tunnels below them even as another hour passed. 

“I told you!” Dragon Little shouted at him. She had tested out the surface of the oceans, of Mars, and of all the planets that remained behind when he disappeared. But he did not know that, nor, apparently, did she think to tell him. 

A giant ice castle appeared before them. Dragon Father slowed the ship to a halt. They both looked. 

“Who is that?” he whispered.

Ten floating ice ships emerged from the ice castle, flying towards them at top speed. “It’s the Martian space pirates!”  Dragon Little jumped up and down, happy for adventure. The Martian space pirates were some of the only villains they had failed to defeat. These were villains that remained behind even after Dragon Father left, for they have fought them before. They were thirsty for pirate blood, because Dragon Father and Dragon Little had thwarted their plans many times. 

“Get ready, Joy!” Dragon Father said. “We’re going to kick some villain butts after all!” He ran towards the helm. 

“Kicking villain butts!” Joy jumped up and down and repeated this as if it was a song, “Kicking villain butts! Kicking villain butts!” 

She looked back at the helm. Dragon Father was gone. He had disappeared - or, as she would no doubt find out when she ist older - he had woken up. It had been a long day for him in the Dream, after all. 

“Awwwww….” she said. She looked at the ten ships. They were still coming after her. 

She ran to the helm and turned the ship around. “Kicking villain butts! Kicking villain butts!”

Tomorrow I will tell you more about her adventure alone against the Martian space pirates. 

 —Told by The Red Dragon