‘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.

#137: The Hammer Games

Dragon Little, just three years old and a tiny human child, picked up a hammer as big as her father. 

It was a huge, colorful hammer made of plastic and filled with air.

Dragon Father and Dragon Little had just defeated an alien mastermind that proved to be easily beaten. On his planet, all buildings, weapons, and objects were all full of air with a thin sheet of plastic separating them from everything else. 

Even the mastermind himself was full of air, and all it took was one prick to his shoulder to defeat him. 

Now, Dragon Little was discovering the magic of this land. 

She picked up the hammer and swung it around, hitting her father’s face with the hammer. 

“D’oh!” he shouted, appearing flummoxed, even though it could not have hurt him more than a feather. 

Dragon Little laughed and hit him again. “D’owwww!” he collapsed backwards. “What are you doing?!” His voice clearly indicated he was having fun. 

“Hitting you!” The three year old Dragon Little shouted at him and hit him again. 

“Don’t do that! Don’t--D’owwwww! Now I’m telling you don’t you lift that--D’oowwwwww!” 

Dragon Little was laughing and hitting, hitting and laughing. 

“All right, then, my turn,” he reached for a big object that looked like a boulder but was also full of air. “Ha!” He threw it at her. 

She fell backwards, “D’owwww! It didn’t hurt me! Didn’t hurt me!” 

And she struck him, and he struck her, and by the time it was his time to go away and disappear they had passed through the entire city, throwing things at each other and hitting each other with almost everything in sight. 

It was the most fun they have had in a long, long while. 

—Told by The Red Dragon

#138: Being a Villain

#136: The Car, Part 5: Anger and Violence