Dragon Little screamed. I have never heard her scream before as loudly or in such pain, but she screamed.
That was not what I had expected when Dragon Father offered to put something different on her morning pizza.
“It’s different,” he said. “But I really like it.”
She looked at her morning pizza and made a face. “What is that?”
“It’s meatballs. Spicy meatballs. Try it.”
After making a lot of faces, she took a bite. Then she screamed.
“Ah! What did you do! What is thaaaaaat!” She opened her mouth and waved wind into her mouth. “Ahhhh! Ahhhh!”
“Oh, my god! Was that too spicy?” She was running and jumping from side to side on the ship and he was running after her.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Here drink water, drink water, it helps!” A jug of water appeared in his hand. “Drink up!”
She grabbed it and glugged down the water. She threw it aside and started running again. “It’s not helping! It’s not helping!”
He was still running after her. “Try bread, try bread!” Bread appeared in his hand.
She slapped his hand, and the bread fell to the deck. She looked at him as if he had betrayed her.
“Ahhhh!” She stopped running and started walking.
“Is it getting better? It’s going to pass. I promise.”
She looked at him angrily, her breathing still fast, but slowing, her tongue still out.
“Why did you DO THAT TO ME!”
Dragon Father laughed and then stopped. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Joy. I didn’t remember you’ve never eaten spicy food.” He laughed again.
Dragon Little scrunched her face at his laughter. “You gave me food that hurts!”
“No! It’s really good. You eat that a few times and you get used to it!”
Dragon Little marched over to the pizza waiting for her, she took it in hand and threw it overboard to the ocean.
“All right. So I’ll get you another pizza?”
Dragon Little stormed off to her cabin.
Dragon Father peered in. “No pizza?”
She did not turn to look at him. “No.”
“All right. Let’s go on adventure!”
“No.”
“Huh? What? Are you angry at me?”
“Go away!”
Dragon Father tried a few more times, but Dragon Little would not talk to him or agree to participate in the adventure. After an hour, he went to fight villains by himself.
—Told by The Red Dragon