Dragon Little was only four and a half years old when she and her father flew into The Land of the Giants.
Dragon Father had never dreamed of something so different. The villains had always been more or less his size or smaller. But in this land, each giant was bigger than me, ten stories high at least.
Dragon Father and Dragon Little had the task of stealing back the Giant King’s gold from Ymir, the Angry Giant.
They snuck into his massive home by parking Bonny’s Revenge outside his open window and leaping from the plank to the window sill. From there, hand in hand, they jumped down to his work desk, and tied a rope to the top of the boat-sized basket. The other end of the rope was tied to Bonny Revenge’s mast.
Dragon Little smiled in excitement.
Dragon Father put a finger to his mouth to indicate silence.
She nodded and did the same.
Slowly, silently they climbed back up. But just as they were on the window sill near the plank, Dragon Little fell and shouted: “Ow!”
Ymir stirred in his bed and woke up.
“Come on, come on!” Dragon Father urged her on, offering her a hand. She took it and rose.
“Hey!” Ymir bellowed, seeing them in the window.
They ran across the plank, Dragon Father first, then Dragon Little. Dragon Father kept running towards the helm.
“What are you doing?” The giant shouted in a voice that hurt my ears kilometers above the fray, in my hiding place.
Bonny’s Revenge moved, rising higher. The basket of gold began to move.
Now Ymir understood what was happening. He ran at the basket, but missed it as it flew through the window.
He immediately ran out the door and after the ship.
“Higher, Dad, higher!”
They were flying at the height of Ymir’s eyes.
“I can’t! I’m pushing up with all this ship’s got, but the gold’s weighing us down!”
Ymir was running on the giant grass near the giant forest. He was catching up with them.
“Faster, Dad! Faster!”
Ymir raised a hand as he was running. Dragon Father tried to turn, but it was too late.
Ymir swatted their pirate ship as he was running. Dragon Father was slammed against the mast, screamed in fear and pain, and vanished. That ist the way of the dreamers when something too dangerous happens to them: They wake up and vanish.
Bonny’s Revenge was hurtling through the air, spinning around itself, the basket of giant gold weighing it down.
Dragon Little was thrown off the ship too fast for me to react, swoop down and catch her. Within a split second, she was falling into the forest. She bumped against a giant leaf, then against a giant stem, then another, then another, and in less than 5 seconds, she was on the ground.
I did not know how hurt she had been just then. I heard her breathing. I knew she was alive. But she did not get up.
Bonny’s Revenge landed kilometers away in the midst of the forest. Ymir went to collect it. Dragon Little did not move. Dragon Father did not return.
I will tell you more of what happened tomorrow.
—Told by The Red Dragon