Dragon Little had fallen asleep. She’s had a long, long day which started with her father trying to bring back her dead nanny, continued with a wonderful flight through the sky, a great amusement park on the clouds, eating ice cream together, and me telling her a bed-time story. 

It had been a long day for me, too. I was and am still scarred by my past, and I cannot handle too much emotion in one day. 

Now that she was asleep I straightened my neck and spread my wings. 

“Hey, Red!” 

It was Dragon Little’s voice. The noise of my wings coming out of the ocean must have woken her. 

I could see her small 3-year-old face look at me through her cabin’s window. 

“Yes, my sweet Dragon Little?” I said softly. For, after all, since due to my circumstances I could not give birth, I liked to think of this little human child as my own daughter. 

“Come here,” she said. 

I leaned in closer. 

“Come here,” she said again. 

I leaned in closer, my eye and the beginning of the bridge of my nose almost touching the window. 

Now it was her turn to lean in. 

She kissed the bridge of my nose and returned to bed. 

“Good night,” she said just as softly. “I love you, Red!” 

And I could hear her breathing grow slow again. 

Dragons cannot blush, but I was so shocked and warmed by her words and her kiss that I am sure I would have blushed if I could. 

I felt her love course through me. I felt it go through my body like blood, fill every small blood vessel, every nook and cranny within my huge body with warmth and more warmth. 

I flapped my wings and rose into the sky. 

I was too elated to go back to my hiding place. 

I flew in circles in the sky. I flew in circles around all the stars in the sky. I flew, not only free to fly, but loved for the first real time in my life. 

I soared through space. I whooshed around the moon. I glided above Mars’ sandy desert. 

And then, tired from my elation, I flew towards my hiding place, where I would be hidden from the eyes of all, where I could see everything that happens to Dragon Little and Dragon Father, where I could rest and lick my psychological wounds, until I would be needed again. 

It had been the best day of my life!

—Told by The Red Dragon