In the belly of Dragon Little’s and Dragon Father’s pirate ship that serves as their home, the pirate ship known as Bonny’s Revenge, there is a prison. Dragon Father named it ‘The Infinite Prison’.
Dragon Father and Dragon Little always battled villains when Dragon Father appeared and his dreams began. The villains had never been killed. They had always been captured, handcuffed, and brought to The Infinite Prison in the belly of Bonny’s Revenge.
I have never seen the prison, for I am too big to fit inside the door that leads to it. I do not know if it is really infinite. But I do know that they have never seen the end of it and that there is always room for more villains.
Dragon Little always had little to occupy herself when her father was gone during his waking hours (not that she knew that, nor did he know that - I am the only one, I believe, who has seen other dreams. I was not born in Dragon Father’s dream.) There are no other people Dragon Little can talk to except the villains. And their new adventures are never created out of thin air while the dreamer is gone. And so she has befriended some of the villains. And sometimes, as on this specific day, she torments some of them in her own way.
“How are you today?” I heard her voice echo through the corridor. Her voice was soft and I was far, in my hiding place. But a dragon’s hearing is far beyond any human’s.
“Mmmmmm….” I heard a begrudged murmur and I recognized the voice. It is the Evil Forest Fairy King which they had imprisoned three years prior.
“You know… That’s what you always say,” she said in a happy voice. “I think I heard that so many times, I can tell what you mean. Let’s try. Do you want to try?”
“Mmmmmmmm….”
“‘Good morning, Joy!’ Yes, thank you, good morning to you, too!”
“Mmmmmm…” His tone was angry now.
“‘You look good, Joy!’ Thank you! So do you!”
“Mmmmmm!” Angrier.
“Am I guessing right? If you don’t say anything, then I’ll just think I’m guessing right. So now you said, ‘Oh, you’re so good at understanding me!’”
“Mmmmm!” Angrier and shorter.
“‘Do you want to play?’ Yes! That’s fun! I do want to play! What can we play?”
“Mmmmmmm mmmmm mmmm!”
“You just want to keep doing this? It’s fun for you? Okay! What do you want to say now?”
“MMMMMMM!”
“You want to be a good guy now? That’s great!”
“MMMMMMMM!”
“No, I can’t let you go. I think you still want to kill people. But maybe if you try really really hard to be good…”
“Girl!” The Evil Forest Fairy King exploded in rage. “You! Peed! On me! I will always want to kill you!”
Dragon Little laughed. It was one of her favorite stories about her growing up. She always asked Dragon Father to tell it to her over and over.
“Look! I got you to talk! Fooled you! Okay! Now in your language. Can you guess what I’m saying: Mmmmmm!”
“Mmmmmmmm!” And the Evil Fairy King did not speak again for the period of time I was watching over Dragon Little.
—Told by The Red Dragon
Watch how I came up with the idea for this post: