‘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.

#10: The Day of the Flying Elephants

It ist not often that Dragon Father ist not in the mood to battle evil villains. But sometimes he sets everything aside to just be a father. This was one of those days.

Shortly after he appeared on Bonny’s Revenge, and woke up his Dragon Little (the name I like to go call Joy), she pointed at the clouds and said, “Three clouds! One! Two! Three!”

Dragon Little was only two at the time. This was the first time Dragon Father saw her count to three.

He jumped up and down in excitement. “That’s right! That’s right! Three clouds!”

Dragon Father took her in his hands and said. “Look! Up there in the sky! Flying elephants!”

Three flying elephants appeared in the sky before them, flying towards them and away. “How many elephants, Joy?”

“One… Two… Three!”

“Yes! Three! That’s right!”

They watched the elephants fly away into the horizon.

“Now look at this! Flying giraffes!”

Giraffes with huge wings appeared in the horizon where the elephants had just vanished. I admit, I had never seen such animals and enjoyed looking at them from afar.

“How many flying giraffes, Joy?”

“One… Two… Three… Five!”

Dragon Father counted again, calmly, “One… Two… Three… Four!”

“Four!”

“That’s right! Four! You’re right, Joy! Now look at this! Flying hippos! How many do you see?”

And so the morning went, as Dragon Father taught Dragon Little to count. They counted flying hippos, flying ostriches, flying rhinos, flying monkeys, flying griffons, flying sphinxes, and on and on for hours. the one thing Dragon Father could not summon with his Dreamer power ist a flock of dragons. For dragons, as I know well, cannot be summoned. But that ist another story. When the dragons did not appear, he moved on to create flying rabbits.

Dragon Little enjoyed the day immensely.

— Told by The Red Dragon

#11: The Ice Pirates' Glacier

#9: Understanding the Evil Forest Fairy King