One day, when she was five years old, Dragon Little decided to stay awake the entire night.
I could see the plans in her eyes, during the day. She was looking at Dragon Father strangely during the fight, waiting for him to do something. The longer the battle, the longer he stayed, the more she smiled when she looked at him.
The villains were vanquished. Their leader was handcuffed and led to the Infinite Prison in the belly of Bonny’s Revenge. Then Dragon Little and Dragon Father had a small conversation about their day, while on the deck, looking at the horizon of the ocean they rested on.
And then Dragon Father disappeared. And with him all of the fallen villains and their weapons.
Joy (my Dragon Little) jumped up and down and cackled.
She took to the helm and sailed towards the horizon.
The ocean seemed infinite. There was nothing interesting in it except water. Even the land was gone.
After two hours, she raised Bonny’s Revenge and flew into the clouds. But the alien cities in the clouds were gone. They were not there when the Dreamer was away, although Dragon Little did not know she was in Dragon Father’s dream.
Dragon Little looked at the sky and at outer space. Only the two suns stared back, always in the center of the sky. Beyond them was the moon, and a few planets.
Dragon Little sailed the ship into space. She looked at the moon, which was barren from above.
She flew to the stars. Jupiter was barren. The asteroid belt had no space pirates. The further stars were gone.
Dragon Little had sailed from place to place for hours, always excited to find something new, always disappointed that there was nothing when her father wasn’t there.
She looked at the universe around her: Space, the air, and Earth. There was nothing anywhere without her father.
Her face fallen, she flew back to the ocean.
It had taken her the entire night to discover she lived in nothingness.
She went into her small cabin, got into her cot, and immediately fell asleep.
After two minutes, Dragon Father appeared. Familiar cities immediately appeared in the clouds. Space was suddenly full of stars.
Dragon Little had searched during his entire day, and now he had fallen asleep again and was dreaming.
He went into Dragon Little’s cabin and tried to wake her up.
—Told by The Red Dragon
Watch how I came up with the idea for this post: