“Here we go!” Dragon Father pulled back on the wheel and Bonny’s Revenge pulled out of the water and rose into the air.

Behind them, they had a left a flag. They had buried its pole in the sea and above water it towered above the highest mountain. The flag itself - the cloth itself - was huge, and flapped in the wind. 

“Right,” Dragon Father said. “Step one: Fly as fast as a dragon!” 

It warmed my heart to know they remembered me. 

Dragon Father accelerated the pirate ship… but I do not think it was truly as fast as me. 

“All right,” he said after an hour as the flag had disappeared from the horizon. “Where’s the flag, Joy?”

They had been going in a straight line, and were still going in a straight line without stop. 

Four-and-a-half-year-old Dragon Little looked back and pointed. “Behind us.”

Dragon Father shook his head. “It’s in front of us!” 

“Behind us!”

Dragon Father laughed. “I’ll prove it. Let’s keep going!”

Two hours later, Dragon Father asked again. 

“It’s behind us!”

“No! It’s just ahead! A little more patience!” 

“Da-a-a-a-a-d!” Dragon Little whined. “Let’s go save the wooooorld!”

“No! I’m going to prove to you the flag is in front of us!” 

Four hours later, they had still not arrived at their origin point. Dragon Father was taking the ship in all directions, to check if he somehow missed going in a straight line. “We were flying at the speed of a dragon! We should have seen it already!”

“Daaaaaaaad!” Dragon Little was exhausted from begging her father for the entire day to go on adventure. “It’s back theeeerrrrrrre!”

“It’s gotta be right here,” he was talking to himself more than to her. “I must have missed it.” 

He pulled back more on the wheel and the ship soared into the atmosphere. He parked Bonny’s Revenge near a cloud and ran to look over all sides. 

The flag was not there.

“So strange… So strange…” 

“Daaaaaaaad! It’s back theeeerrrrrrre!”

Dragon Father looked up and was suddenly excited again. “Ah! I know how I can prove to you the Earth is round! Let’s go there! To Mars!”

“Aaaaawwwww noooooooo!” 

Tomorrow I will tell about their adventure on Mars.

—Told by The Red Dragon