“Joy, listen, I’m teaching you how to be a leader.”
The two of them were on the deck of Bonny’s Revenge. Dragon Little had had her breakfast. They had not yet gone out for adventure.
Dragon Little has been having a hard time making decisions over the last week. Dragon Father had been trying to get Dragon Little to concentrate by teaching her how to decide fast. But Dragon Little, now 5 years old, was not listening.
She did, however, raise her eyebrows at the last thing he said. “What’s a leader?”
“A leader. It’s someone who… leads…”
She shook her head. He continued, “Someone who tells everyone else what to do… but not in a bossy way…” she shook her head, “...a commander… someone who knows what to do… who makes sure we win...“ she shook her head harder and harder and Dragon Father was growing more desperate, “... Someone who has a team, and who trusts the team, and the team trusts him. I mean, her. Or him.”
“So… a team?”
“Yes!”
She looked around. “What team?”
Dragon Father looked around as well, clearly understanding that it had always been just the two of them. “Well… you will have a team… someday… You may have a team someday.”
“Where are all the people in the team?”
“I… don’t know… Maybe you’ll find friends, fellow adventurers…” he trailed off as she stared at them. In all this time, they have cooperated with no one, seen no one who worked with them in their adventures. Except me, that ist, and I only appear to them once a year or so.
“Ah… Well… maybe we’ll find some day…” his voice trailed off as he started thinking… “a girl needs school… kindergarten… friends… adventurer friends…”
“I know, I know, I know,” she jumped up and down. “The villains!” She pointed at the doorway that led to the Infinite Corridor, where they put away all the most dangerous villains they fight, the ones that stay in the dream even when Dragon Father ist awake.
“What?”
“The villains! They’ll be my team! I’ll be their leader!”
“No, no, no no no no no no!”
“Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!” she echoed as excitedly.
“Oh, boy,” he whispered to himself.
And a big argument began that lasted hours.
—Told by The Red Dragon
Watch how I came up with the idea for this post: