Dragon Little and Dragon Father returned from their adventure with the Pirate Ninjas in their. 

They had put all of Dragon Little’s newly acquired toys in her cabin, and were flying Bonny’s Revenge back to Earth’s ocean.

Dragon Little was standing beside Dragon Father as he helmed the wheel. 

“When I grow up,” she told him casually, “I want to be just like you.”

“Oh, yeah? In what way?” 

“I’m never going to cry!” She had cried quite a bit when her Dollies had been taken from her and then she had been devastated when they fell into the volcano. 

Dragon Father stopped looking ahead and looked down at her, suddenly serious. “You’re never going to cry?” 

“Never!” 

Dragon Father pushed the wheel forward a bit and Bonny’s Revenge slowed to a halt in space between planets. 

“Joy, you think I don’t cry?” 

Dragon nodded. 

“Joy, crying is important. We cry when we’re sad and we cry when we’re in pain. Everybody cries.” 

“You don’t.” 

“I cry all the time.”

She shook her head, as if she knew better than him. “No you don’t.” 

“All the time!” 

She shook her head again. 

He looked around, trying to think of a way of explaining it to her. “You just… You just never see me cry because I do it at my…” he trailed off, suddenly thinking. 

My ears prickled and I was suddenly ready for action. I had never seen him cry in the dream. In fact, I had never seen any dreamer cry in their dream. Which meant that he was thinking of his waking world. Which meant that he might realize at any moment where he was and the truth about his daughter.

He shook his head, as if making the thought fly away from him. “What was I sa--” he began. 

“Heroes,” Dragon Little said slowly and with intensity, “Never… Cry!”

He stared at her. “Why would you think that?” 

She shrugged. “It’s true.” 

He thought for a few seconds, then put his hands on the wheel. Bonny’s Revenge began to move. 

“We’ll see about that,” he whispered. 

I knew that tone. I knew he was planning something. And indeed he was. 

Tomorrow I will tell you what happened next.

—Told by The Red Dragon