The Pirate Ninjas approached Lava World with their flying pirate ship. 

Lava World was a planet covered with giant mountains the middle of which was always open like a mouth and smoking. In some of them, lava was brewing close to the top. Others were spewing lava. 

The Pirate Ninjas maneuvered their ship among the smoke and the spewing lava to land on top of a volcano that had pools of lava in the center of its open mouth. 

They extended a ramp and began to lead the bound Dragon Father and Dragon Little down to the top of the volcano. 

“I’m going to crush you!” Dragon Little whispered at the ninja leading her down the ramp. 

She had taken it quite personally that they had stolen the only toys she had, which she called the Dollies. 

They were led to the edge of the ‘mouth’. “I’m going to crush all of you!” she raised her voice. 

The Pirate Ninjas ignored her and began to bring down her Dollies from the ship as if they were a revered ancient relic. 

“Those are my Dollies! You can’t have them! They’re mine! I’m going to destroy you!” she shouted at them. 

They continued to ignore her and lay down the Dollies on top of a blanket with worn out images of ninjas. The Dollies were laid out at the very edge of the volcano. 

Dragon Little was not used to being ignored, and she was very angry. So she yelled at the top of her voice. “CRUSH YOU! CRUSH YOU! CRUSH YOOOOOOOOOU!” 

The Pirate Ninjas continued to ignore her as she screamed and screamed and screamed. They sat on their legs around the blanket and prayed and hummed. 

“CRUUUUUUSH YOOOOOOOU! CRUUUUUUSH YOOOOOOOU!”

When they were done, they rose and looked at their two prisoners. One of them approached Dragon Father and Dragon Little. 

“Your toys are the key to the salvation of the universe,” he said. “Your sacrifice will be spoken of for millenia!” 

“NO SACRIFICE! THEY’RE MINE! MINE!” she yelled at the top of her voice. 

The Pirate Ninja looked at her. “We need one of you for the ceremony. We were going to use the innocent young one, but since you’re going to crush us, we’ll pick you,” he turned to Dragon Father. “Turn around.” 

The Pirate Ninja began to release Dragon Father’s hands. Dragon Father looked at Dragon Little and winked. 

She nodded and tried to wink back, unsuccessfully. 

Dragon Father was released. “This way,” the Pirate Ninja gestured. 

Dragon Father pushed him aside and the Pirate Ninja fell into the volcano, screaming. 

Dragon Father unsheathed his long sword, jumped into the air, somersaulting above everyone’s heads, and landing near the Dollies. 

With his free hand, he grabbed the blanket so that it was now like a bag holding all the Dollies. 

“I got them, Joy! I’m coming for you!” 

He somersaulted again, flipping in the air, and landing next to Dragon Little, right at the edge of the volcano. 

“Turn around,” he said. 

But then, he vanished. 

He vanished. The blanket vanished. The dollies did not vanish - they always stay in Dragon Little’s room when he is awake. But they were in the air, right over the edge, and falling. 

“Nooooo!” Dragon Little tried to jump to grab them, but she had no hands. 

She teetered on the brink, looking down as all her dollies fell into the lava and were burned immediately. 

She gasped and cried. 

She looked around, as did I. Lava World did not vanish, as I knew it wouldn’t. The head Pirate Ninja did not vanish, either, as often happened with the top villains. But, surprisingly, none of the Pirate Ninjas vanished. And their ship did not vanish either. 

The Pirate Ninjas were all standing at the edge of the volcano, looking with horror at the loss of their treasure. 

Dragon Little stopped crying immediately. “You know what, I don’t need Dollies! I don’t need toys! I don’t need anything!”

I was looking at her and I did not understand. I think I do not understand humans well enough to understand how it could be true that she didn’t need the Dollies she loved. 

The sadness disappeared from her face. She sighed. “Who needs Dollies? Not me,” she said calmly. 

The Pirate Ninjas looked at Dragon Little. 

“Do you have any more toys, little girl?” said one of them.

She looked up at them, and for a few seconds her face did not show any expressions. 

Then, she screamed, “I AM GOING TO CRUSH YOU!” 

Tomorrow I will tell you what happened then.

—Told by The Red Dragon