I was furious and fuming beyond my control. Logic was not what was leading me. The emotions I was aware of were not leading me, either. I was reacting to things I did not know existed within myself. 

Fortunately, I was in enough control to save Joy - now, in my anger, she was Joy and not my Dragon Little - and take her back to Bonny’s Revenge. I had just put her back on her pirate ship, when Justin - no longer ‘Dragon Father’ in my anger - reappeared on the deck in the same location as always.

When I had breathed a ball of fire on him moments ago, I had scared him so much that he had woken up. Now he had fallen back asleep and was back in the dream. 

“Red!” he shouted as soon as he saw me in front of him. “That was unacceptable behavior! Unacceptable!” 

“There will be no slaves in your adventures…” I hissed angrily at him. 

“I was trying to stop the slavery!” he shouted at me. “I wasn’t the problem!” 

“There will be no slaves to save…” I hissed at him again. I meant that he should not create slavery in his dreams, but I couldn’t say that to a person who does not know he ist in a dream.

“Joy! Behind me!” He was frightened by me, but I didn’t care. “Red! If you don’t calm down, there is a fleet of dragons coming and I will not be able to stop them!” 

“There ist no fleet coming,” I hissed at him. For I knew what he didn’t: No dreamer can summon a dragon. 

“Your attackers are coming!” he tried again, his subconscious trying to invent things that would stop them. 

Even though I knew he could not summon them, either, I looked around frightened. 

The fact that he was willing to summon my worst experiences angered me that I had to stop myself from breaking down their ship. “Take that back! You will never mention them again!” 

Justin looked around. He was probably confused about why the things he was imagining were not appearing. 

“Red, you should stop before--” he was no doubt about to mention something that would appear, that could destroy me, when Joy stepped in. 

“Stop!” she shouted. 

She looked in her father’s eyes. “Stop!” 

He stopped, his lips tight. 

She looked at me now. “Look at Red,” she said. “She’s hurt.” 

Now I stopped, too. My anger stopped climbing. 

She took a step towards me. Justin reached for her shoulder, but she brushed him off. 

“Oh, you’re so hurt,” she climbed on top of the railing, even though she was in outer space and the fall was infinite, and she touched the end of my nose. “How can I help you? What hurt you so much?” 

I felt her soft touch, and in that moment, knowing who and what Joy Shelley ist, knowing the powers of the Dream that she carries with her, knowing the life she has had so far, I suddenly had hope: Hope that she will change everything, change it for the good. All the bad things that were outside her father’s dream, waiting for her: Perhaps she could change everything. Perhaps she could save me and my fellow dragons. Perhaps she can save the…

I cried. 

I had never had hope before. 

I cried.

I am almost crying right now. I cannot tell you the rest now. I will collect myself and tell you the rest tomorrow.

—Told by The Red Dragon