“Oh, no,” Dragon Father said. “The Wicked Wizards have gone into hiding.”
He and Dragon Little, now almost six years old, were looking at the Wicked Wizards’ abandoned base when Dragon Father picked up a piece of their journal, left behind.
“Let’s find them! What does it say?”
She looked over his hands, holding the piece of paper. Something was scribbled on it. I knew enough to know that these were not letters, just shapes. Usually dreamers cannot dream full words into a piece of paper. I have seen it happen in enough dreams.
Dragon Little, however, did not know that. She had never been taught to read a single letter or a number. She and her father were too busy having adventures. And what good would that be in a dream? She knew enough to know that her father could decipher it.
Dragon Father looked up, worried. “They have another secret base. On the Night Planet.”
Dragon Little looked up at him. “Why are you worried?”
“Let’s go,” Dragon Father motioned for them to move on. The journal was still in his hands, and as they were walking, he said. “The Night Planet, you know, it’s very dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Well, you can’t see anything. Not the wizards, not the monsters, not the--”
“Why can’t you see?”
Bonny’s Revenge was waiting for them on the roof, the plank almost touching the roof itself. Dragon Father stepped on it gingerly. “Well, it’s night, eh?”
Dragon Little jumped on the plank just as Dragon Father jumped to the deck. “What’s night?”
Dragon Father turned around. “What do you mean?”
“What’s night? Is it like a knight with a sword?”
“No. Night, night. That thing that happens after the day. When you sleep.”
“What happens when I sleep?”
“Joy. When the suns go down. What’s the matter with you?”
Dragon Little pointed to the suns. “The suns don’t go down. What’s the matter with you?”
Dragon Father’s eyebrows crinkled. He looked at her, then up at the two suns, then all around. “All right,” he said, deep in thought. “I guess we’re going to find out what a night is, then.”
Needless to say, Dragon Little’s first introduction to night did not go smoothly. I will tell you more about it tomorrow.
—Told by The Red Dragon