For the third time since I had arrived at Dragon Little’s dream, it was Dragon Little’s birthday.
She was five years old now. She was growing. Inside of me an unease also grew.
One day, I knew, she would find the way out of her father’s dreams. And who knew what waited for her right outside his dream? Those who are searching for her, those who would destroy her life, might just be outside, searching, always searching.
Dragon Father, however, did not at all seem to be worried. He was happy this day, happy to not go on adventure, happy to sit on the plank and watch the ocean waves, happy and smiling.
Dragon Little came up behind him on the plank and jumped on his back, falling head first towards his knees.
“Come sit here,” he invited her to sit on his legs.
She did. Then, calmly, he said, “You know what I’ve been thinking about?”
She shook her head.
“You need a nickname, Joy!”
“What’s a nickname?”
“A nickname. It’s like a special name you give to people you like.”
“I have a name!”
“Yeah, yeah, but… Red calls you ‘Dragon Little”. General Hawk calls you ‘Nestling’. Other people usually call you ‘Pirate girl’, right?”
“You want to call me Nestling?”
“No, no. It’s just… Dads give their kids nicknames and I’ve… never thought about it before. I only call you Joy.”
“That’s my name,” she said, clearly not understanding what he was talking about.
“Yeah, yeah, but… Like, I met this guy with a daughter, and he called his daughter Sweetie all the time. And another guy called his daughter Shinshin because in Russian that reminded him of ‘sunshine’.”
Dragon Little stared at him. “Is Russian a planet? Did you go there without me?”
I almost laughed. Even I knew that Russian was a country, one almost as old as me.
Dragon Father looked at her, confused. Then he shook his head. “Never mind. The point is, you’re five years old. Five!” My ears perked up at this. He did know it was her birthday! He just never mentioned it! He continued, “I could have called you Sweetie all the time, but I didn’t. So I’m sitting here thinking of a great nickname for you.”
Dragon Little nodded at him, then turned her head to look at the ocean in front of her. She said simply, “That’s not going to go well for you.”
Dragon Father laughed. “Why not?”
“I already have a name.”
“We’ll see.”
And they did indeed see. Tomorrow I will tell you more of what happened next.
—Told by The Red Dragon