“Red. He’s not dangerous. Can I show you?” Dragon Little told me. 

She left my side and walked slowly towards the dragon Dragon Father had impossibly summoned as my ‘father’. 

My thoughts were whirling inside. I was getting over the terrible fear I had just seconds earlier, that this was a real dragon who had caught up with me and wanted to take me back to my enslavers. And that perhaps would realize that Dragon Little was a prize as well. 

As the fear was waning, the realization that Dragon Father had done something impossible, after all, and summoned a dragon added to the disarray of my thoughts. 

So much so that I had realized almost too late what Dragon Little was doing. 

“Who are you?” The older dragon said to Dragon Little. “Are you a friend of my daughter?” 

I looked at them, my mind still in wild disarray, refusing to accept what I was seeing. 

Dragon Little was walking towards him. 

“We’re best friends!” 

Dragon Little was getting closer to the older dragon, when I understood what was about to happen. 

“Nooo!” I roared fire at the space between the dragon and Dragon Little. 

Dragon Little stopped and both her and Dragon Father looked at me. Dragon Father’s hands went to his weapons around his belt but he did not pull them out. 

“Do not touch another dragon, Joy!” I said, refusing to call her ‘Dragon Little’ in front of another dragon. “Remember what I told you! Your touch! It can bring danger!” 

Dragon Father’s hand came off his weapons. Dragon Little took a step back. She remembered my warning well, as I had seen with the dolphins Dragon Father had summoned and with Thank You the Turtle. 

“Why would touching me be dangerous?” The older dragon looked at me. 

For the first time, with a calm mind, I looked at the dragon. 

He looked like me, but older. He was as red as me. But… Oh, in my excitement I had missed the one detail a dragon cannot be!

I smiled and almost laughed. 

Dragon Father did not create a dragon after all! In creating my ‘father’ he created something that could never be a dragon. 

I relaxed and looked at Dragon Father. 

“I am sorry for my outbursts, Dragon Father. Everything will be fine as long as Dragon Little does not touch him. Shall we continue with the adventure?” 

“Yai!” Dragon Little jumped up and down. “Adventuuuuuurrrrrre!” 

—Told by The Red Dragon