“The dragons have been taken away,” the robot dragon rasped. 

His voice sounded broken because his body had been broken by the fight. One of his wings and one of his legs were disjointed and broken. His neck was in my mouth, under my sharp teeth, which had already cut into his neck a bit. 

He would not live long, and Dragon Father, standing atop my head, knew it.

Dragon Little joined us on the other side of the robot dragon. He was the only survivor of the army of robot dragons. She parked Bonny’s Revenge opposite us and went to the railing to listen. 

“Where are the dragons?” Dragon Father demanded. 

“You will never find them,” the robot dragon rasped. “They are slaves, now.” 

I bristled inwardly at this. The real dragons were slaves. I had broken free, but thinking of those I had left behind…

“Slaves to beings more cruel and more powerful than dragons.” 

It became hard for me to remain standing and seem to be part of the adventure. I needed this direction of the interrogation to be over. It was still an open wound for me.

“Tell us where they are!” Dragon Little demanded. “Now!” 

The robot dragon laughed. “You will never find them. They are better than you…” he was shorting out. “At… everything.” 

And with that, something in his neck exploded, and he died. 

“No, no!” Dragon Little was so disappointed. I knew this was a dream. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Dragon Father must have known he was the one controlling the events. Dragon Little was the only one of us who thought this was real. “We have to save Red’s family!” 

“My family is long dead,” I told Dragon Little the truth. “But all the dragons are still in captivity.” 

“We have to rescue them! Dad, anything on the news? Even a clue!” 

I had to stop this immediately. I was in too much pain, now, and felt as if the fake dragon had hurt me on purpose by talking that way about the slavery of the dragons. And I did not want to go through the charade of false dragons again. “No need for news,” I said quickly. “I have one clue. It will take me months to hunt down the right person, but I believe I will find it. Shall I go and find it?”  

Dragon Father nodded. “Good idea, Red. When you find that clue, come back, and we’ll save the dragons.” 

I nodded and then looked at Dragon Little. 

“Come here,” she said. 

She was not yet ready to say goodbye. 

Tomorrow I will tell you the amazing way in which we parted.

—Told by The Red Dragon