Chapter 11 Ziva & Anthony: Taming Dragons

A/N One more after this chapter; thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows.

Ziva tucked three year old Anthony into his bed. Since the twins had been born six months ago, she hadn't had much of an opportunity to help Anthony nor Tali with their bed time routines. Now that Rivka and Beth were sleeping through the night, most nights, she was getting back into sharing bed time routines with Tony. She missed the time with the older children.

Anthony grinned at his Ima; Ziva was still amazed sometimes at how much Anthony looked like Tony. Except for the eyes, Anthony was Tony's 'mini-me.' The chocolate brown eyes were the only visible feature from Ziva. His grin was pure DiNozzo.

"Are you ready for a story, tataleh?" Ziva pulled Anthony's covers up over his legs and lower body, then handed him his favorite teddy bear. The bear was red and had a Ferrari logo on its belly, a gift from Tony for his newborn son a little over three years ago. Anthony nodded his head, "Ken, Ima."

Ziva thought a minute, and then began the story, "There was a family of dragons who were fierce and wild dragons. They pretty much did what they wanted when they wanted. Everyone was afraid of the dragons, because the dragons would hurt others and not even care.

"One of the dragons was a very curious dragon and she wanted to learn about everything she saw. She wanted to learn why the other dragons were mean and fierce. She really did not like being mean and fierce, but that was all she knew in her life. All of the other dragons around her were mean and fierce; none of them were nice.

"One day, the curious dragon was in the woods and looking at a house. A boy was in the yard, and he was looking at the dragon. He was not afraid of her, and she was curious about him. The boy moved closer to the tree line and the dragon moved closer to the edge of the trees. 'Hello,' the boy spoke to the dragon. She did not know what the boy said but he sounded nice, not mean. She did not know human language, only dragon language.

"She said hello to the boy in dragon language. The boy was not afraid, even though the dragon was making what sounded like growling noises. The dragon did not sound mean or scary. He smiled at the dragon and she tried to smile at him, only she just showed her teeth,

"The boy's mother came outside to call him in for lunch and the dragon went into the woods to hide. All of the other dragons had told her to watch out for the larger people. Most of the adult people wanted to kill the dragons because they were afraid of dragons. The boy did not understand why the dragons needed to be killed.

"Over several days, the boy and the curious dragon learned to trust the other. They moved closer to each other a bit at a time. The boy let the dragon sniff his hand. She sniffed it and then licked his hand. The boy smiled at her and she gave her best dragon smile back. The two would sit side by side; the boy talking in people language and the dragon talking in dragon language. They were becoming friends, even though they did not speak the same language.

"One night the boy had a dream about the dragon. In the dream, another dragon told them to listen with the heart and they would be able to hear and understand each other. The next day, the boy saw the dragon and ran over to her. He hugged her and told her about his dream. Then he listened with his heart, and he heard the dragon, 'You are my friend, and now we can hear each other. My name is Tannin.'

"'My name is Anthony, but in Hebrew it would be Gedalya.' The boy told the dragon both of his names. 'I like your name, it means dragon in Hebrew.'

"'I like your boy name. Anthony is a nice name.' Tannin smiled her dragon smile at her friend.

"Anthony smiled back at his dragon friend. She was one of the nicest friends he had. He did not understand why other people did not make friends with dragons. He wondered if he could show them how to be a friend to a dragon by showing how he and Tannin had become friends and learned to talk to each other.

"Anthony told Tannin to bring all the dragons to the park by his house. He would bring his family to the park at the same time. They would show the dragons and the people how to be friends.

"At first, Anthony's family was afraid to go near the dragons, but Anthony walked right up to his friend. The other dragons told her to run so the people could not hurt her. She told them to stay put and watch her and the boy. Anthony hugged his friend and she hugged him back. They spoke their language of the heart, and each told their families to listen with the heart.

"The people listened carefully with their hearts and so did the dragons. Soon they were listening to Anthony and Tannin talk to each other. Then the people and the dragons started talking to each other. Anthony and Tannin smiled; they were happy that the dragons and the people learned to be friends."

Anthony moved to cuddle his bear and sighed in his sleep. Ziva placed a kiss on his forehead. "Laila tov, Anthony. Ima loves you."