He's four years old and happily leafing through the pages of a book about cars, sitting on the stairs in Dale View. It's a really big book he found in the living room and it was dead heavy to carry. He thinks it must belong to Uncle Ross because Uncle Pete likes tractors best, not cars. It's got loads of great pictures.

The words in the book are too hard. There's lots of them and they're all little and close together. But he can read some of his own books. And he can write his name. He can even spell it out loud and everything.

J-O-H-N-N-Y D-I-N-G-L-E

His Mama is really proud of him and she makes him do it for all the people in the pub. She makes them clap at the end and she kisses his cheek and says 'Well done, kid'. He loves his Mama and his Mummy and their new home in the pub. It has lots of great places to hide and Noah sometimes plays hide and seek with him. It's great.

It's great here at Dale View too. He loves visiting his Uncle Ross. He has really big muscles and he can lift a lot of stuff. Uncle Pete says he has the biggest muscles. One time he lifted Auntie Rhona right up over his head. Then Uncle Ross tried to lift Auntie Tracy but she hit him and told him not to bother 'cause he'd end up dropping her on her...and then she said a word Johnny's not allowed to say. His Mummy and his Mama didn't lift each other. Mama just shook her head and said something about hets that Johnny didn't really understand. But it made his Mummy laugh so it must have been funny.

He looks up when he hears someone calling his name. "Here I am!" His Uncle Ross barges through the door from the living room. He looks up at him and smiles. "Hiya."

"Johnny, mate." Ross puts a hand over his chest. "You nearly gave me a heart-attack. I thought you'd run off. Your Auntie Tracy'd kill me if she came back here and I'd let you escape."

"No." Johnny shakes his head. His Mummy says he must never run off anywhere without telling a grown-up. It's really dangerous to do that. He closes the book on his lap and lifts it up to show the cover. "The telly was really loud and I wanted to read this book so I came out here."

Ross comes to sit by him on the stairs. He takes the book onto his own lap and opens it up. "I like this book."

"The words are hard, but I like the pictures," Johnny tells him, leaning his elbow on Ross's thigh.

Ross laughs a bit, but Johnny can't tell what's funny. "Yeah, me too." Johnny watches him turn the pages. He stops on a red car and points at it. "That's a cracker, innit?"

"It looks fast." Johnny nods. "I like red. And yellow. And green. And-"

"Any colours you don't like?" Ross asks. "That might be quicker."

Johnny thinks for a minute. "I don't like black very much. Or white. White crayons are rubbish. You can't even see them on the paper!"

"Fair enough." Ross turns back to the book. Johnny looks at his face. He's on the side that has a red bit on it. It looks like it's bumpy, so he reaches out and touches it to see if it is. Ross pulls his face away fast and Johnny gets a fright, jumping back and bumping his elbow on the wall. He rubs it with his hand.

"Hey...hey, I'm sorry, mate." Ross takes his arm and rubs his elbow for him.

"Is it sore?" Johnny asks, pointing at his own cheek. "I didn't know it was sore. I just thought it looked nice."

Ross makes a face, but then shakes his head. "No, it's not sore. Not anymore. It used to be sore and that's why I jumped a bit when you touched it, that's all."

"What happened to make it sore?"

Ross puts a hand over the bumpy bit of his face. "It, uh...it got burnt."

Johnny's eyes widen. He leans close to Ross, to whisper. "Was it a dragon that did it?"

Ross looks at him for a bit, smiling a little. His smile gets bigger and bigger until he's showing all of his teeth. And then he laughs a really nice laugh.

"Yeah. Yeah mate, that's exactly what it was."

Johnny gasps. He knew it would be a dragon. "Where did you meet it?"

"It was up at Butler's Farm. I was out driving one night when I saw it, up in the sky." He stands up and puts his arms out like great big wings. "It was swooping down, coming to steal the sheep."

"And what did you do?" Johnny asks, in awe.

"I didn't have a choice, did I? I had to save the little sheep." He pretends to be driving a car, turning the steering wheel. "I drove right through the gate, busted it open and screeched to a halt. I jumped out of the car and-"

"And did you have a sword? Don't you need a sword to fight a dragon?" Johnny asks, nodding.

"Yes!" Ross points at him and nods along. "Yes. I leaned across and I picked up my sword from the passenger seat, right? But my shield was in the boot, wasn't it? And I didn't have time to get it or all the sheep would've been gone."

Johnny's hands fly to cover his mouth. "Oh no!"

"Yeah, so I took my sword and I ran as fast as I could." He lifts his hands above his head, clasped around his pretend sword. "And I'm yelling, right? Trying to get his attention on me and away from the lambs."

Johnny's eyes grow even wider. "Little lambs?"

"Little baby lambs," Ross says. "So I yell at that big dragon-"

"What colour was he?" Johnny asks.

"Eh?" Ross frowns. "Oh...uh...what colour do you think he was?"

"Red?" He's seen a red dragon in a book. It was dead scary looking and it had big claws.

"That's right. It was bright red...and it gets its big beady eyes on me and it swoops right at me and I swung my sword and I caught him on the leg." Ross swings his arms down. "And he flies away, screeching, and I'm thinking 'Phew, that was close'."

Johnny nods rapidly, relieved. Ross makes his eyes big and round. "But then, he turns back around, right? And I can see him headed right for this tiny little lamb that's standing all on its own." Ross shakes his head. "And I said 'No, Dragon, not today.' And I start running and I grab that little lamb in my arms."

He grabs Johnny up, shoving him under one arm, running into the living room. Johnny squeals, giggling when Ross tosses him onto the couch beside Moses, who looks at the two of them briefly before turning back to Paw Patrol. "And I get that little lamb out of its way, but then it's right above me, yeah? And it opens its mouth and do you know what happened next?"

"Fire came out?" Johnny asks, in a whisper.

"That's right." Ross collapses onto the floor and Johnny scrambles to the edge of the sofa to see him. "He's flying down, fire coming at me, and I've no shield remember? So I held my sword up in front of me and I turned to the side and I felt all this heat on my face." He touches the bumpy bit of his cheek. "So I just closed my eyes and swung my sword and it got him a right good hit in the chest." Ross grins up at Johnny from the floor. "And he flew away and he's never been back to Emmerdale since."

"Wow," Johnny whispers. "Were you scared?"

"A bit." Ross says, sitting up. "But that's what being brave's about, innit? Being scared and doing stuff anyway."

"I'm gonna be like that," Johnny tells him. "I'm gonna be brave when I'm big like you."

"Course you will be, mate," Ross says with a nod. He reaches over and tickles Moses. "You both will be."

Moses squirms away, shaking his head. "You're daft," he says to Ross and Johnny gasps. It's not nice to tell adults they're daft. Even when they are being daft.

"Oi, you," Ross scolds him. "You're listening to your mother far too much."

Uncle Ross's face is really close to him again, so he reaches over and runs his fingers down his cheek now that he knows it won't hurt. This time, Ross lets him.

"It feels nice," he decides, running his fingers up and down Ross's face.

He feels Ross' cheek move when he smiles. "Does it?"

"Yeah." He nods, trying to think what it feels like. "Bumpy. Like dragon skin."

"Dragon skin, eh? Well, I guess that's pretty cool."

The front door opens and they all turn to see Auntie Tracy coming back in from the shop. "Sorry I was so long. I bumped into Rodney and you know what he's like when he gets going. I'll be surprised if this milk's not gone off, the length of time I was stood there listening to him yakking on ab-" She frowns at Ross. "Why're you on the floor?"

"Uncle Ross was just telling me about the dragon," Johnny tells her, grinning.

"The drag-"

"You know, Trace," Ross gets up, dusting his jeans off. "The dragon that I fought that burned my face. You remember."

"Oh!" Auntie Tracy looks down at Johnny and Moses and then back up at Ross, smiling. "Right. That dragon. Of course." She puts her bag down and comes over, wrapping her arms around Uncle Ross and kissing his cheek. "How could I forget about my brave knight fighting a dragon?"

Ross winks at Johnny. "Girls love dragon slayers."

Auntie Tracy laughs. "Yeah. Especially ones stuck in towers. Or stuck in their sister's spare room just after their sister gets a new girlfriend, eh?" She kisses Ross again. "You saved me from permanent mental trauma from having to listen to those two going at it like hammer a-."

"Alright, alright," Ross shakes his head. "There's kids here."

"Oh, as if they know what I'm talking about." Auntie Tracy comes over and kisses his head and then Moses' head. Moses strains his neck to see round her because she's standing right in front of the telly. "I'm putting this stuff away and then I'll make a cuppa, okay?"

"Great," Ross says, sitting down on the couch between Johnny and Moses. "I'm parched from all that running around after dragons."

Johnny thinks a bit about what he's heard. That dragon sounded like a right piece of work, going after little lambs. And even though Uncle Ross stabbed him, he still got away. So he might come back one day. And if he does, then they need to be ready for it. "Uncle Ross?"

He's watching Paw Patrol now, but he still answers. "Yeah?"

"If it comes back, the dragon...can I help you fight him?" He hurries to continue because he knows that grown-ups worry about you hurting yourself all the time. "I'll be dead careful. I promise."

Ross turns to look at him and he worries he's gonna say no. But he starts to smile and his eyes go nice and soft. "Course you can, mate." He nods. "You can be my squire, eh? And we'll fight him together."

"What's a squire?" Johnny asks, thinking he'd probably like to be one whatever it is.

"A squire's like-" He scrunches his face up like he's thinking. "He's like a knight's helper. He's always by his side."

"I'll be your squire, then," Johnny decides, smiling up at Ross. "I'll make sure and bring your shield next time. So you don't get hurt again."

Uncle Ross' face goes a bit funny when he says that, but it must not be bad, because he wraps an arm around his shoulder and pulls him close and kisses the top of his head, then he does the same with Moses.

Johnny yawns and snuggles against Ross' side, feeling a bit sleepy. Dragons and sheep dance in his head as his eyes grow heavy. And somewhere, he hears his Uncle Ross' voice.

"You sleep tight, squire. I'll keep watch for dragons."