Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of its characters.
Title: Here, There Be Dragons
Summary: The fact that Zoro is a tiny palm-sized dragon that likes to curl on top of Luffy's straw hat shouldn't change things. Yet some things do.
Rating: K+
Characters: Zoro, Luffy, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Robin and Chopper with mentions of others
Warnings: Potentially disturbing imagery
Author's Notes: This idea had been on the back of my mind for a while now (especially after my earlier One Piece fiction where Luffy imagined Zoro as a dragon) and it's taken a while to finally put it into words. I know that Oda has said that if Zoro was an animal, he would be a shark but I found it more interesting to make him into a cute little dragon. I also haven't had the chance to write about Franky, Brooke and Luffy plus maybe Vivi and Jinbe but I hope to get to it in the future.

" But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them."

~ Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard Of Earthsea

Initially, Nami had thought the glittering green cloth was a part of Luffy's straw hat. A strange accessory for a hat but she had seen stranger things out in the sea.

Until it moved, unfurling a set of wings, and stretched out its snake-like neck and gleaming claws.

" What is that?" she exclaimed, alarmed and stunned that she was seeing such a thing.

The green scaly monster (how on earth did she mistaken a real, life-breathing dragon on top of Luffy's hat for some inanimate object?) merely lifted its head and growled, far more upset that its rest was disturbed.

" That's Zoro!" Luffy chirped, as if he didn't realize there was a creature that was only supposed to be in myth and legend.

" It has a name?!"

Said Zoro opened its mouth, baring several sharp teeth in what appeared to Nami to be an irritable grumble.

" It's not nice to call Zoro an "it". Zoro is a 'he', can't you tell?" Luffy frowned disapprovingly, wondering how such a smart person like his new navigator couldn't distinguish between genders.

" That is the least of our problems!" She pointed a shaky finger at Zoro. " How on earth did you come across a dragon? Those things aren't supposed to exist! It's not supposed to be real!"

At that, Zoro darted forward to nip (lightly though, Luffy would be upset if his new crew mate was hurt) at her finger, to prove that yes, he was very much real and getting annoyed at her questions, causing Nami to shriek and Luffy to laugh.

~.~.~

There was something extremely unfair with the universe, Sanji decided, that let a freaking dragon have a bounty before him.

His response was to attempt to kick that scaly mosshead who had the mocking gall to smirk at him and fly just a little bit higher out of his reach. They only stopped fighting because Nami snapped at them to hold onto something quick because the Knock Up Stream was about to occur.

He didn't know the entire story of how Zoro earned his bounty in Alabasta. Nami was able to tell them that she was attacked by Mr. 1 and Zoro swooped in the last second to block the hit, allowing her to escape. The rest of the story was lost as she ran off to face Ms Doublefinger and didn't reunite with Zoro until much later.

When he next saw Zoro near the palace entrance, the dragon was riddled with several gashes all over his body, evidence of a hard-earned victory. His wings had been drooping as he clung to Nami's shoulder, his tiny body dangling over the edge and he barely snapped at Sanji in response, an indicator that he was exhausted.

If nothing else, Sanji was grateful that the mosshead had enough decency to protect Nami. Or else, injured or not, Zoro would have found his head kicked into the nearest wall.

How did a pint-sized green lizard managed to gain such tremendous power and strength, Sanji had no idea. He had seen first hand the ferocity that Zoro had. The second that Arlong had tossed the literally grounded Luffy into the sea, Zoro flew straight at Arlong's face, digging claw and tooth into the fishman's skin. Arlong roared in pain and fury and Zoro kept attacking and attacking, even as Arlong managed to grab him and nearly squeezed the dragon to death if Sanji hadn't intervened.

It made him wonder how on earth Luffy managed to convince Zoro to join him and why Zoro was so fanatically loyal to Luffy.

Usopp and Chopper had asked him about it before, why he disliked Zoro so much. He had shrugged and told them because Zoro was a smug, annoying pest, dragon or not. But of course, there was more to it, more than Sanji could properly explain.

There were too many unknowns when it came to Zoro and Zoro himself had kept quiet about too many details. Like where he came from and why he chose to stay here and what dream possessed him to go with them to the Grand Line.

Luffy trusted Zoro and he supposed it should be enough to trust the mosshead, even if Sanji would rather die than admit it.

~.~.~

Robin had ended up staying up later than she had expected on this night, pouring over her books to see what she could learn about her scaly crew member whose existence was enough to make the mind swirl.

Dragon scales are considered among the hardest, most impenetrable materials in the world. When she was reunited with Zoro on the Upper Yard, she was surprised to see deep cuts over Zoro's hide and withers even as the dragon vigilantly curled around the unconscious Chopper, scanning for any approaching enemies. Who or what was strong enough to be able to cut through dragon scales that was meant to be harder than diamond?

Wings of a dragon can reach more than half of its body's length, allowing the beast to fly and carry off their victims, where it is considered to be near impossible to defeat where it lords over the sky. Zoro's wings had been slowly growing, large enough to bat at Sanji's face after the cook and dragon had gotten into one of their usual fights. He had yet to attempt to pick up someone and try to fly with them, though Zoro seemed to take great delight in sneaking off with Sanji's lighter or cigarettes, much to the cook's annoyance.

The claws of the dragon are frightfully sharp, able to tear flesh, bone and stone with one swipe. Robin had seen how deadly Zoro's claws were when one pirate tried to attack Chopper from behind and had the misfortune being within Zoro's sight, who then swooped in and sunk his claws into the screaming pirate's eyes. The same claws later ever so gently perched on Chopper's hat as Zoro reassured the doctor he was fine, while Zoro himself inspected Chopper to make sure he was unharmed.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the dragon is their fire breathing abilities that could burn down an entire forest or city within seconds and it is said that once burned by a dragon, its victims would never be free of the scorching heat. For most part, Zoro appeared to only be able to summon small puffs of smoke, which he was fond of using whenever he was most annoyed or frustrated with the crew. But anyone else – especially the bounty hunter who had slapped Nami in an attempt to silence her – was fair game to his flames. The agonized screaming and smell of burnt flesh lingered long in their minds after they managed to escape.

Robin glanced at the clock, surprised it was later than she thought and she had the final watch for the night. She stretched, closing her books, deciding to continue her research perhaps the following night.

~.~.~

If there was a time that Chopper had ever heard Sanji sound so panicked and frightened as he shouted for him while cradling the bloodied Zoro, looking so small and helpless, against his chest, Chopper couldn't remember.

It took all night – none of them wanted to relive the moment when Zoro woke up in a frenzy and started thrashing and seizing and choking on his own blood – but sometime in the late afternoon, Chopper was able to announce that Zoro was out of danger for now. The sight of their dragon, broken and motionless, lying on Franky's hastily make-shift bed was enough to make Nami cry and Luffy to have a haunted expression. If it wasn't for the soft inhale and rise of his tiny chest, they would have believed Zoro to be dead.

Exhausted, the doctor couldn't help but stifle a sob, trying to come to terms with what had happened.

Zoro, for lack of a better word, had looked terrible. Blood coated and soaked through his scales, dulling the once brilliant green to a darkened hue. His wings were snapped, horribly bent and wilted to the side. His chest trembled in an effort to breath and there was a hoarse wheeze emitting from the dragon's throat.

Chopper had tried to prepare for this; with Zoro being in the thicket of the fighting alongside Luffy and Sanji, it was natural he would receive just as much injuries. He was the crew's doctor and it was his job to care for all his crew mates. Even for stubborn dragons who kept tugging off all their bandages and darting away in the air as soon as Chopper angrily waved fresh new bandages at him.

But right now, there were injuries that no dragon – or any creature in general – should be having. The blood in his veins had been turned inside out, ripping and bursting out to the seams. All his internal organs were heavily damaged and overexerted to the limit (by what?) and Chopper never wanted to ask Franky to use his laser scalpels to cut open Zoro's chest to try and fix the damage. His claws are broken deep within the bone, something that had never happened to Zoro. Since when did dragons use their claws to punch something?

He slowly sucked in a breath. Any doctor worth their salt would have suspected something. Kuma had done something to Zoro to cause him injuries like this and Zoro must have done something so the rest of them would escape relatively unharmed. And perhaps all of this was tied in to Luffy's pain-free condition.

He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard Brooke's panicky shouts that Zoro was bleeding from his mouth and he shook off those thoughts for now as he steadied himself to be the doctor once again for his patient.

~.~.~

" Zoro?" Usopp whispered as he and the only dragon in the world crept further down the tunnel. He felt the dragon's claws slowly dig into his shirt, trying not to wince as he felt the claws prick his skin. " What's wrong? Do you hear something? Is someone coming?"

The dragon didn't say anything, his tail curling around Usopp's neck. Previously, Usopp might have flinched at feeling the cool rustle of scales clicking roughly over his neck, but now, it felt oddly protective and warm.

At times like this, he wished Luffy or Chopper or even Sanji (he tried not to feel jealous that Zoro had two clear favourites of the crew that he liked to stay by and one mutual dislike he enjoyed teasing) was there to translate Zoro-talk for him. But they, along with other crew mates, were missing and Usopp could only swallow his can't-go-down-a-creepy-dark-tunnel disease and continue to plunge further into the dark.

His tiny flashlight was the only source of light and it cast an illuminating radiance over Zoro's scales, giving an eerie glow. Why did Zoro have to have such creepy green scales? Usopp hysterically wondered for the umpteenth time. " Wish I brought a torch instead," he muttered instead. " At least we could see a lot better and I won't have to trip over any rocks. Like that one rock shaped like meat which I'm sure Luffy would have eaten just because."

Again, Zoro was silent. But from the way his head tilted, he was listening.

" Why didn't we listen to Nami when she told us not to go further past the forest? Of course, Luffy does what he wants anyways, that selfish bastard. But why did Chopper and I follow him? Oh yes, it was the famous watermelon chicken I had told him about and Sanji almost kicked my head in for implying the food here was better than his – "

You talk too much, Zoro rumbled suddenly.

It took him a second to realize what he had heard. And what he really heard.

" Oi!"

The amused snicker was not something Usopp needed Luffy or Chopper to translate to know that Zoro was officially humoring him.