"Every human mounted together and hunted down the foul beasts, known as dragons, and slayed them all! Freeing ourselves from the foul beasts and taking control of our own futures once and for all." John's father finished, closing the history book with a smile as his youngest son, John, stared down at his scarred and limp leg. A scar well-deserved from the wars that defeated the dragons.

"Amazing!" John said, childish blue eyes wide with amazement as his father told the story. "But how did you kill them?"

His father blinked, stubble features twisting into a warm smile as he said "A bullet to the brain always works John, you have to remember that."

John nodded. "A few boys at my school said dragons could take a human skin. Is that possible?"

He shook his head and said his next sentence with a sigh before sitting up in the old leather chair, adjusting his leg as a numbing pain shot through his leg. "No clue, but if dragon can, never trust it and put the beast out of its misery before it can kill yeh."

The boy stopped as he looked up, taking in every word his elder said. He went over it at least a thousand times in his head, sticking it to memory but something somewhere in his young mind told him it was wrong, but he ignored it.

A scream of pain tore through the night, causing a fourteen-year-old Mycroft Holmes to jump out of his bed and cross to the window. He looked through the rain, trying to catch sight of what had made the horrible sound. A flash of lightning illuminated his yard white and then his eyes widened in horror when he saw a seven-year-old boy cross his yard, blood coating his dark blue shirt as rain clung to his mop of dark curls. Mycroft ran out of his room and down the stairs, grabbing the umbrella he always kept by the door.

He opened it up and ran outside in the pouring rain, ignoring the mud that clung to his pajama pant bottoms and feet. Rain poured down around him but that didn't stop him noticing the small and weak figure lying on the ground, a small and watered down puddle of blood fanning out around him. Mycroft helped the little boy to his feet and walked inside with him, just as his parents walked down the stairs, wiping the tiredness from their eyes only for them to widen in horror at the state of the child their son had brought in.

"Oh my god." Mrs. Holmes breathed, eyes wide in terror as she ran down the stairs and sat the boy down in the chair. "What happened to you?"

The child looked up, Mycroft jumped when he saw the constricted pupils of the child, which quickly rounded out. "Shot by an arrow at the battle of the Burrows. They killed my family, I just hatched for goodness sakes!"

Mr. Holmes blinked in horror, he had grown up knowing to kill dragons but now that one, especially a child, was sitting at his kitchen table, he wasn't so sure he could pull the trigger. Mycroft glanced at him but his father only asked "What's your name?"

"Smaug." The child answered. "An old name in my blood line."

"Okay then, well, how are you human? Normally, dragons are big and scaly with wings." Mrs. Holmes said, soft eyes glancing over the boy.

He shook his head, bright blue eyes glancing them over as he said "My parents taught me how to take human skin to keep me safe from the carnage but as I escaped I had been shot."

Mycroft blinked, eyes filling with horror but then he saw his parents gaze at one another before his mother said "We'll be hanged if we allow him to stay...all of us. It's a war crime."

Mr. Holmes shook his head "But it doesn't matter, as long as he stays like that...he'll be fine. Come on Violet, imagine the learning opportunity we have right before our eyes. Raising a dragon, imagine."

Mycroft tore into the conversation as he said "Mum, Dad, you have to remember that a dragon in human form could have dire consequences. He could start sprouting horns and whatnot...but, if we do decide on keeping him...I'll treat him like a brother."

The dragon looked up, blue eyes widening in surprise as a smile broke out across his face. After awhile and a few nods between the parents Mr. Holmes finally said "Fine, Smaug, you can stay."