Disclaimer: All the rights to the Professor Layton belong to Level 5 games, not me! I would never own ANYONE of that amazing franchise.

The legend of the Dragon sapphire.

It took a few hours at most until Professor Layton arrived in France.

He had only been asleep five whole hours before he awoke to the sound of the boat horn sounding and he immediately was on the move to try and sneak safely off the ship without being caught by the boat guards. He put together a plan to sneak out via a hatch in the floor and swimming to shore.

Now, due to the fact that he had become almost as big as a house, he wasn't entirely sure if he could actually swim in this form. But he couldn't think of any other method that wouldn't eventually lead him to getting caught...but did he really want to chance death?

...He done it all the time, so why not?

The dark brown scaled dragon wearing the top hat gave a soft growl of determination and he snorted through his nostrils, scraping his right foreleg along the floor much like a bull getting ready to charge at the matador in a bull fighting ring.

Even though he winced at the sound of his foreleg scraping across the damp metal flooring below, he kept doing it as he prepared himself for one big charge. He flapped his wings eagerly before folding them against his back and he bent his neck downwards and allowed his torn high collar to slide up his long neck a bit.

(...A gentleman never charges at others in such an animalistic manner but I think this should be made an exception as the situation dictates myself as an animal species.) His own voice whispered in his mind as he straightened his back and stood still, ready to make a running start at anytime.

He thumped his front claws on the ground before he charged up the staircase, only narrowly escaping, before he leaped up into the twilight air and startled the crew members below as they stared right up at his shadow with expressions of disbelief whilst they gawked at the underbelly of the silhouetted form shadowed by the pale moonlight shining down from above.

As Dragon Layton jumped up high into the air, soaring for a few short distances, he landed with a heavy "thud" against the wooden docks and he raced away into the night.

Professor Layton panted tiredly as he ran on all fours, trying his best not to stop running and take a chance of being seen. He had to get to Luke's house! But he had to discover where the boy lived first, he couldn't just blindly wander around and check every house.

...Could he?

Luke slept soundly in his bed as he lain on his left side to face the wall, his blanketed right side rising up and down in time with his soft yet sleepy snores that was much too similar to a purring little house cat.

He had moved to France so his family would have some more space for his little 6-month-old sister whom slept soundly in a crib on the other side of the room, thankfully away from Luke's bed so her crying could not quite reach his ears since he was the heaviest sleeper ever. Not even a train crash could arouse him.

The boy didn't like sharing his life with a new child but he felt really bad for feeling like that. His parents didn't have time for him anymore and they outright ignored him, he would bet his cap that if he ran away and never came back then they wouldn't even care and just continue pampering the baby girl he called a sister.

Luke didn't like feeling bitter towards a baby who really didn't do anything to deserve this hate but his anger was more directed at his parents, his dad especially.

But then, through the depths of his slumber, he heard some very strange sounds. They sounded like little taps against...glass? Yes, it was probably glass! But what could it have been tapping against his bedroom window? It was probably a bird or something, wanting to come inside for shelter or something.

He did get little late night visitors like that at times.

Sleepily, Luke dragged open one of his eyes and gave a quick glance around the room.

There was a shred of faint moonlight shining through the window and reflecting against the blue carpeted flooring below. Otherwise the room was pitch black even though Luke could make out faint outlines of many different furniture that were in the room at the time.

He dragged himself out of bed and he made his way towards the window in order to investigate the sounds coming from apparently outside. He lumbered across the room, doubling over a little bit as his feet waded against the soft-as-anything carpet covering his floor. While he travelled across the room, he gave a very long yawn whilst he closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them in an attempt to stay awake and not fall asleep on the spot.

He reached the window and slid it open to allow some freezing cold gusts of wind to come into the room. He looked around outside but didn't find anything, that was until he had the instinctive urge to look downwards and look down he did;

his heart skipped a beat at what he saw down below the window.

There was a large something or rather, it looked like a dragon, standing right beneath the windowsill with an inquisitive expression on its muzzle. It had brown scales and had a very long neck, paw-like ligaments attached to the end of each leg, a tail with an arrow shape on the tip, a very long muzzle-snout thing, it had orange frills for ears and it had two wings folded against its back.

Startled out of his mind, Luke panickedly tumbled back into the room although his movements were very clumsily made as he was still trying to fully wake himself up. He was still tired from everything that he had been going through as of late.

"Luke, it's alright! Its me..." A very familiar voice rang from the outside.

Luke was all at once confused as he now had his back to the bedroom wall right by the window. He would recognise that voice anywhere but he didn't want to believe it, he was far from convinced of what he was beginning to suspect...and he hoped beyond hope that he was wrong.

Cautious, Luke once again looked out the window and back down at the creature whom was now sitting patiently below the windowsill with its long neck craned upwards so it could see him.

Luke took another look at the creature but he noticed something that not only did he fail to notice the first time but also confirmed his previous suspicions. Those little black eyes, that kind and gentlemanly grin, that high collar, that top hat.

The top hat and eyes sealed the deal in Luke's mind.

"P-Professor, is that you?!" Luke asked, rubbing his eyes with an arm to rid himself of the sleep collecting at the corners of his eyeballs. He leaned halfway out the window and kept his gaze locked on the very familiar-looking dragon down below the mansion.

Luke's voice had grown deeper than the last time the Professor saw the lad. That was hardly surprising considering that he was now 13 years old but still, the Professor's apprentice had really grown into himself. His voice must have broken, as it did have a hint of a young man behind it, despite the fact that he really hadn't changed much in appearance.

Not at all.

The Professor nodded his head, a smile appearing on his muzzle, and he stretched his neck upwards to meet Luke on eye level.

He tried to get up on his hind legs but he couldn't do that since he couldn't control his weight properly so he was forced to stay on all fours. He was still happy that he could at least have direct eye contact with his apprentice and his frills even lifted up in rejoice. He snorted his nostrils happily and gave a gentle purr that basically would have said "I'm happy to see you, Luke," or "I missed you, my boy," but whatever he mutedly was saying by this gesture was responded by Luke touching his now reptilian mentor's muzzle and stroking it.

The lad was astounded as he looked into the Professor's soft eyes. Those eyes hardly changed at all and that somehow comforted him.

"Luke," Dragon Layton began slowly, taking absolute care in trying not to scare the boy anymore then he must have been tonight "can you understand me?"

Luke swallowed hard but nodded his head, a squiggly line forming on his frown and tears even began to well up inside his eyes.

The Professor assumed that the lad was crying because he was afraid of his new appearance. But he was quickly proved mistaken when Luke basically scrambled out the window and tackled the dragon's neck on the way down, throwing his arms around the beast's long neck. Luke buried his face into Professor Layton's currently long neck and murmured softly through his cracking, breaking young voice "I-I missed you, Professor!"

The Professor was taken aback. Luke was happy to see him, especially in this state!? Well he would have been lying if he said that he wasn't at all shocked by this revelation but he did feel joy swell his heart up at least a couple of sizes. He got on to his haunches and sat down so he could gently adjust his position and use one of his massive claws to pat Luke's much smaller back.

He wrapped his large wings over the both of them and craned his neck downwards so he could softly nuzzle the boy's cheek. "I missed you as well, my boy." He murmured as soothingly as he could.

After breaking the reunion hug up, the Professor sat Luke down in his giant palm and laid down on all fours yet one paw was held up.

Luke looked up at the Professor's draconian face and stared right into his dottish eyes. He was overwhelmed with confusion and all the sleepiness he had felt before had changed shape and mutated into something: astonishment. He couldn't help but feel many queries on this situation ring in his head, spinning about like little spinning tops which had been wound to perfection.

The Professor seemed to have been waiting very patiently for those inevitable questions to come about.

So, without further ado, Luke opened his mouth and asked with furrowed brows that painted a look of concern on his face "Professor, what on earth happened to you?"

Professor Layton hesitated for a moment and glanced up at the moon looming overhead in the indigo skies. It provided excellent lighting in the area and was this was the perfect atmosphere to tell a story of the past, it felt like a night when you would recount a tragic tale in your past...a night of nostalgia, if you will.

Clearing his dragon throat, the Professor glanced back to the lad sitting patiently in his paw/claw and staring up at him with innocent eyes. The two were silence for a moment before the Professor sighed through his nostrils and recounted the story of Fafnir, blacking out, the panicky behaviour, and finally; the horrifying transformation.

The pain was stilled in his refined yet current dragonesque voice as he told the story but Luke didn't dare interrupt, he just sat and listened with open ears without saying a peep.

Dragon Layton finished his story with "...And that's why I need your assistance, my boy."

Luke, still absorbing all this new info, nodded his head very slowly but had a calm face. He finally smiled and sent his mentor a thumbs up, seemingly very eager to go on a trip with his mentor but there was a slight downhearted ness drenching it "Professor, I would love to help you...but I'm not so sure mum and dad would allow it."

Professor Layton tilted his head to one side, his frills dropping to mirror the clueless expression "And whys that, Luke?"

Luke said nothing but he stretched his arms out towards him in a gesture. His eyes were just as wide as his arms were and he blinked incredulously.

The Professor took that as to assume that Luke was pointing at him. But why would he-! He looked down at himself when it clicked inside his brilliant head and he knew exactly to what his apprentice was referring to here. When he looked back up at Luke, he cracked a bashful grin and gave a knowing little growl of the throat and he nodded his head.

"Oh. That's right..."

Luke shook his head with a grin. The Professor hasn't changed at all, really. It seemed that he is still a little bit forgetful when he stays up late but that wasn't really his fault. He was just a busy man -or dragon- and needed to perform any and all duties as a Gentleman of Archeology.

Luke had already came up with a solution, though, so the awkward tension in the air didn't last too long. He warmly patted Professor Layton's neck as he assured him whilst he still sat in his mentor's large draconian claw "Don't worry, Professor, I already have an idea of how we can convince my parents; let me handle everything."

Sighing through his nose, the Professor was forced to concur.

Nothing could really be done tonight so the dragon Professor Layton would have to camp outside the mansion for a spell. He always found admiring the stars outside and sleeping beneath them quite a pleasant experience. However, the pleasantries had been sucked out of the air because of the events that occurred this evening.

He made sure to help squeeze Luke back through the window before he curled on the grassy floor below and he curled up into the smallest ball he could possibly muster. He made shelter beneath the bedroom window of Luke's house and it didn't take long until he drifted off into a peaceful sleep yet again.

He had to get some more strength up if he was to promptly ask Brenda and Clark if he could borrow Luke for awhile to try and find a cure for his "condition" so he could return to his humble life in London and so he could leave Luke to his life.

He didn't dislike the boy -quite the contrary!- but he didn't want to risk putting Luke in anymore danger than he had with him all the other adventures they have been on. He had already lost a lot because of what he put his friends through, he couldn't lose his apprentice as well...

He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep with the thoughts of his sweetheart, Claire Foley, to comfort him.

A/N: Yay, we see Luke!

And he takes the whole thing very well but considering everything else Professor Layton and Luke had gone through, who wouldn't be used to it? Next we see Luke trying to get his parents permission about going on this trip with the Professor.

We might even get some flying lessons...I don't know yet.

Please review and tell me what you guys think. :)

-Chloemcg