This Time, It was the Princess' Turn to Rescue her Dragon.

"Dragon!" It was never a good start to the day when Grumpy ran through town yelling in a panic. The dwarf always blew things out of proportion and there was seldom a good reason to panic.

"Let's go and check it out Love." Killian rolled his eyes. Granny would keep an eye on Hope for them and there was a good chance it was a big lizard and not a dragon.

"Has anyone seen Maleficent recently?" Emma handed Hope over to Granny who beamed at the little girl.

"Not since she was reunited with her daughter." Granny headed to the kitchen to bake cookies with Hope.

"Well, that rules one dragon out." Emma headed out the diner door. "Just once it would be nice to have a meal at Granny's that we actually get to finish in peace."

Killian chuckled. "Where's the fun in that Swan?"

They strolled hand in hand towards the woods where Grumpy had come running from. Although it did cross both their minds that perhaps they should ask what Grumpy had been doing in the woods. The mine was in the opposite direction. Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any evidence that something as large as a dragon was close by.

This was beginning to look like a lot of fuss over nothing when there was a rumbling deeper in the woods. "Is that thunder?" Emma had been considering heading back to finish her breakfast and put this down to Grumpy being overly dramatic.

"No that sounded as though it came from the chest." Killian took a cautious step forward. Years of being out at sea had taught him the difference between thunder and the rumbling from a creature's chest. "Careful Swan. It sounds as though our dragon has a chest cold."

"I wonder." Emma stepped up beside him. "Elliot! Is that you?" She watched as the branches shifted indicating something invisible was moving towards them. "It's alright Elliot. You can show yourself."

"You know the dragon by its first name, Swan?" Killian watched as a huge fluffy looking green dragon appeared before them.

"I thought it was my imagination." Emma looked up at the dragon. "When I was a kid, my imaginary friend was a dragon called Elliot." Although it had seemed very real to her at the time, as she grew up she had dismissed as her imagination.

"Well he looks very real from where I'm standing." Killian raised an eyebrow as the dragon's nose began to drip. "Looks as though you have a cold Elliot." For a dragon, it looked pretty friendly.

"There it is! There's the dragon who tried to set me on fire!" Grumpy was back with half the town it seemed.

Emma stepped between Elliot and the townspeople. "Elliot has a cold. He didn't try to set you on fire. He sneezed. What were you doing in this part of the woods anyway?" She had doubts that anything more than a puff of smoke had come from Elliot while he had the sniffles.

"That's not the point. That thing's dangerous." Grumpy was frantically trying to shift the focus back on the dragon.

"Then we will just need to fence off this part of the woods until Elliot has recovered." Killian didn't like his wife being between a fire breathing dragon with a cold and an agitated mob.

"And how long is that going to take?" Grumpy seemed very eager to get into that part of the woods. "This is our town. Who brought that thing here?"

"Elliot turns up where he's needed. There's a child somewhere in town that needed a friend." At least that was how it was with Emma.

"I think I know who that child is." Snow headed back towards town to go and find the child. She couldn't bare the thought that any child in town felt so alone that they needed a dragon as a friend.

"Why don't I have a look at our dragon and see if I can find something to help cure his cold" Charming used to work at the animal shelter. He and Snow were at least trying to help Elliot. Most of the townspeople were beginning to calm down as well. Only Grumpy was still determined to have the dragon slayed.

"Elliot, this is my Dad. Can he take a look at you and see if he can help cure your cold?" Emma felt some relief when the dragon nodded.

"Did you not hear how he tried to light me on fire?" Grumpy was not happy that no one seemed concerned that he had almost been flame grilled.

"Actually, what we didn't hear was why you were in this part of the woods." Killian watched as everyone turned to Grumpy for his answer.

When the dwarf just stood silently fuming, Emma decided to ask an eye witness. "Elliot, what was Grumpy doing when he disturbed you?" She wasn't sure what sort of response she would get but Grumpy was up to something. The dragon gave some animated grunts in response. Emma chuckled. "So he thinks he's found the fountain of youth. Is he right?" Elliot grunted again. "That's what I thought."

"You're going to take the word of a dragon over me?" Grumpy couldn't see the absurdity of the discussion.

"The dragon's the only one talking." Killian couldn't believe they were even having this conversation. "There's nothing to see here folks. Just a dragon with a cold."

"What about the fountain of youth?" Gepetto called out from amongst the crowd.

"It's in the middle east." Emma rolled her eyes. "Seriously, does anyone here look as though they've discovered the fountain of youth?" Once the town clock has started working again, everyone in town started ageing at the normal rate.

The townsfolk had to agree she had a point. They all headed back to their business. Grumpy waited for a moment but when the dragon got more attention than he did, he turned back to town grumbling about how his beard had been singed.

Emma reached up and patted Elliot's neck. "It's good to see you again." Unlike other dragons, Elliot had fur not scales. "Where have you been staying?" A few more grunts got her an answer. "Stay clear of Grumpy for the meantime. I've got some old blankets in the bug you can have." It was the least she could do for the beast that had made parts of her childhood bearable and less lonely.

"Come on Love. Let's get Elliot those blankets. We can come back and check on him tomorrow after he's gotten some rest." It was a relief to Killian that the dragon was at least friendly considering it looked as though his wife would be spending a lot of time with him.

Nodding, Emma took Killian's hand and they headed for her car. Sometimes life in Storybrooke was like a puzzle with the pieces falling into place.