The crew had come together again after two years. Everyone was happy and everything seemed okay. Only a few of the crew members seemed to notice that Luffy acted a little different then two years ago. They had expected that though. Even Luffy wouldn't be completely unaffected by what happened two years ago. They decided to give him all the time he needed to recover.

After a few weeks, the others started to notice their captains odd behaviour too. They asked him what bothered him and if they could help him. He would always shrug it off and make up some excuse to go somewhere else.

Then there was also a weird group of people following them. They seemed to be after Luffy for some reason. At first they attacked the ship in order to capture the 'monster' as they called him. Luffy always was a bit uneasy when they attacked. The group gave up after a few times since they were no match for the Strawhat crew, but they kept following them.

Crew members offered Luffy to go with him to explore an island. They felt uneasy to let him go alone since those weird people were most likely on the island too. Luffy, however, would deny the offer. He would say that they could not beat him anyway and that he wanted to go somewhere alone. Sometimes he would return with a few small wounds from an encounter with the group.

Zoro was looking at the island in the distance. Usopp had reported the appearance of the island a little while ago and the Strawhats had decided to stop there to get some new resources. Nami was telling the rest of the crew who was going to do what.

''-and Brook and Robin will stay on the ship. Luffy, you and Sanji go to the village for the food and other stuff on the list, ok?'' She told the others.

''I don't want to go to the village. I want to explore the island.'' Luffy said. Nami looked at him.

''No Luffy, you explored the last couple of island. It is your turn to do the shopping. You haven't done it since two years ago.''

''I'm going to explore the island!'' He yelled at her. Nami was getting really angry right now.

''You go to the town or I'll drag you there myself!'' She yelled at her captain.

Zoro snickered. Luffy never changes.

Luffy looked at Zoro. "Zoro, you go to town to buy stuff, captains order!"

"Eh?!" Zoro and Sanji exclaimed at the same time.

Luffy walked to the railing and stretched his arm to the island, which was really close by now.

''Luffy! What are you doing?!'' Nami yelled at him. ''I'm going to explore the island!'' He yelled. Then he was gone. Nami groaned and looked at the crew. ''Well, you heard him. Zoro will go with Sanji.'' She said, earning complains from the two mentioned.

They anchored the ship and stepped on shore. Luffy was no were to be seen. They all went to do the thing they were supposed to do. Robin and Brook stayed to guard the ship, Usopp and Franky went into the nearby forest to gather wood and some herbs for Chopper. Nami, chopper, Sanji and Zoro went to the village to get their things. Of course, Zoro got lost when they were only halfway there. He somehow ended up in the forest at the other side of the island.

While complaining about moving paths and disappearing crew mates he walked through the forest, searching for the village. At some point he found himself on top of a hill. There were no trees on the hill so he could see everything around him. He could see the village, which was at the opposite direction he was heading first. 'When did they move the village?' He thought while scratching the back of his head. He then saw something moving in the forest at the other side of the hill. It looked like something big was running around. Zoro got a bit curious and walked in the direction of the movements.

When he came closer he heard people yelling. He picked up the pace and ran in the direction of the noise. He, for once, didn't get lost and he arrived at the place where he heared the yelling come from.

Zoro saw people running past him. He recognized them as the group who had been followed the crew. They seemed to be chasing something or someone. Zoro unsheathed one of his swords and followed the group. Luffy was somewhere on the island as well. It was a possibility that they were chasing the teen. He knew that they would be no match for his captain, but he had to make sure that they didn't hurt his captain.

The men suddenly stopped and Zoro hid behind a tree. They started shooting and throwing spears at something. Zoro had not seen who or what they were shooting at yet. Something then roared and suddenly fire blew in their direction. The people backed away and then ran forwards. Zoro came out from behind the tree and ran to the scene to see what was going on. However, he hadn't expected this.

The men were surrounding a red dragon. The mythical creature was about the size of a big horse and was defending himself against the group. There were a few spears sticking out of its body and Zoro could see some cuts on the scaled skin. Zoro saw that about half of the group was taken out by the fire and the animal had probably taken out more before he arrived.

The group charged again and the dragon swung its tail at them. The tail had some kind of blade at the end and it slashed some of the incoming enemies in the chest, making them unable to fight. The remaining people attempted to throw some more spears, but were taken down by Zoro. He had decided to help the creature a bit by defeating the last few of them. After making sure there were no remaining enemies, he turned to face the dragon.

The dragon was looking at him with golden eyes, but made no move to attack. The mythical beast had red scales with a few black stripes all over its body. He had four silver-coloured horns on its head. Two big and two smaller ones. It had dark spines running from his muzzle to the end of its tail. The big red wings had some black streaks on them. The animal had four big claws at each paw and a blade at the end of its tail.

Zoro sheathed his sword and slowly started to approach the creature. The creature didn't seemed to be badly injured, but he wanted to help it by removing the weapons from its back. The animal backed up while hissing at the man. Zoro stopped and raised his hands, showing the dragon that he means no harm. The creature backed up more when Zoro started to move forward again.

Suddenly, a voice spoke in Zoro's head. 'Zoro! Stay back!' It said. Zoro was confused. Who had just spoken to him? He looked around but saw no one. He took another step. 'Zoro stop! Go away!' The voice said again. Zoro looked at the dragon. Was it the animal who was talking to him? 'How does it know my name?' He thought. He moved a little more. That was it. The dragon turned around and ran away. ''Wait!'' Zoro called out. He started running after the creature.

Zoro was lost again. He groaned as he passed the banana-shaped tree for the third time in five minutes. He wanted to know how the beast knew his name. Also, something about the dragon seemed familiar. He just couldn't lay his finger on it. He was about to give up when he heard some noise at his right. He walked towards the sound and saw the dragon again.

The mythical beast was sitting in front of a lake. In the grass next to the dragon laid a few spears. The creature had pulled them out. Zoro wanted to call out to the creature, but stopped himself when he saw that the dragon started to change.

The dragon started to shrink in its size and its wings disappeared in its back, so did the tail. The muzzle started to get shorter and the horns vanished. The colour and scales changed into human skin and the spines disappeared. The claws became fingers and toes. Slowly, the dragon transformed in a black-haired boy.

Zoro stared in shock at his captain. The naked boy was on his knees and panting. Luffy grabbed a remaining spear that was still stuck in his chest and pulled it out. Zoro slowly made his way to the teen. ''Luffy?'' He asked a bit uncertain. Luffy's head shot up and turned in his direction. He stared wide-eyed at his first mate. ''Z-Zoro.. What are you doing here?!'' He asked.

Zoro walked over to his captain. ''What the hell just happened?'' He asked the boy. Luffy backed up a little. ''I thought I told you to go away? What are you doing here?'' The two of them stared at each other for about a minute without saying anything. Zoro decided to break the awkward silence. ''Ehm.. How long have you been a.. dragon?'' He asked. Luffy looked a bit uneasy but answerd anyway. ''Well.. It kinda started when I turned eighteen. I still don't know why though..'' Zoro sighed. ''Why did you hide it? You know that we don't care about this kind of things, right?'' Luffy looked away in shame. He knew that, but he found it difficult to talk about. ''Can we continue this after I get my clothes on?'' He said. Zoro looked around for the clothes and found them a few feet away. He grabbed them and gave them to his captain. "Why did you take them off anyway?" He asked. "Well, they will probably tear apart if I change into a dragon." Luffy answered as he washed the blood of his skin with the water of the lake and then dressed himself. 'Of course. I could've known that.' Zoro thought. He looked to the sky only to realize that it was already dark. He'd completely lost track of time. ''Should we go back to the ship? We can talk there.'' He said. Luffy nodded.

The way back to the ship had been quiet. When they arrived at the ship, Nami, who was on watch, had scold them for being late and told them to let Chopper bandage Luffy up. After that, they ate the food wich Sanji had left on the kitchen table since they were too late for dinner. When they were done they headed to the crows nest. In the crows nest Luffy sat down against the wall.

Zoro sat down next to him and waited for Luffy to start talking. Luffy sighed. ''Like I said before it started when I became eighteen. Neither I or Rayleigh knew what was happening with me. I mean, you don't see someone suddenly change into a fire breathing dragon every day.'' He chuckled. ''Apparently, I have dragon blood running through my veins. Rayleigh said that it probably had to do with my mother, because Rayleigh knows that my father is not a dragon and we don't know who or what my mother is. We're not sure though. Anyway, when I first changed I couldn't control myself and I started rampaging through the island. Rayleigh had to knock me out to stop me. I still have difficulties with controlling it, which is one of the reasons I didn't tell you guys. I don't want to hurt my friends by accident.''

''You don't have to worry about that, Luffy. We all trained for two years. I'm sure we can handle you if you lose control of yourself. And you can't hurt us if you tell us without changing.'' Zoro told the boy. Luffy smiled. ''I know you all are really strong, but I can't take the risk. And I know I could have told you all. It's just.. I don't really like to talk about it. I know that if I tell everyone they would start asking questions and I don't want that. I don't know much about it myself.''

Zoro looked at his captain, deciding whenever he should ask more or not. He decided to ask one last thing. ''I have one last question, Luffy.'' He asked. Luffy looked at him waiting for him to continue talking. ''Who are those people who are following us and what do they want from you?'' Zoro asked. Luffy knew that he was going to ask that. ''They once stopped by the island I was training on with Rayleigh. I was in my dragon form when one of the men saw me. Once they knew about me they started attacking me. I still don't know who they are. Rayleigh said that they probably believe that some parts of a dragon have some kind of healing power and that they can get a lot of money for it if they sell it. They kept attacking me at least once week and they still do. When we dock at an island I always go exploring on my own so I can shift in my dragon form. I get kinda cranky when I can't shift for a long period of time. Sometimes, the group attacks me when I'm alone on an island. They are easy to defeat, but they are getting stronger.'' He told Zoro.

The swordsman thought about what Luffy had told him. ''I think you need to tell the crew. They deserve to know this.'' He said. Luffy sighed. ''I know, but how do you tell someone about these kinds of things? I'm afraid I can't go to them like 'Hey guys, I'm half-dragon!'' He said with a small grin on his face. Zoro snorted. ''Nah, I think you should say it just like that.'' They laughed. After they stopped laughing Luffy laid his head on Zoro's shoulder and yawned. ''I'll figure out how to tell them tomorrow.'' He said as he fell asleep. Zoro smiled at his captain. 'Sleep well, captain.' He thought before he, too, fell asleep.

AN: This is a story I wrote a while ago and I don't know if I'm gonna continue this because I don't really know how (I don't have inspiration!) If I do continue it might take a while before I upload. Also, I made a painting of Luffy's dragon form and posted it on my DeviantArt page (FireArrowAce), so go there if you want to see it ;)

Anyway, thanks for reading!