Disclaimer: All familiar ideas are not mine (and athingofvikings helped me refine a couple of world-building details); you know what to expect.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

AN: For timing purposes, this fic is set between the classic series episodes "Resurrection of the Daleks" and "Planet of Fire" for the Fifth Doctor (more specifically, shortly after the Past Doctor Adventures novel "Imperial Moon"), and towards the end of the second season of "Race to the Edge" for Hiccup and the Dragon Riders (the precise timing isn't important, so long as the Riders still have the Eye and are aware of the Grimborn siblings' Dragon Hunters while still considering the Hunters a manageable threat); enjoy.

AN 2: In advance, if anyone wonders why I chose the Fifth Doctor rather than a more 'modern' Doctor, my reasons are twofold; firstly, setting this pre-Time War forces the Doctor to face a few issues that will come up later, and secondly, the Fifth Doctor is the only classic incarnation who I feel would be able to take his ego out of the equation and acknowledge when he doesn't know something, which will be important for him as he learns more about this situation.

The Doctor's Dragon

If there was one thing Turlough had learned from Tegan, it was that the Doctor's ability to control the TARDIS was notoriously erratic.

Turlough freely admitted that the Doctor was generally good at getting the ship where he said it would go if there was ever a specific time and place he was attempting to visit, but even if he'd found Tegan difficult to get along with at times, he also knew that she had no reason to lie to him about something like that. Most of the time Turlough could attribute the Doctor's careless piloting as just his desire to wander causing him to let his fingers drift as he set the coordinates, but their recent trip to Earth's moon had reminded him just how rough things could get, after the disorientation caused by them crossing their 'temporal wake' and the Doctor initiating a dematerialisation after the fortress's explosion threw the ship into space.

With those recent examples in mind, Turlough was far from surprised when he was roused from his attempt to get some actual sleep by a strange jolt in his stomach, as though something had suddenly pulled him and the TARDIS to his left. Quick getting out of bed, Turlough pulled on his uniform and ran for the console room, unsurprised to find the Doctor thoughtfully studying the controls.

"What is it this time?" he asked the Time Lord. Even as he entered the console room, he was pleasantly surprised to note that the ship had already returned to its normal flight pattern, which at least affirmed that the recent shake hadn't just been another case of the ship crossing its temporal wake once again.

"Some kind of signal was detected by the telepathic circuits," the Doctor replied, still staring at the console with more intensity than Turlough was used to seeing from the Time Lord when the TARDIS was this stable. "It's strange; it's not something I've encountered before, but there is something familiar about it…"

"Familiar in what way?" Turlough asked.

"It's hard to be sure…" the Doctor said, before the ship suddenly shook once again, this time with the familiar sound of materialisation. "But it probably caused that."

"It made us materialise?"

"It's possible, certainly," the Doctor affirmed as he turned to the console with renewed interest. "When the signal linked to the TARDIS's telepathic circuits, it must have triggered a response that drew the old girl to these coordinates."

"And these coordinates are… where?" Turlough asked.

"Interesting…" the Doctor responded, his expression shifting from interested to a more focused curiosity.

"In what way?"

"We appear to be on a small island that's part of an archipelago of similarly-sized islands in Earth's northern hemisphere," the Doctor explained, looking thoughtfully at the monitor as it went from its previously blank state to displaying what Turlough presumed was an aerial map of their current location. Assuming that the blue background represented the sea, Turlough presumed that they were on one of the many small islands scattered around this area, but it was obviously hard to be sure of anything from this distance.

"That's… nice?" Turlough said, unsure what about this scenario had particularly captured the Doctor's interest.

"Oh, they're pleasant enough, but that's not the main point that's captured my attention right now," the Doctor explained, looking at the small screen with a smile. "To give you more context, this particular archipelago is located in the Scandinavian region, chronologically around… well, even without consulting the yearometer, we seem to be in the early half of the eleventh century."

"Really?" Turlough looked curiously at the Doctor. "Is there anything… significant about these islands at that time?"

"Apart from the fact that I didn't know they existed, no."

"You didn't know that an entire set of islands were here?" Turlough repeated, surprised at both the scale of the statement and the Doctor's relative lack of reaction to it.

"In the sense that I've never seen them on any maps of Earth made after this date, anyway," the Doctor clarified, thoughtfully studying the screen as he contemplated the reasons for this development. "Admittedly, climate change and other factors could have simply destroyed these islands before anyone bothered to put them on official maps that would matter to anyone else in the future, but add in that signal that brought us down here and it has inspired my interest…"

"And that signal should also inspire concern, Doctor," a third voice said.

"Kamelion?" the Doctor looked up in surprise at the silver figure standing at the door that led to the TARDIS interior. "Not that it isn't pleasant to see you, but what are you doing here?"

"I… sensed something, Doctor," Kamelion replied in his usual electronic voice.

"Sensed something?" Turlough repeated, curious at what could have prompted their android companion to leave his self-imposed exile of his own accord. "Like what?"

"I… cannot explain it," Kamelion said uncertainly. "I have told you of the psychic screams I sensed when I learned that life in the crater was dying?"

"You did," the Doctor nodded thoughtfully.

"When I was linked to the TARDIS's telepathic circuits, as we passed through the vortex, I became aware that the ship has sensed something… similarly intense."

"Similarly intense?" Turlough repeated, intrigued despite himself. "You mean that same signal that drew us here was like that… what you sensed in the park?"

"That is the closest analogy I can provide, but I cannot define it any more clearly, save for confirming that this signal was not a scream," Kamelion looked at Turlough with as much apology as his default face would allow him to show. "Where the scream was simply the life in the crater entering its death throes, this signal was a summons of great power… not unlike that which I felt when in the presence of my creators."

"Your creators?" The Doctor looked at Kamelion with renewed concern. "Could this be-?"

"It is not them, Doctor," Kamelion looked reassuringly at the Time Lord. "If my creators were here, then I would already be back under their influence. The signal I detect is strong, but focused, as though it is intended to impose its will over a very specific life-form; this may account for how I have sensed the call but retain my loyalty to you."

"I see…" the Doctor nodded thoughtfully, before he turned back to the monitor with a smile. "Well then, shall we see what's out there?"

As the Doctor adjusted a couple of switches on the TARDIS console, the view on the scanner changed from an overhead view of various islands to a more focused view of an island coastline. Turlough was surprised to see that, despite the Doctor's description of their current location being in the Scandinavian region, the island actually looked rather warm and sunny, as opposed to the snow he would have expected.

"Rather pleasant, all things considered," the Doctor smiled thoughtfully, before he ran another scan. "No sign of anything too out of the ordinary on the island itself, but there's no harm in taking a look; Kamelion, considering the nature of the signal…"

"I understand, Doctor," Kamelion nodded at the Time Lord as the Doctor reached for the door control. "I will take action if I sense anything has changed."

With that decision reached, the Doctor opened the door and walked out of the TARDIS, Turlough rolling his eyes in resignation as he followed his friend out of the ship.

Once outside the TARDIS, despite his own concerns about whatever had drawn them here, Turlough had to admit that the location seemed pleasant enough at first glance. The area was maybe a little chillier than he might have liked, but after their close call on the Moon, Turlough conceded that any temperature greater than freezing was an improvement, and at this point the air was basically just brisk rather than explicitly cold. The sun shone brightly in the sky above, the trees were thick without being so dense as to potentially hide any further predators, and the scent of sea air was a refreshing change of pace after the consistently artificial tropical environment of the park.

"So is there-?" Turlough began, before a strange roar filled the air. "Oh no…"

"This way," the Doctor said, briskly turning in the direction of the roar.

"Doctor, can't we just-?"

"That wasn't the roar of a hunter catching our scent, Turlough, that was the roar of something large in pain," the Doctor clarified as he walked. "It was also the roar of something I didn't recognise from this time period, which means we may have just found part of the mystery that drew us here in the first place…"

"Do you ever question how you just end up getting dropped into things like this all the time?" Turlough asked as he followed the seemingly young man.

"I learned to stop questioning that a long time ago," the Doctor smiled. "Whether it's because history needs me to help it along, the Time Lords need me to stop something, or it's just sheer chance, these days it's easier to do what I do best and work it all out from there."

Despite his own apprehension, Turlough had to concede that the Doctor had a point; they had certainly had a few trips that could be considered pleasant to balance out the fear and death of other excursions, even if they made more dangerous trips than leisurely ones. In any case, based on Turlough's experience of the Doctor, the best thing he could do right now was follow his friend's example and enjoy the surroundings before they found themselves facing whatever new threat existed here.

After a few minutes of walking, the two men reached the beach, at which point Turlough saw the source of the noise and found himself staring in awe at the creature in question, even his own natural cynicism finding it hard not to be impressed at this latest twist.

Superficially, the creature was a large blue lizard lying near the coastline, an uncommon sight on Earth but something that could theoretically be found on other planets. It was partially wrapped in what Turlough could only call a net, even if it was clearly made of metal and had a few glowing lights on it at various points along its links. The creature itself had blue skin of a shade that reminded Turlough of the TARDIS, large fan-like horns on its head, a long neck that seemed to turn in every direction, and a small pair of fins were visible through the net at its main body. What made this creature particularly distinctive, however, was the pair of large blue wings on either side of its body; the right wing was trapped by the net, but whoever had tried to catch this creature had partially missed the left wing, which was extended outwards through a gap in the net, in a manner that put Turlough in mind of a hand scrambling for a grip on a loose surface.

"A dragon…" the Doctor whispered, eyes wide with his usual boyish glee at making an unexpected discovery.

"A dragon?" Turlough repeated incredulously. "How is- I'm sorry, did we fall into an alternate timeline or something?"

"No," the Doctor said, shaking his head as he thoughtfully studied the creature. "I considered that for a moment, but there are signs of such a transition that I would have detected… and this creature does seem slightly smaller than the last time I encountered a dragon in our universe…"

"Last time?"

"It was a colony world that had access to a remarkable nanobot network; part of the network unwittingly created real dragons and gave them the energy necessary for beings of that size to fly and generate fire in the first place," the Doctor explained, as he carefully made his way towards the downed dragon. "It's obviously hard to be certain in these circumstances, but I don't think this dragon is quite that large…"

Apparently only just becoming aware of their presence, the dragon suddenly raised its head and hissed at the Doctor and Turlough, followed by it suddenly spraying them with a burst of steaming water that the two only just managed to avoid by diving to either side of the blast.

"Right," Turlough said, weighing his options and deciding to look unthreatening by staying on the ground as he looked at the dragon. "I don't suppose you'd accept my suggestion that we just leave it?"

"And let such a remarkable creature die because we were afraid to help it?" the Doctor protested.

"Of course not…" Turlough said, rolling his eyes as he saw the Doctor carefully get to his feet once again, arms raised in a placating manner.

Still… for all his protests, Turlough was glad that they weren't leaving just yet; even if he wasn't from Earth himself, he'd heard enough about dragons in his time at Brandon to enjoy the concept, and in his own way, he was just as intrigued as the Doctor to learn what an actual dragon was doing here…

AN 3: For those who haven't heard of him, Kamelion was an android who originally 'belonged' to the Master, capable of shape-shifting into a range of appearances but programmed to automatically obey the strongest mind in his vicinity. The Doctor was able to take control of Kamelion in "The King's Demons", but various real-life issues with the prop used for Kamelion's 'real' form- including the death of the only person who knew how to operate it properly- meant that the only other episode he appeared in was "Planet of Fire", where he once again fell under the Master's control and asked the Doctor to destroy him. Spin-off media expanded on this, such as the novel "The Crystal Bucephalus" revealing that Kamelion chose to remain in the TARDIS to prevent himself being used against the Doctor in future after he was briefly forced to obey a ruthless criminal in the far future; "Imperial Moon" established that Kamelion tended to stay in his small room and link to the TARDIS's databanks to relive some of the Doctor's adventures.