You wind up friends. Jim is a good dude, so when you’re hanging out one day, you just kinda blurt it out.

“Jim, you do know… that you’re a dragon, right?”

“I know, I know!” He’s sighing, rolling his eyes and looking pained. “Look, I was raised by humans, okay? I guess I was supposed to be some kind of pet, but my mom… well, they couldn’t have kids, and I became their kid. Maybe they didn’t know that we could talk? But honestly, the first time I spoke, my dad was filming, and you should see her face. She lights up in a way I can hardly describe. She’s the best mom ever, and she wants me to learn about dragonology and my history and whatev, so here I am. I don’t even really care that much, but it’s super important to her. I mean, the connection I have with the human community is pretty unique, and maybe someday I can utilise it to try to make reparations between our cultures.”

“Reparations? What do you mean?”

“Oh…. Yeah. I forget, it’s buried pretty deep among the stuff we get taught. But the humans screwed us over pretty good. Hiccup and toothless made it look good for the movies, but dragons were enslaved, man. It wasn’t cool. And when we fought back, they called it mutiny or whatever. In reality, they were asking younger and younger dragons to work, to be pets for their kids, which really means getting beaten up and not reacting. Or being beaten by the adults because they defends themselves from the kids. That’s not something I’m gonna subject my kids to - hells no. That’s why I’m kinda failing class, though. My assignments don’t match up with the curriculum - I’m telling the truth.”

It takes a while for all of this to sink in.

“But… if you were raised human - sorry, raised BY humans, my bad - and your mom wants you taking this class to learn the history, how do you know the alternative stuff?”

A glint appears in Jim’s eyes and they appear slightly shifty for the first time.

“I… uh… did some of my own research, you could say.”