mixer-in-monochrome:

A dragon that hoards people – but instead of stealing people and bringing them to their den or something they come across a town, see all the people that conveniently stay in one area and essentially adopt the entire town???

They find a convenient cave system within a minute’s flight of the town where they can watch their hoard from a safe distance and begin settling in.

They lay down on the outskirts for days because their cousins told them it was a good idea with living hoards to let them acclimate to you first.

They memorize everyone’s names (though they were originally confused between names and titles.  They also found it peculiar that so many humans were named mama and papa until a child explained it to them once the townspeople started trusting them)

They love kids and babies a lot and are always eager to meet them.

They only ever hang out at the edges of town because they’re too big to go in the streets.

They’re entirely enamored when the town has its first festival after their arrival.  They love the atmosphere and how happy everyone seems.

The first time someone leaves, they’re upset, but understanding and don’t try to stop them.  Having a living hoard is different from an inert one after all, forcing a member to stay if they didn’t want to would hurt the well being of the entire hoard.

(It turns out they were only leaving to go somewhere called ‘college’, and they came back after a time with another two humans in tow.  The dragon almost cried they were so happy.)

It becomes a hobby for some of the younger townsfolk to bring books and homework to the dragon, reading aloud or showing them what they’d been learning in class (which turned to asking for help, once the dragon grasped the concepts).  The dragon, for their part, enjoys listening to their voices more than they do the stories themselves (though a few do pique their interest, and those are requested to be re-read every so often).

They get really excited about the first wedding they see and manage to become an ordained minister.  Dragon-officiated weddings become relatively popular.

They chase off the occasional angry bear or pack of wolves and usher everyone to their tunnel system during particularly bad storms.

They hunt in the surrounding woods, and will occasionally catch extra and bring it to the local butcher for the town to eat, especially during special occasions.  (They eventually taste cooked food, and it becomes a treat of sorts for them – though they don’t eat it often because they eat a lot of food and cooking takes work)

They fly to town as fast as they can one night when they hear screaming.  They see a group of visitors – not uncommon and not usually undesirable – but their people are cowering and one of the newcomers is holding a kid by the shirt and they smell of violence and ill-intent and thief thief thief.

The burglars don’t last long, to say the least.  Nor do any of the other attacks that are occasionally launched on the town.

The town grows into a flourishing city under the dragon’s careful watch (they are touched and elated when the first order of business was to widen the roads).