Knight in Shining Armour

"Trowa, let's play a game today!" Little boy Quatre told his best friend cheerfully, his eyes glittering with enthusiasm.

Trowa merely shook his long brown mane like a wet dog and yawned widely, revealing all of his white sharp teeth lazily.

"Come on, Trowa! Don't just sleep all day, you'll get fat, and I'm bored!" Quatre tugged his friend's long white whiskers, but Trowa merely sneezed in an annoyed manner, shutting his emerald green against the bright midday sun.

"Trowa, you are such a lazy dragon! You are no fun at all." Quatre complained loudly into one of Trowa's large wolfish ears, making the dragon jerking away in reflex and hence falling off its sunbaking rock.

Giving an annoyed growl, Trowa finally stretched its huge feathered wings and arched its back like a great cat.

Quatre clapped his hands in rejoice. "Trowa's finally gotten up today! Guess what the game is!"

Trowa the dragon glared a little, but soon relaxed into a gentler gaze more befitting of its nature.

"Okay, I want you to pretend to be trying to eat me, then we go to that village down there, and I'll scream for help. Then whoever helps me first can play the knight in shining armour!" Quatre told Trowa his plan excitedly, but the dragon merely snorted.

"What?" Quatre asked indignantly. "Fine, if you don't want to play with me, I'll go play with Heero. At least he isnt' as lazy as you." Quatre pouted and made a show of walking away. But another growl stopped him.

"Really? All right let's go!"

They went down to the village of the absolutely normal townsfolk, wondered through the streets with utmost stealth – until they reached the centre of commotion and crowd.

On signal, the dragon let out a great loud roar and chased Quatre down the street.

"Help!" Quatre cried out to the people as Trowa caught him, snarling at him as his claws drew him closer to his huge teeth.

"Halt! You devious beast! Shinigami coming this way!" A man flew down from nowhere and gave a swift kick to the dragon's head with enough force to make it snap sideways.

Trowa let out a roar of pain, straightened again and launched at his attacker with fury.

"Oops." Quatre though, looking at his friend worriedly and then at his 'knight in shining-armour'. (Who's really just wearing a daggy black coat.)

The 'shinigami' dogged the attack as quickly as he launched his own, nearly making Trowa topping over sideways, then swiftly grabbed Quatre around the middle and took off along the now empty street. He jumped nimbly from roof to roof, of course just like in the classical martial arts movie.

"Wow!" Quatre exclaimed in awe.

The stranger turned to look at him, amused, "It's great to be above, isn't it?" He winked.

"Yeah! Are you a superhero?"

"Nope, just a supervillan." Another wink, and they stopped above one building with yellow bamboo roof. The stranger held Quatre securely in his arm and did a mid-air flip, grabbing onto the edge of the roof in descend, and used the swinging force to propel them into the open window beneath.

"Here is shinigami's home! Welcome!" The man took off his daggy cloak and hang it near a wooden door.

"Well, little one, have a seat and make yourself comfortable."

Quatre obeyed without question. All that flying over roof thing is making him queasy.

"Thank you for rescuing me. I don't know how I can ever repay you."

"100 gallons of gold, 20 sickles of silver, and 3 bolts of silk." The man who calls himself shinigami named a price has he took out a length of rope.

"What!" Quatre exclaimed with shock at the stunning sum. "You can't be serious!" He eyed the rope suspiciously, "what are you going to do with that?"

Shinigami merely winked at him. "To catch the dragon of course." He emphasised his words by giving the length of rope a tight pull – it instantaneously became a noose. "Then you'd have to pay me double the sum." Wink.

"Wha – are you crazy? I don't have that much money, and you are going to catch a dragon with – that?"

"Oh yeah. And you just have to find a way to pay the price." Wink, and he flew out of the window, literally.

"S#t S#t S#t S#t S#t!" Quatre cursed under his breath. How is he going to get out of here before Trowa cause any real trouble. He was so sure that the shinigami guy is going to turn into charcoal anytime too soon.

He looked down the path shinigami had left. Holy… Quatre realised he was four storeys above ground level.

10 minutes later, Quatre landed safely with the help of his handmade ladder, made from shinigami's bed sheets and his entire wardrobe. He'll have to apologise later.

It took another 5 minutes to find the location of the long-over battle.

The great dragon Trowa lies in a peaceful slumber, his neck securely caught in the noose.

"Hey," shinigami smugly greeted. "I was just contemplating whether to fry or boil this great lump of meat.

"You can't do that!" Quatre rushed towards Trowa, but shinigami caught his arm as securely as an iron clamp.

"Ah ah," He flipped his palm up. "The magic 'train ticket'?"

Desperate to save his friend, Quatre swung a punch squarely on shinigami's chin, hard, knocking him out instantaneously.

"Sorry," Quatre felt a pin pickle of remorse. "But you are an asshole."

Taking a small blade out of the hiding folds of his boot, Quatre cut the rope from around the dragon's neck. Immediately, the huge green eyes opened and the giant head lunged towards the slumped body of the shinigami.

"Trowa! This game is no fun. Let's go home."

The dragon stopped in mid-action and made a noise that sounded almost like a disheartened groan.

"Humans are really dumb creatures, don't you agree?"

Groan.

"Yeah, that self-insult was intended."