The Heartless Dragon
Chapter Two
This has been a long time coming, but here it is at last. The other G-boys turn up in this fic in various disguises, but I think they're fairly easy to spot. This will be shounen-ai, eventually.
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Quatre continued down the path of destruction left by the dragon for a long time, begging food from strangers and sleeping out of doors and generally living the life of a transient. Being a traveller turned out to suit him down to the ground. He was healthier than he had ever been in his life, due to the fresh air and good exercise he was getting while out and about. That didn't really occur to him though; he was trying to reach his new home. He could just as easily remained a successful hobo for the rest of his life, but old Bella's stories never included anything positive about such a lifestyle, so he pressed on.
Another year passed and Quatre's twelfth birthday passed. Adolescence was proving to be a good period for the prince; he was growing more and more beautiful as time passed. He was slowly losing all his baby fat and his body was taking on the shape of a young man, while his unusual colouring and delicate manner of conducting himself made him quite charming to behold. Unfortunately for our little prince, his trustworthy nature combined with this new attractiveness made him a prime target for lecherous brigands. Most often he would leave a town after narrowly escaping the loss of his virtue to that stranger who offered him a flagon of ale, thinking 'Gosh, he was nice!' while said man received a sound beating from the fatherly (and very large) innkeeper.
On and on our hero went on his old horse, until one day, he came across a river. Now this was a special river, for it housed a cheerful dolphin that raised his nose out of the water to greet passing travellers. At least, he used to be friendly. Being both gay and a dolphin, his dating life was practically non-existent. Most of the other dolphins he came across were female and so he had taken to eying up potential inter-species eye candy. One day, he spotted a rather handsome eagle flying over the river and had jumped out of the water to get a closer look. He promptly stranded himself in the process. Two long months had passed and people had come and gone, only getting close enough to have their portraits sketched beside the dolphin as a memento of their travels. Seething with rage and sunburn, the dolphin swore that the next person to come close would be suffocated underneath his vast body. As it happened, the next person to cross his path was our prince.
"Good morning!" called Quatre from the back of his horse. The dolphin shouted expletives back and waved his tail. When he had finished, the prince tried to recover from the shock.
"My goodness, those were some dreadful words! Is something wrong?"
"Of course something's bloody wrong! I'm bloody beached!" the dolphin roared. "Are you stupid or what?"
"Well, yes. I'm very stupid," said the prince chirpily.
"Oh," muttered the dolphin. He wasn't expecting that! "Well, yeah. I'm beached."
"That's a shame. I'll help you!"
That was another thing the grumpy dolphin wasn't expecting; help from a human. He was even starting to have second thoughts about suffocating the poor child. But he was a stubborn creature, and he'd already boasted to the birds his intentions for the next human that crossed his path. They'd never let him live it down. As the prince huffed and puffed with the dolphin's massive weight, he asked about the dragon, little knowing that his death was imminent.
"Do you know where the Heartless Dragon lives?" he asked breathlessly.
"The dragon? Yeah, I know 'im. Grumpy fcker. Lives about two thousand miles away from here. Why?"
"I need to find him. He might let me stay with him."
"Stay with him? What kind of idiot are you, boy?"
"I'm not sure. I'd have to ask my mother about that. She always calls me stupid, but she never explains what kind of stupidity I possess. 'Course I can't go home any more, so that's out of the question…"
And that's how the dolphin learned of the prince's sad situation. All thoughts of suffocation disappeared from his mind. He sniffled.
"Are you okay?" asked the prince, a little out of breath from talking for so long.
"Yeah, yeah," said the dolphin shakily, "Just got something in my eye."
Then, with a loud splash, the dolphin found himself back in the water. The exhausted prince flopped down into the dust, wiping sweat from his brow. After a moment's rest, he went back to his horse and bid a cheery farewell to the dolphin. Now, the dolphin was really worried. Being gay and not blind, he had noticed how attractive the human was, and his (supposed) stupidity made him very vulnerable. He called after the prince.
"Why don't you just stay here?" he called. "I'll give you a good home, if you need one. I've always wanted a pet!"
"Sorry!" called the prince. "I can't swim!"
"Fine! Just be careful, for God's sake!"
"I will!"
Somehow, the dolphin wasn't convinced. Even so, he put his fears behind him as he soothed his sunburn in the coolest parts of the river.
Yet another year passed and Quatre turned thirteen. His life as a twelve-year-old had been nothing if not eventful; he'd been kidnapped six times, sold into slavery three times, was liberated from sketchy situations twenty-three and a half times, was proposed to seventeen times, was propositioned one hundred and thirty two times and still he managed to remain blissfully ignorant. He usually walked out of every event feeling somewhat bemused but never knowing fully what kind of danger he'd been in. Ah, the sweetness of naiveté.
Two days after Quatre turned thirteen, the inevitable happened. His horse died. It had been an old horse, and rather senile too. By the time it finally joined the choir invisible, it had taken both of them off course by thirty miles. Quatre, knowing very little about death, sat by the horse's corpse wondering what to do when a strange beast approached him.
Now, when most people see a lion, they tend to scream and/or run away. Especially a lion that is about ten times bigger than lions should be. Especially when said oversized lion has giant teeth that protrude from its jaw and curve towards its neck. Quatre didn't know he should have been terrified, so he smiled and said hello. The lion blinked. There were many reactions he was prepared for, such as screaming, running, fainting, pathetic attempts at defence, playing dead, soiling oneself etc. He wasn't prepared for a friendly greeting.
"Good afternoon!" chirped the prince when the lion didn't say anything.
"Uh, hi," the lion muttered back, hoping his fangs were clean. He hadn't noticed before, since the smell of the dead horse had been dragging him along witlessly, but the prince was absolutely gorgeous. Yes, that's right, a gay lion. His stomach grumbled to drag him back to the task at hand.
"Look, kid," he began, "I'm starving. I haven't eaten in almost six months."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have any food," said the prince.
"Well, that's not really true," began the lion. He had to be careful with what he was implying; he didn't want this pretty little thing to start crying.
"What do you mean?" asked the prince, tilting his head to one side.
"Howaboutyouletmeeatyourhorse!" Quick and brutal. The lion prepared himself for the tears that were surely coming. He was surprised when none came.
"Hm. I don't think so," said the prince. "I don't think he'd like that much."
"There's not that much to like," said the lion, "He's dead."
"Dead?" The prince turned to look at the hulking body of the horse. "No, he's just resting. He's very tired."
"I'm telling you kid, he's dead. I can smell it a mile away. Dead as a doornail."
"But we've been walking all day. He's taking a break."
"He's dead! Pushing up the daisies! He's met his maker, popped his clogs, passed away, he's an ex-horse!"
Quatre took another look at the horse, and screamed.
"Paolo!" he cried as his face turned a ghastly shade of white. The lion felt like such a bastard.
"So, can I eat him?" he asked. He felt bad, but he also felt hungry.
"Do you have to?" implored the prince. "Even if he is dead, it's not a good way to go."
"He doesn't care! He's dead!"
"Even so. Eaten by a lion, the final insult."
"You'll have to leave him eventually, and then the flies with get him. At least I can promise I'll be clean."
At last, the prince agreed. The lion had his feast, though he felt like a real tool for upsetting Quatre. When he had finished, he offered to take the prince to wherever he needed to go to make up for the loss of the horse. Quatre told him that he needed to a thousand miles to the north, and the oversized lion made short work of the distance. Along the way he asked about the prince's reasons for travelling so far without an escort (half a dozen large bodyguards would have been more useful, considering). The prince's sorry tale came pouring out once again.
"You're going to live with the dragon?" the lion growled. "That's insane! What if he eats you?"
"I hadn't thought about that," said the prince honestly. "I suppose I'll just have to risk it. It's probably not as painful as having my head cut off anyway."
"No way. I'm taking you home right now."
"You can't! I like my head where it is!"
"Surely there's some other way around this!"
As the boy and the beast argued, they got closer and closer to the dragon's house, which happened to be a large barn/cottage. The lion ground to a halt, and the prince slid off of his back. The lion tried one last time to persuade the prince to reconsider his crazy plan.
"You can live with me in the mountains," he offered. "I'll feed you and keep you warm. You'll want for nothing."
"Thanks, but I have to do this. This is my punishment. I have to take it like a man." The prince punctuated this sentence with a raised fist in the air, but it didn't look at all convincing. He patted the lion on the head and bid him farewell.
"I'll be looking out for you in the bushes," shouted the lion after him. "If he even looks at you funny, I'll whisk you away pronto!"
Quatre trotted up to the massive door and knocked as hard as he could. Almost instantly a huge serpentine head launched out of the upper portion of the door and looked around. The dragon saw nothing.
"What?" he bellowed. "Who's there? Bloody kids! This is 'cos I ate your parents isn't it?"
"Down here," called a little voice. The dragon looked down, and the prince waved happily at him.
"Oh shit," growled the dragon.
