Disclaimer: This story is completely original. All characters, settings, and events are spawned from my own mixed up little mind and may not be used, copied, or adapted without my express written permission. Do not steal my story!!!
9.
Julie and Jenna were in the middle of the store, surrounded by no less than six other girls who all looked like identical clones of the two. Toby waded between the clothes racks, her eyes on the two queen bees. When she was a few feet from them, someone jarred Julie's elbow and hissed at her, and almost as a single unit everyone looked up at Toby.
She almost forgot what she was here to do and she barely kept herself from shrinking down and bolting for safety.
"Renounce it," she blurted out. Julie and Jenna looked at each other, then burst out into cruel laughter.
"Renounce it? Renounce what, princess?" Julie sneered. "Anyway, what are you doing here with us lowly peasants? Shouldn't you be off in your lofty tower, stuffing your head with knowledge so you can show off in front of everyone?" Some of the girls twittered. Toby swallowed around the lump in her throat.
"Please… just… say you didn't mean it… the… the princess bit, say that it was all just a joke…" Toby's voice sounded reedy and weak to her ears and the answer of mocking laughter threatened to drown the last of her self control.
"A joke? You're the joke if you think I'm going to take it back just because you crawled in here with your tail between your legs. Go home, princess."
Toby felt hot tears of humiliation stinging at the corners of her eyes. Before she could reply, however, there was a sudden commotion in the hallway, a clattering like when her mother's pans fell out of the cupboard onto the floor. Underneath it she could hear the staccato of horse's hooves.
"Oh no…"
The Knight and warhorse surged into view. The light from the glass dome above glinted off the plate armor that covered both, making them seem to shine almost ethereally. The plate was made out of some metal Toby couldn't identify, so silver it was nearly white with an iridescent sheen to it like a mother of pearl shell. The horse was jet black, tall and solidly built with a long tail that brushed the ground as it walked and silken feathers on its feet. It walked – no, pranced – lightly, as if unaware of the weight of the rider it bore.
The Knight sat regally tall and straight, silvery metal covering every inch of the Knight's body, including the large gauntlets that rested, one on the horse's reins and the other on the hilt of a sword large enough that it by itself should have been difficult for the horse to carry. A helm sporting a ripple of glossy black feathers down its back covered the Knight's face from view, but Toby knew instinctively that the face underneath would be noble.
"What a freak!" Toby heard Julie titter behind her. "Someone should call security—"
Toby didn't wait around to hear the end of that sentence, not that she needed to, but bolted towards the door of the store. This had to be the Knight Errant, Toby couldn't think of anyone else it could possibly be, and Theo was outside in the foot court, directly in the Knight's path. And if Theo saw the Knight, well… they'd do what dragons and knights always did.
Frankly, Toby didn't want to have to pay for the repairs.
She heard a shout of delight like a bugling of a horn and knew it was too late. Skidding to a stop just outside of the door of the store, she saw the Knight rein to a stop, the horse dancing slightly as if it could sense its master's excitement. Theo was standing on one of the tables on the tallest platform, his eyes ablaze, heedless of the drinks his frenzied motion had knocked over or the protests of those sitting at the table.
"It's about time you got here!"
"Who art thou? Where be the dragon?" The Knight's voice was a ringing bell, spoken calmly, even softly, but carried throughout the courtyard as easily as Theo's own shout.
Theo nearly fell off the table, gathered himself up, then shouted "I'm the dragon!"
"… thou art human," the Knight replied and Toby could practically feel the disbelief radiating off of the silver-clad figure.
Theo 'harrumph'ed in a gesture Toby remembered all too well, his hands on his hips. "Fairy godmother," he explained, and Toby watched as the Knight straightened almost imperceptibly. That seemed all the explanation that was needed.
"Aye! In that case, foul beast, have at thee!" There was the sound of the sword being drawn – one handed, even – and the horse reared up, its neigh echoing its rider's challenge. Toby was surprised the motion didn't unseat the Knight and downright shocked its back legs didn't break under the weight.
Theo suddenly leaped from the second platform, causing several of the girls to let out little shrieks. He easily cleared both of the platforms however, landing lightly on his feet in front of the Knight, who swung that sharp sword at him. Theo dodged, then made an odd sort of twitch, overbalancing and nearly falling on his butt. Toby was confused for a second, then realized he probably wasn't used to being human – and not having a tail. How did he plan to win a fight against a fully armored and mounted Knight when he wasn't even a dragon?
Apparently he wasn't about to give up, though, because he grabbed a garbage can – the entire thing – and flung it at the Knight. The silver-clad figure batted it away with the flat of the gargantuan sword, wielding the claymore-sized blade as easily as if it was nothing more than a rapier.
The Knight's horse reared, flailing his hooves at Theo's face, but the dragon easily dodged. The horse landed, tossed his head, and snorted in exasperation. "You were easier to hit when you were bigger…"
Toby didn't have time to wonder where the voice had come from because Theo had grabbed an entire food court table this time. Food and drinks flew everywhere as he hoisted it over his head, his blue eyes aglow with the light battle. He flung the table at the Knight, who batted it out of the way again.
"Charge, Valiance!" The Knight yelled and the horse lowered his head and complied, the clatter of his hooves on the tile floor deafening as he charged for the former-dragon.
"Theo!" Toby cried. Dragon or no, there was no way he'd survive being run over by a fully armored horse and rider.
She needn't have worried though, because Theo bunched his legs then leaped into the air. He seemed almost to hover as he easily cleared both horse and rider, turning completely before landing lightly on the ground. He immediately whipped around to face the Knight. They were both in front of Toby, but even from the distance she was at she could see the air ripple as Theo opened his mouth.
"Theo – no!!" If he spat a fireball, and missed, or even if the Knight deflected it, he'd hit someone. Their little shenanigans had attracted quite the crowd, and no matter where it hit it'd endanger someone. Before she even had time to think, to realize what she was doing was incredibly stupid, she dashed forward, into the path of the flames already bursting from Theo's mouth.
"Princess!" came that tiny voice she'd heard the day before during class, and light unfolded into a small glowing orb in front of her.
There was no time to react, no time to move or even wonder what the light in front of her was as her vision filled with fire. The inferno burst forward towards her; she didn't even have time to scream. There was a pulse of light from the orb in front of her and suddenly a soft shimmer like the surface of a bubble appeared with the prick of light at its center, expanding to grow as large as the blast of fire that was racing towards them. It all happened in a fraction of a second, and then the fireball had hit the bubble.
Stray embers floated past her, but none large enough to do any real damage. The bubble held, the fire ricocheting off of it to dissipate harmlessly in the cold air of the mall.
The bubble of light held until the last of the flames had been deflected, then popped. The glow of light dropped to the ground, smoldering and white hot.
In the shocked silence that followed that display, the Knight lunged forward, and with a mighty clang! conked Theo with the flat of that ridiculously large sword. The dragon dropped to his rear, gripping the side of his head.
"Ow!! What was that for?!"
Toby ignored him, kneeling so she could peer down at the light that'd saved her. She gasped. There, still smoking slightly, was a tiny winged person. His bare chest was covered in swirling, complex tattoos of a shade darker than his skin color, which was golden, the color of honey still in the comb. The pictures kept shifting subtly, like the play of sunlight over water. He wore what looked like emerald green silk pants, singed along the hem, and a silver torc twisted around his upper arm. His hair was a shade of spring green that put even new buds of grass to shame, held back in a single, long ponytail. He was the prettiest little man she'd ever seen, especially when his wings fluttered and he sat up, rubbing his forehead.
"Who—" she started, but was interrupted when a plated arm slid around her waist. The Knight hoisted her up onto the horse as effortlessly as if she weighed nothing at all, setting her down carefully on the front of the saddle. "Wait!" she protested, straining to see if the tiny man was all right, but the Knight had already grabbed the reins again.
"We hath rescued the fair maiden, Valiance," the Knight proclaimed, voice resounding through the hushed mall. "Onwards, to safety!"
The horse surged forward and Toby let out a shriek, clinging to the cool metal of the Knight's armor as the mall blurred past them. She looked forward to see the doors of the mall and cringed, expecting to crash right through them, but they flung open in the path of the horse as if blown by a strong breeze. Then they were charging out into the sunlight and Toby closed her eyes.
She was never going to be able to show her face at school again.