side and shoved him to the ground. "Oh, God," I whispered, and picked up the pace. I had to make it in time to save him. A flash of metal came from above his head, but he caught it in time. His sword was protecting his throat before the opposing threat had time to do any damage.

I bit my bottom lip and rushed even faster as I saw the second sword disappear again. This time Danny's opponent stepped out of the shadows and placed his foot on his chest. "Time to die," I heard him murmur. "No!" I shrieked, and brought my mediocre weapon over my head and then back down as hard as I possibly could. To my deep satisfaction, I made contact with the jerk's head. Vibrations went through the bat and buzzed my hands, so I dropped it and hit him a second time in the back of the knee. Luckily, he fell over sideways and did my guard no harm.

I stepped over him and knelt down beside Danny. "You . . . You saved my life," he breathed, awestruck. With his left arm he lifted himself up and with his right hand, he touched my face lightly. It was warm from holding the hilt of the sword for so long, but at the same time it felt cold. As I wondered why that was, I covered his hand with mine. "Yes, I saved your life, and you messed your arm up even more," I said with exaggerated distaste. "After all I did to keep you from hurting yourself, you still managed to do it." He laughed, and I examined his eyes. They crinkled in the corners when he smiled. I myself smiled at that. It was pretty cute.

He sighed, then pushed himself off the ground and examined the fallen Rat. "Well," he said, "I think that was the famed Rat King, George James VI. He's got the right description, and he was the only one that didn't fight first." I nodded and looked down at the poor guy myself. A trickle of blood was still oozing from where I hit him.