After he got up, he flipped off the gates of the town a few times. He turned and saw some more guards coming at him, swords drawn.
"That's him, lads! He's the one who tried to rob us before!"
Our Hero stood speechless except for one word…
"Shit."
Sparrow chuckled and tried to turn the page, but he realized he was at the end of the book.
"What the hell? That's the end? What a load of balvarine shit!" He looked at the cover of the book "The Story of Deathbringer, Part Two" was the title. Frustrated, he walked out of his home right next to the Bowerstone Inn and across the road to the Bowerstone Book Store. He threw the book on the counter.
"Hey, Gladys, is there more to this series?"
The middle aged woman put on her reading glasses and examined the title.
"Sorry, Sparrow, this is the last in the series. The author died shortly after publishing this."
"Damnit!" Sparrow hit the wall with his hand, causing every bookshelf to rumble, knocking over some books, but that wasn't his biggest concern. The shaking of the wall also caused the shelf over Gladys's head to shake, causing the decorative knife on it to fall, stabbing her in the head, killing her. Sparrow stared dumbstruck, his glowing red eyes wide open, his mouth agape. He walked over and pulled the knife out of her head, and as he stood over her body with the bloody dagger, a guard passed by and saw the scene. He immediately ran for the Sherrif, Geoff, and they both returned, swords drawn.
"Stop right there, Sparrow!" Geoff shouted, pointing his longsword at the stunned Hero.
Sparrow held up his hands, dropping the knife.
"Guys, you gotta listen to me! I didn't do it this time! Well, technically I did, but it was an accident!"
"Like when you slaughtered all of Oakfield?"
It was true: Sparrow was indeed a foul murderer. For a while he went by the name Butcher, but once he realized no one would stick around to talk to him without running like a frightened child (children included), he changed his name back to the cute nickname his sister had given him so many years ago. And since all the murdering left a bit of a nasty reputation, he was essentially on 24/7 parole anywhere he went, except the Temple of Shadows. They loved him there, literally. He had been propositioned by about half the men there, especially after he committed the slaughter at Oakfield.
"Now guys, let's be rational, that was for my religion. Freedom of Religion, right?"
"Freedom of Religion? What type of liberal bullshit is that?" He lowered his sword a little and gave Sparrow a confused look for a moment.
"Can't a guy be free to explore whatever religion he wants?"
"No!" Geoff shouted before swinging at Sparrow, who was quick to duck. He rolled from behind the counter and pulled out his Clockwork Pistol and shot Geoff in the groin. The Sheriff quickly fell and rolled on the ground, screaming in agony. Sparrow ran out the door, shoving the other guard out of the way. He sprinted across the bridge and a familiar voice shouted,
"Hey! I got a quest for ya: Kiss my stony ass!"
"Who the FUCK is that?!" He asked himself as he continued running. Much to Sparrow's dismay, Trevor the Bard, was quick to start running to catch up with him.
"I saw what you did there, Hero! And it gave me the greatest idea for a song!"
He strummed his lute and began to sing:
"Our hero smacked the wall…"
And that was all he could sing before Sparrow grabbed the lute and broke it on Trevor's head, knocking the bard out. He ran out of the gates to Bowerstone and stopped to catch his breath a half mile down the road.
"I think I lost them." He said to himself as he gasped and panted.
He walked down the road for a few hours before arriving at Bower Lake. The sun was starting to set, so he decided to set up camp. He hopped down a few ledges and found himself back at Thag the Impatient's old cottage. He walked in, took off his coat, draping it over a chair and sat on the bed, kicking off his boots and wiggling his toes to air them out. He turned himself to lie on the bed and pulled a book out from his coat, titled "The Story of Deathbringer, Part 1." The Deathbringer series was his favorite series to read. He knew the first book front to back, and it was only the other day he found there was a second in the series.
He finished the book and put it back in his coat, and dozed of into sleep. While he was asleep, a faint blue light formed in the middle of the cottage. It was bright enough to wake Sparrow up, but faint enough to be easy on the eyes. He looked into the light for a second when suddenly a man flew out of it, landing directly on Sparrow! The man appeared unconscious as Sparrow shoved him off the bed. The mysterious stranger landed as a slump before shaking himself awake. He stood up and rubbed his helmet clad head.
The man was big, humungous by average standards. It might be his actual physique or just the heavy maroon and black armor he was wearing. His helmet appeared to be a dark maroon skull with curling horns on either side. A red mist formed at his feet as he stood before the bed. His huge gloved hands grabbed the helmet and pulled it of, and he held the helmet to his side. He was in his 20's, his eyes glowed a fierce red, and he had dark maroon horns that became yellow at the tip that stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison with his pale complexion and a plaited beard. The horns caused the hair line of his ponytail to be quite far up in his head. He was a truly intimidating figure.
Sparrow was quick though; he grabbed his pistol and aimed it at the stranger's heart
"Who the hell are you?!" He asked as he cocked his pistol.
The stranger gave a vicious, yet amused, laugh.
"You must be a stranger around here! Everybody knows who I am!"
"Tell me!" Sparrow demanded as he pointed the pistol at the man's face.
The stranger gave him a confused look. "What the hell is that you're pointing at me?" He asked, totally ignoring the Sparrow's question. "I've never seen a weapon like that. Such a tiny thing though! How can you expect to kill me with that?"
He drew a katana and began to walk towards Sparrow, who quickly fired a shot at the man's shoulder, bringing him down.
"FUCK!" He shouted as he fell to the ground. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" He nursed his shoulder as blood began to flow from the wound.
Sparrow pointed the gun at the man's head.
"Name yourself or the next one's going through your skull!" He shouted.
"THAT FUCKING HURT! HOW DID THAT PEIRCE MY ARMOR?!"
Sparrow shot him in the other shoulder.
"MOTHER FUCKER! MY OTHER SHOULDER!"
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Sparrow knelt next to the man and pointed the pistol upwards at his jaw.
"DEATHBRINGER! NOW GET OFF ME!" The Hero used Force Push and knocked Sparrow not only off him, but through the flimsy wood wall of the cottage and into the dirt circle outside the hut. Deathbringer drank two Red Potions and his arms healed. He grabbed his katana and ran out the front door, ready for a fight.
Sparrow groaned and slowly got up. "Deathbringer? The legendary hero?"
Deathbringer's evil and maliciousness was second only to his ego, and he loved it when someone called him legendary. He sheathed his sword, put his hands on his hips, and laughed.
"Indeed! It appears you do know me!"
"Indeed he does, Deathbringer." A mysterious voice echoed. A similar blue light appeared and out stepped Theresa.
"Theresa? What the hell are you doing here?"
"I brought this Hero to you, Sparrow. His existence was brought to an untimely end back in his time, so he is here to do the deeds he is foretold to do."
"Wait, what?" Deathbringer asked, confused.
"What was the last thing you remember seeing?"
"I saw guards running at me, because I tried to raid Barrow Fields."
"And you would have died in that battle, if I had not saved you."
"So, where the hell am I?"
"You are in the land you were before, Albion. This region used to be the Hero's Guild."
"Bullshit! This isn't the Hero's Guild! If it was, where is it?"
"It was destroyed centuries ago, thanks to Heroes like you." Theresa says, pointing a finger at Deathbringer's chest.
"What do you mean Heroes like me?"
"Dark Heroes, who only bullied and maimed villagers. They grew fed up with Heroes and attacked the Guild, destroying it."
"That's a lie! A single hero could take down a gross of villagers without breaking a sweat!"
"New advances in technology made the job easy for the villagers. Pistols and rifles, like the one Sparrow there has, took down the entire Guild in a matter of hours."
"I don't believe it. I won't believe it!"
"You want proof? Fine. Sparrow, take him to the Chamber."
Sparrow sighed, he just wanted some sleep. "Fine. Follow me." He motioned for Deathbringer to follow him.
They made their way to the shore, and Deathbringer stared into the water.
"Why are we at the shore?"
"See that hut over there?" Sparrow pointed at the small hut on the island in the middle of the lake. "We need to head in there. It has a cave path that leads to the Chamber."
"And we have to…swim?"
"Well, yea. I'm not a friggin' miracle worker, I can't walk across."
Deathbringer grew even more pale as Sparrow waded into the water, eventually getting to his neck and diving in. He surfaced a few seconds later and looked toward shore.
"Well, what's keeping ya?" He yelled to the massive Hero. "The water's fine!"
"I bet it is!" Deathbringer nervously chuckled. "But…there's one small problem."
"What?"
"Well, its nothing really, but…" then he muttered something barely audible.
"Manned krim? What the hell is that?"
"No! Its…uh…" He muttered again.
"You're gonna have to speak up!"
"I CAN'T FUCKING SWIM!"
Sparrow stared at Deathbringer for a few seconds, then shook his head and swam toward the hut, speechless except for one word…
"Shit."