Disclaimer and Notice - I don't own Glee. I also have gathered ideas from various fantasy tropes, Dungeons and Dragons, etc etc.

Sword and Sorcery Faberittana. Most likely Brittana, only Faberry-Friendship at this stage. It's more adventure, magic, battles and some darker content matter. Minor Character death in later chapters. Don't say I didn't warn you :).

Completely Unbetaed - All mistakes (and I'm sorry for them) are my own.

The Incident

Quinn Fabray had never questioned her lot in life. Born to the well respected Mayor and wife of the small town of Lima, in the small Kingdom of Ohio, she knew little outside the peaceful town, and it's way of life. She spent half her days learning sewing, cooking and other trades she was expected to use in her adult life, and the the other half learning prayer, canticles and psalms under the strict eye of Abbess Sylvester and the order to the Goddess Euphrosyne. Twice a year, pilgrims from all over the continent would travel to Lima for the festivals of acrobatics and songs of cheer that the Sisters would perform, and Quinn, who was told that she had been looked upon favourably by the Goddess, would lead the Sisters in their dances.

Quinn, whose faith was devout and unwavering, had been answered for her prayers with the sacred powers of the gods and goddesses – holy powers. Quinn could, with devotion and intense prayer, conjure up spontaneous light, purify water, make a person feel at ease and joyful, and most critically of all, heal small injuries and wounds with her power. It marked her as blessed. So in her 16 winters in the world, Quinn had never questioned the way of things.

It was a light spring, and Abbess Sylvester had just charged Quinn with one of the most critical aspects of her life thus far – organising the spring festival to the goddess. It would be a test of her skill and leadership, and Quinn was determined not to fail. Her sister had been charged with this same responsibility years before, and had pulled off a spectacular festival – her father had been very proud. So for the young girl, failure was simply not an option. Her standing, her father's pride, her town's reputation, stood on her shoulders.

…...

The bells tolled at the convent, signifying the end of morning study and the young girls quietly and efficiently departed the chapel, giving thanks to the Goddess and the Abbess as they left. Stepping out into the light breeze that ruffled her habit and carried the sweet smells of the meadow down by the water mill, she grabbed the attention of her sometimes friend and fellow Sister, Santana.

"Santana, stay for a moment please."

Her fellow sister simply rolled her eyes and huffed. Santana had never been one for patience.

"Make this quick Quinn, Brittany and I have places to be."

"You'll never be blessed by the Goddess if you do not show more devotion to your duties. You are supposed to attend to the Militia with me this afternoon. Not running off fighting wolves or running in rivers or Goddess only knows what you get up to in the woods with Brittany" she replied primly.

"Trust me, those boys would be better served letting me guard the town then me going around flinging boring prayers and verses at them. They're dumber then a box of rocks, the lot of them."

Quinn let out an internal sigh of frustration. The young boys of the town militia and guard weren't exactly the smartest, despite the fact the defense of town from monsters, animals and bandits was completely up to them. However, it was their job as Sisters to visit the guard and keep up morale and cheer amongst the Militia, or the "Titans" as the young boys referred to themselves. Santana often was lax in her duties, preferring to spend time with the Trapper's daughter then perform her chores. It was often a point of contention between the 2 young girls, and on more then one occasion Quinn had reported to the Abbess about Santana's lack of devotion – it didn't endear her to the firebrand novice in the slightest. On one occasion, she had encountered Santana in a tunic and boys pants, instead of her novice's habit, wrestling and sword fighting with Mike and Sam from the guard, whilst the young Trapper's daughter, Brittany, clapped and hollered outrageously.

Quinn had been utterly scandalised, and Santana was ordered to spend almost 2 entire weeks in solitary study and reflection by the Abbess. Santana had never forgiven her for that.

"If you ever want to graduate from the Order Santana, you will do your duties. Or would you like me to tell the Abbess that you spent all of yesterday chasing after Brittany and whatever wild animals she's befriended. In plain sight!"

Santana, eyes alight with anger, turned on her heel and stalked towards Quinn. Quinn took an unconscious step backwards. Santana had already spent hours in what she considered worthless prayer, and she was utterly fed up.

"That's the answer with you for everything, isn't it? Praise the Goddess, tattle-tale to the Abbess. Goddess forbid you think about doing anything else. Let's all be special Quinn blessed Fabray everyone. Marry one of the dumb idiots from the guard at 18, pop out a few kids and spend her life reciting prayers and sewing pants at home. Don't you ever dream about what else is out there. That there's more then this stupid town."

Quinn had heard something similar from Santana before, but never with such hostility. Clearly it hadn't been a good day. However, Quinn wasn't the young leader of the novice sisters for nothing.

"More then this stupid town? Santana, really? It's not safe out there. Why do you think we have to guard the town. The Goddess watches over us all here, and while you run around as a foolish girl who thinks she's stronger then the boys, I'm doing what's required to keep things running here. Why can't you just accept that?"

"Because I'm not you Quinn. I'm not little miss perfect. You see the way they treat women here, and the way they treat foreigners here. Guess what little-miss-I-have-powers? I'm both. You're only treated nice because your the Mayor's daughter Quinn. If you really knew what they thought of us in this town, you wouldn't be so quick to praise the goddess."

"What are you talking about, Santana?" Quinn asked, exasperated. Santana had often alluded to how she was treated by some people in this town, but was always maddeningly vague and elusive.

As Quinn expected, Santana lost the fire in her eyes and dodged the question.

"Look," she huffed out, "just forget it. I'm not going around spreading cheer to the morons in the watch, ok? There's better things to do. If you're going to visit them, goddess knows why, make sure you are accompanied by Sam or Mike, ok? At least those 2 have some brains."

Her anger spent, Santana briskly stalked to the side gate of the abbey, where Quinn could see the blond hair of Brittany, who was balanced on the stump of the old apple tree, hopping from one foot to the other in a show of grace and balance. Abbess Sylvester had lamented one more then one occasion that Brittany couldn't dance with the Sisters in the festival. She was the Trapper's daughter however, and it would be frowned upon for a peasant's daughter to join the order. Quinn never questioned it.

Quinn sighed, and turned towards to path leading down to the town itself. It was to be a long afternoon.

…...

As Quinn travelled through the streets and past the shanties that made up the southern part of Lima, she began to question the wisdom of coming through here by herself. She knew her habit and her well known-position of the daughter's would keep her safe, but she didn't like the way some of the men, sitting outside grubby looking houses, or standing at street corners, looked at her. She had rarely travelled down this far, Santana usually covering this place in her round, and she was beginning to feel more and more at unease as the shadows lengthened. She quickened her pace as she made he way to the southern guard post, her last stop for the evening.

The guardsman with the trident symbol of the guardhouse loomed large in the evening shadows, illuminated by a recently lit lantern swinging freely underneath the sign, casting long shadows down the path. Quinn stopped abruptly, as she noticed all the young men gathered in a circle just outside the guardhouse door. As she approached, she noticed a girl, probably around her age, with a cloak and shawl wrapped around her protectively in the middle, looking down at the ground and trembling ever so slightly. The boys surrounding her were making a racket, hollering and jeering at her.

"Show us your skills, girly."

"C'mon, surely your great powers can defeat a couple of us lad's. After all, you're the apprentice of the great Hiram and LeRoy, or so you say!"

The boys laughed uproariously at that, elbowing and slapping each other in the back at each other's jokes.

"Your unnaturalness is disgusting, and so are your master's, you little hobbit" one burly boy exclaimed, before he dumped his mead all over her and turning to laugh victoriously to the circle of men.

Quinn edged closer. The young girl must have been Rachel Berry, the apprentice of the so called Magicians "Hiram and LeRoy", who had travelled from the east to live on the outskirts of town, bringing a young Rachel with them. They were shunned by the majority of the town, who feared their tricks and their "unnatural" ways, as Quinn had heard her father complain about from time to time. He had once remarked in her company that they should be run out of town, but as they kept to the poor part of town and were rarely seen in daylight, her father had never bothered to exile them. Quinn herself had never met Rachel before.

Rachel still hadn't moved from where she stood in the circle of the boys, who were now edging closer and closer, egged on in their bravado by each other. Quinn tensed, unsure of what she should do. Her father would not approve of helping the girl, who he had deemed strange, but Quinn could tell that the boys were worked up and apparently drunk, as she could clearly smell mead and the stench of drinking wafting from the group. The circle tightened closer.

She could see the cloaked girl about to open her mouth, and before Quinn could stop herself, she yelled out -

"Stop this."

The commotion stopped, as the both the guardsmen and Rachel noticed her for the first time. The burly boy, Karosfky, she remembered, staggered towards Quinn, a strange smile on his face.

"Well if it isn't Quinn Fabray, come to cheer us up" he smirked, as the guardsmen behind him laugh as if it were a huge joke. "We've been waiting for you Sister, we're all ready to have some fun."

Quinn didn't like the way he leered as he spat that out, his eyes traveling up and down her body. She resisted the urge to shiver as she took a step back.

"What's going on here?"

"Nothing at all Sister, just having a little entertainment. Would you like to join us?" Another big roar of laughs and cheers rose up from the crowd behind him.

Quinn began to panic. She didn't know these boys well. Is this why Santana had told her to take Mike or Sam? They were drunk, and seemed out of control. She didn't know what she could do about Rachel, but she had to try her best, this was her duty.

"I've come to offer prayers from the Goddess. How about you let her go, and I shall give you a song of cheer."

Karofsky looked back briefly at the mob of young men still surrounding Rachel, and then turned back to Quinn, with his smirk growing larger by the moment.

"Oh, I think you can give us more then that to cheer us up Sister. And don't worry about the freak, we'll take good care of her." Karofsky was almost upon her now, Quinn realized as she took another step back and stumbled slightly.

She looked up to see his meaty hand stretching out towards her, her panic spiked. 'Goddess, help me' she begged internally.

A moment later, a large feathered arrow landed right in-front of her, causing her to stumble and fall upon the ground and Karofsky, too, stumbled back, staying upright. Then a large growl came from the shadows surrounding her (when had it gotten so dark, Quinn thought) and a large, enormous cat with luminscent eyes leapt out and landed in front of her, snarling at Karofsky, who had finally stopped smirking, and looked quite afraid. Quinn would of laughed if she wasn't so afraid herself.

"Quinn" a voiced echoed out of the darkness, and she sighed in relief as Santana emerged, in a tunic and pants, holding a wooden sword, with Brittany by her side, who had an enormous bow with an arrow notched, her quiver around her left shoulder filled with green-fletched arrows.

Quinn had never been more happy to see Santana or Brittany in her life.

Quinn picked herself up off the dusty road as Santana ran over to her, with a furious expression on her face. The enormous cat hadn't stopped growling the entire time, looking at Karofsky as if it were it's next meal.

"What are you doing here by yourself, Quinn?" Santana hissed, eyes alight with anger and some other emotion Quinn had never seen before. Concern?

"What do you mean Santana?" Quinn questioned back, her anger rising now that the danger had pased, angry at Karofsky, at Santana, at this ridiculous situation she had been in. "I'm only here because you ran off".

"I said to take Mike or Sam! Do you ever listen to anything at all, you naïve little girl? What the hell were you thinking?" she thundered back, volume rising in slight hysteria.

"I..." Quinn began to reply, before the look in Santana's face quietened her. Santana turned to Karofsky, who had been inching further and further back since she had arrived.

"Karofsky. I warned you last time about pulling this sort of rubbish." Santana swung her wooden sword in a wide circle. "Like I said, right or left, your choice."

"Santana.." Brittany, who had caught up to the large cat and was now petting it gently, murmured to the sword wielding girl. "Look."

She was pointing at Rachel, who was now shivering in the cool breeze of evening, still soaked with mead in her clothes and cloak, behind the now quiet group of boys all watching either Santana or the giant cat.

Quinn watched as Santana lifted her sword imperiously, pointing at Rachel.

"Let her go, and I won't be forced to castrate you here and now."

All the boys looked to Karofsky, who was still slowly backing off. He gave Santana a dark glare before shrugging his shoulders and nodded, before making his way back to the guardhouse, casting Santana and Brittany dark, murderous glances every few seconds. The other men followed, leaving a shivering Rachel motionless on the path, looking forlorn and trembling in the yellow light of the lanterns.

Brittany, hooking her bow over herself, strode over to Rachel, accompanied by the giant cat, loosening her own cloak and throwing it around the shivering girl. The cat purred, nuzzling it's nose into Rachel, who smiled wanly and tenuously patted it's head.

"Quinn." Santana said quietly, drawing her attention away from the 2 girls and the cat down the path. "Let's get you out of here."

Quinn, suddenly very exhausted, just nodded and let Santana lead her north up the road, back to the main area of town and home.

…...

Quinn and Santana had walked back in silence, till they arrived at the Fabray Manor, where Santana left her with the instruction that they'd talk tomorrow. Quinn watched as Santana disappeared into the night, realizing that for a girl she thought she knew well, she actually knew very little about. Flashes of the entire incident swam before her weary eyes, things unknown and things unexpected leaping in-front of her, it seemed so surreal. Ignoring her mother, who trilled a "Hello Quinnie", Quinn made her way to her room, slipping out of her habit and into her nightclothes, and stumbling, fell onto her bed and was asleep almost instantly.

She awoke a few hours later, her stomach grumbling loudly. Bleary eyed, she stumbled towards the kitchen, hoping that she could find some food to sate her late night hunger. She stopped, when she heard her father and another man conversing near the hearth. Creeping quietly, she leant up towards the adjacent room, eavesdropping on the conversation.

"When will this happen Russell?"

"Soon, Paul, after the spring festival. You have my word."

"I've heard that before Russell, and I'm growing impatient. We don't support you as Mayor for nothing. I want this to happen by the end of spring, or our support for you will stop. Just remember who controls the guard and gates here, Russell. Think very carefully about your position.

"Paul, it will be done. You have my promise. Come, drink some more, and we'll visit the Scarlet Lady, let us relax and relieve some stress."

"To the future."

"To the future."

The sounds of mugs clinking signalled the end of the conversation, and then moments later the creaks of chairs told Quinn that both men were on the move. She quickly scampered across the hall to a passageway down to the kitchens, and hid in the darkness as she watched her father and an unknown man walk past her, down the hall. She didn't move till almost 2 minutes later, she heard the main door close, signalling the exit of both men.

Quinn was puzzled. She had always been led to believe her father was the most powerful man in the town, and she had always been deferred to as the daughter of the Mayor. What was going on? What would happen at the end of the spring festival, and who was that man that her father had met deep into the night. What was the Scarlet lady? Questions blossomed in the darkness, and Quinn, for the second time today, felt the world shift under her feet. No longer feeling hungry, she slipped back into her room where she fell into a shallow, restless sleep.