Disclaimer: Lionhead Studios is the owner of Fable. I do not own anything.

Chapter 1: A Cold Beginning

Splat.

A young boy's eyes widened in shock when he felt something gooey and wet land on his head. He really hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. Fortune wasn't on his side however, and he was disgusted that it was bird poop.

"Ugh!" He groaned in disgust and quickly tried to wipe it all off his head.

Rose, his older sister, turned slightly from their small bonfire and glanced at him to see what had happened. "What was that? Oh! Yuck." She wrinkled her nose in disgust, but by the slightly twitch of her lips, he could easily see she was also amused by his misfortune.

He couldn't help but shoot her a dirty look as he wiped his now even filthier hand on his patched up pants.

"Well... I hear that's lucky. Like finding a four leaf clover," She told him in attempt to make him feel better. "Although I think I would prefer the clover."

He pouted and wrapped his arms around himself again, doing his best to protect himself from the harsh cold winds of winter. Like usual, winter in Albion was miserable. Especially for orphans like he and his sister, who had only a small shack, if you could call it that, and their small bonfire that was just enough to keep them from freezing to death.

It was early winter so the chill and snow wasn't as bad as it could be yet. He dreaded to think of what would happen to him and Rose when winter truly did hit. He may only be eight, but he wasn't clueless when it came to them possibly dieing this winter.

"Look, little Sparrow..." Hearing his nickname that she had given him snapped him out of his darkening thoughts. Glancing up at her, he saw that she was once again eying Castle Fairfax, that sat tauntingly in the distance from them, with a faraway look in her eyes. So many times he had seen the broken hope shine in her eyes as she gazed at the castle for hours.

"Castle Fairfax looks so nice in the snow," She commented somberly. "Imagine the grand dining hall. I bet Lord Lucien's having roast duck this time of year."

Her gaze that was stuck firmly on the castle filled with sadness. "But he must be really lonely since his wife and little girl died. In that big castle, all by himself..." She let out a small sigh. "If only we could live there."

At that moment, before she could say anything more, cheering sounded from the alley around the corner. Both children turned towards the direction of the alley in curiosity. "What is going on over there?" Rose asked rhetorically, baffled by the ruckus. If there was one thing that was good about Bowerstone Old Town was that it remained fairly quiet despite the frequent crimes.

She glanced over her shoulder to look at him. "Come with me little brother." She motioned him to follow her before taking off down towards the ally.

Reluctantly, he pulled away from the fire and quickly followed after her. Rose was in her early teens, and therefor had a much bigger stride than he did, which made it particularly difficult to keep up with her.

As he turned the corner and headed into the ally, he saw a familiar man stop his sister half way down the alley. He scowled angrily at who it was and sped up to get to Rose faster. "Hello there, young Rose. You look hungry." Arfur said arrogantly, as his gaze scanned over her lustfully. "Have you reconsidered my offer?"

Rose vehemently glared at him. "We'll never be that hungry. The answer is no!" She snapped heatedly, shaking her head and turning away from him so his eyes couldn't wander over her body. She kept a firm eye on the grubby man however, and only glanced away quickly to check on her brother, who had walked up to her side.

Arfur's eyes narrowed in annoyance, but his smug smirk remained. "You'll be back. And I'll be waiting for ya."

Sparrow gently nudged his sister's side, prodding her to get away from Arfur. "Come on, little Sparrow, let's see what's going on." Rose said abruptly as she sharply turned towards the increasing noise of shouts at the end of the alley and briskly headed towards it without sparing either of them another glance.

He shot Arfur a dirty look before once again following after her. He didn't need to see Rose's face to know she was fairly upset now. She had folded her arms around herself in a protective manner as she slowed to a walk when she began to reach the crowd of men and women.

"That filthy creep... I hate him." He heard her mumble to herself in frustration.

Arfur had been harassing his sister for the past year now after she had started having a problem she refused to tell him about. He didn't understand exactly what the creepy man wanted his sister to do for him, but whatever it was made Rose uneasy and angry. He knew it was bad because Rose almost never passed a chance to get them food.

What he did know though, was that Arfur was one of those people that the world could do without.

"Oh... It's just a trader." Rose appeared to be unimpressed and a bit disappointed. The opposite could be said about the crowd of spectators, though. They were all tightly packed together, pushing and shoving to see what the trader had to sell.

A woman beside them caught his eye, however. To him she looked rather like one of the gypsies he and Rose had stayed with last winter. Her clothing consisted of a scarlet robe like dress and simple sandals. She wore her hood up, making it impossible for him to guess her age.

What caught his eye about her though was that unlike the other adults, she seemed to a strong presence. Her stance, though relaxed, was tense in a way that she seemed to be prepared anything, kind of like how the soldiers were when they were on guard duty. Relaxed, but always on guard. He wasn't sure if he was over thinking it, but she seemed to radiate something he wasn't sure how to put it into words.

"I can't see anything past this lot." Rose complained as she bounced in place in attempt to see over the crowd, oblivious to the odd woman and his growing unease of her.

"A-ladies and a-gentleman..." An familiar exaggerated sounding voice rang out over the crowd, making Sparrow and Rose quickly realize that this was Murgo. Murgo was well known for conning people into buying useless junk that he always claimed had some magic ability.

"I have traveled the land accumulating wondrous and mysterious objects- which I now offer you for the modest price of five gold," Murgo continued on, and then motioned at an old stand up mirror. "Consider this. This is truly a magical mirror. For as long as you look into it, it will make you beautiful!"

Murmuring swam through the crowd as people debated over whether or not it was worth buying until a man's voice sound over noise. "I'll take it!"

"Very wise! Now just remember: the magic only works if you look at it in complete darkness." Murgo told the man with a rather fake grin. He then moved to another object that appeared to be a music box.

"Ah, now this is truly a marvel," He said, looking out at the crowd as though he were about to share a great secret. "This small, unassuming box is actually a device created by the ancients. As used by the Old Kingdom rulers themselves! Turn the handle three times, and you shall be granted a single wish!"

At that statement most of the crowd huffed their disbelief and began to head back to whatever they had been doing before the trader caught their interest.

"There's no such thing as magic!" Rose denied bitterly, frowning. This caused the gypsy woman he noticed earlier to turn towards them.

"We live in grim times indeed, if the young are too world-weary to believe in magic," She stated, looking straight at them, or at least he thought she was. Her hood made it fairly hard to what she looked like, but you could vaguely see that something was wrong with her eyes. "Most children your age believe eagerly." She continued, making his sister more annoyed.

Rose turned to look at her fully, eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Look, I can see that your eyes are bad, but I'm telling you, that music box is rubbish." Rose snapped fairly harshly, making Sparrow glance up at her in surprise.

The woman didn't seem to be bothered with his sister's rudeness, however. "That's what the seller thinks. He has no idea what he stumbled upon. But you have an inkling, don't you? Some part of you wants to believe it's magic."

Now it was Sparrow's turn frown. He didn't understand why the woman was being so persistent about the music box. What was the point in convincing them that it was magic? He did find himself swaying towards the idea, though. It would be great for he and Rose if it really was magic...

They watched the woman turn away and start to walk down the alley they had just come from. "What? You... you really think it could be?" His sister asked, seemingly just as taken aback by the persistence. However, he could tell his sister was beginning to cave to the idea just like himself.

The woman came to a halt and turned her head ever so slightly towards them. "For five gold coins, you could have your answer."

"For five gold coins, we could eat for a week." Rose shot back.

The woman once again began to walk away. Though, she kept speaking. "Listen to me, Rose: at the end of that week, you and your little Sparrow would be no closer to your dream- no closer to inside of that beautiful castle." With that said, she had walked out of hearing and speaking range.

Rose was silent for a moment before she turned to him with a troubled expression. "What if it is real? I bet we could get five gold pieces... and maybe this could be our way out of here, after all? What is there to lose, little Sparrow?" Rose seemed to be trying to convince herself more than him, but it worked for him too.

The thought of having something to do for once that could possibly be fun sent a surge of excitement through him. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this way.

"Come on, there must be someone around here that will pay us gold to... do something." She said a bit unsure, glancing around them in hope for a job.

They began to walk and look for anything that they could do. They past Murgo's caravan and a man named Monty, who was yelling up sweetly to a young woman, apparently named Belinda, who was standing on the second story balcony of the house across the street. Both gazed at one another lovingly. It was obvious to even him that they were trying to be quiet has they spoke, but despite their efforts, Belinda's mother quickly found them speaking to one another, much to the couple's chagrin.

"Oi, kids! C'm'ere a minute!" Derek Beck, one of the few guards in Bowerstone Old Town called out to them. He seemed to be frazzled about something today. When he was like this it was usually because he had lost something that would get him into trouble. He wasn't the best guard, but he was most certainly the most kind though.

"Hello, Derek." Rose greeted him with a smile. "Lose something?"

Usually Derek would try to stand up for himself before admitting he had indeed lost something, but today seemed to be different. "My arrest warrants. Blew right out of my hands." He told them urgently. "They could be in all corners of Bowerstone by now, and I can't leave my post."

"How about you find them for me?" He looked at them in hope. "You could be like little constables! Sounds fun right?"

"How much do little constables get paid?" Rose demanded with determination.

The look of shock Derek had was rather comical in Sparrow's opinion. "Paid? Listen kids, these are the five most wanted criminals in Bowerstone."

"Yeah? Well how badly do you want 'em?" Rose narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Fine. One gold for all five warrants." Derek caved in, seeing that neither child was going to give in doing it for free.

"Deal." Sparrow and Rose agreed at the same time. Rose glanced down at her brother in slight shock before smiling.

He rarely ever spoke. Mainly because he really didn't see a reason to. Rose was the one who always took charge in any situation, rarely giving him a need to speak. It seemed to bother Rose that he was so quiet for some reason, though.

With that, Derek shooed them away to start the search, and they began looking for another job as well as they looked for the warrants. "Keep an eye out-" Rose began to say, but he nudged her and pointed at a man who seemed to be desperately searching for anyone who would be willing to help him.

"Let's go see what he's doing." Rose grabbed his hand and they went over to inspect what was going on.

A group of men were mocking the man for an invention he had created. The invention was a little box looking thing that was propped up on long pegs and had a small circular glass that jut out in front of it. The thing was pointed at a large board that had a painting of some scenery.

"Hello children." The goofy looking man gave them a kind smile when he noticed them walk up. The three men stopped their mocking to watch them curiously.

"Hello." Rose greeted back, looking at the invention curiously. "What's that?"

"This? Why it's only the most amazing device ever conceived. It grabs your very likeness and transfiddles it onto a magic piece of paper. It's going to make me very rich!" He told them with great enthusiasm. Sparrow looked at the man in confusion, not understanding a word of the explanation. He had never heard anyone speak like that before. Perhaps he was crazy like those men had been saying?

"If only I could find someone to modellify for it..." The man sighed sadly.

Rose seemed to think something over for a moment. "We'll do it... for a gold piece."

The man scratched his chin as he thought it over. "Hmm... I only have one gold left. But you're right: I should investalise it into my new venture. Deal." He smiled at them cheerfully.

Rose turned to him and gave him a satisfied smile. "A gold piece just to stand there. Sounds all right, doesn't it?" She asked, wanting his opinion.

"You're cheating yourself, Barnum." One of the men jeered at the man now known as Barnum.

Barnum ignored the man and watched them hopefully as he waited for a sure answer from the two. "Alright." Sparrow gave him a nod.

Barnum proceeded to lead them up to the front of the board with the painting and told them all they needed to do was to a quick pose for him. Rose did a cutesy pose and he struck a hero pose that he had seen in a book one time. It all went well and Barnum couldn't have been happier.

He paid them the gold piece and went on their way after saying a quick goodbye to him. Sparrow found himself liking the cheerful man and wondered if they would ever see him again. For the man's sake he hoped the business did turn out as well as he hoped it would. Though, he wondered if they should have warned him to get rid of the thesaurus he had bought from Murgo. The silly, odd words weren't likely to help him get much business.

"One gold piece!" Rose said happily, clutching the coin with a smile before putting it into her pocket where she wouldn't loose it. Sparrow smiled back, glad to see her so happy for once.

The happy moment ended however when a loud yelp of pain came from what sounded like a dog. Without a word, his sister took off to where the cry sounded from and he followed closely behind her. What he saw when they reached the dog shocked him.

A group of children were surrounding Rex, a local bully, who was holding a wooden sword and waving it threateningly at the poor creature that was cowering down from him. He felt hatred surge up in him at Rex and all the other children who found this to be thrilling entertainment.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Rose walked up to Rex with her hands on her hips, looking as angry as he felt.

Rex turned around and sneered down at her. "What's it to you?" He reached out and pushed her before leaning back and smashing his forehead against hers.

"Ah!" Rose gasped in pain as she fell down and blacked out for the hard hit to the head.

"You hit a girl!" One of the younger boys in the crowd cried out in fearful shock.

"Yeah, and now I'm going to hit another one!" Rex grinned deviously as he stalked towards Sparrow.

Sparrow couldn't say he remembered what all happened next. All he knew was that suddenly he was angrier than he had ever remembered being, everything turned red, and he had pulled off his own wooden sword that he had never had a reason to use before.

He didn't realize he had even swung the sword until Rex had managed to stab him in the side while flailing around which caused him to come out of the rage he had been in. He quickly looked to see what damage he had done while Rex backed up to get some space between them.

Rex was now sporting a split lip, a large bruise that was forming on the side of his head, and he kept holding his side where Sparrow supposed he had hit him too. He also noticed Rex was also looking a whole lot less sure about himself though, and couldn't help but feel smug about it. He pushed the feeling down however when he saw Rex was once again heading towards him.

He managed to dodge the heavy swing the older boy ran at him with, and he took the chance to smack the hand that he was holding his sword with before Rex could make another swing.

Rex yowled in pain and dropped the sword, clutching his hand. Sparrow pushed him to the ground then kicked the wooden sword away from Rex. "Argh!" The older boy groaned in pain and coward down. "Leave me alone! You nutter!" He scrambled up and ran away crying.

Rose grunted as she started to come to and Sparrow ran over to her. "Ow..." Rose moaned holding a hand to her head as she got up. "Did you see that? That lunatic hit me right in the head."

She looked down at him and frowned. "Thanks for your help, but I could have taken him." She said with slight frustration, looking upset at having needed help. Sparrow did his best to ignore the slight hurt he felt at her annoyance.

He dropped the sword to the ground and watched her walk over to the dog. He stood there for a moment, observing how his sister's frustration disappeared completely and was replaced by compassion for the wounded dog, before slowly walking over to them.

"Poor thing. You've had a horrible time." Rose said as kindly as she could, crouching down slowly to its height so she wouldn't give it more reason to be afraid. "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you." The dog whimpered nonetheless, still shaking.

"What you need is someone nice to look after you." Rose said pityingly. This seemed to perk the dog up a bit and he barked happily. This caused Rose to look briefly crestfallen, and the dog having noticed whimpered hopefully, causing her to frown more.

"We can't keep you." She told the dog firmly. Sparrow opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Rose before he could utter a word. "We can barely take care of ourselves as it is." She stated sternly, sending Sparrow a quick look.

Sparrow ignored the look and gently pet the dog, who licked his hand in return. Rose sighed silently when the dog looked back up at her and whimpered again. "I'm sorry, but we can't keep you." Rose stood up and pulled Sparrow with her briefly. "Come on."

Sparrow glanced back worriedly at the dog, who watched them leave sadly, but surprisingly didn't try to follow them. Turning forward again, Sparrow spotted something on the ground not too far ahead of them. He ran over to it and picked it up to inspect it. He couldn't read, but judging by the picture of the man on it, this was one of warrants Derek needed.

"You found one!" Rose, who peered over his shoulder to see what he was looking at, cheered. "Our first warrant! Maybe the others won't be too far away from this one."

Shrugging, he folded the warrant and put it into his pocket. A man by the only functioning warehouse in Bowerstone Old Town had apparently spotted them and noticed the toy gun Sparrow had hanging off his belt. "You, boy with the toy gun!" The man called out to them. "Could you come here a minute?"

Blinking their surprise, they headed over to him warily. The man was glancing around as though he expected someone or something to jump out at him as he wrung his hands together nervously. "Do you need help with something?" Rose prodded after a moment of silence.

"Uh... yeah." He hesitated. "You kids aren't afraid of beetles, are you?"

Rose was baffled by the question. "No, that would be silly."

The man let out a forced chuckle. "Yes, no one would be afraid of loathsome, evil beetles..."

Sparrow was very unimpressed with the man before them. He didn't like liars, even if it was over something like this. "We'll help you if you need it, but for a gold." He stated before Rose could, wanting to get whatever the man wanted them to do over with.

The cowardly man suddenly looked relieved and somewhat cheerful. He opened up the warehouse and pushed Sparrow it quickly. "Shoot the beetles. Shoot to kill. And while you're breaking their hateful little heads open, try not to break any of my stuff." He told him before slamming the large doors shut.

Sparrow shot glare over his shoulder despite knowing the man would never see it. With a silent huff, he walked in a bit further into the dim lit warehouse. From what he could see of the warehouse there were no beetles, but he could hear the faint sounds of the flapping their wings. "Hey, kid." Arfur called to him from the side window. Sparrow glared at him, but headed over to see what he wanted.

"Balthazar owes some protection money to Nicky the Nickname." Arfur informed him. "So how about you leave the beetles and smash his stock up instead? I'll give you a gold on Mr. Nickname's behalf."

Sparrow rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs where the beetles were. He ignored Arfur's growl of annoyance at being ignored and kept his eyes out for the beetles. He turned his gaze up to the roof to see where the beetles were hiding in the beams. He grabbed the toy gun and glanced down at it. Beetles weren't all that tough, but he doubted his toy would be enough to kill them. It was his only option though, so all he could do was hope for the best.

He eyed one that was off a bit away from the others and aimed. He was amazed when he saw the bug fall to the ground dead with just the one shot. Having tested out the gun, he quickly picked off the other four and headed back down.

Arfur was glaring daggers at him. "Oh, crap! Do you know what I had to do to get those beetles!? I'll remember this, kid." He declared threateningly before stomping away.

Balthazar praised him giddily as he dug out the coin from his pocket for them. Rose just stared at him for a moment with that he guessed was surprise. "Wow, I didn't know you were so good at fighting." She praised him with a smile. Even though she was smiling Sparrow noticed the brief flash of sadness in her eyes.

He just shrugged slightly in response, not bothering to comment on it. He understood that it wasn't him that she was disappointed with, but the fact she hadn't been of any help with the small task. After what happened with Rex he was sure she was feeling down with herself.

Rose sighed quietly at his lack of response and grabbed his hand to lead him away from the warehouse so they could begin their search once again. After a moment of glancing around she suddenly turned sharply towards a box that was by the warehouse stairs. "I think I found another warrant!" She said happily, running over and inspecting the paper. "That's two now and we've gotten another gold coin. We're really doing it."

Right as she finished speaking, they heard something bounding towards them. They quickly turned too see what it was and saw that it was the dog from earlier, this time with something in its mouth. Curious, Sparrow gently took it from the dog, who seemed all too eager to hand it over. "It's another warrant." Rose said in surprise, before petting the dog. "Good boy!" She praised the dog, who barked back happily, and stared at her expectantly.

Rose frown a bit sadly, easily guessing what the dog was up to. "We still can't keep you, though." The dog whimpered pitifully, and once again Sparrow found himself being drug away.

The next twenty minutes of their time was spent listening to a drunk man named Pete and his angry friend named Betty argue over Pete's drinking habits. Despite Betty's instance on him stopping his drinking, Pete told them if they got his alcohol back from Magpie, a well known thief in the area, he'd give them a gold for it.

So, they headed to a nearby alley way where Magpie was commonly seen and got the bottle back with ease. The thief had been in a deep, drunken sleep so all they had to do, in Sparrow's case, was walk up and grab it.

When they got back though, Betty informed them that if they gave her the bottle instead of Pete, she would give them the gold piece. So, now it was just a moral issue, Sparrow supposed as he thought it over. It really didn't matter either way to him, but seeing Betty try so hard to help her friend was enough to make him give it to her instead of Pete. Besides, they could use one less drunk in Bowerstone Old Town. She also gave them another reward as well, though. Apparently someone had stuffed one of the warrants into the bottle much to Rose's glee.

Only a few minutes later they stumbled on the last warrant that was by a lamp post just a few feet from Pete and Betty. He wondered how they hadn't seen it earlier when they had been wandering around.

"That's all the warrants." Rose said, double checking to make sure they were all there. "Let's head back to Derek and give them to him."

Sparrow nodded and they started on their way back to Derek. Everything was fine until they were stopped in an alley by their least favorite person.

"Stop right there you little brats." Arfur demanded coldly.