Disclaimer: I don't own Fable or any of the brilliant characters that Lionhead made.
The road to rule
Annie's POV
I didn't know where I was. Pale, white tendrils of mist were obscuring my view and clinging at my body. I walked forward, my footfalls muted, making almost no noise. My every sense was heightened, waiting for what was to come.
Suddenly I heard a familiar noise, barking.
Benedict, my dog, was somewhere ahead of me in the fog. I began to run forward following the sound of his bark. "Benedict!" I yelled.
I found him soon sat under a tree that loomed out of the mist, the branches looking briefly like skeletal arms. He turned to look at me, his tongue lolled from his mouth and he panted as always.
I knelt slightly, the cold mud seeping through the cloth of my black adventurer's trousers to my knee. "Benedict!" I called softly "Come here boy!"
He stood and then ran off in the opposite direction. I ran after him, calling, trying to bring him back. Suddenly I arrived at the edge of a pit. It was large and haphazardly done. A spade was sticking out the ground on the other side.
I heard another bark and I realised Benedict was in it so I walked up to the edge and looked down. A growing sense of horror of and revulsion claimed me, and I cried out.
Benedict was sat on a pile of bodies and each one I recognised. Alex, Marion, Joel, Haley and Christian. All of my loved ones, thrown in a hole. Some had cut-throats, others had been shot. Benedict, too, had a bullet hole in his right side still oozing blood. It was stained around his muzzle too and I wondered if he'd been picking at his wound until I saw that Alex had had his throat ripped out. No, no it couldn't be…
I screamed and sat up. A dream, just a horrid guilt soaked dream. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. They felt clammy with the cold, as was the rest of me. Nightmares were just part and parcel for sleep with me. The things I'd experienced had left their marks on my psych and I always expected to wake like this.
My survival instincts began to override my fear and I grabbed my Master Katana from its sheath and slid out from my blankets into a crouch. The ship I had taken back from The Tattered Spire had landed first at Bloodstone, by my request, where I had found that my Christian and Haley had had their throats cut in the night. The perpetrators had left no clues but I suspected the Assassins guild. Lucien had used them in the past against me, it made sense for stealth to be used in Bloodstone. With no police force to speak of, the people policed themselves. If Lucien had sent guards they would have been killed and my family would have likely survived.
I waited for a good ten minutes. No bandits crashed into my camp as I kind of hoped they would. A fight would distract me from my thoughts and distractions were very welcomed. I sighed, put the weapon away and stood. My legs complained about the uncomfortable position they'd been forced into but I ignored it as I stared up to the heavens. The moons position in the sky indicated it was still a good few hours until dawn and crashing about in the middle of the night in the Bandit coast was unwise. I rarely travelled at night, only if a place was too dangerous to risk sleeping. This little hollow I'd discovered was relatively safe and in my fifteen years of adventuring it had never been discovered. I settled myself back down to get some more sleep, but my nightmare wouldn't leave my mind's eye.
It was mostly symbolism. While I may not have pulled the trigger that killed them or wielded the knife that cut their throats, I blamed myself for being unable to save them. My family or millions of people, the choice had been. I'd done what I had to, I'd been the hero.
And what had it gotten me? What had any of this gotten me?
Revenge for Rose? Fame and substantial fortune? I had nothing. No family, no friends, not even my faithful companion. My Benedict who'd jumped in front of the bullet and died in vain. I closed my eyes, trying to banish the tears. I hadn't cried since the day I returned home from the Spire the first time around, when I met Marion again. I rubbed my hands over my face and turned onto my side. I had a long way to travel before I arrived in Bowerstone. I needed to sleep.
I was dreaming again, but this time I was aware of the fact. I was standing at the end of a long pathway which cut off directly behind me. It was surrounded by water that stretched off into the distance. At regular intervals down the path way, were large, iron gates each one shut. At the end of the path was the huge hulking shape of Castle Fairfax towering into the sky, even at this distance, intimidating. I walked towards the first gate in front of me and stepped back in surprise as Theresa appeared.
"Welcome, Sparrow." She said. Her hands clasped in front of her body as usual.
"Where are we?" I asked. I had realised that my guild master had invaded my dreams once again, and had designed this setting.
"This is the road to rule, a path that leads to the throne of Albion, via revolution. Each gate represents growing support for the cause." She smiled, a rare occurrence. "But don't worry Sparrow, it isn't your path to take."
I let out a relieved breath. Revolution did not sound fun. Throwing myself into more long-winded quests was not what I wanted to do, now Lucien was defeated and dead. The fact that the focus of my life for such a long time was dead was still an alien concept to me.
"Then why are we meeting here?" I questioned.
"I have one more thing to ask of you, Sparrow." She cut me off when I tried to respond. "I know I promised not to interfere with your life after Lucien's death, but fate and destiny is forcing my hand."
I sighed, giving myself in to my fate. "What do you want me to do?" I asked with a long suffering tone.
"Albion is on the brink of disaster. Lucien had no heir and the uncertainty is breading riots. You must go to Bowerstone and declare yourself Queen."
I gaped at her. "No Theresa! I can't be a Queen, I haven't got a regal bone in my whole body! I couldn't rule my way out of a paper bag!"
She remained unmoved by my pleading. "As Lucien's killer, you have a legal claim to the throne, and you will be a much better Queen than you realise."
I shook my head in disagreement
"Now wake up, you have a long road ahead of you."
Walter's POV
The headquarters of the Albion army was ahead of me. Tall and imposing, holding most of the officers that led the most destructive force in Albion. Or one of them at least. I took a calming breath and walked to the front door.
A soldier inside directed me towards my destination and I walked into a small waiting room. There was only one other man in there, sat by the door to the examination room. He looked up and smiled. "Here for a medical too?" He asked.
"Yes. My names Walter Beck." I sat down next to him and took a closer look. His hair is dark brown and brushed forwards into a quiff of sorts which flops over dark brown eyes. His smile is cocky. I like him immediately.
"Jack Swift, though most just call me by my second name." We shook hands.
"Well, then Swift. Why are you joining the army?" I asked.
"Oh you know, the usual. Fame, glory, women who love a man in uniform." He smiled slightly "What about you Walter?"
"Needed a job." I lied. There was no way I'd tell a stranger my actual reasoning. "Are we the only people who are joining?"
Swift was interrupted by the examination door being pushed open and a gruff voice questioning "Walter Beck?"
I stood to follow and nodded when Swift said "Good luck."
The doctor looked up from a pile of paper with my name on as I entered and said. "Stand over there." I followed his gaze to the corner of the room which held a table with stethoscopes and other manor of tools on it.
He finally walked over and said "Right mister Beck please remove your shirt."
I complied and he started the examination. It was long, and boring and not worth describing. However eventually I was given a clean bill of health and I was in the army. It was right when I was doing my last button up when the soldier from the entrance rushed in and shouted "Doctor have you heard?" He didn't give a chance for the man to answer before yelling "King Lucien has been killed by Sparrow!"
Balls.
I am so very sorry it took me so long to update. I honest to God tried but I'd open the document and stare at it and get this feeling of just not being bothered.
But it doesn't matter because now its here. ;-)
So how did I do? Is Walter and Swiftie close to the in game characters?
