Okay my lovely little followers, a long time ago I decided to write a Fable story. It was the first story I had ever posted on this site, and with the anniversary of my first year on the site coming up I have decided to revise and expand this story for all of you. So please read this. It was my greatest accomplishment, the first story that I had ever started and finished, and since then I have continued to write and please you with my tales of zombies, romance, Hunters and Huntresses, the Darkness Within us all, and of great Heroes and Fables. So I wish you all a fond anniversary.
The Rise of the Guild
It has been 20 years since the Guild burned in the uprising against the Heroes. Many great Heroes died that night and the Guild faded out of memory. One lone babe survived the fire, as the Guildmaster hurried her through the woods to find his way to Oakvale, to seek haven. This girl was Amara Collins and this is her story.
Amara moved around the house slowly, the dawn sun gleaming through the windows of the cabin in Oakvale. She had long thought about leaving to go find Heroes, to find answers about her bloodline and to rebuild the Guild in the eyes of the public. She had never found the courage, but today she gathering things into her pack for the long road; potions, food, money, and her mother's jeweled knife, which she treasured. She then went about gathering her weapons; her mother's bow the Cupid, and her father's scimitar the Black Panther. "Leaving so soon?" the old man called. He stood at the top of the stairs in his blue robe, his long and messy white hair and clean shaven face accented his piercing electric blue eyes.
"Guild Master, you shouldn't be up and about. Lie back down please." She said as she rushed over to him to set him down.
"I am not dead yet, nor am I a fool. You seek answers, and other Heroes." He said with a wry smile, the old man had raised her and been a wonderful father to the young girl, but he was sick and there was not much he could teach her about the ways of a Hero.
"I appreciate all that you've done for me Guild Master, but if I am to become a true Hero I must be trained; there must be other survivors from the Guild. I must find them and bring them together if we Heroes are to rebuild!"
The old man smiled gently, "Child you are so young and not yet as wise as I. But I know you will not listen so I will give you some good advice, take the caravan to Bowerstone with the crops we harvested this year and sell them there. Then head to the Market District and seek out the house of a man by the name of Thomas Cluck."
"Cluck, you mean like a chicken?" She cried out in bewilderment.
The old man chuckled, "You'll see why when you get there." He hugged her gently, "Go now child, you have a bright future ahead of you.
And so with that she left that town she called home for many years, looking back as Oakvale faded in the distance. It's simple oak trees, peaceful summer days, and the lovely scent of pies baking on the windowsills of the cottages. Her neighbors waved her good luck on her journey into the big city and her old neighbor Miss Freely approached the caravan and gave her an apple pie for the road. And so the caravan began to pass through Barrow Fields, the large expanse of green grass dotted with large manor houses on the mountains and traders in the valley. Then Darkwoods, twisted and rotten by the evil that lay in the swamp, the smell of bog gas and other scents she didn't want to know assaulted her nostrils.
Then finally Greatwood, which was a nice change of pace, with the autumn leaves falling ever so gently around them making a sea of reds, oranges, and gold. After making through a guard checkpoint they entered Bowerstone, the bustling metropolis with stone roads and large shops and buildings. It was different than Oakvale and she knew a farm girl like her stood out among the civilized folk. She worked her way over to a produce seller where she sold the harvest crops for a hefty portion of gold and went to find Cluck Manor. She spent hours searching the Northern district, which had only recently been made open to the public, and arrived at the mansion. It was a two story building with white painted walls and bronze chicken statues and marble chicken fountains in the front yard. The golden gates gleamed in the sunlight and she moved up to the door and used the chicken knocker. "Yes, yes I'm coming." Came the reply of the man on the other side, followed by hurried footsteps down the stairs.
The man who answered the door was dressed like nobility wearing a cuffed black overcoat and a frilled white shirt. His trousers were black with a golden stripe running down the seam and he wore fancy leather boots. His eyes were electric blue and he had short white hair, like the Guildmaster, but he had a tattoo of a purple thistle that wrapped around his left eye. "Ah I'm sorry, I don't have any gold on me at the moment give me a second." She looked at her clothes and realized he thought she was a beggar.
"Ah, n-no sir…" She struggled to get out stammering, "Actually I'm looking for a Hero, his name is…" He grabbed her by her collar and pulled her inside quickly and forcefully. He closed and locked the door, spinning to face her with a wild look in his eyes; lightning charged at his fingertips.
"Who sent you? Are you one of those damned Oakvale Anti-Hero blokes?" He growled, his presence making the shadows of the room build.
"N-no sir, I came from the Guildmaster." She looked away from his ferocious gaze, "He wanted me to find you."
The harshness in his eyes subsided and the lightning disappeared. "You're lucky he sent you, if you were from the Oakvale Anti-Hero League I would have killed you where you stand." He said bluntly dusting himself off.
She was a little shocked at his brutality, but she shrugged it off and held herself together as she looked him in the eyes, "I need someone to teach me the ways of a Hero!"
He stood quietly for a long time and she began to grow nervous if he was using some Hero method to evaluate her worth as an apprentice. "You've come to the wrong person then, I have nothing to teach nor do I wish to; Heroes are better left dead to history."
She was a little shocked by this response and followed him, "But you must help me! We're both Heroes and plus, if we can reform the Guild think of all the good we could do!"
He wheeled on her with an irritated expression, "Let me be clear, kid!" The word stung like a slap to the face, "People rebelled because they were afraid of us. Because we had become lethargic and though not all Heroes were corrupt, they had grown used to bullying the weak. The few pure Heroes left in the Guild are either dead or deep in hiding doing good in another country because Albion doesn't want us. I will not teach you, and you will never be a Hero!"
She planted herself firmly in the chair by his door, "Then I will not be leaving until you train me!"
He turned away and she sat there patiently. The next week passed by slowly as she sat there and waited, she began to count every detail of his house from the white wallpaper with thin black lines running down it, to the cuckoo clock in the hallway to his study. It had been two days since her food had run out and she was starving, she could smell the food in the kitchen calling her, but she could not bring herself to move. He walked up to her slowly as he descended the stairs, "Do you truly wish to learn the ways of a Hero? The more you know the harder it will be to deny it when they come for you, people or creatures that love to drink Hero blood."
She gazed weakly at him, "More than anything I want to be a Hero!"
"First lesson, get something to eat; I refuse to teach a corpse." He said as he helped her up and lead her to his kitchen.
She went to his kitchen, the nice marble counters and mahogany cabinets, and saw the meal he had prepared in the dining room atop his oak table; vegetables, lean meats, pasta, and delicious looking red wine. She gulped it all down not breaking stride until he entered the room, giving her a look of bewilderment as he was not sure how her tiny frame held that much food. "Are you done? If so I have a guest bedroom upstairs. The training will be grueling and I don't intend to take many breaks, so get as much rest as you can, is that understood?"
She nodded in agreement and followed him upstairs to her room, which had beautiful red wallpaper and a large bed with the comfiest sheets she had seen all week. She drew a bath and when she stepped out of the warm water she fell gently into the soft embrace of her mattress.
In the morning, she followed him down to the basement where he set his jacket on the stand and grabbed two training swords and threw one to her. "Our first lesson will be in the discipline of Strength. You don't strike me as a brute so I will teach you the basics of swordplay so you can learn to defend yourself and fight back if need be. Now prepare yourself!" He charged her and swung overhead as she instinctively raised her sword to block it and tried to stop the onslaught of blows that followed. By the end of the first hour she was drenched in sweat and covered with cuts that stung as the sweat poured into the wounds.
"We'll try again soon." He said wiping his brow, "Since I have gauged where you stand in swordplay I can train you enough in three weeks time…but it will be the most difficult three weeks of your life."
The next three weeks were brutal physical exercises and combat routines to train her to be agile and strong. She would run through Bowerstone carrying a large weight on her back or he would have her chop wood and lift small boulders. They practiced swordplay every day, until they came to the final test, "Today, I ask that you get one scratch on me. I will use my sword from my Hero days, Excalibur and I will test you. Pass and I train you in Will, fail and we continue training for another few weeks." The incentive to not do these ridiculous drills was enough for her to draw her blade quickly. He drew the golden blade from its sheath, the blade glittered with a reflective sheen as he spun the sword and tested its weight. "I have not fought with this sword in five years, when I accumulated enough gold to buy this mansion and live easy for a few years I gave up being a Hero. So now I will show you how a real Hero fights." He rushed in with a side swipe, but she anticipated it and blocked. However, the gold began to bleed from his sword and hers began to turn into gold. She broke away and stared in awe as the middle of her blade had turned to gold.
"Oh I forgot to mention, Excalibur can turn anything I attack to gold by drawing on my Will. It's how I paid for this mansion and my charities, balverine and hobbe statues sell well in the market. I can also do this!" The blade turned a hot orange as he sliced cleanly through her blade leaving a melting glob at the end of it. She dropped the blade and ran for her father's sword in the corner, rolling to grab it, and drew the obsidian scimitar. She dropped into a fighting stance, holding the blade behind her back and began to stalk Thomas like a cat before lunging in slashing, feigning, and reversing. Driving him back until he was against the wall where she simply cut his sleeve.
Thomas smiled gently, "You passed." He wheezed, before both of them collapsed panting. Thomas stood slowly and his shirt fell off to reveal two more tattoos a golden guild seal with wings on his back, and a green set of scales with a crown over them on his chest.
"What do your tattoos mean?" She asked, still trying to catch her breath.
He sighed softly, "When the guild fell, me and three other Heroes retreated to Aurora which was the homeland of one of the Heroes, Jon the Stonewall. Along with Richard Shard and Warren Mest we all lived and trained there for ten years. In Aurora tattoos are marks of power or symbolic significance. Green is the color of growth, so the scales and crown is for a growth of wealth and status. The golden Guild Seal is for the prosperity of Heroes that the Guild and Heroes will one day live again; I believe meeting you was fate pushing me towards this dream. The purple thistle is for my mind, purple represents dreams and since a thistle is resilient so is my mind. It is a ward of sorts to keep me safe, now to begin your training." Suddenly greenish blue lines began to arc around his body forming symbols and patterns. "These are the Will lines of a Master. We shall begin instruction of it alongside Skill, because if you want to gather Heroes we must act quickly."
They began their next lesson and over the next three days he taught her of the essences of Will and Skill. "Will is to harness your mana or life energy and turning it into power. What sets Heroes apart from others is that even in our strength or speed we draw on Will to supply those super-human feats. Without Will the other two are nothing." She focused hard drawing all of her energy into her palms only to create a measly spark.
"It's not working!" She screamed in exasperation.
"We're only three days in, and it's not supposed to be. If anyone could harness Will there would be no Heroes and we would be fighting constantly with one another. The very reason the Old Kingdom collapsed is because the children of Archon saw fit to oppress the people. Just as they were overthrown so were we." He said as he focused on his meditation.
She was not pleased with the answer, but she continued to train growing more powerful each day. Thomas said she had a natural affinity for Skill as she beat his agility obstacle course in record time and they continued to practice swordplay and archery. And as a year passed she grew stronger in the three disciplines until strong enough to use a variety of spells though none of them were Master level, a natural ability with archery, and she was a master swordswoman. "It looks like you've still got a way to go with Will and we haven't even started the more advanced aspects of Skill. I think we need help, but luckily you wanted to find more Heroes and I know three who would be willing to teach you. They were my three companions that went with me to Aurora. We'll start with your Skill teacher, Warren Mest."
Okay so to anyone who read the original, I had a very long first chapter that I felt was far too rushed so I will go ahead and say that this story will be much longer and will contain all new content. I have changed the characters personalities to bring out the chemistry between characters more. Amara as you can already see is much shyer than she was and Thomas is far more stern. Please read and review.