The Second Interview

By Lazar A. Janus

Lord Lazy Pants on FanFiction

Lord Hirosuke on DeviantArt

I woke up the next day after having a nice breakfast and headed on back to Libor-I mean the Bardson residence and knocked on the door. The lights were out and no one seemed to be home. I pulled my cloak tighter around myself, and sat down on the short stoop and waited. Hopefully someone would be by and tell me where he was, or he would come down. Perhaps in his old age he had taken up the practice of sleeping in. The guildmaster once told me that in his youth he had been a bit of a lazy lad. I had been sitting there for about an hour when his son came by on his way to the lighthouse for one reason or another. He spotted me and jogged over.

"Pa had to leave the town for a bit. In the middle of the night some guards came by and asked for his assistance. I don't know the specifics, but I saw him leave in full armor, carrying the Murren Greataxe. It's gotta be trouble because he only uses heavy weapons for real big problems. It was right around dawn that they left. I dunno when they'll be back."

I sighed, got up, shook his hand, and thanked him. I was about to turn and leave when he stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"I have lighthouse duty today, It's a pretty simple job you can come with me and I can recount some stories to you about me pa from my childhood…at least those that I remember. He wasn't around much when I was real small, he spent a lot of time in Snowspire, learning what he could from the oracle. When he was around though, we had some fun."

I thanked him, and told him that I would love to hear any tales he had to share. It would be interesting hearing about the Hero of Oakvale in the words of his own son. We took the short walk to the lighthouse. It was rather difficult keeping up with his long stride, but not impossible. He unlocked the door and let me go through first and then he entered and closed and locked the door behind himself. He told me to take a seat at the table and wait for a moment while he tended to the light house light. It wasn't a long wait, he came back in a moment or so and sat down across from me, pulled a kettle of cider out from his rucksack as well as a loaf of sourdough bread and some cheddar cheese. He turned to the hearth when I stopped him and shot a small fireball, setting the logs ablaze instantly. He chuckled, told me that his father used to do the same thing. I shrugged and said it was probably a guild thing. He set the kettle on a hook above the fire and let it get nice and warm while he began slicing thick pieces of bread and cheese, setting them on earthenware plates that he had taken from a shelve prior to going up to tend to the light.

"Let's see…tales about me pa." He muttered, as he fiddled with the small knife. "I can tell you about the first time he took me fishing. It's not a huge adventure, but I think one of Pa's lesser known feats is that he holds the record for catching the largest fish…He loved wearing that fisherman's hat around town. I think it was his favorite thing to wear. He showed me a portrait a trader had drawn for him once. It was him when he was young and just starting out as a hero. He was maybe a little bigger than you are now…He was wearing bright leather armor, leaning on a longbow, and wearing his hat. He told me he only stopped wearing the hat on adventures when he had nearly lost it while fighting a sprite. He started wearing a helm after that."

I interrupted him there and asked if he could tell me the story he had mentioned earlier. These Bardson men all had that nasty habit of going off on a tangent while telling a story. I fear for the other Bardson boy's career…if he can't stay on topic while telling a story he won't do well. In any case, at my gentle nudge in the direction of the story, the man grinned and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, me and my brother…we were pretty young. I was twelve and Percy was about seven. We had come home from school early and Pa told us we was gonna go on a fishing trip with him that weekend. Percy was never the outdoorsy type, so he just shrugged and went upstairs. I always wanted to go fishing though. I'd seen Pa's golden fish a bunch of times and I wanted to catch one for myself so bad. Anyway, the rest of that week went by pretty quickly. Next thing we know, It's Friday morning, dawn. Pa was crouched at the foot of my bed, Percy slung over his shoulder and nudging me with the tip of his index finger, a look of sheer glee on his face. 'C'mon Brom,' he said in an overly loud whisper, 'S'time to go on the fishing trip!' I hurdled out of bed and quickly pulled on my trousers and boots, hastily pulling on my shirt and grabbing the only hat I owned and raced down the stairs, Pa following me slowly, trying wake Percy from his slumber. When we I got downstairs pa had made a wreck of Ma's kitchen, trying to make bacon, eggs, hotcakes, I think at one point he had gotten so mad on a frying pan he had ripped it in two, because there were two halves of the same frying pan lying in opposite ends of the room. Percy finally woke up when Pa had set him in a seat in front of a plate of breakfast. He dug in, as did both Pa and me own self. We ate until all the food was gone, except for two plates, one for Ma, and one for our little sister, Theresa. She was only two at the time, so she wasn't coming. After we ate, Percy went back upstairs to get dressed and pa took me outside and handed me my pack and fishing pole. After a few minutes of waiting, Percy came down, Pa passed him the other pack and pole left over, and then shouldered his own pack and told us to follow him. He took us up to the town cullis gate, told us to take his hands and then he closed his eyes, breathed in deeply and the next thing I know we're glowing brightly, and then we're in a sunny green meadow. Percy asked Pa where we were and he told we were in Barrow Fields, outside of Oakvale, the town that he came from. He told us to follow him down the path that would lead us to where we were going to fish. He told us we had come here because the waters near our home weren't safe, and this had always been his favorite spot to fish, so he decided to bring us here. After a while we left the path and walked past the demon door who kept shouting at us to 'Get FAT!' Pa rolled his eyes and told us to keep walking. We got down to the stream and Pa told us to set our packs down and take out our rods. As he told us to do so, he had already set his down and sat down on the side of the stream, pulling his boots off and set them next to his pack. He pulled his rod, and let his feet dangle out into the water as he let his line out Me and Percy shrugged and did as he did. We sat there for hours waiting for something to happen. I'd managed to hook myself an old boot, and Percy hand managed to snag what looked like a rusty dagger, which Pa scowled at, and flung off into oblivion, muttering something about the Gray family. I never understood that part, but whenever something went wrong Pa would blame the Gray family. Anyway, the day ended and Pa had us take our packs and rods and he led us down to the nearby trader camp, and we slept in their big tent for the night."

I was beginning to regret asking him to tell me this story. There wasn't much good in it. It seemed like an average father-son fishing trip to me. While he had been telling the story Brom, as I had learned his name to be, had poured some of the warmed cider into some earthenware mugs he had pulled from the same shelf as the plates, put some spices into the cider and passed one over to me, taking the other one for himself.

"Now I know this story's been pretty boring so far; average family fishing trip and all that, aye? Well, this is where it gets good. We'd been sleeping peacefully for a while when a woman wakes Percy and myself and tells us to stay put while she went to check on her own children. There sounded like there was some serious fighting going on outside. Well, there was. Bandits had snuck in to the camp during the night and had killed all the guards, and were about to sneak into Oakvale. But apparently Pa had heard one of the Guards cry out when he was killed and had sprung up (at least that's what the woman had told us had happened). When the lady left me n' Percy snuck over to the opening of the tent to see what was happening. Out there was pa, fighting off the bandits stark naked except for his knickers, wielding a guard's sword. Laying all around him were dead bandits. The old man was screaming profanity that would made a sailor blush, and shooting lightning from the tip of his middle finger at some, and slicing the heads off of others. I wasn't sure who was more scared, the people in the tent, or the bandits, because about a second after me and Percy had started watching, a bandit's crossbow bold had grazed him and had sliced the end off of his briefs. He was standing there fighting them. At that point me and Percy had to look away. Some of the women hadn't stopped looking, but…well…no lad wants to see his old man's manhood. After a while the bandits had retreated, regrouping near what Pa had told us was the 'Gray House'. Pa used that time to take out his guild seal and call the Guild Master and tell him what was going down. He told him he had it under control, but he wanted to ask him to send someone to his house and fetch him his gear. The Guild Master replied and said that he would. A few minutes later a guild apprentice appeared with a pile of armor, Avo's Tear, and a Master Longbow that shifted between glowing red, green, and silver. Pa thanked the man and set about pulling on the shining, platinum armor, setting his quiver over his shoulder, slid his sword into its harness over his shoulder, and shouldered his bow. He then picked up his helm and stared at it for a moment, sighing, setting it on a table before kneeling down before Percy and Me and setting one hand on my shoulder and the other hand on Percy's. It was then that he told us one of the most important things he ever said to each of us. I think it was more pertinent to me than my brother, but I think he took it to home as well. Anyhow, he kneeled down before us, set his hands on our shoulders and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. 'Sons,' he started

'I want you two to know that I love you and that I don't want to watch what happens next. I'm not saying that I won't be returning. I can deal with a bandit siege for hours upon hours. When I was younger I went to this spot and fought the undead for four days straight. Some dumb bandits will be easy pickings. But I don't want you lads to watch this and think what I'm doing is amazing and spend the next years begging me to let you join the guild. Or worse, I don't want you to watch this and think that I'm a monster. Just…please, go to the back of the tent. Try and keep the kids calm.'

He pulled a dagger out of his boot and handed it to me and left the tent as he pulled his bow out and stood in front of the gate to Oakvale. Me and Percy gulped and looked at each other and went to join the other kids in the tent Percy played to his strengths and entertained them with funny rhymes and riddles and I sat behind him and watched the opening of the tent, keeping a firm grip on my father's huge dagger. He later told me it was called a dirk. After a few minutes there was the roar of a large group of people shouting in unison as they ran down the hill. From where I was sitting, I saw a flurry of arrows went flying towards them. About ten of them fell mid-stride, tripping those around them. After that I saw another two volleys of arrows hit those who had fallen. None of them got up. No more arrows flew after that. The bandits had grown quiet and had stopped running. The night was silent except the sound of steel as Pa drew his sword, and let out a blood curdling roar, and ran into the crowd of bandits. The bandits fell in droves, and Pa was nothing more than a blur. As soon as that wave had fallen he returned to his previous spot, out of my range of sight. Another wave of bandits began its way down the hill, slightly more careful this time."

At this point I stopped him. Bandits using actual strategy and coming in waves? This didn't sound like normal bandit activity to me. I voiced my concerns to him and he just made a motion for me to hush up. Sighing, I complied and returned to taking notes.

"Anyway, They were coming again, dashing from cover to cover. Pa was able pick a few of the dumber ones out with ease, but others were able to find better cover. A few crossbow bolts made it in Pa's direction, but if any hit him, he made no noise indicating such. I was able to counter snipe some of their snipers, after a few minutes of this The remainder of the wave retreated once more. They continued these tactics for some time. It was well into the middle of the day when they stopped. At this point a single figure began walking down the slope. He was wearing simple enough looking clothes, though the design was rather unusual. They were made of a thin fabric; he wore trousers, a pristine white shirt that laced up at the chest. On top of that he wore a jacket made of what appeared to be the same crimson fabric with thin, thin black stripes as the trousers. His face was hidden behind a cloth mask, and he had long straight black hair that reached the middle of his back. In his hand was a master katana, which shone with a magic that I couldn't place. Pa later told me that it probably seemed to have a sharpening and a piercing augmentation on it. He walked slowly down the hill, stopping just at the edge of where I could see from where I was sitting. It was quiet for a long while as he and Pa talked. They spoke for a long time until the masked individual began laughing manically and then disappearing. No more bandits came after that and Pa entered the tent, removed his helmet and told us we could come out now. I gave him back his dirk Percy hugged his leg. He patted us on our heads, picked up our bags in one hand and told us to grab his other. We did and then he teleported us home. He dropped the two of us off at home, and went upstairs and came back down wearing a very fancy set of robes that I'd only seen him wear one other time. It was when a group of apprentices were graduating from the guild. Apparently they were his official robes as the Guild Champion and Mayor of Bowerstone. He still had Avo's Tear strapped to his back. He kissed mum, told her the skinny of what had happened, promised he would give her a more in-depth recount later and he'd get her a new frying pan to replace the one he had broken and left for the cullis port. After that I don't know what had happened, you'll have to ask him yourself; he refused to ever speak to me, or Percy, or even Mum, about what had happened in the next following months that he wasn't home."

He had stopped talking after that and took a long draught of his cider after that, which had long since cooled. I hadn't expected a story about a fishing trip to turn into what I had just heard. I don't think anyone would have. I'm glad I had been able to take notes, even if they were slightly illegible; I'd be able to make heads from tales later when I rewrote it. I thanked Brom, and carefully rolled up the parchments that contained the story and put them in a tube for safety and then set them in my satchel. I scarfed down the rest of my sandwich, downed the rest of my cider, thanked Brom once more, and bade him farewell. I wanted to put these scrolls in the lockbox I had left in the inn. I was halfway around the pier when something crashed right in front of me, knocking me back. People came running out of buildings to see what had happened. Brom was among them; He helped me to my feet and then went to take a closer look at what had crashed to the ground. The dust and snow that had been kicked up was starting to clear and whatever it was began to get up. The shape was unmistakable.

"Pa!" Brom called out as he ran over to his father, me right behind him. "Are you alright Pa?" The man quickly asked.

"I'm fine m'boy. For now at least, I dunno about later. But he's gone for now, but I don't know for how long it'll stay that way."

It was at this point that I asked "Who was gone?", to which Liberator (I call him Liberator now, because it seems the only name fitting for him when he's in full battle gear) sighed before answering.

"Krom of Blades, the supposed 'Son of Jack'." The old man grunted as he took of his helm and spat into the crater he had created.

TBC

Author's Notes: I'm back. I just replayed Fable The Lost Chapters, and I was full of inspiration for this. I'm taking this in a slightly different route that I thought I was going to. I didn't start this chapter with this idea. I starting it with the idea that they'd catch a huge ass marlin or something, but it just kinda…went to where it went. There will still be humor, and funny stories. My style of narrative hasn't changed much in the last year or two since I first started this fiction, I still draw huge inspiration from Brian Jacques (I fucking love the Redwall series, but I could never do it's world justice, also, I haven't read the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman Series, is it any good?) and I still prefer humor over drama, so don't expect a whole lotta that, though if I decide to get into the time where Will's wife dies, there will of course be drama, maybe some alcoholism or blue mushroom use, I dunno. These chapters kind of go where they want. I come up with them on the fly, and I think it shows in how characters tend to ramble. Probably have WAY too many run on sentences in these. Anyhow, I hope you liked this chapter, and expect another one at any time. Could be next week, could be next year, could be anywhere in between or byond, I dunno. I would like feedback though, so review if you like.