Disclaimer: I do not own the Fable universe. Characters you do not recognize were created by me for the purposes of this story. I have made some changes to the region of Silverpines, where most of my story takes place. It is much larger. The village in the game is larger and there are larger homes, and there is a small, crudely made arena. There are still balverines though, plenty of them, though they hide amongst the people for the most part.
Also, I have based most of what I suspect the behaviour of a balverine to be on the behaviour of wolves. That being said, not everything I describe is 100% wolf behaviour. Simply put, wolves inspire much of the behaviour I describe, but I have taken some creative liberties.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story, any and all feedback is appreciated! - Fallon.
Chapter One
Maya, the rebel princess of Albion, pivoted and squeezed off a round from her pistol into the balverine`s chest. The massive creature howled, falling back from the sheer force of the impact. The chilly air of the valley began to freeze its blood as soon as it spurted from the wound.
She reloaded the Dragonstomper .48 and fired off another shot.
The bullet cut through the air with amazing grace, striking the balverine between the eyes. The beast swayed and then finally collapsed.
Maya stood in the middle of the frozen field, panting from the battle. Despite the cold, her silver-blond hair was matted to her neck with sweat.
She looked around, the remaining balverines stared at her but did nothing. Maya kicked the corpse of the white balverine she had killed. Their leader was dead, and with it, their desire to fight.
She emptied her pistol into the dead balverine at her feet and the others fled as her shots echoed through the valley. She wanted nothing more for them to attack her, just so she could send them to meet their leader. Give me a reason, she taunted.
Balverines held a particular spot in her heart, to say she hated them was an understatement. They were mindless, blood thirsty killers that preyed on the people of Albion – her charges. Therefore, she thought nothing of pumping a few good rounds into them.
"Ma'am?"
She touched the pulsing guild seal in her pocket. "Yes, Jasper?"
"It seems that Sir Walter would like you to meet him at the Mistpeak Monorail station. It seems it is time to contact your next potential allies. "
"A monorail? Meaning a small box suspended from the air that I am supposed to trust to remain suspended over a cavern?" It did not sound very appealing.
Jasper chuckled, "Yes, ma'am. I am sure you can trust its structural integrity, it was designed and engineered by Reaver Industries -"
"If you are trying to convince me, it is not working my friend." She said with a roll of her eyes.
"Very sorry, miss."
Maya laughed, "Don't worry about it, Jasper, I'm sure it isn't half as bad as I suspect it to be."
Hale, her faithful canine whimpered beside her.
She looked down at him and smiled, rubbing behind his ears to calm the poor creature. "Don't worry, boy, I am sure it's not nearly as bad as we fear."
Ultimately, it turned out to be about a million times worse that she suspected. The monorail cart had exploded before their very eyes and plummeted into the abyss of the cavern below. She could hear the passengers screaming from inside the flaming cart as it fell.
"That didn't explode from the inside, Maya, something attacked it!" Walter hollered as he ran towards what he suspected was the gate to the lifts.
She leaped over the rail and hurried to him as he pried the gate open with his sword. Once the gate gave, they ran to the lift. Walter held his breath until the lift touched the bottom safely and didn't exhale until he was out of it.
They proceeded down the crude path until they came upon the burning remains of the monorail cart. Short, pudgy creatures that smelled worse than anything Maya had encountered before were climbing over the red hot steel, clawing at the burning, terrified people inside.
Maya picked off the ones on the cart that were clawing at the people inside while Walter hurried to get them out.
The hobbes finally dead or dying, Maya holstered the Dragonstomper and sprinted forward, jumping on the cart and desperately pulling at the twisted metal. Her hands were burning and the metal was threatening to burn her feet through the soles of her boots, but she could not bring herself to give up, not while there was still a chance to help them.
"Maya!" Walter screamed, roughly pulling her off the cart.
She did not understand what he was doing. "There are people in there, Walter! Let me go!"
He grabbed her shoulder and made her face him. "They're gone, Maya!"
"They are still in there!"
Walter lowered his voice. "They've died."
She looked over her shoulder and felt her knees go weak. There were charred arms sticking out of the wreckage, frozen during their final moments as they tried to escape the fire.
Maya watched the fire, the heat making her skin uncomfortably warm.
Walter grabbed her arm, worried by the sullen expression on her face. "We tried, Maya..."
"And failed." She said stoically.
Walter led her past the burning monorail cart, which had begun to fall apart. "We cannot always win, Maya, it's the way the world works."
"Well then it's not fair." She knew she sounded like a child, but for the time being she did not care. She had tried to go against what people expected her to be as a princess her entire life. They expected her to be polite, she wasn`t. They expected her to do as she was told, she didn`t. They expected her to be a lady but she spat in their face. No, she was not what they wanted her to be.
"No," he admitted sadly, "it's not."
"But then again," she whispered sadly to herself as she followed Walter, "life isn`t."
After fighting their way past hundreds of the pudgy creatures, Maya and Walter emerged in the dank swamplands of Mourningwood.
"We are supposed to find allies...here?" Maya wasn't convinced anything other than mosquitoes and toads lived in the humid, depressing region. Both were of little use to her.
"Hopefully."
His answer didn't make her feel very confident. "Hopefully?"
Walter shrugged. "At night this region becomes one of the most dangerous in all of Albion."
"How so?"
Walter rubbed the back of his neck nervously, knowing she was not going to like his answer. "Hollow men are a recurring problem for the area, many of the original inhabitants here have been forced to move on to Bowerstone in order to escape the nightly attacks."
Maya looked up to the sky, the sun was beginning to set. "We don't have much time, don't we, Walter?"
He kept walking, but shook his head.
"I hate hollow men..." She muttered under her breath. She had seen one once years ago, when traveling to a remote town with her parents. Her father had killed it with one shot, but the memory still stuck with her.
Walter chuckled, having heard her, and glanced back over his shoulder. "More or less than balverines?"
"Less," she said without hesitation, "balverines are animals, nothing more."
A huge fort appeared before them from the smog.
"Lets just hope that makes them easier to kill." Walter said with a smirk.
They stopped at the gate and Walter looked up to the terrified guard along the battlements.
"Be you men, or be you hollow men?" The boy asked, his voice quivering.
"Are you daft, boy?"
"S-Sir Walter?" The boy stammered, not sure if he could trust what he saw.
Walter laughed. "The very same."
The gates to the fort were opened and the Princess stepped in, eager to meet the potential allies Mourningwood had to offer.
She hoped they would make the trip worth while.
Meanwhile, in Silverpines...
On the edge of the region stood a dilapidated mansion. It was covered in moss and in dire need of repair but no one in the village cared enough to fix it. The iron fence that circled the property was in the same state as the house, broken and old, but it was not needed to keep people out – the rumours of what went on in the house were enough of a deterrent.
No one had lived in the mansion for over fifty years, yet candles flickered inside, their light visible to those who walked past the property.
Inside the mansion, the wallpaper was peeling from water damage and age. Candles had been placed on various tables down the halls and the wax had melted down, keeping them fixed in place. The paintings that hung in the hallway had been damaged by water and fire and the paint had begun to chip off.
In a parlour at the end of a long corridor, a man with silver hair sat next to the fireplace. He was not truly old, the silver in his hair was caused by something very different than the passing of time.
"Ezra?"
The silver haired man looked up from the flames and nodded to the young man who approached him. "What is it, Von?"
"I lost track of her as she took the path through the mountains to Bowerstone. She slaughtered a white balverine in Mistpeak though," he glared at his brother, "I'm not sure revealing ourselves to her is wise -"
Ezra twirled his glass, watching the wine swirl inside. "Slippery one, isn't she. Do not worry, brother, we are more than a simple white."
He looked to his brother. Von had entered his thirties, but his balverine blood kept him looking younger. His raven black hair touched his shoulders and was never brushed. He kept the sides of his head shaved, leaving a long, tangled mohawk. His eyes were blue, but they were so pale many often mistook them as white. There was no denying there was something...enigmatic and exotic about him.
Von bowed his head. "I am sorry brother, I have failed you," he exhaled slowly, "I will accept any punishment you give me."
Ezra shook his head. "That is not needed, Von. I suspect she has ventured to Mourningwood, the Swift brigade is stationed there."
"Will they be a problem?" Von asked, eager to know if he was going to be given the task of eliminating them.
"No, I do not suspect so," Ezra stood, "we know where they are, we just have to make sure they come here."
Von looked up. "How do we do that?"
The elder brother thought for a minute. "Hmm..."
Von smirked wickedly as his brother told him his plan, Ezra always did come up with the most creative ones.
They had secured the support of Swift and his men and made plans to leave for Industrial in the afternoon.
Maya relaxed into the cot, not caring that it was flat as a board and as thin as Captain Finn's skull - it was a vast improvement from the ground.
The Swift brigade, she suspected, would turn out to be excellent allies. The Major was bright, cheery and kind, without being a toe-kissing buffoon. Benjamin Finn, on the other hand, was a buffoon and a damned good-looking one at that. He put on a show and flirted with her in front of others, but she guessed that once they had a real conversation things would change.
Walter, Swift and Ben seemed happy enough, but Maya still wasn't sure she was.
They had so far to go and yet she had already lost so much.
"Elliot..." She whispered his name and cursed herself for the tears it brought on.
He was dead, and there was no bringing him back.
She angrily brushed aside her tears. She was a hero! Why couldn't she do something to bring him back to her? She sighed sadly, remembering her earlier conversation with Walter - life wasn't fair.
"Maya!"
She shot up and off the cot, tearing past the flaps of the tent and into the courtyard of the fort. The voice had been high pitched, something wasn't right.
"Maya!"
Ben ran up to her. "There is something you have to see!"
The way he looked and sounded scared her and she quickly followed him up the stairs to the battlements.
Others had gathered, but Ben pushed past them and pointed down. "Can you believe this?"
Maya looked in the direction he was pointing and gasped.
Standing at the gates were three huge balverines. The sight of them made her blood boil, but what was in the arms of the largest one made her heart stop mid-beat.
Swaddled in the creatures furry arms was a little girl with blond curls in a frilly white dress. She wasn't crying or struggling, in fact Maya swore she saw her smiling.
"For gods sake, shoot them!" a faceless soldier pleaded, "There is a child there!"
Ben shook his head. "No, we couldn't get them all and save the girl."
"I will go down." Maya said confidently, hurrying down the stairs as soon as the words left her lips.
Walter intercepted her at the gates. "You have to be smart about this, Maya, don't let your hatred -"
"Have a little faith in me, Walter." She said with a smirk and a wink.
The gates were opened and she slipped out to face the bizarre group, her hand resting on the Dragonstomper and Hale on her heels.