Sparrow's Journey: Chapter Sixteen

WRITTEN: 30 August 2012
==Chapter Sixteen: Becoming a Hero Again==
Now that the academy was open, Sparrow and Walter headed back to Bowerstone - Sparrow said the academy would do better if people didn't know that he was involved - while Reaver went back to Bloodstone. He hated being inland for so long.
'We have to check in with the sheriff to let him know that we have returned, and so I can start my studying again,' said Walter, leading the way to the sheriff's office.
'Can I wait outside?' Sparrow asked hopefully. He didn't want to go near any other guards.
'No,' Walter said firmly, trying not to laugh at Sparrow's tone of voice when he asked.
To get to the sheriff's office, Sparrow and Walter had to walk through the guards barracks. To say that was enjoyable... if looks could kill, Sparrow would have been nothing more than a pile of ashes, if that. 
'Just ignore them,' Walter said out the corner of his mouth, making sure none of the other guards could see him talking.
What felt like hours later, though it was only a few minutes, they had arrived at the sheriff's office. 
Walter knocked on the door.
'Enter,' said Michael.
They entered.
'Ah… Walter. Just the guard I wanted to see.'
'Really, sir?' said Walter. He and Sparrow were standing in front of the sheriff's desk.
'Yes. I regret to inform you that your training has been terminated.’
'What?' Walter exclaimed, looking horrified, while Sparrow looked shocked. 'But… why?'
'I think you know why, Walter,' Michael said sternly. 'When you signed up, did you not sign a form saying that you didn't have a criminal record? That your slat was clean?'
'Oh,' was all Walter said, looking down at the floor. Sparrow looked at Walter, surprised. The teenager was the last person Sparrow expected to have a criminal record.
'Yes. How long did you think you would get away with it, Walter? You know that we go through all criminal files every few years to see if there are double up files and to archive certain ones.'
Walter did not reply.
'As a result, you are being fined two thousand gold pieces and you won't be receiving your pay this month.'
'Yes sir.'
'Please hand over your badge.'
Walter did.
'You are dismissed, son.'
'Yes, sir,' Walter muttered before leaving the room.
'Does it really matter that he committed a crime in the past?' Sparrow asked quietly, feeling for his friend.
'I'm afraid it does. Now, I see here that you actually went through and created Albion's first Academy in Brightwall, given no expense for the people to use it, is that correct?'
'Yes sir.'
'Hmm,' Michael looked at Sparrow thoughtfully. 'You have changed much since I last saw you, which is why I'm happy to let you work off all your crimes through community service.'
'Thank you, sir.'
'You will be notified when needed, and you no longer need constant supervision, but you must inform the guards when you are leaving any regions, is that understood?'
'Yes sir.'
'Very well, you are dismissed.'
Sparrow nodded his head and left the barracks. He found Walter waiting glumly outside.
'Are you alright, Walter?' he asked gently.
'No,' Walter muttered. 'I just lost my dream job. Father would be so disappointed. He and I always used to talk about the day when I would be a guard protecting the people of Albion. He said it was my destiny.'
'And he was right. I'm sure one day you'll be a guard.'
'Yeah… right. That will only happen when the rules change, and that's not likely to happen. Those rules have been around for hundreds of years.' He then sighed. 'I'll just have to find a job as a blacksmith or something. Just I might as well do that now. Wanna come?'
'Walter, you don't have to find a job straight away, especially one so beneath you -'
'Yes I do,' Walter interrupted. 'You don't understand. If I don't work, I won't be able to look after my grandmother. She's all I have left and vice versa. If I don't look after her, she'll die!'
'What about your mother?'
'What about her?'
'Isn't she still around or did I kill her too?'
'Don't know and don't care.'
'I take it you don't like your mother very much.'
'I've never met her. The slut ran off the moment I was born with the family fortune. Our family has been doing it tough ever since because of her. That's why I wanted to be a guard. It's the best paying job in Albion, which meant I would have been able to save up for a decent house for Grandmother, instead of the dump we currently live in.'
‘Where do you live?’
‘Old Town, but the house is run down. In my spare time I’ve been renovating it, but it hasn’t made much difference.’ Walter began to head towards the blacksmiths.
‘Then why don’t you move to Bowerstone Market with me?’ Sparrow suggested, making the younger man stop in his tracks.
‘Sorry?’
‘I have an empty house in Bowerstone Market, which I’m going to be moving into and it has some spare rooms…’ Sparrow trailered off, leaving the suggestion in the air.
‘Oh… no, we can’t. We can’t intrude –‘
‘Course you can. And you don’t need to pay any rent either,’ Sparrow interrupted. ‘Besides, I could use the company.’
‘I –‘
‘Walter, just go and get your grandmother and the necessary belongings,’ Sparrow said, laughing slightly.
‘Thank you, Sparrow!’ Walter said ecstatically, before hurrying off to get his grandmother.
The weeks that followed, Sparrow and Walter moved all of their belongings and Walter’s grandmother, Penelope’s, belongings into Sparrow’s Bowerstone Market house. They also spent the time getting use to each other’s habits. At first they were setting each other’s teeth on edge, but they eventually settled in well together. Once settled, Walter began worrying about income again, saying that he didn’t feel right about Sparrow paying for everything.
‘Why don’t you do bounty hunting?’ Sparrow suggested over breakfast one morning. ‘That way, I can still train you.’
‘Why are you so sure that I will become a guard?’ Walter asked for the hundredth time.
‘Because as long as it is what you want, you will,’ Sparrow replied with his usual answer. ‘Anyway, I think you’d make a fabulous bounty hunter. You can handle anything they’d throw at you, and I’ll be with you supervising every step of the way. Besides, with every job you do, the higher the income rate. Believe me. Before I went to the Spire, I use to do bounty hunter jobs and they were no big deal… if you know you know your stuff, and you know your stuff.’
‘You should listen to Sparrow, Walter. He knows what he is talking about,’ Penelope said, peering through her glasses at her grandson. ‘Your father would have wanted you to try. He wouldn’t have wanted you to give up after one little hiccup.’
‘Out of curiosity, what crime did you commit?’ Sparrow asked quietly.
‘Just after my father died, Grandmother got sick and I stole some medicine to help her,’ Walter replied, taking his grandmother’s hand.
‘I can’t believe they are holding such a petty crime against you!’ said Sparrow, eyes wide.  ‘The way they were acting, I thought you had accidently killed someone or blew something up!’
‘To the Albion guards, it was something as big as murder,’ Walter said glumly.
‘Well, they need to go and boil their heads,’ said Sparrow, stubbornly. ‘Come on,’ he said, getting to his feet.
‘Where are we going?’ Walter inquired, following his friend out of the house and towards Fairfax Gardens.
‘We’re going to see if we can find a bounty hunter job for you. It’s time you started training again.’
‘But –‘
‘No buts, Walter. There are plenty of people competent enough to build swords, serve drinks and chop wood, but there is a shortage in people being able to defeat trolls and balverines. That is why you need to become a bounty hunter. It is nearly the same as been a guard except with less power.’
‘I suppose that makes sense,’ muttered Walter, though he still didn’t look convinced. In fact he looked a little worried.
‘You know something, Walter? You worry too much,’ said Sparrow, noticing Walter’s worried expression. ‘Your first job will probably be slaying some beetles or something simple like that.’
‘That’s not what I’m worried about,’ replied Walter, hiding slightly from the nobles glaring at him and Sparrow.
Sparrow ignored the stuck-up nobles and headed for the head guard.
‘Hi, Nathan,’ said Sparrow, cheerfully, startling the guard. Sparrow’s smile widened when he saw how nervous the guard looked.
He’s enjoying this way too much, Walter thought as Nathan looked between the two friends, eyes wide.
‘What do you want, Shadow Fiend?’ asked Nathan, nervously, hand going straight for his sword.
‘Aww, is that any way to treat an old acquaintance?’ Sparrow asked mockingly.
‘Ignore him,’ Walter said hurriedly. ‘We were wondering – I mean – I was wondering if you had any bounty hunting jobs available.’
Nathan’s eyes suddenly became cold and a very nasty smile graced his features.
‘And here we were all thinking that you were a good kid,’ he said to Walter. ‘You know, when us guards heard about your little crime when you were younger, we all thought it was a misunderstanding, but now… I can see it was only a stepping stone. You are turning more into Shadow Fiend every day.’
Walter’s eyes narrowed.
‘Do you have a job or not?’ Walter asked coldly.
Smirking, Nathan handed Walter a few sealed scrolls before walking off.
‘That went well,’ said Sparrow, cheerfully. ‘Good to see he hasn’t changed.’
‘Do you think that I’ll end up like you were?’ Walter asked Sparrow nervously.
‘Of course not,’ Sparrow snorted. ‘Don’t let that guard get to you. You’re nothing like I was. You’re smart enough not to become what I became. Besides, you haven’t shown any sign of evil. The moment you do, then I’ll start to worry… and Penelope will skin you alive.’
Walter couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Come on, let’s get to work,’ Sparrow led Walter away from the glaring nobles.
And so the two friends got into a routine. Every day, they trained together whether it was Sparrow teaching him the way of the blade and gun, or taking him out on bounty hunting missions. Walter would even go with Sparrow on his community service and took note of Sparrow’s experience. However, there were several occasion when Sparrow refused to allow Walter to accompany him, as what happened during Walter, Sparrow and Penelope’s family dinner at the Cow and Corset.
As they were finishing their dinner a woman around Penelope’s age, known as Mrs Spade, came over to them.
‘You there,’ she said, pointing at Sparrow. The inn went quiet to see why this woman was addressing Sparrow. Had he had a lapse in his good guy act, seeing as they all still believed that he was acting? ‘Just the kind of fellow I was hoping to run into.’
‘You were? Why?’ Sparrow asked warily. He shared a look with Walter.
‘Yes. It’s adventurers like you who keep filling my sons’ heads with fancy ideas,’ Mrs Spade accused. ‘It’s about time you helped us poor mothers out. My boys have always wanted to explore some horrid place called Wraithmarsh, and they finally found a way of getting there.’
‘That’s not good,’ Sparrow said, getting to his feet, looking extremely worried. ‘That is the most dangerous place in Albion. I’ll leave at once to find them.’
‘Good. I just haven’t got the energy to pull them out of their ridiculous scrapes anymore. And I certainly have no desire to see this Wraithmarsh place.’ Mrs Spade then walked off.
‘I better go,’ Sparrow muttered to Penelope and Walter.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Walter said, also getting to his feet.
‘Not this time, you won’t,’ said Sparrow, firmly. ‘Wraithmarsh is full of banshees, hollow men, and has balverines and trolls living there too. No, I go alone this time.’
With that said, Sparrow walked out of the inn, oblivious to all the eyes on him, and went to gather his gear, before going to the sheriff to tell him where he was going.
To get to Wraithmarsh, Sparrow used the cullis gate at Brightwood Tower, praying that he wouldn’t have a repeat of what happened the last time he used it to travel to Wraithmarsh. Once in Wraithmarsh, Sparrow began his long journey of looking for Mrs Spades’ sons. Fortunately, her sons had dropped a few of their belongings which helped Sparrow find them. He ended up finding them down a dried up well, and not a moment too soon. Turned out that Mrs Spades’ sons were none other than Max and Sam, the two men who had read aloud from the Normanomicon unleashing a hundred hollow men upon Bowerstone Cemetery, and they were currently being attacked by hollow men.
What is with these two and hollow men? Sparrow thought, drawing his sword and defeating the hollow men.
He then looked down at the cowering men.
‘It’s alright. They’re all gone now,’ Sparrow told them gently, walking over and helping them to their feet.
‘Thank you!’ said Max as he smiled up at Sparrow. He then frowned. ‘Hey… Don’t we know you? You looked awfully familiar killing hollow men.’
‘Yes. I’m the Adventurer who got you out of that Bowerstone Cemetery mess,’ Sparrow said with a laugh.
‘Oh, you’re that guy! We wondered what had happened to you!’ said Sam. ‘You seem… different now.’
‘A lot has happened since our paths last cross.’
‘You can say that again.’
‘Come on, I’ll take you back to Bowerstone now that I’ve helped you out of another sticky situation.’
Max and Sam exchanged a look. Sparrow’s smile disappeared.
‘What have you done this time?’ he asked, dreading the answer.
‘Er, the thing is, we found this cave… but we kind of… accidentally released a pretty nasty banshee,’ Max admitted.
Sparrow’s jaw dropped.
‘It’s probably tearing up Bloodstone by now,’ added Sam, ‘slaughtering everything in its path.’
Sparrow stared at the brothers in horror, before saying urgently, ‘We have to get there now!’
‘What? You want us to go to Bloodstone… where the banshee is?’ Sam looked terrified at the very idea.
‘Yes. I told your mother I would retrieve you, so you have to come with me seeing as I cannot ignore the banshee threat.’
He grabbed the brothers by their arms and marched them out of the well and safely to Bloodstone, though this was not as easy as it sounded seeing as he had to protect them from hollow men and banshees.
When the trio arrived in Bloodstone, Sparrow let go of the brothers and hurried into town, down to the water front where the banshee was currently. Reaver was already on the scene, shooting all the banshee children.
‘Having fun?’ Sparrow called out, with a slight chuckle as he helped his friend.
‘What are you doing here?’ Reaver asked, slightly taken back by Sparrow’s sudden appearance.
‘I heard about what was happening so I came as quickly as I could,’ Sparrow replied, killing the last of the children before finishing off the white banshee.
‘How’d you get here so quickly?’ Reaver asked suspiciously.
‘I was in Wraithmarsh when I found out.’
Reaver stared at his friend.
‘One: what were you doing in that cursive place, and two: who told you?’ Reaver was growing even more suspicious by the minute.
‘I was rescuing the ones that released the banshee.’
‘Good, then you can lead me to them so I can shoot them.’
‘Sorry, but I can’t do that. I need them alive. Speaking of which, can we borrow a ship to get us to Westcliff?’
‘Sure. Just get rid of those trouble makers before they can destroy my costal paradise!’ Reaver said sternly. ‘Now if you excuse me, I’m going back to bed!’
Sparrow stood there trying not to laugh as Reaver stormed back to his mansion. He had wondered why Reaver was topless and looked as though he had just rolled out of bed.
Sparrow walked off to get the brothers before leading them onto a ship which took them to Westcliff. From Westcliff, they took a carriage back to Bowerstone Market. Surprisingly, no balverines bothered them. Once back at Bowerstone Market, they found Mrs Spade talking to Penelope and Walter at the clock tower.
‘You little terrors!’ Mrs Spade scolded, the moment she saw her adult sons. They lowered their heads shamefully. ‘You better not have caused any trouble! You’re just like your father, always chasing some ridiculous adventure. Have you already forgotten how he died? How that kraken grabbed him by his little legs, twirled him in the air like a baton and swallowed him whole?’
Walter and Sparrow exchanged a look. What a horrible way to die.
‘Honesty, I have half a mind to… Oh. I don’t know yet, but you won’t like it!’ Mrs Spade continued to scold. ‘A lifetime of worry I’ve had because of you two!’ She turned to Sparrow, who automatically backed up a bit. Mrs Spade was scarier than any beast he had fought before. ‘I know they won’t tell me what happened. Did they cause any trouble?’
Sparrow glanced at the brothers before looking back at Mrs Spade and saying, ‘Nope. No trouble at all.’ He had trouble keeping a smile forming on his lips.
‘Hmm, there’s something you’re not telling me,’ she replied, eyes narrowed. ‘Well, my boys are safe and I didn’t have to go after them, so thank you.’
‘It was my pleasure,’ Sparrow said, giving her a slight bow as she led her sons home. The moment they were out of sight, Sparrow burst out laughing.
‘What’s so funny?’ Penelope asked.
Sparrow quickly recounted the quests events and when he explained about Reaver, Walter was nearly on the ground laughing.
‘I would have loved to have been there to have seen the look on Reaver’s face!’ he laughed.
‘It was pretty classic!’ Sparrow laughed, before heading home.