Fable - Ask The Man at the Lake

[Colette]

​

Donric had smugly told her that it was being done to, “show them Dreadlords that the Guard was in charge now.” But Colette didn’t think that was true, she liked Commander Raleigh’s explanation a lot better. It was to build a sense of trust and camaraderie between Guardsmen and the next generation of Dreadlords!

She liked that idea! It was a truly noble goal. Although she very much did not like the fact that every member of her squad had been separated and assigned a few of the initiates to lead on various tasks.

It wasn’t that it was a hard task but the prospect of leading wasn’t exactly part of Colette’s repertoire. Not to mention the very real possibility that the students from the academy might not like her. That’d be the worst outcome of all.

”Um, hello,” she began as the various Dreadlord initiates under her charge were assembled and placed before her. ”My name is Colette. Colette Maconner.”

The straw-haired guardswoman’s voice barely rose higher than the squeak of a mouse. Her shoulders remained slack and her eye-level failed to rise much higher than anyone’s waist. It was beyond obvious she was nervous, one did not even need to see her sweaty palms to conclude that.

She pressed on regardless, ”so, today, well wait… I’m supposed to make sure that you’re all here first and then we can, umm,” she paused for a second and ruffled with her hands, ”once I know you’re all here we can go take care of that, uh, task we were assigned.” They're purposely left the Dreadlords in the dark about what they were here to accomplish...

Mostly because, unbeknownst to Colette the Guard had deliberately given her the easiest task and they were all too eager to give her a few initiates who needed to learn ‘humility.’

All they had to do was issue a fine to a hermit who lived on the edge of a lake. He’d been reported numerous times for poaching wild animals on his neighbor's land. It wasn’t glamorous work but the Guard had to wear many hats these days and the Dreadlords were now apart of that very guard. It didn't matter how much one had trained if they couldn't do their required tasks.

 

[Raf]

Raf stood at the back of the group of initiates, his eyes half closed, his arms crossed over his chest as he tried to keep himself awake.

It wasn't that he was disinterested or anything, well, he was, but that was a default state for him. A yawn pulled from his lips as Colette spoke of taking role-call. His head shook for a moment, brows scrunching together.

Was she being serious?

A tight smile crooked at the corner of his lips.

This was why he'd been excited about the new Republic. There was something...quaint. Things at the Academy had been so cruel, so vicious, so the same, that it had become almost easy to guess what would come next. Another beating, another torture.

Another thing to step away from. Drag his mind free of. This though?

This was new, unexpected. So when Colette was finished speaking Alec stuck his hand up from the back of the group. "Here!"

He called, making sure he was noticed.

 

[Victoria Von Fleet]

Victoria had been sitting cross-legged on the ground, drawing in the dirt with a gloved finger. She was so bored, all this waiting and waiting. It drove her nuts, not that things didn't drive her crazy with absolute ease as it were. She tilted her head up at the woman on front of their ragtag initiate group.

As soon as the woman began to speak, Victoria jumped to her feet. She grabbed her spiked club from the dirt and stalked up to little miss guard. She stuck her pale painted face in the woman’s, nose a mere inch from the guard's. A wide grin stretched her lips as she spoke.

"Are you a spider or a fly, hmmm?" She played with a strand of Colette's straw colored hair and giggled. "No, you are a fly I think. Poor thing, poor thing." She reached a gloved hand up and pressed a fingertip between Colette's eyes. "Be careful, spiders like to eat flies you know." She stepped back, giggling as she swung her club and headed back to the loose line of intiates. "Victoria Von Fleet, guard lady. Do we get to crack skulls now?"

 

[Alistair Krixus]

"She is not a spider nor a fly, but our commanding officer, at the moment, Victoria. Please do remember that." Alistair stood in line with his left hand casually resting on his sword at his waist. Alistair valued order in any military unit, so it was better just to follow along...However, from what he could see, Victoria was pretty close.

She might not be a fly, but Colette could definitely be described as a mouse. How had someone like her been placed in a position above them? It was insulting and completely counterproductive. The bare minimum for a commanding officer was the ability to lead troops. This girl could not get her voice above a squeak, much less actually command.

 

[Colette]

Colette perked up at the sound of her first charge calling out his attendance. He'd seemed uninterested but after simply shouting a single word of acknowledgement she assumed he must just be shy. That was alright, Colette had been nervous on her first outing with the Guard too.

"OK, and I think you're Raf." She nodded and thin hair ruffled itself across her brow.

Then the second student spoke up. Not only did she try to give Colette a nickname but she touched her on the forehead. "Um," she'd thought to correct Victoria as while 'fly' was a perfectly fun nickname they'd all just met. And this was supposed to be a serious operation, Commander Raleigh had said as much!

She didn't get the opportunity though as it was the last Dreadlord Initiate under her that spoke up. "R-right, you should just call me Colette." Fly really was a gross sort of nickname. "Thanks Victoria and Alistair."

"We won't be cracking any skulls either!" Both of her hands flew upwards in a placating manner. "We're going to be issuing a fine. For trespassing and illegal poaching."

Hopefully it wasn't too much to ask of them. All three were only a year or so younger than her but they hadn't been in the Anirian Guard for a year like she had! The first time Colette had been tasked with issuing a fine she tripped over her words so badly that she nearly let the law-breaker leave before she could hand him the official slip.

 

[Raf]

"Excellent." Raf said, very much meaning it.

He had never once, not in his twelve years at the Academy been sent to issue a fine. Usually the missions contained something like hunting an escaped Student, or taking on an Elven mage who was running amok near the Falwood.

Something like this though? Not once. "Whose our criminal, Commander?"

Raf hadn't really been paying attention when the Proctors had told them what the Guards ranks were, nor was he aware that Colette was not a Commander.

"Some nobleson?" He assumed there was a reason three Initiates had been sent on this mission. "The King's Daughter?"

Raf had never met her, but he'd heard rumors she was pretty. "Famous outlaw who retired here in Vel Anir?"

All options would've been fun. Especially if they couldn't kill whoever it was.

 

[Victoria Von Fleet]

Victoria narrowed her eyes at her fellow initiate and pointed at him with her club. "You're not the boss of me, you'd better remember that too." She stuck her tongue out at Alistair and turned her attention to Colette as she spoke.

A pout graced her lips as Colette said there would be no skull cracking. Where was the fun in that? Instead they were going to issue a fine?! She groaned and rolled her eyes, this was going to be the most boring mission ever.

Raf seemed way overly excited and she glanced sideways at him. How strange. He was eager to please this guard it seemed. She deemed herself the most useful in their group, for now. Tiny little sheep her fellow initiates were, the guard too. She swung her club back and forth idly, impatient for them to get underway. "If they run, then can I crack their skull?" She tilted her head, the question was quite serious to her, though even if Colette said no, it wasn't often a word she obeyed.

 

[Draven Helmer]

A jogging young man would approach the group, carrying with him an arming sword on his hip and wearing a padded gambeson. he had been given the order to join the group at the last possible minute and so wasn't ready to join them immediately but he was used to catching up with others in more ways than.

"Sorry for my lateness, I was only just assigned to this group, I'm Draven Helmer" his eyes would glance across the others, quickly taking in each one of them. the only one that really stuck out to him was the pale girl, it was an interesting look, it would be hard to not miss her in a crowd. he only managed to capture the end of the other two's questions to the guard. now he was wondering what they were doing.

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair rolled his eyes Victoria's actions. It was clear that she thought it was cool being this rebellious, but he registered it more as her being childish. The difference was this child could potentially wipe out entire units of ordinary soldiers if she got angry.

He did not both focusing on it for to long because he turned back to Colette with a look of disbelief. A fine? What the hell were they needed for to issue a fine? Most of them had been trained for one purpose, killing, and now they wanted them to do this. Colette would be lucky if whoever is being issued this fine walked away with their head. Maybe Victoria did have the right idea, he hoped they tried to run or fight. That might make it a little more worth it.

"Who is this person getting fined?"

He lost focus on his question when another initiate joined the group. If he was not mistaken, he believed he was called Draven....Four dreadlords, for a fine. Had the Anirian guard not heard of overkill?

 

[Colette]

For a second Colette straightened her back, a brief flood of confidence flowing through her, she could totally do this. It would be so easy! Until, of course, Raf began to ask twenty questions about the man they were pursuing.

"Uhhh, he's um," she started until Victoria tried to assert herself as being in command. And continued to insist of cracking skulls!

Colette looked at her with wide azure eyes that stared on in disbelief. "N-no, I am in command of this group, the commander said so and... well, there isn't going to be any skull cracking." Then, in her flustered state, another student arrived. Supposedly his name was Draven Helmer.

Oh god. Had Colette marked the roll down wrong?

She stared down at her parchment and realized that yes, despite there only being four names she'd missed one of them. How could she have been so stupid? Maybe she could... play it off. You know, pretend like it was something she'd always planned on. "OH!" her words were those of an overly dramatic actress, "why of course, Draven is here! No need to apologize. You're right on time!"

She didn't want the boy to feel bad. "The person we're issuing a fine to isn't a famous outlaw, sorry Raf." Her gaze moved over towards Alistair. "He's a um... hermit. He lives in a cabin across the lake. It's not too long of a trek."

Her lips scrunched and cheeks narrowed, "I think his name is Jeff." A common, bland name, for a common and bland ne'er do well.

 

[Raf]

"Ah." Well. That was something else he guessed. "Jeff."

Raf mulled it over for a few seconds, wondering if this was some kind of trick by the Proctors or perhaps Colette herself. After a few moments his lips pursed, and then he decided that maybe...maybe all of this really was about a man named Jeff.

The Initiate shook his head, not entirely sure how he should feel.

On the one hand, this wasn't...wasn't like anything he'd ever done before. No killing. No criminals. No nobles that needed to be wrangled or wraithed.

On the other hand...what in the fuck was interesting about a man named Jeff?

A deep frown creased Raf's forward for a moment, and then he decided that perhaps...perhaps he should just embrace an easy afternoon. Even after the Revolution they hardly got free time, and this seemed good enough for that. "Well."

He shrugged. "Lets go meet Jeff then."

It was then he noticed the last of them to arrive. "Oh, hey Drav."

 

[Victoria Von Fleet]

Victoria tilted her head back as Draven came jogging up. A grin split her lips and she straightened. Their poor little fly of a guard had no idea what she was in for. Nothing was simple when Victoria was around. She couldn't help it, well that wasn't entirely true. She chose to ignore rules, rules were for the weak and uncorrupted.

Colette tried to correct Victoria but it fell on deaf ears. She didn't care enough to really pay attention. She cast another sideways glance at Draven as Colette droned on about their mission. Boring. Boring. Boring! Maybe she could at least throw the hermit in the lake. Hold his head down until the bubbles stopped. She giggled to herself as Colette finished and Raf made the suggestion to depart. "Ooh yes, I'm ready!" She gave a sly grin and waited, if impatiently for the collective group to hurry up.

 

[Draven Helmer]

They were chasing after a hermit? They had sent 4 Initiates to chase down a hermit named jeff for a fine, they had better things to do with their time but it seemed the guard were intent on wasting their precious time so they best get on with it as soon as possible so they could return to do something actually useful.

"Let's get this other with." He wouldn't wait for the group or the so-called leader, the woman was about as commanding as a mouse. He would begin to march forward, follow the path that had lay ahead of them that went around the lake, he was rather quite rightfully pissed at this situation.​

 

[Colette]

Wow! Her team of students was far more eager and professional than she had thought. Colette didn't even need to use her 'mean voice' to get them all to agree to go visit Jeff. "Right, we'll get this over with quickly," she nodded at Draven and then turned towards Raf and Victoria. "He's just across from the lakebed."

It was a short enough walk until they arrived outside of an aged cabin with splintered wood. Flecks of white paint were peeled from random points of the building, most of it had become scraped down to the bare dark colored wood. Obviously whoever lived here hadn't taken proper care of their little home. Were he living in certain parts of Vel Anir's capital city that would be punishable by a fine as well.

Colette raised a tiny hand up to the rickety door and tapped on it lightly. For a few seconds nothing happened and then Colette banged on the door slightly louder. She could hear footsteps stir inside as they drew closer and closer.

The door swung inward and a giant of a man with a huge chestnut-colored beard stood before her. "What'd ya want?"

His words were booming and he stunk from a mixture of cognac, wet leather, and dried animal blood.

"Um, excuse me, my name is Colette and I'm with the Anirian Guard," she swallowed as pale blue eyes stared upwards at the unsympathetic cabin dweller, "we have to give you this," she handed over the parchment detailing the man's transgressions and the fine he owed.

He scoffed and spit a large loogie onto the dirt. "You think I'm some learned scholar? I can'not read."

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair followed behind Colette with a rather bored expression on his face. He had essentially checked out for most of the walk. The sooner they handled all of this then the better.

The appearance of this hermit's...shack only confirmed Alistair's thoughts. The place smelled of mold and the shack looked like something he could knock over with one good spell. So needless to say, he already wasn't in a good mood.

It only got worse when saw the face of this giant moron. He wreaked of alcohol and his own filth. Then he wanted to act disrespectful to Collete, who was currently his commanding officer...Last straw.

Alistair spoke up with a smile on his face. "Then let me help you might friend. You must pay of fine for illegal poaching and trespassing. If not, well..." He pointed over to Victoria "I'm going to let her cave in your shack and then your skull." He emphasized the last bit while placing his hand on his sword.

 

[Raf]

The Journey to meet Jeff was a surprisingly quick one. Raf didn't even have the time to ask Colette where she was born or whether or not the Guard was nice to work for.

He still hadn't entirely made up his mind what he wanted to do after graduation.

His father wanted him to return to Vel Osgen and take up the family trade, but...Raf couldn't think of anything worse than becoming a merchant. Besides, he was hardly fit for that, and he hadn't seen his family in...Lips thinned for a brief moment, and then he realized they'd arrived at the shack.

Jeff revealed himself to perhaps not be an ordinary man at all.

As he stepped out of the door Raf had to crane his neck to look up at the man. He was the size of an ogre, simply put. The Initiate shook his head slightly as the man barked out his inability to read, looking to Alistair as he gave a terse response.

"Fine?! I am't paying no fine. There's a Republic now, didn't you hear? No laws and shit. I didn't do anythin' illegal."​

Raf raised an eyebrow.

Had he missed another announcement? A change in the law? No...he was pretty sure he hadn't.

"Now gett off'm land, kiddies."​

Jeff said before slamming his door shut.

 

[Victoria Von Fleet]

Victoria followed close behind Draven, she was skipping and humming as they walked around the lake. She twirled her club as she skipped, a grin splitting her lips. She didn't get to leave the academy much, they didn't trust her out in the world at all. They reached the shack swiftly, and it immediately went south. She did giggle as Alistair used her as a threat, she was a threat after all. She impatiently watched the back and forth between Jeff and her companions, grinning maliciously when he slammed the door shut on them.

Victoria took one look at Colette and winked. She stepped up to the door, lifted her leg, and with one swift kick she splintered it. She giggled softly and leaned back to grin at Colette. "Go get him little miss fly, before I go in and crack his skull. I really want to watch his brains leak out of his ears." She went back to swinging her club, sending a coy look to both Alistair and Draven. She knew they would appreciate her for taking action, after all..she was a spider.

 

[Draven Helmer]

Draven hadn't expected to find the 'man' that they did, he was probably closer to a troll than other humans he had seen, so far this assignment was nearly as boring as he thought, this was actually quite entertaining. the meek mouse challenging the mighty giant who is about as smart as a rock. he wondered what Colette would have done if she was here alone, Jeff would likely be adding murder of a guard to his list of transgressions that he accrued.

He would smirk at him closing the door then Vicky smashing it open with her foot. Things were about to get violent. "Wat did ya do 'at for!" the large bellowed, Draven would stroll in, his hand on his sword. "We can do this one of two ways, the easy way or the hard way, the choice is yours."

Jeff wouldn't wait until Draven had finished, picking up a javelin from the table he would throw at the Draven. Draven didn't flinch as javelin would come to stop mid-air, thanks to his magic. "So it's the hard way." the javelin would flip 180 to face Jeff and fly towards with same might he throw it, piercing his shoulder with a mighty roar of pain from the man.

 

[Colette]

Colette’s eyes widened in horror as the situation spiraled further and further out of control. The splintered door would be a bad enough infraction but now they had a civilian injured and bleeding.

”Um, oh no, oh dear, c-can we all please calm down,” her voice was tight and panicked. Maybe they could convince the captain it was self defense. Jeff had thrown the javelin and the door had… attacked them too?

“My fuckin’ shoulder!” the mass of a man cried out in pain.

Colette picked the discarded paper up from Jeff’s cabin floor and uncrinkled it. ”S-so, umm, Mister Jeff, it says here that several neighbors reported you trespassing and,” muffled cries like a grizzly bear mating rang out in the cabin as the injured man began attempting to dislodge the javelin from his shoulder, ”you also were caught poaching deer from,” rivers of snot stained the giant’s beard, ”their lands which all comes to a total fine of seven crowns or four crowns and the donation of a complete deer carcass in restitution.”

Colette would have to lecture the dreadlords later but at least now they’d formally issued the charges to the illiterate man… as was the standard procedure… sort of. ”You um, you seem to have suffered an unrelated injury… would you like us to call for medical assist-“

She was unable to finish her sentence as Jeff let out a roar and lunged towards the group with the bloodied javelin.

 

[Raf]

"Holy fuck!" Raf swore as a cacophony of chaos began to rain down on the group.

He hadn't really interacted with many 'normal' Anirians during his time. A few stop overs in some villages and other places, but most of the time he had either decided to nap or just ignore his surroundings. If Jeff was an indication of the local populace it was no wonder that their home had never been countered.

As Jeff roared towards them Raf quickly stepped in front of him.

Many thought that his own abilities applied to nothing but magic, That he could only counter other Dreadlords and Sorcerers. Yet it went far beyond that. As the man charged, Raf suddenly kicked up. His boot landed in the man's knee with a crunch, his hand quickly jerking upwards to press the man's javelin the air.

Jeff screamed.

"YOU LITTLE FUCKING SHIT!"

The man shouted as Raf brought him to the ground. "Sorry!"

He begged off, glancing back at Colette.

"General!?" Raf asked in a panic. "What do we do?"

 

[Alistair Krixus]

Alistair simply stood back beside Colette. He had already had suspicions about what some of his classmates would end up doing, and he was happy to see that he was right, like usual.

When Draven through his javelin, he could only nod while commenting, "Excellent throw, as usual."

The big man. What was his name? Oh, right, Jeff. He was obviously in a lot of pain, so Alistair hoped he realized the best thing to do was to stay down. Unfortunately, the man did not seem very smart. A quick intervention by Raf had Jeff back on the ground once more.

Alistair finally spoke up to avoid any more of an escalation to the situation.

"Jeff, the other two were nice enough not to kill you, but..." Alistair motioned to Victoria.

"I assure you that she is not as nice, and has been looking forward to you doing something dumb."

Draven Helmer Raf Colette Victoria Von Fleet

 

[Victoria Von Fleet]

Victoria giggled as a flurry of activity following her splintering entry ensued. She didn't know what this guy was thinking, going after soldiers. Certainly he wasn't very intelligent. She sidestepped Draven as he threw the javelin and watched the delicious spurt of red from Jeff's shoulder.

The enraged man launched himself at the group and she smirked. Raf was quick to drop him to the ground, and at Alistair's words, she leapt like an animal. She landed on top of Jeff, her club shoved under his chin. "Wanna see what your brains look like?" She bent over him, a manic smile on her painted face. She brought her club up, prepared to cave his face in.

 

[Colette]

Cole blinked a few dozen times to make sure what was really happening before her was, well, really happening. She didn't even realize at first who Raf was talking to and turned her head backwards, repeating the phrase, "yes, General, what do we-," she realized only after the words were uttered that there was no General.

He'd been referring to her. She was supposed to be in charge. Supposed to be managing this foray.

It was going very... not well.

"I'm gunna report this to the Guard, you can't just come in and threaten me like that!" Jeff spat back, either too dumb to realize the Dreadlords weren't bluffing or too insecure to admit he was outmatched and his body was broken in a few places. Blood staining his wooden floor and crusted beard from a mix of the aforementioned blood and mucus that was now running down from his nostrils.

Um, ok team, I think our work here is finished! No need for brains," Colette tried to insist as she recovered from stumbling over her words earlier. "Mr. Jeff, we will just leave the fine notice here and uh, we can send a field medic over... we may need to invoice you for the damage you've caused to Mr. Draven's javelin..."

They'd likely broken several of the Guard's regulations and Colette was both too naive and too inexperienced to realize that the Guard wasn't ever going to throw them under the bus for this incident. Especially after she informed them that Jeff tried to attack the group.

Although, if they ended up with a dead commoner that might be harder to explain. They clearly had incapacitated the man already, he was hardly a threat.