Of Hero Lore
an excerpt

The first went down easily enough, underestimating him because he was just one fighter. But he was the Hero, which meant he had prodigious skill with any sword and he had Unrion, the Blade of Justice, a blade which had been formed especially for him, giving him another supreme boost in strength. They fell as easily as stones.

But more and more kept coming. The Hero held them at bay, but he couldn’t move forward. He was simply stuck in the same place, surrounded by the Kings Guards in their black and red amours. He looked into their faces, most likely they had been conscripted as Guards and weren’t doing this out of own free will. But the threat of losing certain body parts could be a very powerful motivator.

They held their swords tightly and tried to get him but he kept them back, an uncertain dance of blades where one wrong step could mean death. The Hero was a better dancer than most, attack, faint, jab, block. But even he would grow tired sometime. And when he did, he would fall. But before that moment came the fight was interrupted.

“Back off bitches! He’s mine!” a gruff, sexy (though not as sexy as the King’s) voice said. It was the Hooded Captain, the fear of all people who had anything to do with the guards. He was known to be ruthless and cruel and rumor had it that he was a… close advisor of the King’s. And we all know what that means.

The Hooded Captain was wearing the same red and black armor as the rest of the guards but he had a hood up around his face, the hood that had given him his name. The rumors also said that the King was the only person to have ever seen his face. The guards backed of respectfully. What the Hooded Captain wanted, the Hooded Captain got.

He moved towards the Hero, his blade held out in front of him. It was a dark blade, black and metallic it gleamed in the little sunlight that fell into this dark alley. The Houses here were high and close together so that very little sunlight fell between them. The Hero looked at the wall to his right. It was made of stone, uneven and there were lots of plants growing out of the wall where the birds had shat on it. It was an old house, probably a hundred years old at least. Having registered this he turned back to the Hooded Captain, patiently waiting for him.

“So you think you’re the Hero, do you?” It wasn’t really a question but the Hero answered anyway.

“I know I am.”
This seemed to make the Hooded Captain angry. Or at least, this was the moment he attacked. Maybe there was no connection, after all he was supposed to kill him. The black blade flashed. The Hero pulled up his sword to block it.

“You’re the Hero? You fight lie a sissy!” The Hooded Captain seemed to be sneering. It was hard to tell, you couldn’t see his face. The Hero wasn’t very bothered by his comment. He’d just blocked the Captain’s attack hadn’t he? And then he executed a perfect attack himself.

The Captain managed to block his attack as well. It seemed that here the Hero had met someone who matched him in his skill. Good thing that he was too vain to call the other guards for help and wanted to take him all by himself. It would have been quite difficult to fight all the other guards as well, even with his Hero skills. And so there was just the two of them, fighting in a dark side alley.

The swords clashed again and again, neither of them getting the upper hand. Black and silver collided, the pattern on Unrion danced, making it seem even more complicated. Then, by a bit of pure luck (or maybe it was Destiny’s help) a ray of sunlight caught Unrion at such an angle that it was reflected into the Hooded Captain’s eyes. He howled and stumbled backwards a step, into the shadows. Stunned by the improbability of what had just happened, the Hero failed to follow up on the move. The battle began when the Hooded Captain launched himself forward again.

It was a hard fight, both opponents were breathing heavily now. The Hero’s breath came in short gasps, while the Hooded Captain’s rattled. It sounded like a black hole was hidden under the hood, sucking in all the air. Why did the Hooded Captain were a hood? There were many rumors about this (there were in general many rumors about the Hooded Captain) and the most common answer you got was ‘cause he’s fuck ugly’. Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t there was no way to tell.

At that exact moment the Hero pushed forward in an attack. He spotted a gap in the rank of guards and was about to break off the battle and run for it when the hood of the Hooded Captain fell backward, revealing his face.

When the Hero thought about the situation later he would always come to the conclusion that the Hooded Captain had guessed his thoughts and had done this on purpose, to stop him from leaving.

The rumors were true, the Hooded Captain was fuck ugly. His face was thin and squashed, the eyes to small, the mouth to large and everything seemed to be much to close together. His hair was cut short and graying. But all this wasn’t what shocked the Hero. What shocked him was that this was a face he knew, a face he had thought about a lot before his quest, that he had almost forgotten and that returned to him immediately. It was a face he hadn’t seen since he was six years old yet he knew it right away.

“Father! I thought you were dead.” He yelled and let his sword sink. It wasn’t quite true. Everyone had always told him his father was dead and he’d never believed them, “I mean, I knew you weren’t dead!”

The now un-hooded Captain grinned, revealing crooked teeth.

“No,” he said, the voice still gruff and sexy but somehow grotesque now that you had seen the face to which it belonged, “I am your Uncle.”

There was a pause, “What?”

“I’m not your father. I’m your Uncle.” More silence.

“I don’t understand,” The Hero said. He didn’t mind admitting when he was confused, “Why did you leave me with Uncle Patrick then?”

“Because I thought it would be better for you to grow up with your father,” The Hooded Captain replied as though this was a perfectly logical thread of thought. Unfortunately, it was not. No indeed, it was not.

“Why didn’t he tell me he was my father then? And why did you pretend to be my father?” The Hero was frowning. The Battle was completely forgotten.

“You’re the Hero,” His Uncle/ Father said. “ You have to grow up knowing hardship. Besides, I’ve joined the dark side and I’m trying to capture you. Why should I explain your complicated family relationships to you?” And with that he raised his sword again.

The Hero realized what he was going to do. Chop his head off, that’s what. But oh no, that was not going to happen. Not today. He still hadn’t found out who his mother was. He threw himself at the ranks of guards who had been slowly falling asleep. Discussing family relationships of the Hero, how boring. Now they paid the price for not paying attention and the Hero managed to break through them and sprint down the alley. Before they could react, he was long gone. As the once hooded Captain stood there watching him, a smile started to break out on his lips. Not a kind smile, but an wide, evil and insane one. He was going to catch his nephew if that was the last thing he did!!