Once Upon A Time

Chapter 10

It had only been two days after the attack when Bard Sean walked into the room where the two head knights sat, sharing fake stories about the girls they had supposedly met. Piling his armor down on the desk, he held up the lute at his side and grinned.

"Well, guys, it's been fun, but this knight stuff really isn't me. I'm off to bigger and better things...I hear that there's a town just east of here, Heymantown, that's up-and-coming, and looking for harsh musicians. You know, the kind that can take anything? I think that's where my destiny calls," he explained, toying nervously with the helmet's top part. Both knights stood and shook his hand.

"Been nice havin' ya around, kid...you gonna come by again some time?" Sean shrugged.

"I dunno...your king was very generous to me, so who knows? If everything else falls through and I never do become a good musician, I guess I'll always have armor here, huh?" Helmsley nodded with a smile.

"Sure will." Michaels faked wiping a tear from his eye, then pulled them all into a big hug.

"I LOVE YOU MAN!" Sean, red-faced, pulled away, staring at Helmsley, who shrugged and smiled again.

"He does that with all the new guys that leave." Sean shook his head slowly, smiling to himself.

"One of these days, that's going to get you in trouble, you know that?" Helmsley shrugged again.

"I know." With a sigh, Sean said his goodbyes and, lute still in hand, headed towards the door and walked out of their lives. Well, at least for a little while, anyhow.

One week later, Sean stopped to rest at a hilltop, sitting down in the tall grass and rubbing his feet; these stupid boots hurt like nothing he'd ever worn before. Looking around the calm, placid area, he smiled- he couldn't remember the last time he'd been so peaceful. It nearly scared him to death when the shrill woman's scream jolted him from his thoughts.

"What the..." he trailed off, springing to his (sore) feet with cat-like reflexes. Looking towards the direction of the screams, he saw a cave that was lit with a dull light and walked cautiously towards it, then poked his head inside to stare in amazement at what he saw. The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen sat, pouting, before a huge blue and green dragon, though Sean had always thought those were just stories mothers told their children at bedtime. He'd always been an absolutely klutz with women...maybe if he saved this one, she'd be nicer than the rest. He doubted it, but hey, it was worth a try. Head held high and lute held beside him, he walked into the cave to face the dragon, face-to-...well, kneecap. The dragon lowered its head to look Sean in the face and blew steam out of his nose, surrounding Sean in a cloud of dust. Sean saw the back of the cave opened up into a cliff, and he grinned suddenly, walking that way, having to jump over the dragon's tail. Puzzled, the dragon turned and followed, as did the girl. Sean knew this was a considerably stupid idea, but he figured it was worth a shot. With a mighty swing, he swung his treasured lute at the dragon, breaking it over the dragon's snout, and while flailing about wildly...it fell over the cliff to its death. Sean stared over the cliff as immediately the local villagers gathered around it.

"It's a blessing!" One of them shouted. "We've been starving for weeks and now the gods have blessed us with this gift! Thank you!" She shouted to the sky. Sean, puzzled, turned to look at the woman, who had joined him at his side.

"Uh...."

"Well, he was decrepit...really old, for one thing."

"Ahhh..."

"And blind."

"Really?"

"Yeah...he was also deaf." Sean shook his head slowly. He'd just slain an old, blind, deaf dragon with...a lute. Okay, so the day was going a bit more strangely than he'd expected..."He just had to sense others presence."

"So I didn't, you know, kill a dragon in their prime?"

"Nope."

"Great. I could have been heralded as a hero." The girl smiled.

"Well, at least a starving village has food now..."

"But the meat's probably so old and tough, it's not edible." The woman laughed now and held out her hand.

"Thank you. I'd like to repay you..."

Two weeks later, Vince groaned at hearing the knock at his dining room door again. It was leg of lamb tonight, but STILL...it was dinner! He told the guards to let whoever it was in, and to his surprise, in walked Sean and a lovely woman on his arm. He raised an eyebrow, along with his fork.

"Pleasure to see you again, dear bard." Sean smiled.

"Nice to see you again, too, sire. But uh...you see, I was wondering...is there, you know, any chance I could...you know, stay here a while?" Vince sighed; how many of Shane's friends had been mooching off him for weeks now? With a shrug, he nodded.

"Sure, why not? Just let me eat my dinner in peace and I think I'll be fine."

Kaitlin yawned, burying deeper underneath her blankets. "Good story, Daddy. But, next time, can you just stick to Charlotte's Web?" Sean smiled as he pulled a strand of hair out of his daughter's face.

"Sure, babe."

"So what happened with everyone?" Jesse asked, now yawning himself. Sean thought for a moment, then answered.

"Well, King Bischoff finally decided that living there wasn't going to cut it, so, claiming the weather was nicer anyhow, moved South and started up his own new village, while Port Titan continued to grow across the northeastern part of the country. Knight Helmsley and Chyna eventually grew to best friends, and Knight Michaels lived up to his promise of getting Hunter in trouble one day. Squire Jericho was eventually made into one of the best knights in the country; everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of him. As for Bard Sean and the lovely lady...well, why don't you ask your mom?" He said with a mysterious tone in his voice, turning when he sensed the other person in the doorway. Sure enough, there Terri stood, arms folded across her chest in disapproval when she saw the cookies everywhere but still a soft smile on her lips. Kaitlin's eyes widened visibly.

"Mommy...you're...you're the lady?" Sean smiled as he bent down to kiss her cheek.

"She sure is." Kaitlin squealed with delight, then she finally closed her eyes and drifted to sleep. Looking to the end of the bed, Sean smiled again as he saw Jesse slumped against the wall, sound asleep, and even snoring lightly. Lifting him into his arms, he walked red-faced past his wife into Jesse's room and laid him in his bed, pulled the covers up around him, kissed his cheek, then walked into his own bedroom, trying to avoid the eyes he knew were watching him.

"Child's Play?" She asked, holding the video case up in the air that Sean had left on the top of the television. He grinned sheepishly, climbing into bed beside his wife.

"They wanted to watch it!" Terri frowned.

"But THIS? Jesus, Sean....why didn't you just pop the Exorcist in and let 'em watch that?" She asked, trying not to laugh. Sean shrugged.

"I looked, but I couldn't find it," he replied, watching as Terri narrowed her eyes. "Calm down, it was a joke," he said, laughing as he pulled her in his arms. She smiled, then leaned her head against his chest.

"You know, you'll never believe why my sister called me over."

"It's Stacy...I'm sure I could believe anything about her."

"Okay, her husband is a history teacher, right? Well, they're doing a unit on the middle ages, and he took them on a field trip to a museum today so they could see ancient artifacts. So Mike goes over there to show them this really strange looking lute, and one of the kids behind him ran into him and knocked him into the glass case. The thing falls on him, and on the back of it, there's an inscription that says "From Vince to Sean: Here's a replacement for you, please take care of this one." Weird, huh?" Sean felt his head swim; it couldn't be, could it? Deciding not to think about it, he absently kissed the top of his wife's head and, reaching over to turn off the bedside lamp, fell asleep to visions of an odd group of proclaimed heroes, one on the side carrying a lute...and a vacantly-staring blonde on the very end holding a helmet to his ear.