The Shady Adventures of Fabian

Chapter 45

Seven hours later an exhausted Sir Mikael pushed open the door to the Inn and collapsed onto a bench near the wall. "It's finished," he announced through gasping breaths. "We've driven the remaining brigands away."

Derek and Brandon came stumbling in after him covered in dirt, grime, and blood splatter. Derek made his way to a chair while Brandon simply laid down on the floor and fell instantly asleep.

Fabian strolled in the door a moment later whistling a cheery little tune to himself. "Good battle, guys. We really gave those brigands the old what for."

"It was a good battle, old chap," Sir Mikael said. "I don't recall seeing much of you out there though."

"I spotted him a few times hiding behind trees or small boulders," Derek said.

"That's right I was," Fabian said. "It's called strategy. You should learn how to utilize it some time. Any time a brigand wandered near my position I'd leap from my hiding place and kill him."

"I'm pretty sure I saw you sleeping at one point," Derek said.

"Well, it's not like brigands were wandering by every five seconds. Sometimes it took a little while for one to come near me. You have to exercise patience if you want to achieve your goals. I'll admit I might have gotten a little bored at a couple junctures when no brigands were in the vicinity, but the point is I turned the tide of battle decisively in our favor. No need to thank me or anything. An honorable victory is its own reward. I see you scored yourself some new boots." He pointed at Sir Mikael's feet.

"Yes, I found a pair of well-made boots on a brigand I had slain. He no longer had any need for them, so I claimed them for myself."

"Wow, stealing from corpses," Fabian said with a headshake. "That sounds pretty honorable there, paladin-boy."

"There is no dishonor in putting an unowned item to good use when one finds oneself in need."

"Whatever, dude. Jeez, and they call me the thief." He rolled his eyes in Madge's direction.

"Is it really over?" she asked.

"It is indeed," Fabian said. "Now how about getting that tub together that you promised me."

"The water's gone ice cold," Madge said. "You asked me to heat it up for you hours ago. You said you'd only be a few minutes."

"So it took a tiny bit longer than I anticipated," Fabian said. "I still defeated the brigands like I said I would. So how about you stop standing there and go heat that water back up again? Old Fabes could use a little relaxation."

"Oh my," Sir Mikael said. "A hot soak in the tub sounds heavenly right now."

"Yeah? Well, I've got dibs on it. You're welcome to have a soak in my dirty water after I'm finished."

"Say, Derek, I think I might have sustained a bit of a nasty cut in my leg," Sir Mikael said. "You wouldn't happen to be up to performing a healing spell by chance, would you?"

"Of course," the cleric said as he pulled himself wearily out of his chair.

"Oh yeah," Fabian said. "I've also got a tiny little scratch on my elbow. You think you could take care of that while you're at it?"

"Let me attend to the more serious injury first, and then I'll see what I can do."

"Okay, but I'm kind of on a clock here. I mean it's not going to take Madge forever to get my tub heated up and I'd kind of like to have this thing attended to before I get in there. I'm just saying you'll have plenty of time to treat Sir Mikael while I'm having a soak, so maybe it would be a more efficient use of your time if you bumped me up in the queue."