Library:The Bravery of Bearbane

This story by Spoon is part of.

Volume XVII: The Bravery of Bearbane
by royalsexy

Some command metal with great power, elegance, and precision — an art and a discipline like none other. But there is more to courage than a show of metal. No matter how mighty the blade, it is no more than a stageman's prop unless it is matched with a show of mettle. In his many jottings and writings on his impressions of our world, the Outlander known by many as Royalsexy has made such an observation. As I inscribe his musings into the Valorbook, my lady wife Manicaverda strums softly on her lute composing a piece inspired by this tale.

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Many will know of Evan the Herbsman who wanders the Vale with his pack mules laden with his healing remedies. But most do not know that in his youth, Evan was apprenticed against his will to a dark-hearted weaponsmith, a vicious man from whom he would escape after many seasons to follow his true calling: tending to the sick. Countless folk have been spared by Evan's elixirs and poultices, and brought to health by his careful ministrations. They say there is no foul contagion the Herbsman fears.

Not so long ago, Evan found himself in Owl's Head for a fortnight tending to a terrible outbreak that was slow to let the townsfolk from its grip. Near the inn where he stayed was a forge, and so to clear his mind between his bedside visits, Evan decided to draw on his old skills and have a try at creating a two-handed sword. His years of herbal experimentation had wielded a preparation he thought more likely to enchant a weapon than to soothe a fever. This would be his chance to find out. For three days he labored during every spare moment, singing the magic and tracing the runes in copper, silver, gold and then steel as he forged the blade. Finally he finished the spell, shouting the words and applying the infusion that would bring the enchantment to its climax. Hopefully, he waited for the magic to fill the weapon. Alas, nothing happened.

Evan sank to his knees, exhausted from his labors. His suspicions had failed him — his mixture had not worked as he thought. The enchantment had fizzled and the sword was still just a sword.

But there was no time to worry over his handiwork. Just then, the butcher burst in, for his son had grown delirious with fever. Immediately, Evan was an herbsman again, and he raced through the streets to save the sick boy. It was still a nice sword, beautiful, though perhaps a little more fragile than usual due to the materials used in its construction as well Evan's rustiness at the craft. The Herbsman himself had no need for such an obvious weapon. Though he would often visit dangerous areas, he never wanted to appear threatening to the poor people he cared for. In the end, he gave the sword to his friend GoldenWing Okhan, a hunter and trapper who was living in Owl’s Head at the time. A good-natured soul, GoldenWing would collect herbs for Evan while he was on his hunts and never sought a coin from the healer in return.

GoldenWing was an Outlander and had been making a living in our world by hunting small game: foxes and hares, and the occasional wild boar. He had learned to hunt as a sportsman in his own world, but if he had ever used a sword there, it is unknown. Slowly and diligently, he grew more and more confident with the Herbsman's blade. He would credit the sword’s great reach for giving him the courage to hunt larger animals, though the first time he took down a bear, he only did so as it had been frothing at the mouth and wandering too close to the city’s farms threatening the farmfolk and their children.

As he stood above the large hide among the tearfully thankful farmers, GoldenWing named the sword Bearbane. That season, the Herbsman's blade would truly come to life. In the weeks that followed, there was a strange disturbance among the bears. Some said it was an illness. Some said it was an evil spell. By day and by night they wandered madly from the forest, bloodthirsty and brutal. But the Outlander was there to defend the farmers. In GoldenWing's the Huntsman's hand, Bearbane tasted the blood of dozens, and then hundreds of bears. It was as if the blade took on a sentience of its own, deflecting ursine claws and teeth, as the courageous GoldenWing increased in his skill.

Though he had never sought a reward, GoldenWing’s fortune grew great nonetheless from the fine bear hides he was selling day in and day out. And then, as suddenly as it had arisen, the madness among the bears subsided, and they retreated back into their normal forest lives. Finding himself a very wealthy man, GoldenWing moved on and settled himself in Radio City where he started a school to train would-be hunters. He taught his students what he himself had been taught: to respect the forest and to only kill for food or for danger. While he taught his lessons, Bearbane waited patiently, though a little dustily, in the corner of the Outlander’s office, that is, until a lady friend sought to be of help and clean up a bit.

Bearbane was sold to a tinker, and then traded to a youth named Trevor who was out to seek his fortune as an adventurer. Trevor was fresh from his father’s farm and skittish being out in the world by himself. Though nervous and unsure, he gathered his spirit, and signed on as a guard for PaxLair. He had been inspired by the Outlanders who had founded the settlement as a testament to their tenacity and willingness to make a go of their new world. Young Guardsman Trevor soon found himself among the dispatch escorting Governor Winfield to negotiate with a group of bandits who had taken over a village by the lake in North Ravenswood. The leader of the marauders would have none of it, and to Winfield's dismay sent the diplomatic envoy away.

During the night, the bandits snuck up on the PaxLair camp, and fell upon them unawares. The orders were to take the Governor hostage and to leave no one else alive. One of the raiders, a huge man with blackened stumps for teeth and a matted beard running down over his hairy chest pulled out a great maul. He taunted the bound guardsmen, describing how he would pound them and split their brains and bones. He stood before Trevor. The youngest would be the first to die.

Somehow, Trevor kept his wits about him. The ropes on his wrists had slipped just a bit. As the bandit swung to crush him, Trevor loosed his hands and in a single lightning-like motion grabbed for the sheathed blade which he knew lay just within reach hidden beneath a guardsman's cloak that had come undone during the scuffle. Bearbane, as if it were ready to fulfill its ultimate purpose, seemed to fly from its sheath, and in Trevor's hand blocked the blow just inches from his head, his face pale with fear, yet his heart never more certain. Then the Herbsman's sword, ever just a bit fragile since the moment of its forging, shattered, and as if with some final exhalation of magic it exploded, impaling all the marauders with its fragments.

Bearbane is no more, but its power lives on in every blade held in the hand of a bold-hearted wielder. It is the power that was there when Evan escaped his indenture, and then again each time he valiantly eased the suffering of another. It is the power that the Outlander GoldenWing mustered when he slew that first mad bear, and the same power that grew in him that season as he stayed on selflessly to defend the undefended. It was there in the founding of PaxLair, in the Outlanders facing their new circumstances with dignity and resolve, and then again when the Outlander Governor sought to make peace through his words — there are times when drawing no weapon is as bold a choice as any. And finally it was the power that Trevor summoned in his fear, the power, even afraid, to remain unshaken. Whether Evan ever enchanted the sword will never be known, but its power was no more or less than the power of courage that lives in the metal and in the mettle of all those strong enough to let it. Perhaps even you.

Trivia

 * Volume XVII: The Bravery of Bearbane was a winner of the Scholars of Novia's "Valorbook of the Vale: The Courage of the Outlanders" contest.