“I demand to know who made this insulting rhyme about me,” the Peritwinkle roared.
“I heard it in the village,” Damselfly revealed.
“Well, I shall go to the village and teach these people a lesson,” the Peritwinkle stated proudly.
“Oh no, please don’t do that,” Damselfly intervened. “Why not?” the Peritwinkle asked.
“Perhaps if you saw it from their perspective, you are really large and people cannot help being frightened of what they don’t know or understand,” Damselfly explained.
“You’re not scared of me so why should they be?” the Peritwinkle questioned.
“I’m not scared because I have this,” Damselfly said, brandishing her broken sword. The Peritwinkle lowered his ginormous head to get a closer look at the weapon.
“It looks rather small to me and the end is broken,” he commented.
“Don’t believe your first impression. This is the most powerful sword in all of Fable; it stopped a pillaging giant and cut down a mountain, all in one blow,”
Damselfly exaggerated.
“That tiny sword did all of that?” the Peritwinkle questioned. “I don’t believe it.”
“Well, there is a song about this sword that everyone knows,” Damselfly invented.
“I don’t know any song. Why don’t you sing it?” the Peritwinkle suggested.
“Oh, of course,” the princess stuttered.
“What is this song called?”
“Well, it is called…” Damselfly hesitated.
“Don’t you know?” the Peritwinkle enquired.
“It is called Big Jack.”
“Well, let’s hear it.” The Peritwinkle rested easily on his forelegs with a suspicious look in his eye.
Damselfly cleared her throat, all the while wracking her brains for ideas from all the stories Old Nana had told her through the years.
Big Jack
A good many years ago,
There was a place men feared to venture,
The boundary was marked by a dry river that ran shallow,
Beyond those waters lay danger.
This was a land of abandon,
So let me tell you about the Giantgarden.
Everyone in the Giantgarden was at least twelve feet tall,
They looked like hills while lying on their back,
Neighbouring disputes would often turn into a brawl,
By far the largest of the giants was Big Jack.
He was so large that he would use trees as toothpicks,
His house was built of boulders instead of bricks.
A secret about giants is they are very lazy,
Not one of them was a fisherman or a farmer,
They relied on stealing and thievery,
From the local gardens who were defenceless against this large intruder.
For years the people cursed the giants’ greed,
Each day they prayed for a saviour in their hour of need.
One day Big Jack was extremely hungry,
He went to a nearby garden looking for sustenance,
There, he espied a young woman picking fruit from a tree,
Feeling brazen, Big Jack stole the fruit and the girl, not knowing the consequence.
For this young lady was actually a princess,
Adored by her people for her gaiety and happiness.
Her father the king offered a reward,
Though no one came forward as it seemed the task was impossible,
They searched for a hero until all avenues had been explored,
Anyone willing to stand up against a Giant would have to be unstable.
Then a stranger arrived from out of town,
He guaranteed they would have no more worries with giants coming around.
The traveller promised to return the princess if everything went as planned,
The king was a desperate man so he agreed to the man’s offer,
He would hunt a Giant in exchange for the princess’s hand,
Three cheers for the Giant slayer.
Yet this stranger was selling the court a lie,
For he was no hero, they were in short supply.
This wanderer had heard tell of a powerful weapon,
That had fallen from the skies,
So his quest now begun,
It led him to an unexpected surprise.
He was not alone in his ambition,
There was another who sought the same prize and he was the first magician.
The sorcerer’s name was Albion,
He was upon his own quest,
An extremely important mission,
That was stuck out of reach in an eagle’s nest.
The traveller offered to make the climb,
So the sorcerer could save his energy and precious time.
Albion tasked the man to retrieve the item along with a feather,
In return he would craft him a magical blade,
That would make him a warrior,
It would enable him to complete his escapade.
The traveller eventually reached the trees’ pinnacle,
Only to be attacked by an angry eagle.
Desperately, the wanderer grabbed a feather along with the stone,
Before heading back down towards the ground,
Eagles are very territorial it is well known,
This particular bird was aggressive as could be found.
The traveller was thrown from the branches to land upon his head,
There he lay in a shallow grave for the dead.
Albion collected his items from the fallen body,
The feather would grant him greater vision,
As for the stone he would craft it into a sword that would become legendary,
Along with a bell that would fulfil his ambition.
For the alloy had fallen from the Evening Star during a meteor shower,
It had already begun to twist Albion’s mind towards murder.
.
The sorcerer created a sword which he buried with the traveler,
He then created a bell which was named Sereth,
For anyone who heard the bells timbre,
Would hear the Voice of Death.
Albion destroyed Big Jack’s fortress,
Before claiming the reward of the beautiful princess.
The couple had a child,
A son who inherited his father’s gift with magic,
By now Albion’s mind was becoming wild,
He was suffering a malady beyond any medic.
Protected by the love for his son, Albion returned for the sword,
Striking Sereth with the unique blade, his ties were severed.
