Briawny let out a shrill shriek as she charged at him with the fierceness of a cave troll. He barely managed to dodge out of the way as the wooden sword came flying past his head in a blur. She took a couple steps back and began spinning the sword around in her hand in a lightning quick whirl.

"Nice form," Fabian stuttered a moment before she came charging at him again. This time she thumped him across the chest.

"A lucky blow," Fabian conceded as he rubbed himself. The wooden blades might not be deadly, but they still packed a heck of a wallop. He was probably going to have a sizable bruise there tomorrow.

She followed that up with a sweep to Fabian's legs and he collapsed onto the floor.

"Come on! Show me what you've got!" Briawny screamed at him.

"All right, lady," Fabian said as he pulled himself back to his feet. "You asked for it." He charged at her at full speed and swung the wooden sword as hard as he could. She easily ducked it and spun around. She smacked Fabian right across the face with the sword causing a loud noise to reverberate throughout the room.

"Oooooooooooooh!" the two kids winced as they covered their mouths with their arms.

Fabian rubbed his jaw and was about to make a snarky comment when he got hit in the legs again. He fell to the floor for the second time in less than a minute.

Briawny leaped on top of him, pinned his arms to the ground, and held the wooden blade against his throat. "Do you surrender?"

"Sure, I'll let you win," Fabian gasped before she finally released him.

He stood up slowly and checked his body all over. There was no doubt he was going to be mighty stiff later.

Briawny let out a long and loud victory cry as she held her arms outstretched to the side with clenched fists. "I have bested the mighty Fabian! A glorious day it is!"

"Yeah, well, you know, I held back since you're a girl and everything," Fabian said. "Plus, I win when it actually counts in real life against powerful evil monsters. I couldn't possibly take a little practice skirmish like this seriously. My heart's just not into it. Also I enjoy sharing the thrill of winning with others because I'm a generous guy like that."

Briawny swung her sword at his legs again and once more Fabian toppled to the floor.

"All right, all right, lady," Fabian said as he held up an outstretched palm in an effort to stop her. "That's enough. You win at toy swords. Everyone knows real swords are a completely different ballgame."

"Would you care to have a go with real swords?" Briawny asked. "I can fetch some."

"No, I'm good. I wouldn't want to have to embarrass you. And I really am in a hurry, like I said before I wasted my time with this foolishness. There are lives on the line out there people. Lives that are depending on Fabian to save them."

"Oh, perhaps you'd like to take on this new quest that just came in then," Briawny said. "There's news of a Dark Lord rising up in the East who means to enslave the world with the aid of a magical talisman. A hero of your caliber is sorely needed to put an end to this threat."

"Dark Lords really aren't my thing," Fabian said. "That sounds like way too much risk without much in the way of reward. Plus it seems like it's always some innocent farm boy from a tiny village who ends up taking them down in the end. No, I'll stick to finding this cat. Anyway, if you could just be so kind as to hand over my well deserved reward for killing the pirate king, I won't trouble you any further."

Briawny squinted and studied his face silently for a moment. "All right, then. Here be your reward for the pirate." She flung a bag of shillings at his head. It clipped him in the ear and then hit the floor. Fabian bent over and scooped it up.

"I'll be back soon to get my reward money for the cat. In the meantime, keep practicing your sword work. If you work really hard maybe someday you can graduate to fighting real battles like I do. In the meantime have fun running your little hero fan club here."

Briawny swung her wooden sword at Fabian's legs and sent him tumbling to the floor yet again. "I'll be looking forward to a rematch with real swords next time. Now get out of here, 'hero' and don't come back until you've found the feline."

Fabian crawled out of range of her sword and then hurried for the exit.