Can a princess and a barbarian be friends?
Sparrow and Bright is an adventure fantasy web serial novel, started in 2020. Set in an Age of Wonder filled with ruins of past civilisations and strange magic, it follows the exploits of Hope the magical Princess and Brunhilde the Barbarian.
Hope is exiled from her home and seeks a way to return, Brunhilde owes her a life-debt and has her own mission.
The story is still ongoing and readable at Royal Road (here
).
Sparrow and Bright contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Hope is a princess trained in duelling and magic. Brunhilde is a barbarian warrior. Both characters can hold their own in a fight against multiple enemies.
- Brains and Brawn: Hope has been educated in magic, biology and astronomy, Brunhilde is strong enough to clothesline a horse.
- Force and Finesse: Brunhilde uses brute force to master enemies, Hope uses magic and also knowledge of pressure points to disable humanoid foes.
- Geas: If Brunhilde ever uses a weapon to kill a foe, she can never use that weapon to kill again. This leads to her breaking a lot of weapons, just to make sure she never uses them again.
- Glory Seeker: Brun comes from a culture that prizes stories to be told after you die. As long as the story is good, she is happy to die in battle.
- Hungry Weapon: when Hopes sword Burns Night it drains life-force and magical energy.
- Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: the Sword that Burns Night or day can either be chilling dark or burning white, with different powers in each mode.
- Lovely Angels: Both can fight, and both profess respect for each other’s abilities.
- Phlebotinum battery: Hope needs to bathe in sunlight to charge up her magic.
- Power Tattoos: Hope has magical tattoos that take in power from the sun and allow her to make constructs and blades of light.
- Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Hope wears white royal robes, a cloak of many colours and considers herself above all commoners. She is also an expert duellist who fights with daggers of light or stunning unarmed blows.
- Strong and Skilled: Brunhilde is amazingly strong, but comes from a family of fighters. She trained with them at an early age, and due to her geas, she knows how to wrestle when she has no weapons.
