Subprisia

[pendraeg]

Who: Uther and Morgana.
What: A surprise. Even Brittany doesn't know what it is!
When: After the ultrasound and room preparations and things. Before the body swap.
Where: The Castle Grounds.
Rating: S for sphinxlike.
Status: Private and incomplete.

Comments

[notjusta_ward]

"And what will this do for?" Morgana asked, a smile playing at her lips. She was curious about the box, but not overly so. Uther would tell her in time and she was mostly just enjoying his company.

[pendraeg]

Morgana was happy, and for Uther, it was as though a burden he had carried for a very long time had become light upon his shoulders. He had felt he should commemorate this feeling, and so he had contrived a small surprise--in a way, it had contrived itself--for Morgana.

He pivoted to look at her, smoothing his free hand along her shoulder and upper arm. "For your gift." He brandished the box with a flourish.

[notjusta_ward]

"A gift?" Morgana asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning. She was not one to turn down a gift easily. Especially one from Uther. "What is it?"

She took the box from him, examining the outside for a few moments before opening it up to reveal what was inside.

[pendraeg]

Perhaps she would be confused. Perhaps, when confronted with the interior of the box, she would find herself uncertain. For inside was a single glove, a gauntlet made of soft goat's skin. Uther had guessed at the specifics of Morgana's hand, but the gauntlet would fit well enough, and it would protect her entire arm.

[notjusta_ward]

Morgana took out the gauntlet carefully examining it. It was beautiful and soft. "A glove?" she asked, slipping it on. "As lovely as this is, doesn't one need something else for this to be useful?"

[pendraeg]

With a gleam in his eye, Uther slipped around to stand behind Morgana and take her gloved hand, raising it into the air. Through the overwhelming silence of the meadow, there was a twinkling sound, faint at first, that grew with the approach of something that began as a black dot in the sky and quickly came into focus, heading for their gloved hands.

[notjusta_ward]

She watched as the bird came down toward her and eventually landed on her glove. "Hello there," Morgana said quietly, looking at the bird who was sitting so complacently on her glove. "You got me a bird?"

[pendraeg]

"A peregrine falcon." Uther kept his eye on the juvenile bird, who kept her eye on the stranger. "Although in truth it was more that she got us. She came to me, as they do, but I knew right away I should tame her for you."

[notjusta_ward]

"A peregrine falcon. You tamed a bird for me. I take it she does not have a name yet?" Morgana longed to stroke the bird but was not sure how tame it was. Neither did she know how birds took to being stroked. It was not like petting Daisy or Adamant. Birds were something Morgana had less experience with than dogs or horses.

[pendraeg]

Uther took up the jess and looped it around the falcon's ankle so that she was attached to Morgana's glove. "That is your task, if you like your present," he said. "I think that you and she are of a kind, and I have told her much of you."

It might seem strange to Morgana to be given a hunting bird at this time in her life, but the bird had come to Uther, lost and young, and he had at once seen that they were two of the same.

[notjusta_ward]

"I do. Greatly," Morgana replied, putting her free hand on top of Uther's and giving it a squeeze. "A name. I shall have to think on that. Do you have no suggestions?" Perhaps this would be a test for later names that she would have to think up quite soon. Morgana saw exactly what Uther had. A beautiful bird, lost and alone. It was just as she was when they had met and she thought it incredibly sweet of him to make the connection.

[pendraeg]

"I have none." He stepped away so that he could better help her with the falcon. "She has been tamed to man, but we shall have to train her to hunt and to respond to you. She is very young yet, only in her first year or so."

[notjusta_ward]

Morgana would just have to think about the name for her falcon. "If you help me train her, I am sure she shall respond quickly enough."

[pendraeg]

Uther smiled at his--at Morgana. "I am sure she will. And I will care for her anyway when you are unable. It is all right to touch her, though she is more wild guest than pet."

[notjusta_ward]

She smiled back, hesitantly touching the bird before becoming comfortable enough to pet her. "Thank you, Uther. It was not necessary of you to do this, yet, I appreciate it vastly."