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[goodwillrising]

[The dinner crowd has cleared and the Mess Hall is quiet and empty. This means it is just perfect for Will and two cat boys to pull up a table and settle down with a book. And a mug of tea for Will, hot chocolate for the boys. There may also be cookies.]

Now, do you want a story from La Morte D'Arthur or one of the stories I know?

Comments

[goodwillrising]

Is that all right with you, Soubi?

[luvernfighter]

[eyeing the cookies]

Hmm? [tail goes swish]

[luvernfighter]

[taking cookie]

If Ritsuka says yes, then yes.

[goodwillrising]

You'd make a great older brother, Ritsuka.

Well, I guess we're ready to begin.

Let's see. *Nursing his cup of tea for a thoughtful moment.* There was a time when King Arthur's wife Guinevere bore him a son. Guinevere had been long married to Arthur without a child, and she had deceived him once before. When the child was born, he was different. He looked like a changeling, pale with yellow hawk-eyes and white hair. Guinevere knew that Arthur would not believe the boy was his so she went to the wizard Merlin and asked him to take her away so that she might find a family to rear him.

[luvernfighter]

[Well trained to pay attention....or at least, Ritsu has tried training the kid]

[nibbling cookie]

[goodwillrising]

One of thing things Merlin was able to do was move through time. He chose as the place where Arthur's son would be raised a small town in rural Wales in the shadow of the Mountain Cader Idris, home of the Grey King. Guinevere gave him to a kind man, Owen Davies, who raised Bran as his own.

Bran grew up, not knowing that Owen wasn't his father. This happened, not in your time, mind, but in your father's time. So he rode a bike to school, watched black and while TV at his neighbours place, listened to the wireless and studied harp after school. Because he looked different, half the people in his town were afraid of him. So Bran learned to be stubborn and alone. By the time he was 12, he was about as opinionated as you can get. All right so far?

[goodwillrising]

He's not human, not at all. A -- well spirit doesn't work. I suppose you'd say he's a force that came from the mountain and over time took on a mind and power of his own. Very old, very powerful and cold as stone.

[luvernfighter]

He takes over people?

[goodwillrising]

Mostly he took over the mountain although there's a legend that says if you spend a night on the top of Caer Idris you will come back as a poet or you'll come back mad.

[luvernfighter]

[turns to Ritsuka]

Why a poet?