[open]

[lionbright]

Lleu is making bows.  Collecting firewood with Florence gave him the idea.  This is work his marksman brother taught him, so these are reasonably strong and balanced; maybe not for anything as big as deer, or wolf, but certainly well-made enough to kill rabbit or fowl.  He is minded of several reasons it might be a good idea to arm himself: Kay's

Comments

[hunt_theheart]

Curio loves a good hunt, loves a well-made bow--and if the man making them is young and attractive and focused, so much the better. He stands over Lleu, smiling, perhaps examining a bit of wood that Lleu hasn't yet begun to shape. "Dost need a fletcher for thine art, good sir?"

[lionbright]

Lleu looks up. "Why, yes, I do! I've little skill with arrows, and nothing to craft the flights with anyway."

sorry about the long silence. The typist's computer suffered a near-death experience this weekend. Fortunately it is now off life support, but of course it's not the weekend any more and we're struggling back to work. checking in intermittently, though!

[hunt_theheart]

"Then we must be as arrow is to bow--two complements, and thus two bosom-friends." He bows, but his silly smile on rising belies the formality. "My name is Curio. And what is thine?"

Sorry about the long silence. The typist suffered a string of final projects/whatnot the past few weeks.

[lionbright]

"Lleu son of Artos." A curious need to establish authority overcomes him, and he adds, "Prince of Britain."

[littlebetter]

"You're Lleu," Gaheris says, without preamble, in the clear, abrupt Latin he's taken to using all the time now. His dark eyes with their flitting unsteady thing in them watch Lleu quietly, with interest.

[lionbright]

Gaheris, though obviously more of the same family, isn't immediately recognizable: he's at least ten years older than the cousin Lleu knows, the difference between early teens and early twenties being fairly significant, and his cousins are all fair or red-headed. And... well... Gaheris is the least memorable of his cousins.

So it's startling, and confusing, to be named and recognized, when no one else has known him. Hearing the Latin makes him realize for the first time that he hasn't been consciously speaking it, and that's bewildering too.

His hands fall quiet, with the bow resting across his knees.

"I am Lleu," he says. "Who are you?"

arrgh.. see typist's note in comments above. rats and mice!

[littlebetter]

"Gaheris. Morvydd said--said you'd come."

it's okay! *hugs* it's definitely okay.

[lionbright]

"Gaheris!"

A breathless little laugh escapes him. One hand lies open on the bow, relaxed; the other still holds the little knife.

"But you're--forgive me, you're older. You are a boy, younger than me, back in my father's court."

[illgotten]

"How are you getting on?"

Here's somebody he's met, at least -- though Mordred in his current mood is nearly as different from the snappish little man on the porch as he is from Lleu's brother. He stands a little way off, hands in his pockets, expression mild.

[lionbright]

"Oh!" He looks up, woefully delighted at the attention, like a puppy. "All right. It takes some getting used to."

[illgotten]

"I suppose it does." Thus encouraged, he comes a little closer, and leans on the nearest tree, or wall, or whatever's handy. "But you're keeping busy, anyway."

[lionbright]

why yes, we are outside, his typist neglected to mention. on the terrace, we can assume.

"As you see." A pause. Then in a low voice he adds, "I am learning how my aunt must feel about her exile."

[unhappysteward]

Kay isn't looking for him specifically, but when he sees Lleu, he'll certainly come over. The more he watches the boy, the more he can see that, at least somehow, the boy is telling the truth.

Gruffly, he says, "Are you settling in, then?"

[lionbright]

Kay would probably be embarrassed to know it, but his unemotional organizational presence is a lifeline for this kid.

"Yes, sir." He looks up, and shakes the hair from his eyes. "I think so."

[unhappysteward]

He nods. "Good. Found something... productive to do, I see."

[lionbright]

"I had to do something." --frankly.

"They're not very strong, and I am not much of a marksman. But you said there was hunting to be had."