Easter Eggs!

[border_princess]

Helen is sitting in the kitchen She has changed her clothing to something a little more rich, but is, for all purposes, still a boy. The table is littered with tools, jars of dye, and piles of hollowed eggs. She picks one and begins to draw designs onto the shell. Every so often she stops, lets it soak in one of the dyes, removes it, makes more

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[fingersofleaf]

Sir Percy is in the kitchen looking for something in one of the drawers there--he's discovered that they're great for finding obscure odds and ends--and as soon as he finds what he wants and pockets it, he comes over to the table and flops down across from her. "Oooh, hi. Are you gettin' ready for Easter?"

[border_princess]

"We don't have many sheep. But we do have horses."

[fingersofleaf]

"What are they like? Are they furry? Somebody said they have real shaggy horses up north."

[border_princess]

"The steppe horses are small and get shaggy in the winter for it becomes very cold. But there are also cavalry horses. They are big and very beautiful."

[fingersofleaf]

He listens raptuously, as he always does when other people are telling him of things. He pictures them in his head and listens and builds, as though instead of information he's hearing stories.

[border_princess]

Helen continues talking. "The cavalry horses are also special because the Hussaria get to ride them."

[fingersofleaf]

"What's Hussaria?"

[border_princess]

She smiles a little. "Knights. They have the most glistening coats of armour and on their backs are wings made out feathers. And when they charge they have great trumpets blowing and drums that make the earth shake. Enemies think that angels from heaven have fallen upon them and they turn and run."

[fingersofleaf]

"I sure would." He laughs, again sheepishly, again rubs his head. "Maybe we shoulda tried that."

[border_princess]

"Are you a soldier?"

[fingersofleaf]

"A knight. An okay one, I guess."

[border_princess]

"Really?" Percy you have just become cousin/brother surrogate. "What are your country's knights like?"

[fingersofleaf]

Yay! He's really good at that, and not-so-sekritly enjoys it, too. "Well, they're King Arthur's, so they're not really my country's, but His Majesty's got this table that's like a circle, so there's no head, and he says that's 'cause we're all equal, he says that it's not what we're born as makes us special, it's what we do, and so we got this creed he has everybody swear to, that we're gonna be good and honourable and protect people who need protectin' and leave 'em alone if they don't, and always make him proud of us."

[border_princess]

"It sounds as though you are all good knights. We elect our king. Do you do that?"

[fingersofleaf]

"Sort of. He has this sword that was stuck in a rock, and they said nobody except the true King could pull it out. And he was the only one who could." When Percy speaks of Arthur it's with a vast love, as one might have for a father (and perhaps, as he never had a father, that is the place Arthur fills for him).

[border_princess]

"So he was chosen by God. He must be a very great King."