[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

[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."

[illgotten]

"Oh?" guardedly. He never did get a straight answer as to who this kid is, but he's been drawing some conclusions, none of them reassuring.

[lionbright]

Hmm, he never got a straight answer because he and Telemakos were way too busy snarking at each other to find out.

"Just... being idle, with nothing expected of you by anyone unless you beg favors of them, and no one knowing or caring whether you come or go. And you can't escape it. You're just left with yourself."

A breathless little laugh escapes him.

"At least it isn't the Orcades."

[illgotten]

Minor details!

Mordred half-smiles. "That it's not." He moves to sit down, not too close. "But you're right. Boredom is the worst of it."

[lionbright]

"I should not complain. I am safer here than home, I think. And too--surrounded by family!" Another breathless quirk of laughter. "Morvydd took me for you, I think."

[illgotten]

That gets a snort. "For me? Good God."

[lionbright]

"I could not get her to admit it."

A pause. He adds, with a ghost of the wicked, bewitching grin that irks his brother to distraction, "She was being polite, you see."

[illgotten]

And Mordred laughs outright, wholeheartedly amused. "Oh, of course! The soul of tact, that one."

[lionbright]

"She was very kind to me."

and the flashed smile is gone, as he remembers what followed.

"She did not know me, any more than anyone else does, but she pretended that she did, at first. So as not to hurt me."

[illgotten]

Mordred leans forward, elbows on his knees. "If I know my cousin, she'll have adopted you anyway."

[lionbright]

"'anyway?' You mean even if I wasn't her cousin?"

[illgotten]

"It's the sort of thing she does." It is fairly evident from his tone that he has Issues with Morvydd, but is not going to bring them up. "So who else have you hunted up?"

[lionbright]

"Kay. Gwalchmei, I mean Gawain, and Florence, Gawain's boy--that was a surprise to me! My aunt Morgan, who I did not recognize at all. And a man with a wonderful soft hat and a firestick that he sucked the smoke from."

That would be Sam Spade. Well, you had to ask.

"And, I think, my father and mother. But they did not know me, either."

A pause.

"And your mother."