EPISODE 34

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tw : animal death

BRUNOR : 

DIN!
[ he pulls din up from the edge. ]

Din, is everything alright?

Are you hurt?

DIN : 

I, no, I…

Oh, no. 

…Fifi… 

PALAMEDES : 

How was the hunt, your Majesty? 

MARK : 

Unremarkable, Sir Palamedes.

I brought back a deer that gave my archers a great deal of trouble. 

“Look, Sir Mark, we got it,” they told me, then showed me a beast shot full of arrows.

Can’t even aim for the heart. It’d be more efficient to put down the poor thing.

PERCIVAL : 

But, when hunting for deer, aiming for the lungs is…
...is...

...easier… 

MARK : 

What an insolent squire, to contradict his own host.

Unsurprising coming from a Welshman, all things considered.

I’ve come to expect perfect aim on hunting trips, you see, thanks to Tristan. I’m sure he could tell you all about it, if he weren't running late. 

PERCIVAL : 

…If I really was that insolent…

…I would’ve called you horse-faced, march.

( * stallion in Welsh )

BORS : 

Percival!

Please, you are a guest at Sir Mark's own table.

MARK : 

Funny you should say that, Welshman.

Your father used to say the exact same thing about me.

What a shame that his slandering ways

did not save him from his tragic fate.

( disdainful )

PERCIVAL : 

You⎯

TRISTAN : 

Oh, uncle!

Forgive me. Iseult insisted on seeing to my wounds before dinner. 

MARK : 

Your wounds? What happened to you?

TRISTAN : 

Look at this!

Kelpie bite.

ISEULT : 

Fortunately, it will not scar.

TRISTAN : 

All thanks to you, my queen. 

PERCIVAL : 

( … “My queen”? )

MARK : 

Look at me, dear nephew.

[ wow he looks delighted!! ]

You seem to be doing well, despite it all.

I’m glad to see you.

TRISTAN : 

And I you, uncle.

[ same dumbass smile :’) ]

It’s always a pleasure to come back and visit

you and your lovely wife.

ISEULT : 

Oh, please…

PERCIVAL : 

( But, Sir Tristan…

Dame Iseult is…

his uncle’s wife? )

MARK : 

Very well, now that you’re all here,

enlighten me as to what kind of business brings this many knights of the Round Table to my home.

Arthur would undoubtedly drink poison before he ever ventured to ask after me.

BORS : 

Please, my lord, our intentions are anything but malicious. We’ve only come to visit the Lady of the Lake.

As you must know, she spends part of the year on your lands.

MARK : 

Indeed. Not that she asked me for my opinion, but

some would say she was here before I was.

BORS : 

We were trying to reach her when the kelpie attacked us out of nowhere.

I'm worried, though. Viviane would never let any such creature anywhere near her lake.

MARK : 

Where do you think she might be, Sir Bors?

BORS : 

…Probably in France,

in her primary home, in Brocéliande. 

MARK : 

So you’ve come to ask me for a ship?

Why not head back to Camelot and ask Arthur for one?

TRISTAN : 

Uncle, this is important.

And it’d be a show of goodwill towards Arthur.

MARK : 

Goodwill?

Arthur will only be satisfied if I turn Cornwall over to him,

and I should be the one proving my goodwill?

PERCIVAL : 

( I don’t understand anything that’s happening right now. )

MARK : 

( sigh )

...There's a merchant vessel set to leave in a little over a week. Its first port of call will be Benwick.

You’re free to come aboard⎯

BORS : 

Thank you, my lord⎯

MARK : 

⎯on one condition.

I demand that Arthur come to my court sometime in the near future, so we can put our quarrels aside, at long last. 

DINADAN : 

It’s going to be okay, big girl…

It’s gonna be okay.

( fifi noms him and he gives her a kiss ): )

BRUNOR : 

Do you want me to do it?

DINADAN : 

…Please. 

[ brunor raises the knife. fifi's neighing is abruptly cut off. ]

[ they hear the sound of lionel's approach, but he does not seem to see them, and walks away. ]

MORDRED : 

( We went back to the manor for the time being, to try and find a solution. 

The return trip was shrouded in silence. 

Dinadan went off to the stables without a single word,

and I don’t know what to say. )

BRUNOR : 

Your hands.

MORDRED : 

Excuse me?

BRUNOR : 

Give 'em here. 

These shouldn’t scar, but you’d better get them taken care of. 

…

You’re not the chatty type, are you? 

Or am I stressing you out? 

MORDRED : 

…I just don’t know what to make of all this,

or what I can do.

BRUNOR : 

How so?

MORDRED : 

About this monster, and

about Dinadan himself.

The way he reacted seems so cold.

He’s so calm, despite the fact your father died.

And he looked like he really did care for his horse, so I would have thought he’d be more… 

…emotional.

BRUNOR :
…

Family business is always complicated.

I don’t really want to talk about mine.

MORDRED : 

…I can understand that.

BRUNOR : 

But

Fifi was a gift from our father.

He and Dinadan had a complicated relationship. 

Din’s always dealt with things this way, by avoiding the parts that hurt

and throwing himself at some other problem.

DINADAN : 

Talking about me behind my back, I see.

That’s not very nice of you.

Anyway, I was looking after the horses,

and I took the opportunity to have a look at them.

If his Majesty will deign to gift me one now that I’ve lost mine, that is.

BRUNOR : 

Din⎯

DINADAN : 

But I assume you expect some explanations regarding Lionel, don’t you?

At a glance, I’d say it clearly has something to do with the Grail.

At least, that’s what Merlin’s led me to believe.

BRUNOR : 

Din.

DINADAN : 

So, if we research the Grail, we should be able to find a solution,

because right now, I have no idea how to deal with Lionel.

If he starts attacking passersby, it’s going to be a problem.

BRUNOR : 

Dinadan.

Stop it. (authoritative voice on)

Until other knights come to our aid, there’s nothing we can do,

and reinforcements won’t get here until tomorrow.

Get some rest tonight.

DINADAN : 

Very well. Let’s talk about something else, then.

I found my old guitar in the stables.

BRUNOR : 

That’s not what I⎯

DINADAN : 

If you only knew, Mordred…

Nearly every song I wrote on this guitar earned me a couple of slaps. ( I was kind of asking for it, true. )

I thought I’d lost it.

Who knows what it was doing in the stables.

BRUNOR : 

…Dad put it there.

He wanted you to be able to find it again,

without giving it to you himself, obviously.

You know how he…was.

He didn’t have it in him to tell you outright.

DINADAN : 

Ah… Yeah, right.

Of course.

He pulled the same stunt when he gave me Fifi.

…I…

I’m…

Sorry, Brunor, I…

I should’ve been there…

BRUNOR : 

Forget it, Din.

You didn’t do anything wrong.

It’s going to be okay. 

MORDRED : 

( I can kind of understand what it’s like to have a parent

you don’t know how to act around. 

I wonder if

my uncle, my mother

or even Gawain

also left something for me to find? )

?? : 

Camelot, at long last.

MORGAN : 

Let us hope my dear brother will be happy to see me. 

ROUND TABLE TRIVIA 

A knight’s horse is omnipresent in their life and has a special bond with its master. 

Hence, it usually gets its own funeral rites, and can even be buried alongside its knight under some circumstances.

Their remains can be used to make commemorative jewelry, like a bracelet woven out of horsehair.

( The ones depicted are 1) 100% horsehair, and 2) hair with a leather base. )

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