Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Shard cast - Sir Brindor

This time I will write of a minor character from my book. Sir Brindor is one of my sons' favorites, along with Orcbait. I am currently writing the following as a short story.

Nearly two decades before my story begins, Lord Havlin Tathis knighted Midas and betrothed his daughter Rina to him. He began to construct the small keep that Midas would call Welby once he was named a lord.

Midas was a gifted soldier but had never trained as a knight. Nevertheless, Lord Tathis took him to the capital of Pangalia for a great tourney. Sir Brindor was once the mightiest knight in the Known Lands. Midas was awed when he encountered Sir Brindor; he had heard many of the legends of the man's deeds. However, Sir Brindor looked down upon Midas, calling him 'Sir Fish', insisting that a poor fisherman's son could never be a true knight.

On the opening day of the joust, Sir Brindor took the field first and rode straight up to tap Midas's shield in challenge, spitting on the ground as he did so and openly insulting him to the crowd. After unseating Midas in the first pass, Brindor walked up to him as he lay semi-conscious on the ground. He leaned over, sneered in his face and said, "See what comes to fish out of water?" Brindor yanked off one of Midas's armored boots, lifted his foot, and stamped it hard onto Midas's leg, breaking it.

Later Midas awoke in the hospital, and to his surprise he found Sir Brindor in the bed next to him, his head heavily swathed in bloody bandages. Lord Tathis told him the story - in the evening melee the massive Duke Ord had accidentally struck too hard with his mace, and missing his intended target it had struck Sir Brindor in the side of his head. His skull was visibly broken; no one expected Brindor to live.

Two weeks later, as Midas continued to work on mending his leg, Sir Brindor shocked everyone by waking. His speech was slurred, and he seemed dazed at all times. He had no memory of his former life. His liege lord visited him, shook his head, and left him.

Midas was horrified at how quickly everyone dismissed the man who had been such a legend. As no one would have the broken knight, Midas decided to take Brindor home with him. Brindor continued to surprise everyone by swiftly regaining his strength; when roused from his stupor, he could still fight like a cornered lion. He never recalled his former antagonism toward Midas, but instead lavished love on him like a puppy to his master. At the time my story begins, Brindor is one of three knights who call Midas their liege lord.

4 comments:

  1. Oh Ted, how cool is this guy Midas! I had no idea what the whole pre-story was about, but when I found out, oh, I just love this! Great job.

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  2. Brilliant. Bloody brilliant!

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  3. I appreciate that. Wendy, I still plan on passing along the award, I just need to figure out to whom I want to give it. I don't really have many commenters yet here, and I don't want to just pass it back to you!

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  4. Haha! Ted, please don't pass it back to me. I couldn't stand it. I have way too many as it is!

    Anyway, it's your award and you can do anything you want with it. I'm sure it's quite happy sitting in your sidebar. Just saying... :)

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