Dafyd's introduction

For Dafyd, it all began with an injured bird.

Or rather, it all began when his friend, the princess Brendora, stormed into the room holding an injured bird. "I can't believe that he would do that," she said angrily.

"You can't believe that who would do what?" asked Dafyd. He had been sitting in Castle Clarington's study room which the children raised in the castle used between lessons.

Brendora sighed and calmed a little bit. "Feston," she said. "You know, he's all excited about how when he gets older, he's going to fight in that Mabetha--Dolmar war."

"Our country is neutral in that war, and the Lady Palmer says that makes us lucky." said Dafyd.

"Well, he doesn't seem to care. He just thinks it would be great to fight in a war. I don't think he's even decided which side he would fight on. Anyway, he's been practicing with his sword and now he's getting crazy with his bow and arrow. Just now, he thought he could impress me by shooting something in the sky. He shot down an innocent blackbird." In a huff, she slammed the bird on the table, and looked at Dafyd sadly. "Do you know anything about helping injured birds?" she asked more gently.

Dafyd sighed. "First of all, I know you need to handle them carefully, or you can injure them worse."

"Oh no!" said Brendora alarm replaced anger on her face. "You don't think that I--?"

Dafyd looked carefully at the bird. At first, it looked like nothing but a mass of black feathers and blood. Still, Dafyd could see that its legs were still kicking the air, and its head was making an effort to move around. "I'm not sure this bird can be helped, Brendora."

"Oh," said Brendora. "Look, your father is the royal wizard. Couldn't he heal it with magic?"

Dafyd's first instinct was to tell Brendora that that was a bad idea. His father was both a powerful wizard and an even kinder father, but he had an odd way of looking at things sometimes. If you started asking him about magic, his answers could be a little cryptic. Still, when Dafyd looked at the bird and then at Brendora's sad face, he sighed and said. "I guess it won't hurt to ask."

* * *

The two found Dafyd's father in the section of the castle which doubled as his family's apartment and his father's laboratory.

"Well, well," said Father looking up from his spellbook and smiling. "If it isn't the two brave adventurers. What can I do for you?"

Dafyd showed him the bird. "Can you help it?" he asked

This made Father sniff. "Can I help it? Really Dafyd. I am the Royal Wizard, so of course, I can help it. When are you going to learn to ask the correct questions?"

Dafyd looked at Brendora, then back at his father. "What is the correct question?" he asked.

"The correct question is, 'Can you help it?' After all, you've been studying magic."

Dafyd felt alarmed. "Father, I'm not sure I can do that."

"So?" said Father. "Not being sure of success is an immensely poor reason for not doing something constructive."

Dafyd sighed. Then he looked at Brendora who was smirking in spite of herself. He looked at the bird. Gently, he put his hand on it and tried to concentrate on a spell. Gradually, the blood seemed to disappear, the bird's black feathers became whole, and the bird itself stood up and began hopping around.

"You did it," said Brendora giving Dafyd a hug around the neck which made him blush.

Dafyd felt proud as he looked at the bird which was now the size of the beaker on his father's worktable. Then, he blinked and saw that it was as big as the bottle. Then, he blinked again and it was the size of small cat.

An alarm went off in his head. "That bird is growing!"

Indeed, it grew the size of a dog, then the size of a horse, then so big it filled most of the room.

Dafyd looked at his father. "Something's wrong! This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Perhaps not," chuckled his father. "But if I were you, I would try using my hat. You still have your hat, don't you?"

Dafyd sighed and took out his blue magic hat. For a minute, what his father suggested seemed ridiculous. How could a bird that size fit into his hat, but he did know that his hat sometimes did strange things with size. So, he stepped forward, grabbed part of the bird's tail, and began pulling it towards his hat. It took a bit of pushing and pulling, but eventually, the entire bird's body was shoved into his hat.

"Wow," said Brendora. "Will he be all right in there?"

"She will be fine for the time being," said Father. "You do realize that it's a female."

Dafyd didn't bother to ask his father how he knew that. He just said, "Well, umm. . .If she's going to be there for a while, maybe we should give her a name."

Brendora looked delighted at the idea, and Father said, "Now, you are thinking more like my son. She is your bird. So what do you want to name her?"

"Well. . .," said Dafyd, "everone's talking about how I did this, but Brendora is the one who found her in the first place."

"So?" asked Brendora.

"So. . ." Dafyd wasn't sure how well this idea would go over. "Why don't we call her 'Brendora'?"

"You want to name that bird after me?" For a minute, Dafyd wasn't sure if Brendora would be happy or lose her temper, but then she smiled, and said, "I like that idea."

"Brendora, it is, then," said Father, "and Dafyd. . .Don't worry too much about the spell not going the way you planned. Sometimes a mistake is the very thing you need to solve a problem."

Dafyd groaned. This was another one of his father's bits of advice which made no sense, but he sighed and left the laboratory with Brendora.

* * *

Dafyd ended up staying late in the castle library that night. He had found a particular period of Dolmarian history which had interested him, and was lost in the study of long ago kings. When he realized that the hour was getting close to ten o'clock, he stood up and made his way back to his apartment.

As he walked through the corridors, he happened to see Brendora standing outside one of the doors. "Oh hello," she said. "I was hoping I could find you."

"What's going on?"

"Well," Brendora pointing to the wooden door. "This is Lady Palmer's apartment."

"So?" asked Dafyd. "Don't tell me you're bothering her with help in your studies at this hour."

"No," said Brendora, "but put your ear against this door and listen."

Dafyd wasn't sure that was such a polite thing to do, but he did it anyway, and when he did, he could hear a sobbing coming from inside."

"She's crying," said Brendora. "Why do you think she's doing that?"

"Well," said Dafyd cynically, "she has good reason to cry when you consider her job is to educate the likes of us, not to mention Winger and Feston."

"Dafyd!"

"Or," Dafyd continued, "maybe it has nothing to do with us and we should just get away from here and mind our own business."

"Dafyd, I'm disappointed in you, I thought you liked Lady Palmer." said Brendora.

"All right," said Dafyd. "I guess the only other thing would be to knock on the door and ask her about it."

"Great," said Brendora, "let's do that."

Dafyd took a breath and knocked. The door opened and a slightly disheveled Lady Palmer answered it. "Well, what brings you two here?"

"We heard you crying," said Brendora.

"Well, yes, but you really shouldn't worry about--"

Dafyd decided to step in. "You always told us to do what Marlon would do. Marlon would definitely not let his teacher cry without finding out the problem."

This made Lady Palmer smile in spite of herself. "I wish all young people were as thoughtful as you two. It would make my job so much less dreadful." She ushered them inside.

"Actually, dears," said Lady Palmer. "I was just crying because I was thinking about my homeland and my sister."

"Oh," said Dafyd. "Where do you come from anyway, Lady Palmer?"

"I never told you?" Both of them shook their heads. "I was born in Dolmar."

"Where the war is?" said Brendora.

Lady Palmer nodded. "It's one of the reasons I left. I mean, ever since I was a young girl I was the religious one in the family. In love with Marlon. But even then, the average Dolmarian had no use for the prince of peace. I just didn't fit in there. That made me different from my older sister, Tairess. She was exactly what a Dolmarian girl should be. Doing everything necessary to see that an important warrior would want her for a wife."

Dafyd choked. "Wait a minute. Did you say your sister's name was Tairess?"

Lady Palmer smiled cynically. "Yes. I wasn't joking when she said that she convinced an important warrior to be her husband. You see, she married the King of Dolmar. Of course, now I feel sorry for her. She's not that old and already she's a widow and the queen of a kingdom at war to make matters worse. And I can't even communicate with her, because it's impossible to get anywhere near her castle without passing through battlefields and Mabethian blockades, and heaven knows what else." She smiled bravely. "That's the reason I was crying. It's nothing you two can help me with."

Brendora walked over and gave Lady Palmer a hug. It's what she always did when she couldn't help someone any other way, but Dafyd was thinking.

"Lady Palmer," he said, "what if there were a way that we could help you get to Dolmar and your sister?"

Brendora frowned. "What are you talking about, Dafyd?"

Dafyd said, "sometimes a mistake is what you need to solve a problem. He reached into his magic hat and pulled out the giant bird, Brendora.

"What is that?" asked Lady Palmer in fright.

"Don't be afraid. She's my bird and if we got on her back, I bet she could fly us to Dolmar."

Lady Palmer and Brendora looked at each other. Lady Palmer spoke first. "Are you sure you can do that?"

"No," Dafyd admitted, "but not being sure of success--"

"--is an immensely poor reason for not doing something constructive," finished Brendora. "Lady Palmer, I think we should try it."

Dafyd smiled at Brendora. "I know you would come on this crazy adventure if I asked you to."

"But you're not?" asked Brendora.

"Well, don't get me wrong, but I think it would be a problem. After all, you're a member of the royal family here. So, for one thing, you'd be missed here, and for another thing, if you show up at the Dolmarian court, it could cause an international incident or something."

Brendora nodded. "Well be careful," she said hugging both of them. Then, she pet the bird. "Take good care of them, Brendora. Make me proud to have the same name as you."

Then Dafyd and Lady Palmer prepared to depart.