Egil and Haddock Quarrel

== Summary ==
== Full Text ==
Egil Ander Haddock: Before Firewyrm even landed on the ground Egil was rocketing himself off the Monstrous Nightmare, rushing toward the courtroom where his father would be waiting, swearing once he realized he needed to return to his own room first, charging straight toward his bedroom to nab the formal fencing wear for his proficiency testing, swearing again once he decided it was not worth the effort, redoubling his attempt to race to the courtroom where his father would be impatiently waiting, crashing into one of the house staff members and running on while shouting a hasty apology, turning the corner and almost crashing into a painting hanging on the wall, and at last reaching a pair of large oak double doors framed by a pair of guards and SHOVING open the entrance without permission and darting right into the courtroom where indeed his father was waiting very, very, very, VERY impatiently.
The king glowered like a storm cloud on his throne, half-grayed beard and tightened lips pulled down into twin frowns, arms crossed irately, while the royal swordmaster stood cumbersomely at the monarch’s side.
"Egil!" the king snapped. "Barging in without permission twenty minutes late?"
"My apologies," the young man growled through his teeth. He clenched his fists to his side. A great morning with Melira, and all of that ruined after ten seconds with my dad. "If you want, I can walk back outside, shut the doors, knock, and come in with permission twenty-two minutes late.”
"That would still be unacceptable, given as your lack of timeliness is forever inexcusable."
"Okay, look, I’m sorry, Dad." Egil was acutely aware there were other nobles loitering around in court, but he had long ago quit caring what they saw between himself and the king. "I really am. I lost track of time, but I swear to Forseti, Baldr, and Nanna that I ran back as quick as I could."
"Obviously did not run fast enough."
"Of all people, you’re telling me to run faster?” Egil stabbed himself in the chest with his pointing gesture, voice rising in pitch incredulously. “Bloody Hel, you can’t even w-“
Haddock, voice raised and firm, snapped, “My duties keep me in this throne room all day, where I am of the greatest use and service to the kingdom. Your duties require you to be timely arriving in the throne room for the few occasions your presence is likewise mandated.”
"Ohhhh, pardon me, Your Highness," Egil groaned, first bowing mockingly to his father, then crossing his arms stiffly. Father and son stared at each other with mirror glares and terse postures. "I am so sorry that my best efforts inconvenience you by twenty minutes. I must be a failure to my family. Because like you know exactly how hard it is to run from one end of the palace to the other, and I’m sure you could do it in like half the time it took me.”
The king’s eyebrows knit into a fearsome frown beneath the gold circlet on his brow. “Egil,” he said warningly.
"Look, I showed up. I’m here to be tested. Show you what I can do on this sword. Late’s better than never. So let’s quit stalling and like get on with this. Let’s go outside to the courtyard now and…”
"The test is an hour and a half in length, cannot be broken into two parts, and I am afraid we no longer have the time within today’s schedule to accommodate. Sverrir, what time will you be returning to the Wilderwest palace to test my irreverent son again?"
"A few month’s time, My Lord," the swordmaster answered with a bow.
Egil gaped. “Now wait a minute, that’s a fucking lie. I know that you’re not leaving yet. You could like test me tomorrow if you wanted. You’re going against me to punish me. This is unnecessarily harsh!”
"Is it?" Haddock cocked his eyebrow without denying the accusation.
"Oh, you are - are - just -" Egil, in his irritation, could not recall words like "insufferable" to complete the sentence. Though, fair enough, that word would have been beyond his vocabulary even in a calm situation. But his father no doubt knew exactly what Egil intended even though he never completed his sentence. Instead, the young prince pulled his face up into a false smile. It was amazingly charming given how he felt inside. Stewing inwardly, but speaking with nothing more than terse, clipped diction, he said, "Fine."
"Fine," Egil huffed again with a bow, sweeping himself elegantly backwards. He threw his hands into the air and held out his palms innocently. "It doesn’t really matter. Either way, I’ll be marked as a master swordsman in the end. I can wait several months. You can’t wait twenty minutes. We’ll see who’s the better man in the end."
He turned around and walked deliberately slowly out of the room with a straight, defiant back.
"Well that was handled nicely," said a female voice in the room. Shuffling beyond the other nobility in the courtroom, Mera stepped up to the front and placed herself on the other side of the king.
Haddock started. “Mera! Since when -“
"I heard the whole thing. I wanted to watch our son go through the sword testing, too, even if I am no enormous fan of the weapon." She glanced over to Sverrir. "No offense to you."
"We’ll talk of this more later in private," Haddock answered, voice low.
Mera nodded curtly. “Agreed. In the meantime, I should probably locate Prince Angst and make sure he isn’t tearing through the palace slicing all the curtains to shreds.” 
Mera, straightbacked herself, walked out of the room after Egil.
She found him running his hands through his hair in one of the sitting rooms, the same room in which Signy sat, staring at a wall, mumbling numbers to herself. It appeared as though she were listing off a geometric sequence, though halfway through her recitation, Egil growled, “You skipped three hundred sixty two.”
"Hon," Mera began, shuffling over to Egil, who immediately drew himself away from her, "you know you father gets upset easily."
"Like, he gets upset over everything. Especially when I do it. I mean, I get it that he lets Signy do her thing-” he gestured over to the beautiful curly-haired girl still mumbling into the wall “-but the twins? He’s never really pissed over the two of them when they screw up.”
"Sindri and Jonas are treated just as you are, Egil."
"No they’re not. They’re goody-goodies who are waaaay too put together for ten year olds."
Mera closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself before saying, “He does have to discipline you, you know, for being irresponsible. This isn’t the first time you have been late or skipped out of important events, after all. I know this is really disappointing to you son, but I do support his choice to forgo your testing for several months.”
"Three hundred forty-eight, three hundred sixty-six, three hundred fifty two, three…"
Egil grumbled, “Thanks for taking his side.”
"Look," Mera sat down in a nearby chair, "your father loves you, and he understands you more than you realize. You’re not so different than he was when he was your age." Mera smirked. "The stories I could tell you of your father…"
"Yeah, but that’s not who he is now. ‘Egil, be responsible.’ ‘Egil, you’re not responsible enough.’ ‘Egil, go be productive.’ 'Egil, those better not be gambling dice.' 'Egil, when I was your age, I was a Captain of the Guard.' 'Egil, all you do is fuck around.' Yada yada yada. That's who he is NOW. He - he's always had his heart bent on his kingdom. Maybe I'm not ready though? Maybe he could… like… see that?”
"He does. He just also wants to help guide you in the right direction."
"The right direction is as far away from him as I can get." Egil pulled himself out of his chair and walked out of the room without glancing again to his mother. He heard Signy murmur more numbers and Mera sigh before he slammed the door shut.
Category:Events
Category:EU
Category:Gareth Ragnar Haddock the Second
Category:Egil Ander Haddock
Category:Mera Violet Haddock