What do you feel Morganth and Mallory's childhood in Dun Dara was like?
FANTASTIC QUESTION!!!!!!!!
I imagine Malory to be quite older than Morganthe, by about 10 years give or take. At the time of his betrayal, Morganthe would have been around 13ish, making Malory in his early/mid 20's.
Artorious had gotten word that random items from farmers out in the Wyrd/Dun Dara area were being stolen- he went to investigate, and found that a young Malory had been stealing things to take care of him & his infant sister, who'd been hiding out in a cave for an amount of time. That's when Artorious offered Malory to become his Page, in exchange him and his sister would receive proper housing and care.
Though in true knight training fashion, Malory and Morganthe did not live in Castle Avalon for quite sometime, but of course with the druids in Dun Dara. Even in his early Page training, Malory was always the primary caregiver for little Morganthe, more so because he was very hesitant to let others take care of her. He would walk to and from Dun Dara to Castle Avalon each day for training, infant morganthe in a sling of some kind.
I think partly how Morganthe and Ambrose were introduced was because Morganthe as a toddler would just run away to whatever looked interesting to her when Malory would take her to his training duties... she became too much for him to look after, and when one days he stumbled into his orrery/office in the Castle, Ambrose offered to look after her while Malory trained. That's how she became his apprentice, a few years later.
Malory would definitely read books to Morganthe when she was a bit older, help her put her shoes on, etc etc. I like the visual of him now being able to give her piggy back rides as he nears Knighthood age during their daily treks back and form from Dun Dara and Castle Avalon. Morganthe would talk his ear off about whatever she learned with merleor read about in the Library.
Merle was a bit more 'fun' than Malory though, I think Morganthe learned a lot of mischievousness from Merle. There's this sort of whimsy-exchange i think Morganthe and Merle had with each other throughout their early mentor/mentee relationship. He loved her curiosity and wonder at the world, and she loved learning from him, and hearing about his many, many tales throughout the Spiral. She wanted to see more of the Spiral for sure.
I think I've talked about this before, but Gamma and Morganthe have such an intense 'sibling' feud-ish realtionship. It makes me laugh very much.
Because Malory grew up out in Dun Dara, he was much more accustomed to the druids and foundlings, and had a much better rapor with them compared to the other Knights of the Silver Rose. Often, his assignments as a Knight would involve traversing the forests, keeping peace between non-druids on the outskirts of the kingdom, and also helping the creatures of the wild if they were in need of it. This is also how he even got the foundlings/druids to rebel against he Kingdom when he betrayed Artorious, imo. He had a good standing with them.
There's more I could go into but thats sort of the basic stuff that comes to mind for me! I love Malory and Morganthe so much I think about them all the time waaaaaa
