Tara returns to her keep with Liam, to raise him and keep him safe from the dangers of both the human realm and Otherworld. Meanwhile, Bracken finds his feet in Tinewald after finding a visitor in the forest.
Cast (in order of appearance)
Tara - Alice Dennis
Grunlich- Ashley Kuppersmith
Bracken - N. K. Schlaudecker
Windswift - Amber Walker
Collin Rodach - Ashley Kuppersmith
Roisin - April Lindsay Chambers
Hugh Rodach - Trista Lackey
Score composed and performed by Eamon Coughlan
Sound effects sourced through Splice and BBC Sound Library
Tara returns to her keep with Liam, to raise him and keep him safe from the dangers of both the human realm and Otherworld. Meanwhile, Bracken finds his feet in Tinewald after finding a visitor in the forest.
Cast (in order of appearance)
Tara - Alice Dennis
Grunlich- Ashley Kuppersmith
Bracken - N. K. Schlaudecker
Windswift - Amber Walker
Collin Rodach - Ashley Kuppersmith
Roisin - April Lindsay Chambers
Hugh Rodach - Trista Lackey
Score composed and performed by Eamon Coughlan
Sound effects sourced through Splice and BBC Sound Library
Episode 3, Sc. 1
(walking in the snow)
TARA Just a bit further. Soon we’ll be home at my Keep and I can get you in front of a nice, warm hearth fire. There’s a stream that quarters my land, and all my gardens surround it. Of course, it’s quiet and frozen now, but in spring, the stream will flow and flowers will wake, and the faeries and sprites will come to meet you. Your mother will return then, too.
(horse whinnies, gallops across the snow, slows as he approaches, whickers)
Never fear.
TARA Ah, my Grünlich. What is it?
GRUN You know I don’t like you going off on your own with weather like this.
TARA I know, but you understand how I like taking my own stride in these dusking days.
GRUN (chuckles) I do.
TARA I found someone.
GRUN So I see. Who is this? But he’s such a little thing. What…(Liam’s pinching his nose) T-Tara? He has my nose…
TARA Grün, this is Liam.
GRUN Was he alone?
TARA No. This is Tierney’s son.
GRUN The Fía’s Tierney?
TARA Yes. Bracken is his father.
GRUN So, she did take to him after all. Wait…where are they?
TARA I sent Tierney to Fíaglen to be with her people. They will care for her and help her heal.
GRUN Heal?
TARA Bracken.
GRUN He can’t be dead.
TARA No. But it seems the Shattered God has learned to break faery magic. Bracken is human now, cursed by their iron.
(Grun snorts)
GRUN You poor child. It’s well enough. I’ll be your da in the meantime.
TARA You have always been a good father, my friend. And Liam will need you.
GRUN Why didn’t he go with Tierney?
TARA Scent him again.
GRUN (horse sniffs) No. He’s…
TARA The curse carried. It broke Bracken’s magic, both in himself, and in his son.
GRUN How do we stop this?
TARA I don’t know. For now, I will close all but the bare few of the gates, so our messengers may still come and go.
GRUN And Bracken?
TARA I have arranged for Dominic to find him. At least they each have a new ally. It’s all I can do for now. Come, let’s get you fed, and all of us out of this cold.
Episode 3, Sc. 2
(Music-Tavern Morning)
(Door opens, footsteps on wooden porch transition to gravel)
BRACKEN So. Tara sent you?
WINDSWIFT For the thousandth time, yes. Tara’s heart, do you have wool in your ears?
BRACKEN No. I’m surprised at her choice of animal companion for me.
WINDSWIFT The skinchanger who’s been turned human is surprised by a talking rabbit. I’m tiny, and easy to hide. You know, better than a talking badger, who would attract the Shattered God’s attention.
BRACKEN I suppose you’re right.
WINDSWIFT And you’re back on your feet. Dominic told me you were better when he left a few days ago. I had to wonder when your restlessness was going to get the better of you.
BRACKEN Well, I’m afraid walking around the tavern isn’t quite enough.
WINDSWIFT You want to go to the forest?
BRACKEN I need to know if any of the other Fia are still here. I know they can’t help me if they are, but…
WINDSWIFT I saw one. A red hind with white markings. A shepherd, I think.
BRACKEN (walking away)
WINDSWIFT Where are you going?
BRACKEN I need to be alone for a while, rabbit.
WINDSWIFT My name is Windswift.
BRACKEN Windswift, then. Let me go. I’ll come back in a little while.
(footsteps recede)
WINDSWIFT Go on then, stubborn.
(tavern door opens, closes, a child runs across the cobbles)
WINDSWIFT But I don’t think you’re going alone.
Episode 3, Sc. 3
(Red deer stag barking, rattling, birds and woods noise)
(Stag bellows again, is answered by a rival)
BRACKEN: Come on, one of you MUST be Fia…or I’ve come all this way for nothing. That rabbit said he’d seen you.
(Rattling antlers, brush shaking)
COLLIN: (falls out of bushes) Oof…sorry…
BRACKEN: Be still. Give me your hand, and stand up very slowly.
(SFX deer fight continues)
COLLIN: They’re fighting.
BRACKEN: Yes. You see the smaller stag?
COLLIN: Yes.
BRACKEN: He’s challenging for the hinds.
COLLIN: (fascinated) Will he win?
BRACKEN: He’s young and rash, so probably not. (SFX rattle, bellow, deer running) Looks
Like enough’s enough.
COLLIN: I’ve never seen anything like that before. I mean, Da’s goats fight, but…
BRACKEN: Not so savage?
COLLIN: I guess.
BRACKEN: (heavy sigh) Why do you insist on following me?
COLLIN: I like the woods. Mam won’t let me go far by myself, though. But it’s quiet, and I like that more than the ‘Hen.
BRACKEN: Or having Jack tell you how to garden?
COLLIN: Yes. That and he says I kill his plants.
BRACKEN: Don’t you?
COLLIN: I don’t mean it!
BRACKEN: Hush! Look, I want you to see something. Do you see the bright doe? The one with the white splashes on her neck and shoulders?
COLLIN: She’s not fluffy.
BRACKEN: Good eye. What else?
COLLIN: Why…why is she shining when she breathes?
BRACKEN: Remember this, in the forest, things are not always what they seem. A spring coat in the dead of winter, colors that don’t quite match…If you know when you’ve seen one of the Fia…
(Stag barks, deer snorts and running)
You’ll never mistake them, and never shoot one by accident..
(pause)
(whispered, painful)
Mother…why didn’t you go home?
COLLIN: Shoot? Why would I?
BRACKEN: Because the village huntsmen are too old to teach you, or think you’re too young to learn. But if you’re not to be a farmer, I’ll teach you the ways of the forest.
COLLIN: So you’re staying?
BRACKEN: I suppose so. I haven’t got anywhere else to go. Let’s get you back to the Moorhen, or your Mam will skin you…and me, into the bargain.
BRACKEN Go on now, get back to the Moorhen. I’ll catch up.
(Collin runs off, (SFX footsteps receding, deer contact calls grow louder in his absence)
(Hind call closeby, footsteps, contact call)
BRACKEN Mother.
(SFX magic, she sheds the deer form)
ROISIN Bracken, my boy, what have they done to you?
(They go to each other and embrace)
BRACKEN Why did you stay here? Everyone else…
ROISIN I am a Sheperd. I was never going to leave. Not my deer, and not you.
BRACKEN Then there still might be hope. If there’s another ring with sufficient power…
ROISIN Bracken…
BRACKEN A human can cross with a faery’s help. I…I could-
ROISIN (sighs) Bracken, listen. Son…
BRACKEN It’s simple! We…
ROISIN Please, son. This is nearly impossible as it is.
BRACKEN Wh-what do you mean?
ROISIN (sadly, she knows this will crush him further)
I, I can’t take you home.
BRACKEN Wh-what do you mean? Of course you can…
ROISIN No one can.
BRACKEN Why?!
ROISIN Because of the curse.
BRACKEN The curse? You mean what Sloan and that damned Shattered God did to me.
ROISIN The Elders have made their decision. They will not allow you to come home. (beat) Though I do not agree with it.
BRACKEN Nor should you. And I don’t, for that matter. They’re punishing me as though I did this to myself.
ROISIN That’s not their reason. They know you weren’t at fault.
BRACKEN (snorts) Oh? Then why? I nearly died. I wanted to. And yet, here I am, saved by someone who says Tara sent him. If I wasn’t spared to go back to Tierney and Liam, then what?
ROISIN They said it’s because of the way it carried to your son.
BRACKEN But-
ROISIN That is why. They don’t know if it can effect others, or what it might do should you cross to the Otherworld. The passage could kill you, thanks to what it did.
BRACKEN But Liam…
ROISIN He is safe with Tara, and it did nothing to Tierney, not her magic, anyway. Her heart is a different story. In many ways, it *is* like you died.
They…they have called you “The Lost.”
BRACKEN And just like that, I’m given up for dead. The Lost, indeed.
ROISIN I wish I could stay with you.
BRACKEN No. You’ve taken enough of a risk already. Loxias…
ROISIN (assured) Hasn’t found me yet. And he never will. You didn’t get ALL of your trickery from your father, you know.
BRACKEN What do I do now? What’s left, with my magic broken and my family and our people out of reach?
ROISIN Tara and the Hunter spared your life. I have seen Sloan hunt. Whatever his flaws, he never took more than one shot to kill. You are lucky, even if it doesn’t seem so.
BRACKEN (huff) Lucky. Likely. And I’m living on the good favor of human, now.
ROISIN Tinewald keeps the Worthies.
BRACKEN For how long? Darach “kept the Worthies” too. Until it didn’t suit them.
ROISIN (grows distant, prophetic) The Rodachs will stand until the Earth breaks, and Fire consumes the land.
(returns to normal) The spirit of this place is stronger than Darach. They have the influence of the Hunter’s Wood, after all.
BRACKEN I wish I could believe in them.
ROISIN Give them a chance. Besides, you’ve already told the child you’ll teach him.
Perhaps that is the reason, so you may keep them strong against the Shattered God. So their young ones don’t grow complacent, or easily swayed.
Darach’s mistake was letting the Shattered God in. Here, you may help keep them in check. Become a thorn they cannot remove.
BRACKEN A thorn, then.
ROISIN Yes. They may’ve broken your magic, but you are still you.
BRACKEN Then a thorn is what I’ll be. And the name I’ll go by until I can find my way home.
ROISIN I must go, and you have a new task before you. I’ll move the herd back to the Hunter’s Wood before spring, but know you are not lost to me.
(SFX, shifts back into her deer form, footsteps recede)
BRACKEN (trudges back through the forest, his footsteps fade out slowly)
Episode 3, Sc. 4
(Music-Forest Scene, footsteps crossing gravel,)
BRACKEN (sighs) Bracken Thorne it is, then. Better than Bracken the Lost, at any rate.
HUGH (SFX footsteps transition to wooden steps)
Ah, there you are, then, Bracken. I trust Collin didn’t disturb you too much.
BRACKEN No more than a child his age is wont to do. He didn’t scare the deer away, at least.
HUGH He’s gifted with sneaking, just ask his Mam.
BRACKEN I believe it.
HUGH There’s still much of the day left. Luncheon should be laid soon, if you’re hungry, and Mags managed to find another set of clothes for you, not just some castoffs of mine.
BRACKEN I…
HUGH Hm?
BRACKEN I haven’t thanked you properly. And it makes it worse that I can’t…you know I can’t repay what you’ve done. What you continue to do.
HUGH (chuckles) Well, lucky for you my Mags has Traveler blood. She’s seen to it we have their hospitality, too. We didn’t help you thinking you could repay us.
We helped because it was what was right. I don’t know what ended you in the woods like that…
HUGH And I’m not going to ask. That’s your business, to tell when it’s time. But we knew Darach had turned from the Worthies. And this place will be a shelter to all those who will not bow before the Shattered God. Now and always. At least as long as I draw breath.
BRACKEN But I can’t stay here forever and live on your good graces.
HUGH True, but you need time to find your place. Tinewald’s a good home to have.
Besides, we could always use a skilled woodsman. And Collin says you told him you’d teach him the trade.
BRACKEN I did. And I don’t make promises idly.
HUGH He’ll welcome it. So will we. And Jack, as you’ve probably noticed. Now, for the rest, I don’t expect you’ll be out building a house in the dead of winter, but if you find a place you like, we’ll do what we can to help you get settled. You can help keep the tavern in meat, and make sure that no poachers infringe on our woods.
Do you feel that’s enough repayment?
BRACKEN I doubt it. I’ll do all I can, though.
HUGH You’ll need the tools to do it with.
(picks up a bow and quiver of arrows from behind him)
HUGH I became headman when my father passed. It’s been more than a few years since this bow has seen any use.
And I placed these copper points, myself. It’s a shame for them to go to waste.
BRACKEN (SFX, draws an arrow out of the quiver)
Copper? I thought everyone had gone to iron.
HUGH Da always said there were fey creatures in our woods, and that the iron offends them and drives them off, so we kept copper for hunting.
BRACKEN If you’re sure, I’ll put them to use for you, then.
HUGH Certainly. Better than sitting up unstrung on a rack over the hearth.
(He hands off the bow and quiver to Bracken.)
BRACKEN Thank you, Hugh. For everything.
Episode 3, Sc. 5
(Door open/close, Tavern crowd chatting, no music currently, it’s slow business right now, footsteps going upstairs as crowd sounds fade)
(Door opens/closes, Bracken walks in, upstairs to room, door open/close)
BRACKEN (sets bow and quiver to the side.)
WINDSWIFT About time you came back.
BRACKEN Where did you think I’d go?
WINDSWIFT Well, when I first met you, you were unconscious under a tree. And regardless of what you believe, you’re not quite back to full strength.
BRACKEN The paths around here are easy enough to navigate. It just took longer than I thought. I saw my mother.
WINDSWIFT Well, that’s good, isn’t it?
BRACKEN Seeing her, yes. But her news? (sighs) Of course not.
(SFX pulls out chair, sits)
I hoped for a moment that I had a chance to go home. I’d be happy to live outside of Fiaglen, but the Elders have barred my return.
WINDSWIFT Why?
BRACKEN As though you couldn’t guess. Because of that cursed iron and how what happened to me spread to Liam. There’s too many unknowns. Faeries have always been susceptible to iron, but…
WINDSWIFT The Shattered God’s variety is quite new.
BRACKEN To be fair, I certainly didn’t know what it could do. I knew they’d killed faeries with it, but that was all. She said I was lucky.
Maybe one day, I’ll see how. But for now, from what I see, everyone would have been better off if I’d been killed outright.
(takes a dish, places it on the floor)
I picked these berries for you. Probably the last crop of the season. I’m sorry if they’re bitter.
(SFX Windswift hops over)
WINDSWIFT They’ll do. Thank you. What else did she say?
BRACKEN Not much besides that. But Windswift…
WINDSWIFT And you’ve learned my name, I see.
BRACKEN Indeed. But I need… (steadies himself) I need you to take a message to Tierney.
WINDSWIFT All right. It’s why I’m here, after all.
BRACKEN I need you to tell her not to wait for me.
WINDSWIFT Not to what?
BRACKEN I could be stuck like this for decades, and then who knows how long it would be-how many lifetimes-before I would be reborn in Fiaglen.
WINDSWIFT What, exactly, are you saying?
BRACKEN I’m saying she shouldn’t feel like she has to be alone because of all this. We pledged a life bond, but my life-what it was-the person she made that oath to-both are gone. If she has a chance to move on and be happy, she should take it.
WINDSWIFT She’s going to object.
BRACKEN Tell her to regard it as my dying wish. She can take all the time she needs. But there’s no point in it being forever.
WINDSWIFT All right. Thankfully, I don’t think she’s the kind to be upset with the messenger. Take me to the forest at dusk, and I’ll take your message to her.
(