Post 1
Duncan is strolling through a college campus carrying books when a dog
starts following him. Duncan asks the dog whether he doesn't have
better things to do. He's about to come closer to pet him, but the
dog growls. Duncan backs off.
When Duncan returns to the dojo, he finds Richie doing the
accounting. He tells Duncan that he breaks even "about the time of
the second coming". Duncan puts away the books he's been carrying.
Richie wonders if Duncan is taking a class. No, he's teaching one. A
friend of his is head of the art department and asked him to teach a
graduate seminar. Duncan reminisces about learning to read when he
was fifty. Richie recites the cliche about walking ten miles through
the snow. "Both ways!" they say together.
Since Duncan's seminar is on medieval armor, he brought examples to
show the students. 13th century helmets are passed around. A student
asks how knights could wear them. "They weigh a ton." Duncan then
produces 12th century chain mail saying that it had weighed even
more. "How did they stand it?" asks a student who is lifting the
chain mail. Duncan says sometimes they didn't. He talks about a
march through the desert during the 2nd crusade in which "first their
armor dropped, then they did". Only one in three crusaders survived.
At the end of his class, he asks the students whether they want hands
on experience. When many raise their hands, he tells them they can
help him carry the trunks of armor he brought to his car. While they
carry the trunks, Duncan explains that the crusaders didn't just die
from the heat. Some died from epidemics.
A woman who fans may recognize as Shandra Devane from the episode
"Wrath of Kali", asks the students about Duncan as an instructor.
"He's great!" says a girl with stars in her eyes. "Oh, I'm sure he
is, but can he teach?" Devane wonders. Then she tells Duncan that
there's a faculty meeting about life insurance. "Let me know how it
goes," says Duncan with a smile. A student asks what happened when
the Crusader army met their Saracen opponents. Duncan says that the
Crusaders mainly rode stallions and the Saracens mainly rode mares.
"It turned out that half the mares were in heat. It was love at first
sight."
Then Duncan sees a pack of dogs waiting for him and has a flashback.
Duncan is on a hunt in England, and he sees a pack of dogs pursuing a
boy while their Immortal master waits. Duncan shoots a dog and tells
the Immortal, Peter Kanis, that they would have killed the boy. Kanis
informs Duncan that killing the boy was his intent. Duncan tells him
that it's wrong to hunt a boy. Kanis responds that the boy threw a
rock at one of his dogs, and says that Immortals can hunt what they
like. When the Duchess whose estate this is arrives, Duncan explains
about Kanis' dogs hunting a boy. "On my lands!" she exclaims in
outrage. She orders the dogs destroyed. Kanis threatens to kill
her. Duncan, who is the Duchess' lover, tells Kanis that threatening
a Duchess is treason. The Duchess orders Kanis imprisoned while he
awaits trial.
In the present Duncan feels a buzz. He goes to meet Kanis in a nearby
cemetery. Kanis is wearing a metal studded choker. "Nice flea
collar," Duncan quips. Kanis asks whether Duncan is teaching ethics
and "loyalty to your own kind". Duncan denies that Kanis is his
kind, says he's a murderer and that he got what he deserved. The dogs
approach them. "Still keeping the same company," Duncan comments.
"Must make conversation a little dull." Kanis says that the dogs are
his family and they would die for him. Duncan points out that they
kill for him. Duncan wants to step off holy ground and fight. Kanis
doesn't think that will be any fun.
Duncan comes to the police station to assist Richie after his violent
encounter with Mark Roszca, the mortal thief who killed Tessa. Duncan
has a flashback to finding Tessa dead. In the present, Richie tells
Duncan that the police don't believe him. Duncan says to the
detective that if Richie says Roszca did it, then he did it. But the
detective isn't buying it. He tells Roszca he's free to go. Duncan
is as furious as Richie, but he steers Richie out of the police
station.
To Be Continued...
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