So right away Pellinore, standing over Sir Hontzlake of Westland’s body, Pellinore is right away prepared to smite the other knight, also, but the other knight isn’t an idiot and gets down on his knees straightaway.

“Okay, you can have her,” he says.  His name is Sir Meliot of Logurs.  “Take her, just don’t hurt her, okay?  Don’t be a villain.”

“What,” says Pellinore.  “What, you aren’t going to fight me?”

“Yeah, no.  No.  I am not going to fight you after what I just saw you to to Hontzlake here.”

“Feh,” says Pellinore.  “I can tell you she’ll be fine in my company, because I’m a true knight, not a sniveling little pansy like some people.  Now I just need a horse to replace the one this guy killed.   I guess I can take his, he won’t be using it.”

“Tell you what,” says Meliot.  “Take my horse.  It’s a better horse and gets substantially better gas milage.  Also, let me buy you dinner.”

“Hmm, okay,” says Pellinore.

So Pellinore and Meliot and Meliot’s cousin, the lady Nimue — Malory actually names this one you guys, her name is Nimue — have a nice dinner together and then Pellinore gets a good night’s sleep.  In the morning he saddles up, and Nimue saddles up, and Meliot is about to say goodbye when he realizes he never caught Pellinore’s name.

“I am King Pellinore of the Isles, Knight of the Round Table,” intones Pellinore.

“Oh, you’re with the Round Table?  I can be confident you won’t rape Nimue then,” says Meliot.  “Pity you never met my brother.”

“Your brother?”  Nimue doesn’t recall her cousin having a brother.

“Well, frat brother.  He’s in the pavilion over there, the one you never went into?  He doesn’t like to talk to people, so he just stays in there most of the time.  He’s a good knight, though.  He abhors unnecessary violence, you see, so this being Malory, the best thing he can do is just avoid people.  He says he’s less likely to accidentally cause the death of a damosel that way.”

“Huh,” says Pellinore.  “What’s his name?”

“His name,” Meliot says grandly, “is Sir Brian of the Isles.”

“Really?”

Really!

Pellinore tells Meliot to bring Brian of the Isles to Camelot sometime, and Nimue waves goodbye, and the two of them go riding off.  But this is not a comfortable ride-off, no, no.  First Nimue’s horse stumbles and she’s thrown from the saddle and dislocates her shoulder.  Pellinore wants to press on, but Nimue convinces him to stop for a bit, so he stretches out under a tree and sleeps all day while, I guess, she relocates her shoulder using magic.  Anyway.  That evening Pellinore wakes up and he’s ready to hit the road again, but Nimue points out that it’s getting dark — “ye may as well ride backward as forward,” is how Malory claims she phrases it.  So, they stay there overnight.  Pellinore can’t sleep, maybe because he spent the whole day napping.  Round about midnight he hears the sound of approaching horses.

“And here I thought my strange adventure was already over!” he says, and starts putting his armor back on.

Discussion Question: would you rather be named Brian of the Isles or Brian of the Forest?  Would you rather be named Nimue or let me come up with something?  I probably would have called her Cindy, or maybe Joelle.