The day that Terence met Gawain was also the day that he first saw another human killed.
It was Sir Hautubris, the knight who'd come looking for food, wouldn't take no for an answer, and who then tried to stab Gawain in the back.
It was self-defense, when Gawain killed him. But that didn't make it any easier now that it was all over.
After the dishes from dinner had been cleared away, Trevisant disappeared back into his cottage and Gawain beckoned Terence outside, where they had left the body.
"We can't leave this to the old man," he said, and Terence learned what death looked like.
He'd seen it in animals all the time. He'd killed and hunted most of his life, but human death was different.
It was unsettling—the way the body had stiffened like a board, the way the congealed blood pooled, the way the hands—contorted into claws—reached out.
Gawain stripped the body of armor. Terence knew that it was his by right of conquest, but seeing the metal torn off the body made him wince. Where the body was too stiff to easily remove the armor, Gawain would grimace and then wrench the body, breaking bones and joints in an unsettling crunch
The flesh was cold. Cold and unnatural, feeling almost like Terence's own flesh, but for the temperature difference.
The sight became too much, and Terence had to turn away to throw up. When he had recovered and was wiping his mouth on his sleeve, Gawain asked gently, "First time?"
Terence nodded.
Gawain grimaced. "Ah, well, it never really gets easier, you just get used to it. I can handle the body from here, if you want to run and get a shovel."
By the time Terence had returned with the shovel Gawain had finished removing the armor and had dragged it further into the woods. They took turns with the shovel, digging a shallow grave a foot deep.
"It's not nearly as deep as it should," Gawain said, "but it's all we can do with just the two of us." They rolled the body into the grave. It hit the ground with a soft thud. They stood there silently for a moment. Terence knew that you were supposed to say something at burials, but he didn't know what.
Gawain finally sighed, muttered "God receive his soul," and lifted the shovel again.