When one of the farm's lambs go missing, David and his tracking dog Wilby search for it, but they find the animal already dead from being exposed to the overnight cold. Before Joan leaves, David gifts her a steed, which belonged to his father, as he no longer needs a reminder of the past. After returning the pendant, David explains his decision to fight due to realizing that surviving means being able to move on from a life he doesn't want. After tying her to a pedestal, he uses the shepherd crook to find Joan in a shed. He tricks her, causing her sword to be embedded in a pillar, and then corners her at sword-point. Choosing to fight, David takes on two of her henchmen before dueling with the warlord herself. Holding out Joan's pendant, Bo Peep threatens him with no choice but to pay her. The next morning, David enters the barn where they promised to meet, asking Joan to leave instead of trying to help him when Bo Peep makes herself known. Despite his pessimism, Joan offers to continue training with him tomorrow. When she claims he knows nothing about loss and is only afraid of it, David recalls how his father's death due to alcoholism shaped his beliefs. Joan insists that surviving is not living, and she elaborates by telling him about how her sister tried to solve problems by running away like he is. He argues that some battles can't be won, and the most important thing for himself and his mother is survival. While she thinks he is making progress, David gives up after being unable to beat her during training.
Joan, believing David must defend himself against this tyrant, teaches him how to sword fight.
Additionally, she brands them, using her shepherd's crook, and promises that they will become her slaves if the deal is not met. She warns that if they cannot pool the money by tomorrow, the farm is hers. Since farm business is poor, their earnings are not enough, so Bo Peep sets a deadline. As they talk, Bo Peep arrives to collect payment. Noticing the ring on her finger, David recognizes that she must be Kristoff's fiancé. Revealing little, except that she is on a "secret mission", Joan asks permission to stay on his farm for the night. Seeing as Kristoff is the only person he knows from that place, David guesses she knows him, too. One day, a woman calling herself Joan arrives stating she knows his name from someone from Arendelle. He acquainted with a man from Arendelle named Kristoff. Years later, David becomes a shepherd, but he and his mother face troubles on the farm when a warlord, Bo Peep, badgers them for money. However, David and his mother never find out the true nature of Robert's death, in which he was murdered by someone after a failed attempt to rescue David's brother James and that his death was staged to look like he got drunk and fell into a ravine. The death has a significant influence on David, who understands how much his father wanted to change but ultimately could not as he begins to believe some battles simply cannot be beaten. David looks forward to when his father will finally return home, however, on the last day of the two week run, he and his mother are notified that his father, although sober for thirteen days, became drunk at a tavern on the fourteenth day and died after falling into a ravine. Before his father leaves for the journey, David ties a coin around his father's wrist to give him good luck. This time, Robert expresses a sincere desire to change for his son's sake, promising that by the time he returns from a two-week run to haul farm supplies, that his alcohol dependency would be gone.
(" The Shepherd", " Murder Most Foul")Īs a young boy, David overhears his parents quarreling for the umpteenth time about his father's drinking problems. Upon the coin landing on tails, Rumplestiltskin takes away James while David is left behind to be raised by his birth parents. When the parents cannot decide which child to forfeit, Rumplestiltskin has Robert toss a coin to determine which boy he will take. Ruth, the twins' mother, doesn't want the deal, but Robert accepts because he knows they cannot manage the farm and keep two young children fed and healthy throughout the harsh winter. Robert returns home empty-handed as he could not afford it, to which a wizard named Rumplestiltskin offers to pay them handsomely if he gives him one of the twins for a barren king and queen to raise as their heir. One night, the twins are very sick and their father Robert tries to buy some medicine for them. Prince Charming is born with the name David, to a poor peasant family, with his twin brother James.