The Warg Lord (ASOIAF)(SI)

"So? What does it say?" Robert asked as he leaned forward on the table with an eager look on his face, "When is he coming? Have they left yet?"

"No, Your grace. They have not." The Grand Maester replied in an apologetic tone while closing the letter in his hands as if he had really just read it for the first time, "Lord Stark sadly will not be able to attend the Tourney."

"What?!" Robert exclaimed in a shocked tone, "Argh, Damn it, Ned!" he cursed as he slammed his fist on the table, "What will it take for you to move your ass from that frozen wasteland?"

The men in the council room remained silent at that, as they all knew better than to interrupt the Stag King when he was on one of his tantrums.

"But why?" Robert asked grouchily after taking a big swig from his glass to soothe his irritation, "His own son is getting the honour, so why in seven hells is he not attending? I thought you told me that he cared for his bastard," he said, looking at Jon with accusing eyes as if he had been lied to.

"What the Grand Maester forgot to mention is that Lord Eddard is not coming, not because of a lack of interest but because of a bad coincidence," The Old Hand calmly replied after reading the letter taken from the Maester's hand. "It seems by the time our raven arrived in Winterfell, Lord Eddard and most of his family had already left their home to go on a trip to Essos. Even this letter had been sent in the name of his heir, Robb Stark, who, while apologising, has also confirmed that he will attend in his father's stead."

"Essos? Why would he go to Essos?" Robert asked confusedly as his mind ignored everything else Jon had said.

"Perhaps to visit the said bastard son, Your Grace," Varys said with an amused smile on his face, "Lord Stark might have gone there to visit his son and to see the vast shipping company under his command."

"But his son is going to be here, so why..." Robert asked bewilderedly before his eyes suddenly widened, "No, don't tell me!! Does Ned not even know about this Tourney?"

"It could be possible, your grace. After all, we did delay sending the invitations until just two months before the Tourney," Jon Arryn replied while closing the letter with a somewhat envious look on his face.

Just from the letter, the Hand could see that his ward's heir was a very competent lad, just like his half-brother in Essos; otherwise, Eddard would not have so easily left Winterfell in his hands, but on the other hand, his own heir was... Jon shook his head with a sigh.

"Which should have been more than enough time for anyone wanting to attend to travel to Kings Landing," Baelish jumped in before Robert could think things through and get it inside his head that it was somehow their fault that his friend from the North was not coming to play with him.

"Well..." Robert sighed morosely as he leaned back in his chair, "I guess it was just bad luck, then."

"It is not all bad, your grace. At least you can now finally meet the son that Ned named after you," Jon Arryn said consolingly, as he knew how much his ward had been looking forward to this visit.

"There's that," Robert shrugged half-heartedly as he took another swig of wine, "And? Who else is coming?"

"Well, your brother Renly has accepted his invitation—"

"Just like every other one he has been sent," Stannis muttered with a snort.

Lord Arryn ignored him and continued, "And Lord Tywin has expressed his regret as he has too much work on his hands, so he is going to send his son Tyrion in his stead."

"That's good. At least the dwarf will make it a bit more fun." Robert mumbled with a smile that was mirrored on the face of one of the Kingsguard standing in front of the door.

"But on the other hand, Reach and Dorne are both going to attend," The Hand announced, getting surprised looks from everyone in the room except for those already in the know, because of their various 'sources'.

"Huh? Why?" Robert asked incredulously with a look of incomprehension on his face, "Why are they coming?"

"I do not know your grace, but both of them have indeed replied positively to their invitations, with Lady Olenna and Prince Doran coming to attend the Tourney in person."

"Why in the seven hells did we even send them invitations?"

Jon Arryn sighed at the stupidity of his ward before answering, "You may not be aware of it, your grace, but we send invitations to all the great houses whenever we host a tourney or any other big event in King's Landing, whether they come or not, as courtesy dictates us to."

"Every time?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Then how come they never came to any of the previous ones?" Robert asked with a raised eyebrow, "What is different about this one? Are they just bored this time, or do they really care about Jon Snow getting knighted that much?

That question from the King left even the likes of Varys and Baelish stumped, as they too had been thinking on this dilemma ever since they got their hands on the news of their arrival.

And it was very uncomfortable for them to not know the main reason behind this sudden decision from two of the great houses.

"If I may hazard a guess, Your Grace," Varys supplied with a thinking look on his face, "Jon Snow is said to have had a very good relationship with the Reach ever since his first sea journey. In fact, one could even say that the massive increment of trade volume between the North and the Reach that has happened in recent times had all been because of him. So perhaps the Tyrells want to take this trade even further and are arriving at his knighthood ceremony as a good gesture, and as for the Dorne," Varys shook his head apologetically, "Well... even my little birds have are completely silent on that front."

Varys' conjectures, whether they were true or not, had left the council room in a thoughtful silence, which was only broken a few minutes later by Lord Hand.

"Leaving behind the pecularity of it all," Jon began with a keen look in his eyes, "This Tourney is turning out to be a bigger deal than I had expected it to be. Because if everything went well, then almost all the Lords from the Great Houses are going to present there (except, of course, the Greyjoys) which means..." he trailed off as the gleam in his eyes grew brighter and brighter; his mind came up with all kinds of deals and trade concessions that he could make in a gathering like this that comes once in a decade.

"Ugh! This is turning into more of a boring political thing than a Tourney..." Robert grumbled while massaging his head. He could already imagine all the stupid meetings and greetings he would have to go through at that time, 'Ah, why in the hell did I even agree to do something like this?'

"Lord Baelish," Lord Arryn ignored the King and turned to the Master of Coin sitting beside him and whispered, "You remember how I told you to limit the spending and make the Tourney setting as efficient(cheap) as you can... Well, you can forgo that, because I want the preparations to be as good as they can be; this tournament should reflect the prestige of a tourney being held by the Royal family."

"Are you sure, My Lord?" Baelish asked with a small, amused smile on his lips, "Because what you are asking is going to cost us a lot of gold, My Lord."

"I—No matter. You can take the gold from the treasury as long as it is being used appropriately," Jon Arryn replied with a forced smile on his face. "After all, we can not afford to slight any of those lords," he muttered under his breath.

The council meeting ended a few minutes later, and within the hour, with the council members and their direct subordinates and servants as the source, the news about the Tourney's renewed importance had spread throughout the city and then to other regions.

Finding out that so many great houses were going to be in attendance ignited the fire in Nobles like nothing else, and they immediately gathered all the young unmarried sons, daughters, nephews and nieces that they could find in their family tree, before immediately setting off for the capital.

Another direct result of this Tourney's sudden popularity came out a week later in the form of a letter from Tywin Lannister.

The Lord simply stated that he was going to set off from Lannisport in three weeks for Kings Landing, and arriving along with him would be his brother Kevin Lannister and their retinue of 150 guards; but, of course, the Great Lord of Westerlands made no mention of the polite rejection he had sent in his previous letter.

Because, after all, a lion does not need to apologise to sheep.

And so the Nobles, the Knights, and all kinds of Merchants slowly began congregating towards the Capital, bringing along with them their money, their skills, and their products, hoping to strike big at this massive congregation of Lords that hadn't been seen since the Greyjoy Rebellion.

...

"Something feels... odd about this all," Eddard murmured with an uncertain frown on his face. His eyes kept looking left and right, trying and failing to find any sign of the coast that had not been visible for days.

"What feels odd, My Lord?" Catelyn asked distractedly, her eyes focused on the big, beautiful ocean in front of her. Because, unlike her husband, this view was something that she had not seen since that one trip she took with her father to Maidenpool in her childhood.

The Stark couple were at the moment standing on the deck of a mighty galleon. With their hands gently placed on the railing, they were enjoying the swaying waves and the mild sea breeze ruffling their hair.

A few feet behind them stood Ser Rodrick, standing guard. Not that there was any need for his protection out here in the middle of nowhere with all the crews abroad being loyal Northerners who would die before betraying the Starks, but the man would not be comfortable with the idea of them being without protection, so they let him be.

"It is just the timing of it all," Eddard replied with a mildly frustrated sigh, "Jon's letter barely gave us a week to prepare, and do you not remember how insistent Robb was that we go on this trip... I would bet my sword that there is something strange going on with those two... as if they are hiding something."

"You are just thinking too much, my lord. Robb knows how busy you have been with work, especially over these last few years, with the repairing of the Kingsroad and improving trade both inside and outside the North, so I believe he just wanted you to take a few months off and unwind," Catelyn said while gently rubbing his shoulder with her palm, "Besides were you not the one who was eager to meet your son and ask him questions?"

"Oh, do not even try to lay this all on me, my lady," Eddard said back with an amused smile on his face, "After all, there was someone who was even more eager than I for this trip."

"W-What does that mean?" Catelyn retorted flusteredly as she looked away, "I do not know who you are talking about."

When Jon's letter had arrived with an invitation for them to come to Essos to tour the free cities and visit his company, there were mixed reactions from the people of the Stark Family.

Eddard had been left stumped, Robb looked as if he had expected it, and the girls, well, they had been, as expected, very much over the moon and nigh intolerable... they just had to go, and would not take no for an answer.

Thankfully, Bran, the one she had been most worried about, was surprisingly the calmest about the letter, especially considering the fact that he had not been named amongst the ones invited. She did not know what that boy had told his son in that separate letter sent to him, but whatever it was, it seemed to have been enough for him to accept being left behind in Winterfell.

And Catelyn, well, she had been... hesitant.

On one hand, this was a gift given to them by Jon Snow, her husband's bastard, and even though, over the years, her hate for him had been mellowed down to something akin to irritation, it still made her uncomfortable to accept something this big from him, and not to mention go and stay under his roof in Essos.

But on the other hand, this was a rare chance for her to leave the North after more than a decade, so while she was nervous, she was not as averse to this trip as she had initially expected.

And as days passed, her excitement for the trip only increased, and in her exuberance, she felt she may have taken things a bit too far and given herself away.

"What am I talking about?" Eddard said with an amused smile, "Need I remind you about a certain someone who was so excited about this trip that they spent two whole days locked in their room packing up three chests full of dresses for themselves, and not to mention the long list of paper you filled with the time and place you will wear each dress..." his eyes looked haunted as if he was recalling something horrifying... Eddard had never seen this side of his wife in the years he had known her. "You and Sansa would not even let me or Arya walk into the room," he finished while shaking his head with a sigh.

"What is wrong with that?" she replied defensively, but could not stop a faint flush of embarrassment from appearing on her face. "After all, we can not all be like you and just pack three pairs of clothes and be done with it."

"Because that is all one needs... You have one pair to wear for the day, you can wash the second pair, and the third one will be a backup," he said with a confident shrug as if he were explaining the simplest thing in the world.

"..." Catelyn had a speechless look at that, "I am going to pretend I did not hear that, My Lord," she murmured while shaking her head, "But even if I did pack a few extra dresses—"

"A Few!" Eddard exclaimed with an incredulous look on his face, "You would not be done with those dresses even if you wore a different one every single day."

"And so?" she asked back with a raised eyebrow, "After all, it is not like I can wear those summer dresses in the North. So, is it not better to take them all with me than to let them stay locked up and never see the light of day?"

"Um—"

"And besides, you do remember where these dresses came from, do you not?" Catelyn asked with a sly smile on her face, "So do you really want me to rudely discard them..."

"I guess... not," Eddard sighed helplessly, because he knew that his wife had got him there.

After all, the only one who could have sent his wife these dresses was Jon, as it was almost a tradition by now for Jon to send gifts from Essos every few months to his family members, especially the female ones.

It is just... he had not expected her to have stockpiled so many that they filled three full chests.

It made Eddard feel as if he was a spoiled southerner...

He had already been feeling uncomfortable with all the 'privileges' that Jon had prepared for them along the way, from sending a big carriage to Wintefell to pick up Catelyn and the girls (minus Arya, who refused to come down from her horse) to getting the biggest cabin that Eddard had ever seen.

It was just too much for the frugal Lord of the North.

With the Kingsroad along the way either repaired or made anew, and with trade caravans frequently running through the route they had taken, their progress through land had been unbelievably smooth, very much unlike the gruelling journeys Eddard had taken during his youth.

And he could not even complain about the carriage, as it was somehow made bump-free using a strange swing-like contraption, and had strong horses that were able to somewhat keep up with their horses even while pulling the heavy weight.

This meant that even with all the excess luggage and the addition of their retinue of guards and maids, their journey had been unbelievingly cut in half, and it would have been even shorter if they were not forced to feast and stay the night at every Lord's house along the way.

And once they had reached Bear Island, they had been immediately picked up by Dacey Mormont, who had delayed her fleet's regular trade trip by more than a week and a half just for them, which gave Eddard even more of a headache.

And the worst thing was that he could not even scold him... as the boy was too far away for him to reach.

"Now, stop brooding and just enjoy the view," Catelyn said with a little slap on his shoulder, "It won't be long before Rickon wakes up, and then I will have to go back. You do not know how much trouble it is to put up with a child on a ship."

She had been quite nervous about taking her youngest son on this trip, where they would travel through wilderness and spend more than half of their time in a cramped cabin with no maester on hand if he somehow got sick.

But fortunately, most of her worries were put to rest after she saw how big, comfortable and especially clean the ship and the cabin room they were allotted was. It seems the boy had taken special care to send them his best ship, at least according to Dacey.

And Rickon had thankfully not made too much of a fuss and acclimated surprisingly well to the swaying ship.

In fact, none of her children was suffering from any of the usual symptoms of sea sickness that she had heard about in her youth, 'I guess the Northern blood really begets tough children...'

"I do know, My lady," Eddard replied back reflexively, "After all, I take care of the boy when—"

"Picking up your son once a day, when he is all smiling and gigling, does not mean you know my suffering, My Lord," Catelyn immediately whispered with a sharp smile on her face, "Do you even know how many times during the night I have to wake up, and not to mention... and do you know..."

Eddard had known almost as soon as he said those words that it was a blunder, but sadly, there was no cure for regrets, and now he could do nothing but listen as his wife went on a rant about all the mistakes he had made in the past going as far back as two weeks while referencing specific events that he had forgotten long ago.

'Ugh, why did you have to talk back, you fool...' Eddard sighed with sagging shoulders as he listened to her lay out all of her grievances in the open.

He was just thankful that she was whispering instead of shouting, and that no one else could hear her; otherwise, he would not know how to show himself in front of his guards in the future.

A few meters away from the arguing(flirting) couple stood the stark girls, having a completely different kind of conversation.

"See the one in the lead, yes, that one, she is my friend Cory," Dacey said while pointing at the playful orca leading the pod, swimming in front of their ship, "And the one right next to her, that is her Mother, and then there is her aunt, her cousin, her brother and..."

"Where is her father, then?" Arya asked curiously, hanging on the railing with her toes barely touching the deck, while looking at the fish that were more than ten times her size but were still able to cut through water as if it was not even there.

"Er, him, he sadly passed away years ago during a hunt... even before I had met her,"

"Huh? How come?" Arya asked, her head tilting in confusion, "Didn't you say that they are the most powerful hunters in the sea, so how was anyone able to kill him?"

"While it is mostly true... There are still some that even Orcas can't match," Dacey replied amusedly.

"What? Who is it? Who can hurt an orca in the ocean?" Arya questioned excitedly as if the idea of such a dangerous creature was wonderful.

"Hm, let's see... well, there are the big whales, such as the humpback that grows larger than the largest ship in the world, a single slam of their tail is enough to crush an Orca's organ, and of course, then there is Jon's friend Inky. You know, the one with all those scary tentacles,"

"Oh, oh, Jon told me about her," Arya bounced with elation, "But I have not seen it yet,"

"I am sure you will in the future," Dacey said with a smile while patting her head, "Other than that, the most likely ones to hunt them are humans, especially those big Ibbenese whaler ships; they have the knack of hunting whales down to an art."

"Oh... Will we see those whales then?"

"Um..."

"Oh, yes, I am sure Dacey will be thrilled to take us to see a whale many times the size of her ship just so you can see it hunt her friends," Sansa interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

"Shut up! I didn't mean it like that!" Arya retorted with a flushed look before she snorted and went back to Orca-watching with a pout on her face.

Dacey and Sansa shared a silent chuckle behind Arya's back before Sansa asked, "So where are we?"

It had been almost five days since they had left Bear Island, and since then, there had been no sign of coast anywhere, so it was hard for even veteran sailors to estimate the distance they had covered, let alone them, who were sailing through the ocean for the first time.

"Hm, let me check," Dacey said as she closed her eyes for a few seconds and just as her body was starting to sway, she opened them once again, "According to Cory, we are already halfway through the sea near Iron Islands."

"What? But is that not dangerous?" Sansa asked in a nervous whisper, her eyes checking left and right as if expecting those raider ships to come at them at any moment.

"Ah, don't worry too much! We are at least two days west of their farthest Island, and since their ships usually sail hugging the coast, there is little chance of them happening upon us and even if some few ships were unfortunate enough to come near us, we have more than enough strength to take care of them," she smirked while gesturing towards the ten fully armed ships behind them.

"So we won't see the Iron Islands, then?" asked Arya, who had been sneakily listening to their whispered conversation.

"No, we won't... unless you want to go there," Dacey said with a teasing expression on her face, "But you have to know that those Ironborn are very scary people who like to capture wild children and take them to work in their mines."

"I-I am not afraid," she said bravely, her hand on the dagger at her waist, "I will just fight them off, Hmph!"

"Sure you will," Sansa murmured with a roll of her eyes that thankfully her little sister did not see, or they would have a fight on their hands, "So will we be making a stop in the Westerlands then?"

"No, sadly, we won't," Dacey said apologetically, "We are on a tight schedule this time, so except for short necessary stops to procure supplies, we will not dock in any of the Westerosi ports."

"Oh," The Stark girls let out disappointedly as they had both been looking forward to seeing the various port cities such as Lannisport, Old Town, and even other famous castles such as High Garden along the way.

"But do not worry, we can stop for as long as we want on the way back, so it is not like you won't get to see them," Dacey said with a smile, 'I just can't let you set foot in Westeros right now."

According to the time, the news should have long spread throughout the towns and villages near major cities. So even a short leisurely walk through a port city would be a danger.

'After all, we can't let them know about the Tourney, or else all of Jon's well-laid plan would go to waste.' Dacey thought with a sigh, 'Though I still don't understand why he is so reluctant to let his father go to King's Landing,'

"It is not too bad," Sansa consoled Arya with a pat on her head, "After all, the faster we leave Westeros, the sooner we get to meet Jon. Isn't that much better?" she asked, to which Arya immediately nodded her head.

'Sadly, your wish will probably not be fulfilled this time. Because while you sail towards Essos, your brother is coming back to Westeros.' Dacey thought before she turned towards the direction of Lannisport with a peculiar smile on her face, wondering what their expression would look like if they knew that they would pass their brother in just a matter of days.



///

You know where to go if you want to read ahead. *Wink*Wink*

"What about this one?" Daenerys asked with a hopeful note in her voice while raising a lovely gold dress that sparkled in the light and matched wonderfully with her hair.


But sadly, Gan the rat, standing on its hind legs in front of her, took one look and immediately shook its head while making a cross with its claws.


"But I like this dress so much," Daenerys whined with an adorable look on her face, "Can you please let me take it! Please!"


But Gan did not budge and kept shaking its head, and to make its point clearer, it even pointed towards the bag already stuffed with more than ten dresses as if saying, "Did you not like those too?"


"Ugh! Fine!" The Targaryen teen groaned as she reluctantly put the dress back into the cupboard before hurriedly closing it and moving away as if trying to run from temptation.


Taking the bag at her feet, Daenerys then walked towards her next step, the dresser.


And this time, she was smart about it, and not to mention asking for Jon's opinion, she did not even glance in the rat's direction and just began chucking the most important peices of jewellry, trinkets, and make up, that she could not bear to part with, "This one, this one, and that one... oh and that one goes well with my hair, this goes with that dress of mine, and..."


The Rat standing behind her was very much alarmed by this and kept pulling on her dress, squealing its throat out, "Chi! Chi! Chi!!" but the girl had already made up her mind and acted as if she could not hear him.


At last, when the bag was more than half-filled, did the girl finally stop and close her bag with a satisfied expression on her face.


It was an unusual piece of baggage that she had never seen before in her life and had been brought for her by Jon's big bird friend.


It had two long attached rope-like threads that one puts their arm through, and then they wear it on their back.


And while she had been a bit resistant at first, believing that it looked very absurd wearing it on her dress, now the girl was completely hooked by the sheer convenience it provided by leaving her hands completely free.


"I am ready, we can go now," she announced sweetly with a bright smile on her face, completely ignoring the rat's accusing eyes as if she could not understand him.


The Rat ultimately sighed in defeat and shook its tiny head, making the teen girl giggle, before it went down on its four legs and began leading the way towards the door to her room.


Following after Gan, Daenerys came outside her room and found her guards lying on the floor in an awkward position with drool spilling from their mouths.


Even though she had been told that they had been fed nothing more than a mild sleeping drug, Daenerys still felt a bit guilty, so she bowed her head towards them in a silent apology before quickly stepping over them to follow behind Gan, who was already halfway through the corridor.


They passed through two hallways and five small rooms on their way, with each having either a maid or a guard lying outside them, forcing Daenerys to awkwardly jump over them every time.


But eventually they managed to reach the stairs and began climbing down towards the ground floor, but just as they were about to pass the second floor's landing, Daenerys' steps came to an abrupt stop as her eyes fell towards the right with a strange look in them.


"Chi?!" The Rat squeaked questioningly as if asking why she had stopped.


"I...I have to do something," Daenerys slowly said as a determined expression appeared on her face, and with a simple nod, she said, "Wait here," and began walking onto the second floor.


Passing the two guards lying outside the first room she came across, Daenerys opened the door and entered a place that was far more luxurious than hers.


Inside, she found her brother, Viserys Targaryen, lying half-hazardously on the bed with half of his body hanging by the end, snoring without a care in the world.


Slowly and hesitantly, Daenerys came over to stand in front of him and then looked down at him with a complicated expression on her face.


A large variety of emotions passed through the girl's eyes, including anger, disgust, repulsion, and a whole lot of fear, but ultimately they simply boiled down to hate.


She hated him for hitting her whenever he was angry, she hated him for always accusing her of being the cause behind all their problems, she hated him for starving her whenever he wanted to punish her for asking to go back to the room with the red door, she hated him for always getting them kicked out...


She hated him for being spoiled, for being arrogant, for being stupid, for...


And on and on it went as her mind came up with all the times that her brother had wronged her, and eventually, all the hatred that had accumulated until now became too much for her, and it all came out in a burst.


"Argh! I hate you!!" the girl screamed as she slapped her brother across the face, sending him flying across the floor with his head tilted in an awkward position.


"Eep!!" Daenerys squeaked in a surprised voice, her eyes wide in shock, staring at her own hand as if not believing what she had done.


But then a peculiar expression appeared on her face when she looked down and saw that he was still in a deep sleep.


She now realised that there was no one to stop her here, and that there would be no consequences for anything she did to him, that the 'Dragon' would not be waking anytime soon.


And now that she had gotten a taste of it, the girl could not stop herself, so, slowly raising her hand... she slapped him once again.


And then again...


And again...


She went on and on, slapping her cruel brother left and right, venting all the rage that had been bottled inside her over the years.


And it was only when Viserys' face had turned into a swollen red and she had begun breathing heavily from the sudden exertion, did the girl reluctantly come to a stop.


"Brother," Daenerys murmured after a while when she had gotten her breathing under control, "Thank you for letting me have my revenge," she straightened her dishevelled and picked up the bag that had been thrown aside earlier, "I would have also thanked you for taking care of me for a short while when I was little but that brother I used to know has already been gone, so... Farewell Viserys, May we never meet again."


Daenerys sighed before turning around, only to find Gan standing at the doorstep looking at her with a concerned look in its beady little eyes.


"I—" she began with an embarrassed look on her face, trying to find a way to explain herself, but thankfully, the rat did not say or ask anything and just nodded at her before turning around to leave the room.


Daenerys sighed in relief before she once again began following after the rat as if nothing had happened.


This time, there were no stops along the way, and they finally reached the ground floor, where they found the master of the mansion, the Fat Magister, lying on a big sofa that could barely contain his girth.


Lying around him were about a dozen maids and guards, all seeming to have been carrying some kind of food plate or fan in their hands, probably serving their master with all their might, before they fell asleep in their place.


Daenerys could not even comprehend how much trouble Jon had to go through to drug every single person in this place at the same time.


Unlike the maids and the guards, most of whom were unfortunate slaves, the Targaryen girl did not feel anything for the fat man, neither hate nor gratitude.


Even though the man had sheltered them for so many months, she had already learned from Jon that his motives were very much sinister, especially regarding her.


To think this man, who usually spoke kindly to her, was planning with her brother to sell her to the Dothraki in exchange for an army...


Thankfully, she would be leaving today and would not have to deal with this hypocrite ever again.


But just as she was about to move towards the front door, she abruptly heard a squeak, and when she turned her head around, her eyes caught sight of Gan standing below the fat Pentoshi, and pointing at him with a meaningful look in his eyes, as if trying to tell her something.


"What? I don't understand," Daenerys said confusedly, to which the Rat just rolled its eyes and ran towards her feet and then gestured to take it out.


"Huh?" she was confused for a moment before she realised what he was asking for and immediately took out the small pot of ink that she had become used to carrying around her ever since she had met this strange relative of hers.


The moment the cap was screwed open, the rat skillfully dipped its claws into the blue ink and then knelt down to begin writing on the floor in its tiny handwriting.


"Keys?" Daenerys questioned, bewilderedly to Gan, who was already wiping the words from the floor to remove the evidence, even if the letters were too small and faint for anyone to notice by chance, "So you want me to get his keys?" she asked while pointing towards Illyrio, to which the rat immediately nodded, "But why?"


But the rat just squeaked impatiently as if telling her to "Just do it," and not ask so many questions.


"Fine!" Daenerys huffed with a pout as she placed her bag on the floor, and then, after taking a deep breath, she rolled her non-existent sleeves and moved towards the fat merchant.


With a profound look of disgust in her eyes, Daenerys placed her hands on the massive flabs of flesh under which the keys were hidden and exerted her whole body's might only to raise it by just a few inches.


The man was so sweaty and smelly that it almost made the girl weep, "Hurry up!!" she groaned in an urgent tone, not knowing how long she could hold on.


Thankfully, the rat had already climbed the Pentoshi's body to an appropriate height so that the moment a tiny opening appeared, it immediately darted inside and came out just a few seconds later, relieving Daenerys from the worst moments of her short life.


The moment she let go, the girl stumbled backwards and kneeled down on the floor and began dry heaving as if she was going to puke her guts out.


Though thankfully, in the end, she did not vomit on the floor, but she did come very close, so it took a while before she managed to get herself under control.


"N-Never! I am never going through that again!" she declared with gritted teeth while raising her head towards Gan, "Not for all the gold in the world. Do you understand me?!" she asked menacingly, and the Rat was quick to nod its head in compliance, leaving her relieved.


"So now what?" she asked while standing and picking up the bag from the ground.


"Chi!" Gan squeaked and once again began leading her way, this time towards the inner chambers.


They passed by the kitchen, the store room, and even a room filled only with weapons, before finally the hallway came to an end with a massive iron door the size of an elephant blocking their path.


Gan did not waste a single moment and immediately handed her the ring of keys he was holding in his teeth, and before she could even ask which one, the rat was already pointing towards the key she was supposed to use for the door.


'How does he know everything?' Daenerys sighed as she placed the key inside the hole, and as was expected from her mysterious relative, the key was correct, and the lock clicked open on the first try.


The door was absurdly heavy, and it took Daenerys a whole minute of pressing her body against it to force it open.


And when she finally stumbled inside, she was stunned to find herself in a room that was filled to the brim with glittering gold.


'This is... a treasury,' Daenerys thought as she looked around with awe in her eyes. Everywhere she looked, she saw sparkling gold dragons, gold jewellery, gold bars and even gold toys, and all these items were just lying there carelessly as if they were worthless.


Even though Daenerys did not consider herself a materialistic person, she had to admit that seeing this sight made her drool a little.


'Shit! I really should not have packed so many dresses,' Daenerys inwardly cried in regret as she finally realised why Jon had insisted that she carry as little as she could. She looked around with a pained look on her face, wondering how much she could carry without getting too burdened to walk, 'Wait! Maybe he planned for this too!'


"So... How are we going to take all this gold away?" she asked nonchalantly as if she wasn't moved by the wealth around her at all.


"Chi! Chi!" The rat squeaked while looking at her disapointedly, before it once again began writing on the floor, "We are not here to steal something as common as gold, you silly girl!"


"We are not?" Daenerys asked back, unable to keep the hint of dismay away from her voice, "Then what are we here for?" she asked as she looked around, trying to find something that was more precious than gold.


The rat just gestured for her to follow him as it began to scurry and climb through the piles of treasure as if it knew exactly where it was going.


The treasury room was actually not that big, but it was stuffed almost to half the room's height, so it was quite a struggle for Daenerys to navigate through it, because, unlike a certain someone, she could not, after all, walk on all four.


Fortunately, she did not have to suffer from toe stubbing for too long, as when they were almost two-thirds of the way through the treasury, she found the rat standing in front of a big box, waiting for her.


"Is this what we are here for?" she asked curiously while peeking at the jewel-crusted chest that was neither too big nor too small but just about the size that she could hold in her hands. "What is in there?"


Gan just pointed towards the keys in her hands in lieu of an answer.


"Oh, which one?" she asked while presenting him the ring with a look of anticipation on her face, but the critter just shrugged while looking at her in disdain as if saying, 'How would I know?'


"Ugh! Fine, I get it. No need to roll your eyes at me!" Daenerys grumbled as she raised the keys and began placing them into the chest's hole one by one.


But it seems her luck was quite bad today, as it was only when she was on the third last key that the lock on the chest finally clicked open, making both the rat and the girl breathe in relief.


Now more than a little impatient, Daenerys hurriedly placed her hand under the lid and pushed it up with a gleam of anticipation in her eyes, wondering what kind of treasure it was that could make one ignore all the gold lying around them.


But the moment she laid eyes on the things placed inside the chest, Daenerys was shaken to her core, "I-Is this what I think it is?" she asked with her lips quivering, and her eyes widened in awe.


"Chi!" Gan immediately squeaked in confirmation, but the girl was no longer listening as she was too mesmerised by the three colourful eggs in front of her.


They were about the size of a human head, looked quite heavy and were sunningly beautiful. One was deep green with bronze flecks that shimmered among the scales, the other one was pale cream colour marked with whorls of gold, and the last one was pure black with scarlet ripples and streaks across its surface like veins of fire.


The eggs had a strange attraction to them, almost pulling Daenerys towards them.


Without even knowing, she found her hand rising towards them on its own, and the moment she touched one, she was startled to find it warm, almost alive, unlike the cold touch one would expect.


She did not know how long she just sat admiring their beauty before Gan's squeak abruptly jolted her out of her daze, "Huh? What happened?" she asked while turning towards him.


'We need to go.' The rat gestured with its hands and then pointed at the eggs and the bag on her back.


"Oh, right!" Daenerys jolted awake, realising that they were essentially thieves sneaking inside enemy territory, and that the drug could wear off at any moment, and if someone caught her in here...


Daenerys shuddered, not even daring to imagine what would happen to her, so without wasting any more time, she quickly but carefully began placing the eggs inside her bag.


While she knew that the eggs were supposed to be as hard as rocks and that she probably could not even destroy them even if she wanted to, she could not help but be gentle with them.


"Let's go then," she grunted as she once again wore the backpack on her back, which was now heavy enough to make her hunch, and began moving towards the exit, being careful not to stub her toe on the chests of gold along the way.


But just as they were about to leave the treasury, Daenerys' eyes caught sight of something that shook the girl to her very core.


"T-That! That's my mother's crown!" she cried tearfully, and immediately began scrambling towards a white gold crown filled with seven rubies that had been placed carelessly on a chest of gold jewellery. The same one that her brother had sold so many years ago for just a few gold dragons. "How is it here? How did he manage to find it?"


The girl could still remember clearly her youthful years when she used to wear this very crown and pretend that she was a queen, just like her mother... she would go around ordering her kind uncle Willem Darry, who happily played along and acted as her loyal subject.


'Why did you have to die, Uncle?' The girl thought mournfully as she gently trailed her fingers along the surface of the crown, the one and only memento of her late mother, as long-buried memories of living in that house with the red door began rising inside her.


Never having even seen her mother with her own eyes, the girl only knew about her from the few stories her brother and Uncle Willem used to tell her.


She had spent countless nights fantasising about what it would have been like if her mother had been alive, how happy she would have been.


And now, after having learned from Jon about all the ordeals her mother had suffered at the hands of her father, this crown became even more important to her.


She didn't know or care about how Illyrio had managed to acquire this crown; she just knew that this belonged to her more than anyone else in the world.


"Chi?" the rat squeaked softly while pulling on her dress.


While he knew that it was an emotional moment for the girl to be reunited with her mother's last keepsake, they really did not have that much time.


They had already wasted more time than Jon had expected, and were now nearing dangerous territory. If they did not hurry and someone accidentally woke up, it would become needlessly complicated, and he may even be forced to initiate plan C, which would just spill too much blood.


"Right!" Daenerys sniffed and nodded as she carefullly put the her mother's crown inside a seperate pocket of the backpack and then after taking one last look around to make sure that there was nothing else belonging to her family around here, which there was not, she immediately left the treasury, with Gan making her close the Treasury door so that even when the people woke up later they would not immediately find out about the theft, giving them more leeway.


On the way out, Gan was rushing her to move as fast as she could, and while it was a bit draining with the weight on her back, the girl did not complain too much, knowing that they were cutting it close now.


Fortunately, their path remained unobstructed all the way to the main gate, and they were able to leave the mansion safely.


This manor was located on a small hill and was part of a large, isolated area that was solely dedicated to homes of wealthy nobles and magisters of Pentosh.


Being this isolated and extensive was one of the reasons that their sneaky actions could remain undisturbed for so long, as no one from outside usually came by unless they were invited or had an appointment.


"N-Now what?!" Daenerys asked, breathing a bit heavily as she came to stand on the empty road outside the mansion.


"Chi!" The Rat looked around for a few moments before it suddenly began jumping and pointing towards a carriage parked inconspicuously beside a large tree twenty meters down the road.


"Ugh! Could you not have made it wait at the gate?" The girl groaned as she forced her feet to move and carry her towards the carriage, internally convincing herself that this was the last part of her gruelling journey, and maybe that she could finally rest after this.


Someone inside must have caught sight of her because just as she was about to reach them, the carriage began moving out of the shade onto the main road, and when she was close enough, a big, burly man with the face of a young boy jumped out of the driver's seat and introduced himself.


"I am Samwell Tarly. It is good to meet you," the boy said shyly as he helped Daenerys carry her bag inside the carriage while Gan scurried over him to stand on his shoulder.


"I am Dany," The last Targaryen girl said as she jumped inside the carriage with an uncontrollable grin on her face, "Just Dany."


///

"Huh? Why is the ship staying still?" Nymeria asked curiously as she looked back at the Galleon that had been their transportation, all the way from Dorne to here in the Westerlands, standing still in the ocean water as if it was waiting for something, "Are they not going to leave?"


All four of them, the ones who were going to take part in this dangerous secret mission, were at the moment sailing in a tiny boat, the same one that had picked them up in Dorne.


Their destination was a completely deserted coast hidden on three sides by a dense green forest, located somewhere between the lands of Tarbeck Hall and Crakehall in Westerlands.


"Perhaps they are waiting for us to return their boat," Sarella guessed with a shrug, "Though that would mean that one of us would row it to them and then swim back ashore," she murmured to herself before turning towards Jon with a raised eyebrow, "Unless, that is, also our escape ship?"


Over the past week that they had spent together on the ship, the Dornish girls had become quite familiar with the Northern boy, and as the girls learned more about the kind of person Jon was from Oberyn, and all that he had achieved at his young age, they became impressed with him and began losing their first impression of him being a smug brat.


This was especially after they learned the fact that their father, the Viper of Dorne, had lost to him in a fight, and though Oberyn, somewhat embarrassingly, had explained that it had been because of a dirty trick, he would definitely not lose if they fought again.


But the girls did not care, as to them beating their cunning father with a ruse was even more impressive than if Jon had done so fairly.


And Nymeria, who was as impatient as she was pretty, had not wasted any time challenging him to a duel.


Jon had avoided it at first, but after much persistence and provocation, he gave in, thinking that it would shut them up and make it easier for them to follow his order willingly... so he had duelled and defeated her... easily and overwhelmingly.


But unlike what Jon had expected, the defeat had not forced the girls to distance themselves from him; instead, they had become even more curious about him and began to follow him everywhere, asking him all kinds of questions as if he were a puzzle that they could not crack.


And though their nosiness made it hard for him to perform some of his secret activities, forcing him to move his schedule to the night, their sarcastic jokes and witty comebacks more than made up for it, as it was hard for one to find anything interesting on an otherwise dull sea life.


So all in all, the Dornish girls turned out to be a better company than Jon had expected, and of course, Jon entering his teenage years and them being beautiful lasses with sinful figures did not hurt much.


"No, that is not our escape ship," Jon answered with a grunt as he rowed the boat along with Oberyn, with both of them sitting on either end, facing the same direction, with the girls and their luggage in the middle, "I will have a different one ready at that time."


"So, someone really will have to swim all the way back after returning the boat, then," Nymeria exclaimed as she looked back at the ship that now looked smaller than a spoon in the distance and gulped, "Not me! I am definitely not going to be the one to do it."


"Me neither," Sarella added, right after her sister. "I hate cold water more than anything," she said with a shudder.


"Oh, don't even look at me," Oberyn said without turning his head, as if he knew that his girls were staring at him, "I am almost an elderly here, so you definitely can not give this kind of back-breaking work to me."


And with that, both the girls exchanged glances with each other and simultaneously turned their heads towards Jon with mirth in their eyes.


"No," Jon replied wryly to the smirking girls' silent query, "Sadly for you, someone else will be taking care of this issue for us."


"Who?" Sarella asked curiously.


"You will know soon enough," Jon replied with his usual mysterious smile.


"Ugh! Why are you making this all so complicated?" Nymeria groaned as she leaned back, trying to find some space to spread her long legs in this cramped boat, "We could have easily docked at the Lannisport and taken the kingsroad from there, skipping all this stupid skulduggery."


"You are really asking me that?!" Jon said with a raised eyebrow, "Have you even looked at yourself?"


"Why?" Nymeria asked with a gleam in her eyes, "Do I look particularly ravishing in the light of the sunset?" she whispered while leaning towards Jon with a teasing wiggle of her eyebrows.


"I don't know about ravishing," Jon replied slowly, looking completely unfazed by the devilish figure with a hint of cleavage looking up at him seductively, "But you do look like a Dornish girl who is just too pretty to be a smallfolk. And with the number of eyes in a port, it would only be a matter of time before everyone and their mother knew that the Dornish are here in Westerlands to do something wicked."


"You are exaggerating," Nymeria replied with a sceptical look on her face.


"I assure you, I am not," Jon said with a shake of his head, "The total amount of direct trade between the Westerlands and Dorne is unsurprisingly very little, so even a single Dornish man looks out of place here, making even the dumbest smallfolk look unkindly at them, remembering their faces to later report to their lords. Otherwise, why do you think we are landing here in the middle of nowhere?"


"Wait! Does that mean that we will not be moving through any of the towns or villages on the way?" Sarella asked with narrowed eyes.


"Exactly," Jon nodded with a smile, "You get it now."


"No, I do not get it." Sarella exclaimed in a high-pitched tone, "Because what the fuck are we going to eat and drink on the way. I can tell you now that the stuff we brought would not even last us two days, especially with the way this one here has been eating recently," she whispered the last part while jerking her head towards her father.


"Oi! Oi! Don't talk behind your father's back," Oberyn scolded without turning his face away from the shore, making the girls roll their eyes. "But seriously, Jon, if food is going to be a problem, then we really should have taken more rations along with us, even if it slowed us down. In fact, I think it is still not too late to—Wait! I think I see someone on the shore!" The Dornish prince exclaimed mid-sentence, his eyes squinting, trying to see the figure waiting for them under a tree at the shore, "Is that Dacey? Dacey Mormont?"


The sun was almost on the horizon, leaving them very little light to see far, but even with her vague visage, the prince easily recognised her as the valiant warrior woman who had given him a lift from Essos to Westeros in Jon's fleet.


"Indeed, she is," Jon said with a warm smile on his face.


A few minutes later, Oberyn greeted Dacey with a friendly wave, "Lady Mormont, how do you do on this fine evening?" as their boat touched the shore and they began climbing down.


"Prince Oberyn," Dacey nodded calmly as she came forward, "Jon... and two extras," she said as her narrowed eyes scrutinised the two girls who had suddenly been added to the mission at the last moment.


"Blame this one," Jon mouthed while sneakily pointing towards Oberyn, who just smiled embarrassingly.


"Did that woman just call us extras?" Nymeria whispered to her sister in an incredulous tone as they took off their luggage from the boat.


"I think she did," Sarella nodded with a relaxed expression on her face.


"That is insulting, isn't it?" Nymeria asked with narrowed eyes, "Should I teach her a lesson?"


"Please don't," Sarella quickly said while holding onto her eager sister's elbow, "Have you seen the muscle on that woman... she will pick you up and throw you into the sea."


"Hmph! I can take her." Nymeria retorted indignantly, but the unsure look in her eyes said otherwise; after all, she could not use poison against an ally, and without her most powerful weapon, she did not like her chances against this Northern warrior who seemed as if she had been born with a mace in her hand.


While the Dornish girls were whispering to each other, and Oberyn was taking account of the supplies that Dacey had prepared for them, Jon had been taken by Dacey some distance away to have a private conversation.


"What was it that you said to me when I asked you to bring me along for this? That it was a two-man job. That more people would only compromise the mission," Dacey began with a sharp question the moment they were out of the earshot of the people from Dorne, "So what happened now? Did their pretty faces somehow change your mind?"


"As if," Jon answered with a snort as he shook his head, "I would not have brought them at all if it were up to me. But they somehow caught their father sneaking around and then blackmailed him, with the threat of telling his brother Prince Doran, to bring them abroad."


"And that was all it took for you to agree," she asked with a sceptical raise of her eyebrow.


"Of course not," Jon retorted immediately, "If it was just that, then I would have found some way to take care of them or leave someplace far away so that they would not interfere in the plan. But then, Oberyn told me that his girls are supposed to be even more skilled in the art of poison than he is, and since I don't have Sam with me here," he shrugged helplessly, "I thought it wouldn't hurt to have other experts on hand just to be on the safe side."


"So these girls somehow became assets useful for this mission, while I was just a liability who would just get in the way. Is that what you are trying to say?" Dacey asked with narrowed eyes.


"No, of course not," Jon replied, hastily waving his hand. Though he had no idea why his friend was in such a bad mood today, Jon knew that he had to quickly calm her down, as nothing sets off a Northerner more than their prowess being questioned. "You were obviously my first choice for this mission, after all, who else could I trust more with my back than you. But it's just that it is a personal matter for Oberyn and his family, you understand." Jon said, and Dacey reluctantly nodded her head, "And besides, there was no one else whom I could count on to take care of my family, was there. Speaking of which, where are they?" he asked hurriedly, trying to change the subject.


"Just a few hours away, docked in the middle of the ocean waiting for me," Dacey replied with a sigh, letting go of her earlier frustration, "Cory is here with me, so she can take us there quickly, if you want to meet them."


"No, no, it is better if I don't," Jon said with a nostalgic smile, thinking about the cute little sisters he hadn't seen in a while (at least not in person), "I am not even sure how I would explain all this to them,"


"You would have to, eventually," Dacey said with a snort, "Or I guess I would have to, when they reach all the way to Essos, and ask me why their beloved brother is not here to welcome them."


"Oh, I am sure you can keep them entertained long enough in Essos to forget all about me,"


"I don't know about that," Dacey replied with a wry smile on her face, "Not to mention the others, but that little girl Arya hadn't stopped asking about you for a single moment. I don't think any normal excuse would be enough for them to forgive your absence," she said before a sneaky smirk appeared on her face as she rememebered something, "Ah, except of course Lady Stark, who I must admit is a much better person than you had led me to believe," she said shaking her head disapointedly, "What was that about, Jon? I never expected that you were bad-mouthing Lady Catelyn so unfairly,"


"W-What are you talking about? I never talked badly about her."


"Did you not?" Dacey asked with an innocent tilt of her head, "Because I distinctly remember someone making quite a few jokes at her expense, especially about her vanity, about how she would look when she upturns her nose in disdain, how funny her appearance was when she would run after Arya while trying to act all proper, and—"


"Enough! Enough, I say!" Jon cried out nervously in a low voice, trying to stop her from spilling all his secrets, "Why do you still remember all that? That was years ago, and you know it was all in jest, right? I was just having fun... so don't tell any of this to her. Alright? "


"I could do that..." Dacey said slowly, "But then she and I have become such good friends over the past few days, so I don't think it's right for me not to tell her about the things her naughty 'stepson' used to say about her."


"Don't even joke about this, Dacey. You have no idea how much effort it took for me to get in her good graces. You can not make all my effort go to waste."


"Fine. I won't tell her about it," Dacey said with a wide smile on her face. She was quite happy to see Jon actually looking nervous for a change, instead of that smug all all-knowing look he always had on his face. It felt good to know that he had at least one weakness.


"Good," Jon said with relief in his voice.


"But you would be owing me for this. Owing me big time. Understand?"


"Sure," Jon said, agreeing immediately, knowing that his friend was the kind to only make simple requests, such as getting that particular fruit she was craving from the other side of the world or simply a new weapon, which were all easy for him to fulfil.


"Good, it is a deal, then," Dacey nodded with a smile, before she sighed sadly, "Ah, I just regret that I would have to miss that tournament of yours. I bet it is going to be very entertaining there."


"As if." Jon said with a snort, "If anything, it is bound to be a boring thing, what with all the most pompous nobles from Westeros gathering there in one place. It will be nothing more than posturing, simpering, and a whole lot of ass kissing. Trust me, you will be missing out on nothing."


"Promise," Dacey asked with a small smile.


"Promise," he replied with a roll of his eyes.


"Well, I guess I should get going then," Dacey said with a long stretch of her body, "Your family, especially your father, is bound to start asking questions if the ship stays in one place for too long without me being present."


"Good. Have a safe journey then," Jon nodded with a smile on his face, "And take that ship with you, will you? I brought it almost empty to increase its speed, and it would be a waste for it to go all the way back to North without any goods, so you may as well take it back to Essos with you."


"Sure," Dacey replied with a shrug, as she moved towards the boat, while nodding at Oberyn in farewell.


The boat had already been emptied by the Dornish, so with a simple push, the boat was back into the sea, and Dacey immediately jumped in and picked up the oars.


With a final nod, Dacey rowed away from the shore, and barely a few minutes later, the woman had completely disappeared from their sight as if a divine horse was pulling the boat over water from the other side.


"Wasn't that boat just a bit too fast?" Nymeria asked with a stunned expression.


"It was," Sarella replied, looking similarly surprised. "Perhaps that is the power one gets when they have muscles like that," she mused, her mind still stuck on the fact that a woman could have such a toned figure and still somehow managed to look beautiful.


"Oi! Enough slacking off." Jon's voice called them back to the present from behind them, "Pick up your luggage, and get moving. We do not have all day."


"Um, Jon. I think we have no day left at all," Sarella said with a chuckle as she pointed towards the horizon where the sun had already started to sink.


"So?"


"What do you mean, so?" Nymeria asked with a dumbfounded laugh, "What would be even the point of entering the forest at this time, if we have to stop and make a camp soon after?"


"Why would we make a stop?" Jon asked with a tilt of his head, as if he was genuinely curious.


"Why would we stop, he asks," Nymeria mimicked mockingly to her sister, "Because my dear friend from the North, unlike what may happen in your frozen wasteland, here, in the normal parts of the world, you do not move through a forest in the Night, not unless you want to die," she finished with a roll of her eyes, "Everyone knows that,"


"Oh, ho, don't tell me. Are the famous sand snakes afraid of a little jaunt in the dark?" Jon said with a teasing look in his eyes, "Who would have guessed?" he said with an air of disappointment on his face while placing his part of the ration from the stuff Dacey had brought for them inside his luggage, to make it easier to carry.


"He, he, very funny," Sarella said with a smile at his lame joke, but then she saw him picking up his luggage as if he was getting ready to move, and her smile immediately disappeared. "Wait, are you serious?"


"Of course I am," Jon replied simply, "Don't tell me? Are you scared, too, just like Nymeria?"


"Hey! I did not say I was afraid?!"


"Of course, I am," Sarella replied without a hint of shame, while completely ignoring her indignant sister, "There could be any number of dangerous things in there, from snakes, spiders, to wolves, bears, and maybe even tigers, and not to mention the very real possibility of losing our way in the dark. Don't tell me you don't fear any of that?"


"Eh! I have been through many more dangerous forests before, so no," Jon said with a non-chalant shrug, "I know exactly what to do to avoid predators in dark, so you do not need to fret about becoming anyone's food," he said confidently, becuase after all, as the self-proclaimed number one warg in the world, scaring wild animals, whether they be big or small, was the easiest skill in his arsenal.


"But—"


"And as for getting lost," Jon continued without giving the girl any chance, "That is not even a worry, as I know our path like the back of my hand. In fact, if I want to, I can go through with my eyes closed," he said with a smile as if he enjoying a private joke, "So don't worry too much and just follow my lead, and no harm shall come to you," he finished gallantly as if he were a knight.


The girls were left completely speechless at this wild bragging from a person they had previously considered very humble.


"So shall we go then?" Jon asked with a bright smile on his face as if what he said should have been enough to convince them.


"Of course not," Sarella said while looking at him as if he were insane, "We can't just follow you into danger just because you say so. In fact, I don't even understand why we are taking such a big risk before we have even seen our target."


"Because we have to," Jon said with a shrug, "I wouldn't have done this if it was not urgent, but sadly, I have solid news that the Mountain, along with his crew is going to set off from his place in less than two days, and our ambush site from here is almost a day away, and that is, if we are on the move continuously. So, since we have had plenty of rest on the ship on the way here, I want us to cover at least half the distance before we make camp to rest."


"B-But if it was so, then could we not have arrived earlier?"


"No, we could not," Jon said while shaking his head, "If we had arrived sooner, not only would we have to carry more luggage slowing our pace, but we would also have to find a place to stay, and make a fire, increasing our risk of discovery, and any later would have us miss the perfect chance, so you could say that I timed our arrival exactly right."


"Er..." Sarella was left completely stumped by this surprisingly logical reason behind all this haste, and unable to find a proper retort, the girl turned to her father in frustration as if asking him to help.


"Don't look at me, daughter. I have already promised him that I would do everything he asks me to do on this trip, as long as he gets me to him. So if he says to travel during the night, then I am more than ready to do so," Oberyn said resolutely, "But you both don't have to, you could just stay here and wait for us to come—"


"As if," Nymeria immediately challenged, "If you are not afraid, then why should I be?" she said proudly as she picked up her luggage, "Let's go. I am ready."


And with that, the three of them turned to look at the last person, who looked quite frustrated at the moment.


Sarella looked from one person to the other, but in the end, she saw no hope there, and after cursing the gods for a few moments, the girl groaned, "Damn it!" and reluctantly picked up her own luggage. "Why did I have to get stuck with lunatics?" she murmured to herself, which everyone conveniently ignored.


"Finally," Jon cheered as he raised his fist towards the forest as if he was the vanguard of an army, "Let's Go," he said as he began to lead the way into the forest that was only lightly illuminated by the fading sunlight.


It was fine for now, but soon Jon would have to light up a torch to make sure that the ones behind could follow him. "Just follow exactly where I pass through, and make sure—Oh," Jon was mid-sentence when he abruptly stopped with a dazed look on his face.


"Huh? What happened?" Oberyn asked curiously, as he halted himself from bumping into Jon at the last moment.


"They woke up," Jon whispered to himself with an, 'Ah, shit,' expression on his face.


The other end of his mind, that had been constantly inside his rat friend, had been caught in a difficult situation at that moment, leaving him to wonder if they could successfully escape the city or if he would have to use frost after all.


///

"Oh, are we not going through the main street?" Daenerys asked curiously, as she leaned her head out of the window behind the driver's seat, and looked at the scenery passing by.


It had been no more than five minutes since their carriage had taken off from outside Illyrio's mansion, and in this time, the girl had already gotten acquainted with the male from Westeros who looked so muscular from the outside but was actually a boy not much older than her.


By now, the streets, which had been almost completely empty, had begun to fill with the traffic of people, mostly men, walking to and fro, carrying all sorts of luggage and goods either on their backs or in their carts.


"No, that route would probably be too crowded at the moment to let us easily pass through," Sam replied as he skillfully drove their carriage down onto the left, less-trodden path, instead of the one everyone else seemed to be taking. "The temple street may be the longer route, but we will pass through much faster without getting stuck in the mid-day crowd."


"Oh," Daenerys let out understandingly but in a disappointed tone.


"Why do you ask? Did you want to buy something in the market?"


"No, no," Daenerys said, shaking her head, "I did not, it's just... I wanted to take a quick look at it before we left Pentos."


"Huh? But haven't you been to the market before?' Sam asked, confusedly, "After all, it's only ten minutes from the mansion, isn't it?"


Jon had not been very clear about the young girl's identity to Sam, only telling the boy that she was a relative of his who was not very happy with her living condition in the Magister's mansion and wanted to get away from there, but how much of an unwilling resident she was, Sam had no idea.


"I have been there, just... not in a while," Daenerys said in a small voice, as a forced smile appeared on her face, her mind conjuring up her brother's cruel face when he had slapped her and banned her from going out to the market. But then that image got abruptly replaced by the red, swollen pig-like face of his that she had left behind at the mansion, unconsciously making her giggle out loud.


"Huh? What happened?"


"No, Nothing," Daenerys said, shaking her head with a small smile, "Anyway, I just wanted to see all the hustle and bustle of the big market one last time before leaving... but it's not a big deal."


"Oh," Sam let out with an understanding look on his face.


The young boy knew, because of his father, what it was like to live in a household where you were forced to stay inside all day long, so he could sympathise with the girl. "If you are talking about a bustling market, then the one in Pentosh is really nothing to write home about. There are much bigger and livelier markets out there, such as the one in Volantis, or in Braavos, and even in Westerosi cities. You will probably get to see them all in the future, so don't worry."


Though Sam had no idea what Jon's plan for the girl's future was, he knew that with how kind Jon was, he would let her go wherever she wanted as long as it was not too dangerous, so he wasn't too worried about painting her too beautiful a dream.


"Really? Are you telling the truth?" Daenerys asked with a look of awe on her face, as she imagined going to the places he was describing.


"Of course, and besides, there is no reason you can't come back here in the future. You will just have to be a bit... sneaky about it," he said with an exaggerated look of mischief on his face.


"You are right," Daenerys chuckled at the silly face he was making, "I will definitely come back here in the future. And at that time, there will be no guards minding me, stopping me from going to this and that shop, and I can stay as long as I want, and buy whatever I want, right?"


"Er, sure," Sam replied with a shrug, "As long as you have the money, you can buy the whole market if you want, haha,"


The girl chuckled along with him, feeling as if a heavy weight had been relieved from her shoulder. Though she had not yet completely escaped from Pentos, she could already taste the freedom, the feeling of liberation, of having no one there to dictate her life.


She could now do anything she wanted or had dreamed of, the whole world was her oyster...


"Oh, that reminds me, I need to find a job to earn money, right?" Daenerys exclaimed with a surprised look as if she had just realised it.


"Um, probably no—"


"But what am I even going to do? I don't know any good skills," Daenerys said with a troubled look as she ignored Sam and began asking herself, "What can I do?" again and again as if trying to remember any skills she had learned and forgotten, but sadly she came up completely empty, "Ah, maybe I will just be a merchant," she finally said despondently in the end, "But, I am not very good at haggling either,"


Sam had to force himself not to laugh out loud as he could see that the girl was thinking very deeply about this, and he did not want to break her fantasy by telling her about how rich Jon was.


"Hm, how about a healer... but then I don't know anything about that, and will have to learn, which will take years. Ah! Damn it! I knew I should have just taken some gold when I was in the vault," Daenerys muttered to herself in frustration as she glared at the rat, Gan, who had promptly fallen asleep shortly after entering the carriage, "Ugh! Maybe I will just become a pirate queen and just sail around the world, looting all the wealthy merchant ships," she said as she imagined herself standing at the deck ordering around her crew to board the enemy ship, "Yes, that would be quite wonderful, wouldn't it? Hehe,"


"Please don't," Sam said with a nervous chuckle, trying to stop her from going down a bad road. After all, they had barely gotten rid of a Pirate King a few weeks ago, there was no need for a new one to be born so soon.


"Don't worry, I was just kidding," Daenerys said with a light chuckle, "But that reminds me, what kind of job do you have, Master Sam? Wait, should I call you Ser since you are from Westeros? But are you a knight, though?"


"No, I am not a knight, so you can just call me Sam," he said with a friendly smile, "And as for my job, well, I don't think I have one right now," he said with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face.


"What? How come?"


"Well, I usually just sit in our shipping company's shop in Braavos, handle some accounts, and read books or train in our backyard. Oh, and of course, if someone in our company needs healing, then I could do that adequately," Sam said with a thinking expression on his face, "And once in a while, when Jon needs someone trustworthy to do some secret job, like the one of escorting you today, then I would be the one he would call upon," he said with a hint of pride in his tone, "So all in all, I just do what Jon tells me to do." he finished with a shrug.


"You can do so many things," she said with a hint of wonder in her voice, "That is so incredible... and here I am, someone with no skill at all. Ugh! I can't even stitch prettily, like all the noblewomen in Westeros are said to be good at," she said dejectedly.


"Um, I am sure you will find something you like and are good at," Sam said consolingly, "After all, you are still so young, there is plenty of time, so don't worry too much."


"You are right," she said, shaking her head with a smile. "I guess I was just being silly," she said sheepishly, "But do you know how many—" the girl was about to ask about the number of people in the shipping company, when her eyes saw something that confused her, "Sam, was that not the road that leads to the city gate?" she asked pointing towards the diverging path that they had left behind, "Are we not leaving through there?"


"No, we will be travelling through the sea as it is not only faster but also much safer for us," Sam replied as he slowly manoeuvred their carriage through the now much more crowded path. "Our ship is already docked at the port, just waiting for us to arrive to set off."


"Really? But would it not create trouble for your shipping company?" Daenerys asked with a worried look, "I know your company trades primarily in the free cities, so what if they recognise you the next time your ships arrive here? Because I don't know if you realise this, but Illyrio is a very powerful man here in Pentos, so he could probably make things very difficult."


"Ah, we already thought of that, don't worry, as we prepared an unremarkable ship especially for this trip. This ship was acquired through, er, special methods, so it has no connections to our company, so even if they find out which ship you escaped upon after we are gone, they would not be able to do anything, and besides—Argh! Shit!" Sam loudly cursed mid-sentence as he abruptly pulled the reins of the horse as hard as he could to force the carriage to a sudden halt, all because some idiot decided to jump in front of their carriage.


"What the hell are—" Sam was just about to swear at the stupid man who had decided that the front of their carriage was a perfect place to commit suicide, when he suddenly caught sight of the man's face through his cowl, and realised who he was, "Uncle Sam? W-What are you doing here? Weren't we supposed to meet at the ship—"


"Change of plans, boy," The portly merchant Sam cut him off with an urgent whisper while looking around vigilantly, "You need to ditch the carriage immediately— we are walking the rest of the way from here."


"But why? What happened?" Sam asked with a bewildered look as he hurriedly climbed down the carriage while taking out the axe hidden behind his seat.


"The men at the port entrance suddenly started checking everyone entering the gates a few minutes ago. They are looking at every person closely, and are especially paying close attention to the ones in carriages," Merchant Sam replied grimly, "So, unless we are the luckiest people in the world... I am guessing they are looking for this one," he finished, jerking his head towards the girl half hidden behind the window, her eyes looking nervously at him.


"B-But how? I am sure the medicine should have knocked them out for a while longer," Sam said incomprehensibly, as he had, after all, been the one to prepare the sleeping poison for all those people in the mansion, and he knew more than anyone else how much effort and care it had taken to do this.


Because on one hand, he had to make sure that the poison knocks them out long enough for Jon to be able to do his job, while also making sure it was weak enough that it does not kill everyone and cause a massacre, "Ah! Damn it! I bet it must have been that Magister who woke up. I knew I should have increased the dosage a few more times, with the amount of fat that bastard has," Sam cursed with regret in his voice.


"Doesn't matter now, does it?" Merchant Sam said impatiently, "What's happened, has happened, so if you are done whining about it, then we need to immediately move before anyone sees us and decides we are suspicious people."


"Oh, right," he replied, embarrassedly as he immediately ran back to open the door to the carriage, "Dany! It seems we will have to walk the rest of the way."


"I heard," Daenerys said anxiously as she climbed down the carriage while carrying a sleeping Gan in her palms, "But will it be alright?" she asked as the Merchant Sam immediately began leading the two of them down the road, away from the carriage Sam had quickly parked on the side of the road, "Maybe I should just go back?" she muttered morosely, wondering if she was about to cause the possible of death of two people she had barely gotten to know.


"Hello, Little Lady, it is nice to meet you," Merchant Sam suddenly turned his head and greeted in a soothing voice.


"Nice to meet you, er..." Daenerys replied with a forced smile as she looked around at everyone passing by, hoping against hope that none of them were guards sent to capture her.


"My name is Sam," The Merchant said with a warm smile, "But you can call me Uncle Sam, just like the others do... it just makes it easier to differentiate me from this one," he chuckled while pointing towards Samwell, who was guarding their rear with his hand tightly gripping the axe on his back.


"Um, what about—"


"We have not reached the dead end yet, little lady," Merchant Sam interrupted her calmly, knowing what she was about to ask, "So there is no need for you to worry about it so much. Sending you back to that Mansion will be our very last resort."


'I don't know if that resort is even available to me anymore,' Daenerys thought with a self-deprecating chuckle as she remembered her daring theft of the precious dragon eggs, wondering what the Magister's reaction was after he found out about her—"Ah! Wait! I forgot my bag!" Daenerys suddenly cried out loud with a panicked look as she abruptly stopped in the middle of the street.


"What?" Merchant Sam frowned as he looked back at her, "Is it important?"


"More than anything else," Daenerys replied firmly. Not to mention the eggs, her mother's crown was in there too, and she was not about to lose it again after getting it back so many years later.


"I will go, get it," Sam said suddenly when he saw the Merchant looking troubled about going all the way back.


Merchant Sam considered it for a moment before nodding his head, "Go then. We will keep going and meet you by the last inn before the port entrance."


"Understood," Sam nodded before immediately turning around to run back towards the carriage, all while hoping that nobody had already noticed that it had been abandoned and taken it away.


The two left behind did not waste any more time and were once again on their way.


After fifteen minutes of passing through many small and big winding streets filled with more people than Daenerys had ever seen in her life, they finally reached the inn that the Merchant had mentioned to Sam.


"Act casual," Merchant Sam murmured to Daenerys as he looked at the Guards stationed at the entrance and then led Daenerys towards a nearby stall and began browsing as if he was searching for something while sneaking discreet glances at the guards, monitoring their behaviour.


"How did they even find out about us?" Daenerys asked in a distressed voice, "We did not make a single stop along the way, so how did this happen so quickly?"


"Someone must have sent a raven to the guards," Merchant Sam replied distractedly, his eyes wholly focused on the entrance. "It won't work," he murmured with a sigh.


"Huh? What won't work?" Daenerys asked confusedly.


"Your hair." The Merchant replied with a grim look, as he turned to look at her, "Look at the guards carefully, they are carefully checking every single female leaving through the gates, especially the ones with hair colour closely resembling yours. No matter how much we try to hide you, they are bound to scrutinise you the moment we try to cross the gate."


"T-Then what should we do?" Daenerys asked with dismay in her voice..


"Let me think," The merchant said with a frown, trying to remember all the ways that one can pass through such a gate, from bribery, to secret smuggling routes, to waiting for the night, a lot of different ideas passed through his head, but he rejected all of them, because not only were they dangerous but were also very too time consuming, and he knew the longer they spent here, the more the chances of their discovery was.


But just as he was at his wits' end, his eyes caught sight of a female slave passing by, and almost immediately, an absurdly simple idea came to him, and he instantly knew that it could work for them.


"Wait here." The Merchant said to Daenerys before he immediately went away towards the shops on the other end of the street, leaving Daenerys standing all alone in front of the stall without any explanation.


Thankfully, the girl did not have to wait for too long, as just a few minutes later, the portly Merchant came running back.


"What did you—"


"Come with me," The merchant interrupted Daenerys and immediately began leading her towards an empty alley filled with trash right beside the Inn they were waiting in front of.


"Here! Take it." Merchant Sam said while handing Daenerys a small leather pouch sloshing with some kind of liquid.


"W-What is this?" Daenerys asked bewilderedly while looking at the strange pouch in her hand.


"It's Hair dye," Merchant Sam replied with a grin, very proud of the idea he had come up with on the spot, "I have already mixed it in there, so you only need to apply it to your head and wash it off a few minutes later for perfect effect."


"Oh... um, what colour is it?"


"Simple black." Merchant Sam replied with a shrug, "The most common colour in the world, with this hair colour, no one's going to give you a second look on the street."


"Ah," The girl nodded her head understandingly and opened the cap of the pouch to look at the disgusting black liquid splashing inside it, "I won't go bald after applying it, will I?" she asked tentatively, having heard plenty of horror stories from the maids in the mansion about how certain sellswords who likes to excess amount of colourful dyes in their hair to make themself appealing go bald very quickly.


"Pretty sure you won't. At least not with just one use." Merchant Sam replied with a comforting smile, "Now, hurry up."


"Ugh, fine." The girl replied with a reluctant look on her face as she walked towards the corner of the street, "Here, hold him for me," she said, handing the sleeping rat, Gan, to Merchant Sam.


"Why is he asleep?" Merchant Sam asked questioningly, looking down at the rat, whom he knew was supposed to be one of Jon's warg.


"Um, something about Gan not being able to handle Jon's mind for too long," The girl explained distractedly, as she bent over her waist and poured the sticky, gooey liquid mixture over her shiny, beautiful, silver, gold hair, and began applying it with her bare hands, "I don't quite remember what he said."


The girl could only recall that Jon had said that their thieving adventures in the morning had exceeded the limit of what Gan's tiny brain could endure, and he had to give him some time to rest, otherwise it could cause him significant brain damage.


"Well, whatever the reason was, I think it is past time that Jon was here, considering our situation," Merchant Sam said grimly as he looked at the rat in his hands. "So I am going to wake him up."


"Uh, uh," the girl replied absentmindedly, still concentrating on applying the colour evenly to her hair, especially on the root ends.


"Chi?!" The rat asked in a grumbled squeak as it opened its bleary eyes after a few sharp pokes from Merchant Sam.


"Ehm, I need Jon." Merchant Sam said, feeling a bit stupid talking to a rat.


The rat glared at the merchant for a few seconds for disturbing its sleep, but complied with his instructions nonetheless.


After a few seconds with its eyes closed, the rat opened them again, but this time, they had a distinct shade of intelligence in them that let the Merchant know that his Captain is here.


"Jon?"


"Chi!" The rat nodded its head in recognition of the Merchant as it began to take stock of its surroundings, looking at the street they were in, the hunched over form of Daenerys applying dye to her and taking note of the missing Sam.


"So, here is the deal..." The Merchant, without wasting any time, began explaining the things that Jon had missed over the hour that he was away, "...And now we need to somehow pass the gate without them finding out about her."


And just in time, as he finished explaining things to Jon, the last member of their team arrived, running into the alley with a large bag on his shoulder.


"W-Why are you in here? I almost couldn't find you people." Sam complained, huffing and puffing as he placed his axe on the ground and began trying to control his breath, "What are you doing?" he asked bewilderedly while looking at Daenerys, who was emptying a water pouch over her head in the corner behind the Merchant.


"Ugh, Ruining my hair," The girl replied as she grunted and roughly squeezed the water out of her hair, before straightening up and turning towards them with a self-conscious look in her eyes, "How do I look?"


"Um, pretty... normal," Sam said hesitatingly, to which both the Merchant Sam and Jon nodded their head.


With her pale silver hair replaced by a simple black, the ethereal aura that had surrounded the girl because of her Targaryen heritage had now decreased a lot, and she looked more like a beautiful girl from a wealthy noble family now than a goddess reborn.


"Ugh, I don't like it," The girl said as she ran her hand through her wet, sticky hair, "And it ruined my dress too."


"Don't worry, the colour should only last for a few days," Merchant Sam said consolingly as he took back his empty water pouch and placed it in his satchel. "Now we need to hurry; we should pass through the gates before anything else changes," he said while passing the rat back to Daenerys.


"You are right." Daenerys and Sam both nodded their heads, and after the boy picked up his axe and tightened the bag on his back, Sam said, "Let's go," and began leading them out towards the street.


"Wait, wear this." Merchant Sam said, taking off his cloak and handing it to Daenerys, "It is a bit heavy, but it should cover your dress and your face completely. Just make sure to leave your hair out so that they know you are not a Targaryen."


"Mm," Daenerys nodded and wore the heavy cloak without complaining.


A few seconds later, the four of them, including the rat, came out of the street and joined the crowd walking towards the port entrance, looking as casual as they could.


As they got closer to the entrance, the space got narrower and the people moved more slowly because of the guards' strict check of everyone leaving through the gates, drawing quite a few grumbles from the crowd, who mostly consisted of Merchants, sailors, tourists and labourers.


But the stationed soldiers were also quite efficient, letting most of the men go unharrassed, only checking the female ones carefully, especially the younger ones with hair closer to blonde.


Everything went fine for the four of their group at first, as no one gave them a second glance, but just as it was about to be their turn to leave, Daenerys caught sight of something that scared her to her very soul.


"T-That is one of Illyrio's personal guards," Daenerys whispered to the group in a trembling voice while looking up at a man standing on the platform. "He wasn't here before," she said with a panicked look on her face. "He would definitely recognise me."


She remembered this guard being a particularly cruel one who drew pleasure from beating and harassing the maids in the kitchen. Daenerys had even had him punished once, so she knew she would get no mercy and would be called out the moment he laid eyes on her.


"Calm down." Merchant Sam said firmly through the corner of his mouth, "He must have just arrived while we were in the alley." he murmured while discreetly glancing at the guard Daenerys was talking about, "Don't worry, we should be fine for now as he is too far away, and there are too many people here for him to pay us close attention. But lower your cowl just to be on the safe side,"


"Y-Yes," Daenerys replied nervously, as she pulled down her cloak with her eyes at Sam's back, praying to all the gods she knew that they let them pass through safely.


"Move through! Move through! Don't stop!" The guard in charge of their side was shouting nonchalantly, pushing people to move faster, while roughly scanning the crowd, "Hurry up, don't—Wait! Why is she covered up!"


What they feared the most happened, as the guard looked at their group with suspicious eyes and questioned Merchant Sam while his hand neared his sword.


"A thousand apologies, Master." Merchant Sam bowed with a warm smile on his face, "She has 'that' disease, you know, with all kinds of warts and pimples on her face, so we keep her covered up to not ruin our appetite," he said with such a disgusted look on his face that it even made little Daenerys a little self consious for a moment, wondering if she really was that ugly, "But I can show her to you if you want." the Merchant offered with a completelly unbothered expression.


"Ugh, no need," The guard said, backing away a little with a look of revulsion on his face, "Move on, then," he said, waving them off, "...she has black hair anyway," he murmured to himself as his attention went back to the oncoming crowd.


"Yes, yes, sorry for the inconvenience, Master," Merchant Sam bowed as he led the two away from the gate while internally sighing in relief. "Let's go, our boat is not far away," he said with a smile as the four of them hurried on with excitement in their eyes, unable to believe that they were able to trick them so easily.


But unfortunately for them, their cursed luck ran out at the very last moment...


"Wait! Why is she covered up!!" The Guard they were most afraid of shouted with a scowl as he caught sight of Daenerys' covered-up head just as the four were about to leave his line of sight.


"S-She has a disease, master," The guard who had let them go explained nervously, "But she has black hair, I checked, so she is definitely not the one you are looking for."


"I will decide if she is the one or not," The guard hollered with a harsh look on his face, "Now go, drag her back here and show her face to me."


"Of course, of course," The guard bowed before turning towards their group with an ugly look on his face, "Stop! Come back!" he shouted to the trio who just stood there dumbfoundedly for a few seconds, unable to believe how ill-fated they were.


"W-What do we do now?" Daenerys whispered with a despairing look on her face.


"RUN!!"



///


You know where to go if you want to read ahead... *Wink*Wink*

"RUN!!"


Merchant Sam's cry penetrated through the despair-filled fog in Daenerys' mind, and the very next moment, the girl felt herself being yanked by her hand through the dense crowd without having any sense of where she was going, "Clear the way, Sam," came the muffled shout of the portly Merchant as he felt himself being bogged down.


"On it," Sam answered immediately as he ran to their front and then immediately began to utilise his size and strength to bulldoze his way through, making it much easier for Merchant Sam and Daenerys.


"Come on, hurry up," Merchant Sam urged as he ran with impressive nimbleness for his age and size, all while carrying almost half of Daenerys' weight, who, being a young girl with a small body, could not run as well as the other two, "We are not far from our ship, we can still make it."


"Stop Them!!" The guards stationed at the gates finally broke through their stupor at seeing someone daring to defy them in their city, screamed and ran towards the trio with enraged expressions on their faces. "Make Way!!" The guards hollered as they roughly pushed the crowd out of their way.


"Out of my way!! Move!" The guard who had actually let them go was more panicked than anyone else at that moment, as he knew that if he let these three escape today, then he was done for, so seeing the dense crowd becoming an hindrance between him and his target, the man unhesitatingly pulled his sword out of his sheath and began waving it indiscriminately on the innocent crowd, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!!"


This recklessness almost started a stampede in front of the port entrance, as the people began screaming and running for their lives from this madman, but this tactic also turned out to be surprisingly effective, as the guards were able to move much faster towards their target.


"Good Idea." The guard from Illyrio's Mansion exclaimed loudly as he finally caught up to the others and, then, without any hesitation, pulled out his spear and copied the guard from before him, and began poking at people to clear his way, "Catch them!! Don't let them leave!"


"Which way? Which way is the boat?!" Sam asked frantically, as in his single-minded rush to move forward, he had already lost his sense of direction. He kept looking here and there, hoping to catch sight of the ship that he had been on only a few days.


"To the right!" Merchant Sam shouted in answer immediately, "It should be the fifth one to the right." The portly man from the North was now feeling very thankful for his last-minute decision to bring their ship closer to the port entrance; otherwise, they would have had no hope at all to get away.


"T-They are catching up to us," Daenerys announced in a panicked voice as her eyes looked back for just a moment, only to catch sight of the guards less than a dozen meters away from them, and they were closing that distance very quickly, because of their cruel methods.


"Don't worry!! We are not too far now," Even Merchant Sam had begun panting by now due to the exertion of running with all his might, "It should be around—There!" The Merchant's voice suddenly rose, and his eyes lit up in elation as he pointed at a distance, "That's our ship! Sam! Immediately tell them to pick up the anchor and—" the rest of the merchant's words got stuck in his throat as he caught sight of something that made his heart drop to the bottom in despair.


It wasn't known if the guards behind them had somehow managed to send a message to their colleagues or if the other were acting on their own after hearing the commotion.


But when the trio looked around, they noticed that the guards who had been stationed in various locations in the port were all currently converging towards them, and the worst part was that five of the guards were approaching them from the direction of their ship.


By this point, the crowd had wised up to the fact that these three people were fugitives and had begun actively running away from them, leaving them isolated in the middle.


And while this cleared their path open, it also lost them their last layer of protection, as, without the crowd to act as a barrier, it made it much easier for the soldiers to close the net around them.


"We can just force our way through," Sam said bravely while tightly gripping the axe in his hands, as the three of them were forced to stop just a hundred meters from their ship, "I bet I can take on at least three of them."


"Think again, boy," Merchant Sam grunted with a tense look on his face as he looked at the guards coming at them from all directions, "There are at least five of them behind us with crossbows in their hands. The moment you get entangled with the guards in the front, they will shoot at you from behind without hesitation, and just one of those bolts is enough to take you down, boy, so don't try anything stupid."


"What should we do then?" Sam asked back in frustration, inwardly cursing himself for not bringing his armour with him just to be discreet, otherwise they might already be back on the ship, "We can't really just surrender, can we?"


'Surrender? If we really surrender, then...' Daenerys' thoughts became jumbled as she realised that this might just be it for her and the other two.


Her dreams of freedom, that hadn't even had a chance to breathe properly, might just die in their cradle.


"Don't worry. It hasn't come to that yet," The Merchant answered Sam in as calm a voice as he could muster, "Because I am sure Jon must have considered that we could end up in a situation like this, so he should have some idea on how to handle it," he said turning to the rat standing on Daenerys shoulder, who at the moment was scanning their surroundings with a solemn look on its face, "You do have an idea, don't you?" the Merchant asked, unable to keep the anxious hope from his voice.


The rat contemplated something for a few moments, then it almost seemed to sigh as if it too thought that there really was no way out for them, but just as the three were about to fall into despair, the rat suddenly pointed at Sam and began gesturing towards its ears as if trying to tell him something.


"What is he saying?" Merchant Sam asked in a confused voice.


"I don't know wha—Oh, wait! I remember now! Are you talking about those?" Sam asked with a look of sudden comprehension on his face, as he immediately began rummaging through his satchel, and a few moments later, he pulled out a dozen pieces of corks, similar to the ones used to seal wine bottles, but much, much smaller.


"And what are we supposed to do with these?" Merchant Sam asked sceptically as Sam began handing out a pair to each of them.


"Um, I think we are just supposed to put them in our ears," Sam replied with an unsure expression on his face as he hesitatingly placed the corks in his ears, "I don't know how these are going to help us, but Jon told me that if there is ever an absolute emergency on this mission with no way out, then we can use them for help,"


The other two turned to stare at the rat, who immediately nodded and patted its tiny chest with a look of immense confidence on its face as if saying, 'Leave it to me.'


"I guess we have no choice but to believe that Jon will create a miracle once again," The Merchant muttered with a helpless smile as he followed after Sam and placed the pieces of cork in his ears. "What are you thinking about, little lady? Quickly put them in your ears."


"Uh, yes," Daenerys was more than a little confused about the situation she had found herself in. On one hand, she was getting surrounded by enemies on all sides; on the other hand, she was being told that if she put some corks in her ears, everything would be alright.


As if by not listening to the things happening around her, their problems would simply disappear, but in the end, the girl still chose to place her trust in Jon, because after all, she was already at the end of her rope, 'What more could go wrong?'


"I thought I told you people to fucking stand down!" The guards, who were now no more than a few meters away from the trio, yelled at them impatiently, as they saw these foreigners completely ignoring them and whispering to each other as if they were conspiring about something.


"And you!!" Another guard shouted while pointing towards Sam in anger, "What the hell do you think you are doing, boy? Lower your weapon immediately!"


"Why do you even bother talking to this filth?!" The guard who had unintentionally let them go seemed to have developed a grudge against them and was more than eager to 'deal' with them, "Just shoot the fucking lot of them," he snarled with a nasty expression on his face, 'That'll teach them to deceive people,'


"Don't you dare to touch a hair on the girl," Illyrio's guard roared as he finally arrived at the location of the guard's encirclement, "Didn't I tell that I want the girl alive?!" he barked as he roughly pushed away the eager guards who were being too handy with their weapons, and turned to girl whose cowl had been blown away by now showing her face to be the one of his master's royal guest, just with the addition of newly dyed black hair.


"Princess Daenerys," The guard began as politely as he could, "I think it is time for you to go back. Master Illyrio and your brother are very worried about you back at the mansion," he tried to say with a straight face, but could not stop his mouth from twitching. The guard could still remember the anger rolling off the pig-like face of her brother's as he had left the mansion, and couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what he would do to her.


"Don't worry, we will take care of these kidnappers for you," The guard said as he hurriedly tried to move on to the actual mastermind behind all this. "They would not dare to lay a hand on you now that I am here," he said while glaring at the two unknown men with strange plugs in their ears. If it wasn't for his Master's order to bring them alive, so that he could interrogate them on how they managed to put them all to sleep, he would have already killed these wretches. "You still have time, surrender peacefully, otherwise..."


Daenerys did not care about what the guard was saying, and nor did she even look at him; instead, her whole attention was on Gan, their last hope of escaping from this impossible situation.


At the moment, the rat was peeking at the three of them, and after confirming that all of them had properly placed the corks in their ears, Gan pulled two rat-sized corks for his own ears and put them on.


And when Gan saw Daenerys staring at him with wide eyes from the corner of his eyes, he gave her a thumbs with its tiny claws and then after one last look around to confirm that there were no innocent bystanders like children too close to them, he nodded his head and immediately disappeared into the thick folds of Sam's satchel as if trying to hide from something.


Before Daenerys could even process the sight of the rat's disappearance, she and everyone else around suddenly began to hear an unusually irritating high-pitched noise that felt as if it was coming from afar but also as if it was blasting right into their ears.


"What the hell is that noise!!" The guards were alarmed as they looked around with vigilant expressions, trying to find the source of this persistent noise.


"I-Is someone screaming?" One guard asked in confusion, wondering what kind of torture one would have to endure to make such a noise.


"Ugh! Whatever it is, make it fucking stop! It's making my head hurt!" Another one snapped while massaging his head as the noise went from irritating to painful in a matter of seconds.


But that was only the beginning of their worries, as with every passing moment, the strength and penetrating ability of this strange sound began increasing, and eventually it reached a point where the guards could do nothing but kneel on the ground in fetal positions with their hands covering their ears.


Some of them began crying, "Argh! Someone, make it stop!! Please make it stop! It hurts!"


Others felt their head spin and their stomach turn, "Ugh! I can't! I can't hold it in! I... I am going to puke—Uwah!"


Some got irrationally furious as the noise made them feel as if someone was rattling their brain like a drum, "I'll kill you! I'll kill fucking kill whoever is making that noise! I will kill your entire family!! Argh! Don't let me find you!!"


Some even began praying, feeling as if this was divine punishment from the gods, "Oh, God! Please have mercy! I swear, I will not sin anymore!"


But ultimately, it got to the point where the noise exceeded their tolerance, and they began bleeding from their ears and noses, and ever so slowly, with the trio as the centre, the guards began collapsing one after the other, as if they were puppets falling after their strings were cut.


Thankfully, the sound did not have too much of a range and only a few people in the crowd who were standing close to the guards' encirclement were affected by this to the point of fainting; otherwise, the rest only felt a mild headache and some discomfort in their stomach, which would pass in a few minutes.


But just as the noise began to affect even the trio through the protection of the corks in their ears, it came to an abrupt stop, granting them much-needed relief.


The moment the three people born in different parts of Westeros opened their eyes, they were greeted with the sight of all their pursuers lying on the ground like helpless children, with their weapons tossed half-hazardly around them. They were now in no condition to obstruct their path anymore.


"I-Is this real? Or am I seeing things?" Daenerys whispered to herself with a stunned look on her face, unable to believe how easily and absurdly their deadly predicament had been solved.


"I think it's real," Sam replied a bit unsurely, "After all, we can't both be delusional at the same time, right?" he chuckled dryly, but the deadly grip on the axe in his hand showed how shocked the boy was by the event that happened in front of him, his mind constantly thinking about the kind of otherwordly power that could cause something like this.


"Chi! Chi!" The rat's urgent squeaks brought the three of them out of their daze, and they simultaneously turned to look at the rat, who was once again standing on Daenerys' shoulder, with awe and fear, their expressive eyes silently asking a hundred questions.


"Chi!" But the rat seemed not to be in the mood for answering anything, and was instead repeatedly pointing towards the docks in the distance as if telling them to hurry up.


"R-Right! We need to move." Merchant Sam nodded as he buried all his doubts inside his heart, turned around and immediately began running, "Let's leave before they wake up."


Daenerys and Sam nodded hurriedly, and after picking up the bag with eggs and the crown, they immediately followed the merchant towards the ship docked in the distance.


Their path this time was completely unharrassed, as they ran over the unresponsive guards, and through the silent crowd of spectators who were looking at them as if they were monsters while giving them a wide berth.


The stunned, terror-filled eyes of the crowd made Daenerys very uncomfortable, but thankfully, it only took them a few minutes before they finally reached their destination.


A connecting plank had already been lowered for them by the ship's crew, who had noticed the commotion in the distance some time ago.


In fact, most of them had weapons in their hands as they had been just about to go fight with the Pentoshi guards to the death to rescue the three of them, but fortunately, it had not come to that in the end.


Though they hadn't been able to see exactly how it had happened, they just knew that all the guards had abruptly fallen to the ground, making way for Merchant Sam and the others to arrive at the ship.


But having been part of the Northern Wolf Company for so long, the crew had gotten used to unexplainable things happening around them, so they were not too unnerved by this mystical sight.


"Go! Go! Go!" Merchant Sam shouted the moment he set foot onto the deck of the ship, "Lower the anchor! Raise the sails! We are moving full speed out of the dock!!"


"AYE!!" The crew answered simultaneously as they ditched their weapons and immediately began running towards their respective posts, producing a flurry of activities that seemed chaotic at first glance but had a unique, steady rhythm to it.


In a matter of seconds, their ship sailed out of the port and was quickly picking up speed.


Meanwhile back at the docks, the guards were finally regaining their wits, sadly for them though by the time they managed to even think of getting their own vessel to pursue them, it was too late as their target had already disappeared on the horizon, leaving them frustrated, humiliated and more than a little scared, wondering in their hearts if anyone would ever believe them when they tell the story what had happened that day.


"Is this a dream?" Daenerys asked in a dazed voice as she looked at the sun setting on the horizon with a wide grin that she wasn't able to control, no matter how hard she tried, 'Am I finally free?'


"I can assure you that it's not a dream, Dany," Sam's teasing voice answered her question as he came to stand beside her on the deck, "But perhaps a warm meal in your stomach would make it seem more real."


"A meal?"


"Yes, that is why I am here," Sam said with a smile, "Dinner is ready, and served, and Uncle Sam is just waiting for you to come up."


"Let's go then," Daenerys said as she turned around with an eager expression on her face, "So what are we having?"


"Fish and bread," Sam replied as they walked towards the cabin, "It's simple but very filling, and Uncle Sam is quite skilled in the art of roasting fish, so I am sure you will like it."


'I am sure too,' Daenerys thought with a smile on her face, because after all, everything tasted better if you have freshly brought freedom as the side dish.


...


Thousands of leagues away across the ocean, inside a dense forest somewhere in Westerlands, a pair of grey eyes opened with a satisfied look in them, 'Side Quest: Save the Princess—Completed, and now... It's time for Quest No. 2.'


"...But look at him, he is just standing there like an—"


'Ah, would you look at that, I even have funny companions to diss at me on this adventure. So this one should be much easier...'


///