The Warg Lord (ASOIAF)(SI)

"Stay still, Robb. Don't move!" Jon opened his eyes and said to his squirming brother for the nth time. They were both sitting under the Heart tree in the Winterfell Godswood while Sansa was some ways away playing with Arya by the swing.

"I've been sitting here for half an hour now," Robb said while massaging his legs, "My legs have gone numb. Aren't you done yet,"

"No, I am not,"

"Ugh! You're so stupid. What is even the point of this?" Robb asked.

"You don't need to know," Jon replied, "Don't move! Don't speak! or else the deal's off the table and I won't be buying you anything,"

Robb rolled his eyes but complied with his brother and sat like a stone. There was a cool far-eye that he had been dying to buy but Ned felt that it would be a waste, so he forbid Catelyn from buying it for him, but Jon promised him that he will buy it for his next birthday so he had to do what he said.

Jon closed his eyes and tried once again, he accessed his mind zone which had changed plenty since he got Pegasus. The mind sphere had expanded a lot, and the needle which represented Frost had been submerged halfway through into his mind sphere when it expanded.

The half-swallowed needle had the benefit of making warging into Frost a lot easier and faster, before he would have to concentrate for quite a while before he warged into frost, now he could do it in a matter of minutes.

Another thing that had changed was that a new needle had appeared a while back on the opposite side of Frost's needle, while it was still away from his mind sphere and hasn't touched it yet, he was sure that this one represented Pegasus.

But it wasn't the time to admire his new acquisition, so he focused back on the task at hand. He tried to do what he did when he warged into frost but instead of an intent focused on the needle representing his feathered friend, he sent a scattered intent outward without a focus like he unconsciously did when he met pegasus for the first time.

For quite a while he felt nothing, he was just blindly searching in the dark without any idea of what he was looking for exactly except for a vague feeling.

When he still didn't get a result after 5 minutes, his hopes started dwindling as he wondered if he hadn't imagined the feeling after all. But just when he was about to give up, his consciousness came into contact with something—it was feeble at first but after a few seconds, he started to get a feel for the shape.

The thing, which he was sure was Robb's consciousness, was a weird squiggly shape somewhat like a sphere but with a lot of bumps and flailing tentacles on the surface. It was a lot smaller than his but it definitely felt similar to Jon's own mind sphere.

Suddenly the sphere representing started getting fainter and farther before it immediately disappeared which broke his concentration and got him out of his mind zone. And when he opened his eyes, it was to find his brother sneakily crawling away which explained everything.

*Cough**Cough*

Robb abruptly turned his head around and found Jon glaring at him, "Um... I thought you had already fallen asleep...Hehe..."

"You can forget about the Far-eye now," Jon said flatly.

"NO! You promised!"

"So you do know what that word means," Jon said standing up and going toward his sisters, with Robb following after him and trying to persuade him that he was just stretching and was not going to run away.

They played for a while in the godswood, just the four stark siblings, and happily went toward the Great hall for their dinner when the sun started going down.

Over the next few days, the staff of Winter was kept on their toes at all times because their Lord's bastard son had taken to randomly select a person and follow them around while they worked. When they stopped for a while to do some chores, he would just close his eyes and stand still there for a while, and after some time open his eyes with a gleam of triumph before thanking them and going away.

At first, the staff thought of that as the latest prank concocted by their Lord's son, and the absence of the other one, Robb, only made them warier and kept them looking over their shoulders even after Jon had moved on to his next target.

At the family dinner a few days later, the atmosphere had turned a little awkward because Jon was trying to glare a hole into his nemesis's head and Catelyn was starting to get antsy, and it didn't help that she was pregnant again.

"What are looking at?" Catelyn asked with gritted teeth after finally losing her patience.

"Nothing, Just wondering if you've turned even more beautiful," Jon smiled which seemed to unnerve Catelyn, even more. She kept on looking at Jon, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Jon looked away with some satisfaction after a while as if he had found what he was looking for.

Jon was very happy with the results he had gotten from the experiments he had conducted over the last few days. And an unintended side-effect of regularly using his skill, which he had dubbed Mind Sense, on various people was that now he didn't have to close his eyes anymore to use it, which he just successfully tried when he used mind sense on Catelyn.

The first conclusion he reached from his experiments is that all people have different shapes of consciousness, and most of them including Catelyn just have squiggly shapes made of different thoughts that are not even closely related to a sphere.

But on the other side, all the Starks have their consciousness in a shape that is very close to a sphere, and while not as large as his sphere of consciousness, the sizes of their minds are also a lot larger than the rest of non-starks.

And Jon knew that the Starks had gotten the talent to warg from one of their ancestors, so from all that information it was easy for him to conclude what qualities a person's SOC (Sea of Consciousness) needs to have to be a potential warg, which would definitely be a boon for his future endeavors.

There was another benefit of him running around and randomly using his mind sense on the people of Winterfell. Because as he slowly got better and faster at using mind sense, it unknowingly also improved his warging into Frost a lot and also made the process a lot smoother and quicker.

It only takes Jon now about a second to go close his eyes and warg into Frost, and about two seconds to collect information about the surroundings from Frost's senses before exiting her body and coming back into his, which also takes no more than two seconds— so all in all in 5 seconds he could warg in and out of Frost.

That increased speed of his warging skill made it a lot more useful and would definitely be mighty helpful in a lot of situations in the future.

///

Name change, A Jon Snow SI —>

1. The Warg Lord
or
2. Lord of Wargs

Which one should I pick?

P.S.-> DId I just give a spoiler?
...

To read ahead go to patreon.com/lazywizard

 

A few days later I was approaching Old marks house while carrying my bow and quiver full of arrows on my back. Old mark and his family had returned from their vacation to White Harbour, where they had gone to attend the wedding of Becca's Cousin.


And after coming back the only thing his students could talk about was how awesome the only city in the North was, how clean the city was, how beautiful the New Castle was, and how they had never seen so many people in a single place ever.


Even the usually reticent Emily was gushing about the City, she was very impressed with the various kinds of books she saw on the markets there, but unfortunately, she didn't buy any as they couldn't afford them, while all Becca could talk about the various ships she saw there and how her brother had taken them on a tour of his ship which had been docked at that time.


While looking at them chattering away, I suddenly had an idea and immediately decided to execute it. I focused on Emily and intently used my mind sense on her, about a second later my eyes widened as the results astonished me.


"Mr. Jon, Emily is going to turn into a tomato if you keep on glaring at her like this," Becca said with mirth, and indeed Emily had started blushing from his staring, but I didn't bother with that as she was very shy and instead turned to check Becca.


"Um... Why are you staring at me now— Oh! Is it the game where whoever blinks first loses? Alright! I won't lose," Becca said enthusiastically but I wasn't listening and just used my mind sense on her too and the results once again left me flabbergasted.


Surprisingly both of my students had the talent to be wargs, and while not as big as Robb's they both had their SOC a lot larger than usual and the shape was also almost a sphere. There must have been a Warg somewhere in their ancestry, or else, it would be a very unlikely coincidence that both of them happened to be potential wargs.


"Aha! You blinked. I Won! Now you need to buy me something," Becca said unreasonably, but I didn't pay her any mind as the wheels inside my mind started spinning rapidly as I thought about the massive opportunity this presented.


Considering that both of my students were almost 11 years old, the age said to be the safest for a child to begin his training in the art written in the Maester's diary I found in Winterfell's library. The only reason I didn't teach Robb was that he was young, but now I finally have people I could teach and find out if the techniques can make wargs out of non-starks or not.


If they did become eventually learned the art of warging then it would be a Jackpot for me. Before I could spiral into my thoughts about me having an army of wargs, I saw Old mark coming up behind me in my periphery.


I turned around and found him beckoning me over, so I left my students or my future minions behind and started following my teacher into the forest.


The second Old Mark arrived back from his trip to White Harbour, he had taken me to the training ground and run me into the ground through a series of tests so that he could check on the progress I had made while he was away, and he must have been satisfied because the very next he told me that I was finally ready for a real hunt, and after that, he started taking me into the Wolfswood.


But, while I had started going on a hunt with him I wasn't really part of the action yet. The only thing I had done was shadow him as he went through a hunt. I wasn't allowed to shoot or speak, so I just watched as he tracked the prey from little clues, how he set up an ambush, how he skinned it before eventually carrying it to the market and selling various parts to different people.


"You are going to lead today," Old mark said while stopping in front of the place where the trees started getting denser and the real forest started, "I will just observe,"


A surge of adrenaline ran through my vein as I heard him say that, finally after days of just watching I got to hunt for real. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and after looking at Old Mark just standing there patiently, I started silently rushing through the forest with my teacher shadowing me from behind like a ghost.


About 10 minutes into the forest, I found what I thought to be tracks of a boar so I got really excited. But after following the tracks for about half an hour, I lost the trail, and my first potential lead turned out to be a dud.


I didn't get sad after that as I had quickly found another lead, but after that one too turned into a failure, my excitement started waning. I started getting a bit frustrated as after half hour I didn't have anything to show for it, and while I had come across some small animals, I just ignored them which made Old Mark shake his head in disapproval, but I didn't want my first hunt to be a rabbit.


In my mind, I knew that being patient was the most important thing while on a hunt but my heart desired glory and felt that I should have already hunted the biggest stag or boar by now, so when my patience finally ran out, I decided to cheat a little.


I looked around and after finding the tallest tree and I quickly climbed it. Old mark didn't follow me up as he must have thought that I was looking around for prey, but that wasn't the idea I had in my mind.


After climbing high enough and ensuring I was out of my teacher's sight, I found the right branch and sat on it. After making sure that I was properly secured and wasn't at risk of falling, I closed my eyes and quickly warged into frost.


My point of view abruptly changed and I was suddenly flying over an infinite green forest, after communicating with frost I found that she wasn't very far away from where I was, so I quickly urged her to find prey for me, the bigger the better. And she rose up to the challenge like a boss and promised me that she would not disappoint, so I thanked her and went back inside my human body.


I opened my eyes and got over the disorientation quickly before climbing down the tree. Not more than ten seconds had passed, so Old Mark didn't suspect anything at all. I started purposely leading him toward the direction I knew frost was in as if I had already found my mark.


I didn't have to pretend for long because I felt a ping go inside my head about 15 minutes later, and after telling Old Mark that I need to pee, I went into some bushes and quickly warged, and immediately Frost started bombarding me with all the various animals she had found.


I quickly sorted through them and after eliminating the small animals, a few bears, and a pack of wolves, I finally found a perfect match, it was a lone stag and it was in the larger size. After making sure that I got the location, he was roaming in, right, I exited frost's body after thanking her.


I went back to the old hunter and immediately started leading him in a different direction than the one I was going into before. Old Mark didn't ask anything about that or even ask me why I was changing directions suddenly, in fact, he hasn't spoken or offered me any advice even once since the hunt started, so he was really just an observer as he said.


After a while, I came across the huge sentinel tree which I was searching for. It was the halfway mark between me and my prey, and if the direction I had seen the stag going from frost was right then it should be passing from this area in a while.


After looking around for a while, I found the perfect tree for an ambush and climbed it, but this time asking Old Mark to climb too, and not remain on the ground.


We both hid in the greenery of the tree, him a lot more skillfully than me. About five minutes of silence passed before I suddenly heard a branch snapping, and I immediately got even more alert. A few seconds later the Stag I had seen came wandering into the view while occasionally eating the berries from the bushes along the way and looking up every few seconds warily.


I took a slow breath and silently knelt while holding the bow in my hands with an arrow in the relaxed stance with the quiver just beside my feet. I focused on the wind's direction while taking my elevation as well as the stag's eventual reaction into account.


After making sure that I took everything into account, I calmly stared at the grazing stag for two seconds before I smoothly raised my bow and shot him in a single motion. Without waiting for my arrow, I immediately strung another arrow, and adjusting the bow a little I shot again before I followed the routine and shot once again.


The first arrow flew through the air swiftly, the stag immediately looked up to run away but it was a little slow as the arrow pierced straight through its neck which made it jump and immediately start to run away when the second arrow which seemed to have eyes of its own penetrated through its hind legs.


It immediately fell and slid through the ground when the third arrow passed through the eyes of the whimpering stag, like a nail in the coffin, and put the mighty beast out of its misery.


///


To read ahead go to: patreon.com/lazywizard

 

After taking a look around and making sure that there were no other beasts around, I quickly climbed down and approached the dead stag. I closed my eyes and thanked the old gods in a whisper, before crouching and taking my knife out to field dress the prey, which meant that I cut it open and removed its guts and all other inedible parts inside.


After tying its legs with a small, I tried to carry it on my back but was unbalanced and fell down due to the stag being too heavy. Old mark silently appeared behind me and helped me carry the heavy beast on his back before he started walking toward the hut.


"You did a good job!" My teacher said with his back to me, "I am proud of you,"


A proud grin appeared on my face, Old mark was not a very emotional individual so he hardly gave praises which made the ones he gave all the more precious.


We made sure to be extra careful on the way back because of a couple of incidents that happened with us when predators like wolves or bears ambushed while walking back from a successful hunt with prey on their backs. The only thing to do in those sticky situations was to leave the game behind and climb a tree and pepper the predator with arrows hoping that it would go away.


It is said that most of the hunter's death happens while they are walking back toward their home with their prey. Fortunately, we arrived back safely without any hassle, but instead of going toward the lodge, we went straight to the merchant in town.


The merchant, who also happened to be Becca's father and Old mark's son-in-law, gave a huge smile when he looked at the size of the prey. The stag I had hunted was very large compared to Old Mark's usual prey, so its hide and antlers could be sold to the nobles in the south for them to brag.


He happily gave me 15 stags for the beast, which I tried to share with Old Mark, but he denied it with a wave. I wanted to thank my teacher in some way so I went back and had the butcher who worked for the merchant, cut me the tenderest and juiciest meat out.


I divided the meat into two portions, before giving half of it to old mark who didn't deny it this time. I said my farewell to Old Mark for the day and went toward Winterfell with a smile on my face while carrying back the meat from my first successful hunt.


Arriving at Winterfell I went straight toward the kitchen to give them the meat for them to prepare for dinner that night. There I found from a friendly maid that the whole Stark family was in the courtyard beside the stables.


All the way toward the stables, I felt like I had forgotten something important, but no matter how I thought about it I couldn't remember it.


It was only when I reached there and watched as Robb rode on his young horse, that I remembered that there was supposed to be a horse riding lesson today. I immediately ran toward the stable where my brand-new companion was.


"You're late," Lord Stark said from where he sat along with Sansa and Arya.


"Sorry," I shouted back before going toward pegasus, who had gotten a lot bigger since I had first seen him. While he was not big enough to carry a full-grown man, he could easily handle my weight.


Pegasus immediately stood up when he saw me coming and neighed at me in greeting. I started patting him as I said hello to him, before taking him out of there and toward where Robb's horse was being led around by the stable master.


I went toward the stable master's son standing on the edge of the courtyard who helped me mount pegasus before he started to run beside me as I rode pegasus toward Robb.


"Jon! You finally came," Robb shouted enthusiastically.


"Yeah, sorry I forgot,"


We rode our horses like that for a while before Robb pleaded with Father to let us ride unassisted as we were ready for it and I agreed with him.


After consulting with the stable master, Lord Stark allowed both of us to ride our respective horses without anyone holding the reins from the side.


At first, we started slow, just running slow circles in the courtyard, but before long Robb started to increase his speed gradually, which made me ride faster to keep up with him.


One thing led to another and ultimately we started a race on our horses with both of us neck to neck. I was a bit surprised by how good of a rider Robb was, while I had the advantage of being a warg and pegasus almost understanding my thoughts instinctually, he didn't have that but he still kept up with me.


There was no winner of the race as Lord Stark ultimately called us to a stop when we started going too fast, but both of us had wide grins on our faces so we didn't mind too much.


We dismounted and after placing our horses back into the stable before going toward where Eddard with Arya in his hands and Sansa standing beside him.


"You both were very good out there," Eddard said with a small smile.


"Yes, Jon! Robb!," Sansa chirped while jumping, "You were so awesome,"


Both of us exchanged a proud grin with each other at that before the littlest stark decided to share her opinion.


"Want Howsy!" Arya abruptly said.


"No, Arya," Eddard calmly said, "You are a little too young. Maybe when you are a bit older,"


"No! Want Howsy Now!" she said and when she didn't get her to wish she immediately started throwing a tantrum.


All of us were at a loss about what to do, and after brainstorming for a while I had a brilliant idea. The idea I had was so simple but if it panned out, it would be an incredible one.


"I'll get you a horse, Arya," I said while approaching her.


"Really, you pwomise," Arya said while looking at me with her large wet eyes.


"Yes, but it would take a while to get your horse so how about while waiting for that you use big brother horse," I said doing the only thing a brother could in this situation, and immediately put Arya on my back before I started crawling on my hand and knees.


"Go Howsy! GO!" Arya shouted delightedly while grabbing onto my hair.


Sansa looked enviously toward them before she turned her big blue eyes toward Robb who immediately crossed his hands and said, "No way, you are too big for that," But Sansa's eyes started watering which broke Robb's resistance quickly, "Alright fine," Robb said while getting on his fours.


Eddard looked with a gentle smile on his face as he watched his four children laugh and have the time of his life, he closed his eyes and prayed to the old god to never take those smiles away.


///


patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead

 

"Alright, you can open your eyes now," Jon quietly said to his two students sitting cross-legged in front of him, who slowly opened their eyes, "Now Emily, focus on the wolf figurine in front of you and try to remember all the details that you missed or weren't able to visualize,"


Emily looked intently at the small toy from Jon's childhood for a while, before she started, "Umm... The color was a bit wrong a-and the length of the wolf was too long... and maybe the texture was a bit off..."


"Very good! That's way better than the Last time," Jon said and she gave him a huge smile at his praise, before he turned toward Becca, "And what about you Becca?"


"Ugh... the same thing happened again," Becca moaned while looking at the Shadowcat figurine in her hands with disappointment, "The Shadowcat I imagined just wouldn't stay still and didn't want to stay in one place at all, it kept on running around and then an unending green field appeared out of nowhere and t-then a rabbit appeared and it turned into a hunt from there..." Becca trailed off, wondering if she was too stupid for the technique no matter how hard she tried.


"No, it's alright," Jon said patting her head after seeing Becca get sad, "I think we are going at it the wrong way. You don't need to have the exact same results as Emily. It's fine as long as you're improving,"


A couple of months had passed since Jon had discovered that his students had a talent for the art of Warging. And while they were both very young, they were a lot more mature than kids their own age and he had come to trust them a lot over the past few years.


So a few days after taking everything into consideration he had told them that he was a warg and explained what warging was and had even done a live demonstration with Frost at his side.


They had both been a little surprised at first when his eyes turned completely white, but after they overcame their shock, they started to accept that Jon was actually telling them the truth and he really was like one of those Legendary Wargs from their childhood stories.


He had then offered them a chance to become a warg like him and promised them that he would make sure to teach them to the best of his abilities.


Becca didn't even let him finish his proposal and immediately started jumping around with happiness while giving him her consent, as the prospect of having this kind of magical ability was too exciting for her to let go.


And while Emily was a little bit scared initially at the idea of her soul leaving her body and going into the body of an animal, she said that she trusted him and that she would also like to experience the feeling of being able to fly above the clouds, like he had described while he was explaining warging to them.


And so for the past few months, after their usual classes had been completed, he started teaching them the skills he had used to get started. The first thing he had them try was the simplest of his techniques, just doing complicated calculations in their head.


Jon had found in his experience that using this technique regularly was very useful in making his consciousness a lot more flexible and made it easier for him to process a lot of the information he gets when he is warging.


Emily had thrived while using this technique, and while she was already very smart, the speed at which she had improved had left Jon a bit in awe of her. She had gotten so good at solving difficult problems in her head that Jon kept on having to find new stuff for her to practice.


But on the other hand, Becca had really struggled with that, as she already had a hard time cracking normal problems with the help of a slate and charcoal, so it wasn't really much of a surprise when she didn't excel at it.


When they had gotten a hang of this technique, he started teaching them his second technique, Image Training, which was also one of the techniques he had found very useful in laying down the foundation for future training.


Emily didn't excel as she usually did in this one as she had difficulty getting the whole picture and while she was really good at individually getting the textures and colors of things that she was supposed to visualize right, she had a lot of trouble focusing on all of the details of the object at once.


For example, she would be able to imagine the structure of the object close to perfect but it would comprise the color of the object, and vice versa if she started to focus on the color, the structure seemed to go away from her, so Jon had Emily mainly focus on getting her mind used to multitasking and focusing on more than one thing at once.


Becca, on the other hand, had a very active imagination, whenever he gave her an object to visualize it seems to come alive in her imagination and it was especially potent if the object represented a living being.


Like the Shadowcat this time, or the rabbit the last time, when he had told her to just focus on creating just the image in her head, and instead she had ended up unconsciously creating a complete scenario in her mind about the cute rabbit and its family, and how they escape the various traps placed around their home by the hunters.


And while at first, he had tried to make Becca try and focus on making the images in her mind motionless. Lately, he had started to understand that she wouldn't be able to learn like he and Emily did with still images, and instead needed a completely different approach.


While he mostly depended on their honest evaluation of their own faults and the various mistake they made in their execution of these techniques. By regularly using his Mind Sense on them, he had found another way of tracking their progress as they got better at Visualization and Mental Arithmetics.


They were still a little shy of being 11 years old, the age that is said to be safe to start practicing the techniques written in the Maester's Journal. So until that time, he would get them used to utilizing their minds as much as possible, which was sure to help them when they actually started.


"Alright, Now let's try that once again but this time—" Jon started saying but mid-sentence he suddenly felt an intense spike of emotions in his head that weren't his own. He felt a bit disoriented for a few moments before he understood where the anger and aggressiveness he was feeling were coming from.


He quickly ran toward his usual rock, before hurriedly sitting down while leaning against it and without telling his confused students anything closed his eyes. It didn't even take him a second to enter the zone, and the moment he did, he saw that the needle representing Frost was pulsing rapidly as if a flickering light.


///
patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead

Sirius Black SI —> My other fic

 

He quickly ran toward his usual rock, before hurriedly sitting down while leaning against it and without telling his confused students anything closed his eyes. It didn't even take him a second to enter the zone, and the moment he did, he saw that the needle representing Frost was pulsing rapidly as if a flickering light.



Without wasting a single moment, he went toward the needle and entered the tunnel, before he felt the usual freefalling experience associated with warging. A moment later, his sight and almost all of his other senses got enhanced as he suddenly started seeing through the eyes of his companion.



The first thing he noticed after entering frost was that he was above a massive green forest that seemed to stretch forever, with a few mountains dotted here and there, and he was just beside a massive cliff with his point of view going up and down as he felt Frost flapping her wings intensely while occasionally screeching angrily from time to time.



It was the first time he had ever felt Frost get this angry at someone, as she was usually a very mild-mannered eagle, but this time something seemed to have ticked her off completely, as her anger seemed to increase with every screech.



And if he hadn't gotten so good at isolating his own thoughts from those of Frost's courtesy of his daily mediation training, then he would have been a lot more affected by Frost. And after reading about some of those horror stories in those ancient texts written in Old Tongue about wargs becoming a lot more animalistic as time passed, he was very thankful that he religiously practiced his techniques every day and didn't slack off.



The reason for Frost's ire wasn't very far away, as a snow eagle appeared in front of them fluttering her wings and trying to intimidate frost with screeches of her own. This eagle was a bit bigger than Frost and looked quite older than her too.



At first glance, both of them seemed to be of the same species just born with different colors but with a deeper look the differences become very noticeable. While the snow eagle was a little larger than Frost she had already hit her peak size whereas Frost was still very young and had a lot of room for growth.



And even though the snow eagle was trying to look as intimidating as possible, it was very easy to see by looking into her eyes and the way she darted around, that she was scared out of her wits and was just trying to look for a way to run away.



'Hey, Frost. What happened, why are you so worked up about this eagle,' Jon thought his questions to Frost using a telepathy-like technique.



Frost immediately started sending back her response using an amalgam of thoughts, emotions, and a few memory images. It took a couple of seconds for Jon to decipher her thoughts from all that but he understood the gist of the situation.



It turns out that the eagle was the same one from the last time, the one who had taken to occupying and stealing from Frost's nest while she was away until Frost had gotten tired of her and scared her away after leaving her heavily injured.



But while Frost had thought this shitty bird had learned her lesson and wouldn't dare to come back, it seems that the snow eagle seemed to think differently as not only did she have the gall to come back, she even tried to steal a rabbit from Frost's nest that she had just hunted.



It was too much for Frost to handle as while Frost may look gentle and cute most of the time, at her core, she was the ultimate predator of the sky. And the one thing most essential to a predator in a huge forest like Wolfswood is that they need to be able to defend their territory aggressively, or else they wouldn't be able to survive for long.



The snow eagle was already sporting a couple of injuries courtesy of Frost, so she didn't seem to have a very good chance of winning, and Frost's thoughts weren't merciful at all so It didn't look like she would be letting the snow eagle out of this one alive.



The shitty bird abruptly dived toward them and tried to peck at Frost with her beak but Frost easily dodged her, but the snow eagle was a lot older and a crafty one as she wasn't actually attacking Frost instead was counting on her dodging and after passing Frost she didn't look back and immediately used the opportunity to fly away.



Frost got even more furious and immediately followed after her, and while Frost might be a bit smaller and younger than the snow eagle, the one advantage she had due to being an Ice Eagle was that she was absurdly fast so it didn't take Frost long to catch up to her.



The second she reached her, Frost immediately swooped down and attacked the bird but the Snow eagle dodged at the last moment and once again widened the distance between them leaving Frost behind. Frost screeched and tried to attack her again and again with the same results occasionally leaving scratches.



The reason why Frost had still not taken the slower eagle down yet started to appear before Jon. As while the snow eagle was slower than Frost, her body was full of various scars proving that she must have been in a lot of battles making her a lot more experienced and cunning than the young and naive Frost.



'Alright! Calm Down, Frost. Follow my lead from now on,'





///

patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead



Sirius Black SI —> My other fic
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/sirius-black-si.1057737/#post-88795068

 

'Alright! Calm Down, Frost. Follow my lead from now on,'

Jon tried to soothe his companion while gently bringing her back from her apocalyptical rage at her incompetence in failing to catch the shitty bird. It took a few tries but after a while, Jon was able to calm her down.

Jon commanded Frost to slowly fly above the snow eagle without attacking and after a few moments of observing the older eagle's flight patterns, he told her to swoop down to the snow eagle right as if attacking her but without committing to the attack fully.

And it went as Jon had predicted as the second Frost leaned down the snow eagle dodged to left almost instantly, which meant that Jon's plan would work so he immediately started preparing for its execution.

Frost was still a bit weak at deceiving maneuvers, so Jon had to run her through these patterns a few more times before she understood how to feint properly. But after a while, she started to execute those flawlessly so Jon immediately went to the next part of his plan.

He slowly started using Frost's various flight attacks and swoops to slowly lead the snow eagle toward his desired location. And this one went smoothly, as while their opponent was old and experienced, she had never encountered these kinds of elaborate tactics so she didn't even suspect a trap.

After getting the snow eagle in a perfect spot, Jon sent the next command and Frost immediately feinted to right, and as predicted the snow eagle instantly dodged to the left, and in response, I had Frost abruptly change her direction to follow up after the shitty bird, and while the Snow eagle was quite surprised she was still able to dodge the attack by a hair's breadth.

But before the older eagle could feel relief, her wings suddenly got clipped at the edge of the cliff that appeared out of nowhere as she was distracted by Frost's attack, and as if waiting for that exact moment Frost immediately swooped on the faltering snow eagle.

Frost used her claws and beak viciously in a series of attacks on the Snow eagle's back making her screech madly in pain and beat her wings rapidly in a bid to run away. But Frost had tasted victory after a lot of frustration so she wasn't letting her escape, and while the snow eagle tried to retaliate a few times, the advantage of agility was in Frost's court now due to shortened distance so none of her attacks worked.

Jon didn't participate in the hunt after that as he just focused completely on isolating his thoughts and emotion, which started to get harder as Frost gave in to her predatory instincts completely.

The flight left the Snow eagle a few seconds later, as she went spiraling down to a small bump on the cliff they were fighting beside.

*Thump*

The fallen eagle's chest heaved and her wings shuddered a few more times before the fight left her eyes completely, and she lay still.

*Screech**Screech**Screech*

Frost immediately started crowing in victory as she circled above her fallen nemesis in ecstasy and asserted her dominance as the apex predator of the sky in that Forest.

'Well done, Frost. I am proud of you,'

After she had been completely satisfied she started to fly away while leaving her fallen foe to nature, and it was at that moment Jon suddenly noticed something that Frost had missed.

'Wait, Frost! go back, Look over there,'

Frost tilted her in confusion, but still complied with her two-legged companion and flew back. She landed on a similar bump a few meters away from where the Shitty bird had fallen. Laying there just in the shadow of the natural roof made by the cliff was a small nest.

'It must have belonged to the Snow eagle,'

The nest hadn't been the thing that had captured Jon's attention, instead, his full focus was on the baby chick curiously looking at them from her nest. And the second Jon had laid eyes on the baby eagle, he immediately knew what to do with the chick.

'Hey, Frost do me a favor and bring her back with you,'

While Frost was a bit confused about the use of the progeny of her dead nemesis who wasn't even big enough to fly, she still pecked her head in her assent, and immediately flew to the nest and seized the squealing chick in her claws.

'Gently, Frost,'

Jon stayed with Frost for quite a while on the way back, making sure that Frost didn't lose her or hurt the chick with her sharp claws. After they were more than halfway back and he was sure that the chick was safe in Frost's claws, Jon exited Frost's body smoothly.

And the moment he was back in his own body, Jon was greeted with the sight of Emily's blue eyes inches away from his face while his other student Becca was squatting just in front of him while poking his cheeks with a wicked smile on her face.

"What are you doing?" Jon asked calmly.

"Ah!" Emily immediately jerked back startled and fell down her backside with a thump, while Becca poked his cheeks a few more times before reluctantly taking her finger away calmly.

"Emily was just fascinated with how your pupil suddenly disappeared..." Becca said immediately placing the blame on her cousin.

"W-What!" Emily stuttered from her shock, "But you were the one who started it—"

"Anyway," Becca said airily waving her hand, "Where did you suddenly go without warning us? We were quite scared you know," She asked using exaggerated hand gestures.

"I am sure you were," Jon said skeptically, "But the matter of why I suddenly warged into Frost would be explained in a few moments when she gets here,"

Jon looked toward the sky and a few minutes later he found Frost flying toward them without much difficulty even though she was indistinguishable from the blue sky. When Frost had approached close enough, Jon opened his hands and she immediately swooped down gracefully while deposition the parcel in her claws into his hands gently.

"What's that in your hands?" Becca curiously asked as she and Emily came up behind Jon, and he immediately opened his hands showing them the prize.

"Aww..." Emily squealed while jumping in her place, "She is so cute,"

"Really," Becca said while looking skeptically at the feathered baby chick, "I think she is a bit ugly— not pretty like frost at all," Becca pointed at the majestic blue eagle sitting on the rock beside them and Frost immediately crowned proudly at the compliment,

"Don't call her ugly! You don't know anything, baby chicks are supposed to be like that when they are young—" Emily immediately countered before she turned back to Jon, "Is she your new pet, Mr. Jon,"

"No, she isn't for me. I was hoping one of you might like her," Jon said before he whispered conspiringly, "Besides I don't think Frost will be agreeable to sharing,"

"Really!" Emily squealed and jumped before she turned to her cousin and fully used the effect of her huge blue eyes on her cousin, "Can I please keep her Becca? Please! Please! Please!"

"Fine! Fine, you can keep her. Stop pulling my hand now, before they fall off," Becca said and Emily immediately hugged her with a huge smile on her face before she turned back and slowly took the baby chick from Jon.

"Well, that clears up my dilemma of who would be the first one to get a companion," Jon said before he looked at his side at Becca who looked at her happy cousin with envy," Don't worry! We'll find a companion for you soon enough," Jon patted Becca gently who immediately perked up.

"You promise!"

"Yes, I do," Jon told Becca before he continued sternly, "But that is only if you work hard at the techniques I teach you,"

"I'll try my best" Becca said completely pumped up about her future pet.

///
patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead
Sirius Black SI —> My other fic

 

Jon passed through the gates of the Winterfell castle in the early noon after he had completed his daily training in the yard. Today had been an especially brutal day for Jon, as he was already tired because he had been training with his bow till late yesterday with Old Mark, and early in the morning Ser Rodrik made him spar with different older opponents with a sword for an hour, and then the same with a spear.


And while he had been the one to ask for training in both sword and spear, and in his mind, he didn't regret it even once, his sore body disagreed with that vehemently.


Jon greeted the guard before entering the town outside the castle, he moved through the streets and went deeper into the part of the town where most of the craftsmen lived.


Ever since he had been stuck with that brilliant idea when his little sister Arya had asked for a horse of her own, he hadn't been able to sleep due to excitement because if this stuff actually worked out he would have a way of making a huge amount of gold that didn't require him to stir up the pot too much.


So the very next day he started his search for a blacksmith in Wintertown to work on his project, which lasted a lot longer than he expected.


Initially, none of the blacksmiths took him seriously due to his small stature, and while they decided he was legit after he told them he was Lord Stark's bastard, they still shooed him away because they weren't happy with the pay he was giving them for the stuff he wanted them to do.


But in the end, he located a blacksmith who was only a part-time blacksmith but had worked on some stuff during the last war so was proficient enough for his need and he also happened to have a lot of free time on his hands because he wasn't in demand as much after the population of the town decreased after summer arrived.


He had agreed that he would work on his project as long as he wanted him to—provided he was paid his dues regularly.


And of course, the reason he had not gone to the Winterfell's resident Blacksmith Mikken was also quite similar as he was busy most of the time handling stuff for the guards and staff that worked in the castle.


Stuff like repairing broken equipment, adjusting old armor for the new recruits, or creating new ones, etc. So he wasn't able to dedicate as much time, and patience as his project required, as it needed a lot of research and tinkering in its initial phase.


And besides, he was keeping the project a secret from the rest of his family, which was also the reason he hadn't asked Lord Stark to fund it for him, as one of the first things Jon had been taught since he was young was, 'For every penny, we save during the summer, one more soul would survive in the north in winter,'.


And Jon didn't want to ask for Eddard's help in what he would definitely consider a child's whim, without being sure that this would work out in the end.


So this whole project was being funded by Jon, with the initial funds coming from his saving over the years. And he had started making quite a Lump Sum from his hunting activities, partly because he was getting better at it but mostly... because he had frost's help—locating the largest and most profitable prey.


Jon reached the home-cum-workshop of the blacksmith named Bryan, who had been able to look past his childish face, and decide that it didn't matter to him how young his employer was, or how weird the thing he was asked to make was, as long he got paid.


"Hey, Bryan!" Jon shouted from outside the wooden door, "Are you in there?" Jon knew that it was a stupid question as he could see the smoke coming out of the chimney, and as Bryan lived alone, it was quite obvious he was inside, but he asked for the sake of it anyway.


Jon heard footsteps coming from inside after a few moments before the door opened with a bang, "You came at the right time," Bryan said the moment he saw Jon and immediately beckoned him inside his home with an excited look on his face.


"Did you finally make it work?" Jon asked delightedly while following after the blacksmith who was taking two steps at a time in his excitement.


"Yes, I was eventually able to make a model that actually works," Bryan said while rushing toward his workshop, "You know after the tenth time you rejected it and told me to remake it. I had actually thought that it would never work, but it turns out you were right about it all along..." he trailed off and opened the door before stepping aside and showing Jon the thing he had made.


"I-It's perfect," Jon said with a wide grin before moving toward the first successful prototype, and after running his hands along the smooth creation before him he turned back toward the Blacksmith and asked him animatedly, "Did you try to use it,"


"No!No! No," Bryan said while shaking his head, "I don't think I have the flexibility required for me to use this thing, but I can guarantee that it would run smoothly,"


"I believe you," Jon replied with a bright smile, "So how much time would it take for you to create a similar-sized one, one medium-sized, and the last a tiny version of this,"


"Umm..." Bryan thought for a moment, "Considering I could most probably use the leftover materials from the previously failed products... and the smallest one was very easy to make so I already made it... it should not take me more than a week," he finished with confidence.


"Alright then," Jon took one last look at the thing before moving toward the exit, "I will come back a week later for all of them, and will bring the rest of your payment along with me so make sure to complete it on time,"


"I will definitely try my best," Bryan seriously said before a grin appeared on his face, "And don't worry about the payment, I know where you so live so there's no need for me to worry about you running away... Ha Ha,"


Jon laughed along with the blacksmith's unfunny joke as he opened the door, but stopped abruptly as he was on the doorstep because he suddenly came under a large shadow and when he looked up he saw the face of a young teen plastered on a body that wouldn't look out of place among the tallest guards of Winterfell.


"Oh... it's you again," Bryan said in an unfriendly tone when he recognized the man blocking the exit, "I already told you I don't have any work for you. Why do you keep on coming back?"


"Pease just give me one chance," the man in front of Jon begged in a surprisingly young voice, "I would be willing to even work for free— just give me a place to stay and some food and I would work very hard—"


"My answer won't change no matter how much you plead. I don't have an abundance of work as it is, and I would have to starve if I even started sharing that," Bryan briskly said before turning to Jon, "I will have your things ready by the week's end," Jon nodded and Bryan closed the door with a snap.


The large man looked at the closed door with disappointment and after sighing in defeat turned around to leave.


He was wearing clothes that had definitely seen better days and seemed to be carrying all his possessions in the sack on his back, and also carried a heavy hammer on his waist. He also looked as if he hadn't been eating well and his body looked thin and dirty as if he didn't hadn't had a proper meal and rest for quite a while.


"Hey, wait up!" Jon shouted toward the man, who immediately stopped and turned around and found Jon coming up toward him.


"Huh... Do you mean me!" the man asked in confusion while pointing a finger toward his face.


"Of Course, Who else is here on this empty street," Jon said while coming to stop in front of him before he narrowed his eyes and looked intently at the person in front of him for a while before his eyes suddenly gained a triumphant gleam and a small grin appeared on his face.


"I guess..." the teen-man said after looking around and finding no one else, "So do you want something from me,"


"I saw what happened back there," Jon said while pointing behind at the Blacksmith's home, "So I was curious. I haven't seen you around here before, Are you a Blacksmith from out of town?"


"Yes, I am... Um... I mean—I will be, I guess," the teen-man stuttered for a while before he sighed and continued sadly, "An Old Blacksmith in my village taught me some things during the last winter but he wasn't able to teach me everything because... the winter took him away,"


"That would make you a novice blacksmith," Jon said while massaging his neck that had started to hurt from looking at an awkward 70° angle, so he took the teen-man toward a tree stump nearby and made him sit so that they could talk on the same level, "That's better... Now, are you looking for some work, or were you hoping for someone who can take you as an apprentice,"


"I am trying to find some work, but haven't had any luck so far..." the teen-man said with a bitter smile, "And do I look like someone who's got enough money to pay someone for an apprenticeship,"


"Hmm..." Jon stood there for a while with his hand under his chin, his mind churning a mile per second trying to rapidly work on whether the idea that appeared inside his head was feasible.


"Umm...Why are you asking me so many things, anyway," the person in front of Jon hesitated for a moment before saying, "Do you know of someone who would have a job for me?"


"Maybe, I do," Jon said with a small smile before asking, "But first tell me, how old are you?"


"Hmm... 12 or maybe...13 I think," he replied unsurely.


"Brilliant!" Jon cheerfully said before he stopped and looked at the teen up and down with some skepticism, "You look so young but you are already traveling? And, Where did you say your village was, again?"


"I am from a village close to the Last Hearth, A-And..."


'So he hails from the land of Umbers, his absurd height completely makes sense now,' Jon thought before nodding encouragingly, "And..."


"Well... I was a fourth son of a farmer and though I learned under a blacksmith when summer arrived my father wanted me to become a farmer just like the rest of my family but I liked being a Blacksmith, so..."


"Go on..."


"But becoming a blacksmith wasn't as lucrative if there wasn't a war around the corner... and nobody wanted to pay a half-learned boy to make even the simplest stuff, and my pa didn't have money for me to complete my training. So one day I heard from an elder that wintertown was thriving and that it would be very easy to find work here..."


"So you ran away from home and arrived here..." Jon completed.


"Um yeah..." the boy agreed while rubbing his head with a silly smile before he suddenly lost his smile and said with a defeated sigh, "But it looks like the elder was wrong... because I wasn't able to find work, even though I have been here for more than two weeks,"


"How about you come with me, then," Jon said with a pure smile while extending his hand, "I'll make sure that you can get the apprenticeship you wanted and you can even get a place to stay,"


"Really..." he said in elation while taking Jon's hand before he suddenly realized something and asked, "Aren't you a bit... Um... young,"


"Don't Worry about that, I just don't look my age," Jon said waving his hands and he wasn't lying as he definitely looked a lot taller than children his age.


There were two reasons Jon decided to help this "boy"... Number 1 he had very good potential and could become a warg in the future if he was trained properly. And of course, Number 2 was it never hurt to have a blacksmith friend in a medieval world.


Ever since Jon got skilled enough at using Mind Sense, he had taken to using the skill very liberally on every person he came across inside Winterfell and in Wintertown too. And most of the time the people he came across were already past their prime age with their minds already being set and not having enough fluidity for them to improve with practice.


So the second he felt this boy's mind he was astonished to find that he had the fluid consciousness of a young one inside the body of a full-grown man, so the moment he asked his age his confusion got cleared.


"I am Jon by the way, What's your name..."


"Oh I am Tom but everyone in my family called me LittleTom..." LittleTom said sheepily.


"Um... Sure," Jon said while looking up at the "Little" tom before he put his hand on the shoulder which he could barely reach, and continued, "Well, then—tell me LittleTom, have you ever been to a castle..."


....


Eddard Stark P.O.V


"—The armors have almost all been repaired while all the unworkable ones have all been melted for reuse, if we go at this steady rate then by the time the week is over we should have all the weapons repaired too," Ser Rodrik said.


Eddard nodded as he listened to his most trusted knight gave him the report while they were leaving the armory of Winterfell, "That is very good. And how about the arrows?"


"They are being made at a steady rate, so we should have enough stock ready in a few weeks," Rodrik said before he asked hesitatingly, "May I ask you something, My Lord?"


"Sure. Go on," Eddard said after they came to stop in front of the smithy where his ears were suddenly assaulted with the constant sound of hammering and clanking while the smell of burning metal filled the air.


"Is there to be a war, My Lord..."


Eddard sighed while looking into the huge open warm smithy before speaking, "I am not sure. The coastal villages have been constantly reporting large tracts of forest being stolen... and almost every month a new letter arrives from the bear islands with the sightings of Ironborn ships so while I am not completely sure the Ironborn will come out into the open to launch a full-scale attack,


"The one thing I know for sure is if they keep on going like this we will have to call our banners to come to the aid of Mormonts sooner or later. And another thing I've learned over the years is it never hurts to be always prepared..."


They had only been standing there for a couple of minutes before Mikken the resident Blacksmith came running out of the smithy.


"Milord, Ser Rodrik," Mikken saluted while wiping sweat from his forehead, "What can I do for you?"


"Nothing, I was just here to check if the work was coming along well and if the stock is enough," Eddard asked.


"The work is being done at a steady rate and everything is going very smoothly," Mikken said merrily, satisfied with the sudden upsurge in his work, "And the stock of metal should still last us for quite a while,"


"Hmm..." Eddard looked into the smithy before suddenly asking, "How is that boy that Jon brought in last week? Is he any good?"


"Oh he is a hard worker My lord," Mikken said with a smile, "And he is one of the fastest learners I have taught. Of course, he knows half the stuff already, so that helps but still, I don't have to spend that much time teaching him as he picks up things really quickly,"


Eddard looked into the smithy for quite a while but still wasn't able to spot him, "Where is he? I don't see him inside, Is he not working today?"


"Oh yes, he was working till about two hours ago... when Jon came and took him away saying he needed him for something,"


Eddard wondered about where Jon had taken his newest friend when they suddenly heard a voice around the corner, "Have you seen my father," when Eddard turned around, he found his son Robb talking to a guard who immediately pointed toward them.


Robb's eyes lit up with relief and he thanked the guard before running straight toward them, "Father! I finally found you. I was looking for you everywhere. Come on! quick," Ron said excitedly while pulling his father's hand behind him.


"What seems to have happened, Robb," Eddard asked, indulgently letting Robb pull him along while waving at Ser Rodrik and Mikken behind him to let them go back to work, "Where are you taking me?


"You know "the thing" Jon's been talking about for ages and hiding from all of us saying that 'It's a secret,'" Robb said with a smile, "Well... he is finally going to show us, and the rest of them are already there waiting for us, so Come on!"


Eddard did know about "the thing" Robb was talking about, having been receiving reports about Jon's whereabouts in Wintertown regularly, he knew that his son was visiting a Blacksmith for a couple of months now.


Ever since Jon had started earning some money from his regular hunts, he had really started to shine as if he suddenly gained wings. And while Eddard had been a bit worried about Jon being so independent so young, he felt that ultimately it would be a useful thing in the end.


And while Eddard had been anxious about Jon learning to hunt from the Old hunter in Wintertown at the start, after having an in-depth talk with him, he had been assured by Jon's mentor that he will take every precaution and will always priorities his safety. So even though he was still a little stressed every time Jon was a little late, he started to get used to seeing Jon as more mature.


And the one thing Ned was immensely proud of was that Jon hadn't used his first income on himself, instead like a real Big brother he had spent it on his siblings, like the Far-eye he bought for Robb or the flute for Sansa after she had expressed her interest in music, and now whatever he was having the Blacksmith make for Arya.


They arrived at the courtyard while Eddard was reminiscing, the rest of his family was already gathered there, including Catelyn, which was a bit of a surprise for Ned.


"Cat," Eddard said while coming to a stop beside his wife and putting a hand on her back, "You came too,"


"Oh... that well—Arya didn't want to go without me so I came along to make sure that she didn't miss me," Catelyn said without meeting his eyes.


"Is that so," Ned said with a raised eyebrow and a little smile while looking at his youngest daughter who didn't seem like she was missing her mother at all, entertained as she was by Sansa and Jon.


"Yes, really," Catelyn said lightly blushing, "I am not here because I am curious or something about what he is going to show..." she finished unconvincingly and Eddard just nodded along with his wife.


Over the years, Jon and Catelyn had cultivated a strange bond that was completely bizarre for everyone else. When at the start Catelyn had been so cold toward Jon, Eddard had been a little worried, but instead of becoming self-conscious like a child his age, Jon seemed to have burrowed inside her heart using his cheerful personality and sheer stubbornness.


And while Catelyn had resisted his charms with all her might, she had fallen for his mischievousness before long and stopped looking at Jon negatively.


If Jon had responded to Catelyn's frostiness by sulking and losing his self-confidence, it would have never worked, so Eddard was glad that Jon was so mature and thick-skinned and had never been hurt or ashamed, because people thought of him as a bastard, instead, he seemed to have wholeheartedly accepted it.


"Jon! Horsey! Now Pwease!" Arya's pleas bought Ned out of his musing, and he looked toward Jon who had finally noticed that his audience was finally complete.


"Of course, Now that everyone is here," Jon said before he announced dramatically, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the product unveiling of the century—Everyone! Clap!" Jon said and all the kids started cheerfully clapping, and even Cat got carried away and clapped twice before stopping abruptly, probably hoping no one saw her.


"Now without further ado, Let me present to you the product," Jon said while theatrically waving his hands to the side, "It's a Horse made for the littlest Stark, it's called the—" he paused dramatically before announcing with a flair, "StarkHorse!"


Everyone waited with anticipation and Arya and Sansa even stood up in their excitement but even after a while had passed nothing seemed to happen, so all of them turned back to Jon, who started sweating while standing in that awkward pose.


"That's your clue, TOM!" Jon shouted while blushing after nothing happened for over a minute.


"Sorry! Sorry!" LittleTom apologized while carrying the product on his back which was covered in a white cloth.


"Nevermind, put it here," Jon said with a huff while pointing in front of himself, before turning back toward his audience, "Now where was I—Yes! I present to you, StarkHorse," he said pulling the cloth away.


The thing that appeared before everyone's eyes was a small contraption with three tiny wheels like the one everyone was used to seeing on carriages. There was a small wooden seat in the middle, with paddles on both sides pointing in the opposite direction connected to the front wheel, where the legs were supposed to be.


"Wow," Arya and Sansa said in awe while all three of Jon's siblings started clapping.


"Thank You! Thank You!" Jon bowed while drinking up the praises, "Now come Arya, let's get you on your first ride,"


Jon picked up his little sister from where she was sitting before placing her on the contraption he called StarkHorse, "Now you need to paddle with your legs to move it, Alright," Jon explained and Arya started pecking her little head excitedly like a bird.


"Alright then GO!" Jon pushed the Starkhorse slowly and Arya immediately started paddling using her legs while giggling in elation, "Look! Look! I am riding a horse,"


Jon only had to help Arya for a few minutes, and before long she was riding in circles in the courtyard without anyone's help all while squealing in delight. Jon looked at his little sister's happy face with satisfaction before he turned toward his other sibling, "Don't think I forgot about you two," Jon said teasingly before turning and shouting, "LittleTom!"


This time he appeared within a second while carrying two bigger StarkHorses in both his hands, before placing them in front of them. These ones were a little different, as instead of three tires there were, just two of them, "Now this one's going to need a little practice, so you first—Robb!"


"Yes!" Robb jumped in delight while Sansa pouted.


Robb immediately mounted his Starkhorse, with Jon holding his seat tightly before he started pushing it slowly, "Now Robb, slowly paddle with your legs,"


It took Robb quite a while to get the hang of it but eventually, he was also circling along the courtyard with Arya, both sporting wide grins on their faces.


"It's really something, Huh!" Eddard said in amazement and Catelyn nodded unconsciously while looking at Jon teaching Sansa who seemed to be having the most trouble as she was quite scared, but Jon was patient with her and eventually, she too started to get over her fear, and started laughing in surprise.


"Maybe I should ask Jon to have one of these StarkHorses made for me too," Eddard wondered, but before he could think on it any further, he saw from the periphery of his vision the Maester rushing towards him with a grim look on his face.


Eddard immediately turned toward the Maester who came to a stop in front of him, "What happened,"


Maester Luwing silently extended the letter in his hands in the lieu of an answer. Eddard opened the letter nervously, and the moment he read its content a dark look appeared on his face.


"What is it, My love," Catelyn asked, anxiously.


"Lannisport Burns! The Greyjoys have Rebelled"