The Warg Lord (ASOIAF)(SI)

[LazyWizard]

The princess sat idly on the chair in front of the vanity table in her room.


Her face was smushed between her palms, and her legs swung to and fro underneath the table as she stared at the rat, Gan, who seemed to be having the time of his life chewing through a big piece of cheese that Daenerys had ordered her maid to get.


"Is he here yet?" the girl asked.


The rat looked up, shook its tiny head and then went back to the cheese.


For Gan, the piece of dairy in front of him was far more important than answering the stupid human female who kept asking the same question again and again.


"When is he going to be here then?" Daenerys whined in a petulant tone, having grown tired of waiting. Though in fact it hadn't been longer than twenty minutes since their appointment time had passed.


Thankfully, at that exact moment, the aura of the rat completely changed, and its eyes suddenly gained a hint of extraordinary wisdom that it did not have before, even with its relatively high intelligence compared to other rats.


"I got a little busy because of a sudden meeting, Daenerys," The rat wrote with a hint of apology in its eyes, "I am sorry for the tardiness."


"N-No problem," Daenerys replied, hastily shaking her head.


The last Targaryen Princess still felt a bit unnatural talking to a rat, even though it had been more than a week since she had gotten acquainted with this strange relative of hers.


It had been explained to her quite a few times that it was not the rat that was doing the 'talking' here, but a boy named Jon Snow who was controlling the rat using... Magic.


She had, of course, been very skeptical at first, wondering if she was being duped here, but then the boy had reminded her that their ancestors used to regularly fly on dragons... so this little bit of magic was actually not strange, especially considering that there are real magics out there, among the likes of Ancient Warlocks, the Red God followers, and the others.


"So how was your day?" Jon asked as a conversation opener, like he did every day.


"It was fine," Daenerys answered with a smile, "I had lunch, had a short walk in the inner garden, and then came back into my room."


"So your brother is still not letting you out of the mansion, huh?" Jon asked with a hint of sympathy in his black, beady eyes.


"No..." Daenerys shook her head with a forced smile on her face, "But its fine, I have Gan here to keep me company," she said pointing towards the Rat that Jon had given to her as a part time pet, "Plus, I have you to talk to from time to time, so its not that bad,"


"If you say so," Jon replied before a serious look appeared on his face, "So did you read the book I sent you yesterday?"


"Oh, yes," the little girl exclaimed before she jumped up from her seat and ran towards her bed.


Kneeling on the floor, she grunted and raised her bedding with her right hand and then retrieved a thick book that had been deep inside with her left hand before she came running back to her seat, "I finished it," she said proudly while showing him the book.


"That is so fast, Daenerys. You really are a good reader," Jon praised without holding back, and the girl immediately blushed with a pleased smile on her face. "So? What did you think about it?"


"Oh, it was wonderful! I learned so many things. The names of so many of our ancestors and all the wonderful dragons they had, of how they were able to move across the continent on their whim, and how the people respected them..." The girl explained with wonder in her eyes as if she was wondering what it would have been like to live in such a place, but then, abruptly, a dreary look appeared in her eyes, "But then somehow...everything went wrong,"


"Oh..."


"It was all so heartbreaking and cruel," Daenerys said, her lips upturned in distress as she remembered the tragic tale she had read in the book that had been given such a... tame title, "They were all related to each other, brothers and sisters, uncle and nephews, but still they attacked each other so viciously... some were left maimed, some were torn apart in the sky, while others got burned and eaten by dragons, and the most cruel of all was when a mother was forced to choose between her two children," her eyes got a little wet as she remembered the tragedy that had befallen one of her ancestor, a woman who had been described as a peaceful mother, "And they did it all... so that one person could sit on an old iron chair,"


"It feels quite stupid, doesn't it?" Jon asked quietly.


"Yes," Daenerys answered with a sluggish nod, "Yes, it does. I just can't imagine why they, who had almost everything in the world at their fingertips, and were practically the most privileged people of their time, would go to such lengths for something so... useless."


"Their actions and decisions may seem a little unnatural and extreme, but you need to understand that these events had happened over the course of decades, and that many little things and events that influenced them may have just been left out by the Maesters, just because they were inconsequential to the realm. So we should not judge them just because of what is written in one book."


"I understand. It's just... I never assumed our ancestors were so..."


"Human?" Jon wrote with a hint of understanding in his beady eyes, "Because that is what they are... They may have had the might of dragons under their command, and they may have ruled the seven kingdoms for a few centuries, but no matter what anyone tells you, they were not gods.


They felt love, anger, greed, guilt and all the other emotions just like any other man or woman out there, and it is just because their decisions affect the whole realm that they seem so excessive in everything they do."


Daenerys remained silent for a few moments before she quietly asked, "Many people must have died during their conflicts, right?"


Jon thought for a few seconds before answering, "The Maesters say that the realm's population more than halved during that period, but there were other factors that contributed more to it, such as the spring sickness and the winter fever that hit Westeros shortly after the war, so it may have been an exaggeration. But yes, in the end, at least a hundred to two hundred thousand deaths have been attributed to that civil war,"


Even after knowing about the events, Daenerys was still absolutely shocked by the massive death toll.


"My brother... always made it seem," The girl mumbled to herself with unfocused eyes, "That the Targaryen family were the epitome of perfection, that the whole realm adored them, that seven kingdoms had prospered under our rule like never before, and that the realm wept when we were overthrown, that they secretly kept banner of our family to await our return..." she suddenly looked down at Jon with a wry smile on her face, "The smallfolks are not really waiting for the Targaryen family to take back the throne, are they?"


"Perhaps some are, who knows?" Jon wrote back with a shrug, "As far as I have witnessed, most smallfolks have short memories, and as long as they have food in their bellies they don't really care who sits on which ugly chair next,"


"Hm," The girl nodded quietly, before suddenly a bright smile appeared on her face. "So, what is the next book you are going to get me? Is it going to be one about the events after the Dance, or is it going to be a geography book? You know, similar to the one about all the wonders in Westeros, because I liked reading that..."


"You have already learnt about the history of the Seven Kingdoms, before and after Aegon's conquest, and now that you have also read about the Dance, I think it is time for us to move on to more recent history."


"R-Recent history, you say?" Daenerys gulped in a somewhat nervous voice.


She already had many of her previous misconceptions about her family destroyed by these books, so safe to say the girl was very frightened about what she would find out next.


"Yes. My friend shall deliver the book to your room sometime during the evening, and..." Here the rat hesitated for a moment, looking at the girl with something akin to pity, before his eyes firmed up, "I need you to promise me that whatever information you find in there... You will keep an open mind about it."


"I... Yes, I will,"


Jon nodded, gave her a friendly wave and then disappeared from Gan's body, hoping that the girl finds the inner strength to stand on her promise.


...


She didn't...


Red-eyes, puffy cheeks, angry nostrils, and dishevelled hair that indicated a night without sleep...


That was the condition in which Jon found Daenerys in, the next time he arrived in Gan's body.


"Hello, Daenerys, how are you—"


"Who wrote this book?!" The last Targaryen girl immediately asked while slamming the said book on the table in front of Jon, scaring the rat so much that he almost lost control of its body, which had never happened to Jon in all his career as a warg.


"Daenery, I—" Jon began to explain, but the girl was not having it that day, as she directly cleared off the ink before Jon was able to write more than a few words.


"Just tell me who?!"


"...Maester Garbald," Jon answered truthfully, not wanting to get on the girl's nerves more than necessary.


"A Maester?! One from that Citadel?" she angrily asked, tightly gripping the book as if wanting to tear it to pieces, "Why? Why would he write such lies? Who paid him to do it? Wait—was he working for the Usurpers?"


"No, Daenerys, listen to me, I—"


"No, I will not listen to you," she shouted in an enraged voice, before standing up so fast that she sent the chair flying... not that the girl cared about it at the moment, "Everything in this book is a damn lie!! Everything!" she screamed as she threw the book towards the wall.


Now, Jon was more than a little panicked, as there was almost a fifty percent chance that a maid had heard the commotion and was on her way here, so he knew he did not have much time if he wanted to keep his cover, "Daenerys! please calm down—" he tried to write as fast as he could but his claws just weren't fast enough for the furious girl.


"Why would you tell me such lies, Jon?" The girl asked in a dejected tone, "Are you working for the Usurper too?"


"No, of course not," Jon hastily wrote, cursing Gan's inability to speak, "You promised me Daenerys, that you would keep an open—"


"I do not care what I promised!" The girl replied furiously, "I will never believe these lies, that my father was a... that he ra..." her voice broke a little at the end, as big fat tears began dropping down her cheeks.


"Everyone knows this as the truth, Daenerys. Everyone!" Jon wrote quickly with a beeseching look in his eyes, "It was a well-known fact even before the rebellion."


Daenerys was silent for a few moments before she abruptly raised her eyes and asked in a soft voice, "Everyone knows you say,"


"Yes, but—"


"Then I need to speak to my brother," she calmly stated and immediately walked towards the door.


"Daenerys, no—Chi! Chi!!" Gan squeaked as loud as he could, but it was completely futile as the girl resolutely left the room.


'Ah, this is such a mess.'


Jon groaned while massaging his tiny head to alleviate the headache that he was experiencing, even in his warg mode.


He had known that her reaction would be an adverse one when she learned the truth about Aerys Targaryen, but he had still underestimated the sheer hysteria... and now he needed to deal with the fallout.


Thankfully, Jon had been prepared for such an eventuality and had Frost on standby in the sky, so it was not the worst-case scenario yet.


Barely a few seconds after Daenerys left in anger, Frost swooped into the room headfirst with her wings tucked closed to her side to fit through the window.


Her size was much too big to fly around the room, so she had to wobble on her two legs, but it still did not take her long to gather all the incriminating evidence that Jon had shared with Daenerys over the week.


Things such as maps, small trinkets, flowers from Westeros, and even a few pieces of jewellery belonging to her Mother that the siblings had been forced to sell during their hard time.


It was not actually very hard for Jon to gather information on the jewellery's whereabouts, and once he knew where they were placed... well, there were a few things in this world that he couldn't retrieve once he decided he wanted them.


Anyhow, at most a minute later, all the things had been laid on a long piece of cloth, including the book that had been roughly thrown against the wall, and, in its place, a completely mundane book was put upon the desk to serve as a substitute.


With Gan's help, Frost managed to turn the cloth into a portable bag that she could grab onto with her claws and then, with a final nod at the rat, she bolted out of the window, once again making sure that her wings did not hit the window.


All in all, the operation had been completed in under two minutes, and now Gan just needed to hide and wait for the inevitable shit show.


As he expected, some five minutes after Frost had left, the door to the room slammed open, and in came a very furious-looking Viserys, roughly pulling his sister behind him.


The girl was crying and had a clear red palm print on her face, indicating that Viserys had not been very gentle in showing his displeasure after his sister asked him her questions.


His eyes fiercely scanned the room before they stopped to settle on the book placed on the vanity table.


Having found his target, Viserys immediately went over to grab the book, "Is this one?!" he turned and asked with a sneer, and when his sister did not answer him immediately, he grabbed her arm as hard as he could and brutally shook her, "Tell me!! Is this the damn book?!"


"I—Yes!" Daenerys answered in a scared voice.


The girl just wanted it to be over, so she did not even bother to look at the book in her brother's hand.


Viserys looked at the title of the book in his hand, and for a moment, he got confused as he wondered why a book about the Geography of Westeros would have any mention of his father in it.


But he had no patience to read the whole book and find out the reason, so instead he just decided to deal with it in the best way that he could... by chucking it straight into the fireplace.


"No more books for you... ever." He ordered while turning back towards his sister, "Do you understand?"


"Yes," Daenerys nodded quietly, her eyes not raising from the floor.


"And if I hear you speak this way about our father, and spread those lies ever again, then..." he grabbed her hair and ruthlessly pulled them up, "Ah!!", forcing her to look at him, "You will not like what I have in store for you," he warned in a nasty tone, his eyes taking on a dangerous gleam that scared the girl more than she had ever been before.


Daenerys tearfully nodded her head, acknowledging his threat.


"Good," Viserys said, releasing her and backing away, but suddenly out of nowhere, he brutally slapped her with the back of his hand, sending the girl straight towards the floor.


Unfortunately, that little cry was the only reaction that Daenerys gave, leaving Viserys a little disappointed, as he had been hoping to teach the girl more of a lesson, but it seemed that the girl had finally learned her place.


Snorting at the pathetic visage of his sister, Viserys left the room without a backwards glance.


For a few seconds, Daenerys just sat there on the floor sniffling, deeply regretting her impulsiveness, but then she suddenly heard a very familiar squeaking voice.


Almost immediately, a look of immense relief appeared on her face as she looked up to catch the familiar figure of Gan the rat still standing on her desk. "You're still here," she cried as she hastily got up and ran to her vanity table.


"Are you fine?" The rat immediately wrote with a look of concern on its face.


It had been very hard for Jon to watch everything that had transpired and somehow suppress his urge to just have Frost rip that trash's head clean off.


Because he knew that no matter how hateful that shit was, it would still be very traumatic for Daenerys if her brother became a headless body right in front of her... but it had nonetheless been a very close thing, especially towards the end.


"I-I am fine," she answered with a forced smile while waving away his concern as if what had happened was not a big deal, "But... I am really sorry for reacting like that," she said in a small voice.


"No problem," Jon wrote while comforting her by patting his tiny claws on her fist, "We all have our moments now and then."


"Thank you," she said with a grateful smile on her face, very relieved that she was not being blamed even when she had acted so stupidly.


"I guess from your brother's reaction that you asked him about your father," Jon asked after Daenerys had calmed down a bit.


"Yes," The girl nodded her head, "But don't worry, I did not tell him anything about you or how you gave me the book. I just told him that I had found the book when I last went to the market."


"That was quite smart of you, Daenerys," Jon replied with a hint of relief in his eyes. He was quite happy that his cover had not been blown and that his plan could still go unhindered.


"It's just a shame about the book, though," she said remorsefully while looking towards the fireplace where the book had been reduced to half its original size in the midst of the fire. "It must have been quite expensive, right?"


"It was indeed priceless, but do not worry, I didn't buy it, I just 'borrowed' it from the Citadel for a while," Jon wrote with a shrug, not mentioning that those old rats were completely unaware of any such borrowings.


"That is... good, I guess," Daenerys replied with a confused expression, before she looked down and fell silent.


Jon knew that the girl probably wanted to avoid talking about it, but he also knew that they would have to do it sooner or later; as far as he knew, it was always better to rip off the bandage in one go.


"So, did your brother answer your questions?"


"No, he did not," The girl replied after a few seconds, "At least not truthfully,"


"What do you mean?"


"I... When I asked him if our father was a good man, he instantly answered with a yes." Daenerys answered in a low voice, "But when I asked him if our father loved our mother, his answer was not so immediate..."


"Oh..."


"Yes, he tried to hide it but I could see that he was uncomfortable with the question," Daenerys said with a depressed smile on her face, "Eventually, he said to me, that our mother was a good wife who did her duty by her husband, and our father in return protected her from all the enemies like a proper husband, and that is all one needs from a marriage,"


"But even though he did not say it, I knew what the real answer was from the look on his face," The girl said with quivering lips, trying hard to stop herself from crying, "If even my brother, who practically idolizes my father, was uncomfortable with it, then I knew that it must have been all true... that my father," she practically spat the word here, "was indeed abusing and r-raping my mother,"


Daenerys' eyes were blazing in fury as they had never before, and Jon had no idea what he should do here.


Should he comfort her, or should he get angry with her and disparage her father, or perhaps he should comfort her by saying that her mother was in a better place now?


But thankfully, Jon did not have to do anything in the end, as the girl took a deep breath and managed to calm down on her own.


"I had, of course, been very angry after that, so I blurted my next question without thinking." Daenerys continued while looking down at her hands, "I asked him if he remembered what Aerys was like during his last days, if Viserys remembered what he looked like, if he really became so paranoid that he stopped bathing, stopped cutting his nails in fear of assassins, and if he revelled in watching people get burned to their death, I asked him if he knew that our father was insane..." Daenerys finished in one go before turning back towards Jon.


"...you can imagine what happened next," she said, pointing towards the red prints on her face with a miserable smile, "I was quite stupid, wasn't I?"


"No, Daenerys, you were not stupid... You had every right to be angry, and you did what any child would have done if they found out that one of their parent was a..."


"Monster?" the girl supplied with a detached look in her eyes, "Anyway, he asked me where I learned all these 'lies' from, and I told him the lie about buying the book from the market... and, well, you already saw what happened next,"


They sat in silence for a few moments before Jon wrote once again, "You need to remember, Daenerys, that your Father was not like that from the beginning... I mean, he was never a good king or even a good person, but he was at least sane."


"But then, some bad things happened, and they completely broke him from the inside, they turned him into the man he was at the end, and I am not trying to absolve him of his faults here by telling you that.. I just want to caution you that we all, especially we of dragon blood, have a deep darkness inside of us, and it was only because of his weak will that he so easily succumbed to it, and let it take over his heart."


Daenerys looked thoughtful for a few seconds before quietly asking, "Is my brother walking on the same road as my father?"


"I...yes, perhaps," Jon tried to answer as truthfully as he could, "You could never be sure of these things, but I think that if he continues like he has, then eventually... yes, your brother, too, would become like your father."


The room fell silent after that, and for almost five minutes the girl did not say a single word.


She just stared at her reflection in the mirror with unseeing eyes, wondering if her mother's face had resembled hers after her father abused her.


"Don't worry, Daenerys, everything will be—"


"I want to take you up on your previous offer, Jon," The girl interrupted while looking at this strange relative of hers with a determined look in her eyes, "I want to leave the mansion."


There was a short moment of surprise where the rat just looked at her with its mouth wide open, but then a large grin appeared on its face as it hurriedly nodded, 'Yes, finally.'


///

You know where to go if you cannot wait to read ahead...

 

[LazyWizard]

"Are you sure that this is the place, Father?" Nymeria asked with an eyebrow raised in scepticism as she squinted to try and see through the darkness.


The time was just before dawn, with only a hint of light from the half moon shining down giving them just a hint of visibility otherwise, they would have been completely blind and would not even have made it to this spot.


"Yes. I am quite sure," Oberyn replied distractedly while untying the luggage from his horse.


He had been expressly told to travel light, so the only things the man had bought with him were his weapons, his other weapons, his poison kit, and two changes of clothes.


"But there is nothing here," Nymeria cried in a confused voice, "I look left, I see nothing but sand, I look right, the same. And there is nothing behind us for leagues and leagues. With the big wide ocean in the front, how is anyone even supposed to find us here?"


"Nymeria is right," Sarella commented while unloading her luggage with a thoughtful expression on her face, as if trying to solve a puzzle, "How did your contact even manage to give this location to you? There are no distinct landmarks around us..."


"He did not need to," Oberyn answered with a shrug as he went on to unload his daughter Nymeria's luggage, who was too busy scouting the surroundings to do it herself. Hers was almost twice as heavy as Oberyn's luggage had been, and this was after he had reprimanded her thrice about excess load, "My friend just told me to find the nearest isolated coast and head towards there. He is supposed to meet us here at the break of dawn."


"Is this friend of yours really trustworthy?" Nymeria asked in a doubtful tone, her hand unconsciously sheathing and unsheathing the dagger at her waist, "Are you sure you were not duped by a crook, I mean I know that—Wait!! What are you—"


But her shouts went ignored as Oberyn commanded, "Go!" while slapping his horse's backside making it loudly neigh and take off, with the other two startled beasts following it soon after.


"W-Why would you do that, Father?!" Nymeria asked in a dumbfounded voice, "That was our way back!! What are we going to do if no one shows up?" she whined, her voice sounding a little hysterical, "We would have to walk for days to reach the nearest village, and we did not even bring any food because you wanted us to travel light,"


"And?" Oberyn asked back with a raised eyebrow, unmoved by the panic on his daughter's face, "Were you two, not the ones who wanted to go on an adventure with your old man? So why are you so scared of just a few days of walking? How are you then going to cope with all the difficulties ahead? Are you really sure you are ready for this trip?"


"But—"


"Calm down, Nymeria," Sarella interjected after taking a deep breath, having calmed down from her shock of seeing their horses run away, "Father is right. We promised him that we would follow all his orders while we are with him, so if he says it is fine for us to lose our only mode of travelling in the middle of nowhere then... we just need to believe in him." she told Nymeria in a serious voice, making the girl look away with a pout at the sudden lecture, "That said, I don't think our father would have done it if he did not have some kind of assurance that we will be quickly found," she whispered to Nymeria with a smile, "Though for the life of me I can not figure out how," she mumbled to herself with a frustrated glance at her surroundings.


"Oh, do not be so sure, my dear daughter," Oberyn said with a smirk, "Maybe I just wanted to teach my girls a lesson and this is all just an elaborate hoax,"


"No, that is not it," Sarella replied with an confident smile on her face, "Not only would that be too complicated for you, but you are also lazier than Arriane when it comes to trivial matters, so lesson or not, there is no chance of you waking up so early if you were not sure about the time of our pick up."


"Hm, I feel like there is an insult somewhere in there," Oberyn mumbled with a frown on his face, "What do you think?" he asked while turning towards his other daughter.


"Ugh! Who knows?" Nyermia replied raising her hands in exasperation, before she unceremoniously sat down on the sand, "I don't understand half the things she says... so how long do we even have to wait?"


Oberyn rolled his eyes but replied nonetheless, "Like I said, he will arrive at the break of dawn, and—"


"Which if I am not wrong..." Sarella interrupted while pointing towards the horizon in the East, "is already upon us,"


And she was right, as just a few seconds after her pointing it out, the first rays of the sun shone upon the sand dunes of Dorne turning them a beautiful gold.


"So, the dawn is here... but there is still no sign of that ship of yours," Nymeria murmured while scouting the dark wide ocean with her eyes narrowed, trying to pick out a ship-sized shadow.


"Give it a few minutes," Oberyn said calmly, while placing his far-eye on his eye, "I am sure he will—Oh, there it is,"


"What? Where?!" Both of Oberyn's daughters exclaimed as they followed his line of sight, and sure enough, after a few seconds of searching, they were able to pick out the pebble-size shape of a dark ship that was steadily getting bigger as it approached the shore.


"They really managed to find our exact location, huh," Nymeria let out in an amazed voice.


"B-But how is this even possible?" Sarella asked in a disbelieving, "They shouldn't even have been able to see in the darkness. How did they even know that we would be here?"


"Oh, that's Jon for you," Oberyn said with a shrug as if that explained everything, "He does these kinds of things from time to time, so it would be good for your mental health if you do not try and figure him out, and just go with the flow... otherwise, you will be left pulling your hair out all night long, with no answers to show for,"


"You say that as if he is a witch or something like that," Sarella said with a snort but got stunned when her father did not deny her immediately.


"Who knows," Oberyn murmured with a nonchalant look on his face, "I don't,"


"Here they come," Nymeria interrupted in an eager voice as she stood up from the sand, "But, wait! Why are they stopping all the way there?"


That ship was still more than 15 knots away from the shore when it suddenly stopped approaching them and just floated there, bobbing in its place up and down.


"Considering the ship's size and the shallow water along the beach... it makes sense that they stopped there," Sarella said with a frown on her face, "But still... they don't expect us to swim all the way there, do they?"


"Of course not," Oberyn answered with a shake of his head, "Jon knows that we have our luggage with us so he would not make us swim to the ship, especially not in these currents."


"Then how are we supposed to cross the—"


"Aha, there comes our ride," Oberyn exclaimed with a smile on his face while pointing towards a small boat that suddenly came into view from around the ship.


"Finally," Nymeria said with a hint of excitement in her tone as she hurriedly bent down to pick up her luggage from the sand, "Let's go,"


"Wait!" Oberyn said with an absurd expression on his face, "Am I seeing things or is that boat completely empty?"


"What? Don't be absurd." Sarella scoffed while snatching the far-eye from her father's hand, "How can a boat move without anyone to row..." the girl trailed off and her jaw dropped down when she realised that her father was right, there indeed was no one on the boat, "How is this even possible?" she whispered dumbfoundedly.


"There is always something new to see with that lad," Oberyn muttered while shaking his head with a wry smile on his face.


"Huh? Maybe they just pushed it a little from behind and the flow is carrying it the rest of the way towards us," Nymeria suggested with an uncaring shrug.


"Not only is that completely unreliable, but the flow is very erratic and would have carried it away from the shore, not towards us," Sarella immediately replied without looking away from the boat.


"Then perhaps they used a rope,"


"How in seven hells would that even work?" Sarella asked with an exasperated look on her face.


"How the hell would I know," Nymeria replied with a roll of her eyes, "And who cares how it arrives here, anyway. What matters, is that it is here," she said as she bent down and picked up her luggage before walking towards the boat that was now only a few seconds away from the shore, "So you need to stop all this useless thinking and just get on the bloody boat."


"Easy for you to say, when—AH!! What the Fuck!!" Sarella abruptly screamed, lurching backwards as she tripped over her own feet and fell down while looking at the boat with her eyes widened in terror.


"What?! What happened?" Oberyn and Nymeria hurriedly asked while vigilantly scouring their surroundings with their hand on their weapons.


"A-A Monster!" Sarella replied while pointing a shaky finger towards the water under the boat where she had, just for a moment, seen the scariest shadowy tentacle that was large enough to crush all three of them in its grip, "T-There! Under the boat! I-I saw something there!"


"That's all?!" Nymeria asked with an irked look on her face, as all the tension left her body, "Here I thought we were getting attacked or something, and instead, you were just getting scared of a bloody fish," she said in annoyance while standing up, "Did reading all those books at the citadel fry your brains or something?"


"But—" Sarella stammered while trying to calm down her breathing, wondering if she had really been overreacting, 'Fish can't get that big can they?"


Unlike his daughter, who had immediately dismissed her sister's claim as a trick of the eye, Obeyrn was looking towards the sea with a serious frown on his face, wondering if this was a new trick that Jon had learned during the short time that they had separated, 'I would not put it past that boy,'


"Come on now," Nymeria shouted as she went through the shallow water to grab the boat. After placing her luggage inside, Nymeria jumped into the boat and turned towards the other two before impatiently waving at them, "Hurry up, or else that Jon fellow would think that we are getting cold feet and do not want to go with them."


"Are you fine?" Oberyn asked as he took Sarella's hand and pulled her up.


"I-Yes," Sarella nodded before taking a deep breath as a forced smile appeared on her face, "Nymeria is right, it must have been just a big fish,"


"If you say so," Oberyn said with a searching gaze before he whispered with a smile, "Good, let us move to the boat then, otherwise your sister may just leave us here in her excitement,"


"I would not put that past her," Sarella snorted wryly as they went and took their seats on the small boat that had just enough space for the three of them to sit comfortably along with their luggage.


Oberyn and Nymeria took over rowing from both ends while Sarella sat in the middle and held onto the luggage so that it didn't fall off.


The ocean waves were thankfully calm, so it did not take them too long to reach the big sleek ship, where the helpful sailors had already lowered a rope for them.


After tying the heaviest luggage on his back, Oberyn became the first one to grab the rope and climb up.


It was a bit strenuous for him to pull his whole body along with the bag with just his arms, what with the side of the ship being slippery and wet under his feet.


But his dedicated training in the recent weeks had paid off, so with his strength and stamina at their peak, he at least did not falter and embarrass himself in front of his daughters.


The moment Oberyn went over the hull of the ship, the first person that came in front of him was the familiar figure of his favourite Northerner which immediately brought a smile to his face.


"Jon, my friend, it is so good to see you again," he greeted with his arms wide open for a hug, but unlike the cheerfulness he sported, his friend's face was completely blank with not a hint of amusement at seeing him, "Er, Jon?" Oberyn asked confusedly as he was left standing there awkwardly, in front of all the sailors, with his hands in the air.


"You brought your daughters with you," Jon stated with a raised eyebrow that betrayed the irritation he felt at the moment.


"Ah, that," Oberyn said while scratching his head with an uneasy smile, "You see there were... some unusual circumstances— that were completely out of my hand— due to which, ahem, I was forced to bring them here," he explained in a low voice so that the nearby sailors who looking curiously at them did not hear, "But do not worry Jon, they are good warriors with specialised skills, so they will not be a burden to us, I assure you."


Jon looked at him with narrowed eyes before he sighed, "We are going to kill one of the most dangerous men in Westeros and you thought bringing your 'brats' along was a good idea,"


"Like I said, I had no choice in—"


"Who the hell are you calling a brat?!" a voice loudly interrupted them, as a long pair of legs agilely landed on the deck.


Jon had only bought his most trusted Northern sailors on this trip, who had been with him from the very beginning, so he had not bothered lowering his voice, which had the unfortunate effect of irking the beautiful and deadly Nymeria Sand.


After a quick glance at the sailors on board the ship, who all looked very strong and skilled in her eyes, Nymeria turned towards the one who had so derisively called her and her sisters 'brats.


The moment she did, the sand snake was immediately taken aback by how young (ironically) and handsome the man was.


He was almost as tall as her father and had the tight wiry muscles that only years of daily training in the yard produced. He was carrying a sword on his hip and had a big sturdy bow at his side, and carried himself with the air of a warrior who was very confident in himself.


But no matter how tall or strong he looked, his face gave away the fact that he was nothing more than a teen.


"Jon, meet my beautiful daughter, Nymeria," Oberyn introduced with a smile, relieved to be able to move on from the topic, "And Nymeria, this Jon Snow, the Captain of the ship, the one I told you about—"


"Wait!! Him?!" Nymeria exclaimed with an absurd look on her face, "He is the captain of this ship? This Child?!" she asked with an exaggerated look of shock on her face to which Oberyn nodded with an amused smile while Jon rolled his eyes at the obvious revenge the pretty dornish girl was taking against him.


"Can you even tie a rope, little boy?" she asked with a snort as she slowly sauntered closer to Jon.


"Nymeria, please—"


"How about the fancy sword on your waist? Do you know how to swing it, 'Captain Jon,'" she talked over her father while looking disdainfully at Jon, which looked a little comical considering that she was almost a head smaller than him, "Or is it just a show piece?"


"I am average," Jon replied dryly, trying hard not to let it show how entertained he was at this little show of dominance.


"Then how about we go for a round or two to get acquainted with each other?" she taunted while looking at him with big innocent eyes, but her fingers gripping her dagger gave her eagerness away, "You would not be scared of a weak little girl, would you?"


"Nymeria, back down!" an exasperated voice suddenly interjected before Jon could give an answer to the sudden offer.


Sarella was quite irritated to find, when she finally reached the top after a long excruciating climb, that her stupid sister was threatening the very Captain of this ship that they were on, with dozen of his men surrounding them.


"I am sorry for my sister's conduct—" Sarella began apologetically but the moment she put her luggage down and finally caught sight of Jon's face, her words died in her throat as her eyes bulged in shock.


"You!! What the hell are you doing here?!!" the girl shouted in shock as she recognised the so-called Captain Jon as the same boy who had once held her hostage so many months ago at the Citadel.


'This is going to be a nightmare,' Jon thought with a tired sigh, knowing that his mission just turned a whole lot more troublesome.


///

 

[LazyWizard]

"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*

 

[LazyWizard]

"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."


///