The Warg Lord (ASOIAF)(SI)

[ATP]

They're both going to end this adventure barefoot and pregnant, aren't they?

Click to shrink...

Why barefoot? and Jon probably choose only one,if he decide to do so.Which is unlikely.
That aside - he need to beat Nymeria to show her who is topdog.And outsmart Sarella,so she would bow to his wisdom.Easy things for our hero!

 

[oscar e Sampedro Lopez]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Psyckosama]

Why barefoot? and Jon probably choose only one,if he decide to do so.Which is unlikely.
That aside - he need to beat Nymeria to show her who is topdog.And outsmart Sarella,so she would bow to his wisdom.Easy things for our hero!

Click to shrink...

 

[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.



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

 

[oscar e Sampedro Lopez]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[ATP]

Thanks for chapter,and poor Jon.Now he must murder Gregor,get to King,and get to Essoss quickly enough to still welcome his family.