Chapter 6: -Chapitre 5-
-3 weeks later-
The first week passed quickly and for the first time I enjoyed the treatment a noble received from the population, I spent the whole week with a servant I would probably never see again but I lost my V-Card.
I still continued my training, because I knew it wasn't over, I still had a long way to go and knighthood was not the last rung, on the contrary, it was the first of a long series.
Meanwhile, in the shadows, I watched Bran almost all the time, I prevented his fall from the wall by stopping him from climbing it in the first place and as no one was hurt, no assassin tried to silence him in his sleep, everything was going well, in fact, almost too well.
I took time out to teach, as I have for a long time, Bran and Arya how to use daggers, knives, and a bow so they could defend themselves, and the rest of the time I fed and trained Nymeria and Ghost.
Ghost, unlike his previous appearance of a runt, was growing rapidly, almost too rapidly, he had already far exceeded the size of a normal wolf and almost resembled his adult form in the series but I knew that was not his limit with the ritual I had done I felt he could reach double his size and original capabilities.
As for Nymeria although she had not gone through the ritual I did with Ghost I planned to put her through it soon, once I was completely sure it was absolutely without any danger.
On the day of the grand departure, I said goodbye to no one except Robb with whom I had "reconciled" and Rickon who was still a kid because we were leaving for King's Landing's.
2 and a half weeks later while crossing the Riverlands on the Tully territory, the incident I had tried so hard to avoid still occurred during one of my rare moments of inattention.
I was sitting at the king's table with my father and Robert rehashing old war stories when a Baratheon knight arrived saying:
"Your majesty, the prince is injured"
The king frowned and asked nonchalantly:
"What happened?"
I panicked and my heartbeat raced when the knight began to recount everything that happened of course making Joffrey out to be the victim, but what really surprised me was when he said:
"The queen has dispatched Ser Illyn Payne and the Hound (The Hound) to find Arya Stark"
Remembering their reputations, I really panicked and deep inside something woke up, a cold anger I felt it was a wolf part I had developed after the ritual, I stood up suddenly and whistled.
Ghost arrived in less than a second and I said:
"Find Arya"
I was going to mount my horse, but I felt a tug pulling me back, I turned around to see who dared and I found that everyone was looking at me, I wore a murderous look and the royal guards, the Baratheon guards, and the Stark guards all looked at me with their hands on their swords as if I was going to kill the first one who opened their mouth.
The person who stopped me was my uncle-father adoptive who told me frowning:
"Don't do anything rash"
"Let me go" I said the least warmth or emotion in my voice trying not to bring out the rage I was feeling inside me in the face of these little blond-haired bastards.
"No, not until you've promised me you won't act in anger" he said tightening his grip on my shoulder and his expression changing from 'a man warning another' to 'a man threatening another'
"I said let me go" this time my tone was more heated but he did not do it so I freed myself and said:
"She's my sister and I will kill every fucking Lannister if they do anything to her, but be certain no one will pluck a single hair from her head as long as I live"
I jumped over my horse and then I waved the reins for my horse to follow the direction Ghost had taken, who was already far away.
-3rd Person POV-
"A true Stark through and through your son, he reminds me of your brother when he went to King's Landing's, he was a tough one that Brandon" said Robert as if all this was just a tale told by a bard and not real events happening under his nose.
"Result he died killed by the Mad King" said Ned Stark before taking his horse and quickly following him with the Winterfell guards.
-POV MC-
I quickly found Arya hidden deep in the forest accompanied by Nymeria and I saw that unlike the original series Mycah the butcher's son was with her I laughed seeing them afraid of my intrusion and before I could say anything she jumped on me saying:
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry"
I laughed and said:
"It's nothing Arya, don't worry about that, I'll fix everything but before we go back, tell me the truth Arya no lies, what exactly happened?"
I trusted her but since I had started to drastically change the story it was not impossible that a butterfly effect had slipped into this specific event.
Fortunately, nothing had changed in the story between Joffrey and Arya, I was happy to see that at least the timeline had not greatly deviated from its original trajectory for the moment and that my knowledge was still a little useful even though I knew that the more time went on the more the timeline I had seen would represent nothing at all.
I was going to go back to try to plead the case of the two to the king but no good the Lannister guards had already spotted us and began to surround us, I did not want to take risks by trusting the mercy of the Lannisters because I saw they had drawn their weapons and were approaching us at a gallop.
I put Arya on my horse and said:
"Go back to the inn and find your father don't stop and don't trust anyone who is not from Winterfell, I'm going to stay here to cover your retreat"
"And you"
I laughed saying: "Don't worry the Lannisters can't do anything against me I'm already a knight you remember"
She nodded her head even though I could see she was not reassured and I said:
"Go"
She left and I saw arrows raining in her direction, an arrow lodged in the croup of my horse but fortunately it was not very serious and he quickly became out of reach for the Lannister archers.
I signaled to Mycah to be quiet and hide then I grabbed one of the 4 knives I had on me at all times and I threw it, I aimed perfectly because a Lannister rider fell off his mount, the orbit pierced by a knife like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
He fell from his horse his bow still in hand and the two riders who were with him began to ring bells to signal our position, I whistled and Ghost quickly jumped at the throat of the first while I threw my second knife which planted itself right in the throat of the last rider.
Once the three riders eliminated, I grabbed one of the horses and quickly mounted it, I tore off a Lannister's cape and handed it to Mycah while pushing the lifeless body of the Lannister soldier off his saddle.
Mycah looked at me with incredulous eyes while looking at the cape and I said:
"Hide underneath quick"
He covered himself with the cape, grabbed the reins of his horse and we galloped off, I whistled Ghost all while simultaneously sending him a mental message via our link so he could escape and hide waiting for me to come get him once I could protect him.
He immediately ran in another direction with Nymeria in pursuit and we separated, I didn't want to see Ghost die for nothing.
We rode around in circles and after 1 hour the night finally began to fall little by little and I returned to the inn where we were camping, Arriving in the royal pilgrimage camp I faced the heavy faces of all and even more once arrived in the presence of the king.
Entering the room I heard Joffrey say:
"She lies!!!, she and her butcher boy ambushed me and her wolf bit me" he screamed hysterically in his high voice."