The Sleeper with the Fishes.
Ser Ben Grandison woke up to the sight of a roof over his head, something he hadn't seen in days. The back of his throat crackled with thirst and his insides ached with hunger. His eyes were blurry and the gaps in his teeth stung with stumps of his left teeth still stubbornly hanging on. The room itself was dark and badly built, more like a shack in a small town than a dungeon that had been his first idea of his destination. There was an unlocked door, however his irons would prevent him from moving. There were two other men in the room, both green boys by the look of it, sporting the Young Wolf's sigil upon their clean breastplates.
"You brought me some lions, Mari?" asked a currently unknown voice from beyond the door.
"Just through there, Crab," another voice, the so called Mari.
"Thanks for watching the forests for me, I'll be sure to tell Thoros that the people here are much better than what Cate did,"
I can hear footsteps; they'll open the door soon Ben thought.
A tall bearded man opened the door, clad in armor, with a greatsword on his back. He brought a bucket and dropped it at the feet of one of the green boys.
"Wake up you lot!" The so called Crab roared.
One of the green boys murmured something but the other stayed silent. The Crab proceeded to close in very closely to the silent boy as shouted at the top of his lungs.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE UP,"
The boy stayed silent and the Crab checked his pulse.
"Mari. we've got a dead one! What've you been feeding him?"
"Nothing! We put them in one of those Night's Watch Carriages and wheeled them from Riverrun to 'ere,"
"There's no point taking them if we're just going to refuse them food. You two alive ones, drink up"
Ben managed to keep conscient until the other green boy had finished drinking from the bucket. He dunked his head right in. Oh, thank the Seven for this! It's been days since I've had any water! .
"Mari, bring them some stale bread through."
"Bread goes for a good price Crab,"
"Before the Tyrells came to King's Landing, but now the southerners are all portlying up the smallfolk and the men"
Stale bread it may have been, but he would have eaten his own lord father if it had come to it.Where am I though? What is that on the Crab's breastplate? A...Crab? Well there's a clever jape, but what house is a Crab a sigil of...Celtigar Isle, I remember. Why did he abduct me? They're allied to Stannis, Just as I am!
"Mari? Is this one the Lannister? A real one, not some levy but a real member of the house? He's got good quality armor and sword, and there's a damned lion on his breastplate!
Idiot! I'm a Grandison! There may be a lion but it's bloodly sleeping! I'm Stannis' man, just like you!
"No...I'm...Randisss...unnn," Ben murmured
"The Lannister man's speaking Mari" Crab shouted.
"Grrandissson,"
"I'm a Grrrandissson,"
"Where did you find the lion one Mari?" Roared Crab.
"In Halton" replied Mari.
"This isn't no Lannister, it's a Grandison! Allied to the Stag! Their sigil is a sleeping lion, not one of the golden bastards"
"Oh witness the great educated bastard from Celtigar isle," Mari replied in a mocking tone.
"And these green boys? Are these Targaryens?" mocked the Crab.
"No crab. Two Tully's from some low branch-boasting about it to my daughters. My daughters much more clever than them though, all drunked 'em up then pushed em' in the carriage,"
Well at least they didn't beat your face with a spiked club.
"How'd you catch this one? He's not the type to be taken in by a woman, regardless their motives,"
Maybe they'd take me in if I hadn't been beaten to a bloody pulp by a spiked club.
"Caught that one inspecting one of the villages for this Stannis man, Horseface said he'd join up and he whacked him over the head over a bottle of ale,"
First ale I'd had in months. Had to be this time.
"Well green boy and Sleeping Lion. You've been lucky enough to be inducted to my branch of King's Men,"
Which bloody king is this?
"We've got the right of it, We fight not for a throne but for the realm. We fight for the king! The one true king in this Kingdom of pretenders. King Robert!"
"King Robert's dead, fools," replied the live green boy.
"Aye, but his men live on," Replied the Crab.
And with that, the Crab left the room. Leaving Ser Ben Grandison to his slumber.
