Where We All Started
Robb sat lazily on his throne, tracing the intricate designs carved into the arms with his fingertip. He sighed, obviously bored.
He was avoiding his mother, and his smaller siblings. Arya was easy to tolerate, but Sansa, and Rickon? They were a different story.
How he wished Jon was here. They had so much fun, just a short year ago.
Where had the time gone?
Now he was king, a mere boy of fifteen, with a weighty crown resting uncomfortably on his head. The crown was not only physically heavy, but the symbol, the power that came with the large piece of silver was equally profound.
If only he could have just one more adventure, he thought, one last hurrah before he relinquished the rest of his life to the North.
He sighed again, and continued to trace the swirls on his throne.
xxx
Richard smiled as he saw Kahlan walking towards him. Everything about her screamed of immense beauty. The fall of her long dark hair across her shoulders, her womanly curves, the way her hips swayed back and forth when she walked. And her eyes.
Those wonderful blue eyes.
And she was all his.
He smiled again, and returned to packing his bag. Kahlan dropped a freshly dead squirrel in front of him.
"Sorry, but it was all I could catch," she says, cleaning her dagger of blood with a cloth square.
"This is perfect Kahlan. I couldn't have asked for more," Richard says, but deep inside he was wishing that Cara hadn't taken his bow, so that he might eat a rabbit, or maybe a great buck if he got lucky.
Kahlan caught the subtle hint of disappointment in his voice, and put her hands on her hips.
"Richard Cypher, are you judging my hunting skills? Would you rather have Cara here instead of me?" she said, playfully.
He grabs her hand, and pulls her close to him.
"Well, it's either her, or Zedd. But I really don't like my meat charred like he does," Richard says, a smile gracing his handsome features.
She smiles, and before she can get another word out, he leans in for a passionate kiss.
xxx
Breathless, hot, sweaty.
Feet slapping the cold granite floors of the castle.
Air flowing through my hair.
Can't stop, I must keep going.
I've got to tell Robb.
Reaching the throne room.
Robb looks up at me perplexed.
"What's wrong, Arya? What happened," he asks, and flies over to me, resting a hand on my shoulder as I'm gasping for air.
"A strange…. A strange portal opened…opened up in the meadow…. Mother's there," I finally get out.
"We need to go. Lead me to it."
xxx
Robb, Arya, and Catelyn Stark are all standing in a large meadow just outside Winterfell. A massive, black oblong form the three can only describe as a portal is swirling slowly, facing them from a wall of trees.
After minutes, mayhaps hours, a woman in a long white dress stumbles out of the portal. Looking confused, she turns her attention to the Starks.
The woman looks into all of their eyes, and then clears her throat to speak,
"I am the Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell. Why are you not bowing before me?"
The Starks look at each other, and look back at the woman. Catelyn starts towards the strange woman, but Robb stops her, going instead.
"I'm sorry, my lady, but we don't recognize that title. I am Rob Stark, King of the North. You are in my land, so state your business."
She looks confused.
"Where am I? Are we in the Midlands?"
Arya speaks up, "Where is the Midlands? We're in Winterfell, in the North."
"Are you on the other side of the boundary?" the Mother Confessor asks.
"What boundary?" the Starks say simultaneously. "We're in the Seven Kingdoms."