The Sword Of The Morning
Near Harrenhall – 284 A.L
Lord Whent was hosting a great Tournament at Harranhall, he had invited guests from all of Westeros to attend. One such party was making there way up the road towards Harranhall at this moment.
"Come on Ned, keep up" said a raven haired Lyanna Stark at 14 years of age.
She was dressed in brown riding clothes and had her hair tied up up in a single braid flowing down her back. She was riding a brown horse accompanied by two other men riding slightly behind her and a small group of soldiers dressed in leather armour a bit further down the road from them.
"Slow down Lya, what will people think of you if you ride into Harranhall on your own dressed in riding gear rather than your fine dresses?" said Ned.
Eddard "Ned" Stark was 16 years of age at nearly six feet tall. He had shoulder length dark brown hair. He was dressed in brown leathers and a black cloak. He also had a bastard sword on his left hip with a black handle and grey wolf pommel.
"They'll see a proper northern woman brother, one that not even your wild Baratheon friend can tame" said Brandon chuckling.
Brandon Stark was 19 years of age at around six foot two. He had short black hair and a scraggly black beard. Like Ned he was dressed in brown leathers and a black cloak with a similar bastard sword on his right waist.
"Uggh, don't talk about Robert Baratheon, all he does is drink and fuck any willing woman he can, and I have to marry him" said Lyanna in disgust.
"He's my friend Lya, besides Father thinks its a good match, you'll be Lady of Storms End" said Ned.
"How is someone who has probably fathered at least a dozen bastards a good match for me, not to mention he thinks I'm some sort of dainty southern Lady who'll do nothing but grin and smile at everything he does" said Lyanna.
"Lya, you already had this discussion with Father and he didn't change his mind" said Brandon riding up next to her.
"At least give him a chance Lya, for me at least" said Ned joining her and Brandon.
"Fine, but if he beds another woman, I'll cut his cock off" said Lyanna fiercely.
Ned and Brandon both laughed.
"There it is" said Brandon pointing towards Harranhall in the distance.
Harranhall was a large grey castle surrounded by lush green fields littered with tents. Part of the castle looked like someone was working hard to restore it as there were builders and scaffolding alongside one of the crumbled walls.
Half an hour later the Stark party entered Harranhall.
"Lords and Lady Stark, welcome to Harranhall" said Oswell Whent who was dressed in a fine tunic and had slightly greying brown hair down to his shoulders.
"Lord Whent, thank you for having us" said Brandon lightly bowing while still atop his horse.
Brandon turned to look at the Stark soldiers.
"Ser Rodrick, set up our camp where you can" said Brandon.
"Yes M'Lord" said Rodrik Cassel who had long light grey hair and sporting a white beard with two long strands of it tied together in the centre.
"I'll go with him" said Ned.
"I suppose I better find the Tully's, you coming Lya" said Brandon.
"No, I'll go with Ned" said Lyanna.
The three rode out towards the camp before Brandon rode away from Ned and Lyanna.
Ned and Lyanna managed to find Ser Rodrik and the rest of their party putting up a one larger tent and multiple small ones.
Ned was helping the party put up the last tent when a great booming voice got his attention.
"NED!" said Robert Baratheon striding towards him.
Robert was 17 years of age and stood around six feet tall. He had long black hair tied back and was dressed in a black and grey tunic and breeches with a brown cloak on his back.
"Robert" said Ned smiling as he hugged his best friend.
After releasing himself from Ned Robert turned to Lyanna and smiled.
"My beautiful Lyanna, such a pleasure to see you again, for we will be wed in a years time as well" said Robert who bent down and kissed her hand not noticing that Lyanna had turned to Ned and pretended to be sick who chuckled at her actions.
"I look forward to it" said Lyanna seething with a fake smile.
"Come on Ned, Lya, lets have a wander around, meet some people, perhaps find a woman for you" said Robert.
Ned and Lyanna laughed before the three of them walked towards the Tully camp.
Later on in the evening after the royal party had arrived Ned, Robert and Lyanna made their way into the hall for the feast with Lyanna looking rather frustrated that she had to walk arm in arm with Robert.
Ned was dressed in a brown tunic with the grey direwolf of House Stark stitched onto the chest. He had also tied his long hair back so it now hung at the base of his neck.
Lyanna at her reluctance had been forced to wear a light grey almost silver floor dress with her hair fashioned into a simple northern braid.
Robert like Ned also wore a tunic but it was dark grey with a gold stag stitched onto the front of it. He also had his hair tied back which stopped just below his shoulders.
Upon entering the hall they noticed Brandon sat with the Tully's and made their way over to them before sitting down next to Brandon and his betrothed Catelyn Tully.
Catelyn Tully was 16 years of age and only a half a head shorter than Ned. She was dressed in a dark green dress with her hair tied into an elegant southern braid making her look more beautiful Ned thought.
Brandon meanwhile was dressed identical to Ned in a brown tunic with the grey direwolf of House Stark stitched onto the front.
After a hearty feast the tables were moved to the side of the hall making way for a dance floor.
Brandon and Catelyn had gone to dance leaving Ned alone with Lyanna at the table as everyone else was dancing. A short while later Robert appeared and took a reluctant Lyanna to dance with him and Ned was left on his own at the table.
Brandon and Catelyn returned from there dance to find a sullen Ned slowly drinking from a goblet of wine.
"Brother, what's with you, your meant to be having a good time like everyone else, not sitting here sulking" said Brandon.
"I'm fine Brandon" said Ned.
"Cheer up Ned, go ask some pretty lady for a dance, like that one over there" said Brandon turning his head to where a lone dark brown haired woman around 17 years of age sat near the high table.
"Brandon" said Ned.
"Come on Ned, it's only a dance, besides she looks like she could use some company" said Brandon.
Ned thought about it.
"Well I suppose one dance won't hurt" thought Ned.
"All right then" said Ned getting up and walking towards the woman Brandon was talking about.
He reached the table causing her to look up at him.
"Would you like a dance My Lady" said Ned nervously holding out his hand.
The woman smiled.
"Of course M'Lord" said the woman taking his hand and rising to her feet.
The pair walked towards the dance floor.
"I'm Eddard Stark" said Ned.
"Ashara Dayne, pleasure to meet you Eddard" said Ashara as they began to dance rather awkwardly for Ned.
"A pleasure to meet you as well Ashara but please just call me Ned" said Ned.
"Of course,...Ned" said Ashara.
The pair kept dancing until a few songs had passed before they decided to stop.
"Your the only person who asked to dance with me tonight, thank you Ned, I hope we can see each other again" said Ashara giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"I hope so too Ashara" said Ned before the two of them walked away from each other back to their respective tables.
Ned arrived back at his table to find Lyanna in a rather bad mood.
"What's up Lya?" said Ned.
"Bloody Robert, he just walked off with one of the serving girls, I won't marry him Ned, I won't live my life waiting for him to return to my bed from whatever whore he wants to fuck instead of his wife" said Lyanna.
Ned sighed and sat down next to her.
"I'll talk to him in the morning, if it makes you feel any better I'll speak with Father about it too" said Ned placing his arm around her shoulder.
"Thanks Ned" said Lyanna.
Ned smiled and stood up.
"Come on, come dance with your big brother" said Ned holding out his hand for her.
Lyanna laughed before getting up and taking his hand.
The pair danced through a few songs before a voice interrupted them.
"May I steal a dance from you My Lady" said the voice of a tall man around 21 years of age with long silvery blonde hair dressed in a red tunic with the gold three headed dragon on the front of it.
Lyanna looked at Ned who nodded.
"Of course Your Grace" said Lyanna taking his hands.
Ned left the two of them.
"So, my lady, tell me your name" said Rhaegar in a soft voice.
"Lyanna, Your Grace, Lyanna Stark" said Lyanna smiling.
"Lyanna, such a beautiful name, a warriors name as well if I'm correct" said Rhaegar.
Lyanna lightly blushed.
"Yes, Your Grace" said Lyanna.
"Dear Lyanna, call me Rhaegar" said Rhaegar.
"Rhaegar" said Lyanna in a soft voice.
The two danced into the night before Rhaegar escorted her back to her tent where she found Ned and Robert in the middle of an argument.
"What is it with you Robert, you're betrothed to Lyanna, you've told me plenty of times that you love her, yet you persistently bed as many women as you can" said Ned angrily.
"Christ Ned, were not married yet, what's getting a little practice before we're married gonna hurt?" said Robert who sounded rather drunk.
"She saw you you know, and she's really pissed off at you, if you want to marry her, you'll stop all of this fuck every woman you see business and actually stay faithful to her, or by the gods I will make sure my Father cancels the betrothal" said Ned.
Robert looked enraged and moved towards Ned.
"Are we interrupting something?" said Rhaegar sounding amused.
Ned and Robert turned to look at Rahegar and Lyanna in shock.
"No Your Grace" said Ned.
"Very well, goodnight Lord Stark, Lord Baratheon, Lady Stark" said Rhaegar kissing Lyanna's hand before leaving the tent.
"Goodnight" said Lyanna.
Lyanna turned towards Robert.
"Get out" said Lyanna angrily.
"I'm sorry Lya, it won't happen again" said Robert.
"Get out, now" said Lyanna even louder.
"Leave Robert" said Ned pointing towards the tent flap.
Robert grumbled before making his way out of the tent.
Ned turned towards Lyanna.
"Enjoy your night?" said Ned amused.
"A lot, he showed me a good time" said Lyanna blushing slightly.
"He's married Lya" said Ned sternly.
"I know, I'm happy that someone at least can treat me with more respect than Robert can" said Lyanna smiling.
"Come on we need to get some sleep, long day tomorrow" said Ned as he strode over to his bed.
The next day Ned, Lyanna and a rather hungover Brandon got up and headed to the hall for breakfast. They were nearly finished eating when Ashara walked up to the table.
"Mind if I join you" said Ashara indicating to the empty space next to Ned.
"Of course, sit down" said Ned.
Ashara sat down next to Ned while he finished his breakfast.
"Thank you again for last night, I had a lot of fun" said Ashara.
Ned blushed slightly causing Brandon and Lyanna to grin.
"Would you like to take a walk with me after breakfast" said Ned.
"I'd love to" said Ashara smiling.
Ned finished eating before the two of them stood up and left the hall.
"It seems our brother has taken a liking to Ashara" said Brandon smirking.
"Good for him, she makes him happy at least, I think she likes him as well" said Lyanna.
"Hope so, she'd make a fine wife for him, a very pretty one as well" said Brandon.
"Wait and see what happens" said Lyanna.
Meanwhile Ned and Ashara were walking arm in arm through the courtyard laughing.
"So she was that angry at him, she beat him black and blue with one of the training swords, he wouldn't hit her back either but she didn't care, he was grumbling about it for weeks" said Ned.
Ashara laughed.
"She sounds like a wild woman, your sister" said Ashara chuckling.
"That she is, drives our Father up the wall, but I think out of all of us, he's proud of her the most" said Ned.
The two continued walking before Ashara stumbled. Ned quickly caught her and was looking directly into her light violet eyes.
Not thinking about the world around them the two kissed for a few moments before breaking apart.
Ned felt the heat of that kiss and felt like it was just the two of them left alone in the world.
The two looked at each other again before leaning forward and kissing again.
"Wow, that was...intense" said Ned smiling.
"It was, though I never thought I would fall for the first man brave enough to dance with me" said Ashara.
"I never thought that I would fall for the first woman I ever danced with" said Ned.
"You've never danced with anyone before" said Ashara sounding a little surprised.
"Never" said Ned.
"Well I expect a dance from you tonight, and an escort into the feast as well if you would be so kind M'Lord" said Ashara with a coy smile.
"I would be honoured to My Lady" said Ned giving her a mock bow.
The two of them laughed and began to walk back towards the hall.