I was just bored so I wrote this, anyways if you enjoy I'll continue.
Prologue: The sacking of Aelborough
"You better damn well shoot straight, Lex!"
"Always, Father," Alexys Blackburn grinned.
She blew a strand of hair out of my face, pulled back the strand of the bow until she felt it against her lip, and let go. The jet-black arrow hit its target.
"Well done, my lady!" shouted Ser Steffon.
He was a kind knight, well in his forties and he was starting to get bald. She had known him my entire life, and he had always felt like a second father to Alexys.
Next to him stood her lord father, grinning and opening his arms for her. She took after him, if you looked at their colouring. They both had the same, queer, blood-red hair colour (although Lord Blackburn only had his beard left to show it) and the same sea-green eyes. Alexys ran into her lord father's arms, he started to laugh, pulling her into an embrace. Alexys had always loved Lord Gareth with all her heart.
Other lords found him a queer one, perhaps even cruel. They found it strange that his daughter had not only her Septa Janyce to teach her to sing, dance and smile, but also Ser Steffon, to teach her how to fight.
Alexys had inquired for his reasons many times, but he always just smiled and answered, "Sweet summer child, Westeros has at least as much cruelties as it has beauties, perhaps even more when winter comes. I would not want my darling daughter to face them defenceless."
Alexys was observant enough to notice other lords and ladies did not agree with his reason. It did not help that House Blackburn was cunning and cruel of nature. They had not much power, but many feared them.
Lord Gareth Blackburn did not believe in mercy, for one, and his punishment were as vile as they were just. Alexys and her brothers and sisters agreed with him.
If a man had committed a crime, he deserved to get a just punishment. If a man had murdered another, the man deserved to get the exact same fate.
House Blackburn and its lord and ladies had never been well-liked, for they were not the easiest of men. Alexys knew it. Cynical, offensive, her family was just that. They could not so easily be trusted, as most Blackburns had a talent for scheming and lying.
But she also knew there was more than met the eye, if you were willing to look past that. She could see it in her lord father, who was a very sharp-witted and generous man.
She saw it in her oldest brother, Garrison. He was a tall, broad-shouldered and strong boy of seventeen. He was brute, yes, but had an unbelievable protective instinct. He once killed a man for laying a hand on Alexys's breast.
She had another older brother, Geamon, and he couldn't have been more different from Garrison, but Alexys loved him all the same. Geamon was short, plump and had never bothered to touch a sword. Geamon preferred spending his time reading books and throwing knives. He had a deadly aim. He was a clever lad who was always happy to help, give out advice.
Alexys also had an older sister, Audrea, about to be married to a handsome lord in the Riverlands. Audrea and Alexys looked nothing alike, and they had nothing in common.
Alexys looked most like their lord father, while Audrea was the only child to take after their lady mother.
Lady Rhyssa was from Dorne, fair with olive skin and thick black hair, sleek and shiny. Audrea was a petite girl, not made for fighting (Audrea had grudgingly obeyed to learn which end of a dagger to hold, at the least) whereas Alexys, even though she was barely one-and-ten, was already beginning to develop curves, small breasts and a firm behind for her broad hips. Audrea was also quite tall, but Alexys's body simply did not seem to want to grow sometimes.
All of her family lived in Aelborough, the main castle in the Great Forest, the land that separated the Reach from the Riverlands. Alexys had grown up amidst trees and bushes, and had learned to climb a tree sooner after she'd learned to walk.
She would sometimes hunt animals from trees, if she had time. No large game, like Garrison, who often brought huge stags for the cook to magic a meal of. Not foxes, which Geamon managed to target with his knives, in order to fashion coats of their fur, but birds, and if she was lucky, occasionally a rabbit.
She shoots them in the eye with an arrow, from the top of a tree, and then cuts their throat to kill them quick.
Alexys had never liked that part. She had tried once to poison the animals, and drain the poison from them afterwards, but the meat had turned foul.
She had made the poison herself, from the cursed berry the people from the Forest called 'the Sudden Stop', a black berry which would have killed you before it reached your stomach.
Because of this, the bastards from the Forest were called Berry, which Alexys thought both funny and insulting. She knew bastards grew up faster than legitimate children, thus she had learned to respect them and especially not to underestimate them.
Her Septa woke her up from her thoughts.
"Aren't you hungry, Alexys?"
Alexys shrugged and looked at the plate in front of her. An exquisite meal, she really shouldn't let it go to waste. But for some odd reason she wasn't feeling hungry. She couldn't explain it, but something felt wrong.
About tonight, about everything.
Even though it had just been a day like every other. She stood up.
"May I be excused?"
"Is something amiss, sweet sister?" Audrea asked.
"Nothing special. A tad nauseous, that is all."
"I'll have Maester Filip examine you later, then," said Lord Gareth.
Alexys nodded and went down the stairs to her chambers. They were the lowest chambers, with a beautiful view on the lake in the middle of the Great Forest. She sent out her maids. She didn't feel like having company at the moment.
Alexys peeled off her dress and changed back into her breeches. A bit of hunting might take her mind off things.
The worst of it was, it was merely her gut feeling that was telling her something was off. She was just imagining it, most likely.
It was a cool summer night, only need for breeches and a shirt. The moon was visible in the dark blue sky. All Alexys took was her bow and a couple of arrow, that would be just enough to have a good time. She was all set to leave, but then her Septa rushed into her room. She was wearing her night gowns, and
Alexys blushed, for she had been caught.
"I'm sorry," she apologized quietly, "all I wanted to do was go out in the fresh air, and-"
Something stopped her. Only now she saw how frightened Septa Janyce looked. The Septa moved her hands frantically, dramatically, squeaking only fragments of words.
"Breathe," Alexys pleaded. "Please, Septa- Calm down and tell me what is the matter-"
"They've- they've come," Septa Janyce panted, shaking all over. "They've come to- to take revenge!"
"Revenge?" Alexys breathed. "When? Why? What are they doing?"
There was a loud crack- the glass in the dining room had burst out and she heard Audrea scream. Without thinking, Alexys made to leave her chambers and do something, but Septa Janyce stopped her and roughly pushed her backwards.
"What are you doing?" Alexys shouted. "My sister- she's in distress! I've got to help!"
"You- you have to go," said the Septa, trembling heavily. "Go- Go and take your bow and arrow. If you won't go I won't be able to save you-"
"Who will save them?" Alexys snapped back, pointing towards the door.
She could hear screams coming from the dining room, she had to do something…
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" she screamed at her Septa, almost crying with despair.
"They're burning it down," answered Septa Janyce, who was starting to sob. "They're burning Aelborough down- Leave, now- or you'll burn with them"
Alexys looked towards the door again.
"It's too late," said the Septa. "You can't save them anymore. Be a clever girl and save yourself."
"Come with me," said Alexys.
"I'll fend them off as long as I can," said the woman kindly. "Run, sweetling. Run, survive, and avenge us."
Alexys felt like her sense was leaving her, so she mindlessly obeyed. She climbed out of the window, ran across the open space and climbed in a tree. She saw her home burning. Orange flames were swallowing Aelborough, licking along the towers, making them fall down one by one. She could still see her window, and Septa Janyce. She nodded.
Then men came bursting in, carrying swords and axes.
"Any last words, wench?" said the tallest of them.
Septa Janyce looked at him fiercely, and Alexys had never loved her more than at that moment.
"If we burn, you burn with us."
The tall man laughed and cut her throat. Alexys wanted to scream, but Septa Janyce had given her own life for hers, so it would be a waste. Alexys ran, ran from a destroyed Aelborough, a broken home. She would never forget Septa Janyce's words:
Run, survive, avenge.
If we burn, you burn with us.
*You lot interested? Lots of Love
*You like Alexys?
*I know the words are from Mockingjay, no rights to them, thought they fit perfectly for OC House Blackburn...
