*Author's Note: I do not own Game of Thrones. Alright here it is. Another chapter of Into the Frey. Based on the positive feedback I am getting I take it that you guys are interested in Garen Frey, formerly Garen Crownguard of Demacia, making his mark on Westeros? Just leave a comment guys.
(Updated: 2/15/17)
Didn't change anything. Just check it over.
Chapter 2
The Twins, Riverlands
A week after his lord father returned, who kept himself and his men at the rear of the advance to the Iron Islands, several weeks ahead of the other lords leaving for their own homes he was summoned to the Twins by a messenger.
He arrived with an escort of ten of the Freys loyal to him. He entered the audience hall with a calm mask, ignoring the smirks the rest of his "family" gave him. Finally he stood before his father who sat hunched over a table.
"Well how many are yeh?" Garen blinked his confusion at the question. It didn't even make sense. What was his father asking?
"Did you leave your tongue up there with the rest the men and materials you stole from me, boy?" The old man snapped. "Never mind. How many of my brood followed you to build that small castle of yours?"
"Twenty, my lord." Garen replied steadily.
Walder Frey snorted. "Humph… Not nearly enough. I heard you killed a few bandits on the way. Should have brought more of my brood. Might have shortened my burden by a few lopped off heads." The last part was mumbled but the entire room gasped.
His father continued as if he had not heard anything. "Smart of you boy. You built the castle right along the border of the Reeds. That way it looks like my idea. Not a bad one at that. Well at least it got twenty of the leeches out from here. The maester is drawing up a deed. Do what you want with the land but remember." A bony finger pointed at Garen's face.
"Pay your dues, boy. Now get out of my sight." Garen bowed slightly and left, the faces of his sibling and relatives were priceless. He almost wished he had a memory to record their faces but then again he didn't want any remembrance of the awful greed prevailing in the Twins.
The ride back was uneventful. When he rode into the castle courtyard he was greeted by a large group of smallfolk around his nephew, Steffon. He dismounted and pulled Steffon aside to talk.
"Well what did the old man want?" Steffon asked.
"Sometimes I don't understand what goes on in that senile brain of his." Garen muttered. Steffon merely raised his eyebrow.
"He gave us a deed to the land in and around the keep." Garen's confusion was clear. Steffon laughed.
"He probably wanted less of us cramping up the Twins." Both of them smirked. "Moving on. Those smallfolk out there seem to be our first smallfolk. They want to join us."
"Very well build them some shelter until we decide where they will work." Steffon threw a mock salute and left.
Walder Frey gave ten miles of land in a radius around the castle Garen had built. Most of it was dense forest or covered by a large mountain. It would seem like useless land to some but to Garen who had some knowledge of magic? He personally surveyed the mountain and found rich deposits of iron. The forests abounded with game to feed his people until such a time that they could grow their own food. All in all not bad for a selfish cowardly man who kept breeding more selfish and cowardly men, not that Walder knew that when he gave it to them.
Garen could sense a certain feeling of malevolence in the air when it was cold. His instincts told him there was more to this land than what appeared on the surface. He had failed to trust his instincts before and it had resulted in his death and being sent here. He set about building a base of strength.
The next five years passed by quickly. The walls of wood disappeared, to be replaced with huge ramparts of stone. The walls of the castles in this land were puny; in fact the castles themselves were puny. He had seen many fortresses in his time in the army of Demacia both defending them and besieging them. The ones here, at least that he had seen, were nothing.
He determined that his people would not be the same as the others. The walls were thick and built to Demacian engineering specifications. The masons here had scratched their heads when they saw the plans he had drawn up. Why would one put giant statues of stone holding warhammers? Each of the castle's gates had two of them. The castle itself was a fortress which had a wall twice as thick as the one surrounding the castle town. Inside it were the main barracks, stables, greenhouse and castle smithy that were all getting enlarged.
The keep was already enlarged to his satisfaction. Its hallways also had giant stone statues with their warhammers. He had designed the castle to have holes to let light in. The light then hit the glass in the hammers and gave of light. This was true night or day. It felt almost like he was back in Demacia. It was also a cover for when he found a way to arm the crystals within the hammers so that they could fire on any attacker.
The castle town was large enough to house eight thousand people. Most of them were employed by him. The land immediately surrounding the castle was cleared of all trees, bushes and obstructions for a mile. This gave the castle a clear field of view. The catapults, ballistae and trebuchets he had commanded the approach. No army was taking this castle without massive casualties.
His castle had a thousand men he was training personally. They had grown strong. Not as strong as he was but he had made them go through Demacian training. They had complained at first but when he was done with them they would be the strongest and most loyal men in the Seven Kingdoms.
Demacian discipline was hammered into them day after day. Sometimes he almost slipped and called them Demacians. It was getting hard to remember they were not Demacians when he had them responding to the familiar commands.
Garen was extremely busy. He had surveyed the lands around him personally to find resources and minerals. Using the sensor magic he remembered he put out sensor wards in various places until he found the massive caches of iron in the mountain. He drew up plans for the castle and the mines build. He also designed the port that was taking shape just outside the outer walls. Having it there made it convenient but also put some risk.
To lessen the risk he placed a large number of heavy batteries facing the port as well as two of the guardian statues that were the first things built in the port area. Again most of his masons scratched their head when he ordered the statues built. It seemed more practical for them that he would build the port and keep first before going for cosmetic statues. If only they knew.
He had also taken a small group of smiths and swore them to secrecy. When he was assured of their loyalty he taught them the art of Demacian smithing. He had to spend the bigger part of two years with them to make sure they didn't get the runes wrong. If they did then well… No more castle. The castle, was named Hammergard, was his home now. If it exploded because of the wrong combination of runes? He shuddered.
Their first batches of weapons and armor were just now being equipped to his soldiers. Their work was of course not as strong as the stuff made in Demacia but it was definitely stronger. He had sold the steel they had used before for a profit to Tywin Lannister who seemed surprised to find Garen a sharp mind despite his youth.
Garen had also spent a month forging a replacement for his greatsword. Another month passed as he went to work forging his armor. When he was done his people stared in awe. He had grown to six feet despite being only fifteen. The exercises he did made his muscles bulge and his armor only served to enhance his bulk.
Steffon had starred as hard as the others. "How are you able to move in that?" He had asked his jaw almost reaching the ground.
Garen had just chuckled as proceeded to go through a series of moves with his gigantic sword. The looks on the faces of people when he went visiting other keeps was hilarious. They always tried to gauge his strength but jaws dropped when they saw the massive sword on his back.
As part of their training, his men were sent to patrol every inch of his land. Bandits and outlaws quickly found that the quickest way to die was to stay and prey upon innocents on Garen Frey's lands. Garen would even lead a pursuit outside his territory and into the territory of his neighbors if it meant crushing them.
Smallfolk flocked to his lands as word spread of his terms with smallfolk. They were completely protected from any harm and were assured that if harm did come to them then they would be avenged and their families taken care of. They were also only required to serve half a year for their lord. This was unlike the other lords' lands where one had to work the entire year and merely trust to their lord's generosity.
The smallfolk of Garen's lands were soon known for their industriousness and loyalty to Garen. In the years that came the people of the land soon came to differentiate between the Freys who lived at the Twins and the Freys that lived at Hammergard. It was a bit confusing since Walder Frey had not made them into a cadet house even if the Freys at Hammergard had adopted Garen's personal standard, a bridge with a large sword bisecting it, as their standard. It was embossed on all their shields, embroidered on all their flags and hewn into the stone of the walls. They even adopted the saying Garen gave them "First to the Frey" as their words unfortunately they were officially still of House Frey.
However, to their attitudes were completely different from the Freys of the Twins. They were honorable to a point and sought to keep their word at all times. They were educated and skilled in combat so to avoid insults the Freys in the Twins were called Trident Freys while the lands began calling the Freys at Hammergard Freys of the Narrows, because of its location along the coast of the Narrow Sea.
Highgarden, The Reach, 296 AC
The sun's rays peeked over the hills, bathing the land with its warm morning rays. A cavalcade of heavily armed soldiers followed the curve of the road leading down to Highgarden. Smallfolk walking on the road quickly got out of the way even though the riders slowed their horses at the sight of them. This gave the peasants enough time to stare at the sigil the standard bearer bore. It was a white bridge bisected by a vertical golden sword.
Garen cursed his luck. To his right Steffon punched Deron, a fifteen year old cousin of Garen, who snickered along with him. The past years had been extremely busy for him. He had gotten into a debt of five hundred thousand gold dragons with the Iron Bank. This had been spent on building his now massive castle.
No army could go down the Neck without attacking Hammergard or, for that matter, go up it. The massive castle had drawn the regard of the Reeds and their overlords, the Starks as well as his father's liege the Tullys. The Lannisters as well hadn't been particularly happy to see a mighty castle held by their rival. He could field an army of two thousand trained men added to whatever levy was called up. His people were happy and content. His forges had fully equipped the entirety of his forces and forged an impressive armory. His granaries and cellars were filling up nicely. The smallfolk all around spoke of him in awe.
This was all well and good. However it put him in massive debt. Fortunately, Tywin Lannister had been searching for a valyrian steel blade for his house. When Garen had inspected a valyrian blade he found that it was indeed similar to Demacian steel except its runes were written smaller and more refined. With this discovery he forged a sword that had no difference to a valyrian one. He then had negotiated with the Lord of Casterly Rock. The Old Lion was almost pathetically eager to get his hands on the blade. He offered a million gold dragons for the sword. When Garen offered to reforge it to make it a sword becoming of House Lannister the lord almost frothed at the mouth.
The result of the deal was two million gold dragons for a superbly forged blade as strong as valyrian steel with lions dancing along the blade and golden lion's head at its pommel. It also left the Old Lion quite happy with the Freys of the Narrows.
All the business of building, debt paying and such had left Garen without any source of amusement. That was the reason for this little trip to the south. Steffon and Deron had pushed and pushed until Garen had relented and left Hammergard in the hands of his cousin Malvor and ride south. There wasn't really much of a plan, just the vague idea that Garen needed a break from the monotonous labor back at Hammergard.
On their way down south they had actively hunted down slavers and outlaw bands on the way. In a particularly daring raid, Garen and his personal guard attacked and wiped out the notorious Blood Arrow outlaw band. Rescuing captives held by the outlaws Garen left none of the bandits alive. The freed captives eyewitness accounts of the fighting were earning the Freys a reputation for combat, at least the Narrows branch.
Then they had reached the Crownlands where they heard of a tournament to be held at Highgarden in a few months in honor of Margaery Tyrel's name day. Upon hearing this the members of the Freyguard, who Garen treated as family, had rounded on him to go to the tournament. There they would see him win glory and maybe woo a lady.
Garen had caved and turned his massive charger in the direction of Highgarden. The massive red destrier, Cherus, was almost the twice the size of a normal charger and was the only horse capable of carrying Garen. Garen had gotten a strain of horses from Braavos. There was a man there who raised horses in the mountains of Andalos. They grew large and strong over there. Garen had spent a hundred golden dragons getting horses to outfit his men with. The Andalosian horses were already interbreeding and begetting horses of Cherus promise.
They could spot the towers of Highgarden in the distance. Garen pressed his lips together as the two Freys at his back were still snickering. He sighed. It was going to be a long week.
*A/N: Hey guys. Hope you like this. Also I would like help with the next parts. I don't really know how to right romance maybe because I've never had a girlfriend (I'm straight by the way) so I if I decide to have courtship and lovey dovey stuff I can't really describe it well. A big "HELP!" shout out to people who know how to write romance please? PM me or review or both please!
