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Jon Stark

Winterfell

His ninth name day

Jon couldn't believe that tomorrow was the day he left Winterfell, the only home he had known his whole life to be fostered in the South by some Lord he had never even met. It almost didn't seem real until now, knowing it was so close. The last three months it hadn't seemed real at all, first, his Uncle and Father told him, then announced it to everyone the next day and everyone, excluding Lady Stark, had been very sad, but after that life returned to normal. He still practiced sword fighting with Robb, at meals with his family, took lessons with Maester Luwin, and had sword fighting lessons with his Uncle. It was only a few days ago that his lessons stopped, which caused him to realize how much things were really changing.

He continued thinking about how much he was going to miss Winterfell while he ate until heard his father's voice.

"I believe it is time for Jon's name day gifts."

Arya, Sansa, and Robb stepped forward and gave them their gift in a piece of cloth. Jon unwrapped it and saw what looked like a walnut, but a little bit bigger and it was as white as snow.

"It's a weirwood seed," Robb explained.

"We spent all day yesterday climbing the weirwood tree trying to find one." Continued Arya.

"We thought it would be best if you had a piece of the North to have with you, so you always remember where you're from," Sansa added.

Jon got up to and walked over to his siblings and gave them all a hug before saying "Thank you" very quietly with tears in his eyes threatening to spill.

Arthur walked over to Jon and gave him a dark brown shield with the Stark sigil on the front before telling him "It is made from ironwood, the strongest and lightest wood in the world."

Jon quickly gave Arthur a hug before saying "Thank you, Uncle."

As soon as Arthur sat down Ned stood up and walked over to Jon. He handed Jon a sword still in its sheath.

Jon just stood there in shock holding the blade by the sheath until his father's voice shook him out of his stupor "Check the blade out."

Jon drew the hand and a half sword from its sheath and was right away surprised by how light it was, it was still too heavy for him to comfortably wield with one hand, but still lighter than any other sword he had ever held. He looked at the blade and saw the steel, it was the finest steel Jon had ever seen, clearly made by a master smith. The handle covered in dark leather and it led into the pommel which was an intricately carved wolf made out of weirwood, with rubies for eyes.

Jon sheathed the blade and rushed to hug him and said: "Thank you, father."

Ned hugged him back and said, "What are you going to name it?"

Jon thought for a moment before saying "Dusk."

Arthur smiled at that and said, "You should head to bed now Jon, we have a long journey ahead of us and we leave at first light tomorrow."

Jon got up and wordlessly headed off to bed taking his gifts with him.

Line Break

Jon stood in the courtyard waiting for the supply cart to be packed by the ten Stark guards going with him. Jon turned and saw his whole family approaching him, excluding Bran who was too young to be there.

The first person to reach him was Arya who jumped and gave him a hug before saying "Please don't go Jon."

Jon whispered back to her while hugging her tight "I don't want to, but I have to I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too," Arya said back to him with tears in her eyes.

Jon set Arya down and turned to his father and gave him a hug before saying "Goodbye Father."

His Father hugged him back and said: "Goodbye Jon, stay safe and listen to everything your Uncle says."

Jon hesitated for a second and said: "Can we talk about my Mother and how you met?"

Ned looked at him and said, "Next time we see each other we'll talk about your mother."

Jon nodded to him before turning to Robb and saying "Farewell Stark."

Robb responded "And you Snow, well I suppose it's Stark now. Don't get too caught up in all the Southern ladies to write to us."

"You don't have to worry about that." Said Jon before giving Robb a quick hug.

Jon then turned to Sansa and said "Goodbye Sansa."

Sansa smiled at Jon and said "Goodbye." She stood there looking at him for a moment before she lunged forward quickly and hugged him and said: "I'll miss you."

Jon smiled and said, "I'll miss you too."

"Come on Jon it's time to leave." He heard his Uncle say.

Jon got up on his horse and rode out of Winterfell with his Uncle and his Stark guard. As Jon looked back on the slowly receding walls of Winterfell he couldn't help but shed a few tears.

Line Break

Ser Arthur Dayne

The Ruby Ford

Arthur rode in silence listening to Jon talk with some of the Stark men. It was strange for Arthur knowing that the man he had sworn to protect, a man that was his brother, and a man whose son he had spent the last nine years protecting, had died no more than a mile away from where they were currently.

Arthur looked down at the blade that hung by Jon's side, Dusk. When he had first seen the blade he was surprised he had recognized it after all these years. It had a different hilt, and the ruby that was in the old hilt was gone, but it was still the same blade Rhaegar had wielded on the Trident. Arthur was quite surprised he had recognized it, so he knew that the only other people who could recognize it were Oswell, Gerold, and Barristan, so he saw no problem with letting Jon ride with it on his belt.

Arthur continued to ride in silence until he heard a rustling in the bushes and a man sprung out and stabbed the guard in the very front of the neck with a spear. Arthur quickly drew his sword as more men came out around them. He counted eight in front of them and five behind them. They were six, as they had sent half their party forward to clear the road in front of them of fallen trees because there had been a storm last night, vs thirteen. Arthur looked at all the men he saw they were all lightly armored if at all, they had all been starved, and very few of them actually knew how to hold a sword.

The heaviest armored and the most well trained of them, Arthur could tell he was the best trained because he was the only one who could correctly hold a sword, stepped forward and said: "Put down your weapons and give us your supplies and maybe we'll let you have a quick death."

Arthur looked at his men and said: "You four take the men behind us, Jon stay behind me."

If it were any other men Arthur would be worried they would lose, but Lord Stark had sent ten of his best men with them, and these bandits were poorly trained. Arthur spurred his horse forward at one of the men and just before he hit him he dove off at one of the men and stabbed him in the neck. The man that he rode his horse at dove out of the horse's way, and landed near Arthur and was quickly ended by Dawn. The first man to regain his senses dove at Arthur with a cry and his sword above his head, but before he could bring it down his head was rolling on the ground.

The five remaining men looked at him with newfound respect. They all, save the man who had talked to them, moved to attack him as one. Arthur was a flurry of parries and within thirty seconds he had already sliced the head off of one man. Arthur saw Jon move up beside him and engage the smallest of the three men. With it only being a two on one Arthur made quick work of the two men. Arthur moved onto the big man who spoke to them.

The man was strong, but the thing that surprised Arthur was how fast he was. He was almost as fast as Arthur. Almost. Unlike his fight with Victarion Greyjoy Arthur was still fresh, so their fight didn't last very long. Arthur swung at the man from the side, and when he put his sword up to block he stumbled from the force of the blow. Arthur quickly delivered a flurry of blows and as quickly as the fight had started it ended with the man's head rolling on the ground.

Arthur turned to see how Jon was doing against his opponent, and was quite surprised to find Jon standing over the body of his dead opponent. Arthur looked down at Jon's opponent and saw he couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen, and had clearly been living in poverty his whole life, seeing how weak he looked.

Arthur looked at Jon and put a hand on the boy's shoulder and said: "You did good."

Line Break

Jon Stark

Near Highgarden

Jon could see Highgarden just off in the distance, and it was the biggest city Jon had ever seen, since his Uncle had decided to go around King's Landing. Actually, when Jon thought about it his Uncle acted very strange about going to King's Landing, he repeatedly insisted on not stopping there, almost as if their lives depended on it.

Jon pushed that thought to the side as the city in front of him grew bigger. They quickly passed through the outer gates and went into the city with no one stopping them, unlike in Winterfell. The city wasn't as big as places like King's Landing or Lannisport, but it had to have been more beautiful. There wasn't a single person who appeared to be living in poverty, everyone looked decently fed and clothed. Every house they passed had at least a few flowers growing somewhere, a few houses even looked as if they were made only of flowers and a few other plants.

The closer they got to the castle the nicer every house looked. Jon marveled at the size of some of the houses, a few of them were bigger than some of the inns in Winter Town, and each house was more eloquent and beautiful than the last. Much like the rest of the city, the walls of the Higarden keep were white, clean, and well decorated. They were much different from the walls of Winterfell, they were much nicer to look at, but the walls of Winterfell were much more practical, and would fare much better in the event of a siege.

They stopped at the gates and his Uncle yelled something up at the guards that he didn't hear, as he was too busy studying the intricate carvings in the walls, and the gate opened and they went inside.

As soon as they got inside they dismounted and a servant took their horses away to the stables. Jon looked at the keep itself and was very impressed with the beauty of it, with flowers growing almost everywhere and everything was very clean, but much the same as the walls it was more to look at than anything, and it would fare much worse then Winterfell's keep in a siege as Highgarden had few easily defendable locations.

Jon saw a family who he assumed were the Tyrells standing in front of the keep waiting for them.

They got quite close to them and a fat man who Jon assumed was Lord Tyrell stepped forward and Jon and his Uncle dipped their heads and said "My Lord."

The man smiled at them and said: "Lord Stark, Lord Dayne welcome to Highgarden."

Sorry I had to end it there. Up next Jon meets the Tyrells, and a certain member of the Kingsguard.