Chapter 10: The Stag's Fall

It was early morning, soldiers were still getting on their gear as Cregan got out into the courtyard. They've been traveling for a month now, they were getting closer and closer to the capital but for the next few days they will be stationed at Lord Darry's keep. Something The King was obviously thrilled about because that meant a feast will be coming.

"Come on, Sif, were going hunting" Cregan grabbed his black ironwood bow and strapped on his swords to his back while Sif was barking happily at his master. "We're going to see if that one good eye can still helps us get good game" he patted his wolfs head as the two left their chambers and went to the stables.

On the way he saw both Lannister and Baratheon guardsmen drinking and singing together while the Stark household guard kept to themselves. Before he could reach the stables he saw his little sister Arya and Lyarra running past him but before they could do that he caught both of them "Where are you two going?" he lifted both of them into the air stopping them dead in their tracks. "Were going to meet with Mycah in the Ruby Ford" Arya's eyes were gleeming with exitement "Mycah?", "The butchers boy" Lyarra, who was able to hide her exitement better was still trying to get her feet back on the ground. "Alright, but don't get into any trouble" he dropped the girls as they ran off. He heard a whimper from his direwolf as he saw him tugging on his leg "Don't worry, Mycah's a good kid, there gonna be safe with him" he tapped his wolf on the head once again calming him down. "Now let's go, I want us to get out of here as soon as possible".

Eddard's POV

"... And then the boy ripped off the arrow from his shoulder and started to cleave his way through the rest of the fuckers" Eddard was listening to the story of their hunt near Winterfell for what seemed to be the hundreth time, Robert had a whore on his lap and a flask of wine in his hand as he was talking about the battle, sorrounded by dozens of men. "You should've seen him, the boy was as fast as a phantom and was taking out the arrows mid-air". 'Gods, must he overembelish this story every time he tells it' Eddard thought to himself while taking a sip of wine.

The story continued for hours, as it finished and everyone left the room leaving only Eddard and Robert.

"Ned...", "NED!" the king snapped him from his thoughts with a roar. "What's with you, you've got that look again?" Robert was still drinking his flask of wine while Eddard was only staring at his half-empty cup. "Why do you overembelish this story Robert", "Oh come on Ned, what's wrong with giving the boy some fame, who knows, maybe he'll meet a nice girl that way" Robert let out a small chuckle but Eddard's face was still stern. "You haven't known him as long as I have Robert, he doesn't want that" Eddard finnaly drank some more wine while Robert started to sigh. "My age is catching up to me Ned", Eddard looked to him with confusion in his eyes, "I don't know, maybe it's just my way to thank him for saving my worthless ass"

Flashback

"I... Fucking... Hate... Poachers"
Twenty armed men started to swarm them with swords, axes, maces, bows, crossbows and wooden shields. Eddard lifted his sword to prepare for combat as Robert did the same with his warhammer. Ser Barristan got into a defensive stance preparing for the onslaught of marauders. Eddard turned to his son who had his hand on the wounded shoulder where the arrow struck "Cregan, RUN!", Cregan's face was blank, after a few moments of silence he finnaly spoke

"No..."

With one word all of their eyes widened as Cregan took both of his swords in each hand and burst into a sprint, jumping past Barristan, Eddard and Robert before taking down the first man. "SEVEN HELLS!" one of the poachers screamed out while looking at the corpse of one his comrades that Cregan had beheaded in the blink of an eye. "Who's next?" Cregan was potraying no emotions while half of his face was covered in the blood of the fallen bandit, when he looked towards the poachers it seemed like most of them had already shit themselves. "Archers!" the person who appeared to be the leader of the group screamed out to reveal rows men armed with bows and crossbows. Each one of them shot an arrow at Cregan, he was both hitting and dodging the arrows but some of them connected, an arrow was lodged in his leg, thigh and right shoulder but that didn't stop him. No matter what they threw at him Cregan got out of it with either sheere strength or cunning speed, cutting down one bandit as each other second passed, while Cregan was carving his way to what he believed to be the leader of the group Eddard, Barristan and Robert were focusing on killing as many bandits as they can and staying alive. "YOUR GRACE LOOK OUT!" Ser Barristan yelled out and started to run towards his king while an arrow was going straight towards Robert's face. As the arrow came closer and closer to his face time slowed down as he noticed a blade slashing in the way of the arrow, ripping it in half. "What?" he looked to his right to see Cregan parrying each arrow the came at him both shielding Robert and himself. While Barristan and Robert stopped dead in their tracks to look in awe at the spectacle Eddard noticed something...

'He's slowing down' as he took down another poacher Eddard noticed his son parrying less and less arrows, but then he heard crossbows loading up from his left, all of them aiming at Cregan, "CREGAN GET OUT OF THERE" Eddard screamed to try and warn his son but before he could finish the arrows were already flying towards Cregan. Normally, Cregan could easily parry the arrows, but his wounds finnally got to him. He was still able to take out two or three arrows but most of them got a hit on him. As Sif saw this his grief turned to rage to see his master in pain, he let out a howl before charging at the leader of the group, jumping at him and tearing apart his throat, ripping of his head in the process. As the leader died all of the poachers started retreating in fear of the direwolf.

The three ran up to the barely conciouss and gravely wounded boy. "Cregan" his father shouted out while kneeling near him. "I'll live..." Cregan could barely speak, his arrow wounds were covering almost his entire body and yet somehow he was still alive. As Eddard was carrefully breaking the arrows of Cregan they heard a rough cough as Sif started to growl at the wounded man. "Tha- that fucking... demon" Barristan and Robert approached him with Barristan placing his sword on the poachers neck. "Who sent you?, How come there were so many of you?" Eddard started to question him, still at his son's side resulting in the wounded man to let out a laugh "You think i'm gonna tell you anything, i'm a dead man" Robert lifted his warhammer as his face started tu burn with rage "Aye, you are but if you don't answer our questions i'll make sure to make your death as painfull as possible" he then forced his hammer on one of the wounded man's legs breaking it in the procces. "AGH, AGH, alright... alright, please stop" he stopped Robert as he was about to break the other leg.

"We... we all gathered up to try and kill that monster..."
"He's been killing us for two years now and we thought if more of us grouped up we could finnally kill HIM" he looked towards Cregan who, like him, was struggling to breathe because of his wounds

"That Monster killed my friends... cut of his arms and spilled his guts on the floor..."

The sentence forced a laugh from Cregan...

"Wha- what are you laughing at you monster!" he forced a shout, barely able to push the words from his mouth

Cregan got up and looked at the wounded man

"You fucking people..."
"You rape... you kill... you steal..."
"But the moment something happens to you... you call it a crime"
"When will you people learn..."

"You can't kill me..."
"No one can..."

Cregan's face turned stone-cold, his smile dissapearing and his eyes narrowing. "You... YOU BASTA-" before the wounded man could finish his sentence Barristan placed his blade into the man's heart., ending his misery. Cregan then fell unconcious as the three carried him of from the field of corpses.

End of Flashback

"I'll never forget those words Ned" Robert's face turned into dissapointment as he looked down at his stomach, reminising about his younger days, when he was as powerful as him.

Note:
There you have it people chapter 10, and with that I will reveal the name of Cregan's swords, ahem drumroll please...

Frostbite and Demonsteel,
My regards to Lord Precision for these names, there were other good names as well for instance Moonlight Fury, Wolf's Rage, MoonWolf etc. But I wanted to keep the names to just a single word plus these names sounded cool and fitting.

As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thank you for all the reviews, favourites and follows and I will see you next time...