Chapter 34: No Regrets

Renly is dead.

During the capture of Bitterbridge he was assasinated however no one knows who he was assasinated by but the safest bet was Stannis. After his death, all of Renly's army split into two sides, The Reachmen, who emediately withdrew from the Stormlands, and The Stormlanders, who bent their knee to Stannis the moment he came back to Renly's camp. As for Cregan, he decided that it was time to finally meet back with his family, Vesemir and his group decided to tag along for reasons Cregan couldn't figure out.

And so they started traveling towards the Riverlands with only their weapons, their clothing and armor as well as the bare neccesities in terms of supplies. Most days were filled with traveling with the only conversations being between Cregan's companions as he wasn't quite in the mood for talking. They would stop at the usual inn for a good nights rest before continuing with the routine, travel as far as you can before passing out from exhaustion.

Despite him not communicating much, Cregan did occasionaly converse with Vesemir, who was proving to be good enough company.

Vesemir would tell Cregan of their grand adventures, of how they would explore lost tombs, how they would take contracts and bounties as well as tales of their travels throughout the entirity of Westeros. Many were exhagarated of course but some sounded like flat out lies and completely unbelievable. One day the group decided to take an entire days break from travel seeing as they ran into an inn. In the inn, Vesemir once again spun a tale for Cregan.

Three years ago, Vesemir and his group were traveling along the roads of The North when they stumbled across a village. The smallfolk in the village were all bruised, beaten or completely injured. Their homes burned down and most of their fields and croops rotten beyond belief. When they asked who did this most of the villagers were reluctant to answer but the man who they presumed to be the elder took a step forward. "Bandits" the elder started, "They come here every week to extort more and more of our goods and when we refuse to give them any... well... you can see the results". The state of the village was horrendous that it made Lily almost throw up from the smell of rotting crops and dead animals while Tarkus only looked around the village, his face neutral yet equally disgusted by the sight. However, the most disturbed by this seemed to be Rodrick, who only stared at the almost dead villagers with a glare of empathy. Vesemir noted all these things, he knew the effects bandits would cause on simple villagers, and he knew how these things would always end, a village razed and the scum who raised it even more fat from it's spoils. And so he decided to help course it wasn't as simpled as it sounded. The bandits consisted of a large group of deserters, highwaymen and simple looters. The villagers said there were about 400 of them, the largest group of bandits Vesemir and his friends had faced so far. Vesemir by himself could probably take them all on but not without taking massive amounts of wounds, Tarkus and Rodrick were extremely skilled but the bandits were bound to have archers and Tarkus can only cover them for so long. Edwyn would be preoccupied by healing the wounded villagers and Lily wasn't much help in a massive battle, her only sort of combat skill being with her small hunting knife, she still wasn't the expert marksman she is now, so she would also help the villagers for now. Despite the odds semingly being against them Vesemir had a plan, he would train the villagers. Those who were able to still fight and were willing were trained in whatever combat manner they could muster. The villagers, suprisingly, were quite adept in combat, many of them were hunters who knew how to wield spears and bows, others wielded scythes, pitchforks and other makeshift weapons. Rodrick would train the hunters, teaching them more in the ways of the bow and spear while Tarkus and Vesemir tried to whip the less experienced villagers into so they trained for a full week, stopping only to eat, drink and sleep. Until the day finally came, with their training they managed to make around 83 or so villagers ready for combat, less than Vesemir had expected but the deadline had come and the bandits arrived spirits weren't that high. It was about 80 or so unexperienced villagers and 3 men that actually knew what they doing against 400 bloodthirsty bandits. Vesemir, Rodrick and Tarkus made their way in front of the village alongside the villagers to meet the bandits were a 'riff-raff group of misfits' as Vesemir called them, avoiding calling them a 'Shit-eating band of cunts', because at that time Lily was also listening in on the story as well as Rodrick. The leader of the band was called Mamluk, a horrendous man, his face scarred beyond belief and his odor was as bad as rotting skin.

As Vesemir continued his tale all of the people in the tavern were already gathered around their table, many of them were farmers and fishermen who listened closely, the story seeming almost like from a fairy tale.

Vesemir and Mamluk exchanged names before the bandits all attacked the village and thus, the battle began. Vesemir, Rodrick and Tarkus were the first to clash with the bandits with the villagers having pitchforks charging first after them and the hunters staying back and showering the bandits with arrows. While Rodrick and Tarkus fought as many bandits as they could, Vesemir fought Mamluk one-on-one. They battle raged on for hours, Vesemir fought Mamluk, taking down the occasional bandit who tried to take him by suprise, Tarkus cleaved through dozens of bandits while Rodrick took a bandit down with every second that passed. Meanwhile, the villagers were doing their best to fight the bandits. Despite their number advantage, the bandits weren't nearly as combat trained as the villagers. Most of their attacks were mad swings, not having any direction or precision while the villagers were trained to be able to dodge and parry most of their swings.

Vesemir and Mamluk stood between each other, Mamluk wielded a two-sided battleaxe while Vesemir had his longsword, which he affectionately called 'FlameSinger'. Amongst the bandits, Mamluk proved to be the greatest and most powerfull fighter of them and proved to be quite the nuisance for Vesemir. While a heated battle was going on around them, all they could focus on was each other. The fight was tiring, Mamluk's sheer strength and brutality was almost matching Vesemir's speed and nimble nature, which was equally brutal. It was a hard fought battle but in the end, Vesemir stood victourious.

Mamluk laid defeated, on his knees and clutching his wounds to stop the bleeding. "Yield?" Vesemir raised his sword toward Mamluk's face. "F-... Fuck you old man..." Mamluk said as he spat blood at Vesemir's feet. To his response Vesemir spoke no words, he only let out a sly smirk before swinging FlameSinger, decapitating Mamluk and ending the battle.

That's where Vesemir ended his story, resulting in the pleads of many farmers to continue.

"Sorry lads but the rest of the story isn't that interesting" Vesemir sighed as he jugged down another cup of ale, on the house.
"Please Ser! Just tell us what happened to the village and it's people" one of the younger fishermen pleaded with Vesemir, clasping his hands together only for Vesemir to chuckle.

"Alright, alright... if you all really want to know..." Vesemir once again started.

In the end of it all the bandits dispersed the moment Mamluk died, terrified of how viciously maimed their leader was. The fact that 85 people won against 400 wasn't the most unbelievable thing though. The fact that no villagers died during the entire battle was the most confusing thing, some were injured however but none were above a bruise or some cuts and scratches. To wrap the story short Vesemir went straight to the end. The bandits were defeated and the village saved, in a show of gratitude the villagers rounded up as much supplies as they can and offered it to them as a reward. However Vesemir refused, stating that they needed it much more than he or his companions did.

And so they rode off into the sunset, a village saved and a giant group of bandits defeated. An ending almost fitting of a fairy tale due to it's sheer unbeliavable nature but Cregan knew better. He fought alongside them, he saw their combat skills first hand and after their whole debauckle in Bitterbridge, they earned themselves Cregan's respect.

3 hours later...

Through the evening Vesemir told all the tales of their adventures to the many people in the inn. All of it took so long that, by the end of it, the sun had already set. Cregan and Rodrick sat beside Vesemir with Lily falling asleep and leaning on Rodrick's shoulder. When Vesemir told his last tale, all of the people dispersed, the farmers and fishermen went to their homes, some sellswords and traveling mercenaries that were also listening went to their rooms for the night, Rodrick carried Lily to her room, being sure not to wake her up. With all the listeners leaving the only people that were left were Vesemir and Cregan.

Out of the entire crowd, Cregan seemed to be lost in his thoughts, staring intentively at his drink with wandering eyes.

"Something wrong lad?" Vesemir turned to Cregan with his friendly smile that he would often use to charm men into not killing him, or to charm their wives into bed.
"You look worried..." Vesemir continued, to no response from Cregan.
"..." Cregan stayed silent, continously staring at his drink while scratching at the handle of his cup.
"Your thinking about that lass Margaery aren't you?" Vesemir's words made Cregan clock his head instantly towards Vesemir.
"Ah, so I was right" Vesemir said rather proudly, taking a sip from his drink in the process.

"H-" Cregan was confused at Vesemir's powers of observation. Cregan would usually do his best to not show any emotions, giving even the best people readers a challenge. But Vesemir figure him out almost instantly.

"How? Listen lad, I've propably been with more women than Robert Fucking Baratheon. Some of them was out of love, some were because I just wanted a night of fun, but in my years of experience trust me when I say this. I know when two people are in love. You think I didn't notice how you two looked at each other in Renly's camp." Vesemir started to boast about his skills in romance, jugging down the rest of his last drink.
"Get to the point Vesemir" Cregan returned to his neutral face, also taking one last sip from his drink.
"My point, dear Stark, is that you have to stop thinking about how much you love her and show how much you love her" Vesemir's 'Words of Wisdom' as he would often call them made Cregan raise an eyebrow.

"Stop thinking about the consequences of your decisions. In this world, every day we live out could be our last." Vesemir continued only to be cut off by Cregan.
"So what? Your saying we run away together? That I kidnap Mace Tyrell's only daughter like Rhaegar did with my aunt?" the mention of Rhaegar Targaeryen made Vesemir's eyes sour up a bit before returning to his normal, drunk expression.
"What would you rather do? Live and die regreting the fact that you were never able to tell each other how you felt?" Vesemir now shared Cregan's cinycism in tone yet his was much more softer and well spoken.

"The only thing were allowed to do is to believe we don't regret the decision's we make. We must make our choices, and live with them for the rest of our lives".

Later that night...

Cregan couldn't sleep. Something that was becoming an ongoing thing due to his nightmares becoming more and more frequent. He still felt his bones ache whenever he would think of his last nightmare. Cregan decided the best thing to do was to avoid sleep, so he just kept himself awake by either polishing his blades or doing other trivial things. Tonight was different though, Cregan couldn't sleep because of what Vesemir told him. Any thought of Margaery would usually cheer him up, but now all he could feel is worry for her. What was going to happen to her? What was The Reach going to do? What side would they take? All these thoughts ran through Cregan's mind. Then something snapped in him, he started humming a song. The song that would always bring life back to him. After a few seconds of humming, he quietly started singing...

'Chairs so close a room so small'
'You and I talk all the night long'
'Meager this space but serves us all well'
'We comrades have stories to tell'

'And it's always like that in the evening time'
'We drink and we sing when our fighting is done'
'And it's always so we live under the burnt clouds'
'Ease our burden long is the night'

'Dust and smoke, stars can't be seen'
'We all starve for a moonbeam on our town'
'We must all gather as one'
'Sing with hope and our fear will be gone'

All his worries dissapeared, he stopped thinking about the dangers of the world when he felt his eyes starting to get heavy. The song was almost like a lullaby for him, the moment he started singing made Cregan smile once again. His memories of Highgarden returned. Willas, Garlan, Loras, Margaery, he remembered all of them and their times together.

As the last bout of conciousness left Cregan's mind, he didn't have a care in the world. Cregan then fell asleep, calm for the first time in weeks.

Note:

Alright. Phew, another longer chapter.

Now, I want to ask you all a question. What do you guys think about Cregan? I want your honest thoughts and opinion on Cregan. Feel free to be constructive but PLEASE no flame.

As always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please do post your reviews and tell me your thoughts on the story so far, your advice etc. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows and I will see you all next time.