Tyrion immediately sent one of the hunters that had companied him with the letter his father had sent him, to Jose, no doubt wanting to show Jose what his father wanted.
The small man immediately bowed to me and went to his territory, no matter how many times I look at him I fail to see what some of the men say when they think no one is around.
The fact that someone so small, even managed o get to this age is a miracle in itself and now judging by the teeth, claws and damaged armor he brought with him.
The man is nowhere as weak as the men claim he is.
I can't help but feel myself smirk as I notice more than one woman try to catch his eye.
Still, I can't help but feel myself slowly becoming more and more worried, this war, itshoudnt...it wasn't supposed to be this way.
All we had to do was go in destroy the villages of those that attacked us and we would all be together again.
Jose would bring back with him slaves, beasts and whatever caught his eye, we might have even gotten more land, but now he had to go somewhere that was perhaps even more dangerous than the forest itself.
The loud thump of Miguel falling to the ground as his teacher dodged his attack brought a smile to my face and for a brief moment, he made me forget my worries.
The brothers have taken a liking to the different fighting styles that the men of the village use.
While Miguel prefers the precise yet powerful attacks of the knights.
Ismael has taken a liking to the quick and silent attack that the hunters use.
Both of them have their dogs with them all the time and the few times the dogs aren't with them the things are keeping watch over the two.
A rivalry is starting to grow between them, the men refused to simply teach either boy just one way of fighting and even used Jose as an example.
Jose had only recently learned how to fight as a knight and one would argue that he barely knew how.
He moved quietly and quickly because that's how he survived, just like the hunters.
It's because of this that both boys are learning from both groups of men, and it's for this reason that the boys play along with the recruits.
Their favorite game is knights vs hunters, one side wins sometimes the other, each time the teams will mix to make sure no one became too comfortable with one another.
However, there are hints that some of the boys are starting to separate themselves into their groups, all of them know that eventually Miguel and Ismael will one day lead them, and so they are positioning themselves behind the ones they would rather be ruled over by.
The girls are learning how to do what they can, cooking, cleaning, writing, and even learning the proper way to speak to people.
I wish I could join the boys in their training, but William's wives have fully taken up their roles as my tormentors.
I can hear them calling to me and force me to rejoin them.
They continue to teach me the ways of how women do things, and to my embarrassment, my girls already far surpass me in every way.
When we are sowing, their threads are well aligned and make figures that look as if someone that has sowed for years had done them, when they dance their small figures move elegantly and I'm thankful that I can at least cook better than they can.
At least I hope so.
My threads seem more like noughts and only make a jumbled mess when I dance, I look more like a fool than a lady and when we are speaking in doublespeak I fail to understand what anyone is saying.
"You just need practice" Williams wife tells me as she looks at the boy's training.
"Jose chose you out of every other woman in the world, you need this to deal with everyone else, but when it's all said and done the one he wanted is you."
"Thing about that" she says to me before leaving my side and rejoining Williams's other wives.
[Jose]
One of Tyrion's men hands me a letter that one of the hunters brought, I can't understand anything that's written on the thing so I hand it over to William who reads it to me.
The old man looks at me grimly.
"You have to go, but you need someone you can trust to stay behind, tell me who do you choose and I'll tell them what they have to do while we are gone" he says to me.
"William I only have you" I answer him.
We look at each other before the old man has a look of realization pass by him.
"I need you to trust me" he says to me but he doesn't wait for me to answer.
"All of you choose those that you trust the most, twenty or thirty of them will go back to the village we destroyed and rebuild it!"
"Congratulations, it's yours to rule over at least until this war is over!" All of the men begin to murmur to themselves excitedly.
"Now comes the troublesome part, if those of you that are Lannister want that village you are forfeting this one, the same goes for us, if we take that one then you keep this one!"
Everyone became silent and I can hear the snowfall from the branches above me.
"Its no different from the main town, one you, one us. So choose!" William announces to everyone.
All of the men begin to talk to one another and two groups are formed in the end a member of each group says something to the member of the other group and both men shake hands.
"We will take the other village" one of the Lannister men says to us and William just lowers his head sending the man and a group of soldiers back with him.
This lowered the number of soldiers we already had to defend the outpost\village.
I felt William shove me a little and I knew what I had to do, but the men I had in front of me were a mixture of Lannister knights, mercenaries, hunters and what few men I had loyal to me.
The ones that everyone piked step forward!" I said and the men immediately stepped forward, to my surprise there weren't any mercenaries or Lannister knights amongst them.
"You will be in charge of this village until I come back!" I say to them and William immediately points at one of the men before separating him and starts to write things down for him.
There are still a lot of men left, enough for a good defense, but not enough to mount any real kind of attack.
"I'm not your lord, but until we can get more soldiers we are going to build up our defenses. Your job is to be the guards between the villages." I say to the Lannister knights.
"The same goes for the rest of you teach them how we do things, help them collect the scales" I say to the men hat I hope are loyal to me and all of them simply raise their weapons, half of the men and knights leave while the other half begin to set up their new guard positions.
This can really come back and hurt me, like it or not, but more often than not, things like this become a permanent thing.
People become adjusted in doing things a certain way and it becomes easier to maintain them rather than change them.
"I'm going with you" William says to me as he walks back to my side, with him is one of the hunters and one of the knights that pledged loyalty to me.
"The hunters are unstoppable in the forest my lord, any betrayal will be dealt with" the knight says to me, as he tries to reassure me.
"You're going to need an honer guard, three men should be enough, me, him and I suggest one of the hunters" William says to me, before he stops and points at one of the mercenaries.
"Or you can use someone that no one expects to be loyal to you"
"Do we have to go now, William?" I ask my old friend.
The old man looks at me and his face looks older somehow.
"I wish I could say no, but the truth is you should have done this sooner."
"The Lannisters have an interest in keeping you alive, the only reason is that they don't understand how you stayed alive until now and as time passes they will learn how."
"They want these lands and the riches within them, you hold the key to that. Now you have to prove that only you can assure the people's survival and keep the trade between our lands working"
I turn to look at the other knight the man's expression is equally as grim as Williams.
"So I have to prove its a good idea to keep sending us soldiers and that it's better for them to keep me alive," I said to William and the knight who both just lower their heads in agreement.
I can't help but feel a cold breath on my chest.
