Shortly after my tenth nameday in 252AC I got a glimpse of the cruelty in this world.
It was a nice evening. We had just had supper with some leftovers. My brother Theon and I would feed it to the small piglets we had in a pen the next day. They were a recent addition to our farm. The reach was a fertile country, but most of its land was already under plow. Second sons like me had not much chance to expand. The expansion of the pen for farm animals was a way to get more wealth and secure a dowry for my sister. Theon and I had just played with wooden swords as knights, as a knight came riding on his horse. He looked dishelved. His armor looked equally poor, but his sword was sharp. „Hello Ser, how can I help you?" my brother asked.
„I am Ser Quentin Robarts and would like to stay for the knight" he said in a gruff voice. My brother and I let him to our home, where he told my father about his travels. He was polite at first and accepted guest rights with bread and salt. He told some stories, of which I was not sure how much I should believe. My sister was already in bed and he kept toasting to my father. As he ate the leftovers there was nothing to feed the pigs with, so I had to feed them with something else. The sky grew dark and I made my way back indoors. The knight looked not like much, but my father said it was normal for traveling folk to look rugged. Ser Robarts was polite and offered to spar with me and my brother in the morning. His facade fell at night, when he killed my father and raped my mother. I managed to kill him with a kitchen knife, but he had already killed my family by then. Later I found my siblings in another room, where they had been sleeping. My sister lied dead on the floor and my brother, too was killed in a brutal manner. The smell of blood was strong and I threw up. I was alone in this world, again and cried for hours. At dawn I stood up.
"By the light!" I swore „I will never become a knight, but work hard to become a paladin again. To rid this world of such evil and make it a better place!"
I had not neglected my martial training during my childhood, but was not too focussed on it, as I waited puberty to hit. To keep my routine a secret I only did the minimal meditating exercises Uther did teach me as a mere boy and some fitness training masked as playing around. One day my brother had found me and ever since we „sparred" with sticks.
The following week after the murder I made plans after plans and tried to work out how and where I would go from here on out. My family had no distant relations left and I could not count on help from strangers. It made me take care of myself.
The next five years went by mostly in solitude. I plowed a small field near our home for sustenance. My family had used to plant different crops and vegetables on it to live from.
It was just big enough to use a four field crop rotation to live by and feed the animals.
I was alone and not strong enough, even using the light to empower my body, to care for everything. Being in my third go around did help me manage my time however and gave me the discipline I needed to not fall victim to laziness and other vices.
I managed to build a crude smithy for me to forge again, like I did so many years ago in Hearthglen. My father had build a small stable for the two horses my parents had acquired, which fell into disrepair. It was not rebuild by me, but kept in shape, instead.
On the hill behind our house I had buried the ashes of my family and made a memorial for them. Still ingrained in me were the teachings to burn the corpses after the scourge, to not let them being raised and used against you. The knights armor held not much metal and his weapon were both of low quality. With my smithy and skills I was able to mold them into steel to make a decent sword for me. To make charcoal was a pain and gathering and burning the necessary wood to begin smithing took me two years.
I would have loved a hammer, but I had not the right equipment to make me one, yet.
The sword was small but enough for me.
As the seasons changed during those five long years I had to life alone through two winters. The reach was not as heavily affected as I thought it would be and made life a little more bearable. My first winter in Westeros I was surprised it lasted for two years.
Never neglecting my training with the sword or training my connection to the holy light helped me build a solid foundation to work with. Thanks to my occlumency, I had retained my memories more clearly. This did not only help me learn the „common tongue", but also provided me with a „live" tutoring from Uther again.
Often in-between seeding and harvesting season I found myself wandering around our farm, scavenging parts and gathering all sorts of stuff. Hemp for ropes, clothes and other small things. Bark for my experiments and chalk I found by pure luck near a hill.
I made a simple training dummy to hit with my wooden sword and train with a bow.
If I was not farming, or building something, I would listen to the wind and write down my thoughts in a diary. Later I wrote down some knowledge I remembered in a booklet.
After I reinvented paper that is.
In autumn before my first winter I had some spare time. From the woods around the farm I gathered material to make paper. Not to be idle during the winter I finished to make a handful of books with a thick leather cover. Afterwards I wrote the Tome of Divinity from memory as my first book. The second Tome Uther gave Arthas as a boy and me for my own squire later on, I recorded there as well. The Light and how to swing it. Both were my rock, my refugee to hold onto in this light forsaken place and to remember my brothers and family by. It did strengthen my resolve as well as my connection with the Holy Light.
My second winter I was able to build some furniture and repaired damaged farming tools. A stool and a table and a small sideboard to stash some things in was all I could make, though. It was a nice day with a clear sky, but cold wind. The last hour I had spent cleaning the „kitchen" after a hefty meal I made myself. My last project to keep me busy I had rebuild the oven my mother had used to bake bread with. It was a little dumb of me, not doing it earlier, but the farm and my training kept me occupied. As a young squire to Uther he had me learn how to bake bread from all sorts of things found in the woods. He argued I needed to be able to survive in the wild and to feed the poor, in case famine struck. After Orc raids near Alterac, or Troll raids in Eastweald we helped the farmers to rebuild their homes and farms. Often the farms suffered famine and being not allowed to „hunt in the kings wood" severely limited their food supplies. During this time I learned how to woodcraft as well, to build ramshackle huts, or small fishing boats. Cooking had always been a way for me to connect both lives, now all three. Without Uthers and aunt Petunias teachings I would have died at age ten this time around. Me being preoccupied and only ten years old made me stay mostly at, or near my farm. Still I needed to buy some things, as well. In my rare ventures „into the outside world" I came across neighbors and peddlers, which traded for salt and other necessities I so desperately needed. At first I would say I was send by ma father as I could count and read, but later I could no longer hide it. During my „outings" I had ventured with some trappers for fur and such to make myself some armor and clothing, as well as new sheets for my bed.
The first winter was only one year long and the second two. I managed, barley.
The last two years I had to kill four people, trying to steal from me.
The self-made candle was almost burned down. I breathed down my diary to dry the ink and closed the small clay bottle, where I stored my ink. It was already dark outside. My sisters room I had rebuild in a small study and to work on experiments. My brothers and my room I had transformed into a storeroom. I slept in my parents room. Tomorrow I would leave and if I am being honest with myself, I was equally frightened and yearning.
Laying in my bed I tried to shut down my thoughts with occlumency and fell asleep.
Five and ten namedays old I stood strong and proud infront of the stables at about 1,80 meters tall with broad shoulders and big arms and hands. The winter training I remembered from my time in Northrend gave me strong legs and high endurance.
Several girls and their mothers from the nearby villages became overly „interested" with me, but I ignored most of them. Of course puberty was a bitch, but my moral standards were much higher than others and I was no manwhore.
Mind over body and all that jazz, with exceptions of course.
The Reach had been my home for ten namedays and place of residence for five, but it was time to leave and explore the world. I did look a lot like my father and nothing like the people in the reach. I learned that most were of "andal" descend, as the andals killed most of the „first-men" and my father and I were from "first men" descend, what ever that meant. Sadly I had no access to books, other than my own.
The last moon before my departure, I traded my farming tools for wool and linen.
Thanks again, Uther and Petunia. You are responsible for me learning how to sew and weave, to make my own clothing.
My blue eyes were very bright and my dark hair cut short, as I did not want to waist time caring for it. Building scissors to cut hair was a pain.
After many tests and more failures I had managed to carve working runes.
I carved them on the leather armor I made for myself. I had salvaged enough iron around the place to make me a back and breast plate made of steel. It was thin and to work on the steel took pretty long, as my smithy was crap, but the end result justified my suffering.
My trousers were made of leather and wool, too with paddings in them.
I did not like breaches most wear. After a long glance around I exhaled with a heavy sigh.
Sally, my work horse was saddled with luggage and supplies. Lorien, my „main" horse was equipped with my enchanted saddle and a spare lance. I was ready to leave.
After a last visit to the grave of my family I mounted my horse and left, the sun shining behind me, lighting the way forward.