The more Ned learnt of the situation the more incredulous he became. Apparently Duskendale, once prosperous port has been in decline for a century due to the development of port at Kingslanding. With decline of Duskendale came the shrinking coffers of House Darklyn. The current lord of Duskendale, one Dennis Darklyn, wanted to change this and asked for a new charter for Duskendale similar to the one Dorne has, Lord Tywin firmly rejected Lord Denys, in protest Duskendale hasn't been paying their taxes for about six months now, for some reason, the King Aerys Targaryen went to negotiate with Lord Denys and has been taken hostage.

Ned didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the stupidity of it all, what kind of moron thinks it's a good idea to take a King hostage, his own sworn King no less, it might have worked on Baelor the Blessed, as it did for Dornish, there can be many things said about Aerys Targaryen but he is no Baelor the Blessed. Lord Denys Darklyn consigned his House to be attainted at best and to be extinguished root and stem at worst, at the moment he took Aerys hostage. But the fate of House Darklyn isn't a concern of Ned, the King is, the King should be fucking everyone's concern.

Maybe it's best to think on this with a night's rest, thought Ned and fell asleep, only to have the first greendream that was not metaphorical in nature and that he could remember with frightening clarity.

Ned is in long hall lavishly decorated with tapestries and dragon skulls, infront of a monstrous chair made out of swords that he identified as the Iron Throne, a man he identified as King Aerys sat on it, but this Aerys is much different to the man he met at Lannisport, whereas that man was impeccably groomed and richly dressed, this one was stick thin, with wild hair, over grown nails and wore greasy, stained clothes and had madness in his eyes. " Bring forth my champion", he commanded in a reedy rasping voice all the while cackling madly and suddenly there is a pyre made and a man chained to it, with a green viscous substance poured over the pyre and the man ,then King said with a mad cackle, " Fire is the champion of House Targaryen ".And the man started burning in green flames, his pained horrified screams sounded remarkably like a wolf's howls.Ned woke up gasping for air and a dry throat, it was still dark out, his mind started racing, that was a greendream, the King would or could go mad and that madness results from Duskendale. A mad King isn't good for anything, neither the Realm nor the North. Anyone who says otherwise is mad themselves. Mad Kings destabilize the Realm, and the North cannot afford instability, we are only just starting to prosper, nothing should be allowed to risk it. Mad Kings bring chaos and war, that cannot be allowed. Either the King has to be rescued before he goes mad or the King has to die before he goes mad. But the King's death at this juncture brings it's own instability, Rhaegar needs to be married, have an heir and a solid alliance behind him before he could ascend the Throne, position of House Targaryen is incredibly weak right now, their House is small with only four members, of them half consists of a woman of frail health and a toddler, if the King dies, the Great Houses will smell blood in the waters and start circling like sharks. As soon as the King dies, Tywin Lannisters will take Iron Throne into his irongrip, he will pressure Rhaegar into marrying Cersei Lannister. That cannot be allowed, the winged wolf must be born, the one with fur as white as Weirwood bark and eyes as red as a Heart Trees tears, a direwolf who can breath fire, something is coming, we will need him, so the King must not die, at least not yet, and must not be allowed to go mad. That means he need to be rescued. But I don't have the skills required for rescue, I can scout the place by warging, I can find where the King is being held, but I don't have the skills for slipping in and getting the King out unnoticed. This needs a specialist, at that something niggled at the back of his mind, an old story, crannogmen, ah, there is a story that there was a crannogmen contingent who served Old Kings of Winter as assassins and sabotuers, it might just be a rumour, even if this contingent existed there is no guarantee that it exists now. But what do I have to lose by asking crannogmens overlord Lord Reed, nothing. Good that's a plan, but Ned needs to do more, to make sure. Ah an encoded letter of warning to Rhaegar will serve.

Rhaegar,

I heard the news about the King, it is imperative that he is rescued as soon as possible, I had a greendream about what would happen if we don't and consequences of failure are dire. Do whatever you can to see the King rescued. I will be at Duskendale within a month with hopefully some help. I go towards the North in search of this help. Be careful.

Sincerely,

Ned.

He sent two encoded copies of the letter to Dragonstone and Kingslanding and destroyed the original. There is no point in writing anything to Greywater Watch. The crannogmen come when a Stark needs them, there never was any need for summons and messengers when a Stark needed a Reed, they would be there, Ned believed, as they have been since the Marsh King bent the knee to Winter King millennia ago.

Even with as little sleep Ned had, he was promptly mounting his horse by the break of the dawn, alongside his escort of twenty guards, the men from Winterfell who remained with Ned after delivering the Royal gifts.

Neds party stopped for a midday meal beside the highroad a few hours away from the Bloody Gate. As Ned was mid bite eating jerky, Ironeyes suddenly yanked on their bond and Ned was looking through the direwolfs eyes at men in mishmashed leather armour, holding rusted blades and armed with bows sliently encircling a camp, their camp. Suddenly he was in his own body, discarding the jerky and equipping a shield and standing up shouting, " TO ARMS! SHIELDS OUT! CLANSMEN"

In half a minute the guards formed a circle equipped with shields and spears with Ned in the centre, Ned ordered Ironeyes to hunt down the men with bows and about thirty clansmen with painted faces came pouring out woods bellowing war cries.

Ned pulled harder on the bond to further enhance his senses, the world came into perfect clarity and his mind focused, at a faint sound Ned tilted his head just enough that an arrow whizzed by where his head used to be, the arrow slipped out of formation in a gap between guards and they gave out their own war cry, " For Winterfell! For the North!".

The first casualty was a clansmen that went down to an arrow from one of the guards, by the time they closed the distance four more went down. Ned sensed that Ironeyes kept the clansmen archers busy when in took down three of them in a minute.

The clansmen were upon them, while they fought fiercely, they had no discipline, the guards kept to the formation and fought systematically, the guards spears gave them advantage in reach. When a guard directly infront of Ned went down due to a blow by a thick wooden club to his helmed head, Ned stepped in to close the ranks. The clansmen who brought the guard down raised his club for a overhead strike but he was too slow. Ned stepped inside his reach and thrust Wolf's Fang into his heart, when the enemy started lose strength and dropped the club Ned immediately retracted his blade, just as the blade came out Ned heard whistle of a blade on the right side of his helmed head, he ducked down and stepped back, as the man who swung at his head exposed his flank by over extending his swing, Ned stepped in, slashed vertically and cut a deep furrow in enemys side, when the enemy turned towards Ned with a cry of pain with his axe lowered Ned once again stepped in a cut his throat out with a horizontal swing, he dropped his axe and ineffectually clutched at his ruined throat, as he swung the sword, Ned got his first clear look of his enemy, even with paint covering his face Ned could see that man he killed wasn't much of a man at all, only a boy about his age, Ned couldn't look away as he watched life leave eyes as grey as his own.

The sound of combat died down and Ironeyes came out of the woods with his muzzle covered in blood and glistening drops of blood on his coat. Ironeyes nudged Ned in the side and lick his free hand. At that Ned came of out of the trance he had been in and dragged his eyes away from the boy's, I have killed, I took two lives, Ned thought to himself, Not the time,Ned, a voice that suspiciously sounded like Robert chided.

" Are there any wounded among our men?",Ned asked loudly.

" No, my lord. Only minor cuts, the one that went down was just knocked out, he is possibly concussed but nothing we can do about it", the Captain replied.

" Good, that's good" Ned released a sigh of relief and continued, "stack the bodies to a side, loot the bodies of anything of value, there are some more in the woods that Ironeyes killed, loot and stack them too. No need to dig any graves or make any pyres, we will send someone to do that from Bloody Gate when we reach it. Whatever is looted from the bodies is to be distributed among yourselves. Men! you have fought well, you guarded my life, for that you have my thanks and ten silver stags to each of you, I would have given only five each if any of you died, but since you proved yourselves true Northmen once again by having each other's backs you get ten"

To that there were cheers from the guard. The battle hasn't even taken five minutes from start to finish, but the aftermath took about an hour. Ned took a closer look at the first man he killed, he looked about five years older than Ned, and had brown hair and blue eyes, does he have a wife and a child waiting for him, Ned felt tears sting his eyes and gorge rise in his throat. Not the time or the place, Ned. He could fall apart when he was not infront of his men. All these clansmen had Northern faces, blood of First Men, same as my blood. Again, not the time. Ned kept his face blank and they are on road again.

" Your first kill, my lord? ", Captain Cassel asked softly drawing parallel to Ned

Ned swallowed a dry throat and replied in a whisper , " Yes "

" It will get easier with time, my lord "

" That's what I was afraid of ", Ned replied and they remained silent after that and reached the Bloody Gate in a few hours.

Ned informed Knight of the Gate, Ser Nestor Royce of attack and where the bodies were. He handed of his men to the Maester for a check up after having got one himself and retired to his assigned rooms.

As soon as his the door closed behind him, Ned threw up in the chamber pot with tears flowing down his cheeks and sobbing.

Sleep that night took a long time coming and when it came it was restless one.