A.N. Hello everyone. Time for the next chapter. But first, you guessed it, Stat Chart
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It's onto the confrontation with Gryff. I'm gonna change things a bit with it. Now forwards! To the story!
In the following days the Whitehills had stolen supplies, leaving the smallfolk coming to Ironrath for help. Gwyn Whitehill's warning of a spy only caused some paranoia in the small council, but otherwise was left alone for awhile. Rodrick was walking with James and Duncan by his side, discussing their food supplies when Gryff barges through the doors with Talia in his grasp and a Whitehill soldier nursing a swollen hand.
"Good, you're here" Gryff says, dragging Talia over, "Look at what this girl has done to my soldier"
They look to see a nasty bit mark on the Whitehill soldier's hand.
"Your sister attacked my man. This won't go un-punished Rodrick" Gryff says
"Are you afraid of a little girl?" Rodrick taunts
"Yeah, looks like it. She is pretty vicious after all" James says
"What!? I'm not afraid. Your people need to learn their place Rodrick, and it starts at the top"
"Watch your tongue boy" Royland says from the sidelines
"You need to get your men under control" Rodrick says
"My men aren't the problem here Rodrick, you need to get your people under control"
Talia pulls her arm out of Gryff's grasp and walks behind James.
"I saw him stealing food from our kitchen," Talia says, "I told him to stop, but he laid his hands on me, so I bit him"
"Resourceful" James says, with Talia giving him a smile
"That's the problem with you Forresters isn't it? Too f*cking proud, always have been. It was bad enough when you were above us. But now it's even worse, because you don't even see how far you've fallen!"
Talia approached Gryff and says, "Still high enough to look down at you!"
"Now here's a brave and wise girl. A girl that knows how to speak the truth of things" Royland praises
"No. A girl who should know her station!" Gryff says
Duncan tries to intervene, but fails. Gryff pushes Talia down to the ground, into some mud, covering the side of her face. Rodrick and James help her up, with James cleaning some of the mud off her face.
Once her face has been cleaned of most of the mud, James turns back to Gryff and punches him in the jaw. Gryff responds in a similar way, but hits James with a uppercut. Due to Gryff's large size he knocks James down on his back.
"You will learn some humility" Gryff says
"I have to say, you've grown some balls" James says
"Want me to gut him little brother?" Melissa says, grabbing the hilt of her sword
"To easy. Men!"
James' soldiers pulled out their swords and surrounded the Whitehills. James stood back up ad smirked at Gryff.
"Besides growing some balls, you've also grown in stupidity"
"How dare you!? I am in charge here!"
"If my memory is correct, Rodrick is the lord, not you" James takes a few seconds to compose himself before speaking again, "You humiliate Talia, insult their lord, and dare lay your hands on me! You're lucky my father doesn't declare war on your pathetic house!"
A couple Whitehill soldiers look at James enraged face in fear. They saw how the Winter soldiers trained, and it was not pretty. The Whitehills preferred to use dulled blades to prevent injury, but the Winters used actual blades, and cut away at each other.
"You have to right to even be here" James says
"I am here under the orders of the Warden of the North, Roose Bolton" Gryff says, "Are you willing to oppose him?"
"Yes, because I know that he wouldn't dare attack his strongest ally"
Gryff's face contorts into a rage filled expression and pulls out his sword, James follows and signals for his men to not interfere. Gryff lunges at James, who merely side-steps and avoids Gryff. Gryff signals for his giant to fight, and he pulled out his sword. James cracks his neck and sheathes his sword.
"Come at me then" James says
The giant charges and swings at James. He merely rolls around the larger man and kicks him in his arse, knocking him forward onto the ground.
"Not very balanced, are you?" James taunts, enraging the giant as he got up
Gryff swings his sword at James' legs. James jumps up and stomps down on the blade. He then kicks Gryff in the face and slides the sword to one of his men.
"I'm getting bored now. And here I thought this might be a challenge" James says, walking away, "Fight me when you know how to"
"You will pay for this" Gryff says
"Oh shut up" James says, leaving with his men
James goes to the forest and leaves his men on their own. He walks around to collect himself before sitting down and leaning against an ironwood tree. Talia found him and slowly approached him.
"Are you alright?" Talia asks
James motions for Talia to take a seat. She sits down and rests her head on James' shoulder.
"I'm sorry the did that to you" James says, wrapping an arm around Talia's shoulder
"Don't blame yourself, it's Gryff's fault...and it looks like he's been thoroughly humiliated"
"Heh, sorry if I frightened you"
"You didn't...in fact I was happy that you defended me, thank you"
"It was no problem at all my lady"
The two sit like that for what seems like minutes before Lady Forrester comes to retrieve Talia, saying that it was time to prepare for bed. Talia gave James a bold kiss on the check and left with a small blush. James smiled as he left as well. He headed for his sister to ask about what happened after he left. He found her in the Great Hall, speaking to Lady Forrester.
"He deserved what he got!" Melissa says
"He could have Ryon executed because of what your brother did!"
"If he did then he'd lose a bargaining tool"
"He doesn't even need to have Ryon, he could easily attack us and take Ironrath by force!"
Hey! What's going on?" James asks
"Your sister seems to think that ti's acceptable to fight Gryff and humiliate him" Lady Forrester says
"And you think it was un-called for?"
"Exactly. This could be the death of Ryon, and I won't be able to do anything about it"
"If it comes to it, I will personally invade Highpoint and take Ryon back"
"It wouldn't work. They's use him as a hostage" Melissa says
"True, but there has to be something we can do" James says
"For now, little brother, we wait"
James nods and they all separate for the night.
The following days, Royland started training Rodrick in the forest, with Talia and James as spectators. Talia was resting her head on James' lap as they watched them practice. Royland used a move on Rodrick that knocked him down to the ground. Rodrick attempted the same thing and succeeded on the second try.
Lady Elaena chose that moment to walk into the area with a younger guy in armor. Talia jumped up and welcomed Elaena, saying, "I hear we are to be sisters" in a happy tone. Everyone was politely dismissed. Of course they figured out what was going on when Rodrick brought the Glenmore Elite Guard through the gate.
Rodrick met James at the gate. Rodrick introduced the younger man as Arthur, Elaena's younger brother. Lady Forrester came running to Rodrick, saying that the maester and Gryff had a "disagreement" and things were out of hand. "I'll get my men" James says, running of to gather the Winter soldiers.
James rendezvoused with Arthur outside the doors to the Great Hall. The Winter soldiers were armed with spears and shields while the Glenmore's had their bows in their hands. Soon, the sound of an annoyed Gryff could be heard when he hit the floor. The bang of the cane was then heard, and then things got serious.
The side doors were kicked open, and the front door was kicked open by James. The Winter and Glenmore soldiers surrounded the Whitehills, which only consisted of four people, which included Gryff.
"What is this!?" Gryff yells as they two armies trained their weapons on the Whitehills.
"What are your orders?" Arthur asks
"Kill anyone that moves" Rodrick responds
One poor Whitehill backed up a bit, and had an arrow through his throat. One Winter soldier threw his spear at the other soldier, which impaled him through his chest. Lady Forrester helped the maester get away from the action ad into a safer range.
"You can't do this!" Gryff yells
"Now, about humility" Rodrick says
"Get your hands off me! " Gryff says as Glenmore soldiers hold him down. "My father will go straight to Roose Bolton. He'll flay you, your sister, and your whole f*cking family!"
"Shut your bloody mouth Gryff" James says
"I did warn him, did I not?" Rodrick says
"You gonna hurt me?" Gryff says, "Your friends won't be around forever Rodrick. And when they're gone-"
Gryff was silenced by a punch to the side of his face, cutting it, from Rodrick. He punched again before bashing the side of his head with his cane.
"That's enough!" Gryff yells
James walks up to Gryff and stares him down. He then nods to one of his men, who takes a chunk of ice from a pouch and hands it to James.
"Fear the Cold" James says, giving Gryff a punch and quickly shoves the piece of ice and his mouth
James rams his mouth shut, crushing the ice. James then punches him, which causes the ice to scrape the inside of his mouth. He punches again, making the shattered ice cut Gryff's mouth again. James nods to Rodrick, letting him take over. Rodrick turns to Arthur and says, "Confine the Whitehills to the cellars. No one gets in, or out"
Arthur nods and leaves with his prisoners and men. Lady Forrester tells Rodrick that all the ravens must be killed to prevent news from reaching Highpoint. While the ravens were being put down, James and Melissa met together to discuss what their next move should be.
If we must, we'll invade Highpoint and take Ryon back" Melissa says
"Perhaps we can use Gryff as a bargaining chip" James responds
"Possibly, but remember, he is the fourth-born, and Lord Whitehill might not even care"
"Oh he will. He values family, just like us"
"Right"
In the days following, Rodrick, Talia and James were standing atop the watchtower when Lady Forrester approached them with a letter.
"What is it mother?" Rodrick asks
"Lord Whitehill has invited us to Highpoint"
A.N. Cue dramatic music! Cliffhanger., jeez, that's mean...oh well, lol. So that's it for now, and We'll have the Highpoint confrontation next chapter.
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Anyways stay awesome guys and gals of the world, and I'll see you next chapter
