Chapter 5
King's Landing
After watching Lady depart with the message I went back to the cave to sleep for the night. After following the caravan the following day I snuck into the camp to see where I could insert myself into the group. I quietly slipped through the crowds making sure to not be noticed as I kept my eyes down so as not to draw unwanted gazes. I paused here and there listening at the campfires to listen to the gossip.
Most of the information I picked up was a bunch of the soldiers being really crass about some whore they had been with and detailing exploits of sex and war with each other. The war stories were interesting due to the details they went into about their kills so it gave me ideas on how I could possibly dispatch others that tried to harm Arya or myself but other than that I tried to move along quickly.
Closer to the family quarters, wives and children of the soldiers that tag along helping with the chores around the caravan, I found a strange collection of kids all gathering around one lady as she dished out duties for them to do.
Seeing a golden opportunity I quickly inserted myself into the group as she continued down her list. "You there, with the black hair." She called out.
I quickly stepped forward.
"The blacksmith needs an extra pair of hands seeing as his apprentice finally out grew the old drunk and ran off to be journeyman. You look strong enough so until he finds someone else you are to go over and help him with a couple of his chores that need doing like sharpening blades and the like. Won't be any truly heavy work till we get to King's Landing in a few days, so hopefully it won't be too tasking for you." She stated quickly explaining the situation to me.
"He's got his tent set up around the main barracks for the soldiers, run along double time." She snapped when I didn't immediately leave after she told me what I was supposed to be doing. Nodding I ran in the direction of the barracks that I had passed earlier on my travels.
Entering the tent I found an old man with a skin of wine in his hand while he snoozed in his seat. In front of him there was a sword with a wet stone and a cleaning rag. In the corner of the tent was a barrel of swords and another of daggers. I had seen a bunch of the people back at Winterfell sharpening their weapons often enough so that I knew what I was supposed to be doing. Taking the wet stone and the rag I quickly moved over by the buckets and got to work.
# # # # # # #
Supper had come and gone a while back, with another one of the kids bringing some soup for both me and the smith, but he didn't wake. It was a couple hours later when the man finally woke up and by that time I had already gone through most of the weapons, when I heard a noise coming from the chair.
Turning around I watched as the man groggily opened his eyes and started trying to understand what was going on around him. He eventually noticed me in the corner.
"What'cha doing here boy." He grunted at me.
"I was assigned to helping you for the foreseeable future." I stated simply.
"Hmph." He grunted, looking at how many I had done he spoke again. "Well it looks like you're not as useless as the rest of the rabble that old hen normally has clucking around at her heals. What's your name boy."
"Rickard Snow"
"A bastard then." He gave me a once over. "Be back here tomorrow by first light to help with the take down. If I like you enough before we reach the city maybe I'll let you stay with me at the smithy. Now get lost."
With a nod I left quickly. I wandered around outside of the tent for a little while getting to know the layout of this part of the camp very well. I found a spot right behind his tent that nobody walked through and wasn't visible that would work as a sleeping place for the night.
# # # # # #
The days passed in much the same fashion with helping tear down the tent and putting the supplies and weapons on the pack animals, marching, setting up camp, and then cleaning and sharpening the weapons again. After the third day we had caught up with where the normal workload should be and I was free to do whatever I wanted after supper while "Old Man" Daniel drank himself into unconsciousness. The next night I made my way over to the practice yard and watched as the some of the men worked on their sword play, one in particular stood out to me.
He was a short man, compared to the others, but you could clearly see his muscles. He used a sword like the rest but instead of the traditional shield like the others he had a really long knife. It was interesting to watch him fight, as he was always on the offensive, even his defense was merely a set up for another attack. Not like all the other knights that seemed to just sit there whacking at each other until one fell over. His name was Dorian Grey, and was the second son of a minor house.
After two days of me watching him, he confronted me about it.
*Flashback Begin*
"Like what you see boy?" Dorian asked.
"I like the way you fight, it's different than the rest of them." I replied honestly. He gave me an appraising look.
"How old are you, what's your name?" Dorian asked.
"Rickard Snow, and I'm 10, sir." I replied.
"Well Rickard Snow, meet me here after supper and we'll see what you can do." Dorian stated.
"Will do." I said with a smirk.
*Flashback End*
After that I met with him every night during the trip to King's Landing. I made the usual mistakes that a person who has never lifted a sword before in their life makes but I quickly learned what he was teaching, copying his style, and never made the same mistake twice. It seemed like fighting just came naturally to me. My time with him was much more enjoyable than with the old man, but I knew it wouldn't last, because he would have to do his job outside of the palace area and I needed to stay close to Arya. So I would probably end up staying with the old man, merely because it was convenient.
# # # # # #
The first thought that went through my head upon seeing King's Landing was that it was a fairly stunning sight from a ways out. My second through tenth thoughts were 'oh my god does it reek'. In my humble opinion that many people were not meant to be that closely cramped next to each other. I mean it had been awhile since I myself had bathed so I knew that I was no spring rose, but the stench coming from the city easily dwarfed that of the caravan's.
As we moved into the city I saw Dorian heading in my direction, as I was leading the pack animal with the weapons towards the smithy.
"I know you said that you were going to be stuck here helping the old drunk, but if you ever feel like you want to continue those lessons, come to training field 14 after supper. This should get you in." Dorian said as he slipped me a piece of paper.
I smiled up at him and in an uncharacteristic move I moved forward and gave him a hug. "Thank you."
"No problem, just make sure to get there. Can't have my first student getting lazy on me." Dorian replied.
I nodded smiling up at him, then quickly detached myself and headed into the forge.
# # # # # # #
It was one week into my apprenticeship with the old man, and things were going surprisingly decent. He might have been a useless drunk now but his skill showed that at one point he was quite the smith, if the lessons he was teaching me were anything to go by.
My lessons with Dorian had continued and I was starting to land blows on him as well instead of being his beating post.
After my lesson that night I went back to the palace, this time in search of Arya. I found out from some of the maids where the Stark's were staying and made my way stealthily towards them. Locating Arya's room I slipped in unnoticed.
"My Lady Arya." I said softly.
Arya spun around. "Rickard!" she squeeled and launched herself at me wrapping me in a hug, which I returned. "How are you? Where have you been?"
"I'm well. I've been made an apprentice of this drunk smith so I'm able to stay under the radar fairly well, and I've been getting lessons from a soldier on how to defend you from harm." I smiled at her, and received one in reply.
"I've been learning too. Father found a teacher that is giving me "dancing" lessons so that I learn how to use needle properly." She explained excitedly.
"Good, we'll have something new to learn. Have you explored the palace a lot? I've heard something about dragon's in the dungeons, and thought that might be neat to look at." I queried.
"I know how to get there, c'mon I'll show you." Arya said excitedly.
"Quietly, no one knows I'm here right now. So we need to keep it down until we get far enough away." I mentioned before slipping out of the room.
We made our way down to the dungeon catching up each other on our day to day lives while commenting on the difference between the palace in King's Landing compared to the castle of Winterfell. When we got down to the dungeons we looked around at the skeletons lying around.
"Wow! These things were huge." I whispered.
"We already knew that stupid. Don't you remember the stories we read?" Arya said while smacking me across the back of my head.
"I know that, it's just so much bigger in person than I imagined." I replied while rubbing the back of my head. Then I heard something else.
Take three teeth from the largest dragon in the back. Two canines and the front tooth. You will need them soon.
I looked around, but then noticed that Arya didn't hear anything so it must have been in my head. So I thought, Arcania?
Yes, now quickly you have a only a short time before someone comes through this area.
Turning to Arya, "Arcania wants us to go to the biggest dragon in the back area and take three teeth for some reason. But we have to move quickly, apparently someone will be coming here shortly." I said.
Arya nodded. "Then let's do it quickly, and I expect an explanation on why fairly soon."
"I'll give you one as soon as I get one myself." I replied.
Moving quickly we found the dragon's skeleton that we were supposed to find and slowly worked the teeth free. Just as we got the last one we heard footsteps echoing off the stairs. Thinking quickly I pulled Arya behind the jaw bone as we sat there listening to what was being said.
"Lord Stark's starting to put his nose in things best left undisturbed. The bee's nest is a stirring and the spider's webs are starting to whisper to him of truths left unknown." One of the men said.
"He doesn't know anything yet, and Lord Stark is too honorable to do anything if he does eventually figure it out. I've sent some people to try and start covering up the tracks that were left by John Aryn." The second man said.
"Would it not be best to move first, wipe out the whole group of northerners quickly?" asked the first man. At this I had to place my hand over Arya's mouth to stop the gasp I saw forming.
"No you fool. We do not need a war with the North, let us pray that the noble fool will not delve to deeply." The second man said as they moved further along until we couldn't hear anything.
I turned towards Arya and whispered. "Not a word to anyone about this. If you tell your father what we have heard then he will start looking where they don't want him too immediately. We have the advantage in that they don't know that we are on to them. We can use this to get stronger and find evidence that they are planning something."
Arya thought about it and reluctantly nodded her head.
"For now you need to pretend like nothing is out of the ordinary. Focus on your dancing lessons and put more effort than before on them, we need to be ready. I'll work on collecting the evidence we need to take them down." I said. Arya looked worried about that.
"I thought I lost you once, don't do something stupid and make me lose you again." Arya said gripping my hand tightly.
"Not to worry my Arya, I shall be careful. You just stay safe." I acknowledged tucking a stray hair back behind her ear.
Hands still clasped I lead her back to her room and parted ways once I was sure she was safe and we had not been followed. Looking down at the three dragon's teeth I was holding I made plans on a safe location to hide them.
AN: So here is another chapter. Keep the reviews coming.
There is a poll up on my page that I urge you to look at for information why keep reading.
Kept this short because I know most people don't read these and just skip over it.
Also looking for aspiring artist that would be interested in doing a sketch of Harry and Arya for the next chapter, if you are interested please send me a PM.
Ok, so the poll is basically a focal plot point that I'm debating on whether I should keep or not. This revolves around whether Harry and Arya are able to save Lord Stark or not. I can see it happening both ways and can create a plot that follows both scenarios but would like to know how people felt about this point. I know I was personally outraged when I saw he actually lost his head in the first season, and as much as I want to save him, the sequence of events that followed were defining for many characters. On the other hand the same thing could happen if he was still alive but the sequence would be different and a whole new version of plots and schemes comes into play. So I'll leave it up to my readers to decide how this defining moment will play out.