Chapter 1: The Price of Heroism

It had been a long time since Lucas had a decent nights sleep in an actual bed. The beds of his families tavern weren't the comfiest nor even the most lavish ones he had slept in but once again, nothing beat the good feeling of sleeping somewhere where you don't have to worry about having your throat slit by bandits or really just any traveling people in general along the road. Although The Reach had been less dangerous than other realms, that didn't mean there were other problems when you were traveling from town to town. Wild animals and an unusual amount of traps were commonplace when going through the woods while the roads were infested with Highwaymen or common looters.

The reason why mercenaries are so common in Westeros these days was mainly due to the Lords not doing their job and keeping their household guards to themselves. While Lucas couldn't blame the Lords like House Rowan or House Tyrell for looking out for their own holdfasts, it still would have been nice if they were to protect the people who pay the taxes that they set for them.

Four years ago, when Lucas had first decided to set out on his own, he would have never dreamed for him to be so captivated by the life he was currently leading. The main reason for his decision was wanderlust. He wanted to explore the world, he wanted to see the Free Cities, the seven Wonders of The World, he wanted to experience the lives and cultures of people who lived so differently from him. Over the years however Lucas lost that same wanderlust and now he really searches for ways of living a peaceful and comfortable life in his future, even though he himself knew deep down that ambition might just be too high even for him.

If there was one thing he had to thank for Lucas' wanderlust, it was the people he managed to meet along the way. Not Lords, not Kings, but people, mercenaries, farmers and random strangers he would come across on his travels. Each one of them had their own stories about their life and many taught Lucas a variety of knowledge about combat as well as swordsmanship. While Lucas himself would never admit to being on the level of a master swordsman like Jaime Lannister or Barristan Selmy he did still consider himself an above average fighter at best.

He woke up somewhat late in the morning, the sun had already risen and the sounds of the people in the town were proof that Goldengrove's population was back to work already. Lucas took some time just to get up from bed but as he got up he took no time to put on all of his clothing and get his sword that he had placed to the side of his bed, just in case.

As he left his room Lucas walked down the stairs only to be suprised once again to see not a somewhat barren tavern with only a few people in it, but an entirely empty tavern with the only people in it being Lucas' sister and his father. The two weren't doing anything of particular importance as Lucas' father, Kenneth, and Laila were sitting at one of the empty tables and talking. It was only when he saw that the tavern was empty did Lucas realize just how large this dinning room had been, usually the place was so crowded that you couldn't even see where you were going without either bumping into someone or stepping on your own feet.

"What's gotten you two so down and dreary?" Lucas asked his family, noticing their semi-depressed expressions.

Both Lucas' father and sister turned to towards him when they heard the question. That was when Lucas got a clearer picture on what he thought could be happening. While he had some theories the main one Lucas had in his head was perhaps the new taxation laws that were being forced on shops and taverns in cities throughout the Reach. Of course prices of basically everything went higher after the new laws were passed. Many public trading posts across the roads also suffered from this new law as well, having to raise stock prices for their inventories and making simple farmers lives a living hell when it came to selling their goods to be able to hold up what land they held.

Why the taxes needed to be forced down at all Lucas couldn't figure out. If it were a province like The Crownlands or The Westerlands that had been having troubles with actually providing for their citizens as well as paying taxes to the crown, he might have understood it, but for a realm like The Reach that is in retrospect the most advanced and profitable part of Westeros it was... to put it lightly... quite strange.

"I take it you've noticed as well?" Lucas' father interrupted him from his thoughts.
"That the tavern is about as full as Summerhall... yes, I believe I have noticed father." Lucas said.
"Aye, lately it almost seems like we've been cursed with how little money we've been getting." Lucas' father replied.
"The roads have been going to Hell recently, less travelers and merchants." Lucas said as he sat down with his family.
"Didn't you escort a caravan for you last job?" Laila asked, seemingly trying to piece something together.
"I did. The path we took was quiet enough, although I suspect that was because were a party 30." Lucas said.
"How many people did you meet along the road who were traveling separate from your caravan?" Laila once again asked.
"None... the roads were almost ghost-like from how quiet they were. With the occasional bandit attack of course." Lucas answered.

"So I guess that's what's been happening recently." Lucas' father said as he leaned his arms on the table everyone was sitting around. "The roads are too dangerous for traveling and if we don't want to get closed down our services need to be at the prices they are right now. We're in between two roads filled with fire that both lead to either us getting thrown onto the streets or us having to walk through the fire-filled roads and reach somewhere where we eat a meal a day to keep this tavern running." their father explained everything to Laila and Lucas.

The entire room the three sat in was silent for a few moments before Lucas sighed and pulled out a pouch from his pocket, placing it on the table. As the insides of the pouch rattled and clanged when it hit the table both Laila and Lucas' looked at the pouch first and then to Lucas in confusion. "Here, there's about 25 gold dragons in the pouch and if you keep actually getting at least some customers it should last you a few months at the most." Lucas said, immediately regretting his decision just because of how much money he was throwing away, but family is family and Lucas' sense of morality wouldn't let his father and sister out with basically nothing to keep the tavern running.

"Son, you know I can't take this. It would be more useful to you. Believe me we'll manage, we have this far." Lucas' father said.
"Just... just take it already old man before I start having second thoughts." Lucas said as he pushed the pouch as far away from himself.

Lucas' father took a second to consider, diverging his gaze from Lucas, to Laila, to the pouch and rince and repeat. "Father..." Laila stopped her father's train of thought, "... this money could help us, Lucas can manage on his own as well, much more than we can in a city that has taxes and laws." she made the argument for them taking the money and, in all honesty, Lucas could immediately see her point. In reality Lucas hadn't even thought about his own well-being when doing this, it was more his guilt and moral compass that made him do this, but when it came down to it Laila's point was 'on the money', pun fully intended. Lucas could easily live off the land, hunting and scavenging food when he needed it, it wasn't something new to him at all.

However, his father was an old soldier that had basically forgotten how to fight while his sister Laila had only ever known the life within the walls of Goldengrove, a life free from danger and risks. Neither had gotten into any serious fights, at least not in the last few years. If the household guards of Lord Rowan came knocking on the doorsteps of their tavern then Lucas doupted that either of them could even talk them out of the tavern for a few more days so they can gather the money.

"Very well..." Lucas' father said as he took the pouch and went off to put it behind the counter.
"Alright then, glad we're done with that." Lucas said with a sigh as he got up from the table himself.
"And where are you going?" Laila asked, watching her brother slowly walk away.
"Off to gain some ground from the town again, been a while since I was here anyways." Lucas replied.

In the span of ten minutes Lucas had gotten dressed up with everything but his cloak since today it seems that the rain wasn't going to pour. Sheathing his sword and strapping it to his belt Lucas walked down the stairs and left the tavern along with his father and sister who were busy cleaning the dishes from last night.

While he did walk around the town a little bit yesterday there wasn't really much he could do. Most of the shops that were open didn't interest Lucas and the ones he actually needed like the blacksmith were closed down, only being open from morning to the afternoon and Lucas spent some time just getting to Yoren's shop. The first goal Lucas had on his mind was to get two horses from Martin, Goldengrove's local stablemaster. After that was a visit to the blacksmiths shop for some repairs and perhaps new armor, his blade had been getting a bit dull from overuse and his clothing wasn't shy of showing it's wear and tear.

The sky above was a clear blue with snow-white clouds flying throughout said sky. Down below the stone and brick buildings and streets of Goldengrove had dried off from the rain from two days ago, now only a few shallow puddles were left for all the children to play with and anger their parents. The stones of Goldengrove were all murky and wet, still dripping from two days ago as strange as that was.

As Lucas continued to walk throughout the town his thoughts were cut off by a cry of pain coming from one of the back alleys. None of the other people seeemed to hear the cry and Lucas couldn't have blamed them. When you've been in the wilds for years your senses naturally start to get better, things like smell, sight and hearing need to be fine tuned if you were to have any chance of surviving alone in the wilds. Thankfully, Lucas was not alone that often, he had other companions alongside him many times whenever he was either getting a contract done or just traveling across Westeros.

'I shouldn't get involved in anything right now, at least not here in Goldengrove.' Lucas thought to himself. Nothing good could have come from him getting in trouble here and frankly Lucas would love to keep his family as far away from his little escapades as possible. Lucas knew that everything had consequences, he just wished he knew when those consequences would be good or bad and in his personal experiences, aside from good pay from a contract, many turned out to be bad.

Yet there was one problem with his convictions however, his pesky morality, alongside pure curiosity. Thugs were commonplace around towns, secretly extorting shop owners and other townsfolk for 'protection'. In many cases you couldn't find the difference between thugs from a merchant's guild or the church of the seven. Both had tax collectors who almost always did their jobs by any means necessary. Lucas always hated having to deal with them. The main reason was because that a lot of the time the victim in the whole situation was someone who was either too poor to keep paying taxes or someone who just couldn't afford it in the first place. Once again in those situations Lucas' moral code got the better of him and he had to help them, even if it meant him earning the scorn of many a merchand lord and noble.

This seemed to be just another case of that as, before Lucas could even realize it, he was heading towards the sound of the noise he originally heard. He shifted through the crowd of people as quickly as he could without forcefully shoving anyone out of the way, he didn't want any guards seeing him and start getting suspicious. As he heard another sound of someone apparently getting beat down Lucas began to speed up, his legs not listening to him as every ounce of his common sense was telling him that he should just forget about it, that he had better things to do than go and play the hero.

When he finally managed to get to where the sounds were coming from Lucas was in front of a dark and perhaps somewhat tacky alley, at the back of one particular shop Lucas knew all to well, Yoren's. He peaked through the corner as to not be seen only to see himself a beaten up Yoren on the ground, coughing up small amounts of blood as three people stood over him. Two of the men looked like normal guards, probably part of the garrison here, while the third one, who seemed to be the leader of the little group, wore a full set of plated armor with the insignia of House Rowan, the captain of the guards Lucas presumed.

If it were someone else Lucas might have hesitated and just left in the end because it wasn't worth it. But it was Yoren, someone he knew ever since he was a child and someone who always helped him whenever he came to Goldengrove. Once again before Lucas could realize what he was doing his legs seemed to have a mind of their own as he walked into the alley, the three guards not noticing him just yet.

The leader of the band raised his plate fist to strike Yoren once more but before he could Lucas ran at him, catching him by suprise. In a split-second Lucas grabbed the leaders raised fist and before he could react Lucas punched his helm as hard as he can, knocking the armored man back.

"What in Seven Hells?!" one of the guards yelled out in the confusion.

'Dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit...' Lucas thought to himself, cursing himself repeatedly as he unsheathed his sword as fast as he could, standing between the guards and Yoren to shield him as the old man continued to cough up blood on the ground. The guards did the same, both drawing their swords and they probably would have charged at Lucas had the leader not stopped them with his hand, signalling them to stop.

"Who are you? To strike a man such as myself?" the leader asked.
"No one special. Who I'm NOT is someone beating down on an old man." Lucas said in a somewhat mocking tone.
"You would defend this waste of a person, a liar and criminal is all he is." the leader continued, keeping his two followers behind him.
"Well really the only wastes of people I see are the two behind you, and the shining bucket of trash that is you." Lucas responded.

"Don't give me any of those petty morals of yours boy. I extended a hand to this man, helped him. I knew how hard times were and that people barely could afford these new taxes that have been placed upon them. In return I prolonged the pay for two months to let him have more time to gather the money, I was even ready to forgive him had he not been able to gather the exact amount. But then the deadline passed and what do I see him doing? Buying an entirely new building, with golden dragons no less!" the leader said in an angry manner, all the while Lucas focused on the two guards behind him, ready to pounce on him at any moment.

In hindsight Lucas could somewhat understand their rage, and this also answered his question as why Yoren wanted that broch so bad from Lucas. On the other hand he couldn't just let the old man out here to die by these thugs. He was outnumbered by three better equipped and probably better trained soldiers. The odds weren't in his favor, but then again they often aren't. If he was to get out of this alive he would have to be smart about this.

Just when tentions were highest Lucas could feel Yoren grabbing his leg. "Get... out of here... boy..." he murmured to Lucas in pain. Despite the warnings, Lucas stayed, he never was one to follow many directions from others, especially from people like Yoren.

"I will give you this chance. Leave this place and I will forget this ever happened, your face means nothing to me so I promise you will not be followed." the leader gave Lucas his offer but once again, he stood as still as a stone, not moving an inch despite his every being telling him to take the armored mans offer and leave. "So be it..." he said as he finally drew his sword, "... stay back, both of you, he's mine.".

'He's going to take me on by himself, well... pride cometh before the fall I guess... or at least I hope it's going to cometh...' Lucas thought to himself as he and the armored man stood opposite of each other, swords in hand and ready to strike at a moments notice. Silence befell on the small alley they were in, with only the distant sounds of life in Goldegrove.

Waiting and waiting, that's all Lucas could do as his armored opponent did the same, holding a stance with his sword in both hands held out in front of him. This continued for about three seconds until suddenly the armored man swung swiftly at Lucas. The standstill left Lucas somewhat dazed but thankfully he was able to dodge the attack last second and almost out of instinct he retaliated with a thrust to his sides. The armored man did the same and dodged the attack and made some distance between the two.

Lucas realised something then. The only attacks that would really do any damage would be stabs and thrusts at weak points of his armor like the knees or elbows, perhaps even the spaces between the plates. Despite knowing how he should attack the next strategy for him would be how he was going to do said attacks. His opponent started a constant barrage of strikes, doing quick swings, precise and efficient to the last move. Lucas did his best to block and dodge the attacks but all he was able to do in the end was sloppily block his attacks with his sword.

For every strike Lucas tried to find an opening so he can attack his opponent but there was none. He was both outclassed and outskilled by the armored man, Lucas' equipment was worse than his as well. However, just when Lucas was about to try and attack his opponent jumped back a few feet to gain his ground as he let out most of his energy on that first barrage. Now was his chance, and Lucas took it. He swung his sword to his opponent's side and just when he was about to block it Lucas stopped the attack mid-way, pulling the sword back and thrusting it towards his opponents knee. He applied so much force that luckily he was able to pierce through the significantly weaker plating and stab right through his opponent's knee.

The armored man let out a grunt of pain as Lucas struggled to pull the blade out but he eventually managed to force it out. In quick succession Lucas raised the blade high and swung, aiming for the neck with full intention on decapitating the armored man. Before anyone could react however, Lucas' sword broke.

His opponent, even in his state of pain and kneeling down, managed to block Lucas' swing and in return broke his blade. Now without a weapon besides a broken sword that was already worn down, Lucas could only try to gain some distance and think of a new strategy but fate wasn't being all to kind to him at the moment and his opponent quickly followed up his block with a stab towards Lucas.

'Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit...' that was all Lucas could think as time moved almost in slow-motion. 'Alright, think Lucas... THINK DAMN YOU!' Lucas thought and with his body seemingly moving on his own he dodged the stab and grabbed onto his opponents arm, the arm the held the sword. Breaking the arm Lucas succesfully disarmed his opponent. Without thinking Lucas, without hesitation, thrusted the blade through his opponents throat and ended the fight then and there.

As his opponents corpse fell on the ground Lucas came to yet another realisation, he still had two more guards to deal with. He lifted his head up to look at the both of them, not knowing what they were exactly thinking becasue their helmets hid their faces. Without words Lucas raised his sword to face the two, knowing full well that, in his condition right now, he was in no shape to take both of them on. All the while Lucas internally cursed himself for doing all of this but he had to stand his ground now or else both him and Yoren would be killed. By sheer luck or perhaps fear however, the two guards ran the opposite direction, leaving behind a dead corpse, a tired Lucas and a near-death Yoren.

"Well that went... better than expected." Lucas said in confusion.
"You idiot, don't you know who you just killed?!" Yoren said through his heavy breathing.
"What? Just another stuck up son of a bitch I would presume." Lucas answered the old man.

"NO YOU IDIOT! YOU JUST KILLED LORD ROWAN'S FIRST BORN SON!"

Ending Notes:

And with that ends the first official chapter and it only took me a month and a half to finish it. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah this was basically my fault for taking so long since I've been kinda busy with a lot of things in my life, work in general, but since this chapter left off on a cliffhanger don't worry, next one is going to come out a lot sooner. Sooner being less than a month and a half and knowing my constant mood swings concerning doing... basically anything really, that sooner is going to probably be a month from now.

On the question of OC suggestions I would like to thank Aldon for his suggestion, thank you man and don't worry he is coming, just not in this chapter. Just a quick heads up for anyone wanting to suggest an OC note that I will ALWAYS put them in the story if you suggest them but I have to put them in the story in a way that doesn't just drop them in there mid-way through a certain scene or a story that's currently happening. They will either be linked to the story somehow or they will participate in it either from the very start or near the end as suprises. Once again, you can suggest any kind of character, villain or hero, some may stay for a long time in the story and some may just make some apperances here and there so don't be shy COME ONE COME ALL JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER DURING HAPPY HOUR I AM TAKING IN ALL PARTICIPANTS!

Also now on the issue of reviews, I want to respond to all of them and so I will be doing it in these ending notes because I think it's the best way to just communicate with everyone and be able to respond to all the reviews so if you have no other interests and you are about to leave then sayonara and I hope to see you all next chapter.

Reviews:

mpowers045: This is good

Ey thanks fam, I see you reviewing a lot of stories so I hope you enjoy this one.

Aldon: Woah I like this story very much, I get the vibe that lucas is a roguish character who plays the game by his own rules.

Thanks for the kind words and from your vibe I can somewhat agree with you. I wanted to write a character that isn't all too good but instead of him being edgy mcbadass #infinity I instead went with the cliche of the sny and joke-telling every man. Of course he has morals, you're not going to see him slitting children's throats or drowning puppies any time soon but don't expect him to be a paragon of justice.

Luke Deadman: OI CUNT! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE YOU LAZY BASTARD!

THERE YOU HAPPY NOW I FUCKING UPDATED! AND SINCE WE ARE ON THAT EXACT SUBJECT HOW ABOUT YOU UPDATE YOUR OWN GODDAMN STORIES... oh... wait... YOU CAN'T CAN YA! (disclaimer: pay no attention to this me and Luke are actually friends in real life and like a lot of friendships this is how we normally talk to each other, don't pay attention to him he'll just be here occasionally talking shit)