Chapter 7 – A Bastard and a Dwarf

I do not own a song of ice and fire. And can you please review this story.

I am currently looking for a beta for this story. So send me a PM if you are interested.

I have put up a poll of who will be in Jon's vacant Kingsguard slots. There is one vacant slot in his Kingsguard will consist of Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy, Gerold Hightower, Oswell Whent, Cleutos Yronwood and Daemon Sand. I am leaving it up to you to decide who will join them. The options are:

Albar Royce

Mychel Redfort

Tallard the tall

Arron Qorgyle

Lucas Corbay

Chapter Seven

297 AL

Jon Targaryen POV

"I beat you again" I said to Daemon, we had been sparring using spears. Two years ago Daemon had been knighted by Prince Oberyn Martell. I could tell that in the future Daemon would become one of the best knights in Westeros. Last month Oberyn had received a raven from, his friend, Willas Tyrell inviting him to the wedding of Garth Tyrell and Leonette Fossaway. I was very interested in this because there would be a massive tourney which would be celebrating that wedding.

I had been knighted by Ser Arthur Dayne as a result of this invitation. I was going to be competing in this tourney; Prince Doran thought it would be good for me to establish a relationship with the Lords attending the wedding given my heritage. But I was going to be entering that tourney as a mystery knight. You may ask why, well I decided to enter the tourney as a mystery knight after I asked Arthur about what happened at the 'Tourney of Harrenhal'.

Flashback 295 AL

Two years ago I had found about my heritage, my true heritage that I am the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. I knew that everything started at that fateful tourney. But I didn't know the details and it really annoyed me.

So one day I found Arthur cleaning Dawn, the ancestral blade of House Dayne, and he smiled when he saw me. But that smile disappeared when I asked him "What happened at the Tourney of Harrenhal?"

"Jon do not ask me about that day. For day still gives me nightmares. I see it every night in my dreams, Harrenhal is cursed anything that happens inside its walls is cursed by the gods." I could tell that he didn't want to talk about that day, but I had to know.

"You say that my mother and my father met there, but you won't say more than that and I want to know the truth." A part of me was still angry that they had lied to me about my heritage.

"You want the truth; I will give you the truth. Lord Whent, the brother of Ser Oswell Whent, announced a tourney where lavish prizes were to be won. Aerys attended because he had heard that Rhaegar intended to remove him from the throne." Aerys killed my Uncle Brandon and my Grandfather Rickard, he was mad but I was still surprised that Rhaegar intended to usurp him.

I was shocked "my father wanted to remove the Mad King?"

"Yes he felt it was necessary. The Kingslayer was inducted into the Kingsguard, he wanted to compete but Aerys sent him to Kings Landing to guard the Queen. I could tell that Jaime was humiliated. There was a seven sided melee, a joust, an archery contest, an axe throwing contest, a horse race and a mummer's show. It lasted for ten days." A tourney that would last for ten days, that would be magnificent.

"Ten days?"

"Yeah, it is considered one of the greatest tourneys of its time. Your father was the champion of the tourney. For that day the greatest lords and the mightiest champions of the Seven Kingdoms rode in that tourney, and the Prince of Dragonstone bested them all. The day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. I remember the moment when all of the smiles died, as Rhaegar rode past his own wife, Elia Martell and crowned your mother the Queen of Love and Beauty. I can still see the crown of winter roses that were as cold as frost. And every night I try to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals, the thorns lay hidden."

"Why did he crown my mother when he was married to Elia?"

"Rhaegar was fond of Elia but he never loved her. Some People will say Rhaegar's lust overcome him, but Rhaegar was never a lusty man. I believe it was respect and admiration for what your mother had done in the tourney?"

"What did she do?" I was curious.

"In the tourney a mystery knight competed. Its sigil was a smiling laughing tree we all called him the 'knight of the laughing tree'. During the first two days of the tourney. A knight of House Haigh, a knight of House Blount and a knight of House Frey each won a place among the champions. Late in the afternoon of the second day the knight of the laughing tree appeared on the lists and he defeated all three of those knights. And the people cheered for the knight and when the defeated knights tried to ransom their horses and armour, the knight declared that his terms were that they should teach their rude squires honour."

"What has this got to do with my mother?"

"I'm getting to it Jon" he smiled. "For the mystery knight attracted unwanted attention and Aerys was so certain that the man was a threat to him." Aerys was paranoid but who whispered in his ear.

"What did the knight ever do to him?"

Ser Arthur Dayne ignored that question "by the next day the knight had disappeared and your father was sent to search for the knight. Rhaegar and I went looking for him, but what we found was a woman taking off her helmet and she had laid down her shield. It was then I realised that she was the knight of the laughing tree. And I could tell Rhaegar fell in love with her that moment."

"So my mother was the knight of the laughing tree". I felt proud and looked forward to my first tourney whenever that would be.

"Yes Jon, she was." he smiled.

Present day (297 AL)

I was intending to enter as a mystery knight and under the guise of the knight of the laughing tree. I was excited and I was keen to prove myself.

Daemon was also going to be participating in the tourney, but Ser Arthur Dayne despite the fact he was going to the tourney was not going to be competing in it. This was the last time I would see Dorne for a long time for after the tourney me and Daemon would go separate ways for he would return to Sunspear while me, Arthur and a dozen men at arms would head to Winterfell where I would stay two years. So after the tourney we would take a ship from Oldtown then dock at White Harbour then we would go to Winterfell. I was looking forward to my stay in Winterfell, the birth place of my mother, but the trip from Dorne to the North was going to be a very long one however I was looking forward to it as I would see Uncle Ned and his son Robb again. I had not seen them in a while.

I would also miss Sarella; you could say that we have been in a relationship. I knew that it was never serious despite the fact that she is only two years older than me, but it was fun while it lasted. And we weren't exactly exclusive but I enjoyed it and I enjoyed her. She is beautiful; slim and slender as a willow, with her curly black hair worn in a long braid which pulls back from a widow's peak. She has beautiful venomous black eyes, with high cheekbones, full lips and she had mesmerising olive skin. I would miss fucking her. I would miss Dorne for it has been my home.

Tyrion Lannister POV

I had come here with my brother, Jaime Lannister and my nephew Joffery Baratheon who is the heir to the iron throne. May the gods help us when he succeeds the King, his supposed father but I know otherwise. For he would become not Robert II but Aerys III, and like his mother the child has an uncontrollable anger and the boy has an unchecked sadistic streak. Once he had learnt that one of the kitchen cats was pregnant he killed the animal and cut its belly open, he then showed the unborn kittens to the King. Robert hit him so hard it knocked two if his teeth out, that brat wasn't fit to sit a privy let alone the Iron Throne.

I was here to attend the wedding of Garlan Tyrell and Leonette Fossaway. My father had told me that I would be representing House Lannister and that I should behave as befits a 'Lannister', to him it was really important because Garlan Tyrell was expected to become the next Lord of Highgarden as his older brother was a cripple. The main reason I am here is to establish good relations with Garlan Tyrell. The current Lord of Highgarden, Lord Mace Tyrell, had a great tourney in Highgarden to celebrate the wedding. Many great knights had been invited to this tourney, some had said that this was to be the 'greatest' tourney since Harrenhal and we all know how that turned out. Some of the knights that were to be competing in this tourney: my brother Jaime Lannister, the groom Garlan Tyrell, the brother of the groom Loras Tyrell, Barristan Selmy the Lord commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard, Ser Balon Swann the second son of Lord Gulian Swann, Bryn den Tully also known as the Blackfish, Lord Beric Dondarrion, Roland Crakehall, Lyle Crakehall and my cousin Daven Lannister.

Lord Tyrell was out to make a statement to make this a wedding no one would ever forget. He was putting on a display, a display of power and wealth. There were also many noblemen that were attending the tourney for example Arthur Dayne was said to be arriving soon with his nephew, his bastard nephew mind you but still his nephew. I was curious what would the Sword of the Morning make of my brother after he had become the Kingslayer. But I was also interested in meeting Jon Sand, the bastard son of Ashara Dayne and Eddard Stark. Some say that Ashara Dayne died in childbirth, others say that she committed suicide after she heard of Elia's death and some say that she committed suicide after she had found out Lord Eddard Stark had married Catelyn Tully. But only the gods truly know what happened, and somewhere there is a god laughing at the suffering we go through. For what sorts of gods makes rats and plagues and dwarfs?

The next day I woke up in a cart of hay and I could hear the sound of steel clashing against each other, there was a boy was sparring with three squires around the same age as him. The boy was tall he was slender and he moved fast with deadly purpose despite him being of lean build he demonstrated surprising strength, he was strong enough to defeat the three squires; one day he would rival my brother in his ability as a swordsman, swordsmanship came easy to the boy for he was moving gracefully as his opponents were struggling, despite outnumbering him three to one, to him it almost seemed he had almost been toying with them. For as he removed his barbute helmet I could tell that was Jon Sand, the bastard son of Ned Stark; he had the Stark look, the look that gave nothing away long, solemn and guarded but the eyes were different. His eyes were not grey like his father's but violet like his mother's; he had his mother's haunting violet eyes but you could tell the boy was sad he looked as if he had been born in grief. His eyes, against the backdrop of his long dark hair, looked like as if he had been burdened with the weight of the world.

He approached me his armour clanging as he approached me in my cart of hay, "did you enjoy a good night" he said as he gestured to the bottle of wine I was holding tightly.

"It was a good night, not that I remember much of it". He laughed as he drank wine out of that bottle. "You're pretty handy with a sword, are you a knight yet?"

The boy laughed at my comment, he was more than ready to be a knight. "Handy, I'm more than handy with a sword. And yes I am a knight my uncle knighted me." His uncle Ser Arthur Dayne trained him in the art of the sword; no doubt he would be a master swordsman. The sword of the morning had knighted my brother on the battlefield, Jaime aspired to be everything Arthur was but he wasn't.

"That would be Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He knighted my brother you know."

"Everyone knows about Jaime Lannister. He is as infamous as the Kingmaker" the boy knows his history; he was knowledgeable, smart, deadly with a sword if only he was next in line to the throne. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if this land had a competent king ruling.

"I don't know if my brother will be honoured or insulted if he heard you compared him to Ser Criston Cole" Ser Criston Cole had dishonoured Viserys I when he convinced Aegon II to take the throne and what happened after that is known as the 'Dance of the Dragons', the civil war that cost killed a lot of the Targaryen dragons. I would have loved to have seen a dragon, for once a man has seen a dragon in flight he would see no greater wonder.

"Criston Cole is known as the Kingmaker and your brother is known as the Kingslayer, one could say that they contradict each other while one could say that they are the same."

"Oh you're a clever boy. But don't a lot of people regard us as kinslayers. We both killed our mothers." I could see that the boy tensed and was angry. He was angry and I was intrigued by what his reaction would be; would he react angrily, will he do nothing or will trade wits with me. What would he do for knights only know one way of dealing with a problem but a dwarf has a different way of looking at the world.

"They say that the man that kills his own blood is cursed forever in the sight of gods and men. But men are such faithless creatures, for men see only what they wish, and all men must die, Valar Morghulis." 'Valar Morghulis' all men must die in Valyrian, so he knew some Valyrian as well. This boy is interesting for certain, something I didn't expect out of the bastard of Ned Stark.

"You know my father told me before I left that I should not shame the Lannister name and behave if I was not a dwarf." he laughed and it wasn't directed at me it seemed as if it was directed at my father.

"Your father is a fool" men had called Tywin Lannister many things but a fool was never among them.

"You would call, the great Tywin Lannister a fool, he would just call you a boy" he would call him a bastard, someone whose opinion is unworthy for the lion does not concern himself with the opinion of a sheep. But this was no sheep; this boy was a knight, a knight knighted by the Ser Arthur Dayne and was under the tutelage of Oberyn Martell. He is more of a viper than of an animal tended to become food.

"My mother was Dornish and your father insulted Dorne. And we want his blood. Dorne will never forget what he did and one day Lord Tywin will pay his debt. For they say a Lannister always pays his debts. He owes us a debt of blood." Dorne still hungered for blood, they will never forget. I often wondered why my father didn't let Robert Baratheon bloody his hands instead.

"My father would say that he was proving his loyalty to the king" that's what he always said anyways; maybe he just enjoyed killing nobleman. He killed of House Reyne and he nearly did it with House Targaryen.

"Tywin Lannister what does he know of loyalty, your father always so worried about soiling the Lannister name he soiled it that day when he killed and raped Elia Martell."

"One could say that you are threatening house Lannister"

"Who am I to threaten House Lannister for I am just a bastard? But they do say that it only takes one Dornishman to start a war and I am a Dornishman as much as I am a northerner." That was true. He was a Dornishman and a Northerner. And that is a dangerous combination.

"One more thing Jon, will be participating in the joust?"

"Maybe or maybe not, why Lord Tyrion are you prepared to place money on my victory?"

I laughed. "A Lannister always pays his debts and I never bet against my family."

His uncle, Ser Arthur Dayne, approached "Jon what are you doing with his kind?" he snarled.

"My kind, does the Sword of the Morning have something against dwarves" I said cheekily.

"I have nothing against dwarves. But you are a Lannister, I do not trust Lannisters. My sword hungers for their blood and one day it shall be satisfied." That was a threat, Arthur Dayne still hadn't forgiven Jaime and it was likely he would never forgive him. Once they were friends but that was a long time ago, when Aerys still sat the Iron Throne and Rhaegar was still alive. How quickly things change.

"I'm sure my brother would be honoured to hear that you still think of him." I smirked.

"Come on Jon lets go, tomorrow is a big day." Ser Arthur Dayne said to his nephew, I wondered what future lay for that boy.

Next chapter will be about the 'Tourney of Highgarden'