BAELOR

When he had first decided to travel across the Narrow Sea, far away from the safety of King's Landing, he knew that many dangers would lie before him. Much more so on account of who he was, but one thing he had not expected was to run into trouble before he had even arrived on Essos.

Learning that The Challenger was being pursued by pirates had reaffirmed his belief that his journey East was destined to be difficult and rife with dangers. From his point of view, there was but a few likely outcomes that could come from an encounter with the so-called pirates, each more unappealing than the last.

The Pirates could board The Challenger, take everything of value and then leave, they could board the ship and take everything of value whilst killing everyone on board, or they could take everything, including the ship, and take the crew as prisoners or slaves. If it was up to him and he was forced to choose one of these scenarios, he would definitely choose the first option.

But no matter what he wanted to happen, he knew that when the time eventually came and he and the rest of the crew were forced to interact with the people following them, that it would be his job to protect everyone aboard The Challenger, even if it meant sacrificing himself in order to do so. Such was it his duty, as a Knight of the Realm.

"What's our course of action?" asked Baelor, coming out of his thoughts and turning to the captain, who happened to be having a conversation with the ship's deckhand. Getting no response from Santagar, he decided to wait until the two had finished their conversation.

"... then go down into the cargo hold and throw anything overboard that we can spare to lose. If we're lucky it may just be the speed advantage we need in order to outrun these sons of whores" barked the Captain, dismissing his second-in-command with a wave of his hand.

"ahh, Ser Baelor, just the man I wanted to speak with. It appears as if the Pirates are catching up with us faster than I'd feared, another couple of hours and they'll be hot on our tail. I'm hoping that my plan will be able to speed us up enough for us to outrun these bleeding Pirates, but my hopes aren't very high" said Santagar, his once youthful face now weather beaten and covered in deeply etched lines, his many years at sea having not been kind to him.

"Why do we flee, why do we not turn and fight." he asked of Captain Santagar, quite confused as to why the person before him wasn't standing his ground against someone who wished he and all those on board harm.

"We flee because we have no chance of besting a group of men who fight, rape and pillage for a living. We are but merchants and deckhands, laborers and accountants, not soldiers or knights, and so we flee because it is the only way that we are certain that we may live another day" Santagar answered, his voice becoming louder and fiercer the more that he spoke.

Baelor made to argue that all was not lost, that courage could be found in the most unlikely of people, but instead he decided to hold his tongue, knowing that his attempts would only cause unneeded conflict between the Captain and himself, and instead decided to find out if there was anything he could do to help.

"What would you have me do?" asked Baelor.

"What can you do? oh No no no, you have it all wrong Ser Baelor, you are much too important to remain on board The Challenger. If the pirates were to get ahold of you, there's no telling what they would do to you in order to use you against King Robert, something that I cannot in good conscience allow to happen under any circumstances. It is for this reason that I have told my second-in-command to prepare the rowboat, if you leave now you should be able to go far enough to avoid detection" answered Santagar, a sad look in his eyes that showed that at least he could save one person from imminent death.

But the reaction from Baelor upon hearing this news was not what Santagar had expected, for instead of the elated and joyous expression that he thought his news would bring to the young Starks face, he instead was met with a scornful expression, an expression that he hated to admit, looked perfectly natural on the handsome northerner's face.

"What do you take me for Santagar?" breathed Baelor angrily. "A man without honor? A man so selfish and devoid of morals that I would abandon those in need in order to save myself? If you believe these things about me to be true, then you obviously don't know me at all."

"When I stood in the center of Kings Landing, before thousands of people, I swore before the Old Gods and the New that I would defend the weak, protect the innocent and to spread the faith. I swore to be brave and honorable, courageous and noble, and to uphold all of the values that a true knight ought to possess. These are my oaths and I don't intend to break them".

Captain Santagar couldn't believe his ears. Before he stood a most exceptional human being, the likes of which he had never before seen. Never before had he come across a person who was willing to put aside their own personal safety in order to save the lives of someone else, let alone someone who had only seen thirteen name days. His only wish was that all people could be as wise and as noble as Ser Baelor Stark.

"I am so very sorry Ser Baelor" apologized Santagar. "I did not mean to bring your honor into question, nor your integrity. It's just that . . . not many people would choose to put themselves in harm's way in order to save someone else, alas if it is your choice to remain here and risk impending doom, then who am I to stand in the way of a knight doing his duty."

"What would you have me do" asked Baelor for the second time, becoming increasingly annoyed with his lack of response from the older man.

"To be perfect honest, there isn't a whole lot that you can do at this particular time, the crew are doing everything possible in order to make us go as fast as we can, the only thing we can do now is to sit back and see if our efforts are for naught or not" replied the Captain.

"And if they prove to be so?" asked Baelor.

Santagar turned his head so that he was looking directly into the eyes of the young knight, his face grim and his eyes grave.

"Then we fight. We fight for all we are worth"