With the rasping challenge to the unseen hound hardly out of the Badger's throat, a new voice called out. "Heel, Ghost, heel!"
A dog shaped mass, barely visible in night air except for it's two bright red eyes, pivoted and seemingly slunk back to become a part of the Great Hall's outside wall.
The Lord of Tumbledown Tower cleared his throat before calling out, "Jon?"
"Lohgun?" the young teen gurgled with happy surprise.
"Yes, it's me boy, and the Lord Lannister too," he answered.
"Please, tis Tyrion," said the halfman.
"I'm glad you're here," the boy announced, forgetting the Lannister's diminutive presence as he strode from the shadow of the building into the yard to wrap Lohgun in an emotion laden embrace.
"Easy, lad," he whispered into Jon Snow's ear sensing the youth's tension, all the while rustling the hair on the boy's head with one hand. "Look at you!" he proclaimed. "Your taller than me now. Near a man grown."
"I'll dare vouch for the fact that height does not always make the man," said the dwarf in a wry tone.
The halfman's jape made both Lohgun and Jon grin at each other. "It's good to see you smile." Lohgun raised his head to smell the air and then nodded toward the sounds of the feast, "Was anything amiss in there? Other than you drinking too much summerwine?"
"Yes, no. Well … Uncle Benjen …" Jon sniffled to blink back a tear. "He doesn't want me to go to the Wall."
"Oh ho! It's been too long between visits. You want to join the Watch now."
"The Wall is a hard place for a boy, Jon Snow," announced the Queen's brother.
The youth gritted his teeth. "The very words my uncle spoke. But what would you know about it Lannister?" he challenged.
"Enough, from my books. Enough to know I'd like a chance to piss off the top of it and then scurry home to my warm bed in King's Landing, mulled wine in one hand and a saucy wench in the other. But when a man takes the black, there's never any scurrying home again."
"And never a warm bed," added Lohgun in agreement. "Tyrion here and your uncle have the right of it." The Badger's eyes nearly glazed over as he summoned memories from when he was barely more than an animal. "I lived three years at Castle Black before the Lord Commander sent me to Winterfell. There is little of … joy … should be found at that place." A generous smile leapt up as he continued, "You'll always be welcome to live at Tumbledown; and surely Barrowton or Greywater Watch too, if life here weighs on you so."
Jon sighed heavily, visibly releasing some of the tension built up within. "Thank you Lohgun, I'll think on it. Truly I will."
"Good lad."
"Frankly all the North is far too dreary and cold for me," interjected the halfman. "So better yet, become a Hedge Knight and wander the south. Living tournament to tournament, winning prizes, wooing the ladies, with your fearsome wolf, what did you call him? Ghost? … at your side. If you're any good with lance or blade, you'll be bloody famous in no time."
"Yes, tell us more of Ghost and his siblings that you and your brothers found with Ned," Lohgun requested. "The rumors about them run wild in the Wolfswood."
"They're direwolves. Ghost, come here. Come on, boy. That's it." The red eyed beast, his back not much higher than Jon Snow's knee, padded up at his master's, his brother's call. "See?"
"I remember direwolves as bigger," Lohgun announced with amused skepticism.
"He's still just a pup."
"Ah, that must be it then."
At last satisfied that the fires of whatever bothered young Jon were banking, Lohgun declared he was past due to greet both Ned and Robert. Neither Jon nor the halfman evinced any interest in returning the Great Hall, so the Lord of Tumbledown Tower entered the noisy, smoky feast alone; always alone, even in a crowded room. He scooped up a mug from the tray of a passing serving wench, being rewarded with an earthy grin from her for where his other hand had forayed. He took a fast gulp, all the while dodging servants, squires, and men-at-arms as he kept moving forward toward the raised dais, using all his senses to read its occupants.
One look at the open book that was Ned revealed his friend had a giant stick about something lodged deep in his ass; same old Ned. But Robert's appearance stunned Lohgun. The fat man he saw looked nothing like the Robert he'd last seen nine years earlier on Pyke. The King, shoveling food in his gorge and washing it down with a flagon of wine, gave him the impression of a pig being fattened for slaughter. And Catelyn, long auburn hair swept alluringly up off her slender neck and shoulders to form a tight ball out of which gorgeous curls burst in an explosion of wonderful red, sat proper as ever beside the King, carefully hiding the strength and softness of her magnificent soul. The Badger smiled in amusement, gazing next at the children fidgeting at either end of the great table, blatantly in Rickon's case and Sansa so subtly. Of the Stark children, only fierce Arya looked like Ned. And of the Baratheons? Whom he'd never laid eyes on before … not a smidge of Robert, all sharing the same Lannister look as their uncle Jaime; standing stiffly on guard behind Robert's seat.
All those thoughts and impressions Lohgun took in with merely a few glances. He blinked several times as the table occupants were bleached to featureless figures from the light flaring off the radiant golden haired sun sitting between Ned and Robert. "Cersei," he whispered. He'd heard rumors of her beauty since Harrenhall, which ironically she had not attended but everything else had begun. As he stared at her, Lohgun felt dried, brittle autumn leaves start to rattle in a warm breeze down the dusty, jagged length of his mind.
(emma)
"Lohgun!"
(emma)
"Badger!"
(emma)
"BADGER!"
Lohgun shook his head, the scales falling from his eyes. He stood at the foot of the dais obviously staring up at the Queen.
"Have you grown deaf!" shouted the King.
A jaunty grin slipped on the Badger's face. "And why not, you've grown fat, ya poxy whore monger!"
Robert wheezed with laughter, a hunk of something spitting into the air. "Fuck you, Wildling," he shouted out with vast amusement.
Lohgun responded by raising the middle finger of his right hand, then immediately popped out the broken eight inch long claw behind it.
"Hahahahahaha!" roared the King in mirth. Robert picked up the carcass of a half-eaten chicken and flung it at the Lord of Tumbledown Tower. The two other claws of his right hand sprung out as well and the Badger neatly skewered the incoming missile.
Lohgun's grin grew even broader and slyer. "Thanks fat man, I am a bit hungry," he announced, then bit vigorously into the bird's remains releasing juice and grease to smear over his face and enormous side burns. The King howled in appreciation and most of the children tittered at the short, stout man's exaggerated display.
"So this uncouth beast is the famous Badger you talk about?" the Queen proclaimed with icy disdain. "I am not surprised he is a friend of yours."
"Oh Cersei," Robert rumbled a bit grumpily, having his fun interrupted.
"Your grace, I find word of your beauty rings true. You are prettier than your brother Jaime, and that's saying something. A pleasure!" With that Lohgun swept into a dramatic bow, whirlwinding his right arm around to come even with his waist, and thus launching the remains of the chicken off his claws and high into the air of Winterfell's Great Hall.
The Queen's lips slammed into a thin, hard line. She stood quickly, pushing her chair back so hard it tumbled over, causing her white cloaked brother to hop aside. Robert, Ned, and young Robb all politely rose from their chairs in response to Cersei. "A lovely feast Lord and Lady Stark," she announced with no hint of kindness. "If you will pardon me?" And off she stalked without waiting for an answer.
Robert looked down at Lohgun, amusement and pleasure easy to see on his open face. "Oh, you've put your foot in it now," he chortled. He shrugged his shoulders. "So that's my wife."
"A mite frosty seems."
The King bellowed in delight at the slight to his wife, pounding a fist on the table so hard it threatened to split asunder. "You have no idea Badger. No idea!"
Ned returned to his seat, face taut and eyes hooded to make stark his displeasure.