Disclaimer: I do not own anything in Game Of Thrones either the books or the TV series. I give full props to George R. R. Martin and the show runners for coming up with the material that has mainly been my inspiration for many of the changes I am making. While I am doing many new things that I think haven't been done in the cannon world I do not claim to have come up with any of this originally on my own. I was inspired heavily from reading the first half of the first book in A Song Of Ice And Fire and watching many trailers and listening to many fan theories about the books and TV series.
Authors Note: Welcome to the second chapter, here's me hoping you'll enjoy it whether you read it or just skim. This chapter is a bit shorter than the first one since I'm really doing character development, nothing too major. See you in the next chapter.
The man's name was Sigliv Mintonimo and he was old his skin gray and wrinkled but tough as well. He wore tight fitting leather armor that covered his whole body from his neck down to his feet. However four pieces were currently not equipped on the man's body, those were the gauntlets and the boots. His feet and hands were bare however since he had not replaced them with other articles of clothing such as the common, at least with the people who lived around him anyway, cloth gloves and animal skin boots. As the man waited for the sun to rise and for its rays to touch the stinking wet rotting town, he closed his eyes and breathed evenly. Sigliv really, really wanted to move out of the town and go somewhere else. But there were several reasons holding him back, and all of them had to do with him self … and well to tell the truth also a certain person still living in the town, but the old man didn't know this. Sigliv was currently standing on a thin wooden board suspended on either end by two barrels full of rock salt. Each barrel was wide, as wide as a big barrel chest miner that worked in the rock salt mine which opening lay carved into the rock behind Sigliv yawing deep and dark. A shadow passed over him as if he was deep in thought and his vision blurred.
Out from behind a particularly tall bush several yards from where he stood guarding the entrance to the mine a woman came into view. Sigliv Mintonimo couldn't see her because he had suddenly grown very tired. When his head snapped up however the woman halted afraid her mixture hadn't taken effect in time. During the man's previous night of sleep the woman had slipped a pill into the man's mouth made of the thinnest oldest spider silk, inside the pill was a timed sleeping pill basically a knockout drug that would only take effect when the person had been awake for a certain amount of time. The woman thought to herself as she stood stock still trying not to draw Sigliv's attention. What was wrong, did Sigliv wake up earlier or later than she had expected?
Kara walked along the barren expanse of land the ground made of dirt and the smallest blades of grass poking out of the previously burned to a cinders ground. It was a plain of a desert one that had only recently last light had gotten a rainstorm for the first time in a very long time. But as time wore on and Kara continued to walk it became clear that it wouldn't last long. The hairs on the back of Kara's neck bristled and she momentarily got the feeling that she was being watched. When she looked back to check a shadow darted right going out of her peripheral vision, but the instant Kara's eyes swept the ground her focus was pulled from the looming threat and to the blades of grass. Or rather, where the blades of grass had once existed. The ground was barren looking even more scorched than before, and not only that the heat waves were so intense that only 30 feet out and beyond Kara's vision did they become visible.
Normally used to the heat because as a slave she had worked in such conditions Kara hadn't noticed the increase in temperature, it was then she realized that the increased heat was the cause of the suddenly disappearing grass. A single tear fell as Kara realized she had been caught in a rare moment of struggle between two very different forces of nature. Looking farther behind her to the east Kara tried to find, past the heat waves, to see if she could spot anything of interest. All the slave woman knew from the ancient text was that an old man by the last name of Mintonimo lived in a bright new town going by the name of some fierce Dothraki word. Trying to follow the instructions exactly Kara had passed by the entrance location of a very old and run down looking town, because it didn't match the description in the ancient text she had skipped right by it … it was then that Kara realized she was missing something so obvious it warned her something was wrong with her brain. Kara had been meaning to go see someone about the state of her physical mind but between being a slave in the slave lands and traveling to a brand new place to carry out her masters' orders Kara hadn't been able to find the time. Well damnit she would make the time, and it sure was likely that the town would have someone that could help her. However the one thing throwing a pile of shit on Kara's happy thought was this; what if the town she had passed almost two days ago was the town she had been looking for? If it were then Kara was in dire straights, how would she get back there? Only recently had Kara run out of water and she wouldn't last much longer much less time than it would take to make it back to the town and hopefully find someone willing to offer her help.
Sigliv slipped his knees bent and as he began falling his body automatically straightened. This however only made the old man fall forward, off his standing position on the board, and to land face down in the dirt and sparse grass. The woman slowly tiptoed forward afraid of making any noise that would awaken Sigliv, but apparently it had worked … the brew did, just not as she had expected.
The woman's name was Hedvil Mintonimo and as she stared down at the figure before her his head bent to the right as he lay there on the ground in a deep slumber the woman looked up. Just in time to see a strange reflection of the sun bouncing off metal sheeting constructed over the mine entrance. Hedvil looked to her right towards the entrance to town, the town in and of it self was very strange in that it was named in the Dothraki language but no one in current day for the life of themselves could figure out how the town got stuck with the name. Continuing to looking and ponder Hedvil saw someone dragging themselves across the ground from the entrance and down center street. People were beginning to stare and someone was walking out from one of the buildings to try and see who the person was, when they got close however they immediately backed off and began shouting, "Thief! Murderer! It's a slave!"
This town wasn't exactly friendly to slaves at all. In fact if one were to study it enough they would find some truly horrifying, wicked, and disturbing things having to do with the town's past. If they dug further – anyone would ever want to – they would find that the woman, Hedvil, was in fact an evil witch hell bent on keeping eliminating all of her close relatives so no one would know how to kill her. That way she could recklessly go after power and no stupid fool would know how to end her life, which would be oh so convenient for Hedvil. The only problem with this was the sleeping mix or brew hadn't worked at all on Sigliv. In fact the falling off the board had been a fiasco, looking closer Hedvil discovered this when she saw that there was a second person going down to see the slave dragging herself across the ground. This second person was indeed Sigliv, and indeed he was well. Hedvil screamed and she raced down the hill, not realizing she was about to meet a brutal and bloody end to her long silent reign of terror across Westros.
Kara's mind was numb with the pain of dehydration and she didn't think she could make it. Even when she reached town the man who meet her didn't give her much hope because all he did was pat her on the back, he had to stoop to do so since Kara had disturbingly lost the ability to stand about 4 miles back, and said to her in a very displeasing voice, "Crawlin' back to you' master is ya? Good, get on with ya!" If she weren't almost incapacitated Kara would have taken the man's head off right then and there with her sword. But as it were she was nearly incapacitated and so she slowly but surely pulled herself across the ground with her incredible arm strength down the gentle slope and what must have been the main road through town. She couldn't really see the buildings on either side of her since her head was so close to the ground, Kara couldn't even see if she was heading in the right direction, she raised her head painfully and momentarily to check if she was heading in the right direction. After a moment of thinking she didn't even know which direction was the right one to go in, more importantly where the hell was she going? Kara then realized why the man before was so displeased with her, besides being an asshole.
Her thought was given further proof when a man rushed up to get near her Kara's heart soared, however her hope of help was dashed to pieces when the man yelled loud enough for anyone else to hear, "Thief! Murderer! It's a slave!" These words cut Kara much deeper than she would have liked to admit to anyone. Her head dipped until her forehead brushed the dirt and Kara continued to crawl onward until the sound of footsteps approached her. Kara, at this point, has become too weak to care and as she lay there a hand caressed the side of her face. A moan escaped Kara's mouth as she tried to rise up off the ground, the slave woman badly dehydrated barely made it to her knees when she saw a woman holding a knife running towards the man putting an arm under her shoulder in order to help her rise. Suddenly and very spontaneously fire surged through Kara's veins and despite the pain she stood and shrugged off the man's help with a word, "Kill." When the man didn't respond Kara sidestepped to the left and prepared to fight the obviously crazy woman barreling toward her. In the last moment before the surprisingly fast and sure footed woman slammed into Kara she extended her sword from her side and as Hedvil barreled passed her left side Kara pivoted in her side step and drove her sword straight through the woman's spine in the middle of her back.
After that event a water skin was brought to her lips and for the first time in her life Kara had a clear head. This was offset by all the memories of her time on the borders of the Dothraki Sea; memories that offset the beauty of the vastness of the sea of land and its utter beauty. Moments of pure peace punctuated with moments of absolute pure horror as well … awful stuff happened. "Ah got any more of that?" Kara asked after she had drunk the entire skin of what she now realized what must have not been water.
"Oh that wasn't water; it was a special tonic I brewed the other day. It only just cured itself and as soon as I woke up I knew you would be coming, because I foresaw it in a dream," The old man smiled at Kara as she raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"So you poisoned me? Tell me old man," Kara said as she brought her sword, covered in Hedvil's blood, back to her side. "Do you really think that was the best decision?"
"No! Please I meant no harm in it, you were near death and I had to do something!"
"What do you mean? Speak plainly old man, before I part your head from your body!" Kara shouted viscerally.
The old man held up his hands and as he explained who he was and what he did Kara slowly began to trust him, but not completely. Come to find out Sigliv Mintonimo was an alchemist not a very old one reaching back several hundred years. Sigliv admitted he was 95 years of age and had lived in this town all his life, when asked by Kara why he hadn't left yet Sigliv replied, "When I was born there was this instinct instilled in me and I now know the purpose of that instinct. Since you're here I've fulfilled my mission in life. Perhaps I can now die in peace, to escape from my life that has become a living hell?"
"Not quite, old man – respectively of course. You did save my life," Kara said giving the old man a brief smile in thanks. "I bid you however to grant me another favor, mayhap you have any horses or another mode of transportation?" Before asking the question Kara had considered what she was going to say to the old man alchemist in detail. Currently her main concern was if the old man was at all willing to even take a look at the ancient book let alone translate the last page so Kara could help the white dragon egg hatch.