Jon had always known he had no real place in the world. He had known ever since he knew what being a bastard meant. He would never inherit lands or titles, he would never marry a high borne lady or rule over lands. He would always be forgotten in the shadows of his true borne siblings. But that also came with it's fair share of advantages lady stark never cared what he was doing as long as he was away from her and lord stark was always busy with work or his younger siblings. And Robb had started following lord stark and learning what duties he had to inherit. Aside from them no one else cared for him or what he was doing. Which left him free to do as he pleased he was old enough to leave the castle unsupervised and roam into wintertown or beyond.
So that was were he found himself wandering through the wolfswood with nothing but a bow his quiver and the sword at his hip. He liked to hunt in the woods it was calming and helped train his senses which were unusually strong. He was already a better tracker than many experienced guards that hunted with his father. He was tracking a stag currently as it searched for its lunch unaware of the danger in front of it. Jon slowly removed an arrow and notched it. He stepped behind a tree invisible to the unlucky stag. He slowly drew the arrow back and steadied his breath. He raised the bow and took aim right behind the shoulder his fathers words ran through his head. Once he found the right shot he gently released the string and the arrow shot forward burying itself in the creatures chest with a loud thump.
The stag in its dying breath bucked up and released a helpless cry before falling over never to move again. Jon walked over to the deer with the fall leaves covered in crystal frost of the approaching winter. He reached the stag crouched down and took hold of the arrows shaft and gave it a good pull to release it. It slid out with the accompanying red flowing out of the newly opened wound. He examined the arrow and reluctantly tossed it away the tip had remained in the beast and an arrow without a tip was as useless as a bow without a string.
Jon then took a piece of rope and carefully tied it to the stags hind legs after that he tossed the other end over a sturdy branch and hoisted the deer up until it was at a good height. Once complete he tied the end of the rope to another nearby tree. Once he had skinned the deer and removed the best meat and placed it in a satchel he cut the rope letting the carcasses fall to the ground for whatever animal might scavenge the rest. As he started back on his way to Winterfell he noticed a strange carving in a nearby rock. Going over to investigate Jon discovered writing carved into the stone. The words were but runes of an old forgotten language.
Jon softly touched the stone running his hand along the carving when he noticed a smaller carving bellow in the common tongue. The blood of ice and fire shall open the cavern. The blood of ice and fire what was that. The strange words left Jon confused trying to discover its meaning but for some strange reason he felt pulled towards it like it was his destiny. Blood it must need blood. Jon thought as he removed his glove to reveal his worn pale hand covered in calluses from his endless hours of sword training. He pulled out his knife and pressed it into his palm. Pulling the blade back slowly he felt a sharp sting erupt in his hand as a thin trail of red followed in the blades wake. The trail soon grew as the blood began flowing from the wound and he pressed his bloody hand onto the stone rubbing it across the runes. The red liquid slid down the rock and seemed to get caught in some tray as it made a small circle around the stone and began glowing a faint red.
Jon felt an icy wind as the rock moved back revealing a spiraling staircase downwards into icy darkness. Jon was shocked magic that was the only explanation. He had never believed in magic before but this was slowly starting to change his views. He grabbed a nearby stick and wrapped the end in cloth. He then picked up a nearby piece of flint and began smashing his dagger against it. Sparks flew out and after a few hits they caught the makeshift torch bringing it to life.
He lifted the torch and gazed into the cavern before him. The spiraling black staircase seemed to absorb the light barley letting any escape. Jon carefully took a step onto the stairs. The material was sturdy but slippery causing Jon to almost lose his balance. He started down the stairs with one hand against the wall for support and the other guiding his way with the torch in front of him.
The steps seemed to stretch on forever each step bringing Jon further from the sun and more regret into his mind. There was no sign of life down here there was no sign that anything has moved here in thousands of years. The dust was as thick as a book only adding to the dangers of the steps. After what felt like hours Jon reached the bottom or so he hoped before him lay a door. It was covered with the most intricate carvings Jon had ever seen. They seemed inhuman and impossible to create.
Jon approached the doors giving them a carful push. They gave way almost immediately pushing back with a great gust of wind that ignited rows of torches and lit the cavern. Jon took slow carful steps into the room that reminded Jon much of a tomb with caskets buried into the walls. There was a pathway with water surrounding it leading up to a elevated platform with a stand on the top. Jon began his slow walk to the stand determined to revive something for this journey. As he stepped onto the walkway the ground gave a mighty shake resembling an earthquake. Jon crouched for cover expecting the crash of boulders only for the shaking to stop and nothing to fall. He looked up and to his astonishment stood rows of sculptures depicting what Jon could only assume were dragons jutting out of the water. They must have caused the shaking Jon thought. He remained still in case something else started moving. Once satisfied he continued his walk half expecting the sculptures to come alive and eat him but that never happened as he reached the stand without any further incident. On the stand was a glowing ring that seemed to change color every second. Curious Jon picked up and examined the ring it had a silver band with glowing gems placed around it. The gems changed color variating through a few colors.
He slid the ring onto his finger and his vision went black. He felt his body lose its balance and crash into the hard stone floor. He felt nothing for a while when he suddenly saw a faint approaching light. As it got closer it became harder to look at. It was pure light with no real shape or body. The light kept approaching Jon not slowing in the slightest until it hit Jon. He was expecting to be knocked down or passed through but the light stayed in his body and flowed through his veins. Jon felt the light seep through his body until he passed out again.
This time when he awoke he was surrounded by floating symbols. In front of him was a bow and arrow. Next to that was a one handed sword followed by a two handed sword. The symbols varied but went in a full circle. Jon could also see in the corner of his vision was a bar with level one on top the bar was empty. In the other corner he saw something that read five skill points. Confused Jon went to examine some of the symbols. He walked over to the sword and tried to touch it only for it to expand into a bunch of faint points that maid up a sword and a hand holding it. At the bottom it said Armsman(1/5) one handed weapons do 20% more damage. He pressed it and the dot glowed orange and now said (2/5) 20 skill required. He then left the one handed section. When he was back to the symbols the corner now said 4 skill points.
He looked at his options and eventually selected archery, light armor, charisma, and two handed. Archery was supposed to increase his aim by 20% light armor was supposed to make armor 20% more effective charisma was supposed to make him better at talking to people and two handed increased his two handed weapon skill.
When he had used all of his points everything went black again and he woke up on the floor of the cavern with the ring still on his finger. Jon had no idea how much time had passed so he quickly collected his things and rushed out up the steps. Eventually he reached the top were he discovered that the sun was rising. That didn't make any since it was close to nightfall when he had entered the cave. He been down there for a night maybe even longer.
He rushed out of the woods on his way back to the castle surly he was missed. Even if only by Arya and Robb. He ran through the forest in the direction he was fairly sure Winterfell was in. He ran and ran for almost an hour when he burst through the woods onto the kings road. He could see Winterfell in the distance it was still about a mile away but there were horses tubing in his direction. They looked to be guards of the castle. Jon began making his way to them meeting them soon. Once they had reached each other Jon recognized Jory castle leading the party.
"Jon thank the gods we found you." Jory said with relief flooding his face.
"I wasn't gone for that long was I." Jon truly had no idea how long he was gone for only hoping it wasn't long.
"you've been gone for three days." Jory exclaimed.
"three days." Jon couldn't believe that he thought he was only gone one maybe two. But three days he was surprised he hadn't starved or dehydrated.
"yes it's quit easy to get lose track of time in the woods I've been there myself. But you can explain later your lord father wants us to bring him directly to him when we found you." Jory motioned to one of the guards behind him. The guard pulled the reigns of an extra horse and led him to Jon.
The ride back was short and uneventful. There was very little conversation and Jory seemed tense. Once they were back at the castle Jory led Jon straight to his fathers solar. So now he stood there waiting for Jory to inform lord stark of Jon's return.
Short chapter but it's only the intro. I'm planning to give the ring other abilities but that's it for now and I also plan on leaving magic alone for the most part.
I might draw more aspects from Skyrim the longer the story goes on I might even have Jon go there or some of their characters come to Westeros.