Chapter 7 – something something plans? Something something plants?
277 AC
The past two weeks with my family in the north have been very interesting, my sister did have ever she wanted, while my eldest brother and father got into arguments what appeared to be every day. It was starting to get annoying. What I did during that time was train and have meetings with my father about how things were shaking up down south and what our plans were going to be.
I haven't told him anything of what I was doing for the betterment of the North yet, considering I still needed to get a few more plants and find more animals. I believe I would be ready to tell him how we could survive the war in about another week or so should the South descend into chaos.
The one thing my father told me to avoid was sparing with Brandon, he didn't say why, but I knew why he was forbidding me. As it stood, I was the better fighter, and Brandon was more interested in sleeping around and not taking his lordship duties seriously, and if he lost a spar to the spare, that could cause some resentment in him and could also have the smallfolk start doubting him.
That was something we simply could not afford at this point in time, too much was going to be at stake soon. My father needed to get Brandon set straight soon.
My sister on the other hand was enjoying life and strangely I was ok with her doing what she wanted, after seeing how her life turned out in cannon I couldn't bare to see her lose her freedom. However, to be safe, I would make sure dragon boy never met my sister. I did speak with Father about sending her to Bear Island to train with the shield maidens, but that discussion was tabled for now.
XXX
Fast forward a week, and I was sufficiently prepared to present to my father how we could start bettering the North.
"My time over in Jon Arryn's castle has been very enlightening Father, I haven't just been getting better at fighting, I have been searching for a way to make the North a better place to live and to give our bannermen more gold to survive." Here I paused to gauge his reaction, for the most part he seemed interested. So, I continued. "We survive every winter by luck and the skin of our teeth, not to mention at the mercy of the Tyrells."
Here he definitely growled. The Tyrells were a very sore subject.
"Did you know, before the Boltons burned down the last time, the Starks and most of the North used to grow our own food and had ways to survive winter?" I started and asked him.
"I vaguely recall this, however, those techniques and crops were lost when they burned down the library and flayed most of the elder Starks. Only a young Cregan Stark survived and then married Alysanne Blackwood, which spawned our line of Starks." Rickard Stark answered.
He had most of the information correct, but not all.
"Right you are father, however, our lineage doesn't come from Cregan's marriage to Alysanne Blackwood, our line came from his marriage to mother's namesake. Cregan also married Lynara Stark. I can't really trace her lineage, no matter how far I dug or checked other lineage books, I cannot find out who her parents or family was."
Other than a slight widening of his eyes, nothing of the information I gave seemed to surprise him.
"That history lesson aside and a possible mystery of whom we could also be related to, get to the point Ned."
"As you say, Father," I complied, "I spent the last few years trying to find out those techniques we lost or to rediscover them and I'm happy to say I have found a few of them."
As my sentence ended, he sat up straight in his chair. "Tell me more."
And so I did.
I began to explain that the cold weather we have in the North doesn't kill certain plants it just slows their growth rate down. Here's what I could find from books at lord Arryn's castle and asking a few favors from Oberyn.
"Spinach, sweet onion, garlic, leeks, rhubarb, rutabaga, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, arugula, fava beans, radish, mustard, winter pea, and turnips and potentially corn as well can grow up here if we can get enough seeds, luckily I have already started on securing as many seeds as I could." I explained. "If we start planting for more seeds in the next few months, by the middle of the next year we could have enough seeds to plant a large enough field to sustain just Winterfell."
"I also found another set of plants we can plant beets, carrots, parsnip, lettuce, chard, pea, radicchio, cauliflower, parsley, and celery. For beets, carrots, and parsnips, the tops will die but the roots will tolerate lower temperatures. Given enough time, and smart planning we could feed the North and stop buying food from the South, and since we are the biggest buyers of Tyrell grain, once we stop buying we could cripple them for a few years."
Since I had his full attention and I was on a roll, I continued.
"We can't just have plants we also need meat, this took a lot longer to find than the plants because a lot of the animals in the North have already been hunted out or are beyond the wall, I had to search for a lot longer than I thought I would, but my hard work paid off." Here I grinned.
"Once we have an excess of the grains and vegetables, we can start feeding the animals we plan to breed. Did you know that during the reign of Torrhen Stark, we used to have seal meat frequently? When he was young he toured all corners of the North and fell in love with the taste of seals while visiting a small fishing village by the Bay of Seals. However, as time passed by for reasons I cannot find, we stopped eating those meats, also the fish from the Bay of Seals were brought to Winterfell as well."
Here my father interrupted. "I don't quite recall when we stopped eating the seals of the Bay, however, I do remember the reason. Once it was discovered that the island of Skagos was cursed people began to fear that the curse would spread to the seals as well, so little by little we stopped asking for them to hunt seals, and Torrhen's favorite village withered away into a small settlement. You would not find that story in any books of the South, it is one of the few that is passed from Stark to Stark."
"Well, you learn something new every day, along with the Seals, there is also the snow deer that was hunted to extinction on this side of the wall. My plan for that is to have some of the Night Watch capture as many of them as they can alive and we will have either the Umbers or the Mormonts breed and raise them. I am leaning toward the Umbers for now, but I shall leave that decision in your hands. If also possible I would like for them to hunt some of the white beers beyond the wall in order for Beer Island to raise as well. That was one of the meats we apparently use to eat during the age of Heroes."
"I have also thought of getting animals from beyond the wall, but we never had the excess food to raise them. If your plan and ideas with the plants are successful then we can have the Night Watch capture and bring them back to this side of the wall." Rickard Stark nodded along with what I was saying.
I could also see the ideas forming in his head of what we could do with the food and animals.
"The last animal we will have to get the help of the Iron Bank, as far as I can tell and research, they are the only ones that would know where to find the hairy Ox," I explained. "It is a good source of meat and also can help with the land. Not to mention its dung will help with planting crops."
"That would be the hard one, the Iron Bank doesn't deal with Westeros at the moment, nor do they deal with House Stark for reasons unknown." My father explained, much to my annoyance, this was another of the changes from cannon. "That being said, well done Ned, if one of these ideas pays off we will be in a great spot for the winter after next."
Hearing my father talk about the island of Skagos got me thinking, While I knew there was magic in this world, I refuse to believe that a whole island was cursed. I wanted to go and see it.
"Father, I have a request, should the South not break into war and our ideas work, may I lead an expedition to the island of Skagos?" I asked.
At my bold request, the silence in my father's study was loud. He sat in his chair staring at me as he contemplated my request.
"Very well Ned, should the stipulations be met, you can lead an expedition to the Island of Skagos, in two years." He said with eyes closed as if relenting to something.
"Thank you, Father, I shall get to work on setting up the plants as soon as possible," I said as I got up and walked out of the room.
With my father now on board with my plans, it was time to get things in motion.
XXX
As I got things in place we were waiting for the news of what was going to happen with the King and Duskendale. As the days went by it was looking more and more like Tywin was going to let the King die and crown the dragon boy as the new ruler.
It wasn't until a few weeks later that we heard whispers that a plan might be in place to rescue the king. Honestly, at this point, I really didn't care if they stuck to cannon or not, maybe Rhaegar would be a good king for all I know. What I do know is that if they do rescue Aerys then he's going to go into full mad king mode and that's not good for anyone.
During this time I kept in touch with both Oberyn and Elia, both of them worried about how this would play out.
It wasn't until one morning a month later that the Kingdom got the news that the siege was over, it played out just as the books. Ser Barristan sneaked into the castle and rescued the King and killed Symon Hollard.
The King would pass judgment in the days that would follow. Lord Denys was executed, the rest of his family killed and his Wife Serala was burned alive. A few days later the same fate followed house Hollard, all were killed none were left alive, except Dontos Hollard who was asked to be spared by Ser Barristan.
All the lands that belonged to House Darklyn were given to House Rykker, making their lands one of the biggest in the Crownlands.
The seven kingdoms were reeling from what had happened, and it had gotten even worse, when the King got back to King's Landing and found out that his wife and daughter were gone he flew into a fury and apparently killed the servant that told him the news. The next day a letter was sent to Dragonstone demanding the return of the Queen and the Princess. The demand was ignored. We had jumped out of the frying pan and right into the fire.
The kingdom was once again holding its breath to see how this would play out. All the big and smart players of the game knew a war was coming. However, no one knew the sides or the stakes yet.
A few days later Rhaegar had calmed down his father somehow and now we were all playing the waiting game. Apparently, the scary Princess had sent a letter to the king and her brother saying if they even attempted to march onto Dragonstone to get the queen back, both she and the Queen would be on the first ship to Essos.
That had not gone over well with the King, it took days to calm his anger and he apparently burned a servant alive. Of course, the last part was being told as a rumor, but I 100% believed it. The fucker was not going to be right in the head after Duskendale.
In other news, while all that was happening, I had gotten a set of workers to prepare a field and planted my first set of crops to reap more seeds. In the 3 months or so I would have even more seeds and then I would expand the farmland to get even more, once it got to a sufficient size, then I would start planting for consumption.
I had also started one of my other side projects in full swing, the castle blacksmith had smithed me a still, and I had a field of potatoes that was slowly expanding. Soon I would have Vodka again! And that, that drink would make me money.
XXX
Still not to 25k words, but I didn't want to drag the chapter on more. Ned is back in the North, the king has been rescued and now we wait. Soon shits gonna hit the fan. Can't wait to get to the fun stuff, but I love writing kingdom-building stuff. It's always so much fun!
The next chapter is already out on the p=tron. If yall want to send me some money lol. Same username, shaman95naruto.
S95N out!