A/N: I promised everyone a chapter and although it is eleven at night, the damn chapter was uploaded on FRIDAY, 11:00 EST. Thank you all for the support. This is Arya's third chapter and honestly, I typed this up in about 3 hours of typing and a little skim edit, so there might be some continuity errors, and weird things. But a promise is a promise, and this time I'm not going to break a promise.
Arya
When Arya had been forced to accompany her sister Sansa, and Septa Mordane to the tourney she fully expected for it to boring. And after she had witnessed the preliminary events, which included an axe throwing and archery competition, she remained unimpressed. Stafford had beat the crippled dornishman that challenged him in the axe throwing by barely an inch to dead center of a target at a hundred yards. Stafford's finesse with a handaxe truly was a force to be reckoned with. But withholding the remarkable accuracy of the Dornishman and his near-victory, the utter domination seemed boring and pointless to her, not to mention his utter failure to hit a target at archery, whom the Dornishman managed to defeat, only barely beaten by a Ser Balon Swann and Anguy.
She even thought, Stafford had fell sick and went back to the keep, because of embarrassment. The attendants had set up the introductions for the introductions of the main entrance of the tourney now. Sansa looked so awestruck at what she had seen in tournament so far, and they hadn't even introduced her precious visage of the knights in shining armor. Finally, they had entered for the tournament.
They watched the heroes of a hundred songs ride forth, each more fabulous than the last. The seven knights of the Kingsguard took the field, all but Jaime Lannister in scaled armor the color of milk, their cloaks as white as freshly fallen snow. Ser Jaime wore the white cloak as well, but beneath it he was shining gold from head to foot, with a lion's head helm and a golden sword. Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain That Rides, thundered past them like an avalanche. Septa Mordane pointed out Lord Jason Mallister, in indigo chased with silver, the wings of an eagle on his helm. He had cut down three of Rhaegar's bannermen on the Trident, apparently. Still didn't impress her much though. The girls giggled over the warrior priest Thoros of Myr, with his flapping red robes and shaven head, until the septa told them that he had once scaled the walls of Pyke with a flaming sword in hand. Arya though he looked funny, and wondered how well she would do fighting him
Younger men, most had done no great deeds as yet, but Sansa and Jeyne agreed that one day the Seven Kingdoms would resound to the sound of their names. Ser Balon Swann. Lord Bryce Caron of the Marches. Bronze Yohn's heir, Ser Andar Royce, and his younger brother Ser Robar, their silvered steel plate filigreed in bronze with the same ancient runes that warded their father. The twins Ser Horas and Ser Hobber, whose shields displayed the grape cluster sigil of the Redwynes, burgundy on blue. Patrek Mallister, Lord Jason's son. Six Freys of the Crossing: Ser Jared, Ser Hosteen, Ser Danwell, Ser Emmon, Ser Theo, Ser Perwyn, sons and grandsons of old Lord Walder Frey, and his bastard son Martyn Rivers as well. Arya thought, these men didn't really have anything special going for them, and didn't see them like.
The Hound entered the lists as well, and so too the king's brother, Lord Renly of Storm's End. Jory, Alyn, and Harwin rode for Winterfell and the north.
Suddenly, one other knight stormed in with a masked destrier, covered in all full plate, which concealed all of his body. The destrier was black like the night. It strongly resembled Stafford's Destrier Orys, which unsettled Arya a little bit for some reason. The knight had a shield with a black lion painted upon the silver steel.
"Who is that?" She heard Sansa asked Septa Mordane with curiosity. Arya wondered the same thing, but she did not feel like talking to likes of Septa Mordane today. It was already bad enough that she had to watch the tourney.
"That's a mystery knight. No one knows, who he is. Rumor is the mystery knight was put on the list by Lord Renly Baratheon, personally. Don't know why he would do such a thing," Septa Mordane stated.
"The king's brother?" Sansa replied like she had been unsettled by the entire thing, "By the way, have you seen the Prince Stafford Baratheon by any chance?"
"Off to see my brother again I see?" Someone interrupted. Arya turned toward what was going on making her turn her head from the mystery knight for a little bit.
"Prince Joffrey…" Sansa stated.
"Even without him here you still find a way to insert him into conversation. Do I have to dye my hair black just so you will stop talking about him?" He stated as he smiled a smug, shit-eating grin.
"Why don't you leave her alone, Joffrey? Ever think of that?" Arya spat at Joffrey, "My sister wouldn't anything like that. But who could blame her if she did, Stafford has a hundred times more man in his little toe than you have in your whole body." Arya didn't know why she was defending Sansa after the way she had treated her. But, Joffrey was just someone you hated, and called out no matter how much you didn't like the person, he directed his ignorant vocabulaire to.
"Settle down children, they are setting up for the first joust. They are opening with the joust with the mystery knight is jousting Meryn Trant. Poor knight, I don't think he'll stand a chance against a knight of the Kingsguard," Septa Mordane stated. Soon the king entered the stands just above their spot, and Joffrey joined his other siblings and the empty seat where Stafford should have been.
"Where in the seven hells is Staff? He usually loves tourneys like this?" The king stated.
"He apparently felt ill after his performance in the axe throwing competition," one of the stewards stated.
"Did he beat the people so bad he felt so bad he felt ill afterwards?' The king asked. The green eyed squire simply shrugged, "Well at least the jousts are about to begin."
They finished setting up the lanes for jousting and the two first opening riders slowly walked up to one another horse. Meryn Trant lifted up his visor and nodded at the mystery knight, who did not even lift his visor, as expected from someone with that type of status. Arya could feel uneasiness as she's felt afraid of what might happen. The mystery knight had not shown his skill before and he'll either hurt the Kingsguard knight badly or get himself killed.
The two men returned to their sides, and surprisingly enough, Renly Baratheon was right next to the mystery knight talking to him. The person's helmet must have obscured his voice, so much that people couldn't even recognize him. Arya hypothesized that the only person, who could really know the knight's identity was Renly Baratheon. She quickly began to run through the several different people she could think of who associated with Renly Baratheon. She thought of people in the small council, and none of them seemed to be the type to be a mystery knight. The only other person, who wasn't accounted for was Stafford, but he was sick and back in the castle, so she was at a loss for whoever it was. It couldn't be Stafford, although he would be someone, who did something this gutsy. Arya saw Stafford leave on horseback, though with the boy, who looked surprisingly like him, so it couldn't be him.
Then, all of a sudden the two knights began to charge at one another at full speed. The mystery knight rode at a surprisingly fast speed, but it looked like he had little technique or control when he charged. It seemed like a ball of lightning, quick, but uncontrollable. The two clashed and the mystery knight landed a hit to the abdomen of Meryn Trant. Meryn Trant managed to hit his opponent's chest as well causing the two to struggle for control over their horses. The two returned to their corners and after Renly Baratheon said something to the mystery knight, the two rode at each other again. After four full tilts, the score was tied, 4-4, and the competition remained undecided.
"The mystery knight seems competent in the joust. Not many can face a member of the Kingsguard with such skill. But what in the seven hells is RENLY, of all people with him?"
"Only the seven knows, my lord," his green haired squire stated.
Both men looked worn out and once again charged at each other. This time the mystery knight clearly had the advantage in speed and power as his destrier had seemed to have been possessed by some sort of horse demon. Arya thought the horse had passion, but couldn't tell with the full helm if the rider shared it.
Only gasps were heard as the lances hit. The Kingsguard knight armor clanked as he hit the ground after taking a hit to the helmet knocking it off. The Mystery Knight had done the unthinkable and would move on to the next round.
"Unbelievable, how do I expect Trant to protect me if he can't even beat some mystery hedge knight? I should replace Trant with the damn mystery knight," King Robert Baratheon roared. Everyone in the crowd did not cheer, only silence could be heard from them. The only person in the entire tourney grounds, who cheered seemed to be Renly, "What's Renly so happy about?"
Renly Baratheon seemed to blabbering something and as soon as the mystery knight hopped off his horse, bear hugged him. The two seemed ecstatic. The mystery knight went back into the preparation tent, and Renly went away to prepare for his joust. Arya wondered why the two seemed to have formed an alliance even though they would be riding against one another in the lists.
"Well, the mystery knight won, Septa Mordane? Who would have thought,"
"I think the crowd agrees with us. No one expected that," Meryn Trant ripped off his helmet and threw it on the ground.
"I'm not going to be part of this SYSTEM, MAAAN!" He cursed among other things. He really needed to cool off, it was just a joust anyway. Meryn Trant got taken down his high horse, quite literally by the mystery knight. That got Arya even more invested into trying to find out, who the knight was.
After a while, they watched a few more jousts, more notably the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister, who overthrew Ser Andar Royce and Lord Bryce Caron. Then, after that the Hound and the Mountain defeated their two opponents to advance to the top eight of the jousting. The mountains second match before the top eight was frightening. His lance rode up and struck a young knight from the Vale under the gorget with such force that it drove through his throat, killing him instantly. The youth fell not ten feet from where Sansa was seated. The point of Ser Gregor's lance had snapped off in his neck, and his life's blood flowed out in slow pulses, each weaker than the one before. His armor was shiny new; a bright streak of fire ran down his outstretched arm, as the steel caught the light. Then the sun went behind a cloud, and it was gone. His cloak was blue, the color of the sky on a clear summer's day, trimmed with a border of crescent moons, but as his blood seeped into it, the cloth darkened and the moons turned red, one by one. Arya had never seen a man die before, but she seemed to feel nothing from it. Jeyne Poole wept furiously, but Arya didn't understand why. Joffrey laughed until he was silenced by his father. The jousts went on however, and the mystery knight entered his second joust, this time against Lord Jason Mallister.
Lord Jason Mallister, according to what Septa Mordane told Sansa was an accomplished tourney knight, he had unhorsed his first opponent like the mystery knight did. Like last time, Renly, who had finished his two jousts and had moved on to the next round of the lists was right next to him.
"This one should be over quickly," the king roared, "Meryn Trant is one thing, but this Mallister has been jousting since even before the rebellion began. Unless this man can joust like how Ser Barristan did against him in the tourney at Storm's End or he's as good as out of the tournament,"
The two faced off against one another like usual, they introduced themselves to the king and rode off to their corners. After another word of advice from his ally Renly Baratheon, he faced off against Lord Jason Mallister. The first two tilts were split, with Lord Jason handing the mystery knight two shield hits, awarding him two points, and the mystery knight only landing a torso hit, giving him enough to tie the score. Arya noticed how technically outmatched the mystery knight was. His momentum was not fluid, and he only gained the hit he got through sheer focus. Arya had noticed tourney knights looked away from the lances to prevent wood from slipping into the cracks of the helmets. The mystery knight didn't look away and the split second gave him an advantage for aim. That is how he is able to land hits on far more technically advanced opponents. However, he risks getting blinded.
"Damn, that knight sure knows how to stay in the joust," the king stated.
"That's right, stay in it, Sta-" Renly began and coughed to interrupting himself and he continued, "Stand your ground!"
"What's gotten into Lord Renly, today I wonder? Does he not know if the knight wins this match, he goes against him afterwards," Septa Mordane told Sansa.
"I wonder what is causing Lord Renly to support the mystery knight so much," Sansa stated.
Lord Renly handed the mystery knight some weird lance. It was quite literally a wooden lance with small steel fist.
"Wait, is that even allowed in the tournament?" Sansa asked the Septa, "That's a steel fist on the end of that lance." The Septa shrugged
"Father, are you going to allow this? That man has a steel fist at the end of his lance," Arya heard Joffrey say
"It's not giving him an advantage, there have been plenty of riders, who had lances like that, so that they look pretty when they break," King Robert stated.
The two riders faced each other once more, and then once they hit each other with the lances. As soon as they connected, the steel connected from the lance as it splintered. Lord Jason was now on the ground unhorsed by the mystery knight. The mystery knight returned to his corner and Renly celebrated with him once more.
"Damn, that knight is pretty good. How the hell could someone ride that well in the final tilts? He unhorsed all of his opponents in the final tilt!" King Robert asked.
"Maybe he practiced," Joffrey replied.
"That reminds me, why haven't you practiced jousting? Staff's been even since he started training with the damn sword. The style of this mystery knight kind of reminds me of his style of jousting," King Robert stated. Joffrey simply looked away and tried his hardest not to notice the comment.
When everyone was away, Arya looked over to her sister, Sansa. She looked eerily quiet for some reason after she had heard Stafford's jousting style mentioned by King Robert. She got pretty weirded out by it as well. That would mean the mystery knight could be Stafford, and she would have been convinced of it if she hadn't seen Stafford leave by horseback, with a full guard with him back to the keep.
The jousts continued as normal, however with Jamie Lannister moving to the top four by beating Ser Barristan Selmy. Thoros of Myr advanced quite well unhorsing Beric Dondarrion. However, Thoros of Myr was beaten by Sandor Clegane in a "great" match according to the others with her. Balon Swann was unhorsed by Gregor Clegane, which meant there were only two matches left in the day. Jaime Lannister, Gregor Clegane, and Ser Loras Tyrell, who had beaten their four opponents to reach the final four. The only matches left were the winner of the match against Renly and the mystery knight, who would go on to face Sandor Clegane to see, who would be the final joust. Only their part of the bracket was unresolved. Sandor Clegane watched as he would find out, who would be his opponent.
For the first time in the tournament, Renly Baratheon was no longer in the side of the mystery knight, but rather facing him. The two met briefly at the center, and stayed there for a little while. The crowd had begun to grow impatient, especially the king.
"Get on with it you two!" the king roared.
Then, the two nodded and went to both of their corners. After another short period, the two began to charge at one another.
But, right as they were in range to lower their lances, their horses slowed down and they raised up their lances. A mix of gasps and groans were heard in the crowd. When they returned to their corners, Renly's squire draped a white banner on his horse saddle.
"Renly Baratheon forfeits the match to the mystery knight," the squire stated. The king grunted, and everyone in the crowd was awestruck.
"Well, that confirms the alliance between the two!" The King stated, "Well, at we get to see the hound actually have some competition.
They let the mystery knight have an hour of rest before he faced the mountain. Renly was with him the entire way. He even helped feed the horse what looked like oats to Arya. She wondered if she could talk to Renly Baratheon and see who the mystery knight was. She got up from her seat, to see. They had entered the preparation tent Renly had provided for the mystery knight after feeding the horse, with two guards standing outside of it. She could easily get past them.
"Arya what are you doing?" Septa Mordane interrogated. She didn't respond and ran to Renly and the mystery knight fast enough for the Septa not to catch her. All she had to do was get past the guards. Arya made sure she didn't get the point where they couldn't grab at her and it would be finished.
She got to where the guards were and managed to do just that. The two ran into each other trying to grab her and she was inside the preparation tent. The mystery knight was standing without a helmet and she could see the black hair he had, but not anything else. He had worn a bandana so his hair was tied back, and the armor was so bulky, she could not recognize him from behind. Suddenly, Renly Baratheon blocked his view of the mystery knight, since they were almost exactly the same height. The mystery knight quickly and deftly stopped drinking from a water cup and put on his helmet, in an almost painful looking way.
"How did you get past the guards?" Renly Baratheon asked.
"Ran past them, you should really get some new ones, these ones are slower than your older nephew is at a parrying swords," Arya stated.
If things weren't already confusing, Arya saw the tent flap open again this time with the two guards and Septa Mordane.
"Arya! How dare you run away from me like that, at an event of this magnitude," the Septa told her.
"I just wanted to talk to the mystery knight," Arya explained knowing full well the Septa would not understand her.
"Well try all you will but my friend doesn't even talk much, he hates speaking. He's definitely not loud at all," he stated as he nudged at the mystery knight as the mystery knight finally stood beside him. The knight nodded, "Now if you'll excuse us, we have preparations to make against the hound." Septa Mordane was assisted by the guards and sent back to her spot to await the start of the joust.
And as if it were an instant, the two knights had stood in front of the king, one the mystery knight, now being referred to by most of the crowd as the last Knight of Castamere or even the Forgotten Black Lion, referencing his shield being a black lion rather than a red lion. She only knew about the knights of Castamere and their crest, because Septa Mordane wouldn't shut about how it resembled the knight's coat of arms.
"Alright enough introductions, just get on with it!" the king stated. The horse the mystery knight had looked very excited to say the least about the joust. It seemed like the rider was having trouble controlling it from what Arya saw. They returned to their sides and the hound and the mystery knight met at the center. They didn't even nod at each other to acknowledge each other. The two horsemen simply went back to their sides after the face off and once again for a moment just stared at one another. The hound was emotionless and Arya couldn't tell whether the mystery knight was as well.
"Just HOLD ON!" Renly yelled to mystery knight before the two went at each other. The horse the mystery knight seemed to enter another level. Before the hound could even get started the horse already looked like it had whirled almost twice the full speed she had ever seen a horse gallop before. The lance splintered on the hound and the hound's lance didn't even hit the mystery knight. The hound hit the floor with a thud, and the whole crowd was in awe. The mystery knight didn't need three rounds this time.
"It WORKED!" Renly roared. The entire crowd was in disbelief and some even gasped. The hound had never been unhorsed like that before. And the horse seemed like it had kicked into a new level. Arya stood there in shock it seems would be entertained after all by tournament.